Mrs. California

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I'm Jenna Fisher.

And I'm Angela Kinsey.

We were on The Office together.

And we're best friends.

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

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

We're the office ladies.

Hello, everybody.

Hi.

Are you ready for this week's episode, Mrs.

California?

I am.

I enjoy this episode so much.

I found myself laughing really hard.

I thought Ed Helms as Andy being caught between Mr.

and Mrs.

California was

his performance was amazing.

Well, this is season eight, episode nine.

It was written by new writer alert Dan Greeney.

He had previously worked on The Simpsons.

This was his first office script.

And it was directed by Charlie Grandi, who I got to talk to about this episode.

And I've got some really fun information to share.

Aw, I love Charlie.

He was so fun to have on set.

He was great.

Here is your summary.

Andy is confused when Robert California charges him with the task of finding a job for his wife, Susan, while simultaneously insisting she not work there under any circumstances.

Meanwhile, Dwight opens a gym in the building and coaches his reluctant first member, Daryl.

Fast fact number one, Maura Tierney as Mrs.

California.

Is she the coolest or what?

She is the coolest lady.

I just remember having a girl crush on her and really wanting her to like me.

So much so, when you see her over in accounting, do you see me just like laughing and like, ha ha, hi, you're so cool.

For years, my agents would pitch me as a Maura Tierney type.

Really?

You know, because she did use radio

and they were like, that would be a perfect role for you, Jenna.

We're going to pitch you as a Maura Tierney type.

I was so bummed out that I did not get to work with her in this episode.

I think we should play sisters personally.

Oh, you so should.

Right?

Yes.

I know.

I love her.

She's cooler than me.

She would be my cool older sister.

Exactly.

Right.

That we want to hang out with.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, we got a lot of fan questions about Maura, particularly from Kitty G in Austin, Texas, who said, I was so excited to see one of my all-time favorite actresses, Maura Tierney, pop up as Mrs.

California.

How did she end up on the show?

Well, Charlie Grandi said that Paul Lieberstein really wanted Maura Tierney, and everybody else was instantly on board.

Charlie said, in addition to being funny, she had a really natural warmth and strength, which was key in this episode.

Well, like I said, I'm bummed I couldn't be there.

Maybe one day there's a project in store for me and Maura.

I would watch that.

We need to get on it.

She could be a mom detective, you know.

We need a mom detective.

We need our boss, our boss.

Oh, the boss of the person.

The dispatcher.

She's the person we call into.

Yes.

Yes.

She's it.

Mara, we have a job for you.

Done.

All right.

Are you ready for fast fact number two?

This is a fan question from Kate Kay in Holland, Michigan, who says, not so much a question, but rather a feminist rant.

Okay.

I hate that Robert introduces his wife to the bullpen as Mrs.

Robert California so, so much.

She corrects them immediately by asking to be called Susan, but this demonstrates an epidemic that I am so repulsed by.

Why is it always Mr.

and Mrs.

the man's last name?

I feel like there's a deep dive here just waiting to be unpacked and ranted about.

Hashtag down with the patriarchy.

Kate, I like your fire.

I'm liking it.

I deep dived it for you, and here you go.

Okay.

Women did not always take their husband's last name.

in fact last names didn't even matter at first because back in the dark ages i guess populations were so small that you just went by your first name but later when last names mattered that's when women started taking the last name of their husbands and according to several articles including one from brides.com the reason is because women did not hold any legal rights on their own.

They couldn't own land.

That's right.

Yes.

Or if you were injured as a woman and someone was to be compensated for your injury, it was either your father because you were his property or your husband once you married.

Women could not enter into contracts.

However, they could be employed, but their husband collected their wages.

Also, the husband held the right to sexual access to their wife.

So this was all, you know, back in the day.

Kind of sounds like the handmaid's tale.

Oh, a lot like the handmaid's tale.

One of the first things that happens when they're slowly taking over is that they close all the women's banking accounts and have their funds transferred to their husband's accounts.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Creepy stuff.

Right.

Here's something I found out.

Did you know that prior to the 1970s, there were laws in the United States that said women could not get a driver's license, a passport, or register to vote unless a woman took her husband's last name.

If you were unmarried, you could, but if you were married, you could only do those things if you took your husband's last name.

It was the Supreme Court case of Dunn versus Palermo that struck down a Tennessee law that required women to take their husband's last name in order to vote.

And that is when it finally ended.

And that is also when the little, what do you call it, the prefix ms came into play.

Ms.

Because you could be a miss, a missus, or a miz.

Want to hear about a badass lady?

Yeah.

Amelia Earhart?

Mm-hmm.

She refused to go by her husband's last name.

And after her first solo transatlantic flight, the New York Times wrote a big article about her.

And the whole time, they referred to her as Mrs.

Putnam.

So she wrote them a letter.

Yes, she did.

She said,

as previously stated.

I mean, we all know if someone says that, they're like, listen, this is my polite way of saying go F yourself.

Yes.

I will say that phrase was not in her letter, but it was implied.

She did say, like, as stated in my previous letters to you,

I would like you to refer to me by my professional name, Amelia Earhart, and not Mrs.

Putnam.

Yeah.

So I took my husband's last name.

I am Jenna Kirk.

I took his last name.

And approximately 70% of women still take their husband's last names when they get married.

20% keep their maiden names and 10%

hyphenate their name or they make up a new name, a new last name together.

I'm in the 20%.

Okay.

I did not take my husband's last name.

I am just Angela Kinsey.

Although I absolutely love being Josh's wife, I am the last of four girls.

And I remember when my dad was alive telling him, Dad, I'll keep the Kinsey for you.

Oh, that's so sweet.

So his name would live on at least a little longer through me, right?

Yeah, yeah.

And it meant a lot to him.

So that was something I wanted to do for my dad.

I love that lady.

Yeah.

And Josh doesn't mind at all.

He knows I'm also Mrs.

Snyder.

Well, you know, very occasionally men will take their wives' last names, but it is much more difficult to do it.

Like when a woman gets married on your marriage certificate, there's just a line where you can fill in.

That line isn't there for the men, I guess, because only in Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Massachusetts, New York, and North Dakota is it as easy for a man to take his wife's last name upon marriage as the other way around.

Hmm.

So there's my deep dive for you, Kate.

Well, I loved it.

And right here in this room, the two of us represent two different sides.

We do.

Yeah.

Ultimately, how I feel about it is: whatever is comfortable between you and your partner ain't nobody else's business.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I like being Jenna Kirk.

Yeah.

All right.

Are you ready, everybody?

Yeah.

For fast fact number three.

Oh, yes.

Yes, I forgot we were doing this.

Yes.

All right.

It is

Mom Detectives and the Case of the Windowless Building.

Yes, our very first case.

We drove to the windowless building.

We sure did.

Jenna got out her phone and recorded the audio of our whole investigation.

Here it is.

It was a cold and

It had been a long time since I saw this big of a mess.

But because it wasn't a far drive,

and because it wasn't a school night,

and because there was only a little bit of evidence so it could fit in a small amount of pockets,

and because I had snacks in case they got hungry,

and because it wasn't chilly out,

God helped me I knew who I needed to call.

The mom detectives.

Okay, here we go.

Do you see it, Angela?

See, those are not windows.

Oh, oh, there's a driveway.

There's two people sitting outside.

Oh my God, let's go through the driveway.

Let's go through the driveway.

Okay, let's go in.

What?

Park right here.

No, it's not parking here.

Yes, you can.

It's parking.

Two-hour parking.

I'm too far away from the curve.

Look at me.

It's not unfixable.

Oh, wait, let me back up.

Let me back up.

Just back up.

Backing out.

Now you're too close under the curb.

I missed the curb.

Okay.

All right.

Okay.

All right, let's get out.

None of this is windows.

Okay.

No, there's no windows, but it looks like windows.

But it's also like geometric.

And also, there's two numbers on the building.

I know it's a long address.

Also, I want to point out, look, there's no shrubbery.

There's like just a dirt patch.

They've just let it go.

Good observation.

Thank you.

All right, we're walking in.

We're currently walking in.

The gate is open.

The parking garage gates.

There are no cars.

The pedestrian gate is locked, but this, oh, there's one car.

Oh, my God, there's three sheds.

There's three sheds.

And there's four people

outside.

The water, like the spincer thing.

Wait, what are we doing?

I'm just going to to walk in and ask what the business is.

Okay, okay.

Oh my gosh.

I'm hanging back.

I'm hanging back.

Jenna's walking in.

Hi.

We were just curious, what is this business?

Talking to someone that looks like a nurse.

It looks like a very nice, young male nurse.

Huh.

It's a daycare center for elderly people.

It's open for four hours a day.

They get two meals.

And that's it.

well that was anticlimactic

the mom detectives

case solved in the most unthreatening

like zero conspiracy

like really the hype we gave this and it's a senior citizen activity center The thing is, why no name on the building, you know?

Like, just, it would be so easy.

Do they not want you to know?

Is it, I mean, wouldn't you put a sign?

Like, it's a beautiful facility.

I walked in and it

was tonight.

I walked in.

I hung behind you a little, but I did look around.

It had a little lobby area.

Yes, and just a beautiful dining room.

And something the nurse said was they also do occupational therapy and physical therapy there.

I mean, so you don't want.

A sign that says what you are with a phone number so you can, someone can check it out.

I thought it was odd.

But you you know what?

Fine.

Mystery solved.

Turns out the lack of shrubbery and three sheds.

Angela, I thought you were very good at pointing out clues, none of which led to the answer.

None at all.

But what if I had gone inside and they were evasive?

We might have had to, you know,

those leads.

Yeah.

Well, you know, I have to say, I'll never forget the look on everyone's face when we did enter in the building.

Yes.

They were confused.

I want to say that I gave no context when I walked in the building.

None.

I didn't say, hey, I watched this building be built and I'm just so curious.

What is it?

Yeah.

I walked in and the guy said, can I help you?

And I said, yes, what is this?

Yeah.

What is this facility?

I mean, I was very to the point.

I think maybe I need to work on my bedside manner as a detective.

While you were doing that, an elderly man

pointed at me and then talked to someone else.

And then that other person pointed at me.

And so I just said, Hi, how's it going?

Yeah.

I think they didn't know why I was there.

We were there because we had a mystery to solve.

That's right.

I should have just said to them, I should have said, I'm sorry to disturb you, elderly fella.

I am a mob detective.

Yes.

And I am here on a mission, but I am too embarrassed to walk all the way in, but my friend charged in there.

So now I'm hanging on this patio with you.

That's what's happening.

Can I just say that I I think some of my chutzpah from the award show circuit showed up paying off as a mom detective?

Showed up.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Perhaps they should have walked in the door laughing.

No.

And we would have laughed together.

No, I think you made the right move to not walk in laughing.

All right.

Well, maybe we need outfits because that would make it clearer.

Hats.

Who we are.

Get us hats.

Okay.

They'll say MD.

I don't know.

I don't know.

Well, everyone, there you go.

That's what I got for Fast Facts.

Should we take a break and then we'll come back and watch Dwight stand for a really long time?

Yes.

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We are back and Dwight is standing at his desk.

And it's not just because he's standing hanging out at his regular desk.

He has a new standing desk.

And he's looking over at Jim and he says, you know what?

Your hair's thinning.

Yeah, he explains that standing is healthier and more productive.

So that's what he's going to do now.

My husband has a standing desk.

I was going to bring that up.

Yes.

I want you guys to know at one point we were sharing a small room in our house and we made it into a little makeshift office.

It was that catch-all room.

And he moved in his standing desk, and I had my little lower desk.

And it was like he was mission control looming over me.

And I was like, babe, we have got to sort this out.

You need your own place to stand and work because you're driving me crazy.

But he loves his standing desk.

He still has a standing desk.

It's from Vera Desk.

Shout out to those guys because he loves it.

Well, I have a fan observation to kick off this episode from Charlotte E.

in the UK, who would like to know: why does Kathy have Pam's baby photos of Cece on her desk after she's taken over on maternity leave?

Surely she's going to be there long enough to put up her own photos if she wants to.

Charlotte, no.

Ask Pam, my baby pictures are staying where they are.

Kathy, don't you touch them?

I have a question.

What?

We've learned in this episode that Andy's desk is empty.

Why can't Kathy just go sit there?

I thought that a long time ago.

I thought that during Pam's replacement because she does sit there a few times.

There's no computer there right now.

Well, you know what?

Sort it out and leave Pam's desk alone.

Don't even sit at Pam's desk.

You know whose job that is?

The office administrator.

She should learn to take care of herself.

We also had a fan catch from Elizabeth M.

in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who points out that Dwight has a mug with a Sheets logo on it.

Elizabeth said, I love the detail work done by the props department.

Little details like this make all the difference.

I agree.

Jim is going to see an opportunity here to prank Dwight.

He's going to say, you know what, Dwight, you're right.

You're better than the rest of us.

I'm proud of you.

You're committing to standing and you're never going to sit again.

You're going to stand forever, aren't you?

And Dwight's like, yeah, I am.

And almost immediately, his ankles start bothering him.

Yes, and he tries to sneak away to the break room to sit down, but then Daryl walks in to get some coffee.

And I have something to say.

About what?

I need to discuss the coffee situation at Dunder Mifflin.

Okay.

There's a coffee maker in the kitchen.

Right.

Why are people walking past it to go all the way to the break room?

Thank you.

Now, something I did notice is that in the break room, there appears to be a decaf coffee option and a regular coffee option.

In the kitchen, there is only regular coffee, but Daryl gets regular coffee.

He doesn't grab the decaf.

Also, there is an entire coffee machine in the break room.

One of the vending machines is all coffee and we have caffeine corner.

We have a lot of coffee coffee.

There's like free coffee, vending machine coffee, I guess artisanal coffee.

It's a lot of coffee.

That's it.

I needed to say it.

For once.

For once.

Season eight.

I am calling out this coffee bullshit that we've all had to live through.

Thank you.

It's been a long time.

Well, Dwight is back at his desk and he seems to be a lot chipper.

He's humming.

He's being nice to people.

That's right.

Jim approaches and notices something sticking out of Dwight's pants leg.

It looks like some kind of, I don't know, pogo stick.

What is it?

Well, we had a fan question from KCB in State College, Pennsylvania, who wanted to know, what was that?

Steve Burgess said it was embarrassingly simple.

That's a quote.

It was an aluminum cane that they put up up through his hand

and he's sitting on the handle.

Yeah.

Ow.

No.

Ow.

He had to have at least one sore butt cheek there.

Well, I was so tickled by this next moment when Jim's like, I'm going to have to do this.

And Dwight's like, I know.

Did you hear the noise that Rain makes as Dwight when Jim topples him over?

No.

It made me laugh so hard.

I emailed Cassie about it.

She was like, yeah, that's ridiculous.

It cracked us up.

You have to hear it.

That's real creative.

You know what?

You're right.

It's not my best because you could easily just bend over and pick that up, right?

I could.

I just don't feel like a loser.

Because you're sitting?

Standing.

Okay.

Don't.

Because you're sitting?

Standing.

You know I have to do this.

I know.

Like, what is that cartoon yell?

Oh my gosh.

It got me so tickled.

So this episode starts with Jim in Andy's office.

Andy is signing paperwork.

He really loves signing his full name.

They're just having some chit chat.

Then, all of a sudden, there's bang, bang, bang on the window.

And it's Robert, and he is so flustered.

Like, we've never seen him this flustered.

He's panicking.

He's like, hey, in four seconds, my wife is walking through that door.

She wants a job here.

Under no circumstances, can you give her a job here?

Understood?

And then he runs away.

It was so amazing.

It was so good.

Yeah.

Miles McNutt had something to say about this scene.

Miles, you did.

Yes.

Reviewer Miles McNutt wrote for the A.

V.

Club, quote, the very first scene of Mrs.

California suggests the potential for a very smart episode of The Office.

Ooh.

Does that mean so?

Ultimately failed to

impress.

Why do I feel like there's a however coming?

He ended up giving it a C plus.

But I want to say this was an amazing opening scene.

Amazing.

I agree.

And right away, Jim was like, I am out of this.

That's right.

Because Andy's like, what was that about?

And Jim's like, I don't know.

He wasn't talking to me.

I know this episode is called Mrs.

California.

But Jenna, when I was doing my research, I realized there was something I have been wanting to share with you all, and I haven't yet.

It all started with an email to Joya, who you know worked for NBC Digital.

She always gives us great little tidbits.

And I said, Joy, did you guys build anything out for the Sabre Pyramid?

She said, oh, Sabre had an amazing website, right?

We've talked about that.

I've put stuff in stories.

One of the things I failed to see was Robert California's bio.

Oh,

he has quite the bio.

It's clear that he wrote it himself.

Oh, and it's on the Sabre website.

I would love to read it to you guys.

Chief Executive Officer Robert California.

One African story of creation depicts a bee carrying a mantis across a river.

The river is wide, and the exhausted bee eventually leaves the mantis on a floating flower.

The bee plants a seed in the mantis's body before dying, and the seed grows into the first human.

All of you are the equivalent of that exhausted, primitive worker bee towing a dying, outmoded business behind you, and it has weakened every fiber in your pitiful bodies.

I am commensurate with the first human, a mark of welcome change, an evolution, a vicissitude so powerful and so blinding that you'll need to put on a pair of blue blockers just to get through the day.

I possess the fire of a young Egyptian protester and the restraint and stoicism of a wise Chinese village elder, an impeccable combination ideal for a rejuvenating or regional paper distributor.

I know what you're thinking.

Will you be able to keep up with the demand?

Will you live up to my exceedingly high standards?

Will you be replaced by someone faster and much, much more attractive?

My advice is to never stop asking yourself those questions.

This is his bio?

This is his bio.

I am now dying to write a bio where within my bio is the phrase, I know what you're thinking.

Fisher starred for nine seasons on the office.

I know what you're thinking.

I mean, this is the oddest.

This wasn't like a letter to

under bio.

This is next to his photo.

Chief executive officer, Robert California.

Incredible.

Starts with the story of a bee in a mantis floating down a river.

Isn't that exactly what you expect, though?

Incredible.

Thank you.

Anyway, I have been meaning to share that for weeks now.

Well, Robert is going to introduce his wife, Mrs.

California, to the bullpen.

Susan, please call me.

Yeah, please call me, Susan.

Robert is going to share that last night at dinner, they were discussing her return to work, and she's here to see if there's a position for her.

Andy's going to jump on this.

He's going to say, oh, you know, that's so wonderful, but we're, I mean, we're completely staffed up.

Immediately, he's trying to shut it down because Robert had banged on the window.

This whole scene, Jenna, was so rich to me.

Just the sentence where he says, last night at dinner, we were discussing her getting back into the workplace.

I was like, oh, that was so layered.

I bet that was the most painful, awkward, layered conversation.

Those are the kind of scenes I love, like in a one-act play.

I want to see the scene between Robert and Susan at dinner where she basically says, I want to go back to work.

You know, Moritieri doesn't have any lines in this.

And yet, like you're saying, there is so much playing out on her face.

Yes, the way she looks at him.

Yes, when Andy says we're completely staffed up, oh my gosh, she turns her head and looks at Robert.

And then their whole dinner, their whole dinner conversation.

Yeah.

All of it, that history is there.

Yeah.

Because you know he made fake promises to her that he never intended on keeping.

And right away she's like, hmm.

And then he looks at Andy and kind of does a weird twitch with his eye and goes, I think we can see the options first.

Yes.

Like basically like, Andy, you idiot, let it play out a little bit so it's more believable.

We had a fan mail flurry about this scene.

People pointed out that Robert California and his wife are wearing color coordinated outfits.

The turquoise?

Yes, and the black.

And they wanted to know if it was intentional or just a weird coincidence.

Charlie Grandi, remember I said he directed this episode and I traded messages with him.

He said it was a conscious decision to make it look like Robert and Susan are quite literally on the same team.

And then if you notice the way Andy's dressed, it's really, it's like a completely different color palette and it's made to further isolate him and Charlie said good catch everyone this is the stuff I love these are the little details I love to learn well next up Dwight is gonna knock on Daryl's door he's gonna tell Daryl that he has started Dwight Schroott's gym for muscles mm-hmm you know Daryl was saying he wanted to start working out well Dwight's going to solve that problem for him.

Dwight is always looking for the side hustle.

He's got Caffeing Corner.

He owns the business park now.

He tried to have a daycare.

Now he's going to have gym for muscles.

In Dwight's Talking Head, he says that obese people in the building are putting a strain on resources.

For example, the chairs wear out faster.

We had a fan question from Christian H.

in Independence, Missouri, who said, There are two previous office episodes all about Michael having to buy chairs.

In chair model, he's buying a chair for himself.

And in the surplus, they're debating between buying chairs or a new copier.

So my question is, which is it?

Does the office buy the chairs or the building?

Hmm.

Are you asking me?

I think Christian is a little sass.

Christian, Jenna just looked at me like, and what do you think, Angela?

I think.

Why is Dwight worried about the chairs so much?

I think the building buys the chairs.

That makes no sense.

Well, then.

Don't ask me.

Why did we have a whole episode where we argued over what to do with our surplus if the building would have just bought us chairs anyway?

I don't know.

I mean, I think very clearly the office has a budget to buy chairs for the office, but you know, there are other chairs.

There are the chairs of Caffeine Corner, perhaps.

There are building chairs.

The lobby sofa?

Yes.

There you go.

Maybe it's both.

Case of the chairs.

Well, Andy is going to start showing Susan around.

And right before they start their tour, she says goodbye to a few folks.

Yes, and she gets Ryan's name wrong.

As she's saying goodbye, she calls him Brian, and he is not pleased.

This is something I struggle with.

Anyone else out there?

Like Ryan and Brian, Craig and Greg, Kristen, Christine, Tim and Tom, I'm going to get it wrong, guys.

Tamara, Tamara, I'm going to get it wrong.

And I'm so sorry.

I don't mean anything by it.

It's a hard thing sometimes to dial in.

Wait, which one was it, Ryan or Brian?

And then, you know, I wonder if like behind your back, someone's like, bitch.

There are so many parents at my kids' school

who were probably introduced to me in the beginning, but now we're like five grades deep.

It's too late.

It's too late.

You've got the name wrong and it's too late.

There's a dad at our school who calls everyone friend.

Oh, I don't know anyone's name.

No.

But I can't do it.

I can't pull that off.

Yeah.

My husband does a lot of like, what's up, buddy?

And I'm like, you don't know what they're doing.

men can do it better.

Saying buddy, we all know you don't know their name.

Men have dude, buddy, man.

I know.

We got nothing.

We got lady.

That's it.

But you have to, like, if I am familiar enough with someone to call them lady, I know their name.

Right.

Not going to call, you know, someone I barely interact with.

Hey, lady.

Yeah.

Good morning, lady.

No, I don't think so.

But isn't this everyone?

We all suffer from this, right, guys?

I mean, everybody has this problem.

How many people out there hear a name once and they lock into it?

The percentage must be small.

Can we just all agree that we're not going to be offended if someone has to ask us our name 70 times?

Can that just be like a collective stress?

Like we just forgiveness.

We release that.

There's so much to be stressed about and to like, we can be judgy about other stuff.

I want to just drop the name forgetting thing.

Let's just drop it.

Yeah.

It's fine.

I don't care care if you forgot my name.

It's fine.

I don't know how we get this out there.

I feel like it needs to be on a ballot or something.

We want a collective forgiveness.

Collective forgiveness on names.

Some days I'm amazing at it.

Some days I crush it, but then there's my Ryan Brian days.

Well, Andy's going to begin his tour of Dunder Mifflin at reception.

Aaronville.

Yes.

Should we have two secretaries, two receptionists?

Hmm.

Andy doesn't think so.

Maybe Susan would be good for sales.

Let's go talk to Jim, where, you know, Andy's sure Jim's going to have my back.

He's going to make sales sound horrible.

Right.

But then Dwight comes over and makes sales sound amazing.

So much so that after her first sale, Susan and Dwight are going to go have a glass of red wine and trade their lists of best animals, their rankings.

She's fitting in pretty well with Dwight.

This really stresses out Andy.

He's like, oh, how am I going to do this?

And lady, I think we're about to learn something that might confirm what Michael knew all along, proof of Phyllis's flatulence.

Yes, Andy has a talking head about why couldn't Phyllis have one of her room clearing farts?

This definitely made me wonder if she really tooted at her wedding after all.

That's what I think, right?

Yes.

Here's one other thing I want to say about this Andy talking head.

There were several candy bag alts for it that were so hilarious.

There were two pages of candy bag alts.

Three of them really made me laugh hard, and I want to share them, okay?

Andy, how am I supposed to pull this off?

Kevin wore deodorant today.

Angela smiled.

Meredith ate before she drank.

Gee, thanks, team.

Way to go.

Here's the other one.

How am I supposed to pull this off?

Creed talked to her without a single spit bubble forming in the corner of his mouth.

Really?

That hasn't happened in in a decade.

Last one.

This is one where, you know, sometimes they throw a crazy one in there.

Yeah.

How am I supposed to pull this off?

I'm doing my best to make these assholes look like assholes, but these assholes keep acting like pretty good people to work with.

These are all amazing.

Oh my gosh.

I know.

It was a really good candy bag.

Lady, thank you so much for sharing those.

I think it's also really great for people out there who are maybe wanting to be writers or artists or whatever to see how like our writers they didn't write one talking head or one button for a scene they wrote a bunch oh yeah you know it's like you try everything and you see what ends up working best but there's so many good ones like any one of those would have cracked me up same

Well, now Dwight is going to unveil his amazingly fancy gym to Daryl.

And by amazingly fancy, it looks like something out of a scene and saw five.

Yes.

This gym, it reminded me of the Strongest Man Competition.

Do you watch the Strongest Man Competition?

Well, is that the one where they have to throw a log in the air?

Yes.

So Dwight's gym, it has like, there's just like a stump with like an axe, and there's just like gravel buckets and phone book ripping.

So the strongest man competition, it started in 1977.

I looked up a description of it, and this could be written by Dwight.

It's amazing.

Let's hear it.

The world's strongest man competition is about more than just force.

It is about stamina, skill, tactics, training, and strategy.

Every event is designed to push the strong men to their absolute limits, challenging not only their physical strength, but their agility and mental toughness too.

Doesn't that seem like that sounds very Dwight?

Very Dwight.

But yeah, they like lift giant tree trunks and boulders, and then they have an event.

This is the one that gets me.

The vehicle pull.

Oh, do they put the thing around their waist and then have to walk pulling a car or something?

Yes, but they don't just pull cars.

They pull all kinds of stuff.

One time they pulled planes, a plane.

Is it stripped down or is it an actual full plane?

I am not exactly sure.

I mean, listen, stripped down or not, it's still a f ⁇ ing plane.

It's a giant.

And they have the weight and everything.

And then the way they do it is it's like they have to drag it 100 feet in the quickest time possible.

So whoever drags it the fastest is the winner of that competition.

But like each year, it's a different vehicle and it kind of matches either like a strong man's profession.

Like one time there was a guy who was a firefighter.

So they all fire truck.

They pulled fire trucks.

And then another year they pulled a mining coal car in honor of the coal miners in West Virginia.

And also, it's not always on land.

Sometimes they pull stuff across like ice or snow or sand.

Oh my God.

Can you imagine pulling a vehicle through sand?

No, I can barely walk like on the beach and then I'm sore.

But anyway, I did want to shout out this year's winner, strongest man, competition goes to Mitchell Hooper.

He's the first Canadian to win.

Way to go, Mitchell.

But they would love Dwight's gym.

They would be all over it.

They would be like, this is literally how they train.

Daryl's not loving it.

No, he wants a real gym.

This whole gym storyline was so much bigger.

Almost all the deleted scenes are gym storylines.

Oh, wow.

Not Jim Helper.

Not Jim Helper.

Jim Mussels.

Jim Mussels.

But I'll share more of those later.

Next up, we have one of my favorite scenes in the episode, which is when Andy meets with Mr.

and Mrs.

California in his office.

And no matter what job Susan says she would like to do, Andy has a reason why she can't.

And Robert has a reason why she can.

Here's what I didn't understand.

In this moment, Robert would have been off the hook.

Susan actually says, this is very uncomfortable.

Obviously, Obviously, there's no place for me here.

So thank you for trying.

Why don't we just let it go?

And Robert can't let it go.

He needs so desperately, I feel like, to look like the good guy to her that he's like, I'm the CEO, Andy.

Surely you want to owe me one.

Yes.

Poor Andy.

And Ed's performance was so amazing.

Like you could feel how confused he was.

We had a fan question from Mojo in Michigan.

How uncomfortable was Ed filming these scenes where Robert keeps saying there's got to be somewhere for her to fit in?

I was so uncomfortable this whole episode.

Not as bad as Scott's Tots, but still really uncomfortable.

Yeah, it's pretty cringy.

Well, Charlie Grandi said it was extremely uncomfortable this scene.

He said the biggest challenge of this episode for him was trying to escalate the discomfort while still keeping it enjoyable to watch, which is that's the sweet spot, you know.

He said that since this was his first time directing a complete episode, Paul Lieberstein was really helpful in in suggesting shots and camera movements.

And in this scene, for example, you might notice they start wide.

They even start with like a spy shot through the window.

And as the scene goes on, they go closer and closer and closer.

It ends on like a super close-up of Andy nervously smiling.

And Charlie said that was intentional as a way of building that discomfort.

Yeah.

And ultimately, Andy's like, fine, okay, welcome aboard.

And then she's like, yay.

And Robert just shoots him a dagger.

Yeah, it's amazing.

So good.

Because Andy knows immediately he's messed up.

Well, let's take a break and we get back.

We'll see what Andy's going to do to solve this problem.

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 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?

You can earn some extra income.

I mean, if you're traveling frequently or have a seasonal home and then while you're away you can earn extra income and pay for your vacation or maybe you're saving up for a home renovation your home might be worth more than you think find out how much at airbnb.com slash host all right if you're like me You want to look put together, but you don't have a lot of time to put into your routine to try and look put together.

I'll give it 15 minutes.

I want to look polished in 15 minutes.

And I'm talking that's everything.

That is skincare and makeup.

Yeah.

Well, Merit helps you simplify what it takes to get ready.

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That's right.

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We're back, and now it's just Andy and Susan in Andy's office.

And Andy's going to get a phone call.

It's Robert.

And when Andy answers, he says, Say hello, grandma.

And Andy says, Hi, Gam, Gam.

And then Robert says, Hold one finger up to Susan.

You'll just be a second.

You numbskull.

You are given a very simple task.

I could not have been more clear with you.

Now say, Are you taking your medicine?

And Andy says, Are you taking your med meds?

And Robert says, Why can you not say exactly what I tell you?

I thought that was so funny.

So funny.

There's two frustrations happening in this conversation.

But ultimately, what Robert is going to say to him is, undo this or else.

Yeah.

I like that phrase.

I want to start using that.

Like if Lee makes plans and I don't want to do them, I'm going to say, undo this.

Undo this.

I need you to undo this.

Yeah.

It's like that, the line that really stuck with me in succession when he goes, you are not serious people.

Yes.

What if we just start speaking in our favorite quotes?

Oh, my gosh.

Next up, Dwight is going to announce to the bullpen that his gym is up and running.

He has gotten some real equipment.

We saw it delivered.

Really nice equipment.

This is a nice gym now.

It appears so, but nobody really wants to sign up.

Everybody has an excuse, including Kelly, who says her sneakers are like a gym for your feet.

Lady.

Oh, my gosh, do you remember these sneakers?

They were the Skechers sneakers.

Oh, with the foamy memory foam.

We got a fan letter from Mary Grace in Athens, Georgia, who said, the shoes Kelly's wearing are Skecher Shape-Ups, and I just learned about these in class.

She's an advertising grad student.

Okay.

Mary says, allow me to deep dive for you.

Skecher Shape-Ups were a shoe with Kim Kardashian as the spokesperson.

Immediately at tracks that Kelly would be be wearing these shoes.

100%.

In the ads, Kim says she was able to ditch her personal trainer because of the shoes, because the idea was that these shoes were all the workout you needed because they had that little foam thing that you were talking about in the shoe.

There were lawsuits filed against Skechers for these misleading ads because they conducted studies on the target market and they found that most people were misled into thinking that the shoes alone would make them healthier.

And most of the people who bought the shoes gained weight because they ditched the gym.

I looked into this.

Skechers had to pay $40 million to settle this lawsuit of these shoes

that Kelly is wearing.

Yes.

The FTC settlement.

Wow.

That's an expensive pair of shoes.

Thank you, Mary Grace, for that amazing bit of info.

I have a little accounting shout out because I loved, loved, loved whenever the writers would write something for Angela, Oscar, and Kevin that was just full of assumed history, even if it was just a throwaway line.

Because, you know, Oscar says, like, I need more gym drama.

And he starts listing all the different dynamics at the gym where he works out.

And Angela goes, enough, Oscar, enough.

And you just know that he comes into work and he's like, you would not believe who's doing leg day today and taking up all the machines.

Like, you can just imagine his gripe over there.

And Angela is just over it.

I feel like this is a little bit of a callback too.

Remember in the previous episode when Oscar knew who was the most fit person when they were looking for warehouse people?

He talks a lot about his gym.

Yeah.

Susan has arrived in HR.

She's going to do her, I guess, her paperwork, right?

Her startup paperwork.

And Toby asks her for her passport.

She just in one sentence destroys him.

I know.

She's like, well, no, I mean, who, who walks around with her passport?

and toby's like well i do you know just in case there's an adventure she goes have you been on any adventures he's like no here was my question

does he keep his passport on him at all times for adventures or in case he has to flee because he is the scranton strangler well there you go evidence of strangling maybe so we had a fan catch in this scene that so delighted me.

I didn't notice it when I watched the episode, but when I went back to check after I read this fan question, I laughed out loud.

What?

Allison H from Norway said, why is Toby's chair so low and his desk so high?

Oh my gosh, Angela, his desk, it's in his armpit.

I took pictures.

Let me see.

I'm putting on my glasses.

Swipe to look.

That is a far away.

And then I did a close-up.

What?

Who sits like that?

You know what?

I bet he got the crap chair that we kept passing around.

Remember sometimes you would come on set and you'd be like, who the heck put the crap chair?

The one that wouldn't go up and went down and go up and down.

And we kept moving it back to the annex or moving it somewhere else.

But why was this allowed?

Like, you'd think when it was time to shoot, they would be like, we got to get this guy.

Yeah.

Yeah.

A real chair.

It was so funny.

It was delightful.

Great catch, Allison.

Andy has a new strategy for getting rid of Susan, which is that he's going to tell everyone in the bullpen bullpen to make it a miserable place to work, so miserable that she wants to leave by lunch.

Yeah.

And, you know, Jim is going to say, I don't think we should try to make this place seem unpleasant.

I think we should just let this place crush her spirit by itself.

I mean, it knows what it's doing.

That made me laugh.

I also loved when Erin goes, I know exactly what stapler to give her.

Yes.

And then we have a tiny one.

It's like so ridiculous.

She's so well.

The way Ellie, like as Erin placed it on the table, too.

Yeah.

Look what I've had to deal with.

Well, there was an alt-talking head for Jim, and we find out a little something about Stanley that I want you all to hear.

Okay.

This whole thing is making me very uncomfortable.

I'm not getting in between the boss and his wife, so just ask me about something else.

You know, Stanley's tie is really the story of the day.

It's my birthday.

Oh,

this whole day has been Stanley's birthday?

Yes, where is his cake?

Where is his party?

What has happened to the party planning committee?

And the best thing is when he says, it is my birthday, they do a full pan shot of his tie.

And his tie is a long blue fish, and the face of it is the end of the tie.

Okay.

It is a hilarious tie.

He's clearly worn special for his birthday.

And the whole episode I re-watched it looking for this tie, you only see the top of it.

Oh, you see the blue top.

But if it had ever shown him standing, you would have seen the fish face.

But it's Stanley's birthday.

Well, Pam is gone.

Maybe she was in charge of this.

But you know what?

What is Kathy for?

I don't know.

Pam is gone.

Angela's retired.

And Kathy is not doing her job.

No, not if Pam was in charge of birthday.

She's not.

This is actually a good segue for me into the next scene.

We're in the break room and Oscar's Oscar's passing around his phone to kind of show everyone his like new puppy who has crawled into a William Sonoma ladle.

Gerald.

Yes.

And they're not letting Susan see the picture.

They're kind of freezing her out of the conversation.

We got a fan question from a lot of people.

Gina S in Iowa, Meredith in Sacramento, Lauren from Peoria, Illinois, who all said, Jenna had to leave the show temporarily for maternity leave, but it has always bothered me that Pam disappears with no fanfare.

It seems like Jim would have been more excited to share the birth of their second child or the story of the delivery or maybe how mom and baby are doing.

Something.

There's nothing.

Was there a writing decision to not focus on this part of their lives?

I really would have loved to see more of Jim acknowledging the addition to his family in this episode.

Well, first of all, Steve Burgess reminded me that my son was born the Saturday before we started filming this episode.

Aw, yeah.

And as I was watching this episode, I too was surprised that Pam had given birth and we do not mention it at all.

So I asked Charlie Grandi about it.

He was the director of this episode, but he's a longtime writer.

And Charlie said this: It is weird that we spend more time learning about Oscar's dog in a ladle than Jim and Pam's baby.

I can't remember what the thinking was, but being a second child myself, I can attest to the fact that we just don't get the same amount of attention.

All we can hope is that the second child of theirs is now 12 and turning toward comedy as a desperate way to to finally be seen.

You know, there was also an Aaron talking head that would have followed this scene.

That is absolutely delicious.

I saw it in the shooting draft.

She is really struggling with the fact that they were freezing Susan out of this conversation.

And here's what she would have said.

It made me laugh.

You don't keep a puppy picture from a nice lady.

I feel sick.

And it was that type of ladle.

There you go.

I just like it that you don't keep a puppy picture from a nice lady.

Yeah, I think the whole office was struggling because they liked her.

Andy had a talking head that was in the shooting draft that didn't make it where he said, please, please, just somebody piss off the nice lady.

Yes, exactly.

Well, Susan's going to have a talking head where she says, you know what?

I get it.

The last time I had a job, I hated the boss's wife, too.

Of course, she was married to Robert.

Wow.

Susan, a little scandalous.

Now she's going to go confide to her husband that she doesn't think anyone here really likes her.

He's like, we will do something about this right away.

Again, Robert, you're overselling.

You're overselling this.

He's like, Andy, get in here.

And then he excuses himself.

He's like, not going to stick around for the conversation.

Andy, fix it.

And Susan is going to get Andy to reveal that maybe,

maybe,

there's something more going on here.

Andy is no match for Susan.

No.

She is just watching him and observing quietly and figuring it all out.

And Andy cannot hide his truth.

We're going to get our first glimpse now of Dwight's newfangled gym with all the real equipment.

His gym for muscles is really nice.

I remember this gym.

At one point, I remember the writers got a treadmill.

I remember that.

It was in their writer's trailer, and I would go in there and I would walk on that treadmill.

Me too.

The treadmill that you see in Dwight's gym Gym is the one, they took it from the writer's trailer.

Steve Burgess said, yeah, that was the writer's trailer treadmill.

And after this episode, we got to keep almost all of that equipment.

And we finally had a gym.

Dwight's Gym for Muscles became the cast and crew gym.

Finally, after eight years.

I never used it a single time.

Did you ever use it?

Yes.

I used to walk on the treadmill all the time.

No, I walked on the treadmill, but all the weights and all that stuff.

I used the weights.

You did?

I did.

Yeah, because I do like weights.

Yeah, I didn't do any of that.

I did love Dwight trying to motivate Daryl to work out.

And Daryl was like, I was just on the treadmill for 35 minutes.

And Dwight goes, no, you weren't.

I timed it.

It was eight minutes.

That rang so true to me because I feel like I get on the treadmill for five minutes.

I'm like, oh,

I've been here forever.

Yeah.

I really wish like podcasts were around back then because I feel like I would have worked out so much more if I could have listened to a podcast.

I used to have like playlists.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh my gosh, do you think anyone is working out?

Are we keeping you company on a treadmill somewhere?

If you are working out right now.

You can do it.

You got it.

Keep going.

Yes.

And in the words of Dwight from this episode, bring that same buffalo wing passion to this gym.

You can do it.

That's right.

You're getting healthy.

Way to go.

That's a good little pep talk.

That's pep talk.

All right.

Well, Robert is going to return and he finds Andy and and Susan still in the conference room.

And Susan's going to say, hey, you know what?

Turns out I'm not going to be working here after all.

And then she basically says, you know what?

Andy kind of let me in on it.

I'm up to speed.

And Robert's like,

what are you talking about?

You know, and Andy says, hey, I don't want to get caught in the middle of this marital issue.

And Robert's like, Andy, be honest, okay?

Whatever you're trying to do right now, Andy, whatever this privacy thing is you're trying to do, we don't need it.

Just be honest.

No games.

And Andy's like, no games?

No games.

Be honest.

So Andy's like, okay, here's everything that happened.

He came running in.

He banged on the window.

He said, don't give her a job, blah, blah, blah.

And Robert's like, you son of a bitch, you liar.

You are a liar.

Say you're lying.

So Andy's like, listen, the person who knows everything, who was there when it happened is Jim.

Jim knows the whole truth.

Well, Jim hears this and he has to get out of Dodge.

It made me laugh when Robert goes, wait, where's Jim?

And Aaron goes, he, he, um, like crawled out.

He like rolled and then crawled and scooched.

So Charlie Grandi said that they really needed something new for this storyline to happen in act three.

So They came up with this storyline of Jim needing to escape.

They thought it would be a really great way to inject some kind of silly physical comedy into the script and also relieve some of the tension.

Yeah.

Because now they're going to have to go as a group and find Jim.

I loved when he dropped his shoe as he was climbing up the side of the building and he goes, ow, ow, ow, because you know that little metal bar on your bare foot climbing would hurt.

Yes.

We got a fan question from Maddie in Arkansas who said, did Jim really climb that ladder to the top of the building?

It feels like a major stunt that would definitely require a safety meeting.

Also, how did they make his shoe fall off just right?

Well, Charlie Grandi said that shooting Jim on the ladder and then on the roof was absolutely nerve-wracking, especially on the ladder and when he had to drop the shoe because he did not think that John was harnessed in.

He does not look harnessed in.

He looks like he's just climbing the ladder.

Steve Burgess said that he thinks we did have a safety harness on John and we removed the wire in post.

Well, let's stick with that story.

And Steve said we did have several safety meetings about it.

We had just changed stunt coordinators.

Our new stunt coordinator was Brett Jones starting with this episode.

And the whole shoe thing was just John.

He just kicked it off and it was perfect.

And we only had to do one take.

He said John was completely safe the whole time.

It just looked a lot more dangerous than it really was.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Well, you know, when Jim gets to the roof, Creed is up there.

Yeah, he's flying his helicopter.

We had a fan question from Brent D in Virginia.

In a webisode from three years earlier, Creed Creed was shown shopping for a helicopter on his work PC.

He had blackmailed his coworkers for the funds, and supposedly he was going to, quote, fly it down to Brazil, down to the Amazon in search of the world's largest bookstore.

Brett said, on its own and without any prior setup, Creed's rooftop pastime just seems like another one of his many quirky eccentricities.

Was that the intent, or was this a callback on the writer's part?

Brett, this was an amazing callback, and I love that you spotted it.

Yeah, great catch.

I guess Dwight's a personal trainer now.

Apparently, he's going to show you how to do a pelvic bowl.

Daryl's not into it, but Gabe right away is like, hey, nice pelvic bowl.

So, like I said, the gym storyline is a lot bigger.

Here are the office coworkers that join Dwight's gym for muscles.

In addition to Daryl, Kathy, Erin, Oscar, Gabe, and Meredith all join.

And you see them working out.

Oh, yeah.

There's some really funny scenes.

And as it turns out, you know, we find out why Daryl wants to be at the gym.

He finally admits he wants to look good for Val.

Yes.

Of course, Dwight thinks this is Val Kilmer.

Well, you know, we had a really great fan catch from Jenny B in Ontario, Canada who says, is it just me or is Gabe running backwards on the elliptical machine?

Yes, he is.

I looked at his feet and he's going in the reverse order.

He's not going forward.

He's going backwards.

Well, Susan and Robert's storyline is going to wrap up back in the conference room.

They're now in there with Andy and Jim, and Susan very pointedly says to Jim, is this all true?

Does Robert not want me to work here?

Answer the question.

And Jim kind of gives a long speech about how he works with his wife, and he loves working with his wife, and he wishes she were here.

And the more he talks, the more apparent it is how true that is for Jim and how untrue it is for Robert.

Yes.

We don't see exactly how Robert and Susan are going to resolve this within their marriage, but it is clear that Susan is not going to work there and she goes down to the parking lot with Andy.

And then she sort of hits on him.

That sort of.

To me, it implied that she doesn't think things with Robert are working out because she says when all of this settles down, it's a date.

Yeah.

We really hit it off, I think.

Yeah.

Fan mail flurry.

I bet.

People wanted to know, was there any plan to continue the Andy Mrs.

California storyline?

Well, Charlie Grandi said he thinks there was, but he's not really sure what happened to that arc because he had to leave the office immediately after shooting this episode.

He said that while we were shooting the Act II conference room scene with Andy, Susan, and Robert, he got a phone call and he learned that a pilot he had written was going to get made like next week and he had to leave the show.

So he was really bummed, but he was also super happy that he got to direct this episode before he left.

Wow.

But he's not sure.

He said, yes, there were some plans to maybe keep Maura in the mix.

Yeah, I kind of know what happened.

I sort of remember that Scuttle, but we all loved working with her and she was so great in the episode.

And I remember after this episode aired, everyone being like, ooh.

So I'm sad we didn't get to see a date between those two.

Well, Andy has been seeing someone now for 31 dates.

Yeah.

We never meet that person either.

Nope.

Well, that is Mrs.

California, everybody.

A big thank you to Steve Burgess and Charlie Grandi and all of you for sending in your questions.

Seriously, your questions are so good.

Your background catches are amazing.

I feel like we dig into the episode and then you guys will write in and say something and I'm like, oh my gosh.

I know.

So good.

It's really a team effort.

It really is.

We love you guys.

And if you're on a treadmill right now, it's been more than eight minutes.

You did do it.

You did it.

You did it.

Way to go.

We'll see you next week.

Bye.

Thank you for listening to Office Ladies.

Office Ladies is produced by Earwolf, Jenna Fisher, and Angela Kinsey.

Our senior producer is Cassie Jerkins.

Our in-studio engineer is Sam Kiefer.

Our editing and mixing engineer is Jordan Duffy.

And our associate producer is Ainsley Bubbico.

Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.

For ad-free versions of Office Ladies, go to stitcherpremium.com.

For a free one-month trial of Stitcher Premium, use code Office.

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