Stress Relief, Pt 2

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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.

Welcome, welcome.

It's stress relief, part two.

Part de.

Oh,

we're going to be very refined today.

Part dose.

Oh, third line.

Anymore.

Indonesian.

Part dua.

We are a classy show.

This is season five, episode 15, written by Paul Lieberstein, directed by Jeffrey Blitz.

Let me give you a summary.

Last week, if you remember.

Dwight took matters into his own hands when his co-workers failed to pay attention to his fire safety seminar.

He did a big fire drill.

He like trapped us in a burning building.

He did.

Stanley had a heart attack.

Dwight was in hot water with corporate.

We have that.

Right.

This week, Michael learned that he was the source of Stanley's stress, not Dwight, not the fire drill.

And so he thinks the best thing to do is to throw a roast.

Like an old school roast, right?

By himself.

Right?

Yes.

Yeah.

Where we all roast him until Johnson is inspected.

He's just drinking.

Like Dean Martin.

Yeah.

This is Friars Club.

This is going to be his comic relief moment.

Meanwhile, Jim is still embroiled in these marital issues that Pam's parents are having.

Pam's dad has been staying with Jim and Pam.

And Pam at the end of the last episode said, Jim, will you talk to my dad?

Pam.

Find out what's going on.

That's the worst.

Like, Pam, will you go talk to my parents?

Yeah.

I can't do it.

You go to it.

I cannot imagine asking Lee to go talk to my parents about their marriage.

Oh, my lord.

Could you imagine?

No,

I know.

Incidentally, my dad's name is Jim.

Does the world know that?

Because is someone out there right now being like, what?

And my brother-in-law's name is Dwight.

Yes, do you guys know this?

And my niece's name is Cece.

And her best friend is named Angela.

What's going on?

I think we mentioned this fact in an earlier podcast, but it is interesting.

All right.

Also, last week, I want to remind everyone that this episode played after the Super Bowl.

It was a super big deal.

And the network wanted big-name stars, and our show was like, hey, no, we don't do that.

Not at this moment.

And so we had this whole little movie playing out.

So that's going on too.

Yeah.

Jim and Pam and Andy are watching this pirated movie that that stars Jack Black, Jessica Alba, and Cloris Leachman.

What happening?

I think we caught you up.

Yeah, you're caught up.

Fast fact number one, Jeff Blitz won an Emmy for directing this episode.

Yeah.

And he deserves it.

He does.

This was complicated.

So Jeff Blitz has been on our show before.

We love him.

I mean, I literally love Jeff Blitz.

I know.

I love him as a human being.

I love him as a director.

I would also like you to know that our editors, Dean Holland and Dave Dave Rogers,

were also nominated for an Emmy for this episode.

They deserve it.

Dean edited the first half of the episode with the whole fire drill, and Dave edited the second with the roast, which is what we will be talking about today.

Fast fact number two, we had a fan question about the roast.

Okay.

Jessica Kay and Claire R.

asked, Who wrote the jokes for Michael's roast?

Did the cast help?

Was it the writers?

Was any of it improvised?

Short answer is the roast was totally scripted.

Yeah.

We, as actors, did not participate in writing these jokes about one another.

These were all written.

All written.

And I found out who pitched this part of the story.

The idea of the roast.

Who?

It is none other than the man behind Princess Unicorn.

Halstead Sullivan.

Oh, really?

Halsted told me that they had the CPR CPR storyline for the first half of the episode and they needed something for the second half.

So he told the writer's room that when he was growing up in Atlanta, his father was president of a medical school and every year the medical students would put on a show and it was like kind of like a follies show and they would do skits where they imitated their professors.

He said the audience loved it.

The professors, not so much.

Well, you know, I think Michael thinks everyone doesn't like me because I'm this jerk.

They think I'm a jerk boss, right?

Yeah.

So here's your chance, guys.

Have at it.

You know, roast me, say whatever you want.

I love that he's like, make fun of, you know, how great I look in shoulder pads.

Or also, traditionally, roasting kind of started with the Friars Club, I believe.

And it was a great honor to be the person being roasted.

Oh, yeah.

It meant something.

It was a position of status.

And so I think that's another thing that is playing off Michael right now, which is that he's going to be an honoree.

Yeah.

This is a big deal.

You guys are so lucky.

You get to roast me.

Speaking of roasts, you know, Comedy Central has kind of taken over where the Friars Club left off, and they do these roasts of people every year.

The Bruce Willis roast

is real good.

But in particular, Ed Norton roasts Bruce Willis.

I was like rolling tears streaming down my face.

It is such a good roast.

When we were prepping this episode, it came to my mind.

I went back and I watched it twice.

I wish I could play it.

It's way too long.

Oh, I want to see it.

It's so good.

I want to see it.

Check it out.

The first time I saw Amy Schumer was on a Comedy Central roast, and she was so funny.

And there were a few dudes that were like kind of throwing her shade, and she just decimated them.

Wow.

All right, moving along, fast fact number three: Cloris Leachman.

Cloris frickin' Leachman.

We told you there's this mini movie, and Cloris Leachman is one of the stars.

She kills it in this mini-movie.

Legend, legend.

I mean, incredible.

I needed to do a little breakdown of Cloris Leachman.

Here it is.

Cloris Leachman was born in Des Moines, Iowa.

Midwesterner.

Did not know that.

As a child, she performed at the Des Moines Little Theater.

Then she won a special scholarship to study broadcast drama at Northwestern.

She stayed there for a while, but then she returned to Des Moines to finish high school.

Then she returned to Northwestern with a theater scholarship this time.

But she dropped out again

to enter a beauty contest.

This beauty contest?

She eventually made her way to the 1946 Miss America pageant.

What?

She was in the Miss America pageant.

For Iowa?

I guess for Iowa.

Wow.

I'm not sure.

Eventually, she moved to New York.

She studied at the actor studio.

That's a big deal, acting school guys.

Then she made her Broadway debut in 1948 in a production called Sundown Beach.

She became a household name when she was cast as Phyllis Lindstrom on the Mary Tyler Moore Show.

And then she had her own spin-off show, Phyllis.

She won a best supporting Oscar for Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show, Angela.

Which was written by Larry McMurtry, who is from my hometown of Archer City, Texas.

And they filmed it in Archer City.

And it was written by, you know, Larry never officially claimed it, but folks in Archer City.

So they'd be like, were you so-and-so?

Did you sleep with that person?

What's happening?

Oh, so people were like trying to figure out who everybody was.

Yeah.

Which person is Sybil Shepard?

Which person is Floris Leachman.

Yeah, exactly.

And Larry said it was inspired by, you know.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

I don't know.

I feel like there's some woman named Doris who knows.

She's like, it was me.

Jenna, I actually read The Last Picture Show a few years after I had left Archer City and I was in college.

I was like, you know what?

This is a book about my hometown.

I want to read it.

It's so great.

It's a great read.

It's a great book and a great movie, is what you're saying.

Yeah.

So I'm saying, don't skip the book on this one, guys.

Over the course of her career, she won a total of eight Emmys for both drama and comedy, by the way.

She won a daytime Emmy.

She won a Golden Globe Award.

And in 2008, at the age of 82, she was a contestant on season seven of Dancing with the Stars.

She was the oldest contestant to ever dance on Dancing with the Stars.

And she was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2011.

I mean, the legacy of this woman.

Sadly, she passed away in 2021 at the age of 94.

And she was on our show.

I know.

This legend.

Legend, amazing woman.

Jenna, did you know I got to spend a little bit of time with Cloris?

Yes.

Now, not during this episode.

Not during this episode?

Because none of us met these guys during this episode.

No, we didn't film when they were there, which was a bummer.

But I ended up co-presenting an award at the 2012 Genesis Awards with Cloris.

We were co-presenters.

Oh my gosh.

We had to hang out backstage.

I met her daughter, Dinah, who is lovely.

They were the cutest mother-daughter duo.

And then Cloris and I went out on stage together.

We presented this award.

And she truly was such a hoot.

She,

I think, was at the age in her life and in her career where she gave, as the kids say, zero Fs.

Uh-huh.

And then I would run into her and her daughter at different events.

And we would say hi because we had formed this little connection.

Yeah.

But anyway, she was just so fun and so full of life.

And I'm so glad I just got to just interact with her those few times.

Yeah.

I love that story, Ange.

Why don't we take a break and we'll come back and break down this episode.

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We start this episode with Pam being kind of upset.

She's just gotten off the phone with her mom and she's going to go find Jim and say, hey, what did you say to my dad?

Yeah, her idea of having Jim talk to her dad did not go well.

Apparently her dad is now looking for an apartment and the divorce is on.

It's happening.

Pam gets really worried.

She has this talking head where she says, what could Jim have said to make my dad want to leave my mom?

And at what point in their marriage is Jim going to say this this to her she's spiraling I think she's spiraling yeah I mean that's a big leap that's a big jump but she's upset and she's scared right we had a fan question from Sally Kay was the divorce of Jim's parents a setup for the Michael Helene relationship in season six Helene is Pam's mom everyone no

This was crafted as a small representation of how our show had dramatic moments in addition to comedic ones.

But because this aired after the Super Bowl, we wanted to stay away from existing storylines.

So the writers had to create kind of like a brand new drama, but one that wouldn't go on to affect our regular characters too directly.

Right.

We didn't want anything in this episode to actually affect the character arcs and relationships that were set in place.

Yes.

So that was kind of why this storyline was crafted.

And I remember John and I really fighting for the drama of this, like really saying, no, we want to play this real.

Pam is really upset.

This isn't funny upset.

Like, I remember when I was shooting a three-camera show, I was supposed to get mad at one of the other characters.

And I was supposed to call him a jerk.

I was supposed to say, you're a jerk.

And the director came over to me and he said,

I'm so sorry.

This is three-camera.

You need to do funny mad,

not actual mad.

You're doing single camera mad.

Yeah.

Funny mad, funny sad.

He said, Maybe go up at the end.

You're a jerk.

Yeah.

And I was like, oh, okay.

Or stomp your foot.

Yeah.

Something.

Stop something on your toe and then go, ow, you're a jerk.

Ow.

Oh, see, this is why you were good at the three-camera, Angela.

I couldn't get it.

I couldn't get it.

So anyway.

John and I were like, we're going to do real upset.

And it's going to be okay because all the rest of the episode is going to have the comedy.

You know, the first three camera I did after The Office, I played it really real and really quiet.

It was a show called Hot in Cleveland.

I was really excited to do it.

Amazing actresses on that show.

Craig Ferguson was a guest star.

He was in there.

And the director came over to me and was like,

Could you talk faster, maybe louder?

And could you lower your voice or something?

I don't know.

Can we get her like some glasses?

Anything to make you like a character or something?

Come eat it.

Yeah.

And Craig Ferguson would start cracking up when the director walked away and he was like, maybe get her a top hat, a patch, maybe a parrot for her shoulder.

And Wendy Malik was also in the scene and she came over and said to me, and she called me kid, which I loved.

She goes, kid, you got to sell it to the back row.

This is multicam.

I said, gotcha, got it, got it.

Okay.

Yeah.

They did get me glasses, though.

They did?

Were they funny?

Funny.

Betty White did tell me I was funny, though.

That was my takeaway.

Do you have any more stories about legends?

You've got Cloris Leachman.

You've got Betty White.

We met Carol Burnett once.

Well, I didn't speak, though.

Remember, I was too nervous.

I didn't speak either, but we stood next to each other.

No, but Kate Flannery talked to her and we just stood there and smiled.

And then her and Kate got like a whole friendship going.

I thought we were so, oh,

we just need to go up to Carol Burnett laughing next time.

Oh no.

I'm going to try that one again.

Oh.

I'm going to get that one out in the future.

You're going to bust it out.

I am.

All right.

Where are we?

Okay.

Jim and Pam are playing real moments.

Michael and Dwight are sharing a bottle of mini booze.

Very tiny bottle.

Jenna, this is not the first time the tiny bottle of booze has been in an episode.

When was the first time?

All right.

In the deleted scenes of the duel.

Michael is building up the courage to tell Andy, and they're walking out to the car together and Michael hands him a mini bottle of booze out of his pocket in the elevator and goes, drink this.

And then Andy's like, I don't know.

I really like that.

Okay, fine.

And he like drinks it and he's like, and he's like, Angela's sleeping with Dwight.

So I think they have these little mini bottle of booze.

You don't start seeing them in deleted scenes till after they go to Canada.

And I wonder, I wonder if Michael took the mini bar stash.

He 100% did.

Right?

Of course.

That's what I wrote in my head anyway.

Or from the airplane.

Yes.

First class.

Yes.

In this scene, as they're sharing this mini bottle of booze, we are reminded that Dwight needs to get the signature of everyone in the office as an acknowledgment that they have accepted his apology for dismembering the CPR dummy last week.

I mean, how many apology notes is he going to have to have people sign?

I don't know, but he has to get everyone's signature.

He's having a hard time.

That's the only thing that's stressing him out.

Well, this is when Michael gets his big idea.

They should roast him.

This is great.

He's going to bust into the bullpen.

He's going to announce, we're doing a roast.

I want you to really go at me.

Don't hold back.

Yeah, you can comment on how fit I am or the fact that I'm a womanizer.

He doesn't want to write the material for them, but he wants it to be good.

Everyone is pretty excited.

I mean, Kevin.

is like a giggly,

he's so excited.

I liked Oscar's talking ahead.

Say it.

He was like, listen, I'm a good person, but I am going to try to make Michael cry.

We had a fan catch from Samantha S and Michelle S.

Two people noticed this catch.

Okay.

If you're following along, starting with part two at one minute 15 seconds, Kelly is standing in front of the shelves and her notebook is closed.

But in the very next shot, it is open and upside down.

Oh,

well, we missed that one.

Clearly, she's not really taking an inventory of anything.

Oh, I have a question for you.

What is it?

Who is planning this roast?

There's no party planning committee meeting, but I want you to know in deleted scenes, I found this gym.

Michael is having a meeting with Daryl in the warehouse.

Oh.

Yeah.

So I'm like, wait, is Daryl in charge of this party?

Because it's in the warehouse.

So Michael is telling Daryl everything he needs.

He says, I would like a stage.

And Daryl points to a few wood pallets.

Okay.

And he's like, oh, okay.

And he goes, also, I need a big comfy chair or maybe a throne.

That made me spit out my coffee.

Then he tells Daryl that he would like all the other roasters to be up on the stage too.

Like, you know, the Comedy Central Roast, where they have the dais of other roasters up there.

Yep.

And Daryl's like looking at these tiny wood pallets, like, okay.

Then Daryl's like, who's going to be in the audience?

And Michael's like, we're going to charge $10 a head

for the audience.

Who's coming to this?

Yeah, who's coming to this?

Then Michael's Michael's like, oh, also we need alcohol.

Okay.

You need lots of alcohol.

And I'm going to need something to spit in for my spit takes.

He's planning out that this is going to be so funny.

He's going to need to spit out his drink.

And Daryl's like, you're not spitting in the warehouse.

Then Dwight rushes in and he's got this 8x10 photo of Michael.

And Michael's like, no, no, no, no, no.

I want this photo huge.

It's got to cover like the whole back wall.

Okay.

Yeah.

And then he says, I also want a drum and cymbal so I can do the badump bumps.

This is amazing because all of these things are going to appear in the warehouse.

Yes, so I'm thinking Daryl and Dwight planned this.

They were the PPC for this event.

I don't want to give too much of a spoiler, but next week we're going to find out what happened to the PPC and why there is no one in charge of party planning right now.

Oh, yeah.

So this was like foreshadowing.

A little bit.

Well, I guess they set everything up and Dwight has a great idea.

It's actually a great idea.

It's brilliant.

He tells everyone as they're entering that they have to sign in for the roast.

But what they're really signing is his apology acknowledgement sheet.

Yes, but who catches it?

Phyllis.

So good.

She's so good.

She is just busting his butt through this whole episode.

She will not sign.

She's not going to sign.

She's the holdout.

Yeah.

Everyone takes their seats.

Michael sits on his throne.

And now the roast is going to begin.

Yeah.

Should we take a break?

I think we take a break and we come back with the roasting.

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Okay, folks, the roast is on.

Michael welcomes all these jerks.

Yeah.

Who's first up?

Who can't wait to get up there and roast Michael Scott?

He can barely finish his sentence, and she's grabbing the microphone.

It's Angela Martin.

That's right.

Jenna, I noticed something in re-watching this multiple times, like we do each week.

Is Angela Martin ripping off Jeff Foxworthy bits?

Yes, you know Angela Martin is a Jeff Foxworthy fan.

She's, I mean, listen, listen to Jeff and then listen to Angela.

If you've ever cut your grass and found a car,

you might be a redneck.

And now, Angela.

If you ever put sunblock on a window, you might be Michael Scott.

If you ever called the fire department because your head was stuck in your chair, you might be

Michael Scott.

She clearly is doing Jeff's bit.

Yes, 100%.

When I re-watched that, I was like, oh my gosh, that had to be the writer's inspiration for Angela's comedic style.

I was very impressed with how prepared Angela was.

Prepared and her mic work.

Like she took the mic off, waved it to the crowd for everyone to say Michael Scott.

She was into it.

Next up is Kelly, and she does a list of who and what she would rather kiss than Michael Scott.

All right, I got to jump in and just tell you guys there are so much extra stuff in the deleted scenes for the roast.

We also find out Kelly has a second bit where she says she knows that Michael dyes his hair.

Oh, yeah.

That one day it was raining and his hair dye dripped onto her arm and she color matched it and Michael uses Claire All Natural Instincts Midnight Black.

She does this whole other bit.

And then I think Meredith is the most depressing.

She says, Michael, you're the reason I drink.

You're the reason I live to forget.

Yeah.

Oof.

Oscar roasts Michael in Spanish and he speaks very quickly.

He has a lot to say.

A lot to say.

Very passionate.

There's so much more Oscar in the deleted scenes.

First of all, he does multiple jokes in English before he gets to his Spanish roast.

And I think we need to hear him.

The only man in the state of Pennsylvania who is less likely to get legally married than me is Michael Scott.

Michael Scott is so dumb, he thinks balancing a checkbook is putting a checkbook on his nose and shouting, Look at me, look at me.

Michael is so bad with money, he invested in Enron last week.

That was privileged.

Michael is the biggest idiot I know.

And finally, sometimes I lay awake at night, I'm sure all of you do too, and wonder, what the hell did I do to deserve a boss like this?

I mean, oh my gosh, he just calls him an idiot.

Oh, my gosh.

Michael is kind of realizing that maybe this wasn't as fun as he thought it would be, but things are in motion now.

Yeah.

And everyone can't wait to get up on stage.

Toby tries to have a turn, but Michael shoots him down.

Yeah, he says only friends, friends only.

And then there is a deleted scene, Jenna, where Oscar brings a cell phone up on stage because Jan.

who isn't there, has decided to call in so she can roast Michael.

Amazing.

All right, we got to hear it.

Well, Michael, you ruined my life.

Okay.

Everything you touch turns to crap.

Okay.

You have no sense of how to please any woman.

I can't believe that once you wrote a phone message on my diploma and you used my daughter's christening gown as a bib when you ate ribs.

I mean, you're just, you're just completely an ass, Michael.

You're an ass.

Okay, I have to say, clearly the writers had a lot of fun deciding this roast because in addition to all these deleted scenes, remember last week when I said our candy bag for this episode was 207 pages?

Our alt jokes?

Were they all roasting jokes?

They are almost all alternate roast jokes.

Well, I do.

Pages and pages and pages.

Oh my gosh.

I do remember, Jenna, that people got up multiple times.

Oh, yeah.

They just kept handing us stuff to go say.

In the candy bag, they had all these alts for Jan when she called in.

So in addition to this deleted one,

this one really

stuck out to me.

She says, it only took one night of misguided, drunken passion with Michael to ruin my entire life.

I would have been better off if he'd just given me syphilis.

Oh my gosh.

Well, now Jim is going to get up and he's going, I guess, list all of the sayings that Michael has butchered.

Spider face.

Oh my gosh.

Dwight is feeling bad for Michael.

So he hops up on stage to defend him, right?

Yeah.

And Michael's like, idiot, you're doing it wrong.

You're doing it wrong.

And then Dwight snaps and is like, what?

You're calling me an idiot?

Like, he's up there trying to defend him.

He's like, you're just a small, pathetic little man.

You have no friends, no family, and no land.

And he walks off stage and everyone cheers.

Well, now it's pam's turn i remember so clearly shooting this i remember because after roasting him about falling for internet scams and being lazy at work i had to say that michael's penis is small i mean

this is the ultimate nail in the coffin of the roast for michael in particular i mean michael who's like i know thinks he's like the womanizer because remember in an earlier episode pam knocked on the door and michael said come in.

And he did not have his clothes on.

And Pam was like, why did you say, come in?

He was changing for fun run.

Exactly.

So Pam is going to call that back and she's going to make a joke at his expense.

We did this a few ways that we started by having me just say it on the stage, but then they thought, this is kind of a low blow, right?

Yeah, and it's bold for Pam.

It is.

So they were like, let's try this one on the move.

Yeah, like a throwaway.

Exactly.

And so that's what ended up making it into the episode.

And then we have an old tech alert that helps you really just punch them one more time.

Oh yeah.

Everyone's like, how small is it?

And then Pam says, if it were an iPod, it'd be a shuffle.

Do some people even know that joke?

Do they even get that joke?

Do people still have iPods?

It was a big deal.

We were so excited to have our iPods with all of our music on it.

Just music.

Only music, guys.

And they came in different sizes and shuffle was the smallest.

Yeah, and you could get a tiny one and like clip it on your like armband and go running.

I never did that because I don't run, but I'm you could have.

You could have.

It looked cool.

Yeah.

With your headphones that had a cord that had to go to it.

So you couldn't pump your arms too hard.

No.

No.

Oh, how many times did I just yank that cord out of my iPod?

I know.

Because I was gesturing, not exercising.

I'm so sorry.

Please don't get the wrong idea.

I was gesturing wildly.

Well, now Daryl's going to come up, and this one was really cringy.

Daryl says, Michael, you always say we're family, right?

Yep.

So if you're family, you know everyone's names.

What's that guy's name?

And he points to a warehouse employee.

And Michael clearly doesn't know his name.

And it's so awkward.

His name is Michael.

And not only is his name Michael, but Michael gave him a car ride home and they were in traffic for like an hour together.

Awkward.

But really,

what rounds it all out is everyone singing what I hate about you.

Yeah.

Andy gets up.

Yeah, he's written the song.

We have it.

We gotta hear it.

What I hate about you.

You really suck as a ball.

You're the losiest, jerkiest, and you're dumber than applesauce.

We're stuck listening to you all day.

Stanley tried to die just to get away.

But it's true.

That's what I hate about you.

That's what I hate about you.

That was so amazing.

It was so amazing on the day.

We were all singing.

I want you guys to know, people have asked, you know, Ed did not write those lyrics.

That was written by our writers.

Ed figured out how to play the song on the guitar, but that was scripted.

It was so good.

So good.

But you know what?

Our writers could throw Ed anything.

And I felt like he just was like, done.

I mean, that's a good thing to have.

It is.

Secret weapon.

secret weapon well guys michael isn't happy it looks like he might cry and then the next day the phone rings and pam says michael's not in the office michael didn't come to work no

he's so depressed

Dwight says it's very unusual for Michael not to show up.

He is either depressed or maybe he's been impaled by an icicle.

He does have a terrible habit of standing underneath them, staring up at them, despite Dwight's many warnings.

Many warnings.

The gang is in the break room, you know, sort of saying, is he okay?

What should we do?

Yeah.

And Creed has one of those lines, Jenna, that made John break.

Yeah.

It's a classic Creed line.

Phyllis says, I hope he's okay.

I feel bad.

Creed says, give it up.

He's dead.

Jim says, he just sent a text.

Creed goes, what's a text?

What's a text?

Like, sent everyone into laughing fits.

That aspect of Creed's character was John's kryptonite.

Yes.

Yeah.

The you're not real.

You're not real.

What's a text?

Yeah.

Like he loved that stuff.

Well, we do eventually find Michael.

He is sitting alone at a playground.

In a black turtleneck with a black coat.

He looks the sleekest he's ever looked.

I'm like, what is this?

And casual outside.

I know.

And he has like nice jeans on with like appropriate sort of black dress shoes, kind of.

He's feeding full slices of bread to invisible birds.

Yeah.

I'll have you know this location alert.

This was North Hollywood Community Center Park

where we shot this little bit of Steve and his turtleneck.

There's lots more in the deleted scenes.

Him talking to little kids, him trying to shoot baskets.

Like,

yeah.

Michael explains in A Talking Head that, you know, sometimes he has to get away.

He needs to get perspective.

And we learn like he is not okay.

Right.

But him imagining a spaceman on a star very far away.

That might help him.

That might help him.

Get that perspective.

Yeah.

Back in the office, Dwight is still trying to get Phyllis's signature.

She's the only one.

She's the only one that hasn't signed.

So guess what?

Delivery.

There's a delivery man who has come in in a very,

I would say, noticeably

generic uniform.

There's a package for Phyllis.

For Phyllis, but she has to sign for it.

Yeah.

I loved this gag.

She signs the clipboard, and as soon as she signs, the clipboard like disappears from the man's hands.

It's got like one of those chains, and it's being drag away.

The pin has a chain to the clipboard.

And it's Dwight over in the hallway.

He got his signature.

He did.

Well, this was a fun cameo played by our very own producer, James Carey.

Yes, James Carey, who's been helping us out on the podcast.

Yeah.

This is him.

If you wondered what he looked like, there he is.

There he is.

James was on the show the whole time.

Yeah, he was with us from the very beginning.

From the very beginning.

So it was really fun to have him on stage with us filming.

And we reached out to him and asked him about this moment.

James said that he never asked to be an actor on the show.

And one day he just got this random phone call from Ben, who worked in Allison Jones's office.

Ben was Allison's casting associate.

And he told him, we have a role in stress relief.

There's one line.

We'd like you to play it.

And James was like, Yes, of course I said yes.

And this was just, you know, this was just a cool thing that Greg and Allison would do from time to time.

They would feature longtime crew members in the show.

Well, we would always get really excited.

And James told us that for him, the day on set was really fun, exciting.

I mean, he'd worked for a long time in the entertainment industry, but he said when you're in front of the camera and other people are depending on you to hit your mark and deliver your dialogue, all of a sudden he got really nervous.

And he said he was expecting a little more directing because he's not an actor at all.

But they didn't really give him much.

They're just like, go there, say your line.

But he did say after one or two takes, Jeff Blitz suggested to him, maybe look like you're up to something, you know, give it a little something.

And he's like, I think that's the take they used.

But his whole family saw it because it was on after the Super Bowl.

Yes, but James said when they first said, we've got a role for you, it's one line as a delivery man, he didn't realize it was for the stress relief episode.

Yeah.

So when he said yes, he just wasn't putting it together that he was saying yes to the Super Bowl episode.

He said his dad was particularly excited.

And when he told his brother and sister at first, he said he thinks they didn't believe him.

They thought he was kidding.

Yeah, yeah.

He said they were like, yeah, sure, you're going to be on.

Yeah, whatever.

And then there he was.

He was on it.

Well, the episode is wrapping up and so is the movie, Mrs.

albert hannity mm-hmm andy's moved to tears he's watching jack black and chloris leechman break up yeah she's very slowly moving up the staircase in her special motorized chair he's crying saying hit reverse so i shared last week that we shot this on location at a house in west los angeles

randy told me the house already had this chair lift.

We did not install it.

I would think that they scouted a a house with a chairlift.

He also said that because they wanted this mini film to really look like a real movie, we shot the Mrs.

Hanna Day sequence on film.

Dang!

It was our first time shooting something for our show on film.

We normally used the digital cameras.

We even had a steady cam film camera.

And since they only had one day to shoot all these scenes, Jeff Blitz and Randall Einhorn did a full blocking rehearsal with stand-ins where they planned out every single shot.

They created official storyboards just like you do on a film.

And Randy even sent us pictures.

Yeah.

And they exactly match the mini movie.

There's a woman who's standing in for Cloris Leechman, kind of slowly moving up the staircase.

And that is how they were able to get this elaborate shoot done on film, which normally takes a lot longer than shooting on digital.

They could do it in one day.

Yes, so Randy sent us pictures of how they staged it.

And it was so fun to see them because Anna, who was in charge of locations, played Jack Black.

And then Jasmine, who is our second AD, plays Cloris Leachman.

So we'll have to put one of those pictures in our stories.

It was fun to see their faces.

In addition to wrapping up the movie storyline, we're going to find out what exactly Jim said to Pam's dad.

Yeah, Pam's dad comes to the office and they have this whole conversation in the parking lot.

Now we can't hear it.

We see it, but we don't know what they're saying.

We had a fan question from Stephanie P.

What did Pam say to her dad in the parking lot?

There was never any dialogue for this in the script.

This was always a silent spy shot.

In fact, here's what it said.

It said, Jim's POV.

Pam is talking with her father.

The conversation goes back and forth.

Pam looks angry.

The dad says something.

She looks up at Jim with tears in her eyes.

The dad leaves and Pam walks back inside.

So you guys just had to fill in the blanks there.

We did.

Now, Pam's dad was played by Rick Overton, and he will be back again in Niagara.

And Rick is actually a really funny guy.

He's like an improvisation comedy veteran.

He's also a writer.

He won an Emmy for writing an episode of Dennis Miller Live.

So it's funny to me how we would cast people with great pedigree to stand and do a silent POV shot in the parking lot.

But that was because this is a big role, Pam's dad.

If we bring him back, we need to make sure this person has the chops to go the distance.

And Rick was great.

And we just improvised dialogue.

We just improvised.

what he might be saying to her that would cause her to be hurt.

It was mostly a spin on like, I'm sorry, but I need to leave your mother.

You know, he knew that scripted line that Pam says later, and he would say that to me, and I would look up at the window and all that kind of stuff.

So, yeah.

But he was great.

And by the way, he reached out to us because he knew we were coming up on this episode.

And he said, if you would not mind, would you tell people that I have a new improvised stand-up special called Rick Overton's Set List?

And you can find it through Comedy Dynamics.

Oh, nice.

And we can put a link in the show notes for anyone who wants to check it out.

That's great.

Well, this all leads us into this Pam talking head that gets quoted back to me all the time.

It's a very sweet talking head.

It is.

Pam says, when you're young, you assume your parents are soulmates.

Her kids are going to be right about that.

Yeah.

Andy overhears it, throws papers in the air because he's like, his whole running bit is that Pam and Jim are sort of relationship geniuses and that they can see all of this stuff happening in a movie that he can't see.

Yes.

This deep relationship like storyline that he just can't see because it's not there, Andy.

No.

He says he would never be insightful enough to be a movie critic, but he could maybe be a food or art critic.

Mm-hmm.

Here comes Michael in his black turtleneck and his black coat.

I'm still like obsessed with this outfit.

He said he spent the afternoon in the park trying to feed pigeons, but I guess they'd all flown west for the winter.

Yeah.

And he just had some thoughts he wanted to share with everyone.

Pam says what?

Mm-hmm.

And he said, I wrote him down so I wouldn't forget.

Oh boy, here it comes.

This is the Boom Roasteds.

It is.

Boom Roasted.

So, you know, I told you that Halstead Sullivan came up with the idea for the roast storyline.

Yeah.

I had to know who came up with Boom Roasted.

Who did?

All right.

I got a hot tip that it might be Justin Spitzer or Gene Stubnitsky.

Okay.

I reached out to them.

And?

Nope.

Nope.

They thought maybe it was Charlie Grandi.

Oh, was it?

I don't have Charlie's info.

Oh.

So I reached out to Jen Salata.

Plot thickens.

I said, Jen,

do you know if Charlie Grandi wrote Boom Roasted?

Yeah.

These are the emails I exchange with people.

I know.

Oh, I know.

Jen said, I think so, but let me text him.

And then I just love Jen Salata so much.

I know.

She writes me back, Boom Roasted was Charlie.

Three exclamation points.

We did it.

So I wrote Justin and I said, Justin, it was Charlie Grandy.

And he said, Great, I would like some credit on the podcast for sending you down the right road.

I said, You will get it.

Thank you, Justin.

Thank you, all of you guys.

I know.

I had to know.

Boom roasted.

It's so famous.

Boom roasted.

Charlie Grandy.

Charlie Grandy.

Well, I think we need to hear these.

I'm going to read them to you.

Michael says, Jim, you're 6'11 and you weigh 90 pounds.

Gumby has a better body than you.

Boom, Boom, roasted.

Dwight, you're a kiss ass.

Boom, roasted.

Pam, you failed heart school.

Boom, roasted.

Roasted.

Meredith, you've slept with so many guys, you've started to look like one.

Boom, roasted.

Kevin, I can't decide between a fat joke and a dumb joke.

Boom, roasted.

Creed, your teeth called, your breast stinks.

Boom, roasted.

Angela, where's Angela?

Oh, there you are.

I didn't see you there behind that grain of rice.

Boom, roasted.

Stanley, you crush your wife during sex and your heart sucks.

Boom, roasted.

Oscar, you are gay.

Boom, roasted.

Andy Cornell called, they think you suck and you're gayer than Oscar.

Boom, roasted.

Well, now Stanley is cackling.

Hysterically laughing.

He can't stop laughing.

I mean, it's egging Michael on.

He's laughing.

Everyone seems to have turned a corner.

Michael is very good at roasting, I guess.

And Michael has a talking head that wraps up the whole moment.

He says, they say that laughter is the best medicine.

So Stanley, you can throw away those pills.

You are cured.

Actually, you know what?

You should, you better hold on to those pills just in case.

Well, lady, I had a lot of fun looking at the candy bag alternates for this as well.

Oh, what do you got?

Oh, okay.

So first of all, with a lot of characters, they had a lot of roastable things.

Your character, Evangela Martin, every roast is a spin on hiding behind a grain of rice.

Everyone, it was so funny to me.

They clearly came up with that idea, I couldn't see you behind that grain of rice.

And they were like, That's it.

We're not going to do better than that.

Because there were some slight alternates, but it always ended with, oh, I'm sorry, I couldn't see you behind that grain of rice,

which was very funny to me.

Here are a few of the alternates that stood out to me.

Oh, Pam, did you you not hear me through that dirty mop you call hair?

Boom, roasted.

Oh my god.

And this one.

They say people tend to be attracted to people who look like themselves.

So I don't know what happened with Jim and Pam.

Their kid's gonna look like a pair of stilts with boobs.

Have fun giving birth to that, Pam.

Boom, roasted.

This is my favorite.

There's a whole page.

of Toby boom roasted.

Oh my gosh.

But they are all just Michael telling him to f off and that he hates him here's an example in all caps toby f you i hope you die boom roasted

that's it

well the episode's gonna end with our movie mrs albert hannity and it's a real surprise ending yeah big twist at the end twist jack black is sam he's returning to Lily's house played by Cloris.

He's got flowers and a walking cane in his hand.

Yeah.

He's running up to the front door.

As he gets there, he looks through the window.

She's with another man.

Another young man.

Yeah, and they are in the throes of passion.

It's very, very, very

much of a love scene.

It's a makeout.

It's a big makeup.

It's a real big makeout.

The man she is making out with is a writer's assistant, Nate Fetterman.

Nate, we had to know.

How did you get this job?

He sent in this audio clip, and I promise you, you will hang on his every word.

Hi, my name is Nate Fetterman.

I was one of the writer's assistants on stress relief, and I got to make out with Cloris Leachman.

And this is my story.

Originally, my part was supposed to be for a Zach Efron, and there were actual lines, but he turned it down, and so did Corbin Blue and Christopher Mintz plots.

And the day before it was supposed to shoot, they hadn't cast it and all the lines had been cut.

And they really just needed somebody who was young,

looking to make out with Clarice Leachman.

They didn't have to be handsome or famous.

So enter me.

Paul Lieberstein and Jeff Blitz, who was directing the episode, pulled me aside at work and asked me if I was interested in doing the part.

And I'm not an actor.

The last time I performed was in fifth grade.

I was Muddle the Taylor and Fiddler on the Roof.

And I froze in the middle of Wonder of Wonder, Miracle of Miracles, and the audience laughed at me and it was scarring.

But I was really excited to earn 500 bucks and residuals.

So I said, sure, I'll do it.

At the time, I was so terrified of letting the show down.

I was working with all these incredible actors and actresses who actually knew what they were doing.

And I just didn't want to screw things up for everybody.

So I went home that night and I told my girlfriend, now my wife, about what I was going to have to do.

And I was really scared.

So I practiced with her and I didn't get much sleep that night.

And then I woke up early the next day and I arrived on location and I was just terrified because I was so out of my element.

And I'm in hair and makeup and they're doing my hair.

And all of a sudden, I feel these hands running through my hair.

And I hear this voice go.

I hear that you and I are going to be doing some kissing later.

And I turn around and it's Cloris Leachman and she's smiling at me.

And I'm like, yep, we're going to be doing this scene together.

So then we go to the actual set and I'm riding in a van with Cloris Leachman and Jack Black and Jessica Alba.

And these are, you know, big name stars.

And I'm the writer's assistant on the office and so out of my element.

And I'm just desperate not to seem like a total hack and screw things up for everyone.

So eventually it's time for the kissing scene with Cloris.

And we're positioned on a couch, and she's sitting on my lap, and I have my arms around her, and we're talking, and it's very pleasant, and she's very nice, and she's telling me about her children.

But then, right before we do the actual take, she gets real serious.

You know, she's getting into character, and she looks me in the eye, and I'll never forget this.

And she goes, when they call action, I want you to grab my ass and really get up in the crack.

So when they called action, I grabbed her ass and I really got up in that crack.

And

we did the scene.

We shot it many times.

They had to get it from a lot of different angles.

So we ended up making out quite a bit.

She did say a variety of other

pretty raunchy things.

She's an expert at dirty talk.

But It was

an amazing experience.

And I'm incredibly grateful that my five seconds of fame were spent with an absolute legend like Cloris Leachman.

And it's something that I always get a kick out of when I get to tell people.

Nate,

thank you.

Thank you for sharing your story.

I mean, what an amazing story.

Amazing.

Hey, Nate, Zach Efron isn't available.

What are you doing tomorrow?

Yeah.

Can you do something for me real quick?

Sure.

What is it?

It's just that scene where you make out with Clarice Leachman.

Mm-hmm.

Oh, okay.

Sure.

I guess so.

And you get 500 bucks.

Yeah.

And a great story.

And a story for your lifetime.

Yes.

You know what?

In these kind of over-the-top moments, you have to go for it.

And Cloris was saying, sweetie, I give you permission to go for it.

You sell my butt.

Sell it.

That's what the scene needs.

And we can't be shy with each other.

Yeah.

We have to go for it.

And I've been in situations with actors where we've given one another permission.

Yeah.

And it's so helpful because it gets you out of your head and you're like, okay, good.

Now we can just play this with it.

Have fun with it.

I mean, you guys watch every single Dwight Angela make out.

Exactly.

Sometimes you just got to go for it.

And on our set, I think we were so good about being like, okay, I'm cool with this.

You do this.

We're fine.

You know, we communicated.

And I have to imagine.

You're with this legend performer, Cloris Leachman.

I'd be timid.

Yes, you've never met this person.

Yeah.

So for her to just be so fun and up for it like that and to just say, do it, baby.

Do it.

I love it.

Yeah.

Well, there you have it.

Stress relief.

Part two.

Do you feel less stressed?

Have you had some relief of your stress after listening to this podcast, everyone?

I hope.

I hope so.

I hope her podcast doesn't stress people out.

If we can leave anything with you from stress relief other than boom roasted, it's ah ah.

I was just gonna say that.

Staying alive, staying alive.

Ah, ah, ah, ah, staying alive.

Oh my god, that was.

Now people are stressed.

We relieve their stress, and then we gave it right back.

I'm so sorry.

Start over.

Start the podcast again.

Bye, you guys.

Have a great week.

We'll see you next week for Lecture Circuit.

Part one.

I can't wait.

I have so many stories.

Thank you for listening to Office Ladies.

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

Our show is executive produced by Cody Fisher.

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

Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.

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

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

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