Second Drink: Pilot

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Hello, everyone.

Welcome to Second Drink.

Yes, every Monday we are rerunning the Office Ladies Rewatch episodes in order from the beginning.

And today we are taking a second drink of the pilot.

I re-listened to this episode and I thought we killed it.

I really did.

I thought we did an amazing job.

I was legitimately impressed.

I mean, there is a ton of great info in this.

I know.

I re-listened too and I was like, damn.

Okay.

But we did go digging around and we found a few more things we could share.

I'll start.

I have a background catch.

Oh, yeah.

There is a kitten calendar at reception.

Pam has a kitten calendar on the wall.

I feel like Angela and Pam could have been friends if not for maybe everything.

Okay, I have another one.

Last week, we had our interview with Allison Jones.

Yes.

And when I was digging around preparing for that interview, I found my audition materials.

I had saved them.

And in those materials, there was a talking head that I had to do for my audition.

And it reveals how Roy proposed to Pam.

Mm-hmm.

And I know we shot it.

It did not make it in the original episode, but I believe it is in the Peacock Superfan episode of the pilot.

But I thought I could read it.

Do it.

All right, here it is.

This is what I said.

Yeah, we're engaged.

Roy proposed on Valentine's Day.

Well, he didn't actually do it in person.

He did it through one of the little Valentine's ads in the paper.

It must have cost money by the word because it only said, Roy, love, Pam, marriage, question mark, which I think is great because it's not every day that you get something that's both romantic and thrifty.

And that's really what everyone wants.

Every young girl stream is romance plus thrifty.

I know, man.

Well, listen, we all know Kevin's philosophy.

Why say lot word when few word do trick?

It's true.

And look at all the ladies Kevin has.

Exactly.

Incidentally, that talking head was taken from the British office.

It was in the episode Training Day.

I'm glad we didn't include it.

Yeah, I don't think we need that much information about

Pam's unhappiness yet.

Yeah, I like some of the backstory that we created for Pam and Roy.

I love the stuff we're going to find out about him and his brother leaving her at the hockey game and about the jet ski,

all that.

So I like that stuff a little better.

Well, here's what I'm bringing to Second Drink today.

When we originally broke down the pilot, Jenna, you talked about a fun deleted scene where Dwight is distracted by the boom operator's microphone.

Yes.

It was one of those early talking heads where Ken Kwapas, our director, would just sit us down and start asking us a series of questions to get us talking in character.

We didn't play it, but I thought it'd be fun for you guys to hear.

No, no, can you move it?

Is that all right?

Can you make that work?

That's fine.

But you don't need it.

That's fine.

We'll keep it away.

I'm sorry, it makes me nervous.

Understood.

But it's what we need to capture what you're saying as clearly as possible.

I understand.

It's in a blind spot because I'm trained in several martial arts, and one of them

includes

an awareness that the masters bring of anything on all sides of you.

It could be behind you or whatever.

This is directly in a blind spot so I'm trained to respond negatively to something right above my head.

This now I have an eye on.

You see?

It's in my periphery, and if I needed to block it, attack it, stop it somehow,

I could come right out.

I mean, I know you're doing your job, but

I doing my job.

What is his job in this moment?

To like karate kick the boom operator's microphone?

His job in life is to be aware of any unexpected, I guess.

Danger.

Correct.

Yes, he is my chihuahua.

He is biscuit.

Yes.

Yes.

Well, I'm really glad you played that clip because I wished we had played it during our breakdown of the pilot.

I also love hearing Ken.

Yes, me too.

Well, like I said, I really enjoyed re-listening to this episode, so maybe we should get to it.

Our second drink of the pilot.

And be sure to join us this Wednesday for Office Lady 6.0.

It is all about Michael Scott.

That's right.

You all wrote in and wanted to know more about Michael Scott's family of origin?

Well, I uncovered some good stuff and I can't wait to share.

She won't even tell me.

She's keeping it a surprise.

You have to wait till Wednesday.

We'll see you Wednesday.

But for now, here is the pilot of The Office.

I'm Jenna Fisher.

And I'm Angela Kinsey.

We were on The Office together.

And we're best friends.

And now we're doing the Ultimate Office Rewatch podcast just for you.

Each week, we will break down an episode of The Office and give exclusive behind-the-scenes stories that only two people who were there can tell you.

We're the office ladies.

Hello, everybody.

This is Jenna Fisher.

Hi, this is Angela Kinsey.

And this is our very first Office Ladies podcast.

I am so excited, Jenna.

I'm so excited.

I'm a little bit freaking out.

I'm freaking out.

We hope you guys like it.

We have been working really hard.

This is a dream we've had for years of getting to work together again.

Yes.

Because we became best friends while working on the office together.

We did.

We ate lunch together every single day.

Every single day.

And I think the hardest part for me about the show ending was not getting to see you every day, Angela.

Me too.

It is so special to get to work with your best friend every day.

Yes.

What a gift.

That was the thing, you know, Steve Currill told us, and I just love this moment so much.

He said to Jenna and I, no matter what happens with the show.

This is what you two will take from it.

And he was so right.

It's true.

And we've been trying to figure out some way that we could work together again ever since.

So here it is.

It's a dream realized.

It's a dream realized.

We thought, what a better time.

The 15-year anniversary is coming out.

And I had like three rubber-made bins of photos in my shed.

And I was going through them and I was getting really nostalgic and I was telling Jenna about it.

And I was like, Jenna, we had such an amazing time on that show.

I mean, it just was one of the joys of my life.

And you know, I hadn't watched most of the episodes since they aired.

So this has been a real treat for me to go back and finally rewatch them.

Me too.

And it's so good.

You guys, I mean,

we've become kind of nerdy fans of our own show.

We've become nerdy fans.

And here's the thing.

When we were filming it, you're kind of living and breathing the day of it.

And I watched them all when they aired, but now I'm watching them just as like an audience.

And it's just so fun.

It's been so much fun.

And I feel like here it is.

It's the office bringing us back together again.

Yes.

It's so special.

It's so special.

Okay, we're geeking out.

We're geeking out.

And listen, you guys, we just want you to know we're so excited that you're going to like join us in this journey and re-watch every week with us.

Listen to us chitty chat about being best friends.

And there are going to be times that maybe we forget something, right?

Or we miss something.

Or we miss something.

Because we're not experts.

We just were on the show.

We're on the show and we love the experience.

You are actually probably the expert.

You guys are the experts.

So please watch along with us, send in questions, and let's just re-watch it together.

And we're going to start from the beginning.

We're going to start with the pilot and we're going to watch it in order.

Oh my gosh, that brings us to the pilot.

This is it.

This is it.

That's what we're going to talk about today.

Okay.

So just so you know how Jenna works, you guys,

she has like her list.

She prints out.

She has our laptop.

She has two notepads.

And then I just bring a whole bunch of colored note cards with a Sharpie.

That sort of paints a picture of how we process information.

It is.

I am a little bit more.

I don't know.

I don't know, Jenna.

You're more organized.

It's okay.

You can say it.

And you're more colorful.

Oh, well, okay.

Well, I guess I'm going to take that as a compliment.

All right.

So let's get started.

Let's get started.

We're going to talk about the pilot.

This is season one, episode one.

This episode is written by Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, and Greg Daniels, and directed by Ken Kwapis.

Let's start with a synopsis.

I think that's a good place to start.

Great.

All right.

So in this episode, we're going to meet the employees of Dunder Mifflin Paper Company as introduced by their manager, Michael Scott.

This is just a normal day at an ordinary like workplace, just people living their lives.

Yes, a pilot episode is usually introducing each of the characters and also the convention of the show.

And in this case, the convention of the show is that this is a documentary.

Right.

This is the world you're going to see every day.

Is this paper company?

Yes.

Now, I had an idea.

What?

I think for each episode, we should have something called fast facts.

What are you even talking about?

This sounds crazy.

A fast fact.

What is a fast fact?

Okay, stay with me here.

A fast fact is a fact about that episode.

And then we talk about it.

Not necessarily fast.

Wait, do I have to talk quickly?

No.

Here's an example of a fast fact.

Okay.

The show The Office is actually an adaptation of a British show of the same name, The Office.

That's right.

It was called The Office.

It was written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.

It's fantastic.

It is amazing.

I was a huge fan of it before I even went to the audition for the American version of The Office.

Same.

I had watched the entire series, and then I got a phone call that they were doing an American version and asking me to audition for The Receptionist.

And I about pooped myself.

Yeah.

Yes.

I was excited and nervous because I loved the British version so much.

And I was like, oh, I hope they do it justice.

And I, I mean, come on.

Years later, I think, I think we did it.

Well, we got a lot of critical attention when we were making the pilot and not a lot of love.

Yes.

Because people really thought we were going to mess it up.

People were worried because this, the British show was award-winning, critically acclaimed.

It's considered still to this day one of the greatest television comedies ever made.

And it deserves all of that.

It is.

Because it is amazing.

Yes.

And so there was a lot of pressure on us when we were going in to make this.

And something that I think...

is often said is that we did a shot-by-shot remake of the British pilot, which is not true.

That is not true.

It is not a shot-for-shot remake, but we did use their script as a template.

And there are some adjustments.

There are elements, though.

There are elements that are the same that if you watch it and watch this one.

Yes.

For example, in general, each of the characters and like the fact that there's this buffoonish, silly boss in their version named David Brent and ours, Michael Scott.

But if you look at the talking heads, there are some differences.

Yes.

And also like the way the story is told is a little different.

I mean, some of the points are the same that happen, but it's told differently.

But Greg Daniels was the person who was tasked with Americanizing the British show.

Yes.

And Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant kind of oversaw that process, but they, for example, they were not on set when we were shooting the pilot.

Nope.

No, they came and they visited with us.

I remember sitting and getting to have lunch with Ricky Gervais.

Yeah.

Oh my gosh, because I was such a- Were you nervous?

Oh, yes.

I was a super fan of the British version.

Me too.

And I had been cast in the pilot, and they came and they listened to us do a table read.

And afterwards, they asked me, John, Rain, Steve, and BJ and Greg to join them for lunch to discuss the show.

And I remember thinking, if I get fired tomorrow, at least I got to have lunch with Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.

At least that happened.

That was, to me, just.

huge.

Was it a fun lunch?

I was not at that lunch.

I was not invited.

It was so much fun, Angela.

And I remember Ricky saying something in that lunch that was really important.

He said, You know, in England, you can be really, really bad at your job for a long time and you never get fired.

He's like, in America, that's going to frustrate people.

So, my one piece of advice is that Michael can be a buffoon, he can be silly, he can be irritating, but you should, I suggest, he said that you show glimpses of him actually being a good salesperson.

And we do that throughout the show.

You see in future episodes that he is actually good at sales.

And he said, that's going to be an important, I think, piece of the puzzle.

And Stephen Merchant said, my piece of advice would be to lean a little bit more into the Jim and Pam relationship.

He said, he knew the heart of it.

He said, that's really going to be the heart of your show.

Because the British version, they did six episodes for their first season, six episodes for their second season, and one big Christmas special.

And they knew that for American television, we were looking to do years, years, and we ended up doing 200.

So he said, you need to keep the heart beating on the show.

And so that's the heart of the show.

That's Jim and Pam.

Okay, I have another fast fact.

We filmed the pilot six months before the rest of season one.

And we shot it on the second floor of a real office building in Culver City.

So it was an actual office building.

And a lot of times on sets, they build the office.

So if they want to film and get a certain camera angle they can move a wall they can move a window they can move a door because they built it they actually say wall flying out and they move a whole wall they move a whole wall insane on our show because it was in an actual office building you just had to work with it and it sort of really lended itself to the documentary style that all the shots weren't going to look pretty they weren't going to be lined up just right because they had to work around actual walls and windows they couldn't just pop them out i remember speaking to ken quapis our director about setting certain rules for the documentary style of filming.

And he said it was very important to him that for all of the actors and the crew, that the set felt like a real working office and a real documentary was happening.

And so one of the rules that he came up with was that he cleared the entire set of all crew members except for a camera operator, a boom operator, and himself.

Yes.

And that was it.

That was it.

He also made all of the actors come in every morning, go through hair hair and makeup, and then sit at our desks starting at 7.30 a.m.

And we had to pretend to work.

Yes.

And he walked around with the documentary crew and filmed us for 30 minutes.

Yeah, just us quietly working.

And little shots that you see, for example, of Pam doing whiteout, that is a piece of b-roll from one of those working mornings that we did.

And we did that every day on the pilot.

Something else about...

this episode that I noticed is that there is a random exterior shot of a building.

Oh, Jenna, let me tell you.

Well, wait, wait, let me grab one of my colorful note cards, as you call them.

Exterior shot at 9.29, 9 minutes and 29 seconds.

Not our building.

With a huge exclamation point.

This is a big discovery.

This is a big discovery for me.

Not only not our building,

it wasn't the building we were filming in.

I don't know where they got that shot.

It's like stock footage from something.

I think it was stock footage.

And then we never use it again.

That was it.

That was it.

They should go back and take that out.

See you later.

And put a shot of the reals under Mifflin's exterior.

Jenna's getting sassy on you.

Yeah, I'm going to call someone.

Someone get it right.

All right.

Here is my last fast fact.

Okay.

Okay.

Meredith is not Meredith.

She is not.

She's Henriette.

It's Henriette.

Yes.

Meredith is played by Henriette Mantel in the pilot episode, not Kate Flannery.

Henriette.

That's true.

Henriette Mantel was a comedy actress who had just broken out because she had played Alice in the Brady Bunch films, and she was there for the pilot.

And then it was six months later that we got picked up, and then we started filming the rest of the episodes.

And I guess the rumor was she was not available.

And we need to recast her.

And so Kate Flannery came in.

Here is my fast fact.

Kate Flannery and I met years before the office.

We were in a all-female improv group called Bitch Planet.

Woohoo!

Aw, Bitch Planet.

Sunday nights at like 10 p.m.

That's when you want to.

watch Imper of.

Kate and I had known each other for a really long time.

And also, Oscar Nunez and I did a sketch comedy show together called Hot Towel.

Where do you get these names, Angela?

So it was really fun for me because here I am.

Like, I was so nervous the first day.

I didn't know Oscar had been cast.

He didn't know I had been cast.

You guys, this was sort of before, this was before smartphones.

Like, it's not like you texted someone, you got a role, or you put it on your social media.

There was none of that.

So you walked in and were completely surprised.

Completely surprised when I saw Oscar.

And not only did I see Oscar, but Kinquapa sat us next to each other.

So I was like, oh my God, I'm going to be okay.

That's amazing.

My buddy's here.

And then Brian walked in as Kevin.

And I was like, here we go.

We're off to the races.

You guys were amazing in accounting.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

True.

I'm giving you a compliment.

Thank you so much.

So yeah, so I was so excited to have these friends that I had performed with for years before the office sitting in my little corner back there.

I remember meeting everyone for the first time.

Do you remember your first impressions of people?

I remember my first impression of Rain Wilson.

Tell me.

Well, I met Rain Wilson at a live test audition.

So, for all the leads of the show, they brought us into screen test and they mixed and matched us.

There were four Pam's and four Dwights and four Jims and four Michaels.

And we spent an entire day being mixed and matched with each other.

And I remember I met Rain Wilson and he was in character, but I couldn't really know that because I didn't know Rain yet.

And I thought he was the weirdest person I'd ever met in my life.

Wait, he was in character the whole time?

Yeah.

He just was white.

So matted

hair like that.

So methid.

And you know what?

I kind of did the same thing.

I did my Pam hairstyle.

The hairstyle that I wore on the show, I sort of invented through the audition process that sort of half up, half down, scrunchy, air-dried curl.

And so I was very quiet.

I didn't talk to people in the waiting room because I just thought Pam was sort of not a chatter and I didn't want to get out of character.

I remember one of the first things.

This is so random, but it's true.

That first week of filming, Rain's wife came to have lunch.

And this is the main interaction I remember from Rain during the pilot episode.

Rain introduced me to his wife.

She was pregnant at the time with their son.

Yes.

And he said, this is my wife, Holly, bearer of my seed.

And I was like, What?

And she started laughing.

And, but that was just rain being ready.

That is rain.

That is rain.

But wouldn't Dwight say that?

He was also.

Angela, bearer of my seed.

Yes.

It's amazing.

She's carrying my seed.

I'm like, oh my God.

I feel like we all have little parts of our characters in us, but I don't know if that's true of you because you are so opposite from Angela Martin.

I am.

I was thinking about how you were saying, like, you stayed in character and so did Rain in between your auditions in the lobby.

I would not have.

I would have been like, chitty chat, chat, chat, chat.

And then I would have just turned into a bitch when I entered the room.

Well, you know, I didn't have any scenes with Rain in the pilot of substance.

I didn't have any one-on-one scenes.

So for me, when we were shooting the pilot, the people that I really bonded with were Steve,

John, and you.

Because you were over the little party.

You were my closest seatmate in the office.

So you and I bonded.

And I remember after we finished the pilot and we all left and we didn't know if we were going to be picked up or make any more, shortly after that, I turned 30 years old.

It was a big milestone birthday for me.

And I really wondered if I should invite any of you guys.

And I didn't.

I didn't invite you guys because I thought, well, I'm probably never going to see them again.

Should I throw you another 30th birthday party and invite everyone?

Would you?

And then we could just say happy 30th.

Will you?

Okay.

Because now you guys are some of my closest friends and you aren't at my milestone birthday.

Okay, we'll have to throw you a 30th birthday party.

It won't be weird.

All right, guys.

So next up, we are going to break down this episode.

We're going to really get into the nitty-gritty.

We're going to talk about scenes and memories and stories.

So stick with us.

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Hey everyone, it's Jenna.

I'm in Chicago.

I'm working on my play, Ashland Avenue, and I'm staying in an Airbnb and I'm loving it.

You know, the play I'm doing is set in Chicago.

And so I wanted to find a place where I could have a really authentic local experience.

That's why I got Airbnb.

I just love it.

And it's especially great because my kids are going to be coming back and forth to visit me and I've got a bedroom just for them.

So we can really spread out.

And I don't know if you've ever stayed in Airbnb, but wouldn't it be cool to give that experience to other people?

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All right, and we're back.

We're talking about the pilot episode of The Office, and I think we should talk about some of our favorite moments, Jenna.

Yes.

Well, one of my favorite moments is the dynamic between Pam and Michael.

I mean, selfishly, I guess I'm in that moment.

But I really loved working with Steve Carell.

I really loved how much he let me be silent and just look at him.

And just react.

Yes, I loved that.

But I especially love.

whenever Melora Hardin, who plays Jan Levinson Gould, got in the mix.

She's so commanding.

Just like Melora's presence is like, I'm scared of her.

Yes.

I get it.

I get why he was a little scared of her.

And I love the scene where Michael tries to throw Pam under the bus about why he doesn't have the agenda that he's supposed to have.

And it's because he told her to throw it in the receptacle, the trash can, that is a special filing cabinet for corporate memos.

And I remember shooting that scene.

And I just remember every time that Pam said, you told me to put it in a special filing cabinet that is a trash can, that we would giggle.

and so i just remember the matter-of-factness of that moment and how fun that was pam totally stood up for herself in her own little way in that moment here's the thing about steve krill he is one of the nicest people you will ever meet he is so nice i know it's almost even become like a joke like steve krill's the nicest person ever but he is i know and people ask me a lot what's it like to work with steve karell are you just laughing all the time and no you're not laughing all the time because steve isn't on all the time he's not one of the- He's a real person.

He's a real person.

And he's, he's, I've worked with comedians who are on all the time.

You walk around and you can just, they can't turn off their joke-making brain.

It's a little insane.

Steve is not like that.

You and Steve and I would sit and have long conversations about the best frozen yogurt in the San Fernando Valley.

Oh, I will never forget the morning on Monday mornings, Steve would come out of his office, out of Michael Scott's office between scenes.

He would walk over to Jenna and I, and we would talk about our weekends.

And one Monday morning, he walked over and he was like, ladies, guess what I did this weekend?

We're like, what?

And he goes, I went to Target.

He would talk about that.

And he told us about our Target run.

It was really, really sweet.

You know, recently I was in a Michaels purchasing some supplies for a crafting job and the checkout guy said, oh my gosh, now this is getting crazy.

This morning, Oscar Nunez came in here, then Steve Carell, and now you.

What do you guys all live here?

We love crafting.

We love crafting.

We're all here.

We're all sort of, I guess we all live around this one Michaels crafting store.

I texted Steve and I said, Steve, the checkout guy at Michaels told me you were buying some crafting supplies today.

And he said, oh, yes, I needed some glue sticks.

And he sort of told me what he needed.

He's like, what were you there for?

But that is Steve.

That is Steve.

That's the kind of stuff we would talk to him about.

And so to then, to have that man then shift into this scene where he's just being awful to Michael.

Awful.

Like throwing you under the bus in front of the big boss lady.

Yes, when our real dynamic was just like so much, so different so much love.

So in the scene, Jan tells Michael there's going to be downsizing.

Yeah.

This is big news.

Big news.

Important.

Michael should be paying attention.

We've already established that he's thrown away the agenda for the meeting.

Yeah, he should take this seriously.

But instead, he takes a phone call from his friend, Todd Packer.

Todd Packer, his party buddy, who he clearly covets.

He thinks this guy's amazing.

Another interesting fact about this scene is that the voice of Todd Packer that comes on the phone

is not

the voice of the real Todd Packer.

What are you talking about?

Dave Kechner

ends up playing Todd Packer.

When we meet him in season two,

this role is played by Dave Kechner.

But Dave was not hired when we shot the pilot.

What?

He's not.

Wait.

I was thinking, it sounds like Dave Kechner.

Who is it?

But I'm thinking it can't be Dave Kechner, right?

All this time I thought it was Dave Kechner.

It's not Dave.

Who is it?

I texted Dave Rogers, our editor.

Dave Rogers.

Knower of all things.

I mean, he is knower of all office hats.

He is.

Okay, what did Dave say?

Dave said that

the voice is played by Toby Huss.

Toby Huss.

Yes.

Very famous voice actor.

He was on King of the Hill for years.

And friends of Greg Daniels.

Yes.

Toby Huss is so talented.

I know.

How about that?

That is Todd Packer's voice.

In the pilot episode.

Yes.

Well, I loved, here's one of the things I loved about the pilot, and

just sort of the brilliance that was Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant and Greg Daniels and their collaboration, building this world out, is that so many like truths about the characters were established in all these subtle ways.

And one of the things I loved is that Michael is clearly thrilled that the camera people are there.

Oh, he is so excited.

He could not have signed up for this fast.

I mean, he jumped at the chance at this.

And he thinks he is one of the world's best comedians.

Oh, yeah.

In the world.

Well, he has the funniest people in the world.

He has that amazing talking head where he talks about who his heroes are.

Yes.

And they are Bob Hope, Abraham Lincoln, Bono, and God.

Probably.

He said, probably.

Probably God.

And here's a little tidbit.

Steve wrote that.

He did?

Yes.

Oh, my God.

I love that.

I didn't know that.

Yeah.

Greg asked him, would you mind writing a list of who you believe are Michael Scott's heroes?

Oh, so brilliant.

And it made it in.

Yes.

Well, and he just, every chance he gets, he's like looking to the camera and doing his comedy bits.

And this sort of sets up just Michael's love of being liked and being appreciated.

And he wants everyone to think he's like the fun boss and he thinks he's legitimately talented.

Well, there's that scene where he does the six million dollar man where he's walking away from Pam's desk.

Yes.

I could not get through that scene.

And in fact, in order to get my reaction shot, they had to make Steve leave the set

because I couldn't get through it.

So that reaction, yes, that reaction of me was not while Steve was actually doing anything because every time he did it, I started laughing.

Yeah.

Well, he's so giddy to do his Six Million Dollar Man.

I timed it because as I watched it, I was like, wow, this is a long time to commit to this bit because he's like,

he did it.

It started at nine minutes, 40 seconds and it doesn't end until 10 minutes, two seconds.

Oh my God.

That is 22 seconds of the slow-mo bit.

I think that's that's a ton.

When you think of like the whole scope of an episode, for 22 seconds, he went,

I mean, that's probably why I couldn't get through it.

That's why they couldn't get a reaction of me because I couldn't hold it for 20 seconds.

I couldn't hold a straight face that long.

And he was so desperate for you to look at him and have some kind of reaction.

Oh, man.

Okay.

What else?

What else?

There's the conference room scene.

Oh, yes.

Where Michael officially announces that there is going to be downsizing at Dunder Mifflin.

This is a big theme of the pilot.

This is the news that Jan gives him when she comes into the office that Dunder Mifflin can no longer support both a Scranton branch and a Stanford branch and that

They're going to have to prove who is the branch that should stay.

But even if Scranton gets to stay, there might be downsizing of employees.

Yeah, the company's hurting and they have to make some cutbacks and they have to fire some people.

Yes.

And so Michael goes into the conference room and this is the first time we see Michael in the conference room.

And of course, Dwight won't give him the space to do that.

It's their first power struggle, which you'll see for years to come.

It's the first time he refers to himself as the assistant regional manager,

which is great.

And I noticed something about this conference room scene.

What?

I bet I have it on my note card.

I bet you have it.

That there are some extras in this scene that are never to be seen again.

There are two women.

Do you want me to refer to it?

Let me just tell you what I wrote on my note card.

Okay.

Conference room faces.

Simicolin.

So in the background, there are two women and they are the real production company accountants for our show.

Yes, we needed more people to fill out the space and they pulled in our actual accountants from our production office.

Yes, Ken Kwapas, the director, walked into the production office and asked if anyone would like to be in the background of a scene.

And those two women came and sat there for that couple of hours.

They were so giddy.

They were

loved it.

They loved it.

And then also in the conference room, some faces you might see sprinkled through the first season, but then they don't go past that season are Luann Kelly, who worked in the annex.

She is someone that you see a lot.

I get asked a lot, who is the lady in the annex?

Yes.

She was sort of over where Mindy ends up sitting by Kelly's desk.

And then also, of course, Devin and Creed, who ultimately do have a storyline that's in the season two.

That's right.

So for an entire season, you just see Devin and Creed in the background of scenes.

They don't get any lines until the second season.

But that is the only scene our actual accountants are in because then they had to go back to work.

They did.

They had to actually go back to being accountants for the show.

I think this is an interesting tidbit.

Phyllis Smith, who plays Phyllis on the show, she was the casting associate for The Office.

So when I auditioned for the office, she read my audition scenes with me.

Everyone, I read my scene with Phyllis.

That's who I read my scene with.

Yes.

And Ken Kwapas, the director, was so taken with how she did her readings with the actors.

She's so earnest, you guys.

She is so earnest.

And so real that he said to Greg Daniels, I want her on the show.

Can I give her a part on the show?

And so Phyllis went from being a casting associate, which she had done for years with Alison Jones, the casting director.

Yes.

Worked with Phyllis to having a part on this pilot.

And I think because we all thought the show was going nowhere, it was fine.

And after the pilot was over, she went back to being a casting associate.

She went right back to work.

Phyllis has a great story that she tells that the way she found out that she got Phyllis is that she got sides and they said, Phyllis.

You know,

so there was a character.

Yeah.

And they named it Phyllis.

And Ken was like, that's you.

You're Phyllis.

And she was like, what?

We wrote a part for for you yeah based on the numerous readings with actors you're now in the show phyllis which is just so cool because phyllis had wanted to be an actress she had been an actress she had been a burlesque dancer burlesque dancer no one can shimmy no one can shimmy like phyllis like right she has a great shimmy she had an amazing photo on her desk because kin quapus wanted us to personalize our desk for the pilot episode and moving forward so we all brought in something from home i have a photo of myself and my grandmother and a in a frame that says iHeart Grandma.

And my eyes are closed in the photo, but my grandmother framed it anyway.

And so I have that on my desk, and it just kind of like tickled me and made me think of my grandmother.

I had a picture of me and my sister swimming in Lake of the Ozarks.

Yes, and Phyllis had a picture of herself in her full burlesque outfit with a red feather boa draped over her shoulders.

Angela, let's take a quick break.

Okay, Jenna.

You're going to get a snack.

Why?

Because you always get a snack during the breaks.

I do.

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So then we get to that crazy scene where Michael is walking Ryan the Temp around.

So he's just been told that we need downsizing.

And then he hires.

He hires.

It's the opposite of downsizing.

It's the opposite.

Can I just say one thing I love too is when Dwight has his talking head and he said, I've been talking about downsizing for years.

I brought it up in my interview.

Like, like, who does that?

Who's like interviewing for a job and is like, you should downsize?

I would like this job.

I suggest you get rid of three other people.

So, here's a little fun fact.

It's not a fast fact, but a fun fact is that BJ Novak was the first person cast on the show.

He was?

He was.

Greg Daniels saw him doing stand-up comedy and he thought he was like, this guy.

I want this guy.

And so he offered BJ a role as both a writer and the role of Ryan the Temp on the show.

So when I came in for my audition, BJ was already cast.

He was the very first person.

And he was also the first example of that synergy of having people who were both performers and writers for the show, which was so great.

Something that we haven't talked about, but we will talk about it many times as the show goes is that.

what a wonderful creative collaboration we had between the writers and the actors.

And that was because of Greg Daniels.

He sort of set the tone that he wanted this creative collaboration.

He wanted to hear our ideas and he wanted writers on the set.

And I think we were just so much the better for it.

I've been on other shows now that where the writers and the actors are separate and there's not a lot of collaboration.

And it feels weird after having experienced something else.

No, Greg really trusted us to be the experts of our characters.

So whenever he was trying to mull something over or justify something, he would come to us and ask us, just in the way that he went to Steve and said, hey, do you have any thoughts on who Michael Scott's heroes would be?

Yeah.

He trusted us to have done our homework and know our characters so well that we could contribute.

Yeah, it was great.

It was really special.

So also in that scene, that is the famous Stapler and Jell-O.

Y'all.

Stapler goes in Jell-O.

I have seen so many people recreate this.

How?

How?

I am blown away.

Every time I see a fan tag me in a photo where they put something in jell-o, I'm like, I'm very impressed.

To go.

I know.

Something we haven't mentioned is the flirtation between Jim and Pam in this episode.

And it goes on through the whole first two-thirds of this episode or three-quarters of this episode.

Little, little things.

What did I write on my pink note card, Jenna?

Mixed berries.

In quotes, he's on to me.

Yeah.

That is one of the cutest things.

It is so pure.

It is.

Like, that's that's flirting for them that he knows your favorite yogurt.

But up until the end,

you are just sort of following this flirtation between the two characters.

And then all of a sudden, Roy

David Dinman.

Carrying that weird trash bag.

We never know what's in that trash bag.

What is he carrying?

I loved it so much when John as Jim is like, what's in the bag?

And Roy's like, yeah, just tell her.

Yeah, tell her I'll meet her in the car.

Yeah.

But I think it is such a, I remember watching the pilot with people and having them be shocked.

Yeah.

Like, oh, wait.

Oh, crap.

She's been engaged three years.

Three years.

Holy, holy.

Yeah.

And then Jim has that heartbreaking talking head.

Do I think I'll be invited to the wedding?

Oh, Jim.

Breaking hearts.

John Christopher.

Breaking hearts.

Right out of the gate.

He's breaking hearts.

He really is.

So another really cute flirty moment between Jim and Pam.

After the conference room scene, where we all find out there's going to be downsizing, the camera cuts to different groups of people talking about downsizing.

But when it cuts to Jim and Pam, we are not talking about downsizing.

What are you guys talking about?

We are talking about your cat party.

Do you remember this?

I do.

I do.

So this is, I feel like this is really significant and kind of goes on the heels of what we were talking about with Greg wanting to collaborate with actors.

So Ken said, listen, I'm just going to roll the camera.

You two just talk to each other.

Don't push it.

Just talk.

Make each other laugh.

And so here's something you should know is that earlier in the scene, Ken had asked me if I would pass out papers in the background.

Yeah.

I I only had three lines in the episode.

They were, you know, otherwise I was just background basically for that, you know, pilot.

So he asked me if I would pass out papers.

And I had just doodled a little drawing of a cat.

And I said, you're invited to Sprinkle's birthday party.

I just sort of made up that my character had found a cat in the parking lot.

I don't know.

I was just sort of bored.

And we all made up backstory.

Yeah.

I had just made up backstory that my character had found this cat in the parking lot.

But I think it's really significant because you, in your character actory prep work decided that your character was a crazy cat lady.

I guess I did.

Because you kind of decorated your desk with some cat stuff.

Now the prop department that set my desk had a paperclip holder that was a cat laying on its side and it holds paperclips.

Okay.

I took it from my desk.

I still have it.

I might have stolen it as a memento.

And so I think I was just looking at that and I was doodling.

And truth be told, there's only about three things I can draw in real life that look like the actual thing.

And one of them is a cat.

One of them is a cat.

That's kind of true for me too.

I can draw a palm tree.

I can draw a cat.

And I can draw Snoopy.

Hey!

There you go.

And I guess I had just doodled a cat.

And so I'd written on, so maybe my poor, like, my poor skills at drawing is also what gave birth to this moment.

But I drew this cat and I wrote, you're invited to Sprinkle's birthday party in the parking lot.

And you gave it to me.

I handed it to you.

I remember earlier.

And it was weird.

I remember getting it in the background of the scene and thinking, I don't know what this is.

but I stuck it to my computer monitor.

Yeah, it was on a post-it and you stuck it to your computer.

So when Ken Kawapas asked me to talk to John about anything, to do this scene, just talk to each other, I noticed that post-it note.

And I said, are you going to go something like, I hear Angela's cat party on Sunday?

And he, he's like, oh, no, it's ridiculous.

No, definitely not.

And then we giggle.

And that is the bit that they left in the episode.

And that's the birth of sprinkles.

That was the birth of sprinkles.

That turned into this cat birthday party.

Greg honed in on that.

He was like, What is the cat birthday party?

And I said, Well, Angela gave me this post-it note

about her birthday party for her cat or something.

And he loved it.

And then for four seasons,

we discussed Sprinkles

until his untimely death.

Oh, okay.

Yes, that's that's another episode.

I won't, I won't because it's one of my favorite one of my favorite Michael moments, too.

Um, yeah, so that was really fun, how just these little elements of us in the background sort of being bored and improvising made it into the show.

Yeah.

It's so special to me.

All right.

So I have something that I am so curious about.

And Jenna, I don't even know if you know this.

Fans out there, I don't know if you know it or if we need to text Dave Rogers, our editor extraordinaire.

So my DwyAngela fans, did you notice in the pilot episode that Dwight is singing Little Drummer Boy as he unpacks his desk?

Angela.

He's singing like, come, they told me.

And then he goes, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do.

And then in season three,

I karaoke

little drummer boy, and Dwight joins in and sings with me.

Now, that story is that I was very nervous to sing.

I don't like singing in front of people.

And Rain, as Dwight, just jumped in and kind of like supported me so I wasn't up there alone.

And he kneeled down and he held the microphone for me.

And I'm just like, oh my God.

I mean,

what?

That's weird.

That's crazy.

I feel like that has to be a coincidence.

I think it's a coincidence, but how, and so many fans say to me, like, what amazing synergy it is that Dwight is singing Little Drummer Boy in the pilot.

And then in season three, I sing it to him.

Now, did a writer remember that?

Was that something that like was, or was that just in the subconscious of the show?

I don't know.

I don't know.

You know what?

I found.

I found this article.

And I can't remember where.

I apologize.

I found an article that was all about secret messages in the pilot episode.

And one of the secret messages that someone points out is that in the scene where Roy comes in the door for the first time, the boom mic dips into frame.

And someone wondered, was that a nod to the boom operator, Brian, that we will meet in season nine?

No, that was just an accident.

Was it

that was it foreshadowing to let us know that there there are three men in Pam's life, Jim, Roy,

and Brian?

No, no, that was just a boom operator accident and they left it in because it's a documentary.

Yes, we left that stuff in all the time.

That was a thing that we

coveted that.

We loved it.

If someone, if the camera person fumbled or if the boom accidentally wasn't shot, we still used it and we could.

And that was actually great because sometimes you're on a set and your best take is ruined because of some, you know, technical problem.

Technical accident on the set, but we were able to use all of it.

We didn't have to put it on the cutting room floor.

Okay, so yeah, so no conspiracy, but yeah, I don't know if Dwight singing Little Drummer Boy in the pilot and Angela singing it in Benny Hanna Christmas in season three is just a crazy coincidence, but it's cool, right?

It's a pretty cool

I actually really love these fan theories because I like to think that these accidents or coincidences, if they are accidents, are part of a fun, collective, unconscious thing that kind of lend itself to the magic of the show.

Wow, Jenna, that was really deep.

It kind of was.

I got real philosophical there.

Oh my gosh, I feel like I just had like a vision of what you were like in college or something.

Yeah.

Like you sat around like maybe like you wore like black turtlenecks and like, I don't know.

I've just been.

I was kind of like, I was kind of like Art Show Pam.

Art Show Pam.

My turtleneck.

Yeah.

My jumper.

Well, I like it.

Spilling philosophy.

All right.

Angela, what have you got for us?

I only had one speaking scene in the pilot, and so did Brian.

It was back in accounting when Angela and Kevin are trying to figure out who's going to be fired for downsizing.

We were really nervous about shooting the scene.

It's the only time we speak.

And it was at the end of the day.

Ken Kawapas, who is, you know, we've said the nicest guy, was like, go ahead.

And I said, somebody's going to be fired.

It'll probably be me.

And Brian, as Kevin says, yeah, it'll probably be you.

And

Ken came up to me and goes, hey, Angela, can you do it again?

And like, just give it like half.

Give it half.

So I guess I was like, was I too big?

Was I like, somebody's going to be fired.

It'll probably be me.

Like, and then so I was like, somebody will probably be fired.

It'll probably be me.

Someone's going to get fired.

Is that the exact line?

Somebody's going to be fired.

It'll probably be me.

Then he came up and he goes, half of that.

I said, oh, okay.

So then I was like, somebody's going to be fired.

It'll probably be me.

And he goes,

half of that.

Oh, my God.

I said, oh my God, I'm going to get fired because I'm like an improv sketch comedy actor and clearly I'm too broad.

And so ultimately the take they use, by the end of it, I literally was like,

somebody's going to be fired.

It'll probably be me.

And then Brian's like, yeah, it'll probably be you.

And Ken was like, we got it.

I was like.

Do you want to point out what you noticed about this scene as well?

Yes, about Kevin.

Here's my tidbit, guys, is that when I watch this and Brian, I want to call you about it.

You just sound like Brian to me.

You don't sound like the Kevin voice.

Okay, can we play it?

I bet it's going to be me.

Probably.

It's going to be me.

Yeah, it'll be you.

That's Brian.

Oh, my gosh.

That's Brian.

That is Brian's voice.

That's not, because Kevin would have been like, yeah, it'll probably be me.

It'll probably be me.

Yeah.

That's a horrible Kevin.

We just really did not do that one.

Oh, my gosh.

I want to call Brian about it.

But when I watched it, I was like, wait a second.

It's like, that's Brian.

But I think in the pilot, we were still sort of like figuring out our characters and who they were.

However, I have to say, Angela,

I went into the deleted scenes

on the DVD, season one DVD.

And there is, this is something we did on the pilot.

Some of it was an acting exercise where they called us each into the conference room separately and they just asked us unscripted lines about our characters and about our relationship to other characters.

It wasn't written.

It wasn't written.

It was not written.

We just improvised.

So this was sort of, I think, an exercise that Ken wanted to do that Greg and Ken came up with.

In addition to that thing where they filmed us all just working, they also filmed us being interviewed in character.

And I think Greg thought, this will be great.

Maybe I could use some of these little tidbits here and there.

Well, there is a series of interviews with each of the members of Accounting.

Oh, my God.

Where you guys are all trash-talking each other very subtly.

And Angela, you have this incredible deleted scene talking head where they ask you about Oscar.

Is this where I compare him to a stapler?

Yes.

Sam, can you pull that up so we can listen to that?

Oscar, how do I describe him?

He's like a stapler.

Do I need a stapler?

Yes.

But I'm still the one that has to push it down.

I did.

I improvised that because I was trying to think of like what, like, how does Angela see Oscar?

And he's just like, he's necessary, but he's a, he ends up being more work for her.

Yes.

He's annoying.

What was so clear to me when I was watching them was

this accounting dynamic had already started.

Yes.

This little pod that you guys form, this little trio, it was there from the very beginning.

Also, I do have to point fans, all of the deleted scenes are fantastic.

Rain Wilson has some talking heads.

There is a long extended deleted scene talking head of him talking to Ken Kwapis, who played the documentarian for us.

He would ask us the questions, our director, all about where the boom microphone was.

Rain as Dwight was very distracted by the boom.

Oh my god.

And he was saying, I really need you to move that.

Ken says we can put it in your blind spot.

And he says something like, I don't have a blind spot.

I've been trained.

So it's especially distracting for me.

You need to understand that I'm highly trained.

And it's just this little like non-presentational conversation between Dwight and a documentarian about how to be mic'd.

I just want to say one thing.

So many great things that were established in the pilot that you go on to see for years to come.

Of course, one of the big ones is the Jim versus Dwight, like sort of their battle, right?

And the pranks that Jim is going to do on Dwight.

And I love that it just started out so simply with Dwight pushing all of Jim's papers back to his desk and then Jim making the pencil wall.

It's just ridiculous.

Well, that was borrowed from the British show.

In the British show, they have the same desk war, but instead, the Jim character piles up a bunch of boxes.

He makes a box wall between the desks.

And we did that when we filmed the pilot.

We had Jim make a box wall.

And in fact, you can see it in the background of conference room scenes.

You can see a bunch of boxes piled up on Jim's desk.

My lady, I'm going to go back and look.

Later,

when we got picked up.

We reshot that scene and turned it into a little pencil thing.

And you can also see that Rain's hair is a little bit different in the pencil scene compared to the the rest of the pilot.

It's not as poofy.

That's right.

Yeah, exactly.

Rain as Dwight went through poofy hair phase, which looks like they used a little miniature like rolling brush to blow dry his hair.

And then he went through flat parted down the middle phase.

Well, Rain created the hairstyle for Dwight.

And he said before that it is based on the hairstyle that he wore when he was a 16-year-old boy.

And so he did his own hair for the pilot.

That makes me laugh.

I've seen those photos of Rain.

They're crazy.

You wore your own clothes in the pilot.

I wore my own clothes in the pilot.

All right.

So the last sort of thing I think we need to talk about is this big prank on Pam, quote unquote, the scene where Michael fake fires her.

Well, he's so excited because Jim has had a very successful prank.

And Michael just, he wants to be in the spotlight.

He wants to be the funny guy.

So he's going to show off for Ryan the Temp and he's going to fake fire Pam.

And it, of course, goes horribly wrong and she ends up in tears.

And we shot that scene probably 30 times.

Wow.

And at the beginning of the scene, you can see everyone in the background kind of getting ready to leave for the day.

And all those people had to wait for hours.

They would have to start in the background and then we would do this whole scene.

Oh, oh, I know, Jenna.

I know.

I was there.

I had to grab my jacket, my coat, and my purse, put them down, my coat and my purse.

I think of any scene in the entire history of the office, this is the one that I've done the most because we did about 30 takes of it that day, but it was also my audition scene.

This was one of my audition scenes.

And so I auditioned for months for this role.

I did that scene one time when I auditioned for the role of Pam and I didn't get it.

This is such a crazy, crazy bit of trivia.

Yes, yes.

Your first audition for the office was for the role of Pam.

It was for the role of Pam and I wore a pink sweater.

What?

Yes.

We both had the same instinct.

I wore Pam worse pink sweater.

I was a pink sweater and my hair down and I was told to look, you know, like not too fancy.

So I didn't do too much with my hair and makeup.

And I went in and I did the scene and it was for a room full of people, the producers.

And when we got to the point where Michael fake fires you and you start to cry and you call him a jerk.

Yeah.

When I called him a jerk, everyone started to laugh.

And I thought, I did something wrong.

I don't think they're supposed to laugh at this moment.

And of course, like, Jenna, you were so brilliant because you brought such a vulnerability to Pam that even though this job sucks and she hates it, she needs it.

She needs this crappy job.

Yeah.

And you really felt her in that moment.

You just, my heart broke for her.

And when you call him a jerk, it's just like you're really wounded.

And

it checks Michael in his place of like, that wasn't cool.

Well, that's funny because this was a somewhat controversial scene about whether or not it should be included.

When Ricky and Stephen were counseling Greg, I understand that they told him that he should consider cutting this scene

because they said that it's in their pilot and they felt like they always had to fight to come back from it, that it made the boss a little too

mean and not.

And so later they really leaned into his buffoonery.

But Greg fought to keep it in.

He thought, no, we're going to, we're going to try it.

We're going to let her cry.

We're going to let Michael be mean to her.

Now, there was an alt line where I think that sometimes instead of saying you're a jerk, I said you're a sad little man.

And they said that's too hard.

That's harsh.

You can't come back from that.

That is harsh.

So here's a little

fun tidbit, Jenna.

Another tidbit.

Not a fast fact.

A tidbit from Angela Kinsey.

When Michael wants to prank Pam in front of Ryan the Temp.

Michael as Steve turns to Ryan, BJ, and says, have you ever seen, you know, do you like prank shows?

Have you ever seen punked?

BJ was on punk.

He was on.

He was on season two of punk.

So I thought that was a nice little nod that he's looking at someone who was on punked and says to you like punked.

And BJ's like, yeah, like as Ryan.

Anyway, that's a Kinsey tidbit for you.

So the end of this episode, Pam has been crying and Jim wants to cheer her up.

So he puts Michael's World's Best Boss Mug in Jell-O.

Now, this was exclusive to our show.

Yes.

So the whole

BBC version.

That's right.

The mug itself is set up in an early talking head and then this convention of ending the episode with jim doing something sweet for pam by putting the mug in jell-o that was all greg daniels idea and i think that's such a sweet way to end the show yeah

yeah and so and now and then of course the iconic world spell we just did it we did it we did it we were dinner

podcast you guys we really We were really nervous.

We actually, in the middle of doing this, I was getting so nervous

that Angela made us um turn off the microphones and have a dance party i did to loosen me up i did i put on taylor swift's paper rings and i made her dance around and get out of her head i was spiraling you were but here's the thing this is why we're nervous it's because The show means so much to us.

And we are new, obviously, to the podcast scene.

And your support has been overwhelming.

I literally teared up when we let you guys know we were doing a podcast.

And just the immediate support from all of you out there, I got a little emotional.

Me too.

So I just thank you guys so much and just know how much it means to us that this show that is so special to us keeps finding an audience.

It just really means the world to us.

It's changed our lives.

Forever.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So thank you.

Thank you guys.

All right.

First one.

Next week.

Since we're going in order, we're going to be talking about Diversity Day.

So much fun.

So if you want to watch it with us, just watch Diversity Day by next Wednesday and then we'll talk about it.

And you hear that?

That's our theme music by my neighbor, Creed Bratton.

It's his song, Rubber Tree, with Mr.

Ed Helms on banjo.

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 Jorkins, 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 Bratton.