A Look Back on Heavy Competition

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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.

Hey, kiddos, it's Uncle Creed here.

Buckle up because the office ladies just hit 100 episodes.

Amazing.

gonna open it up.

Look at this.

We're drinking again before 10 a.m.

We are because it's 100 episodes, and we could not have done this without you guys.

We wish you were all here with us.

Oh my gosh.

Okay, Jenna, don't be afraid.

I've opened champagne before.

Slightly.

Oh, you know what?

I shouldn't point it towards the glass.

Sam, I won't point it towards the glass.

I appreciate that.

Okay, here we go.

Congratulations, Jenna.

Congratulations, Sam, Cassie, Cody, Colin, Marissa, Ileana, Hannah, Ainsley,

everybody that helps us make this show.

Oh my gosh.

We're going to be celebrating with our team later after we record.

Yes, and we got some fun gifts.

Oh, we do.

Speaking of fun gifts, I promise you the bags are unrelated to the gifts, but under the table there,

both of your.

Those are for you.

Happy 100.

Sam!

Oh, my god.

Sam.

Is they

Sam?

Domino's pizza.

I promise you, the bag.

It's the only bag.

Did you get us pizza?

The bags are unrelated.

How do you have dominoes?

Get out.

Sam, you are the cutest person on the planet.

You guys.

Okay, how do we describe this?

It's one of those tornado.

No, it's one of those volcano bowls.

Oh my gosh, it's like Pam's art school.

It's Pam's art school bowl.

Congratulations, guys.

Oh my gosh.

Sam, and he has little bottles of alcohol and straws.

Sam, this is the cutest, most thoughtful thing.

You are so sweet.

Now, remember, the key to a punch is it's literally whatever you want.

Oh.

Oh, my gosh.

We can't have a volcano bowl.

And okay, we're going to have champagne today.

We'll save the volcano bowl for our company get-together.

Sam, I love it.

That is so sweet.

Surprise gift under the table.

Under the table.

This is like Oprah when she's like, look under your chair.

You get a car.

You get a volcano bowl.

Sam, thank you.

And we have something for you guys.

I can't wait for you to see, but we're going to give it to you all at the same time.

That's right.

Because Cassie's on Zoom today.

Hi, Cassie on Zoom.

Hi, guys.

You're missing champagne, Cassie.

I know.

Cheers, Jenna.

Cheers, lady.

I've got a glass of champagne and a cup of coffee.

A nice way to start the day.

Listen, today we will eventually be discussing heavy competition, but we would like to dedicate our fast facts to office ladies today, to our 100th episode.

That's right.

So should we get into it?

I can't wait.

Fast fact number one, Office Ladies podcast debuted on October 16th, 2019.

So here we are just a little over two years later, having released 100 episodes.

100!

And in December of this year, we will hit 200 million downloads.

What?

I'm getting on the table.

Oh, no.

200 million downloads.

I'm on the table.

This isn't from champagne.

This is excitement.

It's an audio program.

They cannot see it.

I'm on the table.

No, I don't know how to get down.

She's tangled.

Oh, Jesus.

Oh, my gosh.

You're my mom.

It's Lucy.

You're Lucy in our studio.

You just full-on Tom Cruise, that lady.

Oh, no, no.

I Tom Cruised Cruised it.

Oh, no.

The couch.

Oprah's couch.

I know.

You did it.

Listen, when we started this podcast, we never could have imagined that it would grow this big.

I did not imagine it.

No.

Or that it would be.

as popular or that it would resonate with people or that we would have this community that we have.

And it means so much to my life.

It means so much to me.

It has changed my life.

And all the ways that the office changed my life, this has changed my life as well because it has brought me a job that brings me closer to my family and closer to my best friend.

Oh, lady, don't make me cry.

Well, I feel the same way.

I am just deeply grateful.

Me too.

Truly grateful.

You guys, we're so thankful for you.

For all of the comments and messages you leave us every week, the things that you share with us.

It just means so much to us.

And we love doing this.

We love it.

I love it.

I have a really fun fast fact number two.

A fun fast fact.

I'm going to take a sip of champagne while you say that.

I love our mail.

I go through a lot of our mail with Ainslie.

Yes.

You go through a lot of our physical mail, Angela.

If you write a letter to the Earwolf offices and send things, I go through that.

Jenna and Ainslie go through our digital mail.

Yes.

That's how we divide it up.

In our digital mail, we got a letter from Dr.

Peter Thibodeau.

Dr.

Thibodeau, I know a lot of Thibodeau's in Louisiana.

Here's what he said, Angela.

Okay.

My wife, daughters, and I notice how much you both love saying two things on your podcast.

Oh, no.

Oh, no.

What?

Lady

and amazing.

So.

I tracked down just how many times that comes up in the podcast.

Oh, Dr.

Thibodeau.

Lady, he tracked it.

Was it amazing?

It was amazing.

He was only able to track up to our 92nd episode.

Okay.

But over the last 92 podcasts, we have said lady

636 times.

Oh.

And we have said amazing 786 times.

Wow.

But he broke it down with charts.

The charts are incredible.

On average, we say the word amazing nine times per episode and we say lady seven times per episode.

He said there was a stretch from episodes 31 through 47 where our use of both words really went up.

We said amazing and lady a total of 34 times in the cocktails episode.

What was up with us that day?

Well, I looked it up and episodes 31 through 47 ran from June of 2020 to September 2020.

Summer is summer vibes.

It was also right in the heart of the pandemic.

We were recording from home in our closets.

I think we were coping.

I think we were throwing out the ladies to copy.

And the amazing because we were in closets.

We're like, this is amazing.

I think so.

Or, you know what I think?

What?

I think doing our podcast felt amazing.

And it was such a great healing thing for us through the pandemic.

Really, it was.

It was an escape.

It was an escape.

Like every time I walked into that closet, I was like, I get to hang out with Jenna today.

Yeah.

And we get to talk about really fun things.

And that's really when like Cody and Cassie and Sam and you like became my best friends because you were the only people I

saw on that Zoom.

100%.

Yeah.

We would start our podcast just sort of sharing.

Yeah.

Like in school where you have circle time and you share.

Yeah.

That was the first part of every podcast, Zoom.

I think that's why we thought they were so amazing.

I agree.

Well, our biggest lady episode was The Coup.

We said it 19 times.

Made me snort laugh.

Our biggest amazing episode was Traveling Salesman.

We said it 20 times.

But then this was my favorite thing.

Oh my gosh.

That Dr.

Thibodeau wrote.

Dr.

Thibodeau.

He said, sadly, there were a few times when the office ladies weren't feeling amazing.

And we only used it one time.

What?

Episode?

Diversity Day, Boys and Girls, and Take Your Daughter to Work Day.

Wow.

And then he says, and lady, there were four podcasts where there was no use of the word lady at all.

And those were sexual harassment, booze crews, Dwight's speech, and customer survey.

I find it hard to believe that we didn't say lady one time.

Yeah.

But Dr.

Thibodeau has the stats.

Well, we had to ask Dr.

Thibodeau why.

Why track it?

I mean, we love to track stuff, but what compelled him to track all of this?

And he said, I am a PhD scientist and I love tracking data of any kind.

Jen, this is like your soulmate.

Am I a PhD scientist on the inside and I don't know it?

You love to track things, lady.

Maybe I'm a PhD scientist.

Maybe you are.

He said, for whatever reason, this is something that my family and I caught on about early and I took this on just to see how it went.

And I will do this all the way to the end and I will never miss an episode.

Dr.

Thibodeau, we have got to send you a lady sweatshirt.

We're going to send your whole family lady sweatshirts.

Everybody gets a lady sweatshirt.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Dr.

Thibodeau.

That piece of mail, it made my day.

I want to see the bar graph chart.

I want to see it.

We got to.

post it.

Oh, we'll put it in stories.

And his daughter made some graphics to go along with the facts, and we can put those up as well.

I love this family.

Same.

Now, Angela, you said save me a fast fact.

So you are fast fact number three, and I don't know what it is.

Yes, Jenna, I am fast fact number three.

And I want to give a huge shout out to our Office Ladies podcast fan page over on Facebook.

And they submitted a song to celebrate our 100th episode.

We have have to hear it.

Okay, now, have you heard this yet?

Because I have not heard this.

I have not heard it.

I wanted us to hear it together in real time for the first time.

All right.

So here we go.

584,800 seconds.

That's how many seconds are in the podcast.

584,800 seconds.

We've all been listening every Wednesday

in fast facts and deep dives with guest stores and cantopedia.

New plans and reception.

And heartbreak in the break room.

584,800 seconds.

That's like watching the office.

Only two times.

You have a bunch of cats and one ate a bird.

You helped us with our backpacks and showed us just what we're worth.

You've inspired us all.

We thank you so much.

You've inspired us all

for all who worked on the pods.

Tired us all.

100th episode.

Celebration.

Celebrate,

celebrate from your office, ladies, Facebook fampage.

You've inspired us all.

So beautiful.

You've inspired us all.

You've inspired us all

lady,

I can't really.

Hey, just checking in.

We're all crying, right?

We're all crying.

That was so, so kind.

My goodness, that was so great.

Thank you so much.

I really want to give a big thank you.

That was a group effort, and I'm going to read off who all was part of that amazing song.

These are happy tears, guys.

These are happy tears.

So, Hannah Byers had the idea for it.

Michaela and Zach Dodge, who are a husband and wife team, performed it.

And Natisse Safoni and Michaela Dodge wrote the lyrics.

Isn't that wonderful?

And I also know a lot of you guys on the Facebook page are sending in messages.

Thank you so much.

Michelle, Nikki, and Brad are helping me.

And we're going to put all of your messages over the next few days into our Insta stories.

Thank you so much.

Office Ladies Facebook fan page.

I'm still kind of speechless.

I pretty much wept through that whole thing.

You really got me with the cat eating the bird and the backpack.

That's a reference to a bonus episode that we did where I shared a little about my social anxiety and my coping mechanisms.

And that was a really vulnerable thing when I shared that and I questioned doing it.

And just

Anyway, that just meant a lot.

I know.

I know, lady.

I know.

And just when you had us crying, you told us that basically, if you've listened to Office Ladies, you've only watched The Office twice.

I love that.

Okay.

Well, gosh, I think we need a minute.

I think we need a minute.

Let's take a break.

And when we come back, we will dedicate the rest of this episode to breaking down heavy competition.

Heavy competition.

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All right, we are back.

We've had a laugh.

We've had a cry.

We've had a little champagne.

It's really good.

Thank you.

Champagne.

It is Brute Classique.

Well, by Francois.

I'm always classique, baby.

You know what?

My eyesight's so bad I can't read it.

It's all right.

But it's very good.

It's Francois.

That's what we need to know.

By the way, during break, both Sam and Jenna were just making fun of me getting on the table.

Well, because because it's, you know, it's a podcast.

I know it's a podcast.

We appreciated it.

200 million downloads.

That's a big deal.

I knew I had to do something.

I was like, I got to do something.

What do I do?

I appreciated the energy.

I did.

I appreciated it.

Well, you always show up with that.

Thank you.

Sam videoed it.

Cassie took photos.

It'll go in the pod stories.

Should we break down heavy competition?

Do it.

This is season five, episode 24, written by Ryan Coe and directed by Ken Whittingham.

I'm going to give you a summary.

Do it.

Michael forces Dwight to choose between either his loyalty to Charles Minor and Dunder Mifflin or Michael.

And this results in the two of them going to war.

Yeah.

And Michael trying to steal Dwight's top clients.

It's going to get ugly.

It's a heavy competition.

Yeah.

And still hurting from his breakup with Angela, Andy suspects that maybe Pam is being controlling of Jim, maybe mistreating him.

So he starts offering Jim a bunch of unsolicited advice, which backfires when Jim pranks him into confiding that things are terrible between him and Pam.

It starts this whole runner.

Yeah.

But this episode begins with a very famous cold open.

The cheese puff cold open.

It is.

I titled it the cheese puff.

I loved doing this cold open.

I have so much.

I have so many questions for you.

I have so many questions.

Should we describe it?

Describe it.

All right.

It's Pam, Michael, and Ryan tossing cheese puffs into one another's mouths in various ways.

Right.

It's like the things you see on like YouTube of where the guy bounces the basketball off like the back of a wall and it hits the other side of the wall and it goes in the hoop.

That's what you guys are doing, but you're doing it with cheese puffs.

And I love the callback because remember, this is what Michael took when he ran out of Dunder Mifflin on that last day.

You have questions.

We got a fan mail flurry about this.

So first we reached out to writer Ryan Coe to find out like, what was the inspiration for this cold open?

His response was so funny.

It's so good.

I actually spit out my coffee while listening to it.

Yeah, we heard you play it.

Hi, Jenna.

Hi, Angela.

Thanks for letting me talk about my episode.

Jenna, you had mentioned that you love shooting that cold open with the cheeseballs, and you were wondering where it came from.

I remember that it was most of all a product of exhaustion.

I'll back up a bit.

Yeah, you know, for the first draft of my episode, I had written a cold open about how Ryan thought Pam had a crush on him, and no one liked it, so it was tossed out, and we needed a new cold open.

And at this point in the season, all the writers were really exhausted.

In season five, as you recall, we did 28 episodes, and they were shot in a 10 consecutive weeks of production, then a break so Steve could do a movie, and then 18 straight weeks of production.

Other shows I've been on, I've told them that there was a stretch of 18 straight weeks of production and they do not believe we did that.

sort of sitcoms it's more common to do two or three weeks on of production and then one week off so that the actors can recover and so the writers can catch up and don't get totally burned out and so 18 straight weeks is a total death march And I remember at that time, a writer was going to go down and check out what was going down on set.

Paul or someone was like, do not go down there.

The actors are tired and are acting like huge ass.

So yeah, I remember it was a sort of rough time.

And so for the last half of season five, we were always behind.

And I feel like we were working 11 or more hours pretty much every single day.

I remember Mindy was really mad that it meant she had no social life and said something like, I'm going to die alone because of this damn show.

So, anyway, we were all very spent, and

we were trying to come up with a new cold open, and it was either Aaron Scher or Paul.

They were both the guys that were really good at making something out of nothing.

One of them said,

I don't know, they're throwing cheese balls at each other, and everyone's like, Great, we don't have to write anything.

That's awesome.

Okay, that's the cold open, cheese balls.

All right, next.

As far as anything else about writing the episode, it was a long time ago, and I don't really remember because I was tired.

Ryan, that made our day.

I mean,

look at this amazing piece of comedy that came out of just everyone being so tired.

Fatigue.

Yes.

You guys might remember Ryan is our writer who wiped out while running past the speed reader sign.

Yes.

So, Ryan, thank you so much for sharing your memory with us of the cheeseball cold open.

And now.

And sorry if we were assholes that week.

I guess we were all tired and grouchy.

I guess so.

Lady, you said you had some questions.

I do.

I'm here to answer questions.

All right.

So I know from other episodes where anytime we had to throw something, you don't get it on the first take.

But that shot of Steve throwing.

the cheese puff ball at you, you caught it.

You chomped it.

You looked right to camera.

And I was like, my girl, look at her i was so proud i was like okay sydney bristow on alias can you do that jenna this is like your moment all right i'm going to tell you something okay when i was in high school i did not have a vibrant social life so you threw cheese balls at your face no what i watched a lot of movies okay and when i watched the movies i would eat popcorn and i started throwing the popcorn up in the air and catching it.

By yourself.

Yeah.

Okay.

Listen, it paid off later in my life.

It sure did.

So don't feel sorry for me.

I'm not feeling sorry.

I also saw tons of great movies and I have a great mind for the cinema.

Yes.

So I am really good at catching food in my mouth.

I know.

Also, my sister and I would throw popcorn at each other.

Sure, sure.

So when I read this cold open, I was like,

I'm going to nail this.

And then I got really scared that they were going to want to CGI it because you were like, guys, I got this.

It's not CGI.

No, I want everyone to know those are real cheeseballs.

We had the best time shooting this.

It looks like it.

I was just delighted by every moment of it.

Jenna, I'm great at catching food in my mouth as well.

Oh.

Just because I have good hand-eye coordination because I'm a little bit of a Sporto.

Why have we never thrown food at one another?

What do we we have in here?

Can we throw something at each other?

We have a little bit of granola bar.

We have granola bar and alcohol.

That's not going to work.

Well, next time we're bringing popcorn,

we can film that.

Sam's going to the kitchen, so maybe we'll get some food in a second.

It did take us a whole afternoon to shoot this, and the one that took the longest was the three-way.

Where

just phrased that differently.

I'm going to phrase it how I want it to Okay, okay.

Okay.

The one that took the longest was the three-way, as you were saying.

Continue.

You know, the one where

we're each throwing a cheeseball into a different person's mouth.

You added three of us.

And,

oh.

Oh.

Oh, my God.

Rice Krispie treats.

Sam brought us rice krispie treats.

Will these hurt our teeth?

Are they grow-free?

This is gonna hurt.

That's all we have.

I mean, don't throw them hard.

Here, you gotta put a little piece.

Okay.

Okay, ready?

Yep.

One,

two, three.

Oh, that was a terrible.

What was that toss?

That was a turbulent.

Okay, wait, wait.

Okay, hold on.

Okay, ready?

Yeah.

The problem is it sticks to your thumb as you're trying to throw it.

You're throwing it so low.

Okay.

Okay.

Here we go.

She hit me in the eye.

Oh my gosh.

Okay, you try to throw to me.

Wait, these are so sticky.

That's what you try to throw it, you can't, it won't leave your finger.

We might need something other than rice krispy treat bars.

Ah!

Wait, can I just say that was a really good toss?

What a good tosh.

Why are we doing visual gags on our podcast?

Okay, stop.

Okay, we're going to stop.

Okay, we got one, you guys.

We got one.

Okay.

Riveting content.

Well, throwing rice krispy treats is a little difficult.

You were talking about the three-way.

Oh, yeah.

That was the hardest one.

You know that reaction that you see at the end when we finally make it?

Yes, because you were probably genuinely excited.

That was real.

I think you can see the look on my face.

I knew I caught mine, and then I had to look and see if they really caught theirs.

And then we were genuinely excited.

That was the only time we ever...

got that toss correct.

And they got it on camera.

They got it on camera.

But we spent a whole afternoon on the cheese puffs sequence.

We got a fan question from Aaron B.

At the end, when the cheese ball lands in Pam's hair so perfectly, was that in the script or just pure luck?

That was pure luck.

It was just supposed to be that each of those guys throw a cheese ball at me when I yawn.

Right.

I didn't even know it was stuck in my hair.

It's so perfect because you look directly at camera thinking you've brushed the other one off.

And you're cheese ball free.

Yes.

And then one little dude's hanging in your hair.

Ah.

Without a doubt, this was one of my favorite sequences to shoot ever on the office.

And I feel like it bonded me and Steve and BJ.

I would think so.

In a real way.

Yeah.

It was a very, very fun day at work.

Well, now the episode is going to start.

Jim, Pam, and Andy are in the break room.

I don't even know what to title this break room scene, Shopping Over Misery.

I don't know.

So Andy is showing them photos of wedding cakes.

He's playing them wedding music.

Basically, he's trying to sell off things he paid for for his wedding to Angela.

Yeah, Yeah, he's trying to get Pam and Jim to buy these elements from his not failed wedding.

Failed wedding, yeah.

And one of the things that he plays for them is a song that Pam could walk down the aisle to buy his a cappella group.

Yes, it's sort of a combination of Pockabel that morphs into Call Me L.

Yes.

Should we hear it?

I think we need to.

Randy Cordre sent us in the whole song.

Let's hear it.

That's right.

Andy tells Pam she can walk down the aisle to this song for the low price of $9,000,

which Pam says seems like a lot for an a cappella group from a college that neither her or Jim attended.

Yeah.

Wait, before we move on, I just want you guys to know I played that this morning in my kitchen and literally was dancing.

And Ed's guitar a cappella solo will never ever disappoint.

If you're having a day where you're down in the dumps, listen to Ed Helms as Andy go, ba da, buna na na na na na na na na na ba da da wa da da wa da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da.

Like it's so good.

Do you think anyone's ever actually walked down the aisle to this?

Oh, I hope so.

Me too.

Oh, I hope so.

If you walk down the aisle to this, will you tag Office Ladies Pod?

Please.

We got a fan question from Harmjen V.

Did Ed Helms do all the voices in this acapella song?

No.

No, he did not.

He got together a group of his friends to perform this piece.

He called John Michael Higgins, who did the arrangement and the solo voice in the first section.

You guys know him.

He's from all of the Christopher Guest movies.

He was also in that movie, The Breakup, with Vince Vaughan and Jennifer Anniston, where he's in an acapella group called the Tone Rangers.

But he has also appeared, or his voice has appeared, on a previous episode of The Office.

That's right.

You guys, he was in Launch Party.

He and Ed sang, take a chance on me to Angela in that episode over speakerphone.

Yes.

So he did the lead vocals on this.

Ed did that bass line.

They recorded it in a studio at Universal Studios.

Randy told us that they did this in three takes.

Amazing.

Amazing, Dr.

Thibodeau.

Amazing.

Well, after this episode aired, they updated the Angela and Andy wedding website.

They posted the whole song along with an advertisement for the a cappella group for the wedding services for $9,000, just like Andy says in the scene.

That's incredible.

Well next up we see Dwight in a white long sleeve shirt.

This scene was so funny to me.

I thought Rain was so funny the way he kept struggling in the long sleeve and saying how it was like affecting his attack readiness.

He said it was like a straitjacket.

Yeah.

He's in the kitchen.

He's talking with Phyllis.

I guess this is Charles's new dress code.

Yeah.

I had something happen to me when I was watching this scene.

What?

And I want to apologize for it in advance because it became a little bit of an obsession as I watched this episode.

What?

It didn't happen to me until my third time watching the episode.

What happened?

I became obsessed with

what I believe was my observation that Dwight's sleeves are too short.

Oh, Lord.

They're too short.

I think they're not long enough.

And I found an article that breaks down exactly how long a man's dress shirt should fit.

It has illustrations.

Okay.

So I created a photo side by side.

You really did get obsessed.

I mean, I spent way too long on this.

Here is their illustration, Angela, of just right too short and then Rain's arm.

Oh.

Now

I know that photo is not.

super convincing.

I know that, but I tracked it through the whole episode and I have more evidence.

Oh my gosh, you and Dr.

Thibodeau.

Well, I actually, it's so funny that you bring this up because I became obsessed with Charles Minor's shirt.

Oh.

If you look at his shoulders, there's an extra stitching across his shoulder.

And I think it's because his shoulders were so broad.

I don't even understand why they would do that except that maybe Idris had such broad shoulders.

They had to have an extra stitch.

I'm going to have to go look at that.

I'm going to show it to you.

I will find it because once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it.

Okay, I have a picture of it.

Jenna, please look at this extra stitch and pleat on his shoulder.

What is that?

What is that?

See?

Okay.

Okay.

We did get a fan question.

for this scene from Evan T and Pearl C.

At 2 minutes, 49 seconds, when Dwight says his shirt is a straight jacket and then he bumps into some wooden sticks and coffee mugs.

Was that scripted or did that happen by accident?

Because Phyllis's reaction is so genuine.

I looked at the script.

It was scripted that he would knock over the mugs while struggling.

Mm-hmm.

When that happens, that means there is a person off camera to reset.

all of those mugs.

They will take a picture of what that little credenza looked like before the scene starts.

And then after he knocks it all to the ground, they will meticulously reset each item so that when they're in the editing room, they can use any part of the top of the scene.

That there's not like a mug over on the far side that used to be on no bogeys, that's right, no random straw where it shouldn't be.

I love Dwight's talking head, though.

When he said when Michael was in charge, this place was like the Roman Empire and the Wild West and war-torn Poland and Poland.

There was just a lot going on.

So, what you wore to work was the least of anybody's worries.

And in that chaos, I soared.

In this talking head, you can totally see his watch because his sleeves are too short.

Okay, okay.

I just want you to know.

All right.

Well, now Michael is going to meet Dwight outside by the dumpster.

Mm-hmm.

Dwight tells Mike that Ed's...

Mike?

Mike.

I don't know.

All right.

Dwight tells Michael that Ed's tires is looking to make a change.

So Dwight is, he's helping him out.

He is.

He's giving him some intel.

Inside info.

And Michael gives him $6 for his trouble.

Well, Dwight says he doesn't need compensation, but he does remind Michael that he owes him $10

from four years ago.

I know.

I loved that.

I had to know if that was scripted because I thought Steve was so funny when he was like, that was four years ago.

Why won't you let that go?

Was it scripted?

It was.

I also want you to know at three three minutes and 30 seconds, you can clearly see Michael's shirt sleeves coming out of his suit jacket, but you cannot see Dwight's.

Jenna, you're on something.

You're on something.

Listen, Idris had broad shoulders and Rain's shirt was too short.

Too short.

You believe me.

I believe you.

Okay.

Back inside, Andy is going to tell Jim that he's worried.

You know, Pam bosses him around.

He's really worried that their relationship maybe isn't so healthy.

And he says, listen, I know a few things about love, horrible, terrible, awful things.

Yeah, there's a lot to unpack here.

Andy is projecting his own

hurt onto Jim because Pam shot down this idea of using any of Andy's wedding stuff, and he thinks Jim was bulldozed.

Right.

So he's turned this into a whole story.

Yeah, and Jim sees his opportunity now for a day long of pranking.

Yeah, because I think Jim's a little offended.

Well, it is ridiculous.

Yeah, he's making a lot of assumptions.

So now Michael is going to take this info that he got from Dwight.

He's headed back to Michael Scott Paper Company and he tells Pam to give Ed's tires a call.

Yeah.

Here's what she needs to say.

She needs to say that Michael Scott Paper Company has fewer clients so they can spend more time with each of them and also somehow mention she distrusts women.

And he recommends she do it over Indian food.

Pam's like, I'm not going to say that.

Ryan's like, I can get there.

That made me laugh out loud.

This is a little foreshadowing for something that's going to come up later which is that michael takes kind of meticulous detailed notes about each client and he meticulous well he knows little details about each one i feel like

when i saw michael's rolodex jenna it reminded me of my note cards oh

because i usually put a few words that mean something to me Right?

Now I put it all in a document, but if you look at my notes, I give myself words that only mean something to me.

Look next to Jim's talking head.

What does it say?

Boo.

Why does it say boo?

Because I know what that means.

I don't like Jim in this moment.

I think he's being mean to Andy.

So I wrote boo.

And then right here, what does that say?

Trophy.

That means something to me.

We'll get to it.

But I was like, oh my gosh, I'm Michael Scott.

I have like a few keywords.

Well, you know, in my early actor days, when I would go to casting offices, I would come home and I had a little card file like a Rolodex where I would write down little notes about anything like that, like loves chocolate chip cookies.

So that the next time I went into that casting office, I could have something that might spark your love connection.

You're like, hi, Tammy.

Had any good chocolate chip cookies lately?

Pretty much.

Yeah.

So casual.

Yeah.

Okay, so back to the scene.

I have a little thing I spotted.

At five minutes, nine seconds, there is a poster hanging in the background of the scene.

It's over to the left of Michael's desk.

It says, diversity.

So that poster was made by Phil Shea using the hands of our hair and makeup crew.

Yes, that is their hands and like, I guess their arms, right?

Yes.

Yeah.

So now Pam has a talking head.

They've done their little chant.

Their cheer.

Their morning, you ugly cheer.

Yeah, yeah.

And she just said, listen, she's here.

She's part of this now.

That's right.

And I had a little catch at five minutes and 16 seconds.

What's up, Background Catch Queen?

This is an on-my-face catch.

Oh.

Did you notice in this episode that I have a darker pigmented lip and eyeshadow?

It's a much richer color.

No, I did not notice.

Oh my gosh.

Okay.

I noticed because this was a huge thing.

Listen, when you had dark nail polish out of nowhere, I noticed.

Your lipstick, I didn't quite notice.

We usually alternated between two neutral lip shades, but my makeup artist Laverne, she said, I really think we could go a little bolder for Pam.

She made her first sale last week.

Yeah, she's got her blazer.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So how can we continue to tell the story of her growing confidence?

So we went with a bolder lip.

I like it.

Thank you.

Our next scene is Charles and Dwight.

They're in Charles' office.

Note his shoulders, please.

Mm-hmm.

Also, please note that Rain's entire watch is exposed because his sleeves are too short.

Okay.

Five minutes, 39 seconds.

Right.

So basically, Charles wants to know if Dwight is happy at the company, you know, and he invites him out to drinks.

Mm-hmm.

So in the background of this scene, you can see Jim.

Jenna, John has angled his computer because he's clearly like surfing the internet or checking email or something.

So while I was watching the scene, the first time I just watched it just to watch it, then I was like, wait a second, John's doing email in the background and the way back this scene also has a line i love when charles says to dwight you're so focused and dwight says like a wolf thank you

well rain was asked in an interview what he thought drinks between dwight and charles might entail yeah and this was his answer he said probably charles getting really bored after about eight minutes and making up an excuse to leave he was also asked about his decision to choose dunder mifflin over michael Scott Paper Company.

What did he say?

He said, Dwight is loyal to whoever values loyalty the most.

And in this case, Dunder Mifflin honors loyalty with an actual paycheck.

And that is why he chose Dunder Mifflin.

I also want to point out in this scene that Charles is still drinking out of his Satiquoi Steel insulated coffee mug.

And I have to say, I think it's a betrayal.

You're out of the steel business, Charles.

Let it go.

Get a Dunder Mifflin insulated mug already.

Yeah.

What is your attachment to your Satakoi steel mug?

You know corporate gave him a mug, but he's not using it.

That's choice.

That's what I'm saying.

Yeah.

I think Michael knows this guy.

He's a steel man at heart.

Right.

This next scene is amazing.

Michael calls Dwight to ask about Dunder Mifflin's pricing.

for Ed's tires.

He wants to undercut them.

Right.

And this is when Dwight's internal conflict begins.

Yeah, he starts to waffle.

Well, because Charles has invited him to drinks.

Michael never invited him to drinks.

I know.

So he tells Michael something's come up.

And Michael's like, oh my gosh, is it Moes?

Did you cover up the well?

What is that backstory?

I don't know.

Has Moes fallen in the well?

Of course.

He's probably fallen and been gone for like two days, and then they find him in the well.

I love comedy like that.

It's just in there and then throws away.

Yeah, you just throw it away.

Michael's not getting it.

He's not.

Dwight starts kind of talking in code.

He's kind of like, things are changing fast.

And, you know, there's a cool new guy.

And I don't think he'd like it if I helped even my personal hero.

And Michael's like, what are you talking about?

What are you talking about?

So Pam and Ryan are like have to write on a notepad to help Michael understand what Dwight is saying.

And then.

Steve as Michael reads the notepad, all the expressions that come over Steve's face as Michael figures this out, I was blown away.

I said, give Steve all of the awards, and that's why I drew a trophy.

Seriously, though, this is an amazing performance.

It's so subtle and nuanced.

And Steve, I loved every single thing you did as Michael being clueless and then not believing the note they're holding up, but then figuring it out and then being like, oh my God, and then being betrayed, like all of it.

It is really hard to play realization as an actor.

Yeah.

Because you know the information.

You had to memorize it.

You had to read the script.

You know where the scene is going.

Yes.

And so to play all of that, it is like one of the hardest things to do as an actor.

And then to do it comedically, amazing.

Amazing.

We got a fan question about this scene from Kelton O

who said,

How is it that Pam and Ryan can hear both sides of this phone call?

Yeah.

They seem to hear Dwight so clearly through the phone.

Well, this is very funny, Kelton, because Rain was actually right off camera.

Yeah.

Doing his side of the phone call.

We could totally hear him.

Rain actually had to come into work that day.

He did not have anything else to shoot.

All he did was stand off camera and read his side of the phone call.

It's actually a thing.

It's called doing off camera work.

And that is often how different sides of a phone call are done.

We did not have the capability to like call into that office.

Right.

Like we did upstairs.

Because it was a closet and a fakey phone.

Yes.

I thought I could see how they were cheating it a little because Michael is kind of holding the phone out.

So you would assume if he had the volume pretty high up, it's a tiny room that you guys could probably hear.

We also had a fan catch from Maya R.

Who said this, Angela?

What?

This went right to my heart.

She said, I noticed a paper pro stapler on Pam and Ryan's table.

And my mom actually works for the company that sells these staplers.

It originated in Pennsylvania before merging with Bostitch.

Could this be why the stapler was used in this episode?

I don't know, Maya, but I brought my Paper Pro stapler today.

You did?

I got to try it out.

All right.

I brought champagne, Jenna brought a stapler.

Here it is.

Now watch.

Do I get to do it?

Yes.

I am going to do it with a single finger.

Wait, wait, here.

Now, I wish I'd brought a regular stapler.

I had meant to bring a regular stapler.

I'm sure there is one.

Okay, ready, watch this.

Can you hear the clicking mechanism?

Listen to the air pressure.

I heard that.

It is amazing.

Try it.

Okay, I'm going to try it.

Staple something.

I'm going to staple something.

It's not a regular stapler where you get a k junk.

It's like,

okay that's very hard you don't you can do it with one finger okay ready

oh yes i see what you're talking about there's like a spring or something

isa shut up i bought you a paper pro stapler sam i have one for you oh my god cassie i have one for you oh my gosh thank you you need to have it Here's the last thing I'll say about the stapler, I think.

I don't think you're done talking about it.

Don't make that promise.

Sometimes when we do these acting jobs, you acquire a new skill maybe that you didn't have before.

When I did Blades of Glory, I had to train with an ice skating coach.

I learned how to be quite a good ice skater.

Sure.

When I did walk hard, I took a little bit of horse riding lessons.

It's like a fun perk.

You get these skills.

Right.

Sometimes you get introduced to an item.

I remember when I did Splitting Up Together, there was just this amazing set of pajamas that I'd never heard of before.

And after wearing them on the show, I bought three pairs.

I am now a lifelong fan of Sass shoes.

Exactly.

That is what this paper pro stapler was for me.

And it was all thanks to Michael Scott Paper Company.

Well, there you go.

Before we go to break, I have one more thing.

to point out about this scene.

It's at six minutes, 11 seconds.

It is a very good shot of our second goldfish.

Oh, yeah.

Our first goldfish was orange.

That goldfish is gone.

This week, it is a red, orange, white, and black spotted fish.

And we got a letter from Jess L who said, I spent 10 years working in pet stores as an aquatic specialist, and pet industry employees have been wondering for years whether or not the changing of the goldfish were a planned bit.

Now, we said last week it was.

Yeah.

But she goes on to say, anyone who works in fish departments knows goldfish deaths are common.

And a lot of us in the industry assume that the props people chose to make a bit out of the situation.

And just so you know,

goldfish should have about 10 gallons of water per fish and it requires filtration to truly thrive in captivity.

She, I think, wanted us to know that because any of you out there with goldfish trying to keep them alive, that could really help.

I think that's solid advice.

All right, that's all I got.

Well, I have something delicious coming up with Jim and Andy that I can't wait to share.

Ooh, it just brought me so much joy.

And why don't we take a break and I'll come back with that.

I can't wait.

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All right, we are back.

I love this Jim and Andy scene.

Jim is going to approach Andy

and

he's going to say, hey, Andy, you know what?

I've been thinking about what you said.

Andy's like, noish.

And Jim's like, I just don't know if I can do it.

Andy's like, that's interesting because I hear what you're saying is that you want to do it, which means you can do it.

Believe me, I broke up with Angela and I'm like the happiest guy ever.

I mean, I am so happy.

I am so happy.

Like total freedom, you know?

And Jim says, it's just that Pam gets me through the day.

Like I really rely on her.

I'm pretty emotionally needy.

And Andy says, and you know what?

I'm here for you.

Let me be your traveling pants.

That was all scripted.

And in the script, it says that Jim and Andy do a little knuckles bump.

Yeah.

And they just simply say, knuckles.

And that's the end of the scene.

Okay.

Well, in our version, Jim goes to give the knuckles and Andy leans in and puts his cheek in front of the knuckles.

And Jim just starts to laugh.

And he's like, dude, you know I meant knuckles.

And he's like, yeah, knuckles.

All right.

So Ed just improvised that, that whole moment.

Go to eight minutes 26 seconds.

John is laughing at Ed because he didn't know Ed was going to lean his face into the knuckle bump.

And it made it in.

And it just brought me joy because I just see these two guys and I see their friendship at eight minutes 26 seconds.

Well, when Andy said, I'll be your traveling pants.

That made me think of our director Ken Kwapis, who directed the sisterhood of the traveling pants.

Yes, and you and I went together to go see it.

I remember watching that movie because there was this really

handsome.

It made us want to go to Greece.

Remember after that movie, we're like, we should go to Greece.

We really should.

We should still go to Greece.

We should.

Well, now we have another scene out by the dumpster.

Michael is going to meet Dwight again, but guess what?

It's a setup.

Oh, yeah.

Charles is there.

And Charles is going to tell Michael to leave Dunder Mifflin alone and to stop pestering Dwight for info.

I have two things to point out about this scene.

What are they?

The first one is from the shooting draft script, and it's something that did not make it in the episode, and I really wish it had.

Michael immediately notices Dwight's shirt.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And he says, why are you dressed like that?

And he turns to Charles and goes, are you making him wear that?

What about his attack readiness, you fool?

Oh, what a great callback.

I know.

I thought it was so sweet that Michael was like, like, oh, yeah, Dwight has to wear short sleeves so he can attack someone.

Yes.

I had asked James Carey if he would send me the call sheets for this episode.

There were a few things I wanted to investigate.

And I noticed that there was a note for this scene that said,

we need to shoot this scene at 3.30 p.m.

with three exclamation points.

I asked Randy about this.

Why?

Yeah.

Did Idris have to go somewhere?

Yeah, why?

At 3.30 p.m., it wasn't.

Yeah.

He said it was the light.

Ah.

That this section of the alleyway was on the far side of stage two, and it was kind of a deep canyon, he said, between the stage and the hedges.

It was on the far side of the warehouse where we filmed the warehouse scenes.

Yes.

And he said it's really, really difficult to hide lights there.

So you have to use natural light.

And if you shoot it too early or too late, the sun is blocked by the hedges or by the warehouse.

But I guess at 3:30, the angle is just right.

So I guess at 3.30 is when we had our bird funeral.

It must have been.

3.30 in the alley.

I am thinking of how many scenes I had in that alley.

That's where Angela and Dwight would meet, and she gave him sprinkles list of ointments and things like that.

And years later, that's where I say jazz is stupid.

It's been at 3.30.

3.30 in the alley.

You can set your watch by it.

Well, Michael's going to return to Michael Scott Paper Company, and he's going to try to tell them what happened.

And basically, he got a P-filled water balloon thrown in his face.

That's what he tells Pam and Ryan.

Yes.

I mean, they're like, clearly at some point in his life, that actually happened, right?

Must have.

Oh, that's terrible.

Well, they have to really decipher what that means

so they can figure out what the heck is happening.

Well, Michael's going to call Dwight.

And he says, I'm going to steal all your clients and I'm going to kill them in front of you.

Yeah.

I'm going to come at you and I'm going to come at you hard.

And then both Dwight and Michael try to call Dwight's biggest client, the whale, Mr.

Schofeld, from

HarperCollins.

HarperCollins, who is publishing our book, Office BFF.

I know.

Jenna, when I re-watched this, I was like, oh my gosh, this is synchronicity.

Does this mean our book is going to be printed on Dunder Mifflin paper?

What?

That would be amazing.

I mean, that's they're a client, right?

Our book is being published like on the East Coast.

It was really cool, though, because of all the book publishers out there.

We're with HarperCollins.

And then Dwight says HarperCollins.

And I was like, oh my God.

I know.

Should we give a book update, by the way?

I want everyone to know we made it through that crazy document.

I figured it out.

Angela figured it out.

That's saying something.

Listen, Joan.

She didn't think she was going to figure it out.

And I said, you can do it.

I really had a moment, you guys, like for real, where I was like, Um, this isn't gonna happen, and I'm sorry.

This is, I can't do it, but then I did it.

You did it.

I made myself a little cheat sheet that I kept by my computer.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, listen, I hope I did it.

I know.

We haven't gotten any feedback on it yet.

Yeah, maybe we're gonna get like a note back that was like, well, way to go, ladies.

You completely effed it up.

I know.

And okay, so we have two more rounds of that.

And then the book is like locked and it goes to the printer.

Oh, lordy.

So yeah.

Can't make any changes.

I know.

It's coming up.

I showed it to my kids.

Yeah.

I showed them the photo layout and they were like, oh my gosh, because it's finally a book.

Do you know what I mean?

Yeah.

It's not just like you and I turning in all these pages.

Yes.

And it looks like a book visually in a PDF.

I showed it to Lee.

Uh-huh.

And I said, oh, do you want to see how the photos kind of lay out?

And I thought he would look at it.

Honestly, I thought he would just glance at it.

Yeah, then he would be like, oh my God, it looks cool.

He went through every single page.

Like, but like he was compelled to.

He was like, this is amazing.

Aw, he was like, Dr.

Thibodeau Lee said amazing.

Lee said amazing.

He said, it's so personal.

It's wow.

He's like, these pictures.

He already knew the stories.

Right.

And he just was like, people are going to love this.

That's what he said.

And it meant so much to me because we've, you know, sometimes you make something in a bubble and you don't know.

Right.

We like it.

We love it.

So to me, that, oh, that was such a confidence boost.

Oh, yeah.

That's what I needed to try to figure out the formatting document.

I needed that boost.

I needed a glass of wine.

Well, let's get back to the episode.

Michael does finally get Mr.

Schofield on the phone by promising him a set of tickets to the Penguins game.

The Wilkes-Burry Penguins game.

Look what I'm wearing.

And Angela is wearing her very own personal Wilkes-Berry Penguins hockey jersey with her name on the back.

Yeah, I'm number one, Kinsey.

So in 2007, I went to the office convention with Craig Robinson, Kate Flannery, and Brian Baumgartner.

And we all went to a Wilkes-Berry Penguins game.

We got to go out on the ice.

We got to meet Tux, their mascot, and we all got a jersey.

I've kept it all these years, and I wore it today for our 100th episode.

That is so so cool.

Here's our picture, Jenna.

I'll show you.

Look at us on the ice.

Oh my gosh.

Is that cool?

It was such a fun day.

Were you nervous when you were walking on the ice?

I wasn't going to just wear your regular shoes.

I was.

And I had these little boots on.

And I was like, dear Lord, please don't let me bust my butt in front of all these people.

Did they have little carpets down or not?

No, the beginning, but then we walked all the way to the center and there was no more carpet.

Yes.

I got to go to the All-Stars game in St.

Louis.

Oh, so cool.

And I got to be like a coach on the sidelines.

It was really fun.

Yes.

And then at the end, I had to walk out on the ice.

Yeah.

And I was so nervous that I was going to fall.

And David Pasternak from the Boston Bruins, he came over and he like gave me his arm.

And it was like a big fangirl moment for me.

Well, I held Kate Flannery's arm.

Who did the Penguins play that day?

Oh, they played the Albany River Rats.

Oh, yeah.

I just love hockey.

I can't say it more.

I have to say, it was a really fun time.

Well, Michael's thing with the tickets is going to work because Dwight is going to get a call from Mr.

Schofield, and he's going to say he's leaning toward Michael Scott Paper Company.

So Dwight calls Michael.

He's like, I will agree to meet you 100 feet.

from our original meeting place.

They're not going to meet at their same secret location.

Mix it up, guys.

100 feet away at high noon.

Yes.

And Michael tells Dwight to walk 100 feet toward the sun.

But that's right above you.

It's not possible.

Dwight's clearly confused.

I have a whole thing about Dwight's undies.

Oh, yes.

We're going to see some green undies on Dwight.

Of course.

Of course we will.

Not just undies, but whole torso, the whole shebang.

There is nothing Rain Wilson loves more than exposing his torso.

It's exposing Dwight's belly.

It's true.

I had to know.

I took a screen grab.

I texted it to Rain and I said, Rain, are these your green undies?

Were they actually yours?

And this is what he wrote back.

And I quote, those were provided by wardrobe, my love.

Aw.

So I said, oh my God, Rain, you had to have a wardrobe meeting about underwear.

And these were the pair that were picked.

It's interesting because if you look, there are a few other times on the show where Dwight is in his underwear, like when he's sleeping on the couch.

Yes.

We had a fan question from Joanna Kay, Margaret F., and Natalia L.

During the scene where Dwight is buckling his pants after showing Michael that he isn't wearing a wire, do I hear a rooster crowing in the background?

Yes, guys.

Yes, you do.

It's at 13 minutes, 34 seconds.

There was a house

in our vicinity, and they had some chickens and a rooster, and it was a challenge.

Yeah.

Because you can't make a rooster not crow when it wants to crow.

Also, Denna, do you remember the year that there was like a flock of parrots?

Yes.

That like were living in that tree.

And parrots are so loud, you guys.

They're like,

so I was like.

And when they're in a group, they get a bolster of confidence.

They really do.

They're super chatty.

I remember this because I was like Kenneth Paul.

who did my makeup, I was like, there is a flock of parrots.

And he said, Angela Faith, because he always called you by your first and middle name.

He said, Angela Faith, don't you mean a pandemonium of parrots?

Is that what a group of parrots is called?

I guess so.

Oh.

We also had a fan question from Charlotte M.

She's wondering, where the heck is Rain Wilson's mic pack?

Right?

Yeah.

I'll tell you what, there was no mic pack.

They had to capture all of his sound on a boom microphone only.

Yeah.

They couldn't fit it under his paws.

So.

What?

Has happened to you?

That's champagne.

That's the champagne talking.

That crept up on us.

It did.

Slowly.

Champagne sneaks up on you.

That's the problem with champagne.

Champagne makes me fun.

It does?

Yeah.

What can I expect from this afternoon?

I don't know.

I had to stop drinking it because I have to drive home.

Lady, we skipped something a while back and I want to bring it up.

It's when Andy's in the kitchen and Jim enters and he's doing like this whole melodrama of messing up a sales call.

He's beating himself up and he.

It's like he's in a soap opera.

Yes.

And then he like drop kicks his lunch across the room.

Steps on it.

Yes.

We got some fan mail.

People wanted to know if that lunch bit was an improv.

It was not.

In fact, in the script, it said, Jim dropkicks his lunch bag.

So I just want to say what that means.

When there's that simple line in a script that says, Jim dropkicks his lunch bag, when Phil Shea is going through a script.

and he sees that sentence, he's going to highlight that.

Right.

He's going to go to production and he's going to say, how many takes of this scene do you think we'll do?

How many lunch bags do I need to make?

How many sandwiches do I need to make?

All of it.

He'll probably also go to John and say, what are the odds you improvise taking a bite of it after you kick it?

What kind of sandwich do you want in there?

Everything.

He would be so meticulous.

And then he would have to make.

a bunch of identical lunch bags.

And then, like before, we would have a crew member off camera ready to fly in that's the lingo fly in a new lunch bag and they would also probably have john try to kick it into the same corner every time yes that is how that little bitty sentence affected a bunch of people now lady it's time to go to alfredo's yeah michael pam and ryan are gonna go to alfredo's they're supposed to be meeting dwight there because they're supposed to be like reconciling at alfredo's pizza cafe dwight is such a good liar because I feel like the lying is in the details.

And he knew he was never going to meet Michael for lunch.

No, he's actually putting a fish in their ceiling.

Yes, he's sabotaging them.

He loves to sabotage.

He's stealing Michael's Rolodex.

Right.

He knew he wasn't going to go.

And Michael said, How about Cooper's?

And Dwight's like, No, I had fish last week.

Alfredo's.

Like, this is

really sneaky.

Very much so.

Yeah.

Well, Randy told us that the vent where Dwight throws the fish was not real and it was actually kind of difficult to construct.

That Michael Gallenberg had to consult with our builder, Tim James, and they had to like drop the ceiling and create this vent.

And they also had to build in sort of like a plastic receptacle to catch that fish because the fish was real.

What?

It was a real fish.

It was not a prop fish.

No.

It was a real dead fish.

I mean, it was like a fish they bought at the store.

Right.

So it was a dead fish.

It was a dead fish, yeah.

Stinky dead fish.

Wait a second.

Let me understand this correctly.

They had to build a fake ceiling with a fake drop down with a fake vent that could also hold dead fish.

Yeah.

It would have fallen through otherwise.

Yeah.

I can't believe we didn't use a fakey fish.

I was shocked.

Yeah.

Randy said it was a real fish.

I wasn't there.

You know, later when we come in and discover it, we're totally faking that we smell it.

It was gone by then.

So wait a second.

At the end, in that montage, you guys take the fish out of the ceiling.

Did you have to touch a real dead fish?

Oh my gosh, lady.

First of all, I did not remember that we did that scene.

Even though I watched this episode three times, I was clearly so distracted by Dwight's

sleeves that you didn't notice you touched a fish.

And I have no memory of it.

But I mean, I guess we did.

According to Randy, I guess I did touch a dead fish.

Have you ever done a prank like that?

No.

No?

I don't like pranks.

Okay.

You know me.

I know you.

I, in college, I had a group of friends who got really into pranking.

They were like next-level pranksters.

Here's an example.

They took a dead fish and they put it in the back of this guy, Nick's toilet.

They lifted the back of the toilet and they put that fish in the toilet water, you know, that's in the back.

No one ever lifts that thing.

Unless your toilet's not flushing and you've got to jiggle that little thing, no one lifts the back of the toilet, right?

No.

Yeah.

That fish was there a long time.

Did it get so stinky?

It got so stinky.

We would go over to Nick.

He lived in a house with a group of guys and we'd be like, God, Nick, your house stinks.

He's like, oh no, it's the plumbing or something.

I've had three different guys out here.

Couldn't figure out what it was for like a month.

Oh, this is so disgusting.

It's so disgusting.

And then there's a certain point where the smell really zeroes in on one area.

And he finally lifts the back thing and it was so foul.

It was like maggots and disgustingness.

He wasn't noticing that like the water in his toilet was affecting him.

I don't know what to tell you, lady.

I don't know what to tell you.

Did Nick find this amusing?

Oh, it was on.

After that, it really, the pranking got really out of control.

They got really into pranking.

Here's my thing about pranking: what?

For me personally, to like get through a day

just with my own thoughts in my head and everything life is throwing at me.

Yes.

You know what?

I don't need a prank.

Your prank.

Yeah.

I don't need it.

Yeah.

Although I did do one Christmas prank once.

What?

Someone.

What?

It was like, you know, a group thing, and you were specifically supposed to do a joke gift.

Right.

And I had to come up with like a joke Christmas present.

So, what I did was the roommate of the person's name who I picked.

Yeah.

I said, over the course of one month, will you slowly just sort of steal things from your roommate, like a single shoe?

Like, I gave them a list of things.

Oh, yours is slow play.

Yeah.

I was just like, have little things go missing, like maybe favorite coffee mug, and then at the very end, toothbrush.

And then at the Christmas party, I had wrapped up all of the missing items into a box.

And then that was the gift.

Oh, that's kind of fun.

All your stuff that's gone missing for a month.

Yeah.

That was my joke gift.

I like that.

I am not much of a prankster.

I'm a lame pranker.

Well, I'm glad you're a lame pranker lady because I don't want pranks in my life.

And you're my BFF.

And so I'm happy that I don't have a BFF that is like.

devoted to pranking.

Yeah, that would really suck, wouldn't it?

It really would.

I have a location breakdown for Alfredo's Pizza Cafe.

Let's hear it.

This was a restaurant in Woodland Hills, California called Nicolas,

and it is owned by a husband and wife that were friends with our set designer, Michael Gallenberg.

Oh.

And Randy said that we did not have to do much redressing of this restaurant at all.

We were able to pretty much just use it as it was.

That's great.

Randy would also like you to know that Nicolas has the best chopped salad in the valley.

I looked it up.

It looks really good and it costs $16.

I would love a chopped salad right now.

I know.

That's what we should do after.

Let's swing by Nicolas or something.

And have a chopped salad?

Have a chopped salad.

Well, in order to shoot this scene, we had to get there at 6.30 in the morning and we had to shoot at 7.30 because we had to do it before the restaurant was open.

But after this, BJ and I just got to go home.

That's all I had to do that day.

I remember I was back home by like 10 a.m.

My workday was done.

Steve and the rest of the crew did a whole day of locations.

But while I was looking at the call sheet, I saw this fascinating detail, which was the van schedule.

Ooh.

Do you remember these van schedules when we would shoot on location, lady?

No.

You don't?

Oh, see, this is the thing I used to love to do where I read every detail of a call sheet.

Yes, you would.

I would show up and be like, why is Access Hollywood here?

And you'd be like, Angela, it's on the call sheet.

And they sent put a memo in your trailer probably last week.

She stepped right over that.

She really would.

There'd be a pile of memos on her floor.

Papers to the side.

All right.

So when you shoot on location, you park your car and they have the hair and makeup trailers in a big parking lot and they call it base camp.

This is where the caterers will set up their food tent.

It's where you eat lunch.

But a lot of times base camp is really far away from the actual shooting location.

And that was the case here.

It was about a 15-minute van ride to get from base camp to Nicola's restaurant.

So they had to have a van schedule schedule to shuttle all of these people to set.

And here's what it said.

It said breakfast would be available as of 5.15, and then you could take one of six vans to set.

They left at 5.42 a.m.,

6 a.m.,

6.12 a.m.

And they designated this van for our grip and electric crew, 6.30 a.m.

And then there was one last van at 6.42 a.m.

And in all caps, it said, This is the late van.

You did not want to be on the late van.

No, no, no, no.

There were also additional shuttles for the cast and the background actors that were set to leave at 7 a.m.

So the idea was the crew would get there, set up all the lights, and then the actors would land.

The hair and makeup folks would ride with the actors.

That's the van schedule.

That was Randy's job to make that van schedule.

He did a fantastic job.

So Dwight never makes it to the restaurant.

He calls and says he hit a bear.

And Michael just believes it.

Not just Michael.

I will have you know that Pam and Ryan don't even raise an eyebrow.

They don't even look up from their menu when Michael says Dwight hit a bear, but he's on the way.

How many bears has Dwight hit?

Why is this so believable?

They get back to Michael Scott Paper Company.

They discover they've been robbed.

Dwight calls.

Michael is like, I don't have time to talk.

We've been robbed.

And once again, Pam and Ryan are like, it was Dwight.

Yeah.

This is when Dwight is going to start poaching the clients off the Rolodex.

And to get back at him, Michael is going to eat his meatball palm that he brought back for him, which is so funny because Dwight says, I knew you were going to do that.

And that's why I made you order it because it's the worst thing.

The worst thing on their menu.

And then the way Steve is so disgusted by it.

Why is it so funny to watch Steve eat food that he's disgusted with?

It's hilarious.

Well, in Casual Friday, he's going to eat everybody's lunch.

And it's very, very funny.

I can't wait to get to that.

There's some good bloopers from that, too.

Listen, there was a deleted scene as Dwight is poaching everyone's clients.

He really crosses the line with Ryan because Ryan's uncle chooses Dwight over the Michael Scott Paper Company.

What?

Yeah, and there's some really good Pam sass.

We got to hear it.

Dwight just got Howard Family Dry Cleaners.

Uncle Dave?

Old jerk is undercutting us big time.

He is actually taking a loss and paying the difference out of pocket.

That's my family.

When you mess with my family, I can't be responsible for my actions.

When are you ever responsible for your actions?

Get off my ass, you hag.

Hey, hey, hey, something about that seems inappropriate.

Something about that seems inappropriate.

He can't put his finger on it.

I love the Brian Pam like rivalry.

I just live for it.

I love it, too.

I mean, I just loved working with these guys for this period of time.

I bet it was so much fun.

Well, now we're going to get into a pretty fun bit where Michael is going to walk in to HarperCollins with Dwight on the phone.

He's like, I'm going to let you listen to me still, your biggest client.

And Dwight's like, no,

and takes off.

And he gets in the car all the while listening.

That was so funny.

Rain in the car when he was like, paper is the manure.

And on-time delivery is the soil.

I wrote down that quote too.

Do Do I need that on a mug?

We might need it on a mug.

Paper is the manure.

We had a fan question from Sydney S who said, how did you guys film that scene of Dwight driving to Mr.

Schofield's office?

Was Steve really on the other end of the phone?

No, Steve was not on the other end of the phone.

And I talked with Randy about this.

Rain is really driving.

He's free driving.

He is not hooked up to anything.

It looked like it to me, just the way he pulled into the parking lot.

Yeah, the whole time.

So they had LAPD officers on motorcycles.

So no one would sort of interfere with the shot or rain driving.

Yes, correct.

And there's also a crew van following behind.

But here's how they got that shot.

Matt Sohn, our camera operator, was in the front seat.

Oh.

Filming rain.

Our sound engineer, Ben Patrick, was in the back seat recording sound.

And our director, Paul Fieg, was also in the back seat.

That was not a big back seat.

I have been in that car.

That is tiny.

I know.

And Randy said we did not have a two-way phone setup.

It was just too unreliable.

And so Randy's guess is that Paul Feig was reading Steve's dialogue so that Rain could react to it.

Yeah.

Amazing.

I wish we had a picture of those four guys in the car.

Can we talk about what happens when Dwight arrives at Mr.

Schofield's office?

Finally, I lived for this.

I had to know if this was scripted or improvised.

So Dwight is going to run in.

First of all, he's changing into his mustard shirt.

I loved that detail.

I loved that detail.

And then when he gets to the receptionist, he does this crazy spin move.

And then Dwight says, spin move.

And I was like, did Rain improvise that?

I've got to know.

Jenna, it was 100% in the script.

Everything, even the spin move, all of it.

I found an old interview with Rain where he said.

that one time he did a somersault

and he said he thought that it would look extra stealthy.

When they watched it back, it looked, quote, like a manatee doing ballet at SeaWorld.

He also said they did about five takes.

I also have a little guest star breakdown for Mr.

Schofield's receptionist.

She was played by Angela Campola Sanders, who was our casting associate on the office since season four.

This is her only acting credit, but she played Mr.

Schofield's receptionist.

Pretty much everyone in our casting office made it into the episode at some point.

I love that.

I do too.

Dwight is about to dig himself into a big ol' hole because he doesn't understand Michael's Rolodex or Michael's color-coding info.

Michael has a talking head where he says, I color code all my info.

I wrote gay son in green.

Green means go, so I know to go ahead and shut up about it.

Yes, and orange means orange you glad you didn't bring it up.

Most colors mean don't say it.

Yeah.

But Dwight doesn't know that.

Yes, so Dwight is basically saying all the things that are color-coded to not be said.

Right.

Well, before we wrap up this heavy competition between Mike.

Wait.

This Mike.

This episode.

No.

That's the champagne.

I know.

And the champagne, you have a nickname for everyone in your champagne brain.

Mike.

Mike.

Dwighty.

Okay.

I think we should go back and wrap up this Andy Jim storyline.

Okay.

We both had to stop drinking champagne, by the way.

We did.

It just, it's so interesting.

Scotch and Splenda was like, wa-boo, wa-boo.

But champagne, we're like, I can't talk right now.

Yeah, I still really do love the scotch and splenda.

Me too.

I have to say, it's a really good drink.

And we got some letters from people who said it's basically an old-fashioned.

If we'd added a few orange vinegars, that's what it tasted like.

That's right.

Because I guess you would add like a sugar,

a muddled kind of sugary syrup to the scotch and so that's what the splenda is doing yeah but champagne just makes us go what what are we talking about what's happening i know okay all right

see i know i'm like what am i talking about okay so andy and jim andy is gonna tell the whole bullpen that jim is upset and phyllis is gonna be like um Andy, I think Jim is just messing with you.

And then there's that smug shot of Jim in the kitchen looking out through the blinds with that grin on his face.

We had a fan question from Raya H and Punette B.

Can we talk about how douchey Jim is being in this episode?

Andy was being really supportive and genuinely cared for Jim.

And while Andy's concern might have been misguided or nosy, I think it came from a good place.

We'd really like to get your take.

on this prank that Jim pulls on Andy because we think the prank might have been a little mean-spirited.

I didn't care for it.

I didn't either.

I do think this is a mean-spirited joke.

I mean, we already know I don't like pranks and I don't love, especially pranks that at someone's expense that play with their emotions.

Right.

I think it was too big of a reaction to Andy's kind of nosy meddling.

And he does have this nice speech, Jim, at the end to Andy.

He's like, listen, I know Angela broke your heart, but you're going to find someone else.

You really will.

So I feel like that was the moment where the writers were like, you know, Jim's not a bad guy.

Maybe he was trying to show Andy something, but I just didn't like the prank.

Me either.

Yeah.

Well, I'm glad we discussed that.

Yeah.

We're with you.

So this episode ends with more cheese ball fun.

Michael, Ryan, and Pam, they're trying to see how many cheese puffs can they fit in their mouth.

32.

That's the record.

Yeah.

And then the phone rings, and Michael answers it, and he's got a mouth full of cheese puffs and we're all laughing.

And while this is happening, you can hear a Michael talking head where he's saying he wanted to start a company and not a war.

Well, this talking head was added later.

This was not in the original script.

Steve shot this a couple weeks after we shot the original episode.

And all of this footage of us doing this cheese puffs bit,

this was originally going to be at the end of the cold open.

So it was all of that was going to live at the top of the episode.

Yes.

But they thought it would be funnier to end the cold open on Pam getting the cheese puffs while she's yawning.

And then they gave this episode this new tag with the cheese ball bit.

This was not the original tag for the episode.

So instead of this bookend of cheese puffs at the beginning and end, there was a tag.

And we did film it.

And I want to share it with you guys.

So Andy is in the conference room and he is selling off his wedding stuff.

He's determined.

Still.

Still, well, you know, he didn't get buyers from Jim and Pam.

So in the tag, he's selling it to the rest of the gang.

And they're all bidding on things.

Stanley buys the rice bags, and Creed decides to get in on the action, too.

I thought we had to hear a little bit of it.

Why are you here, Stanley?

Over the rice.

Boom!

Sold.

100 bags of rice.

Stanley Hudson.

Creed, how would you like a crispy new tuxedo for your funeral?

I'll take the bottom half.

I want to go out the same way I came in, shirtless.

And everyone else starts making bids too, asking questions on things.

Angela is not in the scene, but she walks by and had this talking head.

It was in the shooting draft.

I don't know why I'm down.

I guess I always thought that Andy would save the stuff from our wedding just in case.

No, it's stupid.

Just in case I married someone else and he decided to throw us a wedding.

I told you it was stupid.

I guess there were some things in there that Angela liked.

Yeah, and maybe she hoped would make a comeback.

So there you have it, guys.

100 episodes.

Oh, my gosh.

We got it in just before the holidays.

Yeah.

I'm glad because that's always like a very crazy time.

It is.

The Halloween to New Year's.

It's a sprint to the end, I always say.

Well, listen, we're going to have a few breaks coming up.

We do take a break at Thanksgiving.

We take a break at Christmas and New Year's.

We will have some great reruns of episodes with fun little new stuff at the top.

So be sure to listen to that stuff.

But listen, Ange, we got this letter because you know I said I was going through the mail.

Yeah.

From Susannah G

and I wanted to share it.

I really appreciated it.

Okay, let's hear it.

Susanna says, not sure you'll see this, but I wanted to say something to you both.

First, you are my people.

You are silly, loud, honest, organized, Jenna, me too.

And just so related.

You can put Angela in there for organized.

It's okay, Susanna.

But more importantly, I noticed your value of mental health mainly depicted to me by the breaks that you take sometimes between podcast episodes.

Not all podcasts do that.

And as a fan, I always look forward to listening to next week's episode.

So when I hear rerun content, at times it's initially a bummer.

However, it's always followed by thoughts of, well, perhaps they needed more prep time so that they didn't have to sacrifice family time or self-care.

And as a hustling mom with a career of my own, two small children, and a law enforcement hubby with crazy schedules, demands, and stresses, my life is chaotic to say the least.

But I'm learning more and more my stability and that of my family comes from not sacrificing those two things.

So I commend you for staying committed to your values and still getting to do what you love and with your bestie.

What a blessing.

Maybe I got all this wrong and that's not what's going on at all, but if I'm on the nose, I simply want to offer encouragement to keep it up your way.

I'll be waiting for next week's episode whenever you get to it, sending virtual hugs to you both.

That is so sweet.

Susanna?

You got it 100% right.

Yeah, I feel seen, Susanna.

Yes, it really meant a lot to me because I feel like Angela and I are two gals with a very strong work ethic.

We love making this show, but it is also important to us that we reserve holiday time, a little spring break time, a little summer time just for our families.

Yeah.

For our mental health breaks.

And so we do take time off for that.

You know, it also means that our team here gets a break.

That's right.

Everyone gets a break.

So thank you, Susanna.

I really appreciate it.

And just know that we will put some fun stuff at the top of those rerun episodes so that we don't leave you hanging on those breaks.

That's right.

And you guys, I really want to say thank you so much to Creed Bratton as well for doing that sweet little intro for us.

And you guys, he has a new single that just dropped.

It's called Breathe Easy.

It's available on Apple Music.

And I thought we could listen to a little bit of it as we say goodbye.

Happy 100th episode.

Happy 100th.

easily

now

Pull back

the darkened shade

redefined.

Thank you for listening to Office Ladies.

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

Our show is executive produced by Cody Fisher.

Our producer is Cassie Jerkins.

Our sound engineer is Sam Kiefer, and our associate producer is Ainsley Bubico.

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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