Basketball

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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

oh my god i'm here with my bff we're gonna do this this is so cool we are hanging out talking about the office jenna who is the person you want to sit next to in any high school chemistry class she is the note taker you don't watch game of thrones so you will miss this reference.

You would be like, Jenna Fisher, first of her name, keeper of the notes of the records.

I don't watch Game of Thrones.

I mean, I appreciate that.

Okay, well, you would be keeper of the notes.

And she has made some really great notes.

And we both went back and re-watched which episode, Jenna?

Today, we are discussing the basketball episode.

This is season one, episode five.

It was written and directed by Greg Daniels.

That's right.

Should we give it a synopsis of the episode?

I know you want to, Jenna.

I wrote up the notes.

I wrote it down.

Do it, Larry.

I wrote down a synopsis.

She did, y'all.

She typed it out.

It is.

I'm going to read it.

Okay.

In this episode, Michael challenges the guys in the warehouse to a basketball game against the upstairs sales staff.

The warehouse workers, led by Daryl, want to make it a friendly game, but Michael insists there be a prize for their winner or, more accurately, a punishment for the losers.

Michael suggests the losers have to work on Saturday, and then he taunts Daryl with chicken sounds until Daryl agrees.

Correct.

But things will get more interesting in this episode.

That's not where it ends, Angela.

I know, you know, the drama does not end in this.

There's another done, done, done paragraph.

Yeah, things get more interesting because Pam's fiancé, Roy, works in the warehouse.

Oh, snap.

Yes.

So we find out that she is caught between her office crushed gym

and her actual fiancé, Roy.

Who is she going to root for?

Upstairs or downstairs?

I don't know.

Let's start with some fast facts.

It is your favorite part.

You know it is.

Fast fact number one.

This was Greg Daniels' directorial debut of The Office.

Not just any debut of directing.

Of all directing.

So not just of The Office, but his debut debut.

Now, he told me he had directed actors before for voices on The Simpsons and King of the Hill.

Right.

He created King of the Hill for anyone who doesn't know that.

But this was his first time doing on-camera directing.

He would go on to direct 12 more episodes of The Office, but this was the first.

Yes.

And I remember him showing up in his new balance sneakers, his gray new balance sneakers and his like khaki pants.

Greg always wears anything he got for free.

So like his shirt might have said King of the Hill, his baseball hat might have said The Simpsons.

Mindy Kalen used to joke.

He just wore all his swag all the time.

But he showed up so giddy and excited.

His enthusiasm and love for this show and this world and characters, it was just so contagious.

I just loved it so much.

It made me excited.

Fast fact number two, this is the episode where we introduce the character of Daryl.

That's right.

Played by Craig Robinson.

Now, we see him for the first time in the Alliance.

He's watching Dwight bust out of the box, but this is the first time he speaks.

And this is the first time we learn his character name.

Right.

This establishes him as a character on the show.

Now, I was emailing with Allison Jones, our casting director, because I wanted to know, how did you find Craig Robinson?

He is so amazing.

And we knew that if the show went on, that this was a character who was going to recur, but who wasn't in the first couple of episodes.

Greg had talked to me about how he was going to fill out the world of the office and we were going to really get to know some of the people down in the warehouse.

He was going to introduce this character of Daryl as being one of Roy's friends that they work in the warehouse together.

And so Allison had to cast this person who we knew was going to recur like Roy.

She told me that she had seen him on a TV show called Lucky

that he did with John Corbett.

So she said from there, she had cast him in some small roles on arrested development and curb your enthusiasm because she also cast those shows and she brought him in to audition for the office.

She's the reason why Craig ended up on our show.

And Craig was very sought after in comedy circles.

Like I feel like that was a really big get for us.

Oh, for sure.

Yeah.

I mean, he's a huge comedian.

He's so funny and so talented.

And so nice.

And so nice.

Why was everybody on our show so nice?

I feel like they did us this wonderful service of casting really talented people, but who were all really nice to each other.

We were really lucky because we've both worked on other shows since.

Where it is not the case.

We're like, oh, wow.

We were really lucky.

Really, really lucky.

Okay, are you ready for our last fast fact?

Yeah.

In the very early moments of this episode, you see the boom microphone dip down into frame.

Oh, look at you catching a little boom.

I did.

Now, normally you would never allow this on television.

Right.

But on our show, this was considered gold.

We kept this stuff in.

Like, you never not used a take that was funny.

If just because you saw the boom microphone or anything, any quote-unquote mistake that would normally get cut out of another show.

Right.

We used it.

Because you want it to feel like the documentary.

Like an authentic documentary.

This was really important.

So I thought that was kind of a cool little thing.

That was my cool.

Our boom operator was named Nick Carbone.

Yeah.

And one of my favorite things is when sometimes he would get the boom in the shot, we would yell, you got carbone.

Carboned.

You got carboned.

And then we also started making up a song called Boom Shadow, Boom Shadow.

Listen, young kids, Google it.

That is an old song.

Angela, I have to share something else about Nick Carbone, our sound guy.

So Nick Carbone put a microphone on me every day for nine years.

Yes, he did.

It's a very intimate thing to mic an actor.

Oftentimes, you know, I was in that pencil skirt.

Yeah.

And if I was standing up, we would sometimes have to put a leg wrap around my upper thigh to hide the microphone pack and then very delicately weave a microphone wire through underneath my bra,

up my blouse.

And Nick Carbone was the person who did this every day.

For me, for me too.

For me too.

Every day.

So a very intimate relationship you form with the person who mics you every day.

Here's something that would happen though.

Those leg wraps, they closed via Velcro.

Yes.

They were a Velcro leg wrap.

And Pam wore pantyhose and I would get a run in my pantyhose and I would have to change my pantyhose four to five times a day.

The wardrobe people, they would put four or five packs of pantyhose in my trailer because they knew that inevitably I would get a run from this Velcro, which was also itchy and uncomfortable.

It was uncomfortable.

Do you know what Nick did for me?

I do know what he did for you, but you tell them.

Okay.

Here's what he did.

He came up with a special leg wrap invention.

Yes.

Where he created a leg wrap that used bra

hooks.

Hooks.

It was like a bra.

It was like a bra bra strap.

Yeah, like a bra strap closure so that when he hooked it onto my leg, my panty hose wouldn't run and I wouldn't have to change my pantyhose so often.

And it worked.

It was brilliant.

Here's the other thing he did.

He knew that I liked to really go for it at the holidays.

I mean, I like to eat the pies and the many turkeys and all of the stuffing.

You love some holiday eating.

I love the holiday eating.

And I would often come back from the holidays a good full-size larger than

when I left.

So Nick Carbone put like a bra.

There were

three different stuff

for if it was post-holidays, pre-holidays, maybe I was working out real hard for a movie role so that it always fit me.

Because that was the purpose of the Velcro was that you could kind of Velcro it anywhere.

So he made this adjustable leg wrap for me me.

And we called it the Jenna.

And he kept it in my kit.

It was so cool.

And then you know what?

After the office was over, a couple years later, I got a job on an ABC show called Splitting Up Together.

And when I walked on the set for the first day, they introduced me to the sound team.

And it was Nick.

And I am tearing up just thinking about it.

There he was again.

So the only person who has really ever mic'd me for television is Nick Carbone.

and he had saved

my special leg wrap.

That is so sweet.

I just love him so much.

I love him too.

We've totally become family, and I just, I just loved our crew.

I just loved our crew so much.

This is completely not related to Nick Carbone, but I have to share it.

Jenna wore pantyhose every day.

They were in her trailer.

The same pantyhose.

were in my trailer.

They were put in my trailer every day starting day one.

I never put them on.

I never, I refused to

blows my mind.

I refused to wear pantyhose.

And Jenna one day, I mean, it was years into films.

Years off.

And I remember the day.

It was years into filming.

Like seasons upon seasons.

And she looked over at me one day and she was like, you don't have on pantyhos.

I was like, oh, yeah, they put them in my trailer.

I don't wear those things.

I'm not wearing pantyhos.

And she was like, what the hell?

I've been wearing pantyhos for years.

I am such a rule follower that it had never occurred to me that I could go rogue and just not wear

them on.

No one said anything.

I didn't put them on.

No one said anything.

I mean, listen, there were times times when i didn't dress the bottom half of my body well you just explained that it sounds yeah oh yeah i should let me expand you weren't like you know yes so sometimes if i was only seated behind the reception desk i only dressed the top half of pam and the bottom half was uggs and sweatpants yes so I did get a break from the panty house, but I never wore them ever.

I can't believe that.

I just kept shoving them aside.

I shoved them aside for like two years and then they just gave up and stopped putting them in my trailer.

I used to look so forward to our quote-unquote winter episodes because they would give me tights,

which were way more comfortable than pantyhose.

And then after a while, I had to say, stop putting control-top pantyhose

in my trailer.

I don't want to wear control-top pantyhose for 12 hours a day.

You and my grandmother.

Especially after the holidays.

This is a sentence that could like set up so many conversations for me with Jenna.

But Jenna, you and my grandmother

are the only two people I knew for a period of time that wore pantyhose every day.

My grandmother wore pantyhose every day of her life.

She was like, she always had on pantyhose.

I can't wait to be 75 because I think I'll finally make sense.

You're already there.

I've been a 75-year-old woman since I was born.

Okay, Jenna, I know we're done with fast facts, but I have a Kinsey tidbit.

Oh, what?

This is the episode where we became best friends.

Yes.

Yes, it is.

It is.

Well, that's kind of a big bit, Angela.

That's not a tidbit.

That's a big bit.

Is that a big bit?

Little bit?

Oh, yes.

See what I did there?

Do you see what I did there?

I see what you did there.

Yes, yes.

We should tell this story.

So Jenna and I, up until this point in the office, we had that partition between us.

We've been speaking over the partition.

Over the partition.

But now, as we film basketball, we were now sitting next to each other on that bench.

It was Jenna, me, and Phyllis sitting on that bench all day.

next to each other.

For two solid days, and a day of filming is about 12 hours.

Yeah.

So 24 solid hours on that bench.

And you say I just kept talking your ear off.

You would not stop talking to me.

Yes.

The reason we are best friends is because Angel would not stop speaking to me.

Jenna just finally gave up.

You wore me down.

I wore you down.

No, but we told each other our life stories on that bench.

We did.

It was like four hours.

It was the bench of truth.

It was the bench of truth.

Everything you could possibly want to share.

I will never forget.

We were leaving one night.

We had taped till really late at night.

We'd had a long day and it was our day two.

So you and I have now talked for this the full 24 hours.

Yeah, 24 hours.

And it's late at night.

And we had to walk from where the warehouse set was back to our trailers.

And it was a little bit of a walk.

And we linked arms arm in arm.

And we started doing the Laverne and Shirley song.

Shamille, Shamil's.

I don't remember this.

And we were going up and down and we, and we were like, we're going to do it.

I don't know why we were doing this.

Yeah.

And I don't know why we were because we were goody.

We had lost our minds because we'd been in that warehouse for, you know, 24 hours unbeknownst to us quietly walking behind us was steve carell and we turned around and realized he'd watched us do this whole laverne and shirley song and dance and we started laughing because we were embarrassed and he looked at us and smiled and he said you guys no matter what happens with this show because we were on the chopping block always on the chopping block always on the chopping block that first season for sure and he was like no matter what happens with the show this is what you guys will have from it and he pointed at the two of us this friendship and i'll never forget it because he was right.

And you say, this is the episode.

You, you have a photo that this is the moment we became best friends.

I have a photo of us sitting on that bench from this episode framed in my office.

Aw,

lady.

I know.

That's so sweet.

And I have a sense memory of my butt falling asleep.

Oh, my butt fell asleep.

So many times.

My butt fell asleep, and the shoes I was wearing were called sass.

I remember those shoes.

These are the shoes you guys that like nuns wear.

Well, here's the thing you need to know about sass shoes.

They're incredibly comfortable.

So if I was going to be a nun on my feet, I get it, but there was someone in my life that loves sash shoes and wore them almost every day.

And that was my grandmother.

Really?

Yes.

So when I got those shoes, I called her and I said, grandmother, I'm wearing sash shoes.

And she'll say, oh, you'll love them.

You'll love them.

All this story is making me think about is getting some sash shoes.

I love a comfortable shoe.

Well, I love a comfortable pant.

I love a comfortable shoe.

I want an elastic waistband.

We've just established that you've been 75 since birth, so I think we need to get you some sass shoes.

Let's do it.

We're going to go to a break.

I'm going to start googling.

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Let's start at the beginning.

Michael enters the office and starts asking if people are ready for the big game.

Oh, this is early days of the office.

Michael was super cringy.

He was.

Oh, my God.

He was so like, first of all, he like just accosts you.

He just walks up and swats you with a newspaper.

He's like, Pam, whack.

He does.

Yeah.

He would come up to my desk and I would flinch.

Yeah.

First, I want to say, and it is my personal opinion that basketball is one of the best episodes we ever did.

Really?

I absolutely love it.

I think it is so good.

One of my favorite scenes in this episode is the one where Dwight follows Michael into his office and tries to convince him that he should be part of the basketball team.

And they get in this exchange that is so wonderful.

Michael says, no, not after what happened at that pickup game.

And then Dwight is like,

I apologized for that.

And he's like, I vouched for you.

I vouched for you in front of you.

In front of Todd Packer.

Now, here's the amazing thing about this show:

we've never met Todd Packer.

He's only been mentioned one other time, which is in the pilot, when he calls in on speakerphone while Michael is having a meeting with Jan.

He says a bunch of inappropriate stuff, and Michael just shuts him off the speakerphone.

But you can tell in that phone call, Michael covets this guy.

He loves this guy.

He's the coolest guy.

We are not going to meet Todd Packer.

I looked it up.

Do you know when we finally meet him uh season

season two two sexual harassment episode oh that's perfect which yes i know but that's like far yeah like that's a while well i do love this and i feel like greg daniels was so great about this and with our writer's room is we just jumped in the middle of these people's lives.

You know, we don't tell backstory and the audience just has to catch up.

And I love that.

Yeah.

I love all these little nuggets.

And this episode in particular has a lot of little nuggets.

You see these dynamics that then play out years later.

I love, and I don't want to jump too far ahead, but like Dwight and Angela's power struggle, it's the first time you see it in this episode.

All right.

So we'll play that clip.

I think I should be on the team.

No.

And that's not me being mean, Dwight.

That is based on your past behavior.

Please.

When I let him come to my pickup, I apologize for that.

I vouch for you.

I vouch for you in front of Todd Packer, Dwight.

I love in this little scene when Rain looks to the camera.

Like he has a few like looks to the camera that are just great.

And I feel like this was really fun for all of us, this documentary kind of genre, because we did get to do that.

And even in years later, I have jobs and every once in a while a director will say, Angela, you just looked at camera.

You can't look at camera.

I do it still too.

And I'm like, oh, crap.

Sorry.

For nine years, I would check in with the camera.

It's so true.

The camera was a character.

Yeah.

It was another person that we could relate to, the documentarian, quote unquote.

Right.

And so we were encouraged to make them a part of the conversation.

Yeah, I know.

And then it's weird to then take other jobs where you're like, oh, right, right.

You're not actually filming me.

Yeah.

Go back to pretending like, yeah, this is not, you're not in the room.

Exactly.

Exactly.

Okay.

I have a note card.

And this is sort of like a personal gripe, Jenna.

Okay.

Oh, you have a gripe.

I know.

You love a gripe.

I live for a gripe.

Okay.

So in this episode, I wear a bun.

That's like a mid bun.

It's like, it's in the middle of the back of my head.

Oh.

And who wants bobby pins in the middle of the back of their head all day?

Like 12-hour days.

So I look at women who wear buns differently now.

Because of the number of buns your character had?

Yes.

Well, I've had a lot of buns.

I had a lot of buns, but I had such a bad headache by the end of basketball.

So I think if you look at me and I have a grumpy like face, it's because I'm from

bun for five days in a row.

And I remember going to the hair and makeup trailer after this episode and being like, can we please like take a break from a bun?

I can't.

That hurts.

How do women?

I don't understand how women who wear buns every day aren't grumpy every day.

Maybe they are.

Maybe they haven't put it together though.

Ladies out there, if you are perpetually grumpy and have a bun, we just want to call your attention to the fact that that might be a cause-effect there.

Break the bun.

Break the bun.

Hashtag break the bun.

Hashtag break the bun.

Another great scene is when Michael leads Ryan down into the warehouse.

There's that great quote.

He's managing by walking around.

Oh, yes.

So that would be in his book, How I Manage.

Yeah.

Michael Scott's book, How I Manage.

Here's a little trivia.

The first time we go down into the warehouse.

Yeah.

Yeah.

In this episode, we were filming in Culver City.

So those stairs actually were real.

They actually existed.

We filmed in an actual building that was an old company.

These offices were on the second floor of that building too.

That's right.

And so you go down the stairs to the warehouse, but in years later, they recreated the whole office in a different location on a soundstage.

And those stairs still existed, but they led nowhere.

It was a tiny, tiny closet about three feet wide.

Yes.

And you would hide in the tiny closet.

And then on cue, you would open the door and walk out.

So there were many times when you would either be up there by yourself in the tiny closet or you'd be up there.

Like one time I was up there with Oscar and Kevin.

And there's not a a lot of space up there no and we just tucked in that little closet for about 20 minutes until our characters came in the scene but this was where we were really using this real warehouse and this real space and there are some shots outside where you can tell that it's not the same place as seasons later i know i know there's some things they couldn't cover that's fun for the super nerd okay well i think we should play this clip of michael introducing ryan to Craig Robinson, who plays Daryl, the manager of the warehouse.

This is one of my favorite introductions of of a character on the office because ever.

The sort of journey that his name takes with Michael of how Michael comes up with this nickname for him is so ridiculous.

And Craig Robinson does such a great job in the scene of just throwing it away.

He's so amazing.

All right, we should watch it.

We'll discuss.

And here we have Mitta Rogers' neighborhood.

Come on over here.

Hey, this is Ryan.

He's temping upstairs.

What's up?

And it's the foreman, Mr.

Rogers.

It's not my real name.

No.

It's Daryl.

Daryl is Mitta Rogers.

Daryl Rogers.

Daryl Philbin.

Then Regis.

Then Rege, then Roger.

Then Mitta Rogers.

What is the amazing history?

How many years has Michael been calling him by not his name?

I know.

Daryl.

I know.

It's so good.

It's so good.

And you so see in Michael's brain how he got there.

Oh, it makes total sense.

Philbin.

Oh, Regis Philbin.

Reg.

Reg.

Raj.

Raj, Mr.

Raja, right that Raja,

so ridiculous, and totally works.

And I have to wonder, this is like when I would love to do a dial-in phone call, but um, to call Mike Scher because Mike Scher was one of our writers on the show, and he is married to JJ Philbin.

J.J.

Philbin's dad is Regis.

Oh, and I know Greg had told me that some of the people's names were formations of different people who had family and stuff on the show.

Well, you know, Jim Helpert

is Greg's friend, Jim Halpert.

Helpert.

Yes.

His name is, it's his first and last name.

And Greg asked him permission to use his name.

And the guy was like, oh, yeah, sure, it's no big deal.

He came to set one day.

I was like, yeah, it's no big deal.

Nine years later, it was kind of a big deal.

Yeah.

You would call places and be like, it's Jim Halpert.

And he'd be like, oh, yeah, okay.

Yeah, roll.

Okay, right.

I know.

And Phyllis Lappin, Phyllis's last name, Lappin.

Lappin is the last name of a friend of Greg's as well.

And so I have to think that Daryl Philbin was maybe Mike Scher's nod to

his father-in-law, his wife's side of the family, but then became this great runner for Michael Scott, which is so great.

It's so good.

All right.

Here we go.

We're moving on, Jenna.

We're moving on.

What happens next?

Well, they go back up in the office, right?

Yes.

They go back to work.

That's when he says, okay, who's starting?

Stanley, of course.

Yeah.

And Leslie.

And why, of course.

Yeah, Leslie David Baker's like.

Excuse me, like kind of look he gives him is so perfect.

Now, if I remember correctly, Leslie was truly a horrible basketball player.

Yes.

Leslie was like, oh, I don't play sports.

Yeah.

So not a sports guy.

That was really perfect.

And Phyllis was so excited.

She wanted to be on the team in real life.

I'm talking Phyllis in real life was like, so excited to be part of the basketball team.

Phyllis in her youth was a burlesque dancer.

This is true.

And she has quite the moves.

And there is a tiny clip as they warm up before the game where she's moving her arms and stuff, but her warm-up seemed very like dance.

Burlesque.

Yeah, dance-like.

But she was, there's a few times throughout the game when she finally gets to participate and you see her smile.

And that's genuine.

Like Phyllis is like, I'm in the game.

I'm so excited.

I do have to say before we get into the game part, one thing is that you see my character looking through the supply closet and I'm looking for the first aid kit.

And I'm like, where is the first aid kit?

And then Dwight doesn't even look around.

He just holds it up.

Right.

And I have this line that to me is kind of like that Todd Packer line in the first part of the episode that is so loaded with information.

Yes.

Cause I say, how many times do I have to tell you I'm the safety officer, not you?

Yes.

Like, how many times has Dwight tried to usurp Angela's power?

How many times has he taken that first aid kit and tried to be safety officer?

What is their backstory there?

Yes.

I would love to know.

I love that we don't know.

We just know that they are adversarial in this moment and that they both love power and control.

Later in season two, in the episode Email Surveillance, we will learn that Dwight and Angela are in a relationship.

Yes.

So we actually got a lot of comments about this.

There were a lot of people who asked, Were Dwight and Angela already in a relationship at this point?

I don't think they're in a relationship yet.

I think it's the beginning.

I think it's the beginning.

I think, you know, they both kind of like each other, but they also are annoyed by each other.

So they have this weird, like yin and yang pull.

And I think it's the beginning.

I feel like the more they gave that bit to you guys to play, then it gave them the idea to write this as some weird twisted romance.

Yes.

And when we found out we were a couple was at the table read.

And that happened a lot for us on this show.

Yes.

Is that the writers would come up with things and we would sit down at lunch all together around a table

once a week and read a new script.

Usually on Wednesday, we would read a new script and we would, they would be handing them to us as we walked in the room.

Sometimes the paper was hot.

Yes, I remember.

And we would cold read these out loud.

And a lot of times we discovered information as we read them.

And that was definitely one of them when we see the Birkenstocks moving in the dollhouse in the backyard.

We were like, oh, my God.

I remember I found out Pam was pregnant during a table reading.

And being like a fan of the show, I would want information like anyone else.

Yeah.

And I would get it early.

but I would still have to wait for that table read moment to find out.

Yeah.

Like we weren't, they wouldn't say, okay, this season, here are the five five things that are going to happen to your character.

No, no, you had to wait and for each week to see how the drama unfolded.

Yeah, it was really fun.

Oh, I have to tell the story.

So, okay, so you know, as Michael picks his team, we then see a montage of all of us throwing things into the trash can.

It starts with Dwight, he tries to make a shot, he misses.

I thought his face was so cute when he like did his fingers.

Like, I missed it,

so close, and he got to be on the team, and he was so happy.

And then, of course, Stanley misses.

Oscar gets it in no problem, you know, and people go around making these baskets.

Well, we did B-roll.

We had always had A camera and we had B camera on the show.

And the B camera would pick up all these little moments happening in the background.

And so they had all of us toss things kind of nonchalantly into our desk trash can.

And I made mine on the first try.

And I made like three in a row.

And they didn't even include it because they're like, it just doesn't track that you would, that Angela would like be like a ringer or anything.

And of course, Brian Brian made his.

And that is something you guys should know: is that where our trailers were, our trailers are where you hang out between scenes, right?

Where our trailers were, they put up a basketball hoop and we would play horse in between scenes.

If we had a break, we would all go out there and play horse.

And I have a photo of us.

And Brian was an amazing shooter.

Brian's an amazing athlete.

He's a great athlete.

He's a great golfer.

So the cast knew this.

And so when this episode came about, we all knew what a great shooter he was.

And but the writers and Greg didn't know.

They did not know.

And so in between scenes, he would grab a basketball and just start shooting.

And he like was just sinking them left and right.

And it became a thing at the end of the episode.

So you'll see him, he make, they just let the camera roll.

He makes one shot, gets it in from kind of close to the free point line, but then he keeps taking a step back, step back.

So by the end, he's well at like three point range.

Yes.

And he made, I think it was 13 or 14 in a row yes and they got we show three or four I think yeah but he actually made I think it was 14 and we all were there with like pins and needles and when he missed the 15th one we all cheered it was like so cool okay should we take a quick break I think we should

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Should we also talk about the Jim Pam part of this episode?

Yes, yes, because they have such an awkward flirty scene.

That is so funny to me.

First of all, I love that

the subject of their flirt is the mall or wave runners.

This was so relatable to me because I have family that live in like northern Texas.

And on the weekend, you go to the lake and you go to the mall.

Yes, exactly.

These are the choices.

Jim is going to go to the mall for the weekend if he doesn't have to work.

The outlets, the outlets, the outlet malls.

And then Pam said that if Roy wins, they're going to take the Wave Runners up to the lake.

Yeah, I love it.

And Jim says, well, I think Roy's going to be working.

So I think you're going to be coming to the mall with me, you know, just if you want to save big on brand names.

Super cute.

But I have to say that whole Wave Runner backstory,

that was based on a backstory that I wrote about Pam and Roy that ended up making it into the show in this very subtle way.

So I remember trying to justify just as myself,

why

is Pam still engaged to Roy after three years?

Because in this episode, you find out like they've been engaged for three years.

This little toaster oven is broken.

She's sad.

She got it.

Her engagement party is broken.

Yeah.

They're still not married.

So I asked myself, why?

Why are

they not married yet?

It's been three years.

What is the reason?

In my head, I came up with the reason that they had been saving money for the wedding.

Wait, wait, wait, wait.

I have to pause.

I love this about Jenna so much, you guys.

This is her actor prep.

This is my actor prep.

She did this solely for herself.

No one asked me to do it.

No one asked her to do it.

I wrote it in essay form.

Again, Jenna, first of her name, keeper of the notes.

I would love to find this document.

It was my Pam document.

Oh my God.

And I have all these little things I made up.

Oh my God, you have to find it.

Okay, so go.

So what's your backstory?

So my backstory was that they had been saving money for the wedding.

And about a year into their engagement, without telling Pam, Roy spent the money on a pair of wave runners with his brother.

This is perfect, Jenna.

Yeah.

This is perfect.

And he, you know, so he and his brother bought these pair of wave runners with their wedding money.

But, you know, Roy was like, we're going to have so much fun with these.

So it broke Kim's heart.

And I told Greg this story, just bantering with him.

And he was like, oh my gosh, I love that.

We got to put that in.

We got to put that in the wave runners.

Yeah.

And the wave runners.

That is so good.

I love that.

I love, you know, I feel like as I talked to some of our cast members about our time on the show, we all had moments where we.

we gave ourselves a little backstory like that.

And obviously we won't get into it here.

Mine was sprinkles.

You invented sprinkles.

I did.

But I did not know you did that about the wave runners.

And that is absolutely what, what Roy would have done.

Yeah.

He would have been like, listen, that money we were going to spend on the wedding, I got a really good deal on Wave Runners.

Yeah, he surprised her with some wave runners.

Oh my God, that's amazing.

What Pam's always wanted.

And I have to say, this is a funny thing.

David Denman and I really hit it off.

Yeah, you did.

We are good friends in real life.

We especially hit it off in this episode.

And it was weird because I think I had spent a lot of time talking to John Krasinski between scenes.

And now I was talking to David Denman.

and John was like, hey, where's my

friend go?

But he became a really, really good friend of mine outside of the office.

And I think it was, I think it's probably a weird thing for people to imagine that like my, one of my best connections on the show was with.

David Denman,

my jerk boyfriend Roy.

Your jerk boyfriend.

I'm sure right now, if you guys went out for lunch and you and him walked in, people would be like, why are you with Roy?

It's so true.

Where's Jim?

I know.

I had lunch with Rain Wilson and people lost their minds.

People were like, oh my God, Juan Angela.

So next up, everyone goes down to the warehouse for the big basketball game.

I feel like we should say from a production standpoint, we spent two days

down in the warehouse playing basketball.

That's right.

And there was a lot of the guys just playing basketball and they filmed them to get like random shots.

Right.

But then there were all of these scripted moments that they had to get.

Right.

To make the game make sense.

Yes.

Exactly.

Can we speak about some highlights from the basketball game?

Let's do it.

Let's do it.

Rain's crazy nose guard.

Oh my God.

You know, I knew a guy in high school, Ken.

He had to wear one.

They're like,

they're special.

I guess this was Greg's idea.

He wanted him to wear this nose guard, but you know what I love?

We never mention it.

Nope.

We don't know why he's wearing it.

Was he injured once or is he just afraid of injury?

We don't know.

We don't know.

But of course, he would wear it.

When Rain takes his shirt off to be skins.

By the way, Rain, I think, loves taking his shirt off.

He loves the shock value.

White pasty body.

And he liked to stick his belly out and like pat it.

Like, look at it.

Speaking of Rain taking off his t-shirt, I have a note card about that shirt that Dwight wears in the basketball game.

All right.

Now, this was really popular.

I saw people commenting on this online when I looked back at the episode.

All right.

So Dwight is wearing a Japanese anime t-shirt in this game, and it's of Koni Kotaka.

All right.

Yes.

You're like, all right.

You're looking at me like, did you say that right?

Here's the thing.

I'm not sure.

Someone Google it.

Koni Kotaka.

But it comes back back in Haunt Girl.

It does?

Yes.

This is a Dwight deleted scene.

When?

Okay.

It's a Dwight deleted scene.

But as you know, I found all the deleted scenes on probably some illegal site online.

And now because you still don't have a DVD player.

I don't.

And now the cops are going to come for me.

Do they come for you?

Anyway,

I'm such a rule follower.

I'm like, oh no.

Anyway.

You're a rule follower, but you refuse to wear your pantyhose.

So which one is it, Angela?

Okay.

Do you follow the rules or do you break the rules?

I follow the police rules.

Oh, okay.

But I'm going to put what I want on my body.

Oh,

snap, Angela.

Okay.

Anyway, here we go.

So, okay.

Listen, in this Dwight-deleted scene in Hot Girl, and I'll talk about it here.

So, listen, guys, when you get to Hot Girl, just know I talked about it.

Yeah, we're not going to talk about this again.

All right.

You're getting a Kinsey tidbit about Hot Girl a little early.

Yeah.

But it's because.

Because it's tied in.

Yes.

It's because I love that our writers kept doing these callbacks.

Even if you didn't get to see him as the viewer, that was part of Dwight's character.

So this t-shirt that he wore in basketball comes back in Hot Girl as a reference.

He holds up a picture of Kani Kotaka and he says, she is my perfect date.

Ready, here's a description of Kani Kotaka that I found online.

Okay.

And remember, this is Dwight's idea of the perfect date.

All right.

This is the perfect woman.

Dwight.

Perfect case roots.

Perfect woman is go.

Okay, ready?

Here's a description of her.

She was orphaned at the age of 10 when both of her parents were assassinated, then taken in by a wealthy but very cruel businessman.

So she practiced aikido in secrecy for years until she could avenge the death of her parents.

Wow.

That's Dwight's perfect date.

Can we also just for a minute, none of us knew what it was going to look like when Stanley dribbled the basketball?

It was in the script that he is not good at dribbling.

That's all.

That's all.

And that Michael would look and just have this moment of like, ah, crap.

Like, are you kidding me?

And that dribble that Leslie David Baker did with his hand behind him.

Ridiculous.

Ridiculous.

It was so perfect.

It was literal perfection.

Yeah.

There's another moment in the basketball game that's coming to mind.

There's a moment where Michael is supposed to, as a joke, it was in the script.

He's supposed to like throw the ball from really far.

Right.

And it doesn't go in.

Yeah.

And then he's supposed to like be all upset.

Like, oh, I usually make those or whatever.

The first time, do you remember what happened the first time?

made it he made it he made the most ridiculous like alleyo from the other side of the warehouse and we all cheered

and they were like no you guys can't cheer he doesn't make that

and steve

i'm sure steve was like oh man i wish that could go in i know that should be a deleted scene for sure that was crazy oh oh you have to tell about when john actually got hurt yes we actually had a real injury and they just kept the camera rolling.

They did.

This was not scripted.

It's the part where Roy knocks Jim in the nose and his nose is bleeding.

That was just David Dinman blocking, like getting a ball and blocking out.

There was some real basketball competition

when they were playing.

The dudes got a little testimonial.

They got a little duty.

Yeah, they got a little duty.

But he did.

He threw his elbow back not knowing that John was there and clocked John.

And his nose started gushing blood.

I think that sound you hear is his nose.

I asked Dave Rogers, our editor, yes, because I remember the debate when they were editing this episode.

Well, we heard it in real time.

You can hear it in real life.

We were like, dang.

Yes.

We knew.

We were like, is his nose broken?

Yeah.

And we had to pause and like iceback him.

First of all, they didn't stop rolling.

They kept documenting it.

They kept documenting it.

And so we see that John is, John ran off because he was in pain and his nose starts bleeding.

And I didn't know what to do.

So I picked up that freaking first aid kit.

And then I walked over to him.

And then I was like, wait, what am I doing?

There's nothing in that kit.

There's nothing in that kit.

It's like empty.

Was that sound really?

Apparently, the live audio was not strong enough to use.

so they pumped it up.

They added a popping sound

so that it would more sound like what we heard in real life.

Because I did ask Dave.

I was worried John broke his nose.

We all were.

Yeah.

And then they also told me at a certain point they had to stop it where they stopped it because blood was dripping on the floor.

Yeah.

It looked a little gruesome.

Yeah.

All right.

I have another note card.

I read a great article where David Dinman was asked if he thought he could beat John Krasinski in one-on-one basketball.

Oh, in a real basketball game.

Who read when?

What did he say?

David or John.

So this is a direct quote from David.

John, a hundred percent.

What?

100%.

His whole family, I mean, they're giants and they're all a basketball family.

So no, I'm not even going to pretend to play opposite that I would have a shot.

John Krasinski is one of three boys and John is something like 6'3.

He is the shortest of his brothers.

Yes.

So here's the thing.

John had always told us, I'm the shortest in my family.

And we'd be like, that's crazy.

You're 6'3.

And then I went to the premiere of Leatherheads, his movie.

Yeah.

And his whole family came and I met his brothers and it was ridiculous.

They, John, there, John is the shortest.

It's so crazy that he's the runt of the family.

He has a brother who's 6'6 and one who's 6'10.

What?

His one brother is 6'10?

Yes.

Yes.

I knew they were taller than him, but I mean, that is insane.

That's John might be like 6'4.

We had a lot of really tall men on our set, actually.

David Denman is very tall.

John, Rain Wilson, Brian.

Yeah, I mean, big guys.

Big guys.

I will tell you on the office, I wore three-inch heels because I was so short whenever I was in scenes next to Rain Wilson.

And if you look at Dwight and Angela scenes, a lot of times he is seated and I'm standing.

I feel like there were times when they made you stand on a box.

Is that true?

Did you ever stand on a box to do a scene with him?

Or stand, you would be on stairs and you would be like three stairs up?

They had a whole Apple box.

They would fly in for me on the ready.

I was standing on a box all the time.

Okay.

Moving on.

Moving on.

Don't look at my note cards, Jenna.

I'm not looking at your note card.

I want you to be surprised.

Okay.

So I have a note card, Jenna, that, you know, you were talking about the boys playing basketball, but actually, you know, there are two women in this game.

Of course.

Yes.

Phyllis and Marge.

Madge.

Madge.

And Madge.

Marge is from The Simpsons.

That's right.

Madge, Madge.

And her name is Madge Madsen, and she is played by Carly Rothenberg, who did a fantastic job.

What I love so much in the game is I don't know if you noticed when you watched, but Dwight was assigned to man up with Madge.

So there's all this great

Madge and Dwight.

And Dwight like regards Madge the way I feel like 12-year-old boys regarded me.

Like, you know, like when the boy like shoves you and is like, hey, and you're like, what?

This, what's the deal?

He's really physical with her if you watch the game.

And she totally gives it right back to him.

So anyway, I love that Madge and Phyllis get in the game.

I just thought that was really fun to watch.

Also, we have to talk about Michael's free throw moment.

Oh my God, that made me laugh so hard.

That is an example of Steve Corell's impeccable comedic timing.

Yes.

He does not rush.

He makes you wait for it.

You, you know, when he's setting up this ridiculous free throw that it's not going to go in.

We all know it's not going to go in.

And yet, somehow he makes us wait so long that it's even funnier.

Yeah.

And it's it's ridiculous.

It goes all the way out of the warehouse.

He throws it over the whole hoop.

And it's great too, because you know, someone has to run and get that ball.

You don't see it happen, but you know that moment when you're playing basketball and someone way overthrows it and you're like, God, God, now I have to

get the

basketball episode, I think, has some of the best quotes of the whole first season.

So many good ones.

So many good ones.

You have one of the best ones that really I've seen on t-shirts and coffee mugs.

So I used to sign headshots with this line when people would ask me for my autograph.

Do it.

Please don't throw garbage at me.

I love it.

I feel like it sums up

Pam's entire relationship with Michael.

The fact that she has to say the words, please don't throw garbage at me to her boss.

Just, it says it all.

It says it all.

And also, you know, it's not the first time she said it.

No, no.

Or something like it.

That's right.

Yeah.

And he throws that at your head and goes, off the backboard.

Yeah.

So ridiculous.

Just please don't throw garbage at me, Michael.

Everything she's had to endure is all in that one line.

Yeah.

She's been working there for probably three, four years now.

Yeah.

Three or four years of garbage thrown at her head in a relationship that's going nowhere.

Oh, gosh.

It's so sad.

Poor Pam.

All right.

I don't know.

What else can we talk about about basketball, you guys?

I do love that this episode ended, of course, with Kevin sinking all of those shots.

It was like so great.

And yet nothing in the office is resolved.

And are they all going to have to work Saturday?

He says no one has to come in.

Oh, that's right.

That's right.

That's right.

He says, he's like, like, we're going to be downsized if we skip one Saturday.

Exactly.

And everybody is like, wait, what?

So you do end on this sense of like, nothing, nothing's okay.

Nothing's okay.

Nothing's okay.

Nothing's really different.

Nothing is different.

Nothing has been solved.

Okay, so that was basketball.

That's the basketball episode.

That's the basketball episode.

I loved watching it again.

I have loved watching the show again in general.

People come up to us all the time, especially now that the show has been out on Netflix and there's a whole new generation of fans.

People really wig out.

After so many years, I think I had lost some perspective on how good the show was.

I mean, like, I knew it was good, but I hadn't watched it in years.

And so, because of this podcast, I was forced to sit down and watch these episodes.

And now, when people come up to me and tell me the show is good, I'm like, I know.

Oh my gosh, it's so good, right?

I mean, can you even believe it?

Can you believe I was on it?

That was me.

I was on it.

That was cool.

That's so cool.

It's amazing.

Let's chat about it.

Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely.

And I get why it's comfort for people.

You know, I really do.

You can put it on in the background and it's there.

And, you know, we've talked about this before, but like, Dwight's always going to be Dwight, and accounting is accounting.

And you've got Pam and Jim there, and they are, they become your little family in the background as you wind down from your day.

I'm so thrilled that the show still keeps finding an audience.

It just is so wonderful for me and for you and everyone involved.

But I have a tiny gripe.

What?

After re-watching this show.

What?

Do you know that not a single actor on our television show ever won an Emmy for their performance?

Oh, we're going there.

Wait, I was trying to wrap it up.

I was trying to wrap it up with a bow.

No, I have a gripe.

Wait, let me bitch for one second.

I'm ending with a gripe.

Oh, God.

I think it is an absolute crime that Steve Carell was never awarded the top prize in his industry for the role of television acting for the role of Michael Scott.

I agree.

Because I kind of dare you to name another comedic male performance sort of as revolutionary and heartbreaking and funny and real

as his performance on that show.

No, it was brilliant.

He won the Golden Globe.

The show won Best Comedy Ensemble.

We won an Emmy, we won some SAG Awards.

But Steve never won an Emmy.

And the final year, he was nominated because his character was ending.

His time on the office was ending.

It was his final nomination.

They had, it was me, you, and John Krasinski in a row on the aisle.

And Steve, I think, was right in front of us, or he was down a row.

And they had a camera on us as they announced the nominees and then they announced the winner.

And the camera was right on us.

And when they didn't say Steve's name, I said, Mother Effer out loud.

And I am not, I don't curse, guys.

I'm not a big cursor.

And it just flew out of my mouth because I couldn't believe it.

And then I was instantly horrified because I thought, oh no, was was I just on national television saying, Mother Effer, I'm about to get a call from my mom.

I know it.

And her ladies and her Bible study are going to be like, Angela said, Mother Effer.

But they cut away very fast.

So I don't think you saw it.

But that's how we felt.

We couldn't believe it.

We couldn't believe it.

Because his work in this show is brilliant.

And

our cast and our writers and everyone, I've just, they just did such an amazing job.

There you go.

Not ending with a nice bow, but there you go.

There you go.

Next week is Hot Girl.

Hot Girl.

Hey Adams.

Yeah.

Thank you for listening to Office Ladies.

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

Our producer is Cody Fisher.

Our sound engineer is Sam Kiefer.

And our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.

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If you're without a bachelor's degree but have a high school diploma or GED, you can get skills-first training to succeed in the industries you're passionate about, all while earning a weekly educational stipend to offset basic expenses.

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And with Europe United's job placement services and personalized coaching and mentorship, you can put your knowledge, skills, and most importantly, confidence into practice.

Apply to Europe United today and take the first step toward achieving the career you want.

Visit Europe.org to learn more.

So one of the hardest parts about business-to-business marketing is reaching the right audience.

And when you want to reach the right professionals, you need to use LinkedIn ads.

LinkedIn has grown to a network of over 1 billion professionals and that's where it stands apart from other ad buys.

You can target your buyers by job title, industry, company, role, seniority, skills, company revenue, all in one place to reach the professionals you want to reach.

So you can stop wasting budget on the wrong audience and start targeting the right professionals only on LinkedIn ads.

You know how sometimes you get an ad and you're like, was this for me?

Who is sending this to me?

Well, with LinkedIn ads, that's never going to happen.

LinkedIn will even give you an extra $250 credit on your next campaign so you can try it yourself.

Just go to linkedin.com/slash office.

That's linkedin.com/slash/office.

Terms and conditions apply only on LinkedIn ads.