Second Drink: Valentine’s Day with Andy Buckley

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Welcome to our second drink of Valentine's episode.

In this episode, we had Andy Buckley as our guest, David Wallace.

Yes, I remember he showed up in a a yellow sucket sweatshirt.

Yes.

And he brought us each a little Dunder Mifflin coffee mug.

It was so sweet.

So sweet.

Well, I cannot tell you the amount of mail we got saying how much people loved this interview.

Allison T said, I grew up in Lynn, so hearing Andy Buckley shout out the North Shore was the best.

Ms.

Bonita said, I have the biggest crush on Andy Buckley.

And Megan M.

said, Andy Buckley was so great for this role, David Wallace was probably my favorite non-main cast member.

Well, we also had a few folks write in to tell us a crazy fun fact about Andy.

And lady, I did not know this.

I so wish we would have asked him about it, but he was in two country music videos.

He was?

Yes, both for Reba McIntyre.

What?

I went and watched them.

No.

Yes, so in 1997, he was in the music videos, I'd Rather Ride Around With You and What If It's You by Reba.

And oh my goodness and I'd rather ride around with you Andy is Reba's love interest no yes and they go on a road trip it is so wild and then in the song what if it's you he plays the guy who got away she like watches him longingly as he rides a horse on the beach then he canodles with this other woman I just need to ask him about this we have to call him right now call him right now okay i can't let another moment of my life go by i know and and like, clearly she liked him.

She put him in.

Okay.

I'm calling him.

All right, Andy, here goes.

Let's see if he answers.

Angela.

Oh, Angela.

Andy, it's me and Jenna.

We're calling you from our podcast.

Hello, young ladies.

Hello, Jenna.

Hi, Andy.

We are revisiting the episode that you joined us on the podcast for Valentine's Day.

And Andy, people wrote in and said they could not believe we did not ask you about being in Reba McIntyre's music videos.

Well, that's, I don't go a day in my life without walking down the street without someone asking me about those.

But you play her love interest in one.

You guys go on a road trip.

How did that come about?

By the way, she is the greatest.

She couldn't be nicer.

She couldn't be lovelier.

She is the queen of country music.

But this is, as a human being, she's just, she's, you know, much like you two young ladies, just as kind and lovely as a person can be.

And it's funny, I just think this is great.

So I did two music videos with her in the course of like three weeks.

So each one took like four days.

So I was around her for like about eight days.

Every single day, people come up to you, and people come up to her.

Oh, you're great, you're great.

But every day, there was always somebody who came up who was very emotional about her music and got them through

some horrible period in their life.

And she was the greatest.

She would give each person like as much time as they needed.

I thought that was great.

How did it come about?

I had an agent at the time who was friends with someone who was producing the music video.

Originally, it was supposed to be like a big actor that was going to do it.

But that person wanted to direct it.

Like, yeah, I'll do it.

I'll be the love interest.

But, you know, I really want to direct it and push came to shove.

And they're like, yeah, we, you know, we want the person who directed him to do it.

And then like, so that fell out.

And then it was like four days before.

And they're like, hey, we got to find somebody.

And my agent says, hey, what about, you know, this guy Buckley?

And how'd you end up in the second?

And

here's my question.

The first one, you're clearly her love interest.

And then in the second one, you're like the guy that got away.

You're riding a horse on the beach.

You're with some other gal now.

I had to break Reva's heart.

What if it's you?

Yep.

That was the other thing that was so exciting.

I would go and I would sit there and I would listen to her sing, you know, music videos and they sing along and they're playing the track, but she's singing and it's, I mean, oh, that was a treat.

And that's such a pretty song.

The other one's such a fun song.

You got like a private Reba McIntyre concert.

I did, yeah.

Wow.

I guess this is this is going to be on the podcast.

So

you're on it right now.

It's okay.

Sorry.

Thank you for answering your phone.

Yeah, exactly.

It was in a place called Jekyll Island, which is North Florida's beautiful savannah-like looking place, as I guess you can tell from

looking at them.

Yeah, I was very curious.

I thought it was the Caribbean or somewhere, and it looked like, wow, what a great gig.

I mean, it was great.

It was like I was doing much acting.

And at the time, I had done a few episodes of this show called Pacific Blue, which was instead of like a Baywatch thing, it was cops on bikes.

You know, but

you know, the main guy and then

the cute girl, cops on bikes by the beach sells itself it sells itself yeah that was about all i had done like two episodes of that well thank you so much for answering the phone because fans wanted to know about it and so there you have it and andy you're just a delight and i i hope all is well and i think maybe i'll be seeing you this summer at the convention yes so at the office convention you know maybe we'll convince someone else to come along Someone else is going to be doing a play in Chicago.

Yeah.

Oh, well, that's at the Goodman.

Maybe on your way back, you'll have to stop

Chicago and see me on stage.

Yeah.

I'm glad that you're feeling so much better, Jenna.

Thank you.

I really am.

That obviously could not have been very fun at all, to say the least.

So you sound great.

And you're doing a play in Chicago.

Come on.

That's happening.

Forget about it.

Fancy Chicago theater.

I went and saw Steve's play last summer.

Oh, Uncle Vanya.

Uncle Vanya, which was so fun.

Yeah.

What can't that guy do?

He can do it all.

But has he been in a Reva McIntyre video?

I think not.

You know what?

I think it was him.

He was the guy that was going to do it.

But he insisted on directing.

Sounds like Steve.

He was probably still like in the that was in like 95 or 96 or something like that.

So that was a while ago.

I was just gotten out of high school.

All right, Andy, big hugs.

We love love you.

And thanks so much for chatting with us.

I'll chat with you ladies anytime.

All right.

Thank you.

Bye.

See you office, ladies.

Okay.

Bye.

Bye-bye.

Well, there you have it.

There you have it.

I'm so glad he answered the phone because I needed that story today.

Also, I need everyone to answer the phone like that when I call them.

I know.

That was incredible.

All right.

Well, everyone, thank you so much for listening to Second Drink.

Here is our breakdown of Valentine's Day.

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.

Today we are talking about the Valentine's Day episode.

I am so excited for this one.

Me too.

I liked this one so much, I watched it an extra time.

I did too.

Just for pleasure.

I did too.

My husband Josh was like, babe, how many times are you going to watch that episode?

I was like, I am really enjoying it.

I think this one sneaked up on me because there are certain episodes that I remember as being favorites.

Yeah.

And this one was not on my radar.

And then I watched it and so many memories came back to me.

So many.

Okay, this is a goodie.

This is season two, episode 16, written by Mike Scherr and directed by Greg Daniels.

I mean, honestly, that's all you need to know.

That's right there.

Super team.

Yeah, of course, this is a great one.

All right, I'll give a summary.

It's Valentine's Day at Dunder Mifflin.

Michael has to go to the corporate offices in New York.

He has to meet and do a presentation for the new CFO, chief financial officer.

It's a big deal.

It is.

And he's going to be there with Jan

on Valentine's Day.

Oh, no.

Back at the office, Phyllis is overwhelmed by gifts from her boyfriend, Bob Vance, at Vance Refrigeration.

They just come all day, these gifts.

All day.

Pam patiently waits for a gift from Roy that never comes.

No, no.

And she really dolled herself up.

Oh, yes, that's my fast fact number one.

Do it.

Do it.

Fan question from Baltimore Ashley.

What was the thought process behind Pam's hair for this episode?

Was there another special meeting?

I bet there was.

Oh my gosh, you guys.

I also got similar questions from Casey McMillan and many other people asking if there was a special meeting for Pam's hair.

There was more than a meeting.

It was like the joint chiefs of staff

came together for your hair.

So the thought process here was that Pam and Jim in this episode, they're going to be a bit estranged.

So wouldn't it be an extra nail in the coffin for Jim if Pam just looked super duper cute?

Right.

So we thought, can we please do something different with her hair?

I had a Myspace blog at the time and I wrote about my hair

and I said that Kim Fairey and I worked for weeks on different versions of this look.

Well, knowing Kim Fairy like I do, like you do, she must have been so excited.

She was so good at hair, but she never got to do much with our hair.

No.

Okay, so here's what we tried we tried a ponytail a beret

and headbands we took a picture of each choice and we presented them to greg daniels and he went through the photos and had to pick hairstyle and he picked the headband and there were various headbands now what i say what i say

were there 12 different headbands yes yes so it was and also ponytails high pony low pony side pony no side pony well side pony shows up later at the art fair um i wore a side pony tail to my prom

my i think it was my my senior year i did a side pony i was not cool guys you did a side pony to prom yeah i did a side did you get that done at a salon or did you do that at home no my mom did it my mom did it and that was the year the year before we had all had dates and none of us had a good time my group of like really close girlfriends yeah so that was the year the guys thought they were being really cool and they were like we're not going to take dates this year I went to a small school.

And so the girls were like, fine.

And we had the best time.

Was it your senior prom?

Our senior prom, I danced in a circle with all my girlfriends with a side ponytail.

Lady, I did an all-girls prom for my senior prom too.

You did.

We would have been in the same dance circle.

We would have.

You would have loved my side pony.

I have a card about that fast fact.

Tell it.

I mean, not only is it Pam's hair, Pam is wearing a pink sweater.

Her headband's pink.

She has a heart necklace on.

She has pink earrings on.

I mean, little pink dangle earrings.

I know.

The lady came,

like, she came to be noticed.

She did.

She's, I think, a little lip gloss.

Yes.

It was a whole look.

I have to say, when I first saw myself on screen, I was a little bit like, oh, oh,

Pam went for it.

Pam showed up today.

And I mean, I mean, it's going to play out later in the episode, but like,

Roy, come on.

This is someone who clearly wants a Valentine.

So, no matter what she says.

Okay, sorry.

Fast fact number two.

Fast fact number two, a portion of this episode was shot in New York City.

We got a lot of fan questions about this.

People wanted to know if we, did Steve stand in front of a green screen?

Did we shoot on the streets of Los Angeles?

No.

But there's more questions, Angela.

Fan question from Cora Louise: How many crew members came to New York City?

And Guava Aora asked, How long did it take to shoot this episode in New York?

And was the rest of the cast in California?

Yes.

We did not get to go.

We did not.

We were all pretty bummed because it sounded like so much fun.

So I reached out to Randall Einhorn, our director of photography.

Jenna, you know, I did this.

I know.

And you guys, she wouldn't tell me what he said.

She's got all this good information about the New York shoot and she made me wait.

Well, this is something we do.

We both love to like dig up nuggets of info and then we don't tell each other because we want the surprise.

I know.

Well, so I've been waiting like five days days for that.

Okay, here we go.

So I reached out to Randall and he said the crew in New York was just him and Greg and Steve that would go out on the street when they would film.

Yeah.

And in the van, they had like, I think two crew members that were New York based, like, because they had to do things by the rules, you know, and our line producer, Kent Zabornak.

But whenever the van doors would open, it would just be Greg, Steve, and Randall.

He said that this was right.

at the height of 40 year old virgin.

It was the biggest movie in America.

He said there was a billboard in Times Square where they were filming.

So he said the minute Steve would get out of the van, a crowd would form.

So he said they had to move really fast and quickly.

And he said

he used a handicam camera, like a basic handy cam camera that you could buy at Costco.

Whoa.

It's a really small camera, so not to draw a lot of attention to them.

Yeah.

Because the minute people saw Steve, literally he said a crowd would form.

Well, wasn't this also right after his Golden Globe win?

Oh, yes.

Yes.

it was all of that he just won the golden globe there was a billboard of him in times square and they're gonna film on the streets of new york bonkers bonkers now this was scripted though they had certain scripted spots but i know that steve was also improvising and riffing at the same time it was very loosey-goosey that's true that's true so i asked randall okay what were some of the things that you know were scripted he said the rockefellow center portion was scripted.

He said that Sabaro was scripted, but he said that he's pretty pretty sure when Steve goes into the subway and sees a man pooping in the box that that was improv.

That was Steve just pooping around.

But Steve did a lot of improv.

Like whenever they saw something or they had a moment, he would hop out.

You know, there's a tag at the end of like the fiddler on the roof, like him goofing around.

That's improv.

There's a bunch of deleted scenes of him on the streets of New York that I think are a lot of improvisations.

They're fantastic.

The deleted scenes for this are great, and I'll bring up some more of them later.

And then I said, Randall, is there like a fun story or a memory you have from filming in New York that maybe doesn't even have anything to do with the episode?

And he said, yes.

This is what he said.

He said, the night they got into New York, just him and Steve went to this place called Johnny's, and they got beer and pizza.

He said he thought the pizza was pepperoni.

But he just said it was really special.

And they were walking back to their hotel, walking through Times Square, and he said there were billboards everywhere.

A 40-year-old virgin with Steve's face, like all over the place.

And the show was getting popular.

Steve had just won a Golden Globe.

So it was kind of surreal to walk through all of those, you know, billboards of Steve.

And people started coming up to Steve.

And Randall said that Steve was as gracious and kind to the first person who stopped him as he was to the 100th.

He just was so kind and in the moment.

But that is Steve, you know, he is so kind and gracious.

And Randall just said it was really special.

I think for him and Steve to just have that night together like that.

Just grabbing a slice and a beer and being in New York, I'm sure it felt really cool.

Aw,

I love that.

I know, me too.

That's one of the cool things about the show where there's some circumstance that brings you to an experience you would not have normally had.

Yeah, yeah.

So cool.

So cool.

And Greg and Kin Sabornak talk a little bit more about New York in the DVD commentary.

So if you want to give that a listen.

All right, Jenna, that's my New York City nuggets.

They were great and they were worth waiting for.

Thank you.

I loved that.

Thank you.

Fast fact number three, in this episode, we meet the new CFO of Dunder Mifflin, David Wallace.

Hey, now.

Hey, who's here?

Who's here?

Andy Buckley.

There we go.

In studio with us now.

Put on the Wallace glasses.

Put on the Wallace glasses.

Andy, you appeared in 37 episodes of the show.

Yep.

37.

That's crazy.

Yeah.

Here's some stuff I learned about you by looking you up on the internet.

Well, get ready.

We should say the three of us are friends in real life.

So it was a little bit interesting to Google a friend.

But here's some things I learned about you.

None of it is true.

Oh boy.

But it's probably

good to know.

It's probably old.

You were born in Boston.

Yep.

Salem, Massachusetts.

Grew up in Marblehead, Swampskot, Peabody,

mostly Marblehead.

And I have the Smart Pack.

Smot Pock, John Krasinski.

Smot Pak.

You graduated from Stanford University.

Yeah.

But you got a degree in political science.

Yes, that was.

Not theater, not acting.

No, I so I did, I did, I was a golfer in high school, and I went there to play golf.

Like I was on the like on a golf scholarship?

Yeah, they didn't have a ton of money, but I was, I got in through the golf program and they gave you a thousand bucks.

You're a good golfer.

I

used to be.

I'm still good, but I used to be.

But yes.

So, and I was a polysimeter.

I did plays there and I had done plays in high school also and loved acting and saw a James Dean movie when I was in high school and thought I was going to be like a brooding young

brooding golf playing

political science none of it

worked but when you were cast on the show yeah you were working as a wealth management advisor yep which I believe is a fancy word for stockbroker that's exactly it yeah at Merrill Lynch yes I study acting I moved to Los Angeles it does not go well for the first like seven or eight or nine years.

I get little bits and pieces here, Allison Jones being possibly my only fan, luckily.

And my wife, who was then my girlfriend,

said,

you got to change it up.

This is crazy.

Like, you can't just keep doing these odd jobs and then think you're going to get hired.

She was like, get a job.

Get a job.

Literally, basically get a job.

And

there was an old acting buddy of of mine who was working there and and he would still audition he said oh come come interview you it might be great for you and they hire me and i you know i loved it it was crazy i loved it so i i started there in 2001 and was there and that's all i was doing and then we got married and we had our first son uh i bumped into allison jones we're at like the local farmer's market on larchmont and you're you're and i'm

just a guy yeah getting up and being in the office at six and talking to clients or you know potential clients or and um

and I see her and what are you doing Buckley I haven't seen you in a while like well some stockbroker married I've got a kid I like mr grown up like you know I'm and um

she says well give me your card just in case something comes up you never know I mean would you want to do it I'm like yeah sure um I guess if it's in town and without her mentioning anything or thinking you know four months almost later she calls me it's like Buckley I can't believe I found this card but I'm glad I did I think you might be the right guy.

You should come audition for this, you know, the boss on the office.

Do you know the show?

And it's like, yeah, of course I know the show.

Like, yeah, he's the financial guy, and you're a financial guy.

They might like that.

You should audition.

And it was great.

I go, I, so I go in, say hi, do the first scene.

But I read with Allison.

It was Mike Shur in the room.

And it was just the two of them.

So I read with Allison.

I do the first scene.

And then the second scene.

And then Michael says, now you're, you're like, you're, you're a financial.

What do you, you're like some kind of financial guy, right?

Now, knowing Mike the way we know Mike, he loved that.

I know that he loved that.

That you were actually working at Merrill Lynch was probably one of the coolest things to him.

I figure that's why I got hired.

And then I go back to my office.

And I'm like, all right.

And you just go about your day.

And then the next morning, Allison calls and says, hey, they're going to hire you.

And it was so exciting.

I was so excited.

It was like, oh, man, this will be awesome.

And at the time, I thought, well, maybe like, I guess it'll be cool.

I'll get to be on this show like once a year or something like that or twice.

I mean, that'll be fun.

And yeah, I was going to ask you, when you auditioned, did they say this was one episode with the possibility of more?

Or did they give you any indication that this might lead to 37 episodes?

No, they, they didn't say anything.

And, and, um, and that, I mean, that was, it was, that was it.

It was, so whatever day the audition was and then, and then the next week, I guess I did it.

Now, where did you film the boardroom scenes?

My memory is that it was right next to our Dunder Mifflin set, that you could walk from our set to your set.

Right.

That's that's what it was.

Yeah.

So you were just right there.

I was right there.

And I show up and Steve couldn't have been nicer.

Everybody, you know, everybody couldn't have been nicer.

And it was just, it was fun because Greg would come up and he would say, great, that was good.

Okay.

And they said, let's try it this way.

And he would have an idea, which I can't, I was trying to think, like, what were his specific ideas?

And it was along the lines of like, do this one as if you just want to keep things calm.

Do this one as if you're, you're a little irritated.

Do and he did just sort of subtle, subtle changes.

This is in the great scalp, you know, when he shows the video.

Oh, my goodness.

You guys, your facial reactions to the video that Michael makes is so amazing.

It was so wonderful.

So when do you get the call that they want you back for another episode?

A year later.

A year later.

Oh my gosh, Andy.

Oh, it's crazy.

Allison calls and says, Buckley, you're in an episode in a couple of weeks and you're all over.

Like you're having a party at your house.

Everybody's there.

It's crazy.

And she's like, and J.J.

Abrams is directing.

Like, it's, it's crazy.

You're like,

wait, I have some meetings I have to react.

Yeah, exactly.

But it was after we hired Ryan at the very end of season three that I kind of thought, oh,

maybe I'll get to be on this like two or three times.

Like, we're coming to corporate.

He's coming coming to corporate.

Maybe I'll get to be on it.

You could see a possible story of my.

I thought, yeah, like, oh, wow.

Do you get recognized a lot?

Do people scream suck it at you?

Yes.

And then do other people wonder why people are screaming at you, screaming, suck it at you?

It's funny.

That definitely happens sometimes.

And it's, and all of this has started to happen so much more in the last three or four years because of Netflix and the show was so much bigger and everything.

Andy, do you still work at Mary Lynch?

No.

So I left

the last season of the show was when I finally left.

Well, you've gone on to do a bunch of stuff now.

You're now a full-time actor.

What are you working on right now?

What can we tell people where to find you?

Super, super lucky.

So let's see.

So the get to be on a cast once again by Allison Jones' HBO show called Avenue 5, which is super funny.

And it's the fellow that wrote created Veep.

It's his new show.

We're on this crazy, you know, we're on a cruise ship, luxury cruise ship in outer space.

Like it's, it's just a cruise ship, but it's 30 years from now.

So we're in

as if Elon Musk or Richard Brown

had finally figured it out.

And Hugh Laurie's the captain of the ship and Josh and

Zach Woods is on it.

It's great because, oh my goodness, is he so funny?

Because I never acted with him.

Like basically, he came in as I was.

He is so funny.

He's so funny.

And he's so smart.

He's so smart.

Thank you so, so

thank you for coming.

You guys can find Andy on Instagram as well and Twitter.

You've got quite a nice Twitter.

Well, tell us your handout.

I'm at justandy Buckley.

And then on Instagram, I am Andy Buckley2020 in case I decide to run for an office.

Great.

But just for this year.

Just for this year.

Well, I am following you, Andy Buckley2020 on the Instagram.

I appreciate it.

I appreciate it.

I know.

And you'll have to come back.

You'll have to come back.

Yeah, you do have 36 more episodes.

Yeah.

And we've only really covered your origin story.

So there's more to talk about.

All right, Andy.

Andy, thank you for that.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for having me, ladies.

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And we're back.

Hello.

Let's start breaking down the Valentine's Day episode, Anne.

Let's get into it, lady.

All right, so we start with a Pam talking head.

She explains it's Valentine's Day.

This is not your typical cold open where it's a standalone kind of prank or joke.

This applies to the story of the episode.

We noted earlier, her hair is down.

She's got her sparkly headband on.

She actually says, I like Valentine's Day in this office.

Yeah, because we all hand things out to each other.

She talks about how last year Jim gave her a card, a hilarious card with Dwight's face on it.

It was so funny.

But then she says that her and Roy are saving money this year for the wedding.

So she told him not to get anything too big.

Too big, but she's still clearly expecting something.

She still wants something.

Well, I have a few little background things for this talking head.

Okay.

That I found very interesting.

Yes.

So behind our talking heads was normally you could see Leslie David Baker, who plays Stanley or Phyllis

at their desks.

You would never see Jim behind you during a talking head because his desk is over closer to Pam's at reception.

Is Jim in the background of this?

Jim is in the background of your talking head.

He's like sitting over there talking to Creed.

You can see him in the distance.

And, you know, I was listening to the DVD commentary, and one of the things that Greg and Mike talked about was in this episode, Jim and Pam barely speak.

Yeah.

But they're always in the foreground or background of each other's shots that was sort of a conscious thing when they could have one of you in the background they would that is so interesting because i noticed that in the background of jim's talking head later pam is delivering phyllis a little piece of candy yes so see this was thought out now there's one other thing i want to point out because in the deleted scenes Oscar at the top of the episode is handing out Valentine's.

And this is footage behind your talking head.

You say, I like Valentines at this office.

We hand out cards and things.

And you see Oscar passing out these little red hearts.

Well, it's a great deleted scene.

He hands one to Creed.

Creed is getting off the phone where he calls a guy Ace and then he says to Oscar, Thanks, Ace.

And then he has a talking head where he's like, Yeah, I'm not good with names.

I don't know.

He doesn't know people's names.

So that was actually a scene that then they repurposed and used for the backdrop of your talking head.

Oh my gosh, that is a great catch.

Yeah.

And then I think just before we get into this episode, I would love to give a little props to the party planning committee because you know they were in charge of decorating the office.

Yeah.

Did you see all the Valentine's stuff?

I did.

Fan catch from Izzy Gerrigan.

She said around 22 seconds, Pam has a football plush on her desk.

But I noticed.

that she has Valentine's Day themed candy.

She has a cup of pens and a Valentine's Day cup on the top of her desk.

And the cups are even sort of like red pens.

Yes.

And then she even has, there's all these like decorations on the front of reception.

She's got like a Valentine's Day poster and there's a heart-shaped candy dish.

There's red jelly beans.

There's like a little squishy heart dude on top of the jelly beans.

Over by accounting, there's heart garland.

There's a heart poster.

There's some heart garland over on the supply cabinet.

So the ladies really

went all out.

Buy all out.

They put up two posters.

It's still within their budget.

But it was fairly decorated, I will say, I noticed as well.

All right.

So next up, Phyllis gets a giant bouquet of roses.

Did you catch the card?

It made me laugh out loud.

No, what was it?

The flowers are from Bob Vance Fance Refrigeration.

Oh, yes, yes, yes.

I did catch that.

Just that.

Bob Vance Fance Refrigeration was part of the card.

Was part of the card.

That does make me laugh.

I don't know about you, but my husband, when he gives me a gift, like his card skills, babe, I love you.

Okay, first of all, I appreciate the thought.

But for Valentine's, his card said to my wife, from your husband.

And it was like flowers and it was really sweet, but that's all the card said.

So we find out now that Michael is heading to New York to do a presentation about the Scranton branch for the new CFO.

And we know this is important because there have been rumors of downsizing.

And so Michael has to really prove the worth of this branch so that no one gets fired.

In this scene, he packs his passport.

For a two and a half hour drive, guys.

For a drive.

It's a two and a half hour drive.

Not even flying.

Not going across a border.

Nope.

Passport.

Got it.

Dwight asks if he's excited to see Jan because it is Valentine's Day.

And then Michael has a talking head where he says, I would have to be a raving lunatic to try to talk to Jan about what happened between us.

Her words, not mine.

She sent me an email this morning.

I loved that.

I love that so much.

Also, did you notice right after his passport, Dwight hands him what looks like, it looks like a Blackberry?

Do we have some old tech, some old tech catch there?

Ooh, old tech catch.

Old tech catch.

I can't even say that.

Old tech catch.

Old tech catch.

Okay.

As Michael is leaving, he asked Pam if he can pick her up anything in New York.

I love Oscar's response.

Because Oscar is like the dad.

He's kind of the dad.

He's like, you know, the best gift would be just do a good job on the presentation so we can all keep our jobs.

Yeah.

Thanks a lot.

Thanks a lot.

And Michael's like, me in New York?

Oh, I own that city.

Forget about it.

Yeah.

But you have to go back and look at Oscar's face.

Oh my God, it's so good.

If that's not a meme, it should be.

That should be.

So then we have our opening credits.

And when those are over, Michael is driving to New York.

No need for a passport.

Two and a half hour drive.

Don't need it.

Within the continental United States.

Still don't need it.

and then jim has a talking head where he tells us that he is not dating anyone and he's just gonna have like a party with his buddies well what the heck happened to brenda i don't know he's not dating anyone he left brenda that ridiculously awkward voicemail i guess that didn't work out i guess it didn't Now, during his talking head, you can kind of get a glimpse at Pam's wedding invite list.

Yeah, there's a shot of Pam at her desk, and I had a fan question about it.

Okay, you know, I did a screen grab and tried my best to read every name.

Oh, I want to hear what they are.

Louisa J said, are the names on the wedding invite list characters or made up or based on real life people?

Now, I was looking at some of these names and part of it looked like

maybe

Phil Shea had started the list, but it looked like you had added to it during the scene.

Yes.

The typed list was provided to me by Phil Shea.

Yes.

The handwritten list are the names of my real aunts and uncles and cousins.

I was going to say, I saw Emily, which is your sister.

Yep.

So I was like, as I screen grabbed it, I was like, oh, Jenna just started writing her actual family.

I did.

Okay, that's what I thought.

Yeah.

I wrote down Bob and Millie,

Jim and Debbie.

Ed.

Oh, my God.

Yeah, you wrote down Ed, Mark, Jim and Debbie.

It looked like Anne, which is your mom's name.

That's my mom.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

I just thought it would be fun because maybe they would get to see their names on TV.

No, I think that's fantastic.

I would have done the same thing.

I'm pretty sure my uncle Bob did write write me an email because he noticed or someone noticed and told him.

So that was like a fun little thing.

I think it's also good that your family has somewhat like common names because like I would have done the same thing, but my list would have been like Birdie,

my Aunt Thelma.

Like it'd be like, wait, this list looks a little southern.

Let's see.

Next up, Dwight gets a Valentine's Day gift.

Oh, there's a box on his desk.

He gets the best gift ever.

Yes, he gets a Dwight bobblehead, a bobblehead of himself.

And we had a fan question.

Actually, a lot of people asked, but Callie Peck and Enza from Chicago both asked, how was the Dwight bobblehead made?

So Phil Shea found a bobblehead maker on the internet, and he had Rain pose for pictures in his Dwight outfit.

And they took pictures of him.

from all directions.

All angles.

Yes.

And sent them in.

It took a couple of weeks and they sent back a sample.

They were able to make notes.

And then they sent the real thing.

And they just sent the one guy.

I remember the real thing, too, was kind of fragile.

Yeah.

And it was heavy.

Heavy.

Heavy.

It's not like the ones you can buy now online.

Not made out of plastic.

And if you want one of yourself, the guy's still making them.

Oh, what's his name?

Let's give him a shout out.

It's bobblemaker.com.

Bobblemaker.com made the original Dwight Bobblehead.

That's right.

And it was originally originally called It's You Small.

It's You Small.

I like that.

It's You Small.

But yeah, bobblemaker.com.

That's where you can get a bobblehead made of yourself.

And I went on there and they're really great.

You can also get them made of your pets.

Oh, your whole family.

He'll also just sculpt your face and put it on a coffee mug, like coming out of a coffee mug.

That one I wasn't quite as attracted to.

I'm going to just be honest.

It's a coffee mug giving birth to your face.

Yeah, but the bobbleheads are amazing i would kind of like a bobblehead of our cat oreo i thought the same thing about sunny oh we should get kitty cat bobbleheads

I want a kitty cat bobblehead.

Okay, where are we?

I had another question about the bobblehead from Dagmara K.

Did anyone end up keeping Dwight's bobblehead?

Well, I just assumed that Rain got to keep it.

So I texted him and he said no.

Who kept it?

NBC.

And they auctioned it off when the series ended.

Wow, that makes me a little sad.

It makes me a little sad too.

And it brought up a question for me.

I remember NBC did this big auction of all our stuff.

They auctioned off some of our clothes.

Oh, there was a big auction.

I think they auctioned off all the desks.

A bunch of stuff from the desks, a bunch of furniture.

But it made me wonder with all this talk and speculation about a possible reboot, how do they get all the stuff back?

How do they even recreate the set if they auctioned everything off?

Well, I think that probably doesn't bode well for a a reboot.

I think that people are like, nope.

They'll have to, you know, get bobblemaker.com to make another bobblehead, I guess.

I don't know.

I actually have a Dwight and Angela bobblehead, and I bought one and Rain signed it for me.

So I have a signed Rain bobblehead.

After this episode, people started asking for Dwight bobbleheads.

And so NBC made a run of bobbleheads.

They found a way to make them

mass produce them.

Yes.

And they sold out immediately.

All right.

So, next up in the episode, Michael is walking the streets of New York.

Oh, he's so happy.

Oh, he's he walks by his favorite local New York pizza joint, Sabarro.

You can only find it in New York.

It's such a great joke because you guys know Sabaro is a huge chain.

You can get it outside of New York City.

However, this made me curious about Sabaro.

So, guess what I found out?

What'd you find out?

Let me tell you.

Sabaro began in 1956 when Carmella and Gennaro Sabaro opened an Italian grocery store in Brooklyn that also happened to sell food.

Okay.

So they had a little deli.

They had a little market.

Yes.

And one of the things that they sold was pizza by the slice.

Mama Sabaro, as she was known, had this pizza by the slice, and it became

super popular with construction workers, shift workers who needed to grab something in one hand and eat on the go.

They became so popular that they ended up opening a second location that was only about pizza.

Okay.

Pizza only.

We are not sponsored by Spark.

We are not.

Probably because I can't say it.

Sparboro?

Sabarro.

Sabaro.

Not Sparboro.

Not Sparboro.

That's a different

Sabbaro.

And so since then, though, Sabaro has expanded into 630 eateries across 28 countries.

I'm applauding you, Sparbaro.

Sabarro.

So on their website, it says, quote, you're welcome, world.

Whoa.

Well,

not only pizza slices, but pizza slices with sass.

I like it.

That's some Sabaro sass.

That's some Sparro sass.

But I thought it was interesting because the joke of our episode is kind of that Michael doesn't get what a local pizza joint is but it did actually start as a local pizza joint it did start local it did start local just not in times square so there you go so next we go back to the office and jim and kelly are in the kitchen i love this scene so much john krasinski your acting in this scene is delicious it's delicious mindy's acting is delicious i i was like she's so funny in it she's full on mindy yes full mindy this is full mindy i want you to know when i was listening to the DVD commentary, I almost like spit out

the water I was drinking because Greg and Mike both go, Oh, I mean, Mindy just took over.

Like, there's no more Kelly.

It's just Mindy.

This was a whole thing.

Yeah, what they don't know is that it happened last episode.

Okay, well, I felt very validated that we didn't even know that.

Like, they totally talk about it in the commentary.

That's amazing.

Well, basically, she tells Jim that her and Ryan hooked up last night.

Yes.

And Mindy says in the DVD commentary, she goes, Mike, I really feel like this scene is just like a transcription of a conversation you and I actually had about a guy,

which cracked me up.

Well, it leads to the very famous Ryan talking head.

I hooked up with her on February 13th.

I know.

It's like so perfect.

All right.

So then we head back to New York City again.

And now we're going to see Michael in Times Square.

You know, a lot of people, he tells you, they get to New York and they go to really touristy places like the Empire State Building, but he, he likes to go to Times Square.

He likes to go to the most tourist spot in New York, which I love.

And then at five minutes, 26 seconds, Michael is giving us a tour of Rockefeller Center.

Yes.

Where he says, founded, of course, by Theodore Rockefeller.

And he also says that the Rangers sometimes practice there.

Okay.

I did a deep dive.

The Rangers don't practice there.

The Rangers don't practice there, but they do sometimes practice at this rink in Central Park.

Like once a year, there's a rink there.

I know this because I have a huge

hockey.

Yeah, I'm a hockey mom.

Your husband plays hockey, your son plays hockey, you're a hockey mom.

Yes, we've been in New York when the Rangers have practiced on this rink in Central Park, and it's super cool.

It's a thing they do for the fans,

but never at Rockefeller Center.

Also, there is no one named Theodore Rockefeller.

I did a deep dive on the Rockefeller family, and I could not find anyone named Theodore.

Okay, I know 30 Rock really well because I worked there.

Oh, that's right.

I was an intern on the Conan O'Brien show.

And so were like a bunch of office people.

Mindy, Ellie, John.

But not at the same time.

Not at the same time.

I'm much older than those guys.

I was there the very first year of Conan when they thought they were going to get canceled week to week.

Oh my gosh.

What do you do when you're an intern on that?

Like, what is that?

Well, there was.

What does that mean?

Well, there was different types of internships.

Like, there was a writer's intern.

So, when I got the internship, they already had their writer's intern.

So, I became a general intern.

So, I just basically got everyone their coffee.

And I didn't know New York City, so I kept getting lost.

I was probably the worst coffee run person ever.

Did you get to meet Conan or interact with him as an intern?

I didn't.

I mean, he would walk past and he was always nice.

He would kind of give a nod or a wave, but he was busy, you know, and I knew not to bug him.

Like, I had enough like awareness that I wasn't going to be like, hey, Conan, I'm the new intern.

What you doing?

The really cool thing about Conan's studio is it was one floor away from where they did Saturday Night Live.

So could you

do a backdoor?

Did you watch SNL ever?

I actually, one of the people that worked on Conan knew that I was pretty strapped for cash and she got me a weekend job on Saturday Night Live as an extra.

So there's a whole season of SNL that I'm an extra and I'm in a bunch of skits.

What?

Yes, there's a great scene with Chris Farley, and I'm like sitting in front of him, and everyone was so nice.

Yeah, because all that stuff is happening in that same building.

And that's what's so crazy about that area.

And like NBC News is happening in the Today Show, it's all right there.

Can I tell you one of the coolest moments is right outside the stage doors where we recorded, I'm standing in this hallway alone.

There's no one in the hallway.

The elevator doors open and Robert Redford walked out.

Wow.

And he was with like an NBC, you know, someone in a suit and they were walking down the hall and they just walked past me.

And I was just like,

just watched Robert Redford walk right by.

Wow.

And I'm just like a young kid from middle of nowhere, Texas.

I was just like a really cool, surreal moment.

And there were many of those in my time there.

That is pretty awesome.

So we got a lot of fan questions about this Tina Fey Conan O'Brien business.

Yeah.

The first one is from Sarah Marshall 44.

Did Did production hire the woman to play the fake Tina Fae or was she just a random person?

No.

We hired her.

She is an actress named Miriam Tolin.

She's been in a ton of stuff, including, ironically, an episode of 30 Rock, season two, episode 14.

She has a really funny scene with Jason Statakis around 12 minutes.

She plays a woman at a check-in counter at an airline.

It's very funny.

I went back and watched the whole episode.

It's really good.

And then we had another fan question from Livby Fitzgerald.

Please explain the Conan cameo.

Well, you know, Greg and Conan were very good friends.

They went to college together.

They were roommates.

I think some of their very early writing jobs on SNL and Simpsons, they were like, they live together.

They're friends.

They're really good friends.

And so it definitely makes sense that Greg, you know, would want to reach out to Conan if he was right there.

There is quite a bit about it in the DVD commentary, but one of the things that really stuck with me that I loved is that Greg said it took Conan 15 takes to time that out.

Like he said literally it took about 15 tries.

And he said, you think Steve gets a big crowd?

Imagine Conan standing in front of the building where they taped Conan.

Yeah.

He said the crowds were crazy.

So they were trying to get that.

And he's really tall.

He's incredibly tall.

Red hair.

He's very, very distinguishable.

Hard to blend.

Hard to blend.

Mike Scher said that he wrote the scene with fake Tina Fey as a shout out to her, a little nod to their time together on Saturday Night Live, because he said tourists were constantly mistaking other women with brown hair and glasses for Tina Fey.

It was like almost like a joke.

They would watch other women like get tapped on the shoulder and it was never Tina Fey.

And he said that many times him and Tina would like take a coffee break in between writing and walk outside and no one would stop her.

No one would stop the real Tina Fey.

No one would stop the real Tina Fey, but they would mistake all these other women.

And so he said that scene was kind of his little nod nod to Tina.

Oh my gosh.

I love that.

I did too.

I love that.

All right.

So next we go back into the office, and more flowers arrive for Phyllis.

Oh, gosh.

From Bob Vance.

I mean, Bob Vance.

For Pam.

For Phyllis.

Pam is getting annoyed.

And you know who else is taking it hard?

Meredith.

Meredith.

She's taking it real hard.

She's looking real sour.

Yeah.

Well, then we have this awesome covert scene between Dwight and Angela at the copier.

Yes.

He says, thank you for the gift.

And

then she says, I haven't gotten one yet.

I haven't gotten anything.

Now, this has nothing to do with the scene, but I have to bring it up right now because this is the first moment you really get a full shot of me right on camera.

Yeah.

Do I look tan, Jenna?

Do I look a little tan?

Yes, now that you mentioned it.

Oh, I am very tan tan because in my journal, you guys, I wrote, we shot this during the Golden Globes when I got that mystic spray tan.

Oh, that's right.

When we went to the Golden Globes, when Steve won,

you got a spray tan that was real dark.

It was orange.

Guys, I watched this episode and the next one.

I am like orange for two weeks.

Oh my gosh.

I mean, I am so tan.

It's ridiculous.

And they tried to like make my face look lighter.

Like, I tried to tone it down.

I wrote about it in my journal that they tried to tone down my tan.

But what happened was my, it just, I just look weird.

I thought you looked good in this episode.

Well, I'm, I have a mystic tan.

Oh.

A spray tan.

But anyway, when I watched that scene, all I could see was my very, very tan forehead.

And next to Rain, I look crazy tan because he's so white.

But yes, I have given Dwight.

He says the best gift ever.

Yeah.

And then he promises that he has one for me, which I'm very happy about.

And then he clearly realizes, oh, no, now I have to deliver.

Exactly.

Exactly.

He says, you'll get something by the end of today.

He needs to give himself some time

to get something.

All right.

So then we have the scene where Jim is on the phone.

He's making plans with his poker buddies.

John Krasinski does such great fake phone.

You guys can

make a fake phone is not easy.

No, there's no one on the other end of that.

I fully believed he's talking to someone and his laugh seems so organic.

Yeah.

I'm like, John, applause for fake phone skills.

Great fake phone.

Really, really good.

And this is also sort of the time in their

relationship, if you will, where Jim, I mean, you have a wedding date set.

Yeah.

It's like all that Pam is talking about really is like planning the wedding.

And Jim really starts to pull away.

And then you see Pam feeling that absence.

Well, and remember in the last episode, they got in a full fight

about Pam's decision to not pursue her graphic design internship.

Yeah.

And so

I think Jim kind of feels like, I don't know what I'm supposed to do here.

I don't know where I fit in anymore.

Yeah.

And she's getting married.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Then a giant teddy bear arrives.

And it's being delivered by two guys, advanced refrigeration outfits.

They were played by our writing team of Gene Stepnitsky and Lee Eisenberg, but you only see Gene.

Lee got cut out.

Lee got cut out.

It's in the deleted scene.

Yeah, they get in a fist fight.

Yeah, it's kind of ridiculous.

But Gene is the person who says, Phyllis Lappen.

So if you're wondering which one is Gene and which one is Lee, Gene is in this episode.

And they come back later.

They're going to recur and you'll actually get to see Lee.

There's a very funny little sort of exchange between Gene and Brian as Kevin where Kevin's like, that thing's as big as me.

And Gene's like, no, it's not.

No, it's not.

Kevin's like, zip it.

So now Michael has finally made it to his meeting.

He's done wandering the streets of New York and he's going to meet with the other branch managers in a conference room.

And I just want to mention, we said this earlier.

This part of it was not shot in New York.

This was shot on some stages.

Right there where we film every day in California.

Yes.

Look out the window.

They did such a good job.

The backdrop, it really looks like they're up high in a building in New York.

No, they're the our

trickery is so good.

Our set design team was phenomenal.

Yeah, but really they are on ground level in a warehouse.

In Van Euys, California.

Yeah.

Kind of amazing.

But let's meet the other managers.

Yes, I have a card.

All right.

Give me your card, lady.

Here's my card.

So the other managers are

Dan Gore, who manages Buffalo, played by Dan Cole.

Josh Porter, he manages Stamford Branch.

Craig, Michael calls him Craigers, played by Craig Anton, manages Albany.

Yes.

So here's a little tidbit about the Dan Gore character.

Okay.

In the DVD commentary, Mike Scher says the quiet guy in the conference room, he named after his good friend, Dan Gore.

The writer, Dan Gore.

Oh, yeah.

Dan Gore, who, I mean, he created Brooklyn 99.

He's a phenomenal writer.

Yeah.

And he was a friend of Mike's.

And Mindy sort of chimed in that Mike loved to do that.

He loved to put his friends' names in things.

He was a Conan writer.

He wrote on Parks and Rec.

And now, of course, he's the showrunner of Brooklyn 99.

So Dan Gore got a nice little shout out in this episode.

Yes.

So we are meeting all the branch heads.

And Kreggers is an idiot.

He's right.

He's gotten kicked out of all the strip clubs in Albany.

Very proud of him.

You got to find out.

And then he starts insulting Jan.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He says.

He calls her the B-word.

He does.

And Michael comes to her defense.

He says, oh, come on now.

Come on now.

And he stands up for her first by saying, that's my girlfriend,

boy.

And then he backpedals and says, I mean, we hooked up.

And then Josh Porter's like, you hooked up with Jan?

And now

he's in it.

He spilled the beans.

Dang it, Michael.

Michael.

He's only been there like five minutes.

Yeah, he's been in a room with these people for five minutes and he's already told everyone that he's hooked up with Jan.

With their boss.

Yeah.

Oh, Michael.

And then it's like crickets in the room.

All right.

Well, maybe we should take a break.

Yeah, with that, with that news.

On that news, Michael has just spilled the beans and we'll be right back.

Well, because one of my favorite scenes is happening back at the office.

Yeah.

We need to talk about it.

It's good stuff.

It's good.

That's the sound of the fully electric Audi Q6 e-tron and the quiet confidence of ultra-smooth handling.

The elevated interior reminds you this is more than an EV.

This is electric performance redefined

okay so we're back you guys i have to talk about this scene between dwight and pam in the break room yeah i loved it so much jenna i rewound and watched it a few times

oh gosh how did you get through it without laughing how your reaction when he when he says like a ham yeah and you're like no not a not exactly like a ham it jenna jenna is so funny i don't even know how you kept a straight face though my intention in that was like i was talking to like a five or a six year old and i couldn't let them see

my

real feelings about the things they were saying yeah exactly we had a fan question from susie young 22.

she wanted to know if like a ham was scripted or improvised it was improvised did he improvise a bunch yeah so on the day we didn't really have an ending to this scene Okay.

We had him coming in and asking for advice and they wanted a button.

And this would often happen in scenes.

And the writers would then come over and give us a list of options.

Like suggestions.

Yeah.

So like a ham was improvised, but then there were all these other options that were written on a piece of paper.

And so we shot all of these things.

that he said, like like of this, like of that, like this, like that.

It was so hard not to laugh.

i did laugh it like a ham because it wasn't on the piece of paper so i was not expecting it coming no no so that my response is definitely like take four or five because i remember everyone just lost it when he said it and then they were like okay wait that's good that's good that's the one we want and so then they were like pull it together And

do it again.

Okay, I had a question for you.

When he says, shut up, I know exactly what to do.

Was that improvised?

That I don't remember.

I don't remember because I do think that that that final look to camera was that was some direction i was given which is like i know the cameras out there yeah and your look to camera's like can this day get any worse it's like so weird i'm not getting any gifts no jim has barely acknowledged me and dwight just asked for my help and then told me to shut up i also love when rain

how rain responds to me saying like she's a little like tightly wound oh gosh like yeah he like chose to be like turned on by it so gross kind of creepy Did you notice how many times we were in scenes in the break room in the kitchen?

Like in this episode, we're in quite a few.

I think we have like three break room scenes, two kitchen scenes.

Yeah.

So it's, it's interesting.

And I don't know if that's because they were constantly trying to keep Jim and Pam apart or there were these secret conversations about relationships.

But I feel like this was a very interesting episode for that reason because a lot of the scenes don't actually happen in the bullpen.

Yeah, they're not at our desks this time.

Yeah.

So Jim is in the break room with Kelly and he's kind of trying to give her advice.

He's really just trying to eat his bag of chips.

Yeah.

He tells her to take it slow and then Ryan walks in.

And she asks him out in front of Jim.

And John's, the way John played this moment, like, he's like, not in front of me.

Oh, he's like, oh, no, not while I'm here.

Not while I'm here, please.

Oh, so good.

But Ryan shoots her down.

He says, I can't.

I have plans with friends.

I can't.

It's so cringe.

And she's like, oh, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's not a problem.

No problem.

And Jim is just sitting there.

Like getting me out of here.

Back in the bullpen, more gifts for Phyllis.

And Meredith is drinking heavily.

She's had it.

She's full-on mixing up a cocktail.

She sure is.

Super gulp.

I have been to family reunions where I have one or two aunts that walk around with a giant 7-Eleven super gulp.

And I'm always like, what's in there?

What's in there?

Why are you nursing on that that 7-Eleven super gulp all day?

Well, I used to do an opposite thing in college.

So I was not a big drinker, but I wanted to go to the parties and not be judged.

So you'd bring a super gulp full of like soda?

I would bring a red solo cup full.

Your own solo cup?

I had my party.

My own red solo cup.

And then I would put something non-alcoholic in it.

And you'd be like, I'm good.

I've got my drink.

Yeah, I got it.

I'm fine.

I'm good.

I don't need to get drunk on whatever you're handing handing out, weird frat boy party.

Oh, my gosh.

Have solo cup.

We'll travel.

Yeah, exactly.

So I did like an opposite reverse.

Yeah.

A reverse Meredith.

Should we go back to New York and meet our CFO, David Wallace?

Yeah, because it's about to really go south.

And also, I mean, oh, God.

Yeah.

How funny is Faces of Scranton?

I don't want to jump ahead, but that is some funny shiitake.

Yeah, it's time for the presentations.

Josh Porter gives a nice normal presentation.

Yes, yes.

And you know, in the DVD commentary, Mike Scher said it was really important to him that you saw a range of competence in the branch managers.

A range of competence.

Yes.

I'm paraphrasing.

I don't know that he said that exactly.

But like Josh Porter is on it.

He's got his presentation.

He's got it down.

And then you have, you know, Michael's kind of somewhere in the middle.

Yeah.

Because he does actually have a binder.

Yeah.

And then you have Craig who didn't prepare at all.

Right.

And Dan, we don't get to see.

Oh, well, actually, he's sort of finishing his and he goes, and that's how we're doing it or whatever.

Yeah.

I think Mike was saying it was important that they wanted to show that

although Michael Scott does this crazy video, that he also did come prepared.

He's not, he's not like Craig.

He's not completely incompetent.

Yes.

Well, let's talk about that video.

When Michael starts his presentation, he presents presents Faces of Scranton,

which is a video of the people at the Scranton branch set to

with or without you.

Yeah.

By you two.

Yeah.

How could we afford that?

And it's, we must have blown our whole budget on that song.

And it's like not in slow motion, but it's not in regular motion.

It's a little slow down.

It's a little slowed down.

So everyone is like blinking real slow,

waving to camera real slow.

Walking slowly, sitting slowly.

we had a fan question from rebecca heaven

she said did steve actually film the footage from the business meeting presentation video did you get any intel when you were talking with randall about how they made faces of scranton randall said that he filmed that specifically for this episode okay it wasn't pieced together from other footage that was my question that he actually filmed that i notice i'm wearing the wardrobe from boys and girls did you notice i did not Yeah, so I think we filmed it the week prior because I'm in my boys and girls wardrobe, which we filmed the episode before this.

And you're not spray tanned.

I'm not tan.

I'm not tan, and I'm in my pink sweater with my low ponytail.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

So that I think we filmed it right before, but

I'm happy to hear that because my memory was that those shots were scripted in the script, that there was a description of faces of scranton particularly i remember getting those shots of him like over my shoulder with the like the dialogue was scripted and then there were suggestions of what the shots should be definitely the whole scene where i have the brownies and i'm looking kind of sour at him yeah that was all like planned out phil shea had the brownies the whole thing yeah so so yeah randall shot that specifically for this and there were beats that he had to hit now the great thing is you guys if you love it, go to the DVD extras because there's extended footage.

What you see is actually condensed.

There's actually more footage of faces of Scranton.

Maybe that's the version that Michael submits to the film festivals.

Well, but he tells, so he's like, but you know what?

Maybe, maybe it's not appropriate.

Maybe not.

Maybe he will.

Maybe he won't.

Maybe he won't.

He's not sure.

The video doesn't go over well.

They're stunned.

Oh my God.

Malora's reaction as Jan is just amazing.

Melora, you crushed it.

I loved it.

So David just asks for his sales numbers.

He's like, can I just get your sales numbers?

And I was really worried for a second.

I was like, oh, no.

But no, Michael has those too.

He hands out some little binders.

He was prepared.

He was.

He had binders all ready to go.

That's Michael in a nutshell.

He's trying to be outside the box.

He's trying to tug on your heartstrings and make, this is his whole thing.

He wants the work to be more than just a binder of numbers.

He wants it to be about people.

The thing is is they are his family yes you know things move at a slower pace the song is with or without you it does it has nothing to do in the workplace no like what is it's like a like a love song yeah and and just when he was like or spend a day in phyllis's pants what does he say

spend a day in phyllis's pants is not what he says spend

Well, he says, like, see what it's like to walk a day in Oscar's shoes or sit in Phyllis's pants.

I don't know what he says about it.

It's right as she's sitting down.

Right as she's sitting down.

I just love it.

I hope this gave you a little taste of what life is like here at Dunder Mifflin Scranton.

What it's like to walk a mile in Oscar's shoes or try on Phyllis's pants.

There it is.

Or try on Phyllis's pants.

Okay, okay.

So he says, try on Phyllis's pants.

Yeah.

In slow-mo as she's sitting down.

Yes.

Faces of Scranton.

And then the very end.

Great Scott.

Mike said was, Mike Schure said that was an afterthought, that he just sort of added that last minute and they made it.

But it's so funny.

It's so funny.

So funny.

All right.

So now we're going to go back to the office again after that presentation.

And Oscar is going to get some flowers.

Not flowers.

He got a plant.

Well, yeah.

Which I think is.

Perfect.

Perfect.

And he reads the card.

He says they're from his mom.

And I loved his choice of putting the card in his pocket.

Yeah.

He puts it in his pocket.

He puts it in his pocket.

Meredith has passed out.

There's nothing for Pam.

There's nothing for Angela.

Yeah.

And Meredith

sleep this one out.

Here's a fan catch.

At 14 minutes, 45 seconds, Adam West84 says, there's a huge week calendar on the wall beside accounting that you can see from both accounting and from reception.

It's always there.

It's always there.

It's a dry erase board calendar.

Yes.

He said it has always bothered him that they abbreviate Thursday as T-H-U-S

thus

instead of T-H-U-R.

I said, quote, it breaks my mind.

Well, I need to go back and see that.

14 minutes, 45 seconds.

I mean, I know, I do remember the handwriting was a bit sloppy.

There is a chance.

That R

looks like an S if it's in cursive.

I'm going to go and look at it.

I'm going to go check it.

So you're thinking it's T-H-U-R?

You know what?

I'll tell you what.

It's not written in cursive.

The days of the week are taped out

in block letters.

Well, that's T-H-U-S thus.

That would make me crazy too.

Yeah, it's really bothering me.

That's a crazy good catch.

I'm going to go check it out.

And I think it's just always that way.

I can't wait.

I can't wait to go check it out.

All right.

So next,

Jim's in the kitchen with Kelly.

And

he is giving her, like he is being a good friend actually he's being gentle and he's like you know what

he's just not into you it would be great if he was but he's not so you just have to suck it up both Jim and Pam are saying to others they're giving advice to others in this episode Pam gives advice to Dwight and she says something where it's just Pam projecting where she says you know it's just you want her to think that you thought of her yeah it's not what you give her it's that she she knows you thought of her, right?

And that's desperately what Pam wants.

She just wants to feel like Roy thinks of her, that he ever thinks of her.

And then Jim is saying to Kelly, Look, it'd be nice if he was into you, but he's not.

You just got to let it go.

And of course, Jim is talking about Pam.

Yes.

Yes.

And Kelly doesn't hear it.

Kelly does not get it.

She's like, you know, he invites her to poker and she's like, can I invite Ryan?

And the face, the face John does when she says that is like,

come on,

come on, really.

All right.

So again, back to New York.

We go back and forth between New York and Scranton a lot in this episode.

This is when we find out that Craigers did not prepare anything for the meeting because he thought it was more of a meet and greet.

Well, he's also just a slacker.

He's a slacker.

And he ignores direct orders.

I think his performance is so delicious.

And he kind of gets in trouble.

Jan says, this does not bode well for your branch.

And then he throws her under the bus.

Yeah.

He's like, What?

I mean, I guess I'd get better treatment, you know, if we hooked up.

Like, that's what he's inferring, right?

Because she, oh, you hooked up with Michael.

He flat out says, Michael made a stupid movie and didn't get in any trouble.

Maybe I should have slept with you too.

Oh, yeah.

Boom.

Screech.

This heads us into the Jan Michael scene.

And Jan is just

so

defeated.

She's like, Michael, I feel like I can't believe it.

Yeah, I can't believe it.

Like, you don't understand for the new CFO to find out

that I would have slept with an employee.

She's like, I can't believe you.

Why?

Why are you you?

And Michael just says he's going to fix it.

He's going to talk to David Wallace.

And you just see Michael loves Jan so much.

He feels so bad.

Like, I think he finally gets it.

He's like, wow.

he feels bad.

He feels bad, but he still makes a really lame joke.

So he's like, and don't call me Shirley.

Yeah.

He can't resist

just being an idiot.

He can't resist it.

Yeah.

He's trying to make her feel better and then has to like put a joke in and look to camera.

Oh, Michael.

So I'm going to jump ahead to the scene where Michael does go into David Wallace's office and then we'll go back to Dunder Mifflin and talk about what's happening there.

But Michael does go into David Wallace's office and he says, it's not true.

I didn't sleep with Jan.

I just made a joke.

It's Jim, my fault.

Yeah.

It's a joke.

It was a bad joke.

I'm so sorry.

And Jan kind of perks up like, oh, yes, it's a joke.

It's totally a joke.

It didn't happen.

And David Wallace kind of accepts this.

He's like, okay.

Michael promises it will never happen again.

And all is forgiven.

Like they don't get in trouble.

It's okay.

But I want you to know that I noticed something on David Wallace's desk in this scene.

What?

At 19 minutes, 24 seconds, David Wallace has a world's best boss mug.

Oh, my God.

But it's black with white cursive writing.

Nice catch, lady.

Yeah, if you freeze frame it.

Oh, that's good.

World's best boss mug.

Really good catch.

Yeah.

Oh, wow.

And I have to imagine that that was a choice and that they, that's a very subtle Phil Shea thing.

Yes.

Yeah.

That's the kind of sense of humor that Phil Shea has, that he gave him a world's best boss mug on his desk.

I love that.

Isn't that great?

All right.

So, back at the office, Angela finally gets her gift from Dwight.

Yes, it is a key.

Angela, your performance in this scene is so good.

Oh, you realize that you get this key and you're like, what is this?

Just a key.

Like, I feel like I could hear your whole interior monologue.

What is this?

Is a key?

I don't even know what this.

Oh,

oh, oh,

like you're so delighted.

It's so great.

I had a fan question.

Jenny Zislin

asks, was the key Dwight gave Angela for her to move in or just for her to have when she wants to stay there?

What do you think?

I think it's an all-access pass.

I don't think I move in.

We're not ready for that.

Yeah.

But it means I get to come and go now as I please.

Yes.

I had the same interpretation.

Yeah.

That's what I think.

And she's thrilled by it.

And in the bloopers, one of my favorite bloopers from this episode, they're on YouTube.

There was the thought at first that Dwight would give her this gift with a card.

Okay.

Okay.

Uh-huh.

So Dwight was going to write a card and he wanted Jim's help in writing a card for a girl, for a girl.

He doesn't say who it's for.

And so he starts, Jim doesn't want to help him, really.

He gives him a hard time and Dwight's like annoyed.

So, Dwight is sitting here trying to write this card, and Jim is hearing all of it.

And they're in the bloopers, and it is hilarious.

But if you want to see John Krasinski break really hard, watch the bloopers on YouTube when Dwight writes, You are evil like a hobbit.

This is the Valentine's card he might give Angela, and John loses it.

So, that's that's a fun blooper moment.

Well, next up, Roy comes in,

and Pam is done.

Yeah.

She's very annoyed.

Yeah.

And Roy is like, what's wrong?

Are you upset?

And she's like, yeah, I mean, I know I said don't spend a lot, but I thought I'd get something.

But not only that, the person that fills in the blanks when Roy consistently fails.

is Jim.

Yeah.

And he didn't fill in the blanks.

So she's feeling it more than ever.

It's magnified.

She didn't get a cute little card from Jim this year.

He gave her this year.

Nothing.

Yeah.

But Roy tells her, it's not over yet, baby.

Yeah.

Let's get you home and you're going to have the best sex of your life.

Your reaction to that was so perfect.

Oh, my gosh.

We had a fan question from Jonia Woods.

What is the worst Valentine's gift you've ever received?

Have you ever gotten anything worse than what Pam gets from Roy?

The best sex of her life.

Oh my gosh.

I mean, I was dating a guy one time and

he got me salsa.

Really?

Was it special?

Was it from somewhere that you enjoyed salsa together?

No, someone,

this wasn't a bad gift.

Okay.

It was just odd.

It was just odd.

It was homemade salsa.

Did he make it?

No, a co-worker made it.

I think the coworker gave it to him.

Okay.

And then he was like, oh, I got you salsa maybe do you like salsa i like it okay it's i mean it's like kind of getting like a condiment like here's some mayonnaise happy valentine's my friend makes their own mayonnaise um it listen i tried it it was good salsa but it was kind of like okay well I think I see the writing on the wall here.

How much longer did you guys stay?

Not, not much longer.

Really?

Yeah, not much.

Just

a few more months later.

Shocker.

But, you know,

I am not like, I don't need a big gift.

It's kind of like that thing, if you thought of me, great.

Yeah.

But it was just really random.

And I really, really think his coworker made everyone salsa for Valentine's.

And he basically gave me.

He re-gifted.

He re-gifted salsa.

What about you?

I can't think of a worst gift.

I can't think of a best gift either.

I think most of my Valentine's days have come and gone without much fanfare.

I mean,

I love flowers.

I do.

Flowers are nice, old-fashioned that way.

I love flowers.

And you know what?

My husband was like, Ange, I am not a mind reader.

I am not good at this.

If you want something for Valentine's, you have to tell me because I am going to get it wrong.

So I just said to him when

we first got married, I was like, babe, just always get me flowers and I'll be happy.

You can put to my wife from

to wife.

One year it was to Semicolon wife from Semicolon Semicolon husband, but it was Rosa's.

I'm happy.

You got me flowers.

I just like to get a nice card with a little note on it.

I think that's why, you know, I married a writer.

Write me something good in a card and I'm happy.

And that's what he does.

Two.

Two wife, from husband.

I guess very different.

That's why you need the flowers.

I want the flowers, guys.

All right.

So now, you know, Pam just so desperately wants Jim to acknowledge her in any way today.

And he doesn't.

No.

He just walks past, kind of taps her desk, says happy Valentine's Day.

And your little bye is the saddest thing at the end.

So sad.

Like, bye.

I'm going to go home, get the best sex of my life.

I can't wait.

Happy Valentine's Day to me.

Per Roy.

Yeah, what is what level of investment is that from Roy?

I don't even want to think about it.

And then Phyllis and the enormous bear.

You know, the writers just wanted to see her carry that bear.

Oh, my gosh.

We got a lot of questions about where did that bear come from?

And I'm sorry I couldn't get you an answer, but where did that bear come from?

I don't know.

That's insane.

That's a Phil Shea classic.

Now in the deleted scenes, there is a, there, there's one that is hilarious.

Michael actually gives all the ladies a Valentine.

Yes.

So in Pam's talking head at the beginning, she talks about how People at the office hand things out.

And there's actually a bunch of deleted scenes of people handing things out, including Michael, who hands out a bunch of plastic roses.

Plastic roses that have thorns.

And then his card says, me so thorny.

Yeah.

That's what we all want.

And then one other deleted scene before we wrap up this episode, you guys, is that when Michael is walking on the streets of New York, he walks past Devin.

Oh, yes.

And Devin recognizes him and is ticked off and kind of chases after him.

Yes, because Devin was now in real life living in New York and doing theater.

So they called him up when they were going to be in New York to have this additional cameo.

And unfortunately, it did not make the cut.

It's a very funny deleted scene, though.

So you guys have to go check it out.

And Michael has a talking head about it that's also deleted.

Well, the very end of this episode, Jan catches Michael as he's getting in the elevator at corporate.

And she just says, thank you, Michael.

Thank you so much.

And he's like, yeah, okay.

And once again, he's oddly impressed her.

Yes.

And he's very calm and he's clearly like, I get it.

It's over.

It's over and I'm never, ever going to go there again.

And then she kisses him.

Jan!

Jan.

Jan!

You are torturing this man.

Jan, you're self-destructive.

Oh my gosh.

And you even see her look around.

She looks over her shoulder to see if they're alone.

And then she kisses him, but she forgot to look over the other shoulder.

But Michael knew immediately.

He looked right right at camera yeah

and then she looks at camera and she's like oh forget about it forget about it boy and then that is how the episode ends that is how the episode ends it's such a good one and i have i have kind of a fun journal entry that i wrote okay during this week i wrote John and I have a new goofy walk we do when we pretend to be kid sister and big brother.

Well, you have to explain kids sister big brother because we've never even talked about that.

Guys,

John, and I, you guys, we would have some downtime between scenes, and we would just kind of hang out.

And sometimes he'd get a little punchy as the day would go.

And John's, when I stand next to John, he's so much taller than me.

We both sort of remembered this childhood doll that you could buy that was called Kid Sister that stands about three feet tall and you could hold her hand and kind of make her walk.

And John and I made up this whole thing where he would hold my hand and I'd pretend to be the kid's sister doll and he'd go, kid sister and I'd go big brother yes and we made up this whole goofy walk and everything so this is this is what was happening behind the scenes yes we were all we loved when you guys did kid sister big brother that was very entertaining for our downtime you guys were a good team well so you you came up with a new walk I guess a new goofy walk we had a new bit to do

All right, you guys, that was the Valentine's episode.

Yes.

And next up is Dwight's speech.

Another really good one.

Really good.

And we'd like to thank Andy Buckley so much for stopping by.

Yes.

And thank you, Randall Einhorn, for all of your insider tidbits.

Yes.

And for more stuff, guys, don't forget to check out the DVD commentary and the bloopers.

There's good stuff there.

And thank you so much for sending in your questions.

Yeah.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Enjoy your salsa.

Angela, wait.

Can you please?

I have a new merchandise idea for office ladies.

It's Valentine's Day salsa.

Oh no, that guy's gonna crawl out of the woodworks and be like, I think I'm gonna cut that salsa.

Thank you for listening to Office Ladies' Second Drink.

This episode was initially created in collaboration with Earwolf.

Office Ladies is a presentation of Odyssey and is produced by Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey.

Our executive producer is Cassie Jerkins and our audio engineer and associate producer is Daniela Silva.

Odyssey's executive producers are Jenna Wise-Berman and Leah Rhys Dennis.

Office Ladies is Mixed and Mastered by Chris Basil.

Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bretton.