Pam’s Replacement

1h 8m
This week we’re breaking down “Pam’s Replacement”. Pam is getting ready to go on maternity leave but starts to feel insecure that Jim may be attracted to her temp replacement Cathy, played by Lindsey Broad. In the warehouse, Robert California discovers Andy, Darryl and Kevin’s band, Kevin and the Zits, and takes over. Jenna shares a scene she could not get through with Mindy and Rainn and Mindy Kaling sends in a clip about it too. Angela points out Steve Moore, the Mad Drummer, who replaces Kevin on drums, and Rainn Wilson sends in a clip about Dwight grabbing Jim’s crotch. There’s a lot happening in this episode so enjoy it before Creed figures out where he got that long triangle.

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Transcript

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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 offs ladies.

Hello.

Hi.

Hello in person.

Hello in person.

How wonderful is this?

I know.

It's been a long time.

I'm an in-person person.

You are very much an in-person person.

I like to see you.

I like to hug you.

I want to talk to you.

I want to look at your hair.

I want to check out your outfit.

I want to see you.

Well, here are

a little box of you.

We've been on Zoom for months because of my broken shoulder.

And now here we are back in our little studio with Sam and Cassie out there.

And it's really nice to be all together in person.

I'm very excited about it.

My shoulder is still very broken.

Still very broken.

Still healing.

You're balancing

your pillow.

You have your ice pack.

Yeah.

And we're here.

It's great.

And this is a huge episode for your character.

It is.

So I'm actually especially excited to be in person because this episode, oh my gosh, it brought back so many memories.

I've got a lot of stories.

Well, let's get into it.

Here's what we're talking about today.

It is Pam's Replacement, Season 8, Episode 7, written by Allison Silverman and directed by Matt Sohn.

Here's a summary.

Frustrated that people are coddling her because she's pregnant, Pam and Dwight go to great lengths to get Jim to admit that he finds Kathy, her temporary replacement, attractive.

Meanwhile, Kevin and the Zits invite Robert California to join their jam session, but they are upstaged when Robert and his former bandmates take over.

Why would Kevin want his band to be called Kevin and the Zits?

Who thinks the word Zit sounds appealing or fun?

I mean, why would Daryl and Andy want it to be called that?

There is it.

Well, I don't think they do.

Fast fact number one, big guest star Arc Alert, Lindsay Broad as Kathy.

Yes.

We got a fan question from Michaela in Utah who said, I want to know everything about Lindsay Broad as she is introduced in this episode.

Yes, Michaela, Lindsay is Pam's replacement.

And she appears in 12 episodes this season.

I slid into her DMs.

And she is going to come on office ladies for our Tallahassee episode.

Oh my gosh, that's a big one for Kathy.

I know.

That's going to be so great.

I can't wait to talk to her all about it.

Well, I didn't get to work with her a lot because the majority of her time was when Pam was on maternity leave, but I thought she was fantastic.

I mean, she's so good in this episode.

And then I remember she's also a very nice person.

So.

Well, my memory of Lindsay is that she just joined the show like seamless.

She was amazing, cute as a button.

And you know what?

I mean, I have to think that if she was my replacement, I might be like, oh, well, that's a very adorable,

beautiful gal that's going to be sitting next to my husband.

Well, that leads me very well into Fast Fact Number Two, Angela.

Okay.

This episode was written by Allison Silverman-Jones.

Allison was a new writer with us this season, and this was her first episode that she wrote.

Allison is amazing.

I absolutely loved her.

And, you know, after the office, she went on to be the executive producer of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, At Home with Amy Sederis, and Russian Doll.

I mean, she's a badass.

Yes.

Before coming to the office, she wrote on The Daily Show.

She also wrote on Portlandia.

She's very funny.

And when she was writing this episode, she was pregnant.

That's right.

I was very excited because I was the first pregnant cast member, right?

And then you, and then finally we had a pregnant woman in the writer's room.

Yes.

She was the first female writer to then also be a parent.

That's right.

So we had a lot of dads in the writer's room.

Yes, we did.

This was our first mom.

Mm-hmm.

Well, we had a fan question from Ashley Kaye in Missouri who said, I have been waiting for this episode to ask Jenna this question.

In these episodes, Pam and Jenna are both pregnant, and I feel like some of the jokes are a little insensitive.

I was super emotional when pregnant, and I'm not an actor, but did Jenna ever get her feelings hurt by some of the jokes about her pregnancy?

I'll tell you what, Ashley, I did not.

I thought that this episode was so well written and so beautifully highlighted some of those insecurities that you might have and actually

speaking honestly about them, which is really what Pam wants in this episode when everybody is just,

you know, feeding her a bunch of ball, she knows it.

And she's like, no, I, we can just talk about me.

I'm a, I'm still like a person who is in reality.

You know, Jenna, I saw this great comment after our rewatch of the list aired that I've been wanting to share with you.

And I thought this episode was perfect to tell you.

There was the photo of Angela Martin and Pam side by side, the Big Prags, Little Prags, right?

Right.

And this woman wrote underneath it and said, you know what this is to me?

It's not Big Pregs Little Pregs.

It's real life pregnant versus fake TV pregnant.

And I thought that was great because, like you said, we're seeing a real pregnancy shown.

You know, my pregnancy was not shown.

They got really creative in hiding it.

But I thought this was so great to see a real woman really pregnant.

And Allison and I talked about that.

You know, one of the great things about having a person who was pregnant write this episode was that we got it.

Yeah.

You know, so talk about representation in the writer's room.

You're not in that club till you're in that club and then you're like, oh, this club.

Yes.

Yeah.

So I'll talk a little more specifically about some of the scenes that I found especially awesome as we get to them.

But overall, my feelings were not hurt by anything that was said.

And I loved this episode.

And now, fast fact number three, we've got some office ladies' business.

And do you want to kick it off?

Yes, I will.

Okay, we had such a blast breaking down the movie's speed a while back and you all were so supportive.

It got us thinking that, you know, we're pulling into our final stretch here of office episodes.

We are.

I mean, it's just, I can't even believe it.

I know.

And we love being here on Wednesdays.

We love talking with you guys and hanging out.

And we want to keep going after the rewatch ends.

We do.

So we are brainstorming a lot of fun stuff.

We're going to see, you know, what we can sprinkle in here and there as bonus content as we make a plan for office ladies phase two.

two.

And Cassie's friend and coworker, Emma Dylan, had such a great idea.

We can't wait to share it with you.

We want to do an episode where we hear from you about your office life.

Yeah, here's the idea.

We're very excited.

Do you need advice about your work life, office situations, or workmates?

Because listen, we want to help you out.

We are not experts by any means.

Nope, nope.

We are two ladies who love to give our thoughts on your office predicaments.

We would love to chat about it.

So we have set up a folder over on office ladies.com called Dear Office Ladies, where you can send in your office work-life advice questions, and we'll go through it and we'll pick a few for an upcoming episode.

And, you know, remember, we're not.

office experts.

We do have a few years of real office work and a few years of fake office work under our belt.

So this will be a very fun, light-hearted episode where we just chat about what's happening at your office.

That's right.

Angela Angela will put a link to the Dear Office Ladies folder in our pod stories so you can check that out or go to officeladies.com and you'll find it there.

Yeah, write us.

Well, that takes care of the summary and fast facts.

We've got a lot to cover.

Before we jump into this episode, I do want you to know a little piece of digital clutter.

Okay.

Yes.

So I went through all my emails the week we filmed this and I had an email from you, Jenna.

What was it about?

You emailed me and said, and look, my nursery is done.

I love it so much.

Yay.

You put four photos of your finished nursery.

You were ready.

And it was so beautiful.

You had a mural, you know, like sort of like the forest animals.

And that's what we were emailing about.

You were so, so happy that your nursery was done and you were ready.

It was really hard for me when we moved away from that house because of the mural.

Yes.

That, you know, we had painstakingly done in the nursery.

And I just, oh, I loved the vibe.

It was soothing.

So soothing.

The color of the paint on the wall was this blue that I've never, I should have saved the little like taken a chip of it or something.

Because I loved it.

Well, that's what we were emailing about.

Oh.

Oh, thanks for bringing that back, Ange.

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

And when we get back, we have a cringola of a cold open.

I want to just say something.

This might be a bold statement.

I think now the character that makes me sometimes the most uncomfortable is Erin.

Yeah, she's taken over where Michael left off.

Maybe so.

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This episode starts with Andy.

He's running up to front reception.

He's going to say, Aaron, listen, in two minutes, I want you to pretend to call me.

Say it's an important call, but I am not going to take the call because I want this client who I'm meeting with to know how important he is.

So I won't take the important call.

She's immediately confused.

Yeah.

She says, who's calling?

He's like, there's no one.

No one's calling.

And she goes, but you're not going to take it.

He's like, oh my God.

Andy, I'm like, Andy, right away, you should bail on this right away.

They spend a lot of time going back and forth until Aaron gets it.

I was actually impressed that we stayed on this for so long.

It made it even funnier.

It's hilarious, but if you're Andy, you're like, how many red flags do you need before you know this is not going to work?

Well, it's not going to work.

Andy starts his meeting with the client played by Dave Anthony.

He is a comedian, podcaster, and writer on the series Marin and also on Deadly Class.

Aaron's going to come in.

Yeah.

Andy, you have a phone call.

It's very important.

He's like, well, I'm not going to take it.

I'm with an important client.

Nothing's more important than my client.

That's right.

And then she says, well, your mom's dead.

She was hit by a bus.

He's like, she's not really dead.

Yeah, yeah, she's dead.

Well, that little look that Ellie gives to camera after she says, your mom is dead, was scripted.

It's wonderful.

Andy really doesn't know what to do.

And then he gets a phone call from a state trooper who is Daryl.

She has gotten Daryl in on it.

She has

gotten in on it.

And then I loved when she's like, you should take the call.

And he's like, fine.

Line one.

She goes, no, line two.

I don't know why.

He's like, of course.

And then Daryl's like, man, this is a bad idea.

What are you doing?

We had a great fan catch from Lee B in Waterton, Wisconsin, who said, phone-related fan catches.

At 41 seconds, you can see over Andy's shoulder that the Cisco phone he's using is not connected.

The screen is blank.

Oh.

If the phone was connected, even if the receiver isn't being used, there's always some text on the phone.

And I did notice that the next time we see Andy's phone, which is at one minutes and 51 seconds, the screen is lit up.

Yeah, because I saw that.

I missed the first one.

Good catch.

So this cold open is going to end with a very cringy moment with Andy talking to the state trooper about his mother who's been hit by a bus.

And her last words to him was,

don't let your client down.

What was it?

It was so cringy.

Yeah, it was.

Oh my gosh.

It was basically like

still paper.

My dying wish was,

give your client a great deal.

A great deal.

Cringe.

Yes, very cringe.

The next scene is going to introduce us to Pam's temporary replacement, Kathy.

Mm-hmm.

And I have to point out something has nothing to do with this scene.

What is it?

Two minutes, 49 seconds.

What the heck is the pink stuffed animal at front reception?

There's a new random pink stuffed animal.

There is a new random pink stuffed animal.

I tried to zoom in on it.

I can't tell what it is.

If anyone else spotted it, will you let me know what you think it is?

Lady, there's a new stuffed animal at Kelly's desk later in this episode.

What happened?

I'm raining stuffed animals.

I think the prop people got some new stuff.

I spotted so many little props in this episode.

I think they maybe went to Scranton and had just returned.

A bunch of stuff.

I've got more things to notice.

Okay.

Okay.

Well, Pam is going to get her chair back and it squeaks.

When she sits in it.

Yes.

And she's like, oh, well.

And she's got a great joke where she says, listen, I make worse sounds than that.

And then Dwight's like, we know.

This cracked me up because I feel like that moment, remember that movie, The Money Pit, where they're having so much done to their house.

And then she goes to open the medicine cabinet.

And when she does, there's a like construction worker on the other side and he goes, you're out of your birth control pills.

Yeah.

I feel like Dwight's somehow being in this clump with Pam and Jim, that he's become really familiar with Pam's pregnancy in a way that you normally wouldn't.

That is such a great analogy.

I love that.

We had a fan question from Carrie S.

in Chicago who said, I have never understood why Kathy was hired in the first place.

They lasted seven years without an office administrator.

How come they couldn't survive three months without Pam?

I had the same thought.

I have an answer.

You do?

Yes.

They survived without an office administrator because Pam was receptionist.

And she she covered it all.

Yes.

Okay.

And now, I'm sorry, but the receptionist we currently have

doesn't know how to run the fax machine.

Yes, exactly.

So this is why Pam needs a replacement.

Okay.

We can't leave it to Erin.

I'm sorry we can't.

All right.

I can buy that.

Ryan is in rare form in this episode.

I'm going to point out a few things, but let's just start with the fact that he's lingering at front reception basically to check out Kathy.

Yeah.

And he wants to know if Kathy is single.

And Jim, just sort of off the cuff, casually says, I doubt it.

And Pam zero ins on that.

It's like, bippy, bibby.

She's like, why, why do you doubt it?

Why would you say you doubt?

I mean, you were like, I doubt it.

And he's like, hey, pump the brakes.

I just thought maybe we could save her from Ryan.

And Pam accepts that.

Yeah.

She's like, okay, fine.

Done.

Yeah, that makes sense.

The next scene is Andy delivering Daryl his lunch from the fridge, hoping that he'll eat at his desk so that they can play some music.

Yeah.

Later.

Did you see the lunch bag?

You know I did, Ange.

Do you want to tell everyone what it said?

Three minutes, 55 seconds, Garrity's bag for Daryl's lunch, local grocery store in Scranton.

We've talked all about it.

We know their whole family history.

I was curious what the lunch menu is there.

Well, they've got that amazing, like, deli buffet.

I know.

I went on the website and I was curious.

You know, they do a dinner of the day.

They also do a soup of the week.

Just so you guys know, this week's soup is meatball parmesan.

So if you're in the area.

Sounds good.

I know.

We're going to swing over to Kevin's desk because, you know, he's in the band.

And when we do that, four minutes, 13 seconds, you've got a Wegman soda.

I'm telling you, Phil Shea went to Scranton.

He went to Scranton and he came back.

Or someone sent a huge box of stuff.

Kevin is drumming his takeout container with the drumsticks that he's eating.

I just love that.

I thought that was so funny.

The rest of the office is a buzz with chatter about Kathy.

They're all in the break room.

No one's having lunch.

Everyone is having a snack.

Some people have snacks.

I broke it down.

Oh, you did?

I have a food breakdown.

First of all.

I'm sorry.

Look at my paper.

Oh, look at us, same brain.

Food breakdown.

Well, first of all, did you notice all the Wegman sodas?

There's a table of people drinking beverages, and then there's a table of people eating.

Yes.

Phyllis, Gabe, Toby, and Dwight all have a snack.

Everyone else has a Wegman soda.

Except for Ryan, who has a blue mug that looks exactly like our eater mug.

That's what I thought, too.

I saw it too.

Hurry to blow out your eardrums.

I was like, wait, that looks just like our mug.

That is crazy.

Do you want to say what everyone was eating?

Because I found the food odd.

Phyllis is eating giant green grapes.

Gabe is eating blueberries and strawberries.

Yeah, it looks like it's all berries.

Dwight has what I think is maybe some of his homemade granola.

That's what it looked like to me.

And does Toby have three packaged cookies?

Yes.

Yes.

There's also one more odd thing about this scene.

We got this from Brandon R.

in Illinois.

Is there a reason why Dwight is reading an untitled blank book?

Was it because you could not get the rights to show a book?

I looked closer and it is.

There is no cover.

There is no title.

It's blank.

I asked Steve Burgess about it.

He says he does not know why this was the case, but it was not scripted that Dwight would be reading a book.

So it might have been a last-minute idea.

And to avoid any problems with clearance, Phil Shea probably gave him a book with no cover or title.

Hello.

Look at me right now.

Look at my face.

What?

What is this face saying?

You deep dived blank books?

No.

I don't know.

What is it saying?

This face is saying, I have a theory.

Oh.

Because I did so many scenes with Rain.

The minute I watched this scene, I was like, I guarantee you, Rain was like, I need a prop.

I'm telling you, the man loves a prop.

He loves a prop.

And I bet he was like, Phil, I should be reading something.

Phil, I should be reading something.

I should be doing something in the corner.

And Phil probably grabbed that book.

Well, I'll say, if you go to five minutes and 26 seconds, there are words in the book.

Remember in Garden Party when Jim was reading from a literal blank book by James Trickington?

okay, this is a real book.

It just doesn't have anything on the front.

I guarantee you, Rain just wanted a prop.

I mean, you know, I used to call him Carrot Top.

Yes.

Because he loved a prop.

He loved a prop.

Well, let's talk about what's actually being discussed in this scene now.

Now that we've told you what everyone's eating and reading,

everyone is talking about how great it is to have just like a healthy, young, fit presence in the middle of the office.

That's what Toby said.

It's so random.

I'm like, what is Toby saying?

Yeah.

So Pam's at the vending machine.

She turns around and she says, yeah, it'll be really nice to have someone hot at Pam's desk again.

But she's kidding.

She's just, she really is kidding.

Yeah.

Like she is not at all upset about this.

But then everybody starts jumping in with all this random weird stuff.

Well, they

overcorrect thinking they need to make her feel better.

Right.

And they're saying things like, no, no, no, pregnant women women are hot.

And then, of course, Gabe is like, you know, it's a fetish, you know, and then they're like, there's other people that don't get their due, not just pregnant women.

And then for somehow, Helen Mirren's name gets thrown out there.

And then pregnant Helen Mirren, this conversation.

Pregnant Helen Mirren is the sexiest thing

could you imagine is what they say.

The conversation is going off the rails and Dwight can't take it anymore.

He snaps, he stops reading his book and he says, no, there are universal biological standards of beauty and attraction and you are purposefully celebrating the opposite of them to mollycoddle a pregnant woman i didn't know what mollycoddle was

did you it sounds like just a longer version of the word coddle right which means like to take care of pamper kind of yes well i looked it up oh what is molly coddle mollin coddle

mollycoddle

y c o d l e mollycoddle molly coddle according to merri-webster to mollycoddle someone is to treat them with an excessive or absurd degree of indulgence and attention.

Oh, well, they are definitely mollycoddling her.

I think so.

It's interesting that that was the thing that got your attention in this scene and the thing you decided to Google, because the thing I decided to Google is if having sex while pregnant is really one of the most common fetishes.

Oh, I thought about Googling that, and I didn't want to see where the internet took me.

You made the right choice.

Okay.

Here's all I'm going to say.

Of Of the 25 most common fetishes listed in an article by Men's Health, sex while pregnant or sex with a pregnant woman was not one of them.

So, Gabe, you are really molly-coddling Pam here.

Well, he also thinks the way to get a girlfriend is to get her a drug dealer or something.

I don't know.

Gabe, come on.

Yeah.

I was also curious if Helen Marin's real name was Helen Maranoff when she was born.

And once again, Dwight was correct.

Dwight was correct.

Gabe was wrong.

Yes.

Well, now we're going going to go down to the warehouse.

And Andy and Daryl and Kevin are just finishing up their song.

Oh, they sound good.

Yeah.

Val likes it.

I know.

But Robert is walking down the stairs and is like, hey, can I join?

Yeah, fakey stairs.

Faky stairs.

That door went nowhere.

Door went nowhere.

When he says, can I join?

Daryl, Kevin, and Andy are so excited.

I think they have the giddiest talking head, maybe,

in the office history.

I mean, literally, Daryl is like holding, like, going with his fists, like,

and they're all giggly.

Here's what they say: they had given up on hanging out with Robert California, but now he wants to be in their band.

And bands, you know, they get bonded for life, even if it's tragically short, but it's still great, right?

And they're all like, yeah, gotta go sometime.

They are so excited about this.

Back upstairs, meanwhile.

This molly coddling in the break room has gotten into Pam's head.

Yeah.

So Pam's going to ask Jim, what does he think of Helen Mirren?

Hmm.

And does he find Kathy attractive?

I mean, just objectively.

Does he find her objectively attracted?

Not are you attracted to her, but like,

just like objectively.

If you are Jim right now, what are you thinking?

What is going through your mind?

Jim is sweating.

Yeah.

He does a very smooth job.

He's clearly, he knows his wife.

Yeah.

He's doing very well

so far.

This is not his first rodeo with her in a pregnancy.

That's right.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

We got a lot of fan mail about Jim's predicament and Jim's choices.

Here is just one from Sarah F.

in Dallas, Texas.

Do y'all, she wrote y'all, I love you, Sarah.

Okay, do y'all think Jim's being a bit of a jerk in this episode by lying to Pam?

I can't decide whether or not I support this choice.

Here's what I'm going to say, Sarah.

Do it.

I think you have to know who you're married to.

You know what I'm saying?

Yeah, every comic knows their audience.

You know what bits you can do, what bits probably aren't appropriate, depending on the crowd.

And if you know them well, you know what they need.

And I'm not saying lie to your person.

You know, I disagree with that.

I disagree with outright lying.

Well, yeah.

But I guess

I do support Jim's choices choices here.

I think that Pam doesn't need to hear about Jim's objective, attractive thoughts about this young woman one week before she has a baby.

I like that he's like, I guess, but like, I love you because he's not lying when he says I love you.

He loves her.

It doesn't matter.

That could have been something.

You know what?

It doesn't matter.

Right.

If I walk through the world and find other people attractive because I'm with you and that's where I want you.

And I chose to be with you and that might have been the better answer.

That's how I saw it.

I saw it as it doesn't matter and she's a week away from having our baby and that brings with it so many feelings and emotions and she's fixated on this thing that she might spiral on.

But in the end, I just want her to know I love her and I want to be with her and I choose you and really nothing else matters.

I think he could have solved it right here if he had just said something more like that.

Yeah.

If he had just said, it doesn't matter.

She's attractive, but it doesn't matter if she's attractive or anyone else is attractive because the person I want to be with is you.

Yeah.

But to sort of imply that you are never going to find another person attractive is ludicrous.

Yes.

And then that is sort of, yeah, it kind of like insults your partner's intelligence.

I think so.

I think so.

I think, you know, in the world, there's a lot of people that you are going to meet and think are attractive or even maybe have a chemistry with in a way, but none of it really resonates to you at all it doesn't matter when you're with your person it doesn't matter yeah

that's right that's the right answer right yeah

i pick you so it doesn't matter i pick you today and every day oh that's what he should have said oh

that's what he says at the very end i know i know all right right now he's deer in headlights he's like what is happening why is she asking me about hill and marin and then doing a hard pivot to kathy what's going on?

Well, Jim's going to get up and walk away.

So Pam's going to ask Dwight.

Yeah.

And she's going to finally get an honest answer.

And this scene made me laugh so hard when we were doing it.

It was so amazing.

I absolutely loved this.

I don't know why.

It was just like.

I love the Pam-Dwight relationship.

And I do too.

I do too.

And this was just all of it.

Well, Pam's talking head really spoke to as a woman who has had a baby.

She said, the thing about pregnancy is people treat you differently.

Like you're a kid almost.

They lose all sense of boundaries.

They start acting weird, telling you things that clearly aren't true.

I know it sounds nuts, but I think Dwight is the only one who's telling me the truth.

I went to the internet because I know some of my experiences being pregnant, and I was curious what were some of the most annoying things you can do to a pregnant woman, according to the internet and a bunch of surveys.

Okay.

And Lady Dundra Mifflin has done almost all of these things to Pam.

Oh no.

Ready?

Touch her tummy without asking.

Asking.

Touch the baby bump.

Question everything you do.

What are you eating?

Hi.

When Angela Martin is like, I'm sorry, but I've reported you because you drank a mug with traces of caffeine on it.

Criticize your chosen baby name.

Oh boy.

I think you mean Angela has done all these things.

Maybe.

Being told you are huge or tiny,

either one.

And sharing your labor stories without being asked

that's amazing all those things happened to me when I was pregnant me too well Pam is gonna ask Dwight do you think Jim is lying to me and Dwight's like I know he's lying and Pam's like right

he is attracted to Kathy and she says I'll give you $5 if you can get him to admit it So they're going to team up.

They're going to go in the break room to discuss the ground rules for this mission.

Did you notice it was staged like a Doangela scene?

I did.

That was not scripted.

When we got in there, that was Rain's idea because this is when he's on a mission or when he's like incognito.

Yes.

I was very curious, Jenna, about why you think Pam decided to do this with Dwight.

Like, why does she want to have Jim do this test and jump through these hoops?

Why does she need him to admit it?

I think think because ultimately the thing that she values the most in her relationship with Jim is honesty.

And she just wants him to admit it.

Yeah.

She doesn't even care.

She's not threatened by Kathy.

She's not jealous and she doesn't think Jim is going to cheat on her or any of those things.

And because of that, she needs Jim to just admit it.

Yeah.

I think that's why.

Okay.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Somehow they're going to get Kelly involved.

Well, that tracks, doesn't it?

Because if anyone would have have taken a gazillion, like, how to know if he's lying test or all of those kind of things on the internet, it would have been Kelly.

Yeah.

She suggests that they do a matchmaker test.

She says, you say that you want to set Kathy up with one of his friends, and then based on who he recommends, you can see how attractive he thinks she is.

That made sense to me.

It made sense to me, too.

We had a really fun fan catch in this scene from Rory S.

in Australia.

Hi, office ladies.

My name is Rory, and I'm 12 years old.

I have read The Office BFFs, The Actor's Life, and Bassoon King.

I'm a big fan.

Rory, you're a big fan and a reader and that is so lovely.

In this episode, I noticed that Kelly decorated her saber water bottle with sequin gems and I just thought it was such a terrific little detail.

I love you both and even though we've never met, you're my best friends in the world.

Aw, Rory, I love that.

And I caught her water bottle too.

It's very bedazzled.

It's so her.

It's so her.

I actually love Kelly's whole desk area, her little Kelly's Nook sign.

Mm-hmm.

I noticed two more things on her desk as well.

This is the random stuffed animal.

Yes.

Stuffed fish.

I know.

Has appeared by her computer monitor.

And I have not noticed this before.

But there's a second name plate behind her Kelly nameplate that says minority executive trainee.

Has that always been there?

I feel like things got rearranged on desktop.

They did.

They did.

But she was so proud that she was able to do that program.

It makes sense that she would now have two nameplates.

Yes.

Well, lady, I could use a break.

I might need to do a little ice.

We'll take a break.

We have some office ladies' belated birthday fun stuff to do.

And when we get back to the episode, Kevin and the Zits are going to be jamming out with Robert and his pals.

There is nothing worse than not having the tools to make impactful work.

For me, that is usually due to my lack of technical know-how.

I don't know how to

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But Canva can make that a lot easier.

You can put all your workflow in one place, starting with the presentation.

Then you could like add in a whiteboard, you could drop in a video.

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So rather than like having to chase people down with multiple email threads, you can have real-time collaboration.

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So whether you work in a team of two, like me and Angela, or a team of 2,000, Canva lets you bring your big ideas to life as fast as you can think of them.

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We are back.

I'm going to put in Office Ladies Pod stories the random gifts that we got Cassie and Sam this year.

So it's been a while since we've all been able to be together.

Their birthdays were in April.

I know.

It is never too late late for a birthday.

I stand by that.

It's never too late to celebrate.

I'm really glad you said that, Angela, because it is never too late to celebrate.

If you see your friend six months after their birthday, you can still bring them a birthday gift.

Yes.

You taught me that.

Yes.

This is Angela.

Angela is our birthday coordinator.

President of PPPs.

That's a very kind.

She keeps track of the birthdays.

She makes sure everyone gets celebrated.

I think it's a beautiful thing.

And I'm glad you did it, Ange.

Thank you.

I really am the head of the PPC.

I'm just not as grumpy as the lady that planned them on the office.

Well, Jenna, I bet you have some great guest star breakdowns for us because we're about to meet a few musicians.

I do, and they're really fun.

Kevin and the Zits are playing with Robert California.

He's playing Harmonica.

First of all, Steve Burgess said that James Spader can really play harmonica.

It looked like he was really playing it.

Well, that's why they picked it for him.

But he said that they were also all playing music live.

This was not playback.

And they did have an actual harmonica player off camera.

That's the harmonica you hear.

But because James Spader can play, he was able to mimic it very, very well.

Because, you know, also, Brian Baumgartner does not play drums.

No.

So we had a little faky harmonica and a little faky drums, but James really sells it.

Well, this is probably the happiest you'll ever see Andy, Daryl, and Kevin because Robert's just hanging with them.

But it doesn't last long because who comes through the door but Robert's friends who are in an actual band.

Yeah, and they kind of start taking over.

Kind of.

Here's who we have.

On keyboards and vocals, we have Robin Swenson.

Robin is a professional musician who toured and recorded as a member of Frankie Valley in the Four Seasons, Air Supply, Helen Reddy, and others.

Yeah.

And then on Electric Guitar is Linda Taylor.

She was a regular on Whose Line Is It Anyway?

She played the guitar.

I went back and watched some of her episodes.

Me too.

And next up is our drummer who was played by Steve Moore.

We got a fan question from Justin H.

in Buffalo, New York, who said, Can you please tell us how Steve Moore ended up playing drums for Robert California's band?

He's a wild drummer, and I want to know if you had any interactions with him.

Well, as you're going to see in the tag of this episode, he is a wild drummer.

He's got a a lot of arm flare and stick flips and all of it.

And that is how he got his job on the office.

He ended up in a viral video called This Drummer is at the Wrong Gig.

It has over 51 million views on YouTube.

He now calls himself the Mad Drummer.

Basically, it's a video.

He's in a cover band and they're doing Sharp Dressed Man by ZZ Top.

Yeah, this was June of 2010 and a random fan shot a video of Steve Moore playing the drums at this amusement park in Pennsylvania.

The band, you guys, everyone had on a gold shimmery jacket.

And imagine him drumming with the flipping and everything and the gold shimmering jacket just in the background.

Well, because the rest of the band is playing it pretty straight.

Yeah.

And so That's why they titled this video, This Drummer is at the Wrong Gig, because he is at like

an arena full of metalheads or something.

Yes, he is flaming his heart out.

Full throttle, and he was a viral sensation.

I watched the video.

Me too.

It's so good.

It's so great.

Within weeks of this video going viral, Steve was recognized by Yahoo, Tosh.0, Drummer World, Modern Drummer, Drum Magazine, and he was the topic of nearly every drum forum on the internet.

Well, he wrote an article for Modern Drummer magazine where he explained how he ended up on the office.

Here's what he said: he got an email from the casting department asking if he wanted to come on the show.

They needed a drummer in an episode.

He said it took a little bit of fancy routing, as he put it, because he was still on tour with Rick Kay and the All-Nighters.

That was the cover band that he was discovered drumming with.

And he said, still, he did it.

He got off the plane at 1 a.m.

and had to be on set at 7.30.

He said, once he got to the set, he went back and forth between wardrobe and makeup, and he was being introduced to people along the way.

He said this, every person I encountered seemed to be in a great mood and happy to see me.

And this made all the difference as I was obviously out of my element and a nervous wreck.

Aww.

And I just love hearing that because that means cast and crew.

Yeah.

That means everybody greeted him with warmth, which I believe, right?

So then Steve said, next they took me to the warehouse for a drum battle between me and Brian Baumgartner, who plays the role of Kevin Malone.

That's where he met Brian.

That's where he met Paul Lieberstein.

And they started working out ideas for the drum battle.

Because what Steve was going to do was not scripted.

It was just have a drum battle.

And you guys all know that Paul Lieberstein in real life plays the drums,

longtime drum player.

And so I imagine this was really fun for him to be a part of as well.

So this was the first thing he shot was this drum battle.

Well I texted Brian because I wanted to know what it was like to do this drum off.

Do you call it a drum off?

Yeah.

With Steve and this is what he said.

He said, And he was a very big deal at the time.

He had been on YouTube for doing all kinds of crazy drum solo stuff.

And I remember being really intimidated filming it.

Because as you know, I am not a drummer in real life.

And I was always wanting to rehearse a lot.

And you know, Craig and Ed are so great musically and they never needed to rehearse.

And I was nervous.

And he said everyone was very excited to have Steve on the set, and the writers had clearly wanted him to be this part.

Well, Steve said after the drum battle, they broke for lunch.

Then they went back to the warehouse to do all the other music scenes.

And he said that's when he finally got to meet James Spader.

He said, James Spader was very polite and very inquisitive about his drummer at the Wrong gig video.

James had watched it.

Everyone had.

Brian said everyone was so excited.

They knew who he was because he was a big deal.

He said James started asking him questions about his background and why he performed the way he did.

He said at first he was a little intimidated because James Spader, quote, carries a presence like a Jack Nicholson or Al Pacino.

You know what's interesting to me is I feel like James in real life right now was doing kind of what Robert California does is when he zeroes in on someone, he has a lot of questions.

And has a lot of small talk.

He also noted, and this is true, that James Spader takes his job very seriously, knows exactly what he wants, and he really enjoyed talking with him, that James is a huge jazz and big band swing fan and found him to be a very, quote, charming fellow with an appreciation of music history and also a phenomenal actor.

Steve said everything went really smoothly and they finished filming around 7 p.m.

He said his goodbyes and his driver took him to the airport and he had to get on a plane to Indiana to do another gig.

And he said the day went by so fast, he felt like he didn't get a chance to really take in all of it which we hear a lot from people who would only get one day with us but he said it was just terrific memories well if you want to see more of Steve's videos and his drumming you can go to his website themaddrummer.com and I'll put it in our stories as well well now that Robert's friends are there They have taken over the band.

Daryl is now on tambourine.

Kevin's on the wood thing with the stick.

It's like a percussion instrument.

Yes, I don't know what it's called.

And Andy is just slapping his own body.

Yeah, he's on torso.

He's on torso and thighs.

Uh-huh.

This did make me think that, you know, this isn't the first time this has happened to Kevin.

What do you mean?

I saw a few other people talk about this online, and I had been thinking the same thing.

This is the second time Kevin has been pushed out of his own band.

He was in Scrantonicity.

Yeah.

They kicked him out.

He had to form Scrantonicity, too.

Kevin and the Zits.

He just got kicked out out of it's just the zits is now i guess

i don't know well now we're back at front reception yes we are and jenna i titled this scene the sass and the swagger oh i like this title because ryan is in such true ryan form in this scene i had to rewind it a few times i laughed so hard he has a line and a delivery i just couldn't get over it's so perfect Pam says, I was talking to Kathy.

Turns out she is single.

And Jim says, oh, I stand corrected.

This is when Pam says it might be fun to set her up with someone.

Any ideas?

And Jim says, you know who might be good?

Mike Tibbetts.

Pam says, Mike Tibbets, really?

And Ryan casually, because he's lingering by front reception now, Ryan casually says, hey, who's this Mike Tibbetts guy?

What kind of car does he drive?

And Jim says, not his mom's car.

That's the sass.

Are you ready for the swagger?

Oh, yeah.

Ryan says, Yeah, cuz his mom's car's probably not a Nissan Z.

And then he looks to camera like, boom.

Like, like, what?

What?

Jim is like, touche?

I looked it up, a Nissan Z is a two-door sports car coupe.

In 2011, the base price would start at 38K.

It's pretty nice car.

Pretty nice car.

But why is Ryan so proud of his mom's car that he's driving?

Incidentally, we have seen Ryan's mom's car and it it looked like a station wagon.

Yeah, that's right.

When she would drop him off at work,

Angela, you said Mike Tibbetts.

Yes, I did.

That is a trigger for me.

So, filming this scene at Kelly's desk where she pulls up the photo of Mike Tibbetts.

Yeah.

I don't know if you watched the bloopers of it.

We couldn't get through it.

So, first of all, none of us had seen the picture of Mike Tibbetts until the first take.

I can't believe they hadn't shown it to you.

So, it pops up, and the scripted line that Mindy is supposed to say is: maybe he would be better if he changed his hair.

But the person they picked had no hair.

And this, we never came back from it.

I don't know if I've ever laughed so hard.

Like my stomach hurt, my giant pregnant stomach.

Because the line did not match the picture.

No.

You guys hadn't even seen the picture.

Also, the way he's posing, it was perfection.

So I texted Mindy, Mindy, Mike Tibbetts.

And she sent in an audio clip.

Here's what she said.

Hey, Jenna and Angela, I have to say, talking about Mike Tibbets now, all these years later,

is probably one of the most joyous memories.

It's one of those rare things where shooting it, it was so funny.

And it's this sweet man, this sweet photo of this man who's balding.

He's smiling.

And Kelly says he'd be okay if he changed his hair see if you can get him to change his hair which is a ridiculous thing to do for someone who's bald like it's just it's really an insane thing to do and um i just it's not like on the show we had that many opportunities to talk about dating or dating profiles or anything like that and i just it's so funny and I actually am very dubious that there's even a take of this scene that made it into an episode without laughing.

Like, this was the hardest I've ever laughed in the show.

I'm so happy you brought this.

I just got back from picketing today.

I have no job.

I was just really hot standing out in the sun for four hours.

And this just like made my day.

This photo of him, listeners, you can't see this, but just Google Mike Tibbetts, The Office.

Like, it's so funny in this context.

I might change it to the screensaver on my phone.

Anyway, bless you both for bringing up this amazing memory.

I'm so happy.

So I'm telling you, like,

I don't know how we got a take of it because if you watch the bloopers, I don't know how we got to what you see because

she said the line is scripted when his picture came up.

And I'm like,

change it to what?

Like, what?

What?

I can't.

We have to hear the bloopers.

We have to hear the bloopers.

Okay.

You want to hear the bloopers?

I do.

All right.

So, I'll say this: it's scripted that Kelly is supposed to scream when she sees Mike Tibbetts' picture.

And and then you know, it goes from there.

Ew!

Kelly, calm down.

I mean,

I guess he would be okay if he did something with his hair.

You cannot get through it.

See if you can get him to grow his hair.

I guess he'd be okay if you would change his hair.

Change it to what?

Put on a wig?

Change it out.

Could you see if he could just grow his hair out?

I don't think Jim cares about his hair.

I know, but I'm just talking about being a nice person here.

He can't grow your hair out.

He shaves it?

I was doing such a good job of that take.

You know, maybe if we could just swank, maybe if we didn't just see it, maybe.

So here was the thing: the lines just didn't match the picture.

And so finally, what you see in the episode is her saying, maybe see if he can get some hair plugs.

Because we kept trying to say, like, maybe see if he can change his hair, see if he can grow his hair out.

And every time it was just like, this is insanity.

This is crazy.

And all the while, this just like sweet face is like smiling at you.

And Kelly's supposed to be dogging on him.

I can't believe we ever got a take.

I love so much how quickly Mindy, even in her audio clip, just couldn't keep it together.

Oh, I know.

Oh,

we got a fan question from April in Berlin and Nicole M.

in New Jersey and many others who want to know, where did you get the picture of Mike Tibbetts?

How does casting get a photo like this?

And is the context and use of the photo okayed by the person in advance?

Mom Detective's moment here.

We cannot figure out who Mike Tibbett is.

We thought maybe he was like a friend of the writers,

but I asked Paul, I asked Mindy, they don't know who he is.

Steve Burgess thought maybe we just got a stock photo off Getty Images because he didn't have any kind of photo shoot scheduled for this.

I emailed Michael Gallenberg and this is what he said.

I didn't take that picture, although it looks like it was taken in front of our art trailer on the ramp.

Remember, it had that railing?

Yes, I thought it looked like our parking lot.

Yes, he thinks it's the art trailer ramp.

And Michael said he didn't take the photo, but he thought maybe Phil Shea quickly grabbed it or a graphics person at the time.

But Michael thinks it was taken in front of our art trailer on the ramp with the little banister.

Mike Tibbetts, if you are out there.

Yes.

Will you please email us at officeladiespod at gmail.com?

Subject line Mike Tibbetts because I need to follow up with you.

We need to find Mike Tibbetts.

I also have an email out to Phil Shay to see if he can help us out here.

Okay.

Mom Detective's case is marked pending.

Unsolved.

Unsolved.

That tracks.

Have we solved one?

No.

That's the whole show.

Not solving crime you don't even care about.

We still don't know what's in the windowless building.

Although.

Do you have an update?

I have some fan theories about the windowless building.

Many people wrote in to say that the cloud, you know, when your stuff goes to the cloud, I guess it goes to windowless buildings.

Oh, it's just a server.

It's a computer.

It's just a bunch of servers.

So I could have a cloud.

in my neighborhood.

And then there were other theories too, but I can't remember what they were, but I don't know.

I mean, I still think it's worth a fruit basket just to get to the bottom of it.

It does seem to have some sort of a lobby, and I don't think that door is locked.

But it is, um, you can't see through the door.

I drove by the front.

The side of the building is on the street.

The front, also windowless.

Can't see through the front door.

Well, if it's a cloud building, maybe they'd be excited to get a fruit basket.

See some people, have someone to talk to.

Yeah, they probably don't get a lot of visitors.

So Kelly's going to write something mean on Mike's Facebook wall.

I thought that was so Kelly.

She's definitely an online bully.

And Pam is going to realize Jim's on to me.

He knew this was a test and that's why he picked Mike Tibbetts.

He never talks about Mike Tibbetts.

We had to go through like a gazillion friend of friend profiles to even find him.

And that's when Dwight says, well, there's other ways to find out.

if he's attracted to her.

Yeah, he said Jim may be lying with his words, but he can't lie with his body.

Dwight goes on to say the male reveals attraction through unconscious and involuntary physical signs, puffing of the chest, mirroring, increased blood flow to the crotch.

And lady, once again, Dwight is not far off.

Yeah?

Yeah.

I went online.

There's many, many articles about how people behave when they're attracted to someone.

A 2018 study published in the Journal of Psychological Bulletin found that people behave in specific ways when they're attracted to someone.

Here are the top signs of unspoken mutual attraction.

Mimicking or mirroring.

Mirroring.

Wanting to be in close physical proximity.

Nonverbal cues such as eye contact.

Nodding when the other person is talking, smiling, and laughing.

This is not looking good for the next scene where we see Jim and Kathy together.

Like, check, check, check.

I know.

I thought, well, once again, Dwight, you know, he says a lot of random stuff, but there's a nugget almost every time.

Well, Dwight says we're gonna start with the crotch.

And Pam and Kelly go, with the crotch?

With the crotch.

Well, I guess step one in the crotch test is that first Dwight and Pam need to observe Jim from a distance.

Yes, and they're going to hover over by Creed's desk.

They're going to bribe him with a tobaccoone.

My favorite line in this entire episode is when Creed says, how to get this long triangle?

I know.

It was scripted.

I know.

It's so good.

Here's the problem.

This upcoming scene where Dwight is going to now

trip and fall onto Jim's crotch.

That's right.

We couldn't get through that, but it started with, how did I get this long triangle?

So we were already goners.

It was already a problem.

Right.

We got so much fan mail about the crotch test scene.

Sarah C from New Jersey and Sarah F from Dallas said, I want to know everything about this scene.

How many takes were required?

Was John wearing a cup?

How hard was it to get through?

No pun intended.

I asked Rain Wilson about this and he sent in an audio clip.

Feeling John's penis scene,

it really is one of my favorite scenes we got to film because to me, it felt like John Cleese from

Faulty Towers.

It felt like a just a physical comedy scene that was a classic, classic comedy.

Like when I was on the episode the other week, we talked about lotses, clown lotsies.

And it's like a perfect clown lotsy.

It's a perfect setup.

The character is convinced that if he feels the penis and it has an erection or a semi-erection, then he's cheating.

And

so he,

it's his mission to feel the penis and

surreptitiously, to accidentally.

And

we had so much fun filming that.

I remember trying it 50 different ways.

John kept laughing.

I kept laughing.

John was wearing a cup.

I remember that.

He had a nice firm athletic.

cup on for protection.

But

I just love doing physical comedy like that and when and i would always beg them to like please write dwight physical comedy please have him fall down and exert himself and try things and

flail

take his shirt off and just do all that ridiculous stuff and um

but it was one of my favorite things from our later seasons

Well, there are bloopers from this scene.

Thank goodness John was wearing an athletic cup over his private feast.

Well, I remember doing this scene.

I mean, I feel like we did it all afternoon because they tried so many different ways for Dwight to accidentally feel Jim's penis.

Right.

And some of them were like he was like pawing at it.

Some of them were like him walking by and kind of accidentally bumping in his hand into it.

So like, this was like a good at least three hours of this.

Oh my God.

John needed that cup for sure.

Like three hours.

Providence would have been beaten up without it.

I have to say.

Three hours of random crotch grabs.

You know, I love that Rain shared about how much he loved physical comedy.

And the minute he mentioned John Cleese and Faulty Towers, I instantly could see this happening there.

I just love that he got to do this scene and he got to really go for it.

I thought it was hilarious.

And John,

John has Jim, his face of like, what the hell, man?

I know.

I know.

And I even love at the end when he's like pretending to read the paper, but he's really like trying to scrutinize his crotch.

Yeah.

But if you watch the bloopers, I have to give a shout out to Lindsay, who is a real pro and does not break no matter what.

You know, you never see a reaction shot of Pam over in the corner watching this happen because I couldn't keep it together.

I was already a goner after the Toblerone.

Yeah.

And then it was like there, there was no saving me.

I laughed easily when I was pregnant too.

I mean, I just remember laughing a lot all the time.

So yeah.

What really sticks with Pam out of this moment though is why is Jim making her laugh so much?

Yes, Jim doesn't have an erection, but before they started all of that, they were giggling together.

That's her thing with Jim.

Yeah.

Now she's legitimately feeling threatened.

Kathy's going to come over to Pam.

She's kind of hovering.

Pam says, you know what?

I'll be there in just a second.

Kathy's like, yeah, take your time.

And then she pivots to Jim and goes, oh, that line from Zoolander.

It was a deleted scene.

So we were both right.

And then Jim laughs and goes, told you.

Oh, lady.

Oh.

Oh, lady.

An inside joke.

Forget it.

An inside joke where they both laugh.

By the way, I watched the Zoolander deleted scenes.

And I feel strongly they were deleted for a reason.

Okay.

But this is that moment where Pam is like, wow.

Kathy says, oh, do I hand in my expense reports to a particular accountant?

And Pam snaps and says, Oscar, Kathy has a question.

Let me tell you something right here.

This is the moment.

If you observe this moment,

that woman is goodbye.

I felt like that went against some girl code right there.

Yeah.

You don't do that.

Yeah.

Flirty giggle inside joke.

No, I don't do flirty giggle inside jokes with my friends.

Husbands.

No, I do not.

No, no, no, ma'am.

No, ma'am.

Back it up.

You might have noticed that Pam quickly passes Kathy off to Oscar and not Angela.

Mm-hmm.

I think there was a reason.

I know I'm not in this episode really, but I want you to know, I think in this moment, somehow Pam knew that Angela had her back.

She's like, you deal with it, Oscar, because I think Angela Martin would have been like, who's this hussy?

Let's take her down.

Let's take her down.

Now, I have a very faint memory of upcoming episodes, partially because I was postpartum.

Does Angela Martin end up having some reactions to Kathy?

Because I will say in watching this episode, I was very surprised we didn't have any Angela's side eye about this choice.

Yeah, I think there would have been big side eye.

A lot of opinions.

And nothing in the deleted scenes.

No, no.

Missed opportunity.

Missed opportunity.

Pam is definitely now annoyed, and she just says to Jim, why don't you just admit it?

Just admit it.

You find her attractive.

And she has decided to go along with Dwight's crazy idea of his makeshift lie detector test.

Which involves going to a pharmacy and then using a blood pressure machine.

This is how he's going to figure out if Jim is lying now.

I have a bullsh ⁇ card to play.

Oh, please.

What is it?

I know I've been throwing him around lately.

I fully believe that Dwight would own his own lie detector test.

Oh, you're so right.

Wouldn't he?

But does he have time to go all the way to Shroot Farms and back?

Maybe not.

Only a time issue.

All right.

Maybe I resend my bullshit card.

Okay.

I feel like if we have a plausible explanation, you have to resend the card.

Card resended.

These are the rules of the BS card?

Yeah.

Okay.

We had a fan question from Haley in Oklahoma.

Did they use a real drugstore to test Jim?

And if so, how long did it take them to find a drugstore with a heart machine?

Well, we went to DeSoto Pharmacy on Roscoe in Canoga Park.

It closed in 2018, but Phil Shea brought in the blood pressure machine, and our art department made all the signs.

And I wanted to point out a really great detail.

It's 16 minutes and 48 seconds.

The sign, which our team designed that says, check your blood pressure here, that's on top of the machine, it's all scuffed up and aged.

And I just thought, what a great piece of detail.

It really is.

An old man's going to come in the pharmacy.

He'd like to use the machine.

He has a new heart.

Mm-hmm.

He sure does, Tin Man.

He was played by Frank Bernie, who has two office connections.

Oh, yeah?

He played a judge on several episodes of Boston Legal with James Spader, and he had a recurring role on Six Feet Under with Rain Wilson.

Hey.

One time when I was in school, I was visiting my grandparents and I went into a little pharmacy like this with my friend.

She thought it'd be funny to stick her leg in it and turn it on.

What happened?

It squeezed the sh out of her leg and she was like, get it off me.

And we couldn't figure out how to turn it off.

It was probably looking for a pulse.

I know.

And she was like screaming.

And then we got in a little bit of trouble.

Not a lot of trouble, but you know, kind of like a little talking too.

Sure.

Yeah.

Don't put your leg in.

Don't put your leg in.

Blood pressure machine, everyone.

Well, they're gonna hook Jim up to the machine and ask him some baseline questions like, what is your name?

And then eventually Dwight's gonna ask him if he finds Kathy attractive.

And Jim says no.

And then Dwight says, you're lying.

In fact, you're lying about everything, including your name.

You're a pathological liar.

Your blood pressure is through the roof on every question.

This is when Pam is like, wait a second, doesn't your dad have high blood pressure?

And she's worried about Jim.

She's like, when's the last time you saw your doctor?

We need to get you in for a checkup.

Yeah.

We had a fan question from Brittany B in Atlanta, Georgia, who said, why was nothing ever done about Jim's high blood pressure?

Brittany, I hear you.

We set up this possible problem for Jim and we never resolved it for anyone.

I think we just have to know that he went in, he got a physical, and everything is okay.

Yes, I think he's okay.

I mean, according to Dwight, you should go get your prostate checked every month.

So

I'm sure they made sure he got in.

Yes.

Well, Pam seemed pretty worried.

I know.

But, you know, this is when things get real.

All games aside, Pam is like, I need you.

Yeah.

What would we do without you?

Yeah.

Okay.

I'm done asking stupid questions about Kathy.

Let's grab a toothbrush for Cece and let's get you looked at.

I love this little line at the end when Dwight says, hey, Cece's toothbrush.

Jenna, it was scripted that that was your line.

Oh, yes, I remember that.

We did a few takes because we're walking past.

They had set up up a little toothbrush thing on the end of the aisle.

Yeah.

I actually love that Dwight is who ended up saying it and that Jim doesn't even turn around.

Mm-hmm.

I also just love this moment because I feel like Dwight has gotten to know Jim and Pam so well and gotten to know their pregnancy, their children, because he sits in this little clump.

And yes, Jim says, oh, hey, we need a toothbrush, but it's Dwight who remembers.

That's right.

Well, that's a great example too, Angela, of how nobody was precious about their scripted lines.

If it worked better to have someone else say it, we would change it on the day.

That's a great example.

So we already talked about the tag for this episode, which is the big drum battle between the two drummers.

But prior to this,

you know, Robert California and his bandmates, they just completely took over the band.

So much so that our guys just left.

Well, Val kind of calls it out, right?

She does.

She's like, is this your band?

Yeah.

But I love at the end they're playing outside together.

They're singing Baby, I Love Your Way by Peter Frampton.

I love how that just was the underlying music too as Jim and Pam are leaving the pharmacy because that's just such a sweet song, right?

Yeah, that was a great choice.

That was probably Matt's own.

There is an awesome website I wanted to share with you guys called whatsong.org.

Okay.

You can go there and whatever office episode that has music, if you're curious to know, you can go on there and they have all the seasons of the office episode by episode, and it will tell you if there's any music, what the song was, who sang it, and how you can listen to it.

Oh my gosh, that would be a great Spotify playlist.

Yeah.

So this episode had two songs, Baby I Love Your Way and Midnight Rambler by the Rolling Stones.

I love it.

Well guys, that is Pam's replacement.

Yeah.

And next week we have Gettysburg.

Yes, that's right.

I want to give a big thank you to Mindy Kaling, Paul Lieberstein, Rain Wilson, Steve Burgess, Michael Gallenberg, and Brian Baungartner.

Thank you for letting us blow up your phones and ask you a bunch of questions.

And Mindy and Rain, it was really fun to go down the Mike Tibbetts memory lane.

Yeah, and now whenever I see a Tobaron, all I'm going to think is, how'd I get this long triangle?

Yeah, how did I get it?

All right, we'll see you guys next week.

Have a good one.

Bye.

Thank you for listening to Office Ladies.

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

Our senior producer is Cassie Jerkins.

Our in-studio engineer is Sam Kiefer.

Our editing and mixing engineer is Jordan Duffy, and our associate producer is Ainsley Bubbico.

Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.

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