Happy Hour

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I'm Jenna Fisher.

And I'm Angela Kinsey.

We were on the office together.

And we're best friends.

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

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

We're the office ladies.

Hello, everybody.

It's a Monday.

We are slipping into your feed early this week because after this, we are going to go on a vacay.

Vacation.

My birthday's coming up.

It's summer.

We're going to go spend some time with our families.

That's right.

We'll be back on July 13th with Secretary's Day with special guest Ellie Kemper.

Oh, it's so fun.

But today, we're going to talk to you all about Happy Hour.

It is season six, episode 21, written by BJ Novak, directed by Matt Sohn.

Would you like a summary?

Boy, would I.

Oscar organizes a happy hour for everyone in the office as an excuse to spend time with Matt from the warehouse.

Pam invites a friend to the bar as a kind of setup for Michael because what is she thinking?

Pam, Pam, Pam, Pam.

But the setup is foiled by Michael's alter ego, Date Mike.

Meanwhile, Andy and Erin are trying to keep their dating life a secret to avoid any drama that might come from openly dating a fellow co-worker.

But in the end, Andy has a pretty fantastic grand announcement.

He does.

And one thing to add to your summary: Angela's going to debut some bright red lipstick.

I noticed that, and I was hoping you were going to talk about about it.

Oh, I will.

Fast fact number one, this episode was directed by our camera operator, Matt Sohn.

This was the first episode of The Office that he directed.

He's directed many more.

We've talked about him a lot.

Yes, because he's an amazing, awesome person.

We were so excited for him to direct.

Yeah, well, he said we were very supportive, but he also said we gave him a little shit throughout the week.

Well, it's because we had all become such close friends.

It's true.

So we messed with him a little bit, but it was like the way you tease someone you love.

Well, as you can tell, I reached out to Matt.

He shared some of his memories of directing, but he also gave us some sh

because we've not had him on the podcast.

Oh, he threw us some shade.

I want to point out my memory is that Rain gave him the most sh

on set.

Yeah.

You might be right.

I mean, that tracks.

Right.

I told Matt I was kind of shocked that he hasn't been on the podcast because I feel like we talk about him all the time.

I mean, he's the one who gets all of the background

glances and everything.

He's the reason half of accounting stuff makes it in.

Well, here's what Matt had to say.

He said that Randall Einhorn was the cinematographer for this episode, and that made everything...

a lot easier because he and Randall both operated the cameras for years.

They had worked together a long, long time.

He said he had the advantage of knowing the material very well, knowing the world very well.

He felt like he had everyone's trust, so he didn't have to do a lot of catch-up or make any introductions.

And then he also sent in this audio clip about what it meant to him to get to direct this episode.

I was a camera operator on the show since season one and was very fortunate that Greg Daniels gave me the opportunity to direct my first episode of television.

You know, Randall Einhorn, Dave Rogers, Dean Holland, Claire Scanlon were all crew members who also got this this opportunity.

And all of us are full-time directors today because of Greg Daniels.

His kindness and generosity to let us get these opportunities, you know, led to my career plus many other careers.

Well, that is so true.

And we've talked about that many times about how Greg was such a great creative collaborator and opened the doors for so many people.

Yeah.

All right, are you ready for fast fact number two?

I guess so.

All right, moving on really quickly.

Well, I have a fan question from Charlie B.

and Tacoma, Washington.

Were the scenes at Sid and Dexter's, which is where we go for happy hour, actually filmed at a Dave and Buster's?

The answer is, sort of.

It was a former Dave and Buster's that is now called Jillian's.

It was at Universal City Walk.

Do people know what Universal City Walk is?

Well, you know, we have Universal Studios and they actually have sound stages where people are filming regularly different TV shows, movies.

But then in the back of the studio, you have a whole theme park, like up on this hilltop above it.

And there's all the rides and like everything.

Yeah.

And then the Universal City Walk is kind of like this big outdoor mall that's filled with restaurants and a movie theater and Jillian's.

Inside Jillian's, They had all those games, all the arcade games and pool tables, but there were two games games that we had to bring in because they were specified in the script and they were not actually at the location.

Which ones?

Wait, wait, wait.

I'm going to guess.

Okay.

The dance thing.

Yes.

Okay.

The basketball hoop thing?

Nope, that was there.

Ah.

Hmm.

It figures prominently in a plot that you are involved in, Angela.

Oh, whack-a-mole!

Whack-a-mole!

That's right.

That was info thanks to Randy Cordre.

And then I also asked Matt about shooting at this location because I was like, Matt, you finally get to direct an episode and it's not at Dunder Mifflin.

The majority of it happens at this location that we've never gone to ever.

And you know the wheels come off whenever we go on location.

Oh, we don't travel well.

Here is what Matt had to say about shooting on location.

You know, one of the biggest challenges for this episode was that it was almost entirely shot on location.

Charles McDougall, another one of the directors from the office, gave me a great piece of advice.

He told me to go to the location and to just sit and watch to understand where people hang out, you know, where the waiters and waitresses travel and how people naturally work and play in that environment.

So the weekend before we started shooting, I spent several hours at the Dave and Busters at Universal City Walk, where we were shooting the episode.

And, you know, I just sat and watched so I understood how to make the place feel as natural and real as possible when we were shooting the episode there.

I thought it was super helpful and worked really great in the episode.

That's amazing advice.

So smart.

Incredible.

Way to go, Charles McDougal.

Yeah.

Action!

Action!

I want to point out one thing.

There is a DVD commentary for this episode.

It has Matt Sohn, Brian, Oscar, BJ, and myself.

And Matt talked about shooting at Universal Universal Studios and that it was unique for us because we had never shot anything there on the actual Universal property, even though we were an NBC Universal show.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, the name Sidden Dexters, the reason we called it that, there's a special reason.

Matt sent in an audio clip about that, too.

On a fun side note, the Dave and Busters was renamed Sid and Dexters after my kids.

It was a pitch that I had made to the writers that they seemed to like.

I'm not sure the name actually made it into the show, but I have a Sid and Dexters sign hanging up in my office from the episode.

I enjoy getting to see that.

It makes me laugh.

It definitely made it in the show.

There are signs all throughout the bar.

I took screen grabs that say Sidden Dexters, which, you know, is his children, Sidney and Dexter.

But Matt, it's in.

Oh, it's very in.

I don't think any characters say the name of the place.

No, but it's just there.

It's all over.

Yeah, it's on some of the games and it's on a little window as you walk in past the bouncer.

Are you ready for Fast Fact Number Three?

Yes, and then after that, I have something from my digital clutter.

Oh, so you're going to get to play your Sting.

I realized I need a Sting for Fast Fact number three

because I was a lady who Googled.

Oh, we need a lady who Googled Sting.

We really do.

It's new technology.

Guess what I Googled?

Wait, wait.

Let me think.

The episode is called Happy Hour.

There are games.

You could have Googled all those games.

Who makes those games?

Bars.

You're overthinking it.

I Googled Happy Hour.

I just, I kept it simple.

Guess what?

What?

Happy Hour is a marketing term that refers to a time of day when a restaurant or bar offers reduced prices for alcoholic beverages.

It is also common to find discounted appetizer and food items.

However, according to Wikipedia, not everyone is happy about Happy Hour.

Ooh.

Did you know Happy Hour has been illegal in the Republic of Ireland since 2003 under the Intoxicating Liquor Act?

Oh.

No happy hours in Ireland.

Maybe people hit it too hard.

For sure.

In 2004, Glasgow banned happy hours to reduce binge drinking and in 2008 the province of alberta created restrictions to happy hours saying that all happy hour promotions had to end by 8 p.m

and then drink prices had to go back to i guess there's something called the alberta gaming and liquor commission's minimum price regulations put that on a label yeah like you have to charge a certain amount for alcohol but then in 2016 they removed the restriction so now everybody in the province of Alberta can have happy hour anytime.

In the United States, Massachusetts was the first U.S.

state to ban happy hour in 1984.

In 2011, Utah passed a ban on happy hours.

In June 2012, happy hour became legal in Kansas after a 26-year ban.

And in July 2015, Illinois lifted their 25-year ban on happy hours.

But as of July 2015, happy hour is still banned in Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Utah, and Vermont.

The laws were created to help stop overserving and drunk driving.

And a lot of places still have restrictions on happy hours.

For example, in Illinois, you cannot offer a two-for-one drink special.

You cannot give away drinks as a prize for a trivia night.

And bars cannot host drinking games.

So you can have a happy hour, but there are rules.

There are apparently no rules for happy hour in Pennsylvania.

And so we could go to happy hour.

So this tracks.

It tracks.

Yeah.

Seeing as it's a Monday and we're about to go on vacation and we are allowed to have a happy hour and this is the happy hour episode, I thought we should have an adult beverage.

What?

I love these episodes.

I brought a mini bottle of sparkling rosé.

Happy vacation, lady.

I have two glasses.

I have to open this.

It's happy hour.

How can we not have something?

Oh, my goodness.

Well, thank you so much.

You're welcome.

I hope you had a hearty breakfast.

I actually did.

I had a gluten-free bagel from Trader Joe's

and eggs and berries.

Oh, I've had two bites of a banana, so this will get interesting.

Okay, I'm opening

sparkling champagne.

Cover your eyes.

Oh, gosh.

Oh, that's really on there.

Woo!

And Sam brought cups.

Well, happy, happy hour to us.

Happy summer.

Cheers.

We'll be right back after this break.

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We are back, you guys.

And before we break down this cold open,

Jenna, would you like to know what you were doing this week the episode was filmed?

Okay.

I think it's time for

Angela's Digital Clutter.

I went digging into my emails.

We filmed this in February 2010.

The shooting draft was dated February 22nd.

On February 24th,

you emailed me and said, Angela, we have next Friday off.

I looked ahead at the schedule.

So like you.

Could you go with me to look at wedding dresses?

And you sent me a bunch of photos.

You had already been looking a little bit, but there was one other place you wanted to go.

And we did go together.

And I took a bunch of photos of you trying on dresses that I then emailed to you.

And one of them is the one you picked and you wore on your wedding day.

Oh my gosh, I love that.

You have to send me these pictures.

Okay, I purposely got them all ready to show you, but I will send them to you as well.

So I remember for a short time while trying on wedding dresses, and this is reminding me of my obsession with trying to put a flower on my lapel for a book tour, I really wanted to wear a fascinator.

The things that, you know, the British royal family wear, the things that are like, they're not really a hat, they just sort of pin to your head, and they have like a big plume of a feather.

And they kind of like are floofy, floofy.

Yeah.

Yes.

Or maybe they have like a, you know, like a netting that goes over the eyes.

Yes.

You were really into that.

And then you were also very into a sash.

You decided you needed a dress with a sash.

Oh my gosh.

You're bringing the sash back, lady.

Look at this.

I have so many more.

Oh, my gosh.

Yes.

Well, that is what I wore.

That is my dress.

There were lots of photos.

We might have to post a few if you're okay with it.

Yes, it's very fun.

Okay.

I like it.

Well, that was what was happening the week this episode was filmed.

I love it.

Well, in this cold open, what is happening is, well, what's going to eventually happen is a push-up contest.

Michael sets a new record, 25 push-ups and one girl push-up.

And then he challenges everyone to do better than he can.

And the prize is you get to go home.

So at first, when he floats this idea out, people are ignoring him.

But when he says the prizes, you get to go home, people drop to the ground.

Fan question from Leah J in New Albany, Indiana.

Angela, I have to know, did the script tell you to do your push-ups with your legs crossed?

I almost spit out my drink when I caught it.

It's exactly how I would think Angela Martin would think it is appropriate for a lady to do push-ups, but I didn't recognize that until I saw the scene.

It was just a brilliant detail and I love it.

Angela, was it a choice or is that just how you do push-ups?

It was a choice.

It was not in the script.

They didn't tell me how to do a push-up, just that my tush had to be a little higher so that Michael is like, you're disqualified.

So I was wearing a skirt.

I'm Angela Martin.

I was like, I bet Angela Martin would try to be dainty even if she did these push-ups.

And so I just made the choice to cross my legs.

Amazing.

Thank you.

It's an example of how well we knew our characters.

I love that.

Well, thank you, Leah, for noticing.

We got another fan question from Katie G in Greenville, South Carolina.

In the commentary for this episode, BJ teases that the Cold Open used some movie magic to help Stanley in the push-up scene, but he wouldn't spill the beans.

What exactly did Leslie have to go through to film this scene?

I was not there, but my first thought was: there is no way that they would make any of us do multiple takes of 25 push-ups.

I mean, that would be insane.

Yeah.

If you notice, John does like one half of a push-up and just says 19.

Oh, we gave John so much crap for that because, you know, over in the accounting department, we do push-ups and we're in this wide shot.

Yeah.

They couldn't hide us.

Yeah.

So we had to do a few push-ups every take and John only had to do one.

And we were like, you like suck.

Oscar and I were actually sore and we weren't doing 25, but we had to do a few every time.

And we shared on the commentary, we did 20 takes.

Oh my gosh.

How many push-ups would that be if Stanley had to do 20 takes of 25 push-ups?

No one do that math.

No, too many.

Too many.

Too many.

A lot.

25, 50, 500?

Too many.

500.

Too many.

It's very funny to me because of all of us, John was the one who actually did push-ups every morning.

I know.

And then he only had to do a half a push-up.

And then there, Oscar and I doing push-ups.

Brian was laying face down.

I don't know if you noticed that.

I did not.

On the ground.

He shared on the commentary.

And as soon as he shared it, I was like, oh my gosh, I remember that.

He had separated his shoulder.

Oh, that's right.

Yeah.

The day before we filmed this, he had had a steroid injection in his shoulder and was in quite a bit of pain.

So there was no way he could do a push-up.

So he got to lay face down.

Good thing Kevin

would probably do that.

Well, I reached out to Dave Rogers, who was our editor for this episode, and also to Randy Cordre, and they told me how Stanley did all of his push-ups.

So, first of all, I want to say there is a citation on Dunderpedia, which I love, that claims that we used a green screen in this scene.

Oh, no, we didn't.

I was there.

Yeah, no.

No.

Randy said, not true.

Not true.

Also, you were there.

But what they did do was they built like a mini seesaw,

and Leslie could lay on it.

And then it was sort of covered up by his jacket that was hanging.

And both Randy and Dave said, if you notice, you mostly only see the top half of him doing the push-up.

And his body was supported by this plank.

I want to point out something.

So, yes, Leslie didn't have to do 25 push-ups each take, but the way he had to lay on the plank and they were sort of helping him elevate his torso.

He still was in a plank position, guys.

Like, that was still strenuous.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, he was still doing a form of a push-up, even though they were giving him a little bit of support.

Yeah.

So I feel like some of that sweat you see is real because Leslie was getting a workout.

Well, in the wide shot at 1 minute 42 seconds, you see him in a full push-up position.

No plank.

And then there are some really quick edits that are just masterful.

You see him go down.

And then they push in, and you only see feet around him when he comes up.

That's because they played that footage in reverse.

Oh, so smart.

Yeah.

And then they quickly cut to a wide shot of him fully up and everyone cheering.

That's how we did it.

Well, Oscar has a great talking head that kind of wraps up the moment.

He says, it's like those stories where a mother lifts the car to save her baby.

Like Stanley is so determined to go home.

He does 25 push-ups.

Do you think you could do 25 push-ups right now?

Heck no.

Really?

Why is that surprising to you?

Hmm.

What about, like, you know, on your knees, like the knee push-ups, not a full push-up?

Could you do 25 of those?

No.

Hmm.

You sound like you think you can.

I don't know if I can.

I know I can do 10 to 12.

I bet I could do 10.

I don't want to do it, though.

I'm sitting.

We're not moving.

I'm sitting rosé and like I'm not moving.

But here's the thing.

I'm very competitive.

So if you were like, we're going to do 10, I would just because I'm like stubborn and I'm like, I will do it.

But I'm not doing it.

Now you're gearing me up.

No, we're not.

I'm also very competitive.

I know.

This is why we're great business partners.

But we're going to agree right now to not do it.

Here's what we're agreeing to.

What?

We can do 10

right on our knees.

We believe that we can do 10.

So we've basically done them.

I love it.

This episode begins with Oscar arriving to work at 7 a.m.

Like he always does.

Sure.

He always gets there super early while the door door is still locked.

He's trying to position himself so that he can see Matt from the warehouse.

Well, coming super early works.

He gets to see Matt, have a little chit chat, and then he shares that, you know, besides this morning, they also had talked at Christmas.

So, you know, a little bit of momentum.

I have a continuity catch.

I do.

Me, Jenna Fisher has a continuity catch.

Oh, well, let's hear it.

Matt and Oscar were both at the bar on St.

Patrick's Day, which is between this morning and Christmas.

What do you think of that?

I think that is fantastic background catch.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Randy said that everyone actually came in extra early to shoot this.

You know, we would usually start coming into work around 5:30 a.m.

and we would be shooting by 7.

He said that on this day, Matt really wanted to get that very early morning light in the sky to sell

that it was early morning.

Son of a gun.

You could have sold it.

Well, we were rolling by 6:12 a.m.

Oh my goodness.

That meant you and I maybe got to sleep in a little, though.

Maybe so.

Maybe so.

Well, later that morning, Oscar is going to go into Daryl's office.

This is one of my favorite scenes of the whole episode.

I thought that Craig and Oscar just crushed it.

It's so awkward.

There's like all of that dead air between them.

And BJ shared on the commentary that he really loved how slowly the scene played out.

Like they really wanted all of those awkward silences.

This is one of those character combinations we haven't really seen, and I love it.

And they have moments throughout the episode that are so good.

I have some questions about the stuff on Daryl's desk.

You do?

Yeah.

Let's hear it.

I got a little distracted.

What?

Here is what I saw.

There's a mailbox.

It's like a little fakey mailbox that might also be a bank.

Like a piggy bank?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then there's a baseball, not a real baseball, but like a baseball replica that might also be a bank.

Maybe Daryl has a thing for piggy banks.

This is my question because there is also a ceramic statue, kind of like the kind your kid would make at like a Color Me Mine.

Sure.

Which is an amazing detail because he has a daughter.

Right.

I think the statue is also a bank.

Does Daryl collect banks?

That's adorable.

I'm saying.

I just think it's so cute if he collects piggy banks.

I'm going to be on the lookout.

I need to know.

Between the awkward silences and all the piggy banks, Oscar's like, you know what?

We should all go out.

Like the warehouse and the office.

And he's like, when's the last time?

Yeah.

We went to Happy Hour.

And Daryl's like, has that ever happened?

So Oscar is on a mission.

He's trying to have some time with Matt, but he's going to like set up this whole happy hour outing.

And Daryl's like, all right.

So now Oscar's going to go around the office and invite everyone.

Phyllis's response is hilarious.

She says, you know what?

I saw a new drink on TV.

So yeah, I'd like to try that.

I'm going to go.

And her talking head, she says, I love going to bars with Bob.

I tend to wear something low-cut and get men to flirt with me.

And Bob beats them up.

And then she looks at Cameron and goes, what?

The what wasn't scripted.

What?

No.

I went to the shooting draft because I was my favorite part.

I know, me too.

It wasn't scripted.

Phyllis improvised that.

That's brilliant.

What?

What?

Jim says he'd love to join for happy hour, but Pam is like probably just going to want to have a night in.

But Andy insists that Jim call Pam right now, this minute, and ask her.

Oh, yeah.

Andy's like, no, no, no.

I call BS on that.

Pam's going to want to go.

And she does.

She's so excited.

We got a fan question from Maddie B in Akron, Ohio, and many others who said, at four minutes and 44 seconds, Jim has a talking head where Pam is over the phone talking to the camera crew.

It kind of sounds like she says, Creed, Brian, Stanley.

Did Jenna say Brian on mistake?

Does she mean to be talking about Kevin?

Or did the script say Ryan and Brian just slipped out by accident?

I want you guys to hear it.

So some of the co-workers were thinking of going out tonight, but I told them.

I heard Ryan.

Well, I looked in the script because I at first also thought it sounded a little like Brian, but the script says Ryan.

And I think just now, isolating it onto headphones where all I'm hearing is the audio, I think I hear Ryan.

Yeah, I hear Ryan.

But Maddie, the first time when I was watching the episode, I also heard Brian.

And I would not put it past us to slip in someone's real name.

This was like Laurel.

Remember that?

No, what was that?

Oh my gosh.

You guys.

Sam, Cassie, what's Laurel?

The whole thing that went viral of like, do you hear Laurel or Yanni?

Remember?

Oh, I do remember this.

This was like one of the bluer white dress moments.

I remember that.

Yes, wait, wait.

Can we play that for Jenna?

Yes, please hold.

I'll hunt that down.

Laurel, tell me what you hear.

Laurel.

Laurel.

Laurel.

I hear Laurel.

Laurel.

So do I.

What do you guys hear?

I hear Laurel.

I hear Laurel.

Laurel.

Laurel.

Do we hear Laurel because right before we played this clip, we were all thinking Laurel?

And because I said Laurel, but I'm telling you.

Is there another one that we can use?

When I heard it, I heard Laurel the very first time years ago.

Hmm.

So we all heard Laurel,

but according to an article in 2018 on The Guardian, this short audio clip of a computer-generated voice became the most divisive subject on the internet since the gold blue dress of 2015.

The audio illusion, which first appeared on Reddit, seems to be saying one word, but whether that word is yanni or laurel is the source of furious disagreement.

Is this a decibel thing?

According to this article, it says that the sound can be seen in two ways, and often the mind flips back and forth between the two interpretations.

This happens because the brain can't decide on a definitive interpretation.

I don't understand what that means.

Is it a decibel thing?

I want it to be a decibel thing.

A neuroscientist that contributed to this article said: the secret is frequency, but some of it also is the mechanics of your ears and what you're expecting to hear.

Most sounds, including an L and a Y, which are among the ones at issue here, are made up of several frequencies at once.

Frequencies of the Y might have been made artificially higher, and the frequencies that make the L sound might have dropped.

So, whether it's Brian or Ryan or Laurel or Yanni,

has something to do with frequency.

Very interesting.

Thank you, Angela.

You're welcome.

That was an impromptu tangent.

before we move on from this scene on the dvd commentary i shared how incredibly relatable pam's reaction to an adult outing was as a new mom it brought me back you know my kids are teenagers now but i was still a young mom at this point i want you to hear it only problem is pam's at home with the baby and i think she wants a night in oh baloney come on ring her up absolutely i can totally relate to this moment fyi is amazing oh yeah what do you mean?

Just having a baby and like.

Oh, did you have a baby?

Oh, I had the best baby ever who turned two just a day ago.

Happy birthday.

Oh, my God.

Already?

Yeah.

Oh, my gosh.

I did this DVD commentary right after Isabelle's birthday.

That's so sweet.

I know.

It just brought me back.

But yes, I so related to Pam.

And now we're doing this rewatch very shortly after Isabelle's birthday again.

14.

This episode is very significant for Isabel's birthdays.

I know.

Well, I can really relate to this too, because I remember the first time I went to the grocery store after my son was born.

I ran into Amy Adams at the grocery store.

She had also just had a baby.

And we stood in the aisle for 30 minutes just talking about how we couldn't believe that we were at the grocery store and we were like, it was, it was as if we had gone to like a huge party, but really really we were just in a grocery store but we were so tickled to be like out of the house oh doing something for sure new parents you go to the grocery store it's like an exotic vacation exactly Andy and Erin are continuing to do this thing where they act like they don't like each other.

Of course, Erin always takes it to like the most random places.

She's like, talk to me like that again and I'll cut your face off.

She's like, I know what.

Also, they're pretending like they're not in a relationship, but clearly everyone knows.

Definitely Kevin knows.

They have a talking head where they're telling the camera crew that they're going to keep their romance low-key, but Kevin knocks on the window and he starts making a lot of gestures.

Yes, if you go to five minutes 25 seconds, the hand gesture that Kevin is doing had supposedly never been done on television before.

Yeah, it's like the one for

intercourse

where you have like the finger and then the circle.

Yeah.

You know, Randy sent me the exact note from the NBC broadcast standards and practices.

What did they say?

This was after they submitted the shooting draft, where in the shooting draft, it says that Kevin is going to make sexual gestures in the background.

The note said, page nine, scene 17.

As discussed with Randy Cordre, please shoot some alternates for Kevin's, quote, sex gesture with his hands toward Andy and Aaron.

So Randy said they did lots of different gestures.

I guess BJ and Matt Sohn told Brian, just go crazy, do every gesture you can think of.

They sent a cut over to NBC with all of the gestures in one take,

and it was approved.

I can't believe it.

He couldn't believe it either.

He was like, I don't understand.

We were sure that was not going to make it in.

Who knew?

I guess after all of our boners, they just gave up on us.

Oh.

They were tired.

I mean, after Phyllis got flashed in the parking lot, they just let it go.

Well, Andy is going to invite Michael out for drinks.

This is Michael's best day of his life.

He's so excited.

He announces, ladies and gentlemen, it's quitting time.

Andy's like, no, no, I'm sorry.

I meant later.

You know, like later.

Well, in the background of the scene, Angela's watching everything.

She's kind of clocking Dwight, like, I wonder if Dwight's going to be going.

And there would have been a talking head here.

It's in deleted scenes.

Angela shares about what she does outside of work.

Oh.

At the office, I am all business, very professional.

But sometimes at night, I like to go out and let my hair down.

Not literally, of course, but

and then there was a candy bag alt.

Oh my gosh, there's a lot of good candy bag alts for talking heads in this.

It didn't make it in the episode.

It is in the bloopers, and you'll see why.

It's not like I'm meeting anyone on chat roulette.

I was so southern.

Did you hear it?

Oh my goodness.

It's not like I'm meeting anyone on chat roulette.

I mean,

they were like, Yeah, we can't use that.

Just get another one.

Well, Pam and Jim are going to arrive.

Pam's hair.

She spent a lot of time on her hair.

I was going to say, like, did she like go to a salon?

She's all dolled up.

I mean, we talked about it.

She's excited to be out.

Yeah.

She has on multiple necklaces and very like foofy hair.

Yeah.

She's walking across the parking lot with Jim.

That's when she tells him that she's invited a friend for Michael.

I mean, that's how much she has forgotten.

Like she's done her hair.

She's got her necklaces on.

She's inviting people to set them up with Michael.

Pam.

Pam.

She runs into Kevin who starts fake crying like at her boobs.

Jenna, I shared on the commentary that Rain did that to me as a joke.

Did it work?

No.

But thanks, Rain, for fake crying at my boobs while I was breastfeeding.

I wonder if that's where they got the idea.

Well, actually, Brian said that this joke was not in the table draft.

And after the table read, Steve Corell pitched it to the writers.

I love it.

I don't know if you noticed in this scene, but the ground is all wet.

Did you notice?

I did notice.

Randy told me it was a rainy day.

Oh.

We shot this on February 24th, 2010.

February is a very rainy month in Los Angeles.

Also, in the background, you can see the parking structure for the Universal Studios tour.

Oh, my gosh.

Have you ever done it?

Yes.

Me too.

So fun.

Have they updated it?

Because when I did it, it was like Jaws and Back to the Future.

Same.

And the Psycho House.

Right.

Yeah.

The old lady in the rocking chair up the window.

All of it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't know.

Surely it's been updated.

With movies that are more timely.

Right.

I think Jaws still comes at you, though.

Right, right.

You got to love the Jaws.

You're going across like what looks like a pond and then Jaws comes at you.

It's so fun.

Well, as everyone is arriving, they walk past the bouncer into the bar.

You can see the Sid and Dexter sign.

Mm-hmm.

And in the deleted scenes, there was a montage of people arriving.

Kevin and Meredith walk in and they cannot believe that Oscar is there.

They say he's a snob.

It's in the deleted scenes.

Here's how Oscar defends himself.

I'm not a snob.

I hate the opera.

Well, the Philadelphia opera.

Thanks.

He defends himself on being a snob by listing what opera he is not a fan of.

Then there was a deleted scene as Angela Martin arrives.

She's very dolled up.

This was one of my favorite scenes to shoot because it had really silly busy work.

The bouncer has asked for her ID, and here it is.

Good evening.

Hey, you're fine.

No, I have my ID here somewhere.

Oh, no, you're fine.

No, you need it.

That's the rule.

Do with it.

No, you always know where it is, and then when you need it, you don't.

You know, that happens.

oh coupon

it is almost a minute of me going through my purse

i'm pulling out tissues coupons all kinds of things and the bouncer's like you're fine i'm like no no no no no It was so much fun to shoot, but I get why I couldn't make it in.

The episode's already long.

You don't need a minute of me going through my purse, but those are like my favorite moments.

Well, I disagree.

I would love nothing more than to see one minute of Angela emptying her purse because I'd like to know what she keeps in her purse.

I find those details fascinating.

Well, a lot of tissues and coupons.

Well, now Pam and Jim are going to invite Michael to play pool with them.

They need a fourth.

That's because the third person in the group is the friend.

Yeah.

And they want to make an introduction.

Also, at this time, Oscar is noting that Matt is not there.

No.

It's sort of a bummer.

He keeps eyeing the door.

The whole reason for this whole night.

Yes.

Michael is going to hit it off with Pam's friend Julie.

Yeah, they're really getting along great.

I mean, Julie laughs at everything.

Yes, so Michael is happy.

Guest star alert, Julie was played by Lori Naughton Oaken.

She has been on Friends, Samantha Who.

She's a big Groundlinks person, and you knew her, right, Ange?

Yes, I did a sketch comedy show with her.

She had written this show, and I played a small part in it called Balls Out.

Ooh, I know.

And it was a really fun show.

Well, there's going to be another guest star.

It is Isabel, played by Kellen Coleman.

She's back.

And she's come to the bar as well.

But you know what?

She's going to say hi to Pam and then maybe mingle.

Mm-hmm.

Which means go find Dwight.

That's right.

At 7 minutes 57 seconds, you might notice Angela's bright red lipstick.

BJ shared on the commentary that he really wanted Angela to seem like she had tried to go all out for this evening to get Dwight's attention.

He wanted her to wear the brightest lipstick that our makeup department had.

And he said he thought that this is what Angela would think you do.

Like maybe she's seen a soap opera, like how you get your guy, how you go to a bar, put on hot red lipstick.

And he also shared that he was bummed because he wanted the lipstick to be even brighter red.

But that was all the makeup department had.

Wow, even brighter.

Yeah.

It really stands out already.

I know.

Well, Pam's friend Julie is going to have a talking head where it's clear she kind of likes Michael.

Yeah.

We had a fan catch from Corin F in Columbus, Ohio, who says, starting at 8 minutes, 52 seconds, when Pam's friend is doing her talking head about Michael, you can see Jim laughing at something Pam said.

Was this a genuine reaction to something Jenna said, or was this planned?

Are they acting?

Either way, it's a very cute background moment.

I think it's just you two in the background.

Oh, no, this is 100%

us in the background.

Just chatting.

Well, I'm very proud because I've clearly said something that has made John noodle.

Because he noodle laugh.

I know.

He totally turns into like this gelatinous thing that flops around when he's really tickled.

Yes.

I don't know what I said.

Steve is there as well, but I'm very proud.

I'm clearly hilarious.

And there it is in the background.

Proof of funny.

Thank you.

We also got a fan question from both Kyle T in Houston, Texas and Alana D from Ontario, Canada.

They ask, why does Pam keep trying to set up Michael?

It didn't work with her landlady.

And look how he treated her mom.

Why?

That's very valid.

Very valid.

She has clearly forgotten something has happened to her while she's on maternity leave.

She has mom brain.

I guess so.

You know, when you're tired and you're up all night and you're just like, oh, yeah, that sounds great.

I don't know.

I think mom brain also sometimes gives you just like an optimism.

Yes.

That is, um,

I don't know.

You suddenly.

You want to see the good in people.

Yes, exactly.

You have this newfound empathy and optimism

and compassion.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But unfortunately, it's not going to go well.

It might have if Jim hadn't spilled the beans.

I know.

If Jim would have just let Michael keep being himself, but Jim said, yeah, I guess Pam was right.

You know, you guys are hitting it off.

Light bulb.

Michael's like, what, what, what?

I'm on a date.

I'm on a date.

Yeah, he's going to turn into date Mike.

Let's take a break because there's a lot to unpack here and we will discuss.

We are back, and Date Mike is here.

He has put on his Kangle hat.

The script specifically called for Michael to put on a Kangle hat.

I got curious, so for the second time, I became a lady who Googled.

Mm-hmm.

And I found out that the Kangal hats, which I was familiar with, has a long history.

It goes way back.

A gentleman named Jacques Henry Durgen, a World War I soldier, returned from the war and he began designing berets.

And in 1938, he started a company, and his berets were worn by many British soldiers during World War II.

He named his company Kangle, and in the 1960s, they got the rights to create all the hats worn by the Beatles.

What?

Yeah.

They distributed all headgear that bore the Beatles' name or image.

Wow.

In 1981, the brand enlisted a world-famous hat designer named Graham Smith to develop a luxurious yet affordable collection called Graham Smith for Kangal.

And in 1983, Princess Diana appeared in vogue wearing one of those hats.

Also, in 1983, they decided to create a logo.

And because Americans kept asking for the kangaroo hat instead of the Kangal hat, they decided to make their logo a kangaroo.

Also in the 1980s, MCs like Slick Rick and Run DMC started wearing Kangle in their videos and on stage, and they really rocketed to fame thanks to LL Cool J, who wore their Bermuda casual hat on his album cover for radio.

LL Cool J wore their hats all the time and really pushed it to the forefront of hip-hop fashion.

And then you know, of course, Samuel L.

Jackson, he loves them.

Well known for loving his Kangle hat.

In 2012, he teamed up with the brand and created a line called Kangle Golf by Samuel L.

Jackson.

It was geared toward golf enthusiasts.

He loves these hats so much that in 2022, he was on the tonight show with Jimmy Fallon and he talked about all his hats.

Here's an audio clip.

Two, is it true that you own over 800 Kangol hats?

My wife got rid of about 500 of them.

Okay.

So you're down to 300?

I'm down to 300.

When did you start wearing those?

Oh, geez.

When I stole my first one out of my grandfather's closet.

Yeah, exactly.

A long, long time ago.

Do you remember what color?

Black?

My grandfather's?

Yeah.

No,

it was a platy hat, you know.

It's one of those patterns.

It's stylish, too, yeah.

How about that?

He has 300.

His grandfather had one.

I mean, I have to think he has more now.

Since 2022, do you think his wife let him add to it?

Maybe.

Maybe it's like the thing where you add one but take one away so you get new stuff.

Right.

There was quite a bit of debate in the writer's room about the difference in regular Mike and Date Mike.

Okay.

BJ talked about it on the DVD commentary.

He said there were pitches to make date mic even bigger.

And his clothes more extravagant.

Like in one pitch, they had him wearing a dragon t-shirt or some Ed Hardy clothes.

But Steve said he thought it was less of a wardrobe change and more of a personality change.

So they went with a Kangle hat.

Well, I loved it.

When Michael returns, Jim and Pam are surprised.

They noticed the shift right away.

I improvised the line, why are you wearing a hat now?

So I looked at the table draft, like you said, Angela, and originally he had changed his shirt.

And Pam had a line where she said, why are you wearing a different shirt now but then by the shooting draft that had been taken out and there was just nothing Pam didn't have a line there but I think I must have remembered that shirt line which made me laugh and so I added why are you wearing a hat now well I loved it I loved Pam and Jim's reaction they know now everything's gonna go south Michael has this big swagger he's spinning this pool stick around at nine minutes 40 seconds when Michael shoots the pool ball and it goes flying at you guys.

Yes.

Matt Sohn shared that Steve really did that and thankfully they got it in the first take.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

I didn't remember that.

You guys ducked for real.

Well, meanwhile, Kelly and Ryan are about to finish an intense round of their dance game.

Just as Aaron and Andy are approaching, We had a fan catch from Claire L in Toronto, Canada, who says when Ryan and Kelly say they lost at 10 minutes 37 seconds, the screen shows that their dance round is actually still going on.

It's true.

Randy told me that they turned off the sound for the machine, but they kept the graphics going.

They added all the music and arcade sounds in post-production.

So it sounds like their game has wound down, but if you catch the screen, it's still going.

I have two things to share about the actual games and what we were doing.

Brian said that he really was playing that racing game and that it was actually really fun.

And he played it for hours because he had to be in the background.

Oh my gosh.

And then in the deleted scenes, I thought it was so fun.

You find out that Meredith is really good at playing pool.

She keeps sinking all of these shots.

She's a total pool shark.

Was Kate actually sinking the shots?

I doubt it.

It looked really good.

I don't know.

Can I tell you something?

Are you really good at pool?

Yeah.

Really?

You're also good at poker.

You're good at like bar sports.

My father-in-law recently on a trip to Texas, we rented a house together, Lee's whole side of the family, and there was a pool table.

And he was kind of surprised that I was such a good pool player.

And he said, I have to ask, like, you went to an all-girls high school.

You have no brothers.

You're not much of a drinker.

How are you so good at poker and pool?

I have the same question.

When I was in high school, my friend Stacey and I, by the way, Stacey, the inventor of the tan baster.

Oh, yeah.

The two of us in high school, we got a little obsessed with pool after we watched the movies The Hustler and The Color of Money.

Paul Newman.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Those sweet blue eyes.

So you watch these movies and then you're like, I'm going to learn pool?

Yeah.

We went to a pool hall in Kirkwood, Missouri, and we...

learned how to play pool.

And our plan was that we were going to go on the road and we were going to hustle people this was our grand plan to become pool hustlers

so when you weren't playing field hockey

we were going to be professional pool hustlers professional hustlers okay we got very good i believe it and i really enjoyed this episode because it was my chance to kind of show off some of my skills My husband's very good at pool and he wants a pool table.

I'm like, what?

So we're not going to have a dining table.

So you're going to have a pool table?

I'll be over all the time.

Well, it might happen.

Oh, I want to say something about this arcade dance game.

Would you be surprised to know that they are not playing Dance Dance Revolution?

I feel like this is like a leading question.

I don't know the answer.

That's the only game I know of with the feet, the thing.

Me too.

Yeah, that's it.

Okay.

Okay, no.

There's another one.

It's called Pump It Up.

It is the other music video game dance series.

It's by a Korean arcade game producer.

The original version of the game was released in South Korea in August of 1999.

Here's the difference.

Dance Dance Revolution only has four squares that you can step on and they're in like a plus sign.

Yeah.

Pump It Up has five things you can press on.

You can press the middle square and then it makes like an X.

Yeah.

I took screen grabs.

I mom detectived it.

And it's not Dance Dance Revolution.

It's Pump It Up.

That's what they're playing.

And they had to bring it in.

I know this happens later in the episode, but when you see Creed dancing on that thing, he really was.

And we did a bunch of takes.

And I remember we were like, wait, I think Creed's like getting lightheaded.

We need to give him a break.

He's been dancing for a long time.

Yeah, when I was trading messages with Matt, he was like, I think we almost killed Creed because he did so many takes.

of the dancing game.

And he was going all out.

Randy said that they also had a graphic made.

You don't see it in the episode, but it shows that Creed has all of the top 10 high scores on the leaderboard.

That's awesome.

And I guess the reason they did all that was because originally the tag to this episode was going to be Creed on the dance machine.

And you see that he's like dance master with a crowd around him.

But then they moved it to the middle of the episode.

Coming up next is probably my most famous meme that I'm a part of.

What?

Uh-huh.

No, there are more famous memes.

No, not for me.

Come on.

I am telling you, for real, this is the most famous meme I'm in.

Like, they will take this moment where Angela sneaks up on Dwight

and, you know, they'll caption it.

It's someone reacting to something that scares the crap out of them and they drop the F-bomb.

And it's been recycled over and over.

So, like, over you, they'll write spiders.

Yes.

And they'll write like.

Something that is scary.

They're phobia, basically.

Yes.

I titled this scene Lurk Much.

Should we set it up?

Yes.

Okay, well, Dwight and Isabelle are walking through the arcade.

They're flirting.

Chatting.

Angela in her bright red lipstick is just all up on their heels.

And then after Isabel walks away, Dwight is completely shocked that Angela was standing there and has a very large reaction.

Lady, we got mail.

Fan question from Desi C in Stillwell, Oklahoma.

In the scene with Dwight and Isabel walking and Angela following close behind, Isabel seems to be of equal height to Dwight, making Angela look so small in comparison.

Was this done intentionally or just a happy accident?

I looked up actress Kellen Coleman and her height, according to IMDb, is 5'9.5.

But standing next to Rain, she looks almost to be the same height.

It was intentional.

You know, Rain is 6'3, Kellen is very tall, and I am 5'1.

Wardrobe purposely for this episode put me in flats to really accentuate the height difference.

Normally I wore heels on the show.

I'm in flats.

BJ also shared it was his idea that only the top of my head would be visible as I walked behind them.

I went to the shooting draft, and here's how it described the scene.

Dwight and Isabel strolled the arcade area looking for a game to play.

Angela trails behind, only the top of her head in frame.

Amazing.

Well, I will add that I remember Kellen was in heels.

They put her in some like three-inch, kind of not wedges, but like thick-heeled shoes so that she would be super tall compared to you.

We got another fan question from Xenia W in British Columbia.

Dwight looks utterly shocked by the sudden appearance of Angela Martin behind him.

His reaction was so genuine, down to the bleeped swear word he dropped.

Was Rain Wilson not expecting Angela to show up, or was this a scripted moment?

So, this moment was totally found on the day.

It's not in the shooting draft.

BJ shared in the commentary that they pitched it to Rain, and he was reluctant to do it because he thought it might seem too broad.

But then they were like, let's just give it a try.

Just give it a try.

And then I remember they told me to get as close to like Rain's like arm, like just to sort of be way down there by his elbow.

And so I was trailing him really closely.

And when he turned around, I was right there.

And it just worked.

And we all started laughing.

We knew we had to do it again.

It's so lurky, Lurkmud.

I know.

Well, back over at the pool tables, Michael's going to try to tie a cherry stem with his tongue.

But instead, he starts choking.

Jenna, this scene was even bigger.

In the shooting draft, not only does he choke, but then he starts dribbling cherry juice down his shirt.

So gross.

And then he turns to Julie and says, Do you want to maybe hit a hot tub after this?

Oh my gosh.

Also, in this scene, he is kind of like spinning the pool cue around.

We had a fan catch from Dandy Y in Canada who says, Fakey pool cue at 12 minutes, 13 seconds.

When Michael is spinning the pool cue, you can see it bending.

What was it actually made of?

Ooh, good catch.

Such a good catch.

You really can see it.

It is 100% a rubber pool cue.

It is so bendy.

I mean, it's almost ridiculous.

I can't believe it made it in.

Well, there was an alternate Michael talking head.

It was in the shooting draft candy bag.

It made me laugh.

Michael says, I've been dating for over 30 years.

I think I know what I'm doing.

Oh, no.

Well, Isabel and Dwight are playing whack-a-mole, and Dwight is really good at it.

And Isabel's like, oh my gosh, you're so good at it.

And then Angela tries to join in, the lurker, and she says, this looks like a hoot.

And you guys, it just made me think of my journal entry, Sam.

This looks like a hoot.

I think I got tooted.

You hit these balls with a large stick.

Yes, exactly.

I want to know how Angela Kinsey would write in her journal about her first whack-a-mole game.

Please, can we have that?

We need it.

It would go something like this.

There was this really interesting machine where little tiny animals came out and they wanted me to hit them.

And I said, I will not.

And then I had a cosmopolitan.

XOXO.

And then I would probably finish my journal entry with, I'll fill you in next time on what happened when I tried skee-ball.

XOXO.

Hugs.

I love how your journal entries, and this is true about your journal entries, they end with like a cliffhanger.

Yes.

Like next time, I'm going to give you some details on this other thing.

Yeah, they all end up like the gossip girl ones.

I know.

And then I also like right in my journal, like I'll say things like, oh, sorry to bore you.

I've gone on and on.

Who's reading this?

Who am I writing to?

I can't believe I talked that long about whack-a-mole.

My bad.

Oh, my gosh.

Could you do a young adult book series that is just your journals?

Please no.

That'd be so weird.

I really like this character.

Well, Angela's whack-a-mole is not going to go well.

And Dwight pulls her aside and says, you know what?

We had a good run, but I want a big family, like a big, big family.

And she doesn't need to worry about their contract anymore.

Dissolved.

He tries to break their contract.

How many pieces of identification did they have on that table when they were making this contract?

So many signatures and stamps.

How dare he?

Truly.

Mm-hmm.

She's not going to take it well.

Meanwhile, Michael is on top of a pool table.

I don't know what he's doing.

He's playing like Eric Guitar on his pool stick.

I mean, it's going to get the attention of the manager.

Yeah, she's like, do you want to pay 400 bucks to refelt this table?

And Michael says, yeah, why don't you send the bill to 23 I Don't Care Lane, Scranton, Pennsylvania?

I mean, what is happening?

He's going to get his ass kicked out.

Yeah.

I think the rose is hitting us.

Maybe.

Maybe.

I just want to do the whole rest of the episode as your journal, frankly.

It delights me so much.

Guest Star Alert, our manager, Donna, was played by Amy Peets.

She was on the NBC sitcom Caroline in the City, for which she was nominated for a Screen Actor Skilled Award for Outstanding Performance by a female actor in a comedy series.

She's also had recurring roles on Modern Family, Animal Kingdom, and she appears in five episodes of The Office.

She was also in a really good episode of Law and Order SVU, which I just watched the other day.

Which one?

It's the one where she plays Mama Zoe.

She's really good in it.

It's a good episode.

During this scene, Pam and Jim are kind of trying to get Michael to calm down, and Pam wants to continue the pool game.

I have another improv brag.

Do it.

I improvised the line, you guys are stripes, I think.

My scripted line was, I think she handled it pretty well.

But instead, I said, you guys are stripes, I think.

And you know why you said that?

Because I know about people sharks.

Because you're a pool shark.

Yeah, I am.

And I know that one person is stripes and one is solid.

I know that.

Sounds like one of my journal entries.

You know what I want to find?

What?

I've got to have a journal entry about my plans to become a pool shark hustler.

Please.

I must have one somewhere.

Please.

Surely I journal.

Surely.

Surely.

Michael is going to approach the manager and demand an apology.

I loved their back and forth.

I loved it when he said the way he likes to be a manager has a dash of razzle dazzle i was so curious if that was scripted or if steve like threw that out there i went to the shooting draft it's in the script a dash of razzle dazzle i love it donna clearly has the thing that jan had which is that she's attracted to tragedy because she is sort of immediately smitten by Michael.

Just like, what is this thing in front of me?

Yeah.

It's like the first time you see a kitten or something or or a puppy, you're like, what is this creature?

I'm sort of drawn to it.

They have a repartee.

They do.

In their repartee, we find out that Michael has written a whole book in his head.

It's called Somehow I Manage.

The book cover is him with his sleeves rolled up shrugging.

The manager says, have you read Leia Coca's classic book?

And Michael says, read it.

I own it.

He hasn't read it.

But no, I haven't read it.

We had a fan question from Letty P.

in Long Beach, California.

This is the second time Lee Iacoka's biography is mentioned on the office.

I've watched this show so many times and it's made me curious to actually pick up the book and it's so good.

But why is it referred to so much when Michael hasn't even read it?

Well, Letty, I'll tell you.

It's because BJ Novak's dad co-authored that book.

So this was a nod from BJ to his dad.

This was a BJ Easter egg for his dad.

So cute.

We really did that a lot on the show, like naming Pam and Jim's baby Cece and Sidden Dexter's and throwing the book in.

We like to do that sort of thing.

Andy and Aaron are still trying to hide their relationship because Andy does not want the drama.

He doesn't.

Don't want the drama.

So he's like, you know what?

Let's throw everyone off because a few people have made little comments that he thinks is about.

him and Aaron.

He's like, I'm going to go talk to that girl.

You go talk to that guy.

Aaron is going to sit sit next to a man.

She's going to rub her hand on his thigh and say, hey, big boy, do you like it when I do that?

And Andy spits out his drink and is like, what are you doing?

Well, the guy that Aaron is talking to was played by our very own locations manager, Kyle Alexander.

They shared in the commentary that Kyle just has such a...

friendly demeanor that he wouldn't seem threatening in any way.

And probably nice for Ellie because he was someone that we all all worked with totally andy kind of pulls aaron aside pulls her into this photo booth and while they're in there the camera is going off while they're arguing yes matt said that getting this photo strip right

was really important to him on the first day of this shoot week Ed and Ellie got together with Michael Gallenberg, our production designer, and he took photos of them, which Matt went over and he created the photo strip that would be used in this scene.

Yeah, he talked about this on the commentary, how important the story of the photo strip was to him.

Well, he also sent in an audio clip.

Let's give it a listen.

I also spent a lot of time working on the photos from the photo booth of Andy and Aaron.

They tell a very sad story about their relationship.

If you notice them, they each show a different stage of their relationship, ending with Erin sad and by herself.

You know, when Andy looks at these photos, he realizes this isn't the relationship that he wants.

And he goes to the microphone to announce to everyone that he and Aaron are a dating.

They are a couple.

And it's a nice ending to their story.

Sometimes those little props, designing those just right, really are important.

And after Matt said that, I went and I paused on the strip.

Same, Really good.

It is really good.

And it's something I missed the first time I watched it.

And it's just one of those things in this rewatch, it's so fun to discover.

You know, I love a photo strip.

I will go into any mall, kiosk, photo booth.

Lady, it's the cover of our book.

That's the thing that is a photo strip.

That I saved for

18 years.

Yeah.

That you insisted that we do.

I know.

I tried to do the cough at our age thing.

It didn't work.

You know, where you say like, like where you cough something that you, you kind of want people to hear.

Mm-hmm.

Like, fuck.

Like, you know what I mean?

I do.

Okay.

Where are we?

Oh,

Matt has not shown up.

Oscar's been sitting with the warehouse guys forever.

I know.

And Daryl is like, listen.

I know he's super cute, but the truth is he's kind of a dumb-dumb.

And Oscar.

Yeah, he's like, you guys aren't a good match.

No.

Daryl's trying.

He's trying to look out for Oscar in this moment.

In college, I dated just this real dum-dum.

Hello, Rose.

Good looking.

Settle in, Rose.

What do you got for me?

Nothing.

Just that, like, it was so clear to me.

He was just super hot.

High candy.

And I don't know.

It didn't last long.

Was it fun?

Not really.

Oh, well, that's a bummer.

I know.

But I loved looking at him.

He was so beautiful.

So I get it.

That's a chart journal entry.

I looked at this guy for a while today.

But guess what?

Just as maybe Oscar is considering that they aren't a match, Matt walks in.

Oscar's delighted.

He walks in.

He wants to go play basketball.

Oscar's like, yeah.

The two of them shooting next to each other was so funny.

It was actually a note in the shooting draft that oscar tries to shoot and it like ricochets off the like backboard and like he's chasing it on the ground i want to say it is very hard to be bad at things like that when you have to as an actor like that was some really good bad basketball acting on oscar's part yeah he actually can like shoot pretty well right i remember that from the basketball episode when all those guys started shooting.

Yeah.

Well, we're going to wrap up a couple of storylines here.

We're getting near the end of the episode.

Andy's going to to get on a loudspeaker, announces that he's been on a few successful dates with Erin.

There'll probably be more.

No one cares.

No one even looks over.

No.

Andy and Erin are so happy, though.

Erin, especially.

Dwight and Isabel are leaving together when Angela approaches them.

Still lurking.

I don't think she was lurking.

This was like a like...

full frontal approach.

I know, but lurking in the sense that everywhere these people turn, you're on top of them.

You're all over them.

But you know what?

Rightfully so.

He should not have broken that contract.

I like Angela in this moment.

Well, she's going to serve him papers to appear in court.

That's right.

For breach of contract,

Isabel, whacks her on the forehead.

We had a fan question from Stacey C.

in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Angela, did she really smack you on the head?

She did.

That was real.

It was scripted.

It was scripted.

I want you to know that when this episode aired, people took to the message boards sympathizing for Angela.

This never happened for my character.

I did not like that she hit you on the head.

I didn't like it.

You didn't like it, and guess who else didn't like it?

Who?

Birdie Kinsey.

My mom.

She did not care for it.

No.

Well, Angela is not going to be deterred.

She scurries off, but Dwight will be hearing from her in court.

I mean,

several people are brought together in this episode.

Andy, Aaron,

Isabelle and Dwight, and Michael.

He's got a date.

Date Mike actually came through.

I mean, kind of.

He wasn't being date Mike.

He was just being like

righteous Michael at the bar.

Well, he thinks it worked once again.

This episode ends with just an amazing tag.

Amazing.

It's one of my favorite of the whole series.

Agree.

It is Daryl and Hiday from the warehouse.

And Daryl encourages Hide to tell his story, his origin story.

Yeah.

Earlier in the episode, he sort of teases it to Oscar.

He's like, have you heard Hide's story?

I mean, it's fascinating.

Yeah.

And here it is.

He tells this story.

He says, in Japan, he was the top heart surgeon, but he made a mistake while operating on a Yakuza boss.

who died as a result.

So Hide ran away to escape the wrath of the Yakuza, came to America on a fishing boat with no food, no money.

Daryl gave him a job.

Now he has an American car, a a job, a woman.

Daryl saved his life.

But he has a secret.

Twist.

He killed the Yakuza boss on purpose.

He's a really good surgeon.

The best.

It's so good.

It's so good.

I slid into Hide's DMs.

Hide, if you hear this, check your DMs.

We would love to talk to you about your experience on the office and this talking head.

You just crushed it.

We just think you're awesome.

Hide had been on the show for a long time as one of the warehouse workers.

and BJ said in an interview that getting this tag into the show was a mission of his.

He said that he loved the idea that this character, who we've only seen in the background,

had a life story infinitely more dramatic than anyone else the documentary crew had been following, but they never thought to ask.

BJ also said that they shot six different versions of this in various places.

They shot Hiday by himself in the warehouse, Hiday by himself in the bar.

They shot Daryl and Hiday in the warehouse, Daryl and Hiday in the bar.

And we also shot two totally different backstories.

Well, I love that they chose the one with Daryl standing next to him.

I thought it was really just perfect.

I went to the candy bag in the shooting draft for this talking head.

And BJ is right, there were many versions.

I'm going to share with you two of my favorites.

Okay.

In one, Hiday's brother had put a hit out on him, and Hiday was traveling the world hiding.

That's the one that was in the shooting draft.

I remember that one from the table read.

Yes.

In another one, Hide was a sumo champion, and he traveled to India and then drank some kind of tea there that made him not hungry and not want to eat.

And he lost a bunch of weight, and his wife left him, and he was penniless, and he came to America.

Well, I loved this one.

I loved this one.

And BJ shared on the commentary when Hide says American Car, that Hide improvised that.

Yes.

And BJ loved that.

Well, that was happy hour.

Guys, we're going to miss you while we're on our vacation.

We love you.

But like I said, we will be back July 15th for Secretary's Day with Miss Ellie Kemper.

We just want to say thank you to Matt Sohn for his audio clips, and of course, Randy Cordre, who always gives us the behind-the-scenes details.

And we hope this week you guys have a little bit of razzle-dazzle and a great week.

Love you.

Bye.

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 Ratney.

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