St. Patrick’s Day

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Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 Hello. Hi there.
I'm excited about today's episode. Well, it's a big day for Dunder Mifflin.
It's a fun one. I think Michael Scott should kick off this episode.
Oh, okay.

Speaker 1 Hello, hello.

Speaker 1 Top of the morning to you. Woo-hoo! Green M ⁇ Ms! Nature's Viagra!

Speaker 1 Two of my favorite joke areas combined. going to be a good day.

Speaker 1 What are his two favorite joke areas? Eminem's Viagra and St. Patrick's Day? Like, what are...

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm not sure. I guess Viagra and Candy.
Viagra

Speaker 1 and holidays. Viagra and...
Definitely Viagra. Definitely Viagra.
I'm not sure what the second one is. Well, why don't you kick us off, Jenna, with what episode this is? This is St.

Speaker 1 Patrick's Day, Season 6, Episode 19, written by Jonathan Hughes, who is one of our writer's assistants, and directed by Randall Einhorn.

Speaker 1 I noticed in the shooting draft, Jenna, this episode was titled St. Patrick's Day, Semicolon, Town Hall.
Huh? Because Joe Bennett is going to have a town hall meeting. Wow, I know.

Speaker 1 A little tidbit there for you. Great trivia there, and just coming in hot with the trivia today.
Oh my gosh. Are we becoming becoming that SNL sketch? Do you remember the delicious dish?

Speaker 1 It was like the ATR with a Molly Shannon and a gas dyer. Yes.
Oh, good times. I love it.
Coming in hot. You surprised me with that one.

Speaker 1 Are we them? Maybe. Should we hear them? Let's hear them.
Oh, Sam, can you find us a clip of them?

Speaker 1 So, Terry,

Speaker 1 what's your favorite kind of fiber?

Speaker 1 I like quinoa. Whoa.

Speaker 1 I threw you, didn't I? He thought I was going to say barley.

Speaker 1 That was a real game changer.

Speaker 1 More like grain changer.

Speaker 1 Oh my gosh. It's one of the all-time greats.
It really is. Molly Shannon has a fantastic book out.
Hello, Molly. It's so good.
I've actually been listening to the audiobook.

Speaker 1 I've been listening to her read it. Oh, that's so fun.
It's really good. It's very raw and emotional.
I mean, she shares really deeply about her life. But, God, I just, I admire her so much.

Speaker 1 I love her. Yeah, get her book.
Book plug, Molly. And may I point out, you guys have the same microphone set up as them.
We do. As the delicious dish gals.

Speaker 1 That's why you and those ladies sound just as good.

Speaker 1 Well, I came in hot and we had an unexpected tangent. Back to the episode.
I'm going to give you a summary. Good times.

Speaker 1 It's St. Patrick's Day, which is a big deal in Scranton, and the gang can't wait to celebrate after work.
Dwight exploits the fact fact that Jim is struggling with his return from paternity leave.

Speaker 1 Michael tries a little too hard with Joe Bennett and becomes jealous when she takes a shine to Daryl instead.

Speaker 1 Meanwhile, Andy and Aaron have their first date in spite of Aaron being sick and a creepy foster brother.

Speaker 1 That was a storyline I forgot about. Same.
When I was re-watching it, I'm like, what, what, what, wait, who's this guy? What is going on?

Speaker 1 That guy was so funny. Their whole dynamic, we'll get to it.
Fast fact number one is some mail that we got from Caitlin Dee in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Speaker 1 Fun fact, Scranton has a 30% Irish population, ranking third highest for medium cities in the U.S.

Speaker 1 Have you ever been to Scranton's St. Patrick's Day parade? Did you know it was one of the largest in the country?

Speaker 1 Well, I have not been to the parade, but I can confirm that according to penlive.com, Scranton ranks seventh out of the nine largest St. Patrick's Day parades.

Speaker 1 I believe it because if you meet anyone from Scranton, one of the first things they tell you is, you got to see our parade. Well, the parade has its own website with a countdown.

Speaker 1 They are already counting down to next year's parade. And according to the official website, they're the second largest in the country.

Speaker 1 So maybe they want to call someone over at penlive.com. Uh-oh.
Get on it. Stir in the pot, Jenna.
Well, you know.

Speaker 1 Next year, their parade is going to be on March 11th, 2023.

Speaker 1 The parade kicks off with a parade day mass at St. Peter's Cathedral at 10 a.m., followed by the Brian P.
Kelly two-mile foot race.

Speaker 1 And then after the race, the parade starts at 11.45 and lasts just under three and a half hours. That's a long time.
It's a long parade. I don't know.
How long is the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade?

Speaker 1 I like that we just came to this at the same moment. Like, wait, how long is a parade? I thought a parade was about an hour.
Same. Well, this is.
Not this one. No.

Speaker 1 They also get approximately 12,000 people at the parade each year. Wow.
Internet says Macy's parade is roughly three to four hours. Oh, same.
Oh, big parade. Big parade.

Speaker 1 Who knew? I guess I've only been to more smaller local parades. I mean, my neighborhood does a little one for 4th of July.
It's about 30 minutes. Lady, that's not a parade.
Sure it is.

Speaker 1 It's a neighborhood event. It's a parade.
You get,

Speaker 1 you decorate your bicycle or, you know, the little red like wagon and you decorate and you walk and neighbors have candy and they throw candy. Yes, a neighborhood event.

Speaker 1 You're talking about a neighborhood event. No, I can't just organize like 20 people on my street and call it a parade.
Sure you can. Have you been to New Orleans?

Speaker 1 Those are real parade.

Speaker 1 No, no, in New Orleans, you can just like walk out after getting married and everyone starts dancing and people follow along and all of a sudden you're going through the streets with like 200 people.

Speaker 1 I don't. I will debate you on this forever.

Speaker 1 My neighborhood does a little 4th of July parade. You're saying it's an event.
I don't like it.

Speaker 1 Well, listen,

Speaker 1 I don't know what to say

Speaker 1 because I mean, I just think like

Speaker 1 you're saying I'm surprised this parade is three and a half hours long because our parade on my street for 4th of July with the bicycles is much shorter. No, I'm not saying that.

Speaker 1 I'm saying that you can have smaller parades or bigger parades. There's room for every type of parade.
All right, I'll agree to that. Okay, fine.

Speaker 1 Shall we go on to fast fact number two? I guess. What kind of energy are we bringing this morning? I don't know.
I think we're really tired. I know.
We're loopy. I know.

Speaker 1 Well, fast fact number two is that Greg Daniels always wanted us to film an episode in Scranton during the St.

Speaker 1 Patrick's Day parade, but we could not get the network to approve a budget to bring the entire cast and crew to Scranton. I thought this was such a huge mistake by the network.
It would have been

Speaker 1 so great. It would have been a love letter to the city of Scranton, this amazing city who rallied behind the show.
And I'm so bummed we never got to go.

Speaker 1 Listen, that's everything that we were saying on set. We were constantly arguing that this had to happen during the run of the show.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Because the show never shot a single thing in Scranton, the entire run of the show. And we thought that that was wrong.
Guess what? We're going to do an episode of Mom's Detective in Scranton. Yeah.

Speaker 1 There.

Speaker 1 The show that we talk about that doesn't exist. We're going to do it in Scranton.
Well, listen, Greg thought maybe for this episode, we could get a few people to Scranton for the parade.

Speaker 1 They wouldn't pay for everybody.

Speaker 1 So originally, this episode opened with a Michael talking head during which we were going to show footage of people at the parade. Yes, like a montage.
Yes, here is how it went.

Speaker 1 The talking head was, it's St. Patrick's Day, which is a huge deal in Scranton.
There was a big parade on Saturday.

Speaker 1 Third biggest parade in the country, according to the organizers, but if you ask me, it's the biggest.

Speaker 1 And then during that talking head, we were going to see Phyllis and Bob Vance dressed as royalty waving atop a Vance refrigeration float. That would have been amazing.
They would have built it too.

Speaker 1 It would have been a giant refrigerator going down the road.

Speaker 1 Well, Angela, Randy told us that they started prepping this episode and they reached out to Mary at the Chamber of Commerce. In Scranton.
Yes.

Speaker 1 And the Steam Town Mall was going to give us a float that we could turn into a Vance refrigeration float. Come on.

Speaker 1 Do you see how supportive they were? Oh, but wait, there's more.

Speaker 1 We were going to have Creed march with the veterans wearing a highly decorated officer's uniform, and Stanley was just going to be sitting on the sidelines in a lawn chair.

Speaker 1 So we shot this episode in January,

Speaker 1 but there was a problem. The parade is in March.

Speaker 1 Listen to this. The city of Scranton offered to move the entire parade one week earlier so that we could scoot down there and get this footage and get it into the episode in time before it aired.

Speaker 1 Come on.

Speaker 1 There's more. The Scranton Hilton blocked off a floor of rooms.
The Steamtown Mall offered to give us their security for the cast and crew on the parade day.

Speaker 1 Mary also found a local hair salon to do the actor's hair and makeup for free. Oh my gosh, Mary.
Randy said he was able to do the whole thing on a budget of about $80,000. So why didn't we do it?

Speaker 1 We shot this episode in January. And then remember last week when we talked about how the delivery was supposed to air two different weeks on March 4th and then March 11th?

Speaker 1 But then both of them got moved.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 So then

Speaker 1 this episode ended up needing to air before St. Patrick's Day, like way before the parade

Speaker 1 could have happened all up. Exactly.
And I guess that when Greg got into the editing room, he decided that we didn't really need the footage, that it was working without it.

Speaker 1 And so the whole thing got cut.

Speaker 1 Oh, man.

Speaker 1 Randy said that despite all of their efforts, that Mary and the city of Scranton were somewhat disappointed.

Speaker 1 But overall, he thinks they were also relieved that they didn't have to change the date of the parade. Well, there's that.
When you said that, I was like, oh, no, no, no. People would hate us.

Speaker 1 They'd be like, why aren't we having our parade when we have our parade? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Wow. That's an amazing story.
I had no idea all of that was going on behind the scenes.

Speaker 1 It's very similar to how Randy tried to get that horse to go over the falls and then it got pulled at the last minute.

Speaker 1 Randy's job and yards are doing a lot of work that never comes to fruition, I'm noticing. He has to plan for everything, but not everything gets done.

Speaker 1 And then somehow he finds a way to get us a new kitchen in the rider's room. The man is amazing.
Fast fact number three, while the cast did not get to go to Scranton for the St.

Speaker 1 Patrick's Day parade, there is someone from our cast who did march in the St. Patrick's Day parade, and it was our very own Kate Flannery.

Speaker 1 That's right, Pennsylvania native Kate Flannery was in the Scranton St. Patrick's Day parade.
I reached out to Kate and I said, Kate, do you have any stories? How did it come about? Can you share?

Speaker 1 And she sent in this audio clip.

Speaker 2 Hey, this is Kate Flannery. I want to tell you all about my time in this Grant and St.
Patrick's Day parade in 2017.

Speaker 2 I was in Pennsylvania, actually, Philadelphia, with my dad, and they asked if I would be in the parade. I was super proud because I'm Irish.

Speaker 2 My dad owned a bar in Philadelphia, an Irish bar that my grandfather started. He's from Ireland, my grandfather's from Galway.

Speaker 2 So, St. Patrick's Day has always been a big deal.
And I love that they made Meredith have the same joy for St. Patrick's Day that I do.

Speaker 2 Just one day.

Speaker 1 One day.

Speaker 2 Anyway, I get downstairs for my dad's and there is a limousine waiting for me to take me to Scranton. It is all tricked out with lights and domestic champagne.

Speaker 2 And I'm like, woo, I am going to Scranton in style. I get there.
I am put into a horse-drawn carriage at the beginning of the parade, which is so awesome. Of course, I was wearing green.

Speaker 2 At one point, they took me to the cultural center, so I got to sing Danny Boy with this Irish band for real.

Speaker 2 And they put me back into the parade, and I was with the football team, and I got to march. I marched for a good part.

Speaker 2 And then I got to the reviewing stand with the mayor of Scranton, and I got a plaque. I got a vest with a harp on it.
That is part of the Lackawanna County tradition of Irish folks from Scranton.

Speaker 2 And it was amazing.

Speaker 1 The only bummer was that...

Speaker 2 When I had to go to the bathroom, they made me cut the ladies' room line at Cooper's. There were like 30 30 women in line.
They wanted me dead. They were to kill me.

Speaker 2 They were drinking all day and trying to hold it. It was not good.
I don't know why we just couldn't find some random office from the newspaper. Anyway, it was a great day.

Speaker 2 I love Scranton. Woohoo! And I'm proud to be Irish.

Speaker 1 So there.

Speaker 1 What an amazing experience she had. I mean, she has a plaque.
from being in the parade and a special vest.

Speaker 1 That story though of where she had to cut the line to the bathroom, I'm sure they had her like on a schedule, right? Of course. So they were like, Let her through.

Speaker 1 And the ladies who'd been drinking at Cooper's were like, screw you, lady.

Speaker 1 Well, that's all I got, lady. Should we take a break? And then we'll talk about how very, very green this office is.
Where does this budget come from? Where do they store all the decorations?

Speaker 1 Who decorations? Who owns it? The water green. I know.

Speaker 1 We'll be back.

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Speaker 1 We are back. The office is looking very festive, but Kelly and Ryan are arguing.
And you know what? Meredith is not having it. No, not today.
Not today. One day.

Speaker 1 No hassles, no problems, no kids. And then Ryan's like, yeah, where are your kids? And she's like, nope, uh-uh, not today.

Speaker 1 I texted Kate. I was like, Kate, you are so funny in this and you look so stinking cute.

Speaker 1 We got a fan question from Megan R in South Africa who said, I would really love to hear a breakdown behind the choices made for everyone's St. Patty's Day outfits.

Speaker 1 I was surprised to see Kevin in a three-piece suit.

Speaker 1 Unsurprised to see Jim in just a subtle green tie, but Meredith's whole outfit was a showstopper. Mm-hmm.
I noticed her outfit right away. And her hair.
Like rolled up with the little flower clips.

Speaker 1 Come on. I went to the script.
Mm-hmm. Her outfit was meticulously scripted.
Here is what it said.

Speaker 1 Reveal Meredith wearing a beautiful dress. Her hair is in a tasteful updo with a green clover intertwined, and she wears a tasteful clover wreath.
I know. She looks like she's in her Sunday best.

Speaker 1 It's not what you would expect from Meredith on a holiday. No.

Speaker 1 Did you notice what Angela Martin is wearing? Pink.

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 1 Not green? No.

Speaker 1 What?

Speaker 1 She's wearing like an ivory turtleneck with a beige cardigan and a gray skirt. At one point, I have a talking head and I just blend into the wall.

Speaker 1 You can barely see me. Well, I noticed that you were not wearing green.
Considering that your character thinks green is whorish, this day just must be very difficult for you.

Speaker 1 Oh, I have a whole thing about my character in St. Patrick's Day.
I'll share in a bit. We also got a question from Sophia A.
in Massachusetts.

Speaker 1 Who thought of dyeing the water in the water cooler green? It really is such a nice little detail. I'll tell you, Sophia, that was in the script.

Speaker 1 And there was also a beat where Stanley was going to go to get water and then he was going to be annoyed that that was green. Oh, that would have been perfect.
I know.

Speaker 1 That's how they were going to reveal that. But instead, it ended up as just a little background moment.
The show was going to open with Mega Desk.

Speaker 1 Dwight has put all three desks together to form this U-shape around him. He's calling it Command Central.
He's got surveillance, gaming, and business. That's right.

Speaker 1 While Jim was off on his paternity leave, Dwight took his desk.

Speaker 1 Now Jim is trying to figure out what he's going to do. We had a fan question from Cass in San Antonio, Texas,

Speaker 1 who said, when we see Megadesk, there is a plant on the left side of Dwight. Is that a beat with a grow light? Because you get a good look at it at one minute, 36 seconds.

Speaker 1 I love the attention to detail. It is a beat.
I saw that too, and I love that there was a grow light. There is another really good shot of it at three minutes and 48 seconds.

Speaker 1 Lady, I have to say, I love that people are sending in time codes now. It makes my day.
I thought you would like it.

Speaker 1 I love it too when I do Insta stories for the podcast because I can go to the time codes that you guys call out.

Speaker 1 I have to say, I also spotted a humidifier and a large, large, like 8 by 10 black and white photo of an old-timey woman. Maybe his grandmother.

Speaker 1 There were several framed photos. Like, he brought in stuff from home.
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 Dwight has one of my favorite talking heads where he says Tweedledee and Tweedledumbass have been away on maternity leave and now Tweedledumbass is back and we have a problem

Speaker 1 because he needs more mega desk. It's all he can think about now.
I love that Joe Bennett is going to arrive with her dogs. I can't get enough of Joe Bennett.
I love Kathy Bates' performance.

Speaker 1 It is so good. I'm like crushing on it.
Everything between her and Michael in this episode is perfection.

Speaker 1 I wanted to point out the scene at two minutes, five seconds was actually longer in the shooting draft, and Joe goes around and compliments everyone.

Speaker 1 And I really felt like it set up that Michael storyline about him thinking Joe loves everybody, and of course, he could go see her in Florida. I thought we should hear it.

Speaker 1 Oh, Angela, I love that sweater.

Speaker 1 Phyllis, green is definitely your color.

Speaker 1 Mr. Bratton, you look well rested.
Didn't sleep awake. Oh,

Speaker 1 excuse me, Joe. This is that Japanese pistol I was telling you about.

Speaker 1 Didn't do it just as well.

Speaker 1 That is a fun piece of steel. Oh, she is.

Speaker 1 I'm going to be dreaming about her for now.

Speaker 1 You and me both.

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 1 she compliments everyone. Michael just thinks she's pals.
They're all pals. It's his dream come true, really, to have a boss who's a pal.

Speaker 1 Michael's going to go into the conference room and give Joe a farewell gift. You know, this is her last day in Scranton.
Yeah. And then she's heading back to Tallahassee.

Speaker 1 The gift bag at 2 minutes and 41 seconds was designed by our graphics designer, Henry Sane.

Speaker 1 And guess what's inside? A lump of coal. Yes, from the Anthracite Heritage Museum.
You guys, we've shared about the museum before.

Speaker 1 Once again, our amazing writers adding a little piece of real Scranton detail to an episode. Joe is a little bit befuddled with this gift, but she's so gracious.

Speaker 1 And she even tells Michael, you know what? You've got a place to stay if you're ever in Tallahassee. Oh, Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe, you cannot say this to Michael.
His reaction.

Speaker 1 Oh, Steve's performance and him reacting to this invitation.

Speaker 1 I have to say, when I was working on that movie with Michael Douglas, Solitary Man, where I played his daughter, we were working a few days together. We started talking about travel.

Speaker 1 He asked me if I'd ever been to Spain. I said, oh, no, I've not really ever had a chance to visit Spain.
He said, you know what? You got to come out. You stay at our house.

Speaker 1 Open invitation anytime you want. You and your husband, Lee, because he had met Lee.
He said, you come out. You stay at our place.

Speaker 1 And I thought,

Speaker 1 I don't know what to say now.

Speaker 1 Is this that thing where someone is just saying

Speaker 1 that?

Speaker 1 And I said, oh my gosh, thank you so much. Jenna.
Wait, wait. Two days later, he said it again.
He said, I'm serious. You got to come stay at our place.
Just any, just anytime.

Speaker 1 And I'm like, how do I take him up on that? I never did it. I didn't know how to be like, hey, Michael Douglas, remember when you said I can come?

Speaker 1 Can you talk to Catherine?

Speaker 1 Are you guys going to be there in July? Because we could go or August. Jenna, I wish I had saved the message because you called me.
Oh, my God. I did.
You called me like after work ended that day.

Speaker 1 And I had the message for so long. I wish I still had it.
And you're like, Aunt,

Speaker 1 the craziest thing happened today.

Speaker 1 I'm pretty sure Michael Douglas just invited me to his house in Spain. Like he has a house in Spain.
And I mean, I've been looking at airfare. I told Lee, maybe we should do this, right?

Speaker 1 We should do it. Like

Speaker 1 you were Michael Scott in the moment. You're like, let's get a ticket.
Let's get a ticket. Let's plan the trip.
I was too shy to

Speaker 1 follow up, but he offered twice within days apart. The first time I was like, oh, well, that's a polite thing to say.
But when you follow it up, then was I rude for not going to stay there?

Speaker 1 I didn't, it was such a kind gesture. Oh, my gosh.
What do you do? Can we go?

Speaker 1 Michael? Michael? Catherine. Catherine, can we go?

Speaker 1 Well, we have a scene between Andy and Erin that is really cute. Andy walks up to front reception and says, Aaron Gobras.
And Aaron says, Andy Gobras, and says, nice kilt.

Speaker 1 Jenna, I had to look up the origin of Aaron Gobras. Oh.
The word Aaron is of Gaelic origins. It's an Irish word for Ireland.
The second part of the phrase, Gobra,

Speaker 1 which I'm probably saying wrong, so I apologize. I'm probably not quite saying it correctly, but it means till the end of time.
So the phrase sort of means Ireland forever. Oh,

Speaker 1 there you go. And let's talk about this kilt for a second that Andy's wearing.
Well, we need to talk about it because we got a fan mail flurry about it. Did we really?

Speaker 1 Yes, because he says it's his sister's old field hockey skirt, to which a gazillion people said, Andy has a sister? Oh, yes. What? True.
She's never mentioned again.

Speaker 1 We only meet Josh Grobin as his little brother. What is going on? Yeah, where's the sister? Well, I want to say field hockey is near and dear to my heart.
At my high school in St.

Speaker 1 Louis, Nericks Hall, I played field hockey, not on the team, just in gym class, but we have an amazing field hockey team.

Speaker 1 So I reached out to my friend Liz Milliken, who still works there, and I asked her for some fun Nerik's Hall field hockey stats.

Speaker 1 You're going to have to tell me what field hockey is because I don't know what

Speaker 1 field hockey. Okay, well, first of all, you wear kind of a skirt,

Speaker 1 and then a top that is just like a regular

Speaker 1 sports jersey kind of thing.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 you have a wooden

Speaker 1 sort of hockey stick mallet, but it has a little curve on the end. So not like lacrosse.
This is not lacrosse. Okay.
So field hockey, you have a ball and you are hitting it down the field.

Speaker 1 On the grass. Yes.
With the wooden stick. With the wooden mallet.
And the mallet, it's not, the end of the stick is not as long as a hockey stick.

Speaker 1 It's more looks like a little bit of closer to a candy cane. Almost.
Okay. Like,

Speaker 1 it doesn't go in a full U. Right.
But that is field hockey. And you have a goal at the end.
Yes. And you pass it to your players.
Yes. Got it.
And do both men and women play it? Mostly just women.

Speaker 1 Got it. It's a woman's sport.
Okay. I'm full up to speed.
And you played this. I played this in gym class.

Speaker 1 Liz spoke with the Nericks Hall athletic director Nancy Millward and head coach Jodi Patterson. They compiled some amazing field hockey stats.

Speaker 1 For example, Angela, the reason you may not know about field hockey is that it is typically an East Coast

Speaker 1 and then also played in California. In Missouri, there are only 30 high school field hockey teams and only three club teams.
This year, Nerrick's Hall ended their season with a 9-12-1 record.

Speaker 1 Liz told me that a major highlight of this season was that they won two overtime games against Marquette and Ledue.

Speaker 1 This year's team also hosted its first pinkout game, which raised close to $400 for breast cancer. I just want to say, go markers.
That was what we were: the Nerex Hall markers. Like a Sharpie marker?

Speaker 1 We were the hallmarkers.

Speaker 1 And so, like, a hallmark, that was our team were hallmarkers, but we would call ourselves markers. What's a hallmarker? I mean, I guess it's just like a hallmark of history.

Speaker 1 Just hallmarkers? I don't, I mean,

Speaker 1 you're asking good questions.

Speaker 1 Well, go markers. Thank you.
Way to keep some butt and field hockey. Thank you.

Speaker 1 Our big rival is ursulan and they are the liners because they line the halls they don't have anything to do with halls okay we're the hall markers

Speaker 1 but we would always say that we were gonna x them out those liners we're gonna x out the liners this is amazing this is amazing this is a glimpse into my high school i love it i love it i would have played field hockey i love stuff like that well thank you liz so much that That was so fun.

Speaker 1 I thought immediately of Nericks when I heard that. Andy is going to have a talking head that tonight is their first date.

Speaker 1 And according to how I met your mother, it's got to be perfect because this is the story you're going to tell your kids. Background catch, did you notice his talking head was in the annex?

Speaker 1 Oh, I did not. Not in the conference room.
All talking heads in this episode happen outside of the conference room because Joe Bennett and her dogs are in the conference room. Yes, very soon.

Speaker 1 Jim is going to have a talking head over by the elevator by Vance Refrigeration. I totally noticed.

Speaker 1 After this Andy talking head, Jenna, there would have been a scene between Oscar and Michael. It was in the shooting draft.
It's in the deleted scenes.

Speaker 1 And we learn Michael's seat preference on an airplane. Is it the middle seat? You got to hear it.

Speaker 1 You're going to Tallahassee. I am.
Joe invited me to stay at her house. Wow.
So I am booking early to make sure that I can get the middle seat.

Speaker 1 Twice many people to talk to.

Speaker 1 I knew it. He wanted to be a middle seat.
Yeah, because he wants to chitty chat with the people on both sides of him. Oh my gosh.
He thinks he has to book early for that.

Speaker 1 I bet he's the guy that's so happy when someone's like, hey, I'll trade you my middle for your aisle seat. He's probably like, yeah.

Speaker 1 Well, this scene would have continued, and Oscar is really going to try to give Michael some advice. Here it is.

Speaker 1 I didn't know you guys were that close.

Speaker 1 You know, we just sort of hit it off.

Speaker 1 And she actually,

Speaker 1 she told me that I am funnier than a chimp in a bingo parlor. That she loved my tie.

Speaker 1 You know, Michael, Jo has a way of talking that's really friendly. I know.
She's the best.

Speaker 1 Right, but maybe she doesn't always mean those nice things she says.

Speaker 1 How can you go through life like that?

Speaker 1 He's so trying to help him. I know.

Speaker 1 Well, now Jim is talking to Pam on the phone. Pam's telling him little stories of baby Cece.
She sent him a picture of baby Cece all dressed up for the holiday.

Speaker 1 That photo on Jim's computer at four minutes and 14 seconds was Charlie Grandi's new baby, our writer.

Speaker 1 But Randy sent me the original photo because our graphics designer, Henry Sane, actually photoshopped the little green outfit onto the baby.

Speaker 1 It was not wearing that originally. But you might also notice in this scene at four minutes 35 seconds, you can see a photo of baby Cece on Jim's desk, and that was also Charlie Grandi's baby.

Speaker 1 So on Pam's desk, baby Cece is your sister's child, Cece, your niece. Yes.
But on Jim's desk, baby Cece is Charlie's baby. Yes, two different babies.

Speaker 1 Soon we are going to cast a set of twins, these two girls, to play Cece, and they are going to then grow up with us and we'll be putting their pictures on our desk. Right.

Speaker 1 A Jim Dwight storyline is going to start here where Dwight is going to make Jim feel badly about being at work and missing all of these wonderful moments at home with his baby.

Speaker 1 Okay, I loved this couplet of dialogue. There is a line that Rain had that would have made me laugh if I was doing the scene with him.
I wouldn't have been able to get through it.

Speaker 1 It's when Dwight says that Cece is going to think the refrigerator is her father, and Jim says, Is that what happened to you? And then Dwight goes, I'll tell you what happened to me.

Speaker 1 It's like that line, the like sudden turn of intensity. I'll tell you what happened to me.
And then he's like, I didn't see my father for the first two years of my life.

Speaker 1 He mistook his mom for his dad and his wet nurse for his mom.

Speaker 1 What was Dwight's childhood? I don't know.

Speaker 1 We have a really good fan catch from this scene, Angela.

Speaker 1 Paige B in Knoxville, Tennessee says, at around five minutes, you you can see Daryl working in Jim's old office behind Dwight, even though the town hall meeting hasn't happened yet.

Speaker 1 Was that a continuity slip? Oh, good catch. Paige, I am so impressed.
I went to the shooting draft. In the shooting draft, the group scene, the town hall scene, was first.
Yes.

Speaker 1 This was going to happen after.

Speaker 1 Nice catch. But in editing, they swapped them.

Speaker 1 That was a really good catch. We also got a fan question from Cameron D in Richmond, Virginia.
Jenna, what did you do during Pam's maternity leave?

Speaker 1 Did you get a good amount of time off for this episode and next? I'll tell you what I did, Cameron. I flew home and I spent the week with my sister and her new baby, my niece Cece.

Speaker 1 You got to be a hands-on aunt for a whole week. I did.
So I was kind of doing what Pam was doing. I was caring for a newborn.
I was on night duty.

Speaker 1 For that week, my sister could sleep through the night. Aw, that's like the best gift you can give a new mom is like a few hours to shower or nap, get some extra sleep.

Speaker 1 I absolutely loved it. I slept on their couch and Cece slept in a little bassinet next to me.
And I would kind of doze on and off when she dozed and I would hold her and I would just look so forward.

Speaker 1 to those nights with her when I got her all to myself. Because of course, when my sister was awake, she was like doting on her.
She just wanted all of her.

Speaker 1 So I was like, go to bed, go to bed, go to sleep. And then I got to just have that little pumpkin all to myself.
It was the best. I loved it.
That's what I was doing. That is so sweet.

Speaker 1 Jenna, there is a scene coming up that I have been sent probably 10,000 times in the last two years. Who knew? Who the hell? Wow.
Knew. Erin is sneezing at her desk and Angela's like, are you sick?

Speaker 1 And Erin's like, no, no, no, I just have some indigestion. And Angela's like, in your nose?

Speaker 1 Angela's not having it. She goes to her desk and she puts on her very own embroidered mask with her name on it.
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 She's not getting sick. Don't you so wish you had that now? Man, oh man, I wish I had it.
I've been asked that so many times.

Speaker 1 Well, listen, Erin says she's a little bit sick, but she's trying to push through because she just does not want to miss her date with Andy. It's so sweet.

Speaker 1 We got a fan question from Catherine Dee in Portland, Oregon. Was Ellie Kemper actually sick in this episode or is she faking her congested voice? She is faking, you guys.

Speaker 1 I mean, it's some great sick performances. It's some great fakey cold work right there.
Really good.

Speaker 1 I was perplexed by what Erin shared in her talking head. She said she usually recovers when she's sick in just a few hours, except for the time she was in a hospital from ages three to six.

Speaker 1 We are learning so many random things about people's backstory in this episode. We really are.

Speaker 1 Well now it is time for Joe's town hall. She gathers everyone in the bullpen and she says, I want to hear your ideas.
She's been hearing ideas from executives, but she wants to hear from everyone.

Speaker 1 She says, I mean, did you guys know that liquid paper? That wasn't invented by some fancy engineer. No, that was created by a lowly lowly typist.
Well, Kevin chimes in right away.

Speaker 1 He says, Oh, I have an idea for a suntan lotion soap. And Joe says, Doesn't have to be an invention, Kevin.
Jenna, there were so many alts for that line. What? I went to the candy.

Speaker 1 For suntan lotion soap? I went to the candy bag alts for Kevin's suntan lotion soap. Oh, I'm dying.
I literally can't wait. I mean, look how many.
Oh, my gosh, I can't wait. Okay, here we go.

Speaker 1 I can just see right now the writers up in the writer's room. Pitching like crazy.
Cracking up over what are Kevin's inventions. Okay, here are the alts.

Speaker 1 A hook that you put all your keys on so you don't lose them.

Speaker 1 Face hat. I don't know exactly what it's for.
A device that turns any sink into a urinal.

Speaker 1 Charcoal filtered underwear. Remote controlled sack adjuster.
Orgasm detector. Babe magnet.
The never-ending French fry. An app that invents apps.
What about an invention that makes inventions?

Speaker 1 Because then you just make that and you're home free.

Speaker 1 I have an invention, pants with a built-in chair. So you always have a place to sit.
I got the idea from a time when I got stuck in a chair and just went with it. Wait, that's Michael's invention.

Speaker 1 I know. I want to see that scene where Michael gets really angry, where he's like, that's my invention.
They talk about it at company picnics. I know.
Okay, next one.

Speaker 1 They have 3D glasses, but do they have ID glasses? Hmm. I feel like that's probably something that is about to roll out, perhaps.
Dog biscuits for people.

Speaker 1 A game that lets you be a swan.

Speaker 1 Huh. A bicycle powered by licking a lollipop.

Speaker 1 An app that lists all your condiments.

Speaker 1 What would you need that app for? I don't know, but there would be some controversy over what a condiment. A condiment is, yes.

Speaker 1 Those were all of Kevin's suntan lotion soap alts. I felt like some of those sounded like Michael Scott inventions.
Yeah. But the one that sounded most Kevin to me was never-ending french fry.
Yes.

Speaker 1 Also, maybe the remote-controlled sack adjuster.

Speaker 1 Does that mean something adjusts your balls remotely? So you don't have to lean down and touch them. Right.
Should you be in public? Yeah.

Speaker 1 You hit your little remote button and it shifts your balls around. It does it for you.
Well, there you go. Well, I got very interested in Joe's comment about the inventor of liquid paper.

Speaker 1 Did you deep dive? Yes, I did, Angela. And this story is amazing.
Liquid paper was invented by Bette Nesmith Graham.

Speaker 1 In 1954, she was a divorced single mom supporting herself and her son as a secretary working at a bank in Texas. She made about $300 a month.
Here's the thing, though. She was a really bad typist.

Speaker 1 And every time she had to correct her mistakes, you either had to kind of like erase it and then it would smudge, or you just have to start all over again.

Speaker 1 Well, she was also a painter. And she thought to herself, you know, when painters make a mistake, they don't erase it or they don't start over.
They just paint over it.

Speaker 1 So she was like, What if I took some of my white tempura paint to work and I painted over my mistakes and I let it dry and then I typed over it?

Speaker 1 Guess what? It freaking worked.

Speaker 1 But she was like, I need to make a better formula than just this straight paint. So in her kitchen at home with her blender, she created liquid paper.
She put it in little nail polish bottles.

Speaker 1 Brilliant. And for five years, she and her coworkers at the bank used it.
They called it Mistake Out.

Speaker 1 Well, then she got the idea, I should do something with this. Yes, you should.
I'm going to make this a business.

Speaker 1 So she hired some teenagers for $1 an hour to package it up in her garage, and they started shipping it out and sending it to places. She applied for a patent.
It caught on.

Speaker 1 She renamed it Liquid Paper. And they started opening up factories in Dallas, Toronto, and Brussels.
At its peak, they were making 25 million bottles of liquid paper every year.

Speaker 1 With her wealth, she established two foundations, one that that gave grants and financial support to promote women in the arts, and the other which supported women in business.

Speaker 1 But at one point, while her liquid paper business is booming, she decided to get married again. But guess what this guy did? Please don't tell me he took her money or sold her patent.

Speaker 1 Please don't tell me. He tried to push her out of her own company and take it over for himself.

Speaker 1 What a SOB. That's right.
He even tried to change the formula of liquid paper ever so slightly so that

Speaker 1 so that he wouldn't have to pay her royalties on it.

Speaker 1 Well, guess what? She prevailed. She sold the company in 1979 for $47.5 million.
She gave millions of dollars to charity. Sadly, she died six months later from a stroke after selling her company.

Speaker 1 And incidentally, her son? is Michael Nesmith, the guitarist for the monkeys. The rock band the monkeys.
It's his mom. Oh my gosh.
Right? That is a fascinating story. I loved that story.
Me too.

Speaker 1 It's just a person solving a problem in their everyday life, you know? That's like my friend. Oh, the cupcake lady.
Yes. My friend, Jennifer Gunn.
She was a stay-at-home mom.

Speaker 1 She's constantly making cupcakes for her kids to take to school, and she was annoyed that they were getting all messed up. She's like, I can't keep putting them in like a shirt box.

Speaker 1 What am I transporting them in?

Speaker 1 So she came up with the cupcake courier and she patented it and she sold it out of her garage for years. And then finally, she sold the design and it's in like Target and all these things.

Speaker 1 You can get it everywhere. Bed bath and beyond.
Amazing. When she told me, I was like, how has no one thought of this before? It was this amazing, like, stackable cupcake transportation device.

Speaker 1 Josh has one. I know.
I brought it on Rachel Ray. I was so excited about it.
I was like, give me one. I'm giving one to Rachel Ray when I go on her talk show.

Speaker 1 Cupcake courier, liquid paper. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 Women solving everyday problems. Yeah.

Speaker 1 During this town hall meeting, I have to point out how great they build this irritation that Joe has towards Michael. Well, he keeps like doing all these like sidebars.

Speaker 1 Like he does when anyone else ever is running a meeting. But one person is going to shine in this meeting, and it's Daryl.
He has an idea about shipment because printers and paper ship differently.

Speaker 1 And he shows this to Joe and she's like, I like this. You should have an office up here.

Speaker 1 And then her dynamic with Gabe is so great. It's so good.
Gabe was like, I actually put, you know what? I'm going to pack up my stuff. No problem.
Exactly.

Speaker 1 And this is the moment Michael reveals that he bought tickets to come to Tallahassee. July 4th weekend.
July 4th weekend, but not only that, there's multiple. He booked multiple.

Speaker 1 Just in case July 4th didn't work out. And Joe's like, no, no, no, you didn't do that.
I'm often not home. It's getting so awkward.
Michael isn't catching the hint. And finally, she's like, enough.

Speaker 1 Jenna, I remember when we filmed that. You do? You could have heard a pin drop.

Speaker 1 We were all terrified.

Speaker 1 She was so powerful in that moment. Like, her acting is so good.
It literally shut up the whole room. I love her.

Speaker 1 And Michael has this line where he says, all right, everybody, just try to put a brave face on.

Speaker 1 And he looks like he's about to cry. Daryl is moving on up to his new office.
He's singing The Jingle from the Jeffersons. Yes, it was written by Janet Dubois.

Speaker 1 Randy negotiated just the sync rights to the song, which meant that Craig could sing them a cappella, but could have no musical accompaniment, and we could not play the actual song.

Speaker 1 And it cost us $17,000 for him to sing as he's moving into his new office. Michael is confused.
He's upset. He goes in to see Joe.

Speaker 1 I love when he's like, I'll knock once for yes and twice for no. And she said, How many knocks to get you to do some work? I know.
It's so good. Well, lady, I think we should take a break.

Speaker 1 I do too, because when we come back, the cat's in the cradle.

Speaker 1 Jim is feeling guilty. Dwight's plan is working.
It's working.

Speaker 1 Jenna, guess what? What? The wait is over because Macy's biggest deals of the year are on.

Speaker 1 It is the best time to get ahead of your holiday shopping so you don't have to have any of that scrambling and stress.

Speaker 1 Well, Macy's Black Friday sale is officially on and it's really the easiest way to check everyone off your list. And you know, they have something for everyone.

Speaker 1 For example, they have 20 to 40% off Lego. They have small appliances.
They have clothes. They have accessories, perfume, makeup.
I mean, it's all there.

Speaker 1 And when you buy your gifts at Macy's, you can round up for BBBS.

Speaker 1 100% of funds will go to Big Brothers, Big Sisters to help create one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth.

Speaker 1 Did you know Macy's has raised over $13 million for Big Brothers Big Sisters to support 280,000 mentoring moments? That is wonderful.

Speaker 1 The Macy's Black Friday sale is happening November 10th through November 29th. Shop now at macy's.com or in store.

Speaker 1 Lady, I'm at this place with my makeup routine, if you can call it that, where I actually I do want to wear something, but I don't want something too heavy. Right.

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Speaker 1 The whole point of it is to create that kind of effortless, natural, no makeup look. That's the look I'm going for.
Well, they have this bestseller. It's called the Miracle Balm.

Speaker 1 And it can be like a tint, a blush, a bronzer, a highlight. It can go on your lips.
It can go on your face. It's like one of those things.
And it just gives you kind of a glow up.

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Speaker 1 For a limited time, our listeners are getting a free, cool gloss on their first purchase when they use code Office Ladies at checkout.

Speaker 1 Just head to Jones Road Beauty.com and use code Office Ladies at checkout. After you purchase, they will ask you where you heard about them.
Please support our show and tell them our show sent you.

Speaker 1 You know, we'll have a good time then.

Speaker 1 This is the song that Dwight is playing while Jim is on a sales call. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I can't listen to that song. It makes me too sad.
I'm so sorry. I just had Sam play it.
I can't listen to the whole thing. It bums me out too much.

Speaker 1 Cats in the Cradle is a 1974 folk rock song by Harry Chapin. I did not know this.
The song began as a poem written by his wife Sandy, inspired by her ex-husband's awkward relationship with his father.

Speaker 1 Chapin said the song is also about his own relationship with his son, Josh.

Speaker 1 Basically, I think you guys know what the song is about, but the reason Dwight's playing it is because it's about a man who becomes a father, but he's just too busy to spend time with his son, and his son's always asking him, spend time with me.

Speaker 1 And the dad's like, we'll find a good time later.

Speaker 1 But then in the final verse, the son is all grown up and the dad finally wants to spend time with him but now the son is too busy and he realizes his son has grown up to be just like him just too busy for relationship and intimacy this song makes me sad and so does the book the giving tree always makes me sad oh right

Speaker 1 Randy told me that we had to pay for both the sync and the master rights to this song because we both hear the song and then Dwight and Andy sing it and the total cost for this was $46,000.

Speaker 1 Well, Jim is going to have a talking head, like you said, outside of Vance refrigeration.

Speaker 1 And he's going to say he's not surprised that Dwight is using his baby to steal his desk, but what he is surprised by is that it's working. This next scene, Erin is going to bring Joe a fax.

Speaker 1 But she's so clearly sick. Joe's reaction to Erin walking in the room sick, she's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, get out.

Speaker 1 It made me me laugh really hard lady am i seriously am i joe ben i think you might be that is a hundred percent how i react to a sick person when i know

Speaker 1 i'm like oh wait no but

Speaker 1 i not today i am not getting sick today because of you you need to go home i was like that before the pandemic i know and now you're really leaning into it i really am like sniffle goodbye don't think so well andy is super bummed out because joe sends aaron home And now what are they going to do about their date?

Speaker 1 Well, Andy has an idea. He's going to go into Joe.
He's going to have a bunch of coughing and a bunch of sicky.

Speaker 1 Joe's going to send him home. Everyone should have started hacking and coughing.
They all would have gotten to go to the bar. You're so right.

Speaker 1 Angela, have you ever pretended to be sick to get out of something? Oh my gosh, you're putting me on the spot. I'm sure I have.
You know what?

Speaker 1 One of the things that just comes to mind, which is so lame, Jenna, but I'm, I'm really bad at lying. I'm really bad.

Speaker 1 And my dad was the same way. Like a police officer might pull him over for speeding and he'd be like, yep, I was.
You're correct. You know what I mean? Yeah.
One time I was working at 1-800 Dentist.

Speaker 1 You know, I was in my 20s and I had this 6 a.m. shift and I overslept.
And my manager called me and he was so nice. I answered the phone, pretty groggy.
I was like, hello.

Speaker 1 And he said, oh, Angela, are you not feeling well? I said, no, I'm fine.

Speaker 1 And he said, you had such a chance to get out of it. He said, if you're not feeling well, I can write you up at sick.
It's fine. I was like, no, no, no, I'm just tired.

Speaker 1 He was like, okay, well, can you wake up then and come to work? I said, yeah, yeah, I'll be there.

Speaker 1 And I told my roommates that. And they were like, he literally gave you an out.
Twice. I know.
And I was like, no, no.

Speaker 1 Well, I have a crazy story about pretending to be sick, and it involves Molly Shannon. Speaking of Molly Shannon, who's come up twice now on this podcast.
What happened? All right.

Speaker 1 So when I first came to LA, I was working as a typist for the Television Critics Association. All the stars.
of all of the new TV shows gather. We've gone to them for the office.
Yes.

Speaker 1 And you do a panel and you talk to the Television Critics Association about your new show, about what you're doing. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And then in the evenings, they would have these cocktail parties where the casts of of these shows would mingle with the press and write quotes. Right.
Well, when I first moved here, I was a typist.

Speaker 1 And what I did was I would attend these panels and I would make notes and then I would get an audio tape and I would go into a little hotel room that was all decked out with computers and there was a whole group of us shoved in this little hotel room with computers and I would have to transcribe them.

Speaker 1 And you would have to transcribe them by the end of the day. And then we would give these transcriptions to all the members members of the critics association.
Wow.

Speaker 1 So the first time we ever did this press, you knew exactly how it worked. I did.
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 And I actually told that story on the stage when I was up on the stage and I sent a big basket of cookies to all the typists who I knew who were typing everything we were saying. That's so great.

Speaker 1 So one of the things about this job that was super cool was that if we got our work done on time, we got to go to the parties. Oh, at the end of the day.
Yes.

Speaker 1 yes, and just be like a fly on the wall and looky loo at all the celebs. So, this one night, I heard that the cast of Saturday Night Live was going to be at the party.

Speaker 1 And I wanted to go so badly, but their party was early. It was the five o'clock party.
We never got done by five o'clock. But I was like, I have to go to that party.
I have to.

Speaker 1 So,

Speaker 1 like two days before, I started pretending like I was a little bit sick.

Speaker 1 And then on the day of the party, you were the slow play. I was.
I was like, oh my God, I'm just like not getting better. I'm not getting better.
But I was also being paid by the hour.

Speaker 1 So, you know, I had to, that was the thing. Like I had to gradually get sicker because I needed to work until four o'clock.
You know, I needed the money. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So the thing was, was like, it was very clear to me. that we weren't going to make it to this party.
We were not going to get our work done. Right.
So I said to my boss, I think I got to go.

Speaker 1 I'm so sorry. I'm not going to make it to the end of the day.
And my boss was like, of course, just go, go, get good rest. We'll see you tomorrow.
I'm like, thank you so much.

Speaker 1 So I left at four o'clock. I went to my car where I had a bag with makeup and a cocktail dress.
Holy crap, Jenna. Yeah.
And I put it on.

Speaker 1 And then I realized I couldn't get back in because all I had was my work badge. Well, that's when I noticed the red carpet.
Did you walk the red carpet? Sort of. What?

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 back then, there wasn't a lot of security. No.
After the limos would drop celebrities at the carpet, I noticed they didn't look for any credentials.

Speaker 1 If you got dropped off on a limo, you just got to walk in. Hold up.
Were you like hiding in the bushes, waiting for a limo to pull up, and then you would just scooch in behind the people? No.

Speaker 1 That's a good idea, though. That's what mom detectives would do because you know they love hiding in a good book.
I love a book.

Speaker 1 So. Oh, Lord.

Speaker 1 So I saw the line of limos. After they would drop people off, they would just go line up and wait for people to be done like for hours.
They just wait till the end of the night.

Speaker 1 So I went up and I just tapped, tapped on a window and I was like, hey,

Speaker 1 would you be willing to

Speaker 1 drop me off at the carpet?

Speaker 1 I cannot believe this story. You knocked on the window to a perfect stranger and said, hey, will you make a loop through the cul-de-sac and give me a a little ride to the front door?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm trying to fake you my way in. Yeah, and he was like, Sure, why not? Oh my lord.
It was like, No problem. So he dropped me off at the red carpet.
I did not walk the front of the carpet.

Speaker 1 I did not walk the part where they take your picture. I walked the back part of it.
You know, where the publicists walk? Yeah, yeah. Okay.
I walked in. I went right into the SNL party.
It was amazing.

Speaker 1 I couldn't believe it. I spotted Molly Shannon from across the way.

Speaker 1 And I was like, I have to say something to this woman. I mean, she's everything to me.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 I went up. She was talking with a group of press.
And when they kind of walked away, I just said,

Speaker 1 Molly Shannon, I just got here to LA. I haven't even been here a year yet.
And I just want to say you're such an inspiration to me. And I love you so much.

Speaker 1 And she looked at me, Angela. She put her hands on my shoulders and she said, don't give up.
Don't give up. Whatever you do, you do not give up.
It took me 10 years to land on Saturday Night Live.

Speaker 1 10 long years. But once I did, my whole life changed.
So you just don't give up, okay?

Speaker 1 Do you know what that means? to a young artist

Speaker 1 new to town to hear that well i went home that day and i told my mom this encounter. And for years, for years, my mom would say to me, Jenna, don't you forget what Molly Shannon said to you.

Speaker 1 Don't you forget, honey. Oh, that's going to make me cry.
I know. I'm crying.
I'm getting emotional. Lady.
Your mom quotes Molly Shannon too. To me.

Speaker 1 Listen to this. So it was eight years until I landed on the office.

Speaker 1 Ten years later, My movie Walk Hard came out and Molly Shannon was at the premiere because Tim Meadows was in the movie, Chris Parnell was in the movie, and she had come to support.

Speaker 1 And I walked across the party and I said, Molly, I'm Jenna Fisher. She said, Well, I know who you are.

Speaker 1 And I said, Well, I have a story for you. And I told her that story.
And then a photographer came over and took a picture of us. It was exactly 10 years later.
We were reunited again at a party.

Speaker 1 Isn't that insane? That's amazing. Insane.
So, this woman is a hero of mine. Let me me say, taking you back to that original party,

Speaker 1 the SNL party, as soon as I had my inspirational moment with Molly Shannon. Yes, I am just like on Cloud Nine.
I'm a little in my head. I turn around

Speaker 1 and I bump into a man and I spill my drink all over him. That man was my boss.
Were you fired? I was fired.

Speaker 1 He looked at me and he said, looks like you're feeling better. And I said, uh-huh.
and there was a pause and i said i'm guessing i shouldn't come in tomorrow and he said you guessed right

Speaker 1 but it was worth it

Speaker 1 that's my story about faking sick that is such a great story

Speaker 1 that is such a great story but let me tell you when i tell you like molly shannon's book is like you getting to have that moment with Molly Shannon. She gives it to everyone with her book.

Speaker 1 She is a force. She is a force.
I have worked with her, and she was the best part of my day every day. I'm sorry for that long tangent.

Speaker 1 Well, Jenna, I know you share the story in your book, and it's so good. I do.
In my book, The Actor's Life. Because now you have two books.
I have two books. Yes.

Speaker 1 Yes, your book, The Actor's Life, a Survival Guide.

Speaker 1 And you share so many of your encounters along the way. Man, that story is amazing.
I didn't know that your mom quoted it back to you. For years.

Speaker 1 For years. Molly kept me going for years.
Wow. Well, thanks for going on that trip down memory lane with me.
I loved every second. Now we are in Daryl's new office.

Speaker 1 And Michael just cannot figure out how Daryl got on Joe's good side.

Speaker 1 And I love when Daryl says, I presented her with a good idea. You were there.
Yeah. Michael, you were there when it happened.
I did some work. She liked my work.
Yeah. There you go.

Speaker 1 Everyone's getting restless. They're ready to go.
They have been ready to leave since they got to work.

Speaker 1 Michael tells Joe he's going to scooch on home and she's like, well, do you feel like you put in a good day's work? Can you put your name to this day? Say you did a good job. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 Michael walks out of the conference room as everyone's leaving. He's like, nope, nope, nope, nope.

Speaker 1 Well, I want to point out in the conference room at 12 minutes and 38 seconds, you can see rain in the windows, and you are going to continue to see rain out the windows now because

Speaker 1 I'll tell you why later.

Speaker 1 Oh, I also have a fan catch from RubyN in Australia who says: when Michael and the office are all trying to leave, and Michael comes out from talking with Joe and says they have to stay, you can totally see the reflection of someone's solitaire game in the window when Daryl is sitting down.

Speaker 1 I saw it. This is a really good catch.
It goes by fast, but at 13 minutes and six seconds, you can see a reflection of Creed's solitaire game

Speaker 1 on the office window. I'd also like to point out that Meredith has a solitaire game on her computer.
Kevin is bent out of shape.

Speaker 1 He has a talking head where he says just because Joe doesn't have a life doesn't mean they don't have a life. Oscar has a life.
He thinks Ryan has a life.

Speaker 1 There were some alt accounting scenes that happened here. They're in the candy bag.
Really? Yes, thanks again to Rob Burnett for sharing these with us. Here is one that really cracked me up.

Speaker 1 You know, so everyone's leaving the office. They think they're done for the day, right?

Speaker 1 This is the scene in accounting after Michael's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, you have to stay. Oscar says, Angela, I already shut down my computer.
Let me check my email on yours.

Speaker 1 Angela says, no, just turn your computer back on. Oscar says, it takes too long and it makes that loud noise.
Angela says, use Kevin's. Oscar says, we disconnected his internet.

Speaker 1 Why didn't to reveal Kevin has returned from the bathroom to overhear this? What?

Speaker 1 You told me the internet didn't reach my desk. Aww.

Speaker 1 They give him fakey work and he doesn't have internet.

Speaker 1 Oh,

Speaker 1 I thought that was a fun deleted scene. That reminds me of the thing you do with kids.
Like, if you don't want them to have dessert at the restaurant, you just tell them they ran out.

Speaker 1 Oh, you know what? They ran out of dessert. Yeah.
Guess everybody wanted it. Michael's going to call Todd Packer.
Oh my gosh, Dave Kechner, guest star in this episode.

Speaker 1 At 13 minutes, 21 seconds, what do we have, Jenna? I don't know. What? Behind Michael while he's on the phone.
Fakey Rain. Fakey Rain, y'all.

Speaker 1 We got a fan question from Chad T in Montreal, who's really wondering, why was there a film crew with Todd Packer at the pub when Michael calls him? It felt a little regular TV to Chad.

Speaker 1 Chad's sort of saying, like, why were you prepared to shoot the other side of this phone call?

Speaker 1 You know, Chad, I thought about this and here's what I decided. I think that they sent a crew ahead at around five o'clock, anticipating that the group would be there and the group isn't there yet.

Speaker 1 That's my explanation. Chad, here's what I'm going to say.
You're not wrong. Sometimes we bent

Speaker 1 the fourth wall here to make the story happen. I have a quick background catch.
In addition to the fake Uran, I just want to point out how many wonderful St.

Speaker 1 Patrick's Day decorations are all throughout the the office, including an Irish flag on Michael's desk. Oh, a little detail.
A little detail. I've got a location alert for the old bar.
Oh.

Speaker 1 Want to hear it? I do. It was called Tony's Bar and Grill.
Our locations manager, Kyle Alexander, rented it out for three days. It was shut down.
We had it all to ourselves.

Speaker 1 All those people inside, our background performers that we hired. The first day they went in with set dressing and lighting.
Then we had our one shoot day.

Speaker 1 And then on the third day, we moved all our stuff out in time for them to open that evening.

Speaker 1 Thank you, Tony's Barn Grill. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 Andy is going to show up at Aaron's house with some Gatorade.

Speaker 1 And she opens the door. She's in her jammy jams.
I thought that was so cute. Andy, I'm in my jammy jam.
He's in his worky works. And she invites him in out of the rain.
Out of the rain.

Speaker 1 Location alert. This was a real residence in downtown LA.
It was right by the bar location, so we shot the scenes at the bar during the day, and then they relocated to this apartment in the evening.

Speaker 1 Randy said it was actually raining that night. Is that why we had to put fake urine behind Michael? I don't think so.

Speaker 1 I think that they wrote that it would be raining because they knew it was going to be raining. No? Oh.

Speaker 1 Because they wanted this moment of Andy at the door in the rain.

Speaker 1 You know what just came to me? What? This episode is literally Don't Rain on My Parade.

Speaker 1 What do you mean? It's the St. Patrick's Day.
There's a parade. They don't get to go celebrate.
Joe Bennett is raining on their parade and it's raining in real life. Oh, wow.

Speaker 1 Maybe that's the metaphor. Don't rain on my parade.
Well, Randy said that just in case they had a special effects team ready to make fakey rain, but they didn't have to.

Speaker 1 We also rented this apartment for three days. They did the same thing: a day to decorate it, a day to shoot, and then a day to put it back the way the other people had it.

Speaker 1 Andy and Erin are having a good time. They're snuggling under a blanket.
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 When this guy comes in the room, it's her foster brother. He takes Andy's spot.
All of a sudden, he's snuggling with Erin. He's smelling her feet and on her upper thigh.
What is

Speaker 1 it?

Speaker 1 And Andy is like,

Speaker 1 so, like, do you have a parent in common? They're like, no, no. He's like, how does foster brother work? And

Speaker 1 we were just in the same house together.

Speaker 1 He's like, cool, cool.

Speaker 1 Guest star alert, Reed, Aaron's foster brother, was played by Sean Davis. He graduated from Juilliard's acting program.
He's done a bunch of TV and theater.

Speaker 1 He is excellent, beyond excellent in this scene. Big shout out to him.
We did get a fan question from Susanna H. in Orlando, Florida.
Why would Erin's foster brother call her Erin?

Speaker 1 Wasn't her name Kelly growing up? Didn't she only begin to go by Erin at work after Charles Minor got sick of having two Kellys?

Speaker 1 You guys with all the catches in this episode, I'm so impressed. Right?

Speaker 1 So Susanna said maybe Erin went home and said to her foster brother, you have to call me by my middle name now because there's a new Kelly at my job. She'd like us to please discuss.

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 1 I definitely could see the character of Erin telling him, You know what? I want to go by Erin now, like fresh new start, new job. Yeah, I can see it.
I actually, I like that pitch. That's why.

Speaker 1 And her foster brother Reed is in love with her, so he said, Sure, exactly.

Speaker 1 But I think the truth lies somewhere in

Speaker 1 nobody thought of that. Yep.
Is what really happened. Back at the office,

Speaker 1 Meredith, Creed, Oscar, and Kevin are like, we're done. We're walking out.
Let's do it. Let's just walk out.
Let's just go.

Speaker 1 So they're set to go, but then Joe comes out of the conference room and then they all just like blow their nose and they bail. They bail.
They're scared of her.

Speaker 1 I'd like to shout out a beat sighting at 14 minutes, 20 seconds. Oh, do you have a beat sighting? The beat with the grow light is now up on the file cabinet.
Somebody moved the beat.

Speaker 1 The beat has been moved. The beat is still in there.

Speaker 1 Dwight shares with Jim that he has a meeting. He's got to get to.
Wink, wink, a meeting. No, Dwight's meeting is real.
It is? Yeah. There is no way that Dwight has a meeting at Shanny O'Ganagan's.

Speaker 1 He does. At 7:30.
He actually does. He says, I have an actual meeting.
I think he's just saying that to leave. No, he actually does.
He packs his briefcase. He's being earnest.

Speaker 1 Well, listen, I looked up Shanny O'Gannigan's, and there is no Shanny O'Gannigans in Scranton. There is one in Maryland.
I googled it. It's the three-hour drive.

Speaker 1 We don't even sell paper there or printers. Dwight earnestly had a meeting.
It's what makes the whole joke work that Jim didn't.

Speaker 1 I thought Jim stole Dwight's idea to get out of work.

Speaker 1 Well, I believe that Dwight is earnest and Jim sees an opportunity. Well, I see a poll in our future on Office Ladies Pod Instagram.
I think Dwight really had a meeting.

Speaker 1 And one of the things I could not get through in this scene, I had to like pause it, is Rain's hair. What? What was Rain doing in his real life at this time?

Speaker 1 His hair is way longer than Dwight's hair normally is. And they used a little flat iron, but they clearly had more hair to flat iron.

Speaker 1 And it's laying on top of his forehead like these long wispy bangs. I was cracking up.
Oh my gosh, I did not notice this. Wait, I took a picture.
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 Please, please look at his poofy, long bangs, flat-ironed hair. Oh, his hair is so long.
Yeah. I'm going to put it in stories.
So that's what I was looking at in the scene. Jim is going to call.

Speaker 1 Joe Bennett and say he has a meeting. He gets out, and now Dwight actually can't go to the one he actually had.

Speaker 1 For those of you that believe he actually had one, me

Speaker 1 coming up is one of my favorite scenes the cleaning crew arrives with their music blasting and they quickly leave i have to shout out the cleaner who says sorry sorry he was played by boris kievski he is so so so so good do you know how hard it is to like nail an acting moment like that with that amount of just casual reality.

Speaker 1 I so believed him. I believed the whole world that was happening with the music and them coming in.
He was so good. They all were so good.
Amazing. I loved it.
I love the detail too.

Speaker 1 That really shows you how long they've been at work. Because you know, if you've been at work when the cleaning crew arrives, you're like, oh crap, I got to go.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Randy said that the music they were playing was from the Universal Music Library and it didn't cost us anything. Angela, now you have your very famous talking head.
Yes, people quote this at me.

Speaker 1 Mm-hmm. Angela Martin says, Yes, I'm anxious to get off work, but let me be clear.
It's not to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.
It's so I can protest St. Patrick's Day.

Speaker 1 How does one do that?

Speaker 1 Well, this talking head was actually longer. Oh.
And in the shooting draft, she went on to say, a group of friends and I meet up with signs and travel from bar to bar. I really look forward to it.

Speaker 1 I love it. So there were a few candy bag alts for this talking head.
I'm going to read you two of them because, you know, they were like a page and a half.

Speaker 1 One is so odd. It's about the Steamtown Mall.
The other one I'm calling, is this a snarky writer moment? Oh, I can't wait. Sometimes we would read things and we're like, hey.

Speaker 1 The first one, Angela Martin says, I'm anxious to leave work to get to the Steamtown Mall. It's always empty on St.
Patrick's Day, so I finally feel safe to shop. I'm scared of mall tramplings.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 And here's the other one. You tell me if there's a little bit of writer's sass, Angela Martin says.
I'm not afraid of hard work.

Speaker 1 Do you know what hard work it is to dye my hair platinum blonde each month? I mean, come on. I'm closing in on 40, but my hair looks like Christina Aguilera.
Oh,

Speaker 1 I would say, I would say someone in the writer's room had some thoughts on my hair color. I guess so.

Speaker 1 So now, Jo

Speaker 1 is prepping to go back to Tallahassee. I loved this part.
She tells Gabe, ship all her things because she has had it with Homeland Security. But you know what, Angela?

Speaker 1 That is a sneaky celebrity trick. Do you know about this trick? No.
They ship their clothes to their destination so that when they get off the plane, they can just scoot it on out of the airport.

Speaker 1 Did you know that? Someone told me that. Someone said that they ship their clothes, FedEx.
I could never do it.

Speaker 1 What if the package got lost and then you got where you're going and you don't have any clothes? Yeah, and then isn't everything wrinkled? But I guess it gets wrinkled in your suitcase, too.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's a thing, though. Joe is doing the sneaky trick.
After speaking with Gabe about how late Joe usually works, Michael has decided he's going to take matters into his own hands.

Speaker 1 And he's going to walk in to Joe Bennett and he is going to say that he is pleased with his employees' performance today, and he's going to send them home for the night.

Speaker 1 And by the way, he's also canceled his trips to Tallahassee. So, you know, he looks forward to their working relationship.

Speaker 1 The end.

Speaker 1 And I think for once, Joe respects Michael in a moment because he stood up for his workers. He did.
He did. And she says, I look forward to that too.

Speaker 1 And then the whole gang gets to go out to the bar and they like Michael. It's really this nice moment where, you know, they're happy to be out at a bar with Michael.
He saved the night.

Speaker 1 Andy and Aaron's date, if you can call it a date, has come to an end.

Speaker 1 And it looks like they're about to kiss. But then, of course, Reed pops in.
Yep. And Aaron gives Andy a very long, lingering kiss on the cheek.
It's very sweet.

Speaker 1 Pretty much everyone is having a good night. In the end.
In the end.

Speaker 1 Well, there is a tag, Jenna, where Dwight arrives to find Jim sitting atop a three-desk pile that he has dubbed quad desk, right? Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 There was an alt for this scene. Oh!

Speaker 1 In the shooting draft, it says, Jim has taken Dwight's mega desk configuration and rearranged it. Three desks stacked on top of each other.
Each desk still has all its equipment, computer, phone, etc.

Speaker 1 There is a stepladder set up as a chair, and Jim is standing on the step ladder working at the top-level desk when Dwight enters. Dwight says, What the hell is this? Where's Mega Desk?

Speaker 1 Jim says, Gone, replaced by something better. Tower desk.
Ooh, tower desk. Then Dwight has this talking head where he's like, Well, now I want a tower desk.
I'm going to make one at home. Four levels.

Speaker 1 I have a silo. I can have five levels.
Wow. So that was the alternate, but instead we ended up with quad desk and a teeny tiny little desk underneath them all for Dwight.

Speaker 1 Aww, you guys, that was St. Patrick's Day.
It was.

Speaker 1 Thanks for celebrating this episode with us. Thank you to Kate Flannery for sharing with us about being in the Scranton St.
Patrick's Day parade.

Speaker 1 And thank you to Molly Shannon for being a remarkable human being and changing my life. Keeping me going, I should say.

Speaker 1 We hope you guys keep going and keep believing in yourselves and that you have a fantastic rest of the week. Don't give up.
Don't give up. We'll see you next time.

Speaker 1 Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is produced by Earwolf, Jenna Fisher, and Angela Kinsey.
Our show is executive produced by Cody Fisher. Our producer is Cassie Jerkins.

Speaker 1 Our sound engineer is Sam Kiefer, and our associate producer is Ainsley Bubico. Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Rattney.
For ad-free versions of Office Ladies, go to StitcherPremium.com.

Speaker 1 For a free one-month trial of Stitcher Premium, use code Office.

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