Second Drink: Dream Team

This week we’re breaking down “Dream Team”! Michael puts together his dream team for the Michael Scott Paper Company which consists of Vikram, Pam and … Ryan. Meanwhile, Jim kisses up to Charles Miner by pretending to be a soccer player and this lie results in Phyllis getting hit in the head with a soccer ball. Angela breaks down the OG Dream Team from the 1992 men’s Olympics basketball team, Jenna is bringing back the flower lapel and the ladies discuss the famous quote, “Confidence. It’s the food of the wise man, but the liquor of the fool” and why it’s so mysterious. So make lots of french toast, perfect your best soccer moves and enjoy this episode. Office Ladies Website - Submit a fan question: https://officeladies.com/submitaquestion https://officeladies.com/submitaquestion Follow Us on Instagram: OfficeLadiesPod https://www.instagram.com/officeladiespod/ Follow Us on YouTube https://youtube.com/@officeladiespod?si=D0oKJwFJuK9txzFM Follow Us on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@officeladiespod?_t=ZT-8y1gqTrJyOs&_r=1

• 0:01Speaker 00

  Hello and welcome to your second drink of Dream Team. We have some really great behind the scenes tidbits about this episode, straight from Brian Baumgartner.

• 0:12Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. I mean, that storyline with Kevin being at front reception is so good. I was curious if the scene had any extra moments that didn't make it in the original broadcast. And I found this funny talking head, it's in the shooting draft that Kevin would have said, so I'm going to set it up, okay? Kevin is answering the phones and it is not going well, right?

• 0:33Speaker 00

  Yeah, because Pam is off, starting her new company with Michael. They need someone to sit at reception.

• 0:38Speaker 01

  That's right. Pam has left. And Jim has this talking head, you know, it made it into the episode where Jim says, Charles is having Kevin cover the phones for a while. How do I say this diplomatically? I think Kevin is doing exactly as well as anyone might have expected someone like him to perform in a position like that.

• 0:58Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm.

• 0:59Speaker 01

  And then more phones ring and action happens, but in the shooting draft, Kevin would have had a talking head immediately after that. And he would have said, I'm giving myself a B.

• 1:08Speaker 00

  A B?

• 1:09Speaker 01

  He thinks he's doing okay. Also, in the shooting draft, Kevin would have answered the phone and he would have said, Dunder Kevin, this is Kevin.

• 1:18Speaker 00

  Amazing.

• 1:19Speaker 01

  And I wonder, because what made it in the episode is Brian as Kevin saying, Dunder Mifflin, this is Kevin. And I wonder if Brian just was, said it properly.

• 1:28Speaker 00

  Oh, he forgot to mess it up.

• 1:31Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:32Speaker 00

  Maybe so.

• 1:33Speaker 01

  Because the shooting draft said, Dunder Kevin, this is Kevin.

• 1:36Speaker 00

  Well, lady, you and I saw a lot of background catches when we were breaking down this episode, but I've got another one for you. This one comes in from Renell in Brooklyn, New York, who says, ladies, I know you love a background catch. And at 1 minute and 56 seconds, when Pam is saying that today is her first day at her new job at Michael Scott Paper Company, and then she points to a sign in the lawn, I thought at first, Michael had put his own sign over a real estate sign, but I think it's a sign for someone running for office. Did you notice that?

• 2:11Speaker 01

  I did not catch that.

• 2:13Speaker 00

  I didn't catch that. So I went to the script to see how it was described, and Renell, you are correct. In the shooting draft, it says, exterior Michael's condo morning, a sunny day. Pam is dressed in a new skirt suit. She's posing like a spokesmodel for the camera's amusement by a sign stuck into Michael's front lawn that reads, Michael Scott Paper Company Incorporated. If we look closely, we can see, for Congress peeking out under the new sign. So yes, they just slapped their new company, like, name on someone else's sign.

• 2:52Speaker 01

  I know. It's like someone had a, like, running for Congress.

• 2:55Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 2:56Speaker 01

  I thought that was so great. I love that detail. And also, I loved that they described Pam's outfit as a new skirt suit.

• 3:03Speaker 00

  Yes. Well, you know, the network, it had to be a skirt.

• 3:06Speaker 01

  I know, we talk about it.

• 3:08Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm.

• 3:09Speaker 01

  You know, I was actually curious if there were any candy bag alts for Pam's talking head about her starting her new job.

• 3:16Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah, there were. Many. I can tell you there were.

• 3:20Speaker 01

  Well, I found two treasures that might give you all an idea of Pam's life at front reception. Jenna, you're probably going to remember these. Here, actually, why don't you read them?

• 3:31Speaker 00

  Oh, sure. Yes. Okay. Here's one. This isn't crazy. People start companies all the time. And who better to start a paper company with than the best paper salesman Scranton has ever seen? Besides, I needed a change in scenery. Answering phones and faxing in Creed's prescriptions was wearing on me.

• 3:52Speaker 01

  What are Creed's prescriptions?

• 3:54Speaker 00

  I don't know, but I guess there were a lot.

• 3:56Speaker 01

  Okay, this next one really got me.

• 3:57Speaker 00

  Okay. I have a ton of faith in Michael, but it's not just about that. I needed a change. There's only so many times you can debate with Kevin about Pizza Pockets vs. Pizza before you reach wit's end.

• 4:11Speaker 01

  I do feel like, you know, at reception, you got stuck. If someone came up there, right? And Kevin, in the early seasons, would go up to Pam and like lean on reception and talk, oh my gosh, talk her ear off.

• 4:24Speaker 00

  Well, we had another fun background catch from Victoria S. from Langley, British Columbia, who said, at 8 minutes and 5 seconds, I noticed that Pam or Michael doesn't lock the door when they leave Michael's condo. Why does this happen all the time in movies, or was it intentional? Well, you know, I was re-watching this, and they don't. You're right, they just leave. And I thought, maybe though, my front door locks automatically.

• 4:53Speaker 01

  I mean, you're right, that can happen. I actually changed the lock on my front door because we got locked out so many times.

• 5:00Speaker 00

  Oh, so you have to lock it with a key?

• 5:04Speaker 01

  We have to lock it.

• 5:05Speaker 00

  Okay. Yeah, but like, just to say, they do not deadbolt it or anything. And I think that's for sake of time in the episode. Like, we did just have to get out the door. Like, we didn't have the time to do the business of getting out our keys and locking it, the authenticity of leaving.

• 5:21Speaker 01

  Right, right. I mean, that happens a lot in movies and TV. Like, you just hop out of a car, you don't even take off a seatbelt or something, you know? It's like-

• 5:30Speaker 00

  Well, it's also how no one says goodbye. They never finish a phone call.

• 5:33Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 5:34Speaker 00

  Like, when you're done talking to someone on the phone in a movie, you just like, go away? It's so funny. Like, it takes me forever to get off of a phone call. I'm like, okay, well, anyway, I guess I'll talk to you soon. And yeah, have some good time.

• 5:46Speaker 01

  Okay, bye.

• 5:47Speaker 00

  Bye. Like that, you never get that in the movies either.

• 5:50Speaker 01

  I want to see that in movies.

• 5:52Speaker 00

  Right?

• 5:53Speaker 01

  I want someone to do that.

• 5:54Speaker 00

  I know.

• 5:55Speaker 01

  I did think about you, though, Jenna, as you were talking about the business of locking the door. Because I feel like if you were in a play, you would do that. Because it would ground you to the realness. When I saw you in the play Ashland Avenue in Chicago, and you were so good in it, but you had to go over and like get yourself a cup of coffee and do, you did all of it. You actually did the business. Even, there was like a sink that you would go, and you actually did all the things.

• 6:24Speaker 00

  Yeah. I mean, I like doing all the business. I do find it really grounding. And like, maybe to the point where, like, I have a thing that I'm always pitching whenever I have a role, and-

• 6:38Speaker 01

  What is it? Your face just lit up.

• 6:40Speaker 00

  Well, here's the thing. It really bugs me, like, especially if you're playing a parent, and you have to like walk up or down stairs, or walk from room to room in a scene. I'm sorry, if you are a parent, you are constantly carrying something in your hand.

• 6:55Speaker 01

  It's true.

• 6:56Speaker 00

  Right? Like, if you're at the bottom of the stairs, you collect stuff and you carry it up the stairs.

• 7:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:02Speaker 00

  And then vice versa, like-

• 7:03Speaker 01

  Cups and bowls.

• 7:04Speaker 00

  Cups and bowls!

• 7:05Speaker 01

  I'm always carrying them from downstairs.

• 7:07Speaker 00

  That would be my pitch. Like, I should not be walking empty-handed down the stairs as I'm ready to go out the door. Like, there's business. You need the business of life. Because also, we're all trying to make as few trips as possible. So that's my other thing. Like, if someone is carrying plates in from the table, don't give them two plates. Give them a pile of plates. And they're using the, they're using their knee to open the door. Like, that's life. So I love that business. And of course, you know, I don't know, they're just like, please, I don't need your specificity. And I'm like, well, I think it would be welcome.

• 7:48Speaker 01

  I can't wait to go see you in a play and watch you carry a bunch of stuff down some stairs.

• 7:54Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 7:55Speaker 01

  We have one last letter, and it's from Caitlin M. in Norfolk, Virginia. And I thought this was really sweet, and I wanted to share it. Caitlin says, hi, office ladies. One of my favorite moments from this episode is when Pam and Michael are talking in the driveway toward the end of the episode. This scene shows how Michael can be a great communicator. After Pam's management of their day, comforting Michael, setting realistic goals, et cetera, she has a vulnerable moment and, out of frustration, makes a hurtful comment. Michael takes a moment to process it, stills his nerves, and decides not to respond directly. Instead, he calmly explains their situation in simple terms, provides a relevant personal anecdote that inspires her confidence, and explains which actions he will take to remedy

• 8:39Speaker 01

  the situation. This takes the onus off of Pam to make decisions and/or take action while she's feeling acutely distressed, just like she did for Michael earlier that day. I love this scene so much. Michael was focused, firm, constructive, and empathetic. Scenes like these, where his emotional intelligence shines through, really balance him out as a character. Thank you for making this wonderful podcast. You're a bright spot in my busy days as a medical student in clerkships.

• 9:05Speaker 00

  Oh, thank you. I love hearing how that scene landed on Caitlin.

• 9:11Speaker 01

  I know. And just what the show means to people throughout their day, you know? And how they hear it and listen to it and process it.

• 9:19Speaker 00

  Well, thank you, everybody, for writing in. You can write to us in our second drinks folder over on office ladies dot com. And now here is your second drink of Dream Team.

• 9:34Speaker 00

  I'm Jenna Fisher.

• 9:35Speaker 01

  And I'm Angela Kinsey.

• 9:36Speaker 00

  We were on The Office together.

• 9:37Speaker 01

  And we're best friends.

• 9:38Speaker 00

  And now we're doing the ultimate Office rewatch podcast just for you.

• 9:42Speaker 01

  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.

• 9:49Speaker 00

  We're the Office ladies.

• 9:53Speaker 00

  Hi, everyone.

• 9:54Speaker 01

  Hi.

• 9:56Speaker 00

  Lady, I want you to look at me.

• 9:57Speaker 01

  I am looking at you, and the first thing I said when I sat down was, I love this top. What is this?

• 10:03Speaker 00

  I said, I'm gonna bring it up. It is a sweatshirt.

• 10:06Speaker 01

  Uh huh.

• 10:07Speaker 00

  But look, it has

• 10:08Speaker 01

  It's got poofies.

• 10:09Speaker 00

  Poofy shoulders.

• 10:10Speaker 01

  Is that a hood?

• 10:11Speaker 00

  It's a poofy, shouldered, hooded sweatshirt. Remember, I told you, these poofy things are back.

• 10:19Speaker 01

  This is true. Jenna went to the mall yesterday and she was texting me pictures of what I can only describe as Angela Martin's dream wardrobe.

• 10:26Speaker 00

  Yes, it's lacy, high-neck.

• 10:30Speaker 01

  What?

• 10:31Speaker 00

  Poofy shoulders, poofy arms. When we do our book tour.

• 10:36Speaker 01

  I'm gonna have a huge selection.

• 10:39Speaker 00

  And I will also have, you know, speaking of our book tour wardrobe, remember I said I was gonna bring back the giant

• 10:45Speaker 01

  Flower.

• 10:46Speaker 00

  Cloth flower.

• 10:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:47Speaker 00

  That I don't know why I have so many in my closet.

• 10:50Speaker 01

  It was a thing.

• 10:51Speaker 00

  I was watching Drew Barrymore's talk show

• 10:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:54Speaker 00

  last week. She was wearing one.

• 10:57Speaker 01

  No.

• 10:57Speaker 00

  I took a picture.

• 10:59Speaker 01

  What, on her blouse?

• 11:00Speaker 00

  Yeah, her shirt. She had a fakie flower.

• 11:03Speaker 01

  Oh, I need to see it.

• 11:04Speaker 00

  Mark my words, I am on trend. It's poofy sleeves and fakie flowers 2022, they're coming at you.

• 11:13Speaker 01

  It's all happening, guys. Angela Martin fashion is here, mixed in with a little Jenna Fisher.

• 11:18Speaker 00

  A lot of people wrote in to say the fakie flower was from Sex and the City. I guess Carrie Bradshaw loved a fakie flower.

• 11:24Speaker 01

  She is not the OG of the fakie flower.

• 11:27Speaker 00

  Who is? I mean, I can't even tell you how much mail we got about it.

• 11:30Speaker 01

  I mean, I feel like fakie flower was here in the 80s. Let's look up some Molly Ringwald. Come on.

• 11:35Speaker 00

  I'm with you there.

• 11:36Speaker 01

  Yeah. I'm positive I had a fakie flower I clipped on a hat because I was trying to be, like, was that movie Pretty in Pink?

• 11:44Speaker 00

  I have decided that I'm gonna single-handedly bring back the fakie flower during our book tour.

• 11:49Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 11:49Speaker 00

  Even though Drew Barrymore wore one on her show, I'm gonna bring it wide in 2022.

• 11:54Speaker 01

  Bring it wide?

• 11:55Speaker 00

  Yeah, I am.

• 11:56Speaker 01

  That should be our book tour slogan, bring it wide. No, you know what?

• 12:00Speaker 00

  I don't

• 12:01Speaker 01

  Let's rethink that.

• 12:02Speaker 00

  We should not.

• 12:02Speaker 01

  You know what? I'm gonna think on it.

• 12:04Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 12:04Speaker 01

  Bring your flower. No.

• 12:06Speaker 00

  No.

• 12:07Speaker 01

  Maybe?

• 12:08Speaker 00

  No.

• 12:10Speaker 01

  We'll see you on the book tour.

• 12:13Speaker 00

  But for today, we're gonna be discussing Dream Team, which is season five, episode 20 of The Office, written by BJ Novak and directed by Paul Feig.

• 12:23Speaker 01

  Let's have a summary.

• 12:25Speaker 00

  Here it is. Michael has officially left under Mifflin, and he has started his own paper company called Michael Scott Paper Company in his condo. Pam has joined him. Michael is having a little trouble facing his workday, but with Pam's encouragement, he decides to assemble a dream team to get their company started, and they are also gonna have a meeting with a potential investor.

• 12:50Speaker 01

  Things are looking up.

• 12:51Speaker 00

  Yeah. Meanwhile, back at the office, Charles is in charge. Charles in charge.

• 12:57Speaker 01

  I know.

• 12:57Speaker 00

  In Scranton. Hmm. Andy discovers that Charles is a soccer fan, and now everybody is trying to kiss up to Charles and get on his good side. It's the first time we've seen the man smile. Jim is even gonna pretend that he used to play soccer. This does not go well.

• 13:15Speaker 01

  No. You know what I loved about the storyline, and it's something BJ talked about in the DVD commentary for this episode? He said normally when you break a story, you have the A story, which is the main story, and then you have the B story, which is sort of like the other sort of side dish, if you will. He said that Idris' scenes were so great, and the dynamic that Charles Miner had with the rest of the office was so interesting for them, they really felt like his storyline as two A stories.

• 13:41Speaker 00

  It felt like that.

• 13:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:43Speaker 00

  Yeah, this felt like a very well-balanced episode.

• 13:47Speaker 01

  Right. I thought that was interesting.

• 13:48Speaker 00

  Fast fact number one, this episode starts a delightful arc where Michael is going to run his own paper company. And I found out that it was our writer Charlie Grandy who came up with this idea, and they had been planning this arc for months.

• 14:03Speaker 01

  Oh, well, he was on the DVD commentary for this episode.

• 14:07Speaker 00

  I don't know if they mentioned this on the commentary, but this episode was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Single Camera Editing for a comedy series. Our editors were nominated.

• 14:17Speaker 01

  That's fantastic.

• 14:18Speaker 00

  It was edited by Claire Scanlon. Now Claire came in to replace Dean Holland when he moved over to work as an editor and eventually a director on Parks and Recreation. So now our two editors were Dave Rogers and Claire Scanlon. You might remember Claire because she had a cameo as Freckles in Lecture Circuit Part Two. Before this, she edited Golden Ticket, but Dream Team was her second episode, and she was nominated for an Emmy. Claire.

• 14:49Speaker 01

  Claire.

• 14:51Speaker 01

  Of course, now Claire is like, big badass director, amazing. I would love to have Claire on.

• 14:56Speaker 00

  We should have Claire on.

• 14:57Speaker 01

  I know.

• 14:58Speaker 00

  Fast fact number two is a location breakdown.

• 15:02Speaker 01

  I knew you'd have one.

• 15:04Speaker 00

  Well, a good deal of this episode takes place at Michael's condo. And this was not an easy feat. Randy Cordray told me we went back to the same condo complex where we shot Michael's condo before for Dinner Party and pretty much any episode featuring Michael's condo. It was in Reseda, California, and it was owned now by a married couple. In order to use their condo, we had to move them into a hotel for an entire week.

• 15:33Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 15:34Speaker 00

  We had to take all of their stuff out. They put it into cartons in the garage. We painted the entire downstairs and decorated it. They made a point to decorate it differently from Dinner Party because, you know, now Michael is single.

• 15:49Speaker 01

  Yes, I noticed the only thing that remained that I recognized from Dinner Party was the St. Pauli Girl Beer sign.

• 15:55Speaker 00

  Same, in the dining room.

• 15:57Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 15:58Speaker 00

  We only shot at this condo for one day, and then they had to completely restore it back to the way the couple had it. And here is the thing that is fascinating to me, because what they would do is they would take like, a gazillion photos.

• 16:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:12Speaker 00

  Of every shelf, of everything. Anything that we moved, they took a picture of it before they moved it, and they would put it in a binder, like, hard copy photos, because back then, you know, that's what it was.

• 16:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, so it'd be like, kitchen counter.

• 16:26Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 16:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:27Speaker 00

  So that when the people came back, like, even their little spoon caddy was where they left it, or if they had a bookshelf, all their stuff, the books were in the same order as before.

• 16:37Speaker 01

  Picture frames were right where they left them.

• 16:38Speaker 00

  Everything.

• 16:39Speaker 01

  Everything.

• 16:40Speaker 00

  Isn't that fascinating?

• 16:41Speaker 01

  I know. It is amazing. In the DVD commentary, BJ talked about how carefully they decorated every wall. They put so much thought and detail, and you just see it just quickly in the background. But I caught a few things, I'm sure you guys did too. I'm gonna bring them up when we get to it.

• 16:57Speaker 00

  I love it. Fast fact number three is a guest star homage to the amazing actress who played Nana. Her name is Connie Sawyer. Just incredible. We got a piece of mail from Meredith Q, who wrote, "I did a deep dive. The woman who played Nana needs some recognition."

• 17:19Speaker 01

  Yes, she does.

• 17:21Speaker 00

  First of all, she lived to be 105. Who does that?

• 17:25Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 17:25Speaker 00

  Is what Meredith said. And according to IMDb, her first acting credit was in 1953 at the age of 40. Her last acting credit was in 2014 at the age of 101. That's 61 years of acting, plus she acted over the age of 100. What a rock star, tell me everything. Well, I looked into this woman.

• 17:48Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 17:48Speaker 00

  And performance had been a part of her life, her whole life. She had done vaudeville, she had performed live with Frank Sinatra, but it's true that she never had a film or television role until she was 40.

• 18:02Speaker 01

  So on the commentary, the writers were talking about her on set. They said she had the most amazing stories. She was throwing out stories about Bing Crosby, Bob Hope. They were just like, oh my gosh, she was fascinating. What I love about her story, Jenna, is that she did stage shows for years, she didn't get an on-camera role till 40, but this was her passion, and you should never let anyone take that away from you. However your passion manifests itself, I just love her story. She just kept at it.

• 18:30Speaker 00

  She has over 140 acting credits, and almost all of them are small roles. And she has this quote about her acting career where she said, "Life is fun. That has nothing to do with whether you become a star or not, and if the parts aren't too large, I can go around talking to everybody. It's like going to a party."

• 18:51Speaker 01

  Aww.

• 18:52Speaker 00

  And when she was 104, she wrote an autobiography called, "I Never Wanted to Be a Star and I Wasn't," and she self-published it in 2017. At 104!

• 19:04Speaker 01

  Wow. Well, that is amazing. BJ said the scenes that you guys did with her, that when they threw out some improv, she didn't miss a beat.

• 19:14Speaker 00

  Well, I remember her from When Harry Met Sally. She is one of the women in the couples that they interview documentary style.

• 19:22Speaker 01

  Yes!

• 19:23Speaker 00

  She has no lines. Her husband speaks the whole time, but it all plays out on her face, and she is so good. And she has this story where she says that she read the script, and she went to Rob Reiner, and she said, "I wanna be the woman in the deli who says the famous line, 'I'll have what she's having.'" She said, "I want the show-stopping line," and he said, "I'm sorry, we already shot that. My mother did it."

• 19:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, his mom did it.

• 19:50Speaker 00

  But she's just so good. She passed away in 2018 at the age of 105. And at the time of her death, she was the oldest working actress in Hollywood and the oldest member of the Screen Actors Guild Union. Amazing woman.

• 20:03Speaker 01

  Amazing. Connie Sawyer, everybody.

• 20:06Speaker 00

  Well, that's all I've got for Fast Facts. But before we go to break, you know, Marcus York, who played Billy Merchant?

• 20:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:13Speaker 00

  Is in this episode. This is his last appearance on the show, and he actually passed away earlier this year. He was just wonderful. And he was so wonderful to us. He shared a story with us.

• 20:24Speaker 01

  He did. He and I would text and we talked on the phone several times. He loved his character of Billy Merchant. He was so supportive of the show and we were just so fond of him.

• 20:35Speaker 00

  We got a letter from a man named Nathan N. And I thought this summed up Marcus pretty well. He said, I just wanted to comment on Marcus York because I believe this is his last episode and I wanted to let people know what kind of guy he is. He was from Dark County, Ohio, which is near where I work as a police officer. Just so happens that my partner met him one night when he was checking on him when he pulled over to use his phone. Upon Marcus telling him he was on The Office, my partner said that he's never watched the show, but that I did. And I was going to be so bummed that I missed him because I've talked about him in the past. Marcus asked him if I was working and he

• 21:17Speaker 00

  said I wouldn't be in for about an hour. Not only did Marcus wait that hour, but on top of that, he took a picture with me, his idea, hung out for an hour, and gave me an autographed picture made out to my wife. He seemed so happy to meet a fan that knew him and was interested in him and his career. And even though I only met him that one time, he definitely left a lasting impression for sure. Such a nice guy and a tragic loss.

• 21:43Speaker 01

  That is so well said. He was such a nice person.

• 21:46Speaker 00

  And he was so aware of the joy that he could bring to people by just being open to that fan experience or talking about his time on the show.

• 21:56Speaker 01

  And he certainly did that with us here at Office, ladies.

• 21:58Speaker 00

  He did.

• 21:59Speaker 01

  Much love to Marcus and his family.

• 22:01Speaker 00

  All right, let's go to break.

• 22:03Speaker 01

  Let's do it.

• 22:13Speaker 01

  Well, we are back from break. And before we get into Dream Team, I couldn't help but remember the OG Dream Team, Jenna.

• 22:21Speaker 00

  Was it basketball?

• 22:22Speaker 01

  Yes. Yes. You guys, the 1992 United States Men's Olympic Basketball Team, nicknamed the Dream Team. It was the first American Olympic team to feature active professional players from the National Basketball Association. And the team has been described from journalists around the world as the greatest sports team ever assembled.

• 22:43Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 22:44Speaker 01

  I know.

• 22:45Speaker 00

  I mean, I totally remember that.

• 22:47Speaker 01

  Me too.

• 22:48Speaker 00

  It was a big deal.

• 22:49Speaker 01

  It was a big deal, you guys. And listen, this is like when I was in school. So when this episode was coming up, whenever I saw the title Dream Team, I just always think.

• 22:57Speaker 00

  That's what I think of, too.

• 22:59Speaker 01

  Yeah. I don't know if you guys think of that, but I just want to read the roster and just a few stats, okay, of this team. All right. The full roster for the 1992 Dream Team was Charles Barkley, Larry Bird, Patrick Ewing, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, Chris Mullin, Scottie Pippen, David Robinson, John Stockton. Then they added two players later, Clyde Drexler, and they included one collegiate player, Christian Laettner of Duke University, who was chosen over Louisiana State University's Shaquille O'Neal.

• 23:30Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 23:31Speaker 01

  Yeah. Head coach was Chuck Daly. Here are some things I thought were fun. The co captains of the team were Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. They were undefeated in the Olympics. Chuck Daly used zero timeouts for the entire eight games. Not a single timeout was called, which is wild to me. Larry Bird was the oldest member of the Dream Team. And guess how old he was? He was the oldest member of the Dream Team.

• 23:57Speaker 00

  Forty-one.

• 23:58Speaker 01

  Thirty-five.

• 23:59Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 24:00Speaker 01

  That was the old guy. And I thought this was interesting. Guess who led the Dream Team in scoring?

• 24:07Speaker 00

  Hmm. I'm gonna admit here that I don't watch basketball.

• 24:12Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 24:12Speaker 00

  And I don't know anything about basketball. So I know these people's names and I know that they played basketball.

• 24:18Speaker 01

  Okay, okay. Well, I would have guessed Michael Jordan.

• 24:21Speaker 00

  Who shoots the most?

• 24:22Speaker 01

  Wouldn't you have guessed Michael Jordan, Sam, Cassie, right?

• 24:25Speaker 00

  He's a good player.

• 24:26Speaker 01

  He's amazing. Watch The Last Dance documentary. Amazing. I would have guessed Michael Jordan, but in fact, it was Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan came in second.

• 24:35Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 24:36Speaker 01

  How about them apples? But anyway, when I think of Dream Team, I think of the OG Dream Team. But you know, Jenna, this isn't the only time in the course of our show that we mention the Dream Team.

• 24:49Speaker 00

  When else do we mention the Dream Team?

• 24:50Speaker 01

  Bonus points if you can guess this. The Dream Team and Meredith.

• 24:57Speaker 00

  I mean, I'm assuming it's a party planning thing, but I don't know what episode that's from.

• 25:02Speaker 01

  The Dream Team and Meredith is from, some of you out there probably guessed this, season seven, Goodbye, Michael.

• 25:10Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 25:11Speaker 01

  And it was about the party planning committee. It's Angela, Phyllis, and Pam. And then Meredith kind of pops her head in the back.

• 25:18Speaker 00

  Are we planning the goodbye party for Michael? Is that what's going to happen?

• 25:21Speaker 01

  I think so.

• 25:22Speaker 00

  All right.

• 25:22Speaker 01

  So, Dream Team, two of them in the course of The Office. One is Michael Scott Paper Company, which is Vikram, Pam, Ryan, and Michael. And the other is the Party Planning Committee. Well, let's get into this episode, Jenna, because phones are ringing. Kevin's at reception. It's not going well.

• 25:38Speaker 00

  He's trying so hard to transfer these calls. I mean, he's just yelling across the office rather than transfer the calls because he can't remember everyone's extension.

• 25:48Speaker 01

  And he's sort of yelling personal stuff, like it cracked me up that Oscar's mom was calling.

• 25:52Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 25:52Speaker 01

  He yelled it across the bullpen.

• 25:54Speaker 00

  Well, he is going to try to transfer a call to Andy.

• 25:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:58Speaker 00

  But first, he's going to transfer it to pretty much every other desk in the office. He's going to run around and then transfer it and then transfer it and transfer it.

• 26:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, like it goes to Creed and then it goes, he's just running all over the place.

• 26:11Speaker 00

  We got a question from Brenda R. in Mexico, who wants to know, was Brian really transferring the phone calls on set? Or was this some behind the scenes magic? Well, when I would be Pam at the reception desk, they had a list of the real extensions because the phones really worked.

• 26:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:31Speaker 00

  And I would really transfer the calls. But the initial ring would come from somebody behind the scenes. There was a desk with a phone that was also connected to our phones backstage. So there were two options when you wanted to transfer a call. Either you did it for real, or you would just hang up and the person backstage would make another person's phone ring. But that would require them sort of trying to whisper into a walkie talkie.

• 26:58Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 26:59Speaker 00

  To get them to coordinate all that.

• 27:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:01Speaker 00

  So I always just transferred the calls. I mean, I had my real life receptionist experience.

• 27:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:07Speaker 00

  I got to put it to use.

• 27:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:09Speaker 00

  But I didn't know what Brian did. So I texted him. And he said he also really transferred the calls, but he would have to remember the extensions because he was running around. After the first transfer, he couldn't take his slip of paper with him anymore.

• 27:25Speaker 01

  Right. Oh, my gosh. I still have a photo of all of our transfer numbers that was taped to my phone. I took a picture of it.

• 27:33Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 27:34Speaker 01

  Well, in the DVD commentary, Matt Stone, our camera operator, shared with us that on the day they were filming, Brian was doing the transferring, but they were having some issues with the phones. And so they weren't going to some of the desk clumps they were supposed to. And so Brian actually ended up running around to wherever it was ringing. So.

• 27:55Speaker 00

  Oh, wow. So that mania was a little real. He really didn't know where it was going to ring.

• 27:59Speaker 01

  I think there's at least one time where it didn't ring where it was supposed to and he just ran. And Matt said they were just following him.

• 28:06Speaker 00

  We had a fan question from Monica in Scranton, Angela, and this one's for you.

• 28:11Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 28:11Speaker 00

  When Angela yells out, you're bad at this, too. Were you implying that Pam is bad at it and so is Kevin? Or that Kevin is bad at everything?

• 28:23Speaker 01

  Well, first of all, that line is scripted. That was not improv. And I think Angela is just implying that Kevin is horrible at everything.

• 28:32Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 28:33Speaker 01

  I actually don't think it's a dig at Pam for once. I think it's more of a dig at Kevin.

• 28:39Speaker 00

  We also got a piece of mail from Grace B., who said, Kevin taught me how to transfer a call. She said she was an office aide in high school. They got a new phone system. She wasn't sure what to do, but she remembered this episode, transfer, extension, transfer, and it worked.

• 28:56Speaker 01

  Oh, my gosh.

• 28:57Speaker 00

  So she says, thank you.

• 28:59Speaker 01

  You're welcome. Well, in the script, when Kevin finally gets the call to Andy, this was the stage direction. People ad lib, way to go. All right. Applaud, giving Kevin fist bumps. He is very happy. In the background of Andy's talking head, the celebration continues. Kevin shakes up a soda can and opens it.

• 29:23Speaker 00

  That's very Dream Team-esque.

• 29:25Speaker 01

  I know.

• 29:25Speaker 00

  Very sports celebration.

• 29:27Speaker 01

  I know.

• 29:28Speaker 00

  Well, now Pam is gonna arrive for her first day of work.

• 29:32Speaker 01

  First day, there's a sign and everything.

• 29:34Speaker 00

  I know.

• 29:35Speaker 01

  It's official.

• 29:36Speaker 00

  I don't know if you noticed her little blazer.

• 29:38Speaker 01

  I did.

• 29:39Speaker 00

  There was a very big wardrobe discussion.

• 29:42Speaker 01

  About the blazer.

• 29:43Speaker 00

  Before we started this arc, yes.

• 29:44Speaker 01

  For what Pam's I'm a paper salesman outfit is?

• 29:47Speaker 00

  Yes. So here's one thing. We originally thought, should she wear a pantsuit? Like kind of a power suit.

• 29:54Speaker 01

  So bold, Pam.

• 29:55Speaker 00

  But listen to this. In an earlier season, there had been a discussion about if Pam could sometimes wear pants to the office, because she had such a uniform of her cardigan and her pencil skirt and everything. And it went all the way up to the network. And the network said Pam must wear pencil skirts.

• 30:16Speaker 01

  Ah.

• 30:17Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 30:17Speaker 01

  Okay. I have wondered about this, Jenna, and I've never told you this, but for a few episodes, they put Angela Martin in dress pants.

• 30:25Speaker 00

  Uh huh.

• 30:26Speaker 01

  And then all of a sudden, the pants went away. And so I went to wardrobe and I said, hey, can we bring back the dress pants? Those are so comfortable. And they said, oh, actually, we got a note that they just want you in skirts.

• 30:36Speaker 00

  Isn't that interesting?

• 30:37Speaker 01

  I did not know you got the same note. I thought that was crazy.

• 30:41Speaker 00

  And so we were reminded that I could not wear a pantsuit. We had to keep the pencil skirt. So only thing we could change was the top half of my body.

• 30:49Speaker 01

  Who was the brass at the top of NBC that was like, office ladies must wear skirts?

• 30:54Speaker 00

  Well, look at Phyllis, always in a skirt. Meredith, always in some kind of jumper.

• 30:59Speaker 01

  Kelly.

• 31:00Speaker 00

  Kelly, Jan.

• 31:01Speaker 01

  And Nellie, skirts.

• 31:05Speaker 00

  However, Karen always wore pants. I don't think she ever wore a skirt. And I think that sometimes Holly wore pants. Am I right? But mostly, it was dresses and skirts.

• 31:16Speaker 01

  Joe Bennett wore pants. But those were all guest stars.

• 31:19Speaker 00

  Mm hmm.

• 31:20Speaker 01

  Core cast had to be in skirts, I guess.

• 31:22Speaker 00

  I don't know. Who was the network brass at the time? Was it, um?

• 31:25Speaker 01

  The guy from Mad Men?

• 31:27Speaker 00

  Was Don Draper running the network? Is that who?

• 31:31Speaker 01

  Maybe. I feel a soapbox a-coming.

• 31:34Speaker 00

  No, I'm gonna leave it.

• 31:35Speaker 01

  I'll leave it. Let's leave it.

• 31:36Speaker 00

  Everyone knows it. They heard it.

• 31:38Speaker 01

  They heard it.

• 31:39Speaker 00

  It was subtle. It was there. Okay, so bottom line is, here's what we did. I switched out my pantyhose for tights. I'm wearing a little bit more of a heel, bit of a power shoe, and a blazer. So they were little changes, but they did feel impactful. I thought Pam felt a little more polished.

• 31:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:58Speaker 00

  That was our goal. Well, Michael is gonna start his first day of work in a bathrobe.

• 32:02Speaker 01

  Pam's like, Michael, you were expecting me, weren't you?

• 32:05Speaker 00

  He's like, yeah. Yeah. She's like, are you wearing anything under the robe? And he's like, that's inappropriate. He brings her inside, and he actually has set up his dining room, sort of office-like. It's nice.

• 32:20Speaker 01

  It is nice. I think these are all items he took from the supply chest as he was leaving.

• 32:25Speaker 00

  Clearly.

• 32:25Speaker 01

  And he starts making French toast. A lot of French toast. And there was a deleted Pam talking head where she explains her motivation to join Michael. She steps outside on the patio while he's making French toast. Here it is.

• 32:41Speaker 00

  I felt ready for a change. After all these years at Dunder Mifflin, I just wasn't getting the same rush that I used to get from being a receptionist. This feels good.

• 32:53Speaker 02

  This egg won't crack.

• 32:54Speaker 00

  Oh, okay.

• 32:58Speaker 00

  The egg won't crack.

• 32:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, he interrupts her to help him crack eggs.

• 33:03Speaker 00

  Pam enjoys her French toast. It was very good. I ate it.

• 33:07Speaker 01

  Did you really?

• 33:08Speaker 00

  It was delicious. That was just real.

• 33:11Speaker 01

  Way to go, prop food.

• 33:12Speaker 00

  I know. We had a fan question from Isla H. who said, who had to make all the French toast? Phil Shea and his team, they made a bunch of French toast. But here's the problem. Michael won't stop making French toast. And Pam realizes it's because he's having some feelings about really getting started in this new company. She tries to get him to stop mixing the eggs, and it ends up spilling eggs all over him.

• 33:39Speaker 01

  All over him and into his Crocs.

• 33:41Speaker 00

  We got questions about that. People wanted to know, was it real egg in the bowl? Was the line, I have egg in my Crocs improvised? And people were also curious, how did we do this scene? Because it seems difficult to have the egg go in the same place each time. Well, I will say that Steve did improvise the line, I have egg in my Crocs.

• 34:05Speaker 00

  It was very hard not to laugh, but it's true. We couldn't get the egg to splash in the same way every time, so I could not laugh, because this was a oner. We would have to use a whole take. We couldn't cut between different takes, because the egg would be different.

• 34:19Speaker 01

  Ah, so much pressure. It's so hard to not laugh with Steve.

• 34:23Speaker 00

  I know. But I didn't. But I think you can tell how hard I am trying not to laugh

• 34:29Speaker 01

  Do you look constipated or something?

• 34:30Speaker 00

  Yeah, I do. I look like, you can tell I'm like tensely holding in.

• 34:34Speaker 01

  It works, though. It just looks like Pam is like watching someone who she thinks is supposed to know what they're doing, who clearly doesn't. She's like, oh crap, what have I gotten myself into?

• 34:44Speaker 00

  Well, we did do several takes of this, and it was a big reset every time, because we would have to clean up all the eggs in the kitchen. We'd have to clean up all the eggs on Steve. He would have to change his bathrobe. But this one was perfect. This was the time he improvised that line, and the egg just went everywhere. So I also knew as I was standing there, this is the one. Do not mess this up.

• 35:06Speaker 01

  Right. So one thing to point out, you guys, which I love about our show, to nerd out on you for a minute, since Steve improvised the line, eggs in my Crocs, that meant our camera operator had to improvise the move to pan down to his feet.

• 35:19Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 35:19Speaker 01

  That wouldn't have been planned, but that sells the joke.

• 35:22Speaker 00

  So good.

• 35:24Speaker 01

  Such a great two-hander.

• 35:25Speaker 00

  We also had a fan catch in this scene in the kitchen. Ciara G. and Lauren W. point out that at 4 minutes 31 seconds, there's a sign on his kitchen counter that says his.

• 35:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:40Speaker 00

  But there is no hers.

• 35:42Speaker 01

  I saw that, too.

• 35:43Speaker 00

  And they were like, I guess Jan took the hers when she left.

• 35:47Speaker 01

  Or maybe she never even wanted hers out.

• 35:51Speaker 00

  Maybe Michael just bought a his.

• 35:52Speaker 01

  I think he bought a his/her, and she never put hers out. I don't know. It's sad, no matter how it shook out.

• 35:58Speaker 00

  Should we go back to the office and see what's happening back there?

• 36:02Speaker 01

  Yes, because this was a really fun conference room scene. We were having a absolute blast with Idris. He's holding court the way Michael used to, and he's telling them how things are gonna proceed now that they've lost two employees. But Kelly and Angela just wanna know more about Charles. I love that Kelly's like, where are you staying in Scranton? And he's like, a hotel. And Angela goes, where were you born?

• 36:26Speaker 00

  Where were you born?

• 36:27Speaker 01

  It was so fun. It was hard not to laugh. And I want you guys to know, when Andy asks how the operations of the company are going, in the background, I caught Brian out of character. He is clearly just Brian in this moment. If you go to 3 minutes 2 seconds, it's very subtle, but look at his face. That is Brian and not Kevin. I'm gonna show you a picture, Jenna. Because we were just having a great time in this scene. And there were all these moments when you didn't know if you were on camera. And sometimes, look at that face.

• 36:57Speaker 00

  Oh, that's Brian.

• 36:58Speaker 01

  I know.

• 36:59Speaker 00

  That's 100% Brian.

• 37:01Speaker 01

  He's just trying not to laugh, and he's looking at John.

• 37:04Speaker 00

  Well, then we're gonna see Phyllis Creed and Stanley sort of observing Charles in his office. Charles is on the phone. They're like, does he eat? Does he go to the bathroom? He's a total mystery to them.

• 37:17Speaker 01

  Jenna, there was more to this. There was a series of talking heads where everyone in the office is sort of commenting on how Charles is a mystery. It starts with Angela Martin. Get ready for some titillated Angela. Charles is a mystery. I wish there was a way I could curl up by the fire with him and flip right to his last page.

• 37:41Speaker 00

  Okay. I am in love with that phrase. The next time I seduce my husband, I'm gonna say, baby, I wanna flip right to your last page.

• 37:50Speaker 01

  I know, right?

• 37:51Speaker 00

  Let's see what he says. I love that.

• 37:53Speaker 01

  I thought that was amazing. And then Toby has one, and Toby basically is like, I don't know why everyone thinks Charles is a mystery. If anyone would just come back and talk to me, I can share with you. I have a lot of information about him if anyone just wants to talk to me.

• 38:07Speaker 00

  I mean, I'm sure Toby does know where he was born, I guess.

• 38:10Speaker 01

  Yeah. And then Jenna, Charles had a really big talking head. He's super relaxed. This is what it said in the script. Charles seems relaxed, his guard down, speaking casually to the camera in a way he never would to his employees.

• 38:24Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 38:25Speaker 01

  And this is what was in the shooting draft. Mysterious? Just because I show some restraint with my employees when it comes to talking about my personal life, doesn't mean there's some big mystery. I grew up in a suburb of DC, middle-class family. My dad was a CPA, went to University of Maryland, studied business, engaged once, childhood friend, didn't work out. Then he shows a picture to the camera. I'll always love her. Then, I get my hair cut on the first day of every month, so I remember. There's always less to cut on March 1st. I like sour foods, but I hate grapefruit. Couldn't tell you why, just don't get it. I have a parakeet named Murphy, trying to teach it to talk. It repeats

• 39:08Speaker 01

  whatever I say, if the thing I say is squawk.

• 39:12Speaker 00

  Who is this person?

• 39:13Speaker 01

  I know.

• 39:14Speaker 00

  Oh, my gosh.

• 39:16Speaker 01

  Those talking heads would have filled out the rest of the story.

• 39:19Speaker 00

  I wonder if that talking head exists somewhere.

• 39:21Speaker 01

  I don't know.

• 39:22Speaker 00

  Dave Rogers.

• 39:23Speaker 01

  Dave Rogers does it, because that is priceless. But the Angela and Toby one are in the deleted scenes on the DVD.

• 39:30Speaker 00

  Back at Michael's condo, he is doing some ab exercises.

• 39:35Speaker 01

  He is. And Jenna, if you have a camera operator on a DVD commentary, here are some things you learned. While Michael's doing his sit-ups, the shot that's on Pam at 4 minutes 45 seconds, that was Matt Sohn.

• 39:48Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 39:49Speaker 01

  You were his shot.

• 39:50Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 39:51Speaker 01

  I don't know. I just love that.

• 39:53Speaker 00

  We had a fan question from Gianna W. When Michael is working out at his condo, is that supposed to be the Core Blaster from the money episode that he's using? Remember, he spent his money on a Core Blaster? I think so. I went to the script. It doesn't say specifically, but I was so charmed by the scene description in the script.

• 40:14Speaker 01

  Oh, let's hear it.

• 40:14Speaker 00

  Here's what it said. Michael is working out on his ab roller incorrectly, using no range of motion. That is what they wanted Steve to do.

• 40:26Speaker 00

  Pam can see that Michael is a little bit spiraling. Is that a good description?

• 40:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:33Speaker 00

  And she says that when she feels overwhelmed, she likes to make a list of things to do and then start with the easy stuff.

• 40:40Speaker 01

  I think this is great life advice.

• 40:43Speaker 00

  We got mail about that advice.

• 40:45Speaker 01

  Oh, no.

• 40:45Speaker 00

  And I was really flattered because

• 40:48Speaker 01

  People say, this reminds me of Jenna Fisher.

• 40:50Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:51Speaker 01

  Cause I did too. When I rewatched this, I was like, that's a little bit of, what is it again? Life imitating art?

• 40:56Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:57Speaker 01

  Did I get it right? I got it right.

• 40:58Speaker 00

  You did. Shannon L. said, Jenna, I know that I don't know you, but when Pam tells Michael he needs to make a list for his day, that sounded like something you would do. And Kayla C. agrees. She said, after listening to every episode of this podcast, I can say with confidence, that is the most Jenna thing I've ever heard. I would have to say there are two things on The Office that were 100% me. One is this list making advice and the other is my line at dinner party when I say, I just want to eat.

• 41:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 41:33Speaker 00

  Those are me.

• 41:35Speaker 01

  You do have a chore list. You also have sort of like your meals planned for the week.

• 41:40Speaker 00

  I never wonder about that. I have a plan. I like to know what I'm eating and I like to check something off a list.

• 41:48Speaker 01

  You really do.

• 41:49Speaker 00

  I really do.

• 41:50Speaker 01

  When we went on our writer's retreat, I learned very quickly that you need to know what you're eating. Like that is no joke. I would be like, what should we do for dinner? And you'd be like, I already brought stuff that we're doing this, this night. And I'm like, oh, okay.

• 42:02Speaker 00

  We had two HelloFresh nights and a takeout night. And then I said, we bring our own breakfast and lunch and snacks.

• 42:07Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 42:08Speaker 00

  Done.

• 42:08Speaker 01

  Done. This was one of the first emails you sent to me when we were going to go on our writer's retreat. It was, it wasn't about our work.

• 42:14Speaker 00

  No, no, no, no.

• 42:14Speaker 01

  It was about the meals.

• 42:15Speaker 00

  Let's plan our food and then we'll come up with a work plan.

• 42:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:19Speaker 00

  I mean, I can't work on an empty stomach.

• 42:20Speaker 01

  No.

• 42:21Speaker 00

  I cannot.

• 42:22Speaker 01

  Well, one of the first things on Pam's list is let's just start small. Let's get you dressed, Michael.

• 42:27Speaker 00

  Yeah. And then there's that moment where he sits in the chair across from her and his robe opens up.

• 42:34Speaker 01

  Go to season five bloopers on YouTube. Jenna, I don't even know how you salvaged anything from that scene. Matt Stone even talked about it in the DVD commentary. He was like, Jenna kept breaking up. She laughed every time.

• 42:47Speaker 00

  So Steve was wearing

• 42:49Speaker 01

  Underwear.

• 42:50Speaker 00

  He was. He was not nude.

• 42:51Speaker 01

  They were like flesh toned, right?

• 42:53Speaker 00

  Yes, exactly. But on the day, we had this idea that Pam would keep talking to him, but she would just move her little clipboard up so that she wouldn't have to see him.

• 43:07Speaker 01

  His business?

• 43:08Speaker 00

  Yes. But every time I did the gesture to move my clipboard up, it would make me laugh. Like the idea of it, all of it, it was one of those moments where I couldn't stay focused because I could see it from the outside and it was just so tickled me. It was such a funny moment. And Steve never broke. Steve could just keep a straight face. And then I would get to a point where I couldn't go on and they'd be like, okay, cut. But Steve would just be like, what?

• 43:36Speaker 01

  Well,

• 43:37Speaker 00

  What is it?

• 43:37Speaker 01

  I was going to play the blooper, but when I rewatched it, Jenna, you're laughing so hard, you're making no sound.

• 43:42Speaker 00

  I know.

• 43:43Speaker 01

  So if I played it, it'd just be like

• 43:46Speaker 00

  Yes, it's true.

• 43:48Speaker 01

  While we're in this moment, I would love to point out some stuff in the background.

• 43:52Speaker 00

  Please.

• 43:53Speaker 01

  There is a shelf of Dundee's behind Michael during the scene. Also, you probably noticed all of the inspirational posters all over the condo. I did count though, 10 Dundee's. Let me know if you guys got the same amount. 10 Dundee's plus a no right turn, no left turn and no U-turn sign.

• 44:11Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 44:12Speaker 01

  During the scene.

• 44:13Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 44:13Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 44:14Speaker 00

  Well, I don't know if you noticed this. I did not notice it at first, but luckily Floor H. wrote in to say, there are two television sets in Michael's condo.

• 44:26Speaker 01

  Well, there's a big box one.

• 44:28Speaker 00

  Mm hmm.

• 44:29Speaker 01

  And then there's the little one.

• 44:30Speaker 00

  Yes. So you can really see it at seven minutes, 29 seconds. He has bought himself a new TV, but he has not taken down the broken plasma. So it's like the new television is sitting on a TV stand. It's your standard square TV.

• 44:46Speaker 01

  It's much bigger, by the way, than the little mounted one on the wall.

• 44:50Speaker 00

  Yes. And it sits right under that broken one. But here's the thing, Michael is actually going to come up with some good ideas for today. He says they should assemble a dream team, starting with Vikram.

• 45:02Speaker 01

  Yeah. He was the best seller at the telemarketing company.

• 45:05Speaker 00

  Pam's like, oh, okay. And he reveals that they're going to have a meeting with a potential investor. But first we need to get Michael dressed.

• 45:13Speaker 01

  Well, back at the office, Andy has put on his computer, sort of like a montage of soccer moments, right?

• 45:19Speaker 00

  Like a soccer photo slideshow.

• 45:21Speaker 01

  Exactly. Charles sees it. He loves soccer. Andy is clearly sucking up to Charles. I actually remember us talking about soccer and Idris plays soccer.

• 45:32Speaker 00

  Really?

• 45:32Speaker 01

  Yes. He's like a good soccer player. He like played growing up. He like played on like a soccer league on the weekend. So he actually knew a lot about soccer.

• 45:41Speaker 00

  Well, he's British. Football.

• 45:43Speaker 01

  Football. Yes. What am I saying? Football. Jim has this talking head about how he's just never been a kiss up, you know? That's just not how he operates.

• 45:52Speaker 00

  Mm hmm.

• 45:52Speaker 01

  And BJ talked a little bit about his own experience for this Jim Andy suck up storyline. Let's hear it.

• 46:00Speaker 03

  This was based in my mind on an experience when I felt I had too much integrity to kiss up in a, in a situation where I really wanted to impress people. And I saw everyone else kissing up and getting ahead. Man, I should just go up there, you know? So I like the idea of a guy who, who does it, who just says, screw it. Like, I'm going to do this because this is how you get ahead. And maybe I, I'm being lazy by not kissing up. And then it comes back to bite him. But I like the good guy like Jim deciding to do it.

• 46:28Speaker 00

  Hmm. Interesting.

• 46:31Speaker 01

  Right? I just love that BJ takes moments like that and then puts it into his episodes.

• 46:36Speaker 00

  Mm hmm. No, he reflects on things in the moment and they stay with him. He's a very thoughtful person in that way.

• 46:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 46:42Speaker 00

  Well, Jim is going to suck up by pretending like he played soccer or is a soccer player.

• 46:48Speaker 01

  I know. There's this moment where he's like, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. And then he just succumbs and was like, ah, yeah, I'm a player. And Dwight could not be happier. He's like, oh, really, Jim? I have never heard you talk about soccer. And he's like, you should play Charles, the two of you, today.

• 47:11Speaker 00

  And Charles is all about it. He's like, yes, I would love it. And Charles' whole demeanor changes toward Jim, toward everyone in the office. He's this very sort of smiley guy all of a sudden.

• 47:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:26Speaker 00

  It's a big difference.

• 47:28Speaker 01

  Well, now Jim's going to be in a big pickle. He said, um, he played soccer from second to fourth grade. He was on the orange team.

• 47:35Speaker 00

  I love that talking head.

• 47:36Speaker 01

  I do too.

• 47:36Speaker 00

  It made me laugh. Well, listen, I think we should take a break because in the second half of the episode, we are going to see this dream team get assembled and we're going to see Jim have to deal with his soccer promise. It's good stuff.

• 47:51Speaker 01

  All right.

• 48:01Speaker 01

  We are back and you guys, the dream team got Vikram.

• 48:05Speaker 00

  We got him.

• 48:06Speaker 01

  Vikram, played by the awesome Ranjit Chowdhury.

• 48:10Speaker 00

  He was so fun to work with. You know, he passed away last year.

• 48:13Speaker 01

  I know.

• 48:14Speaker 00

  He was so funny. We're in the car and you know, Michael's all excited. They pull up to the bowling alley. Michael's like, I have to use the bathroom. And Vikram has this line. It's so good where he says, confidence, it's the food of the wise man, but the liquor of the fool. I was so struck by this when I watched this episode.

• 48:35Speaker 01

  Me too.

• 48:36Speaker 00

  So I Googled it because I thought, is that like an old, I don't know?

• 48:41Speaker 01

  Expression?

• 48:42Speaker 00

  Proverb, like a Greek philosopher? No, it's nowhere. There are Reddit threads dedicated to trying to figure out where this line came from. There was an article written about this one line.

• 48:55Speaker 01

  You're kidding.

• 48:55Speaker 00

  And how wise it is and how the writer of the article couldn't find its origin either. Someone on our writing staff wrote that line.

• 49:04Speaker 01

  And we don't know who?

• 49:06Speaker 00

  I asked BJ. I asked Mindy. I asked Aaron Schur. No one can take credit for it. Aaron Schur said something that I really liked. He said, I don't know. Let's give credit to the whole writing staff. Like some sort of collective genius came up with this line. But someone wrote that from

• 49:25Speaker 01

  Brilliant.

• 49:25Speaker 00

  Office.

• 49:26Speaker 01

  Brilliant.

• 49:27Speaker 00

  And it's so good.

• 49:28Speaker 01

  And then last week, we talked about Vikram having this amazing talking head.

• 49:32Speaker 00

  That got deleted.

• 49:33Speaker 01

  That got deleted. This is where it would have lived, you guys. Right after the scene in the car where he says this amazing proverb, he would have said, when you put your telemarketing career on the line, you're not putting much on the line. And Ranjit was just perfection. Everything. His delivery, I just, I couldn't get enough of him.

• 49:53Speaker 00

  Well, you just so believe him.

• 49:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:55Speaker 00

  And our guest actors were always that way. Alison Jones had this amazing ability to find people who didn't seem like they were acting at all.

• 50:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:04Speaker 00

  Well, Michael is going to go into the bowling alley. He wants a pair of nine shoes. Guess who's working the counter?

• 50:12Speaker 01

  Ryan. Ryan, who's not on the list.

• 50:18Speaker 00

  You know, Vikram has this great line in the car where he's like, he's been gone a long time. Is it possible he went bowling?

• 50:24Speaker 01

  You know him better than I do. And you're, I thought Jenna, your delivery as Pam was so great when you're like, yeah.

• 50:31Speaker 00

  Yeah. So Pam goes in and sees what's happening and says, this was not on the list, Michael. And then she looks at the list and then she's like, when did you put this on the list?

• 50:44Speaker 01

  I loved that. We noticed right away that Ryan is very tan and very blonde. I was really curious, when did BJ know he was going to have to do this with his hair? This is what he said on the DVD commentary.

• 50:57Speaker 03

  So when I was in Germany and wasn't able to be on the show for a while, my character ran off to Thailand. All I knew about Ryan coming back was that he was going to be blonde.

• 51:06Speaker 04

  Now the tan. The tan is great too.

• 51:09Speaker 03

  The tan is very funny. I, I heard of the, the hair as frosted tips. And then when we did it, Mindy, whose idea it was, came in and was like, no, no, no, we're only going to go for this joke once. You have to be completely blonde. And so we dyed it and I wore a hat in public for weeks, trying to save the surprise and save my dignity.

• 51:27Speaker 01

  And he goes on to say that he was also touring stand up during this time. So he got a spray in brown coloring, you know, that you could like,

• 51:37Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 51:38Speaker 01

  And so he sprayed his hair brown and then he went on stage and it started coming off.

• 51:43Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 51:44Speaker 01

  Like dripping off.

• 51:45Speaker 00

  Like what happened to Rudy Giuliani.

• 51:48Speaker 01

  Oh, my God.

• 51:49Speaker 00

  Same thing.

• 51:51Speaker 01

  Yes, exactly. So he had to wear this hat, but it was like really stressful. He was trying to keep it a secret.

• 51:57Speaker 00

  I've used that spray for when my roots are coming in. It's genius. I love the spray, by the way.

• 52:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:06Speaker 00

  It's great, but if you get really warm, it will sweat off.

• 52:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:12Speaker 00

  Beware.

• 52:14Speaker 01

  Where are we?

• 52:15Speaker 00

  I'll give you a little location breakdown on the bowling alley. Idle Hour Lanes, which is the sign out sign, is a real bowling alley in Scranton. We matched their logo and in Scranton, there's two, and one of them is next to Poor Richard's.

• 52:31Speaker 01

  Yes, I've been to that one.

• 52:33Speaker 00

  I thought you had.

• 52:34Speaker 01

  It's part of the bar, kind of like when you go into Poor Richard's, you think, at least I thought I was walking into a bar, but I actually was walking into a bowling alley and then the bar was to the right.

• 52:43Speaker 00

  It's interesting. I thought that we were at Pickwick Bowl, which does have a bar next to it, sort of similar to the real Idle Hour Lanes, but no. Randy Cordray said that we shot ours in Canoga Park. It was a bowling alley in Canoga Park. I also have a little guest star shout out to the bowling alley manager who calls Ryan a shoe bitch. He was played by Jim Woods. He has appeared on How I Met Your Mother, Reno 911, and was a regular on the comedy satire Safety Geeks, S V I. Again, another person who did not seem like an actor to me.

• 53:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:22Speaker 00

  Seemed like a real grouchy bowling alley manager.

• 53:26Speaker 01

  Exactly. There was some delicious Pam sass because I mean Pam just does not like Ryan. When he tells her he makes 60 grand a year and she's like, really? They pay you a yearly salary at the bowling alley?

• 53:40Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 53:40Speaker 01

  So good. Well, the dream team is going to arrive to meet their investor.

• 53:46Speaker 00

  That's right. It's at what appears to be a nursing home.

• 53:51Speaker 01

  Can I tell you, there was a beat in the script where Michael describes who the investor is?

• 53:55Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 53:56Speaker 01

  He says, her name is Barbara Kivas. She invests in local businesses and I've been putting together a little presentation for her.

• 54:04Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 54:05Speaker 01

  But that didn't make it in the episode, but I'm like, okay, who's Barbara Kivas?

• 54:09Speaker 00

  I've got a location breakdown on where we shot this.

• 54:12Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 54:12Speaker 00

  Which is interesting to me. It was a Best Western Hotel that was attached to the bowling alley. And we redressed their conference room to look like a nursing home. Randy Cordray said that our location manager, Kyle Alexander, was really awesome, that he would do this kind of thing all the time. If we had an episode that had two locations, he would somehow manage to find them right next to each other so that we could avoid having to do what they call a company move.

• 54:43Speaker 01

  Right. We have to move all the trailers, all the people.

• 54:45Speaker 00

  All the equipment.

• 54:46Speaker 01

  Save so much time and money.

• 54:48Speaker 00

  We were able to shoot the bowling alley and the nursing home all in one day. It saved so much money. It saved so much time. And Randy was just giving a lot of compliments to Kyle, saying that Kyle was able to do this all the time. And it was a huge, huge benefit to our production.

• 55:06Speaker 01

  Amazing.

• 55:07Speaker 00

  And it was a benefit on a very practical level because it would save the time, which also wouldn't run down the crew as much. And it also made it so that the actors, we could like flow from one experience, sort of emotionally in the story and comedically, right into another one. We didn't have to stop. It was awesome on many levels.

• 55:29Speaker 01

  Kyle, we love you.

• 55:30Speaker 00

  Thank you, Kyle.

• 55:31Speaker 01

  I want to point out, right as the dream team is entering the retirement home at 12 minutes, was it just me? Did anyone else notice? The two like retirement home employees wheeling someone in a blanket? I don't know, like, was it a corpse under a blanket?

• 55:49Speaker 00

  Oh, my God, I did not notice that.

• 55:51Speaker 01

  I mean, I went over and over to it, just like I couldn't stop looking at it. I was like, who is this back there? I'm going to show you, Jenna. It's so brief, but look, I don't know, this person's like on a cot or a stretcher. Do you see?

• 56:05Speaker 00

  Oh, yes.

• 56:07Speaker 01

  I'll put it in stories. My other background catch for this scene is at 12 minutes, 27 seconds. The elderly gentleman that Michael is like snapping like, hey, hey, over here. He is watching Maury Povich.

• 56:19Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 56:20Speaker 01

  And it's actually Maury Povich.

• 56:22Speaker 00

  That was scripted that he was watching Maury Povich.

• 56:24Speaker 01

  And they were able to get the rights to it.

• 56:26Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 56:27Speaker 01

  And on the screen, if you zoom in, there's a woman and there's a Chyron underneath her with like writing.

• 56:33Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 56:34Speaker 01

  This is what it said. Tell the truth. Is my fiance in love with my mom?

• 56:39Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 56:40Speaker 01

  That's what they were watching.

• 56:41Speaker 00

  Okay. Well, Michael is going to make his pitch to this investment club and it's a real club. There's three people, two women and the man who's watching Maury. But Pam and Ryan realized very quickly that one of the women is Michael's Nana.

• 56:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's not just Barbara Kivas. It's Nana.

• 57:00Speaker 00

  It's Nana. During this pitch, he's going to start by introducing his team.

• 57:06Speaker 01

  BJ said he loved that he got the title in the episode. That's always kind of a fun thing when that happens. So Michael's like, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the dream team.

• 57:16Speaker 00

  Did you notice at 13 minutes, 20 seconds, when Michael is introducing Ryan, that he winks at Nana?

• 57:23Speaker 01

  While eating vanilla pudding.

• 57:26Speaker 00

  In like a flirty way and Nana is delighted.

• 57:31Speaker 00

  I mean, he's buttering her up in the best way.

• 57:34Speaker 01

  Ryan is a hot mess. BJ said, by the way, that he ate a ton of vanilla pudding and that it was delicious.

• 57:41Speaker 00

  I love a vanilla pudding. I also want to point out that at 13 minutes, 41 seconds, there is a big zit on my jawline.

• 57:50Speaker 01

  No.

• 57:50Speaker 00

  This is the only time you see it because at 14 minutes, 46 seconds, the zit is gone. So clearly I got a touch up.

• 57:59Speaker 01

  Only you would notice that. I did not notice that.

• 58:02Speaker 00

  It's so large. It's one of those undergrounders.

• 58:06Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 58:06Speaker 00

  That is, you know, had its own heartbeat. And I would get those on my jawline, but thank you, Laverne, for covering that up by 14 minutes, 46 seconds. And by the way, I can imagine, because they almost never let us get touch ups after we started rolling. I can imagine Laverne sitting at the monitors and just being like, you need to let me get in there. You need to let me get in there. And so she probably convinced them and she was able to come in and touch up my zit. But you do see it 13 minutes, 41 seconds.

• 58:37Speaker 01

  Do you know what was super embarrassing? And this would happen every once in a while.

• 58:41Speaker 00

  What?

• 58:42Speaker 01

  Is when like someone like Matt, sound camera operator would be like, you would hear him sort of radio. Hey, um, Laverne, why don't you, why don't you step in?

• 58:53Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 58:54Speaker 01

  It's because he is looking at it through the camera. That's true. That happened to me. That happened to me. One time I definitely had like one big one on my forehead. And Matt was like, I think we should get a little powder for you. I'm like, oh, my God, Matt.

• 59:09Speaker 00

  Well, have you know, the woman in this investment group who wants to give Michael the money was played by Eve Segal. Eve has appeared in Shameless, Superstar, Dead to Me, and Legion. I was not able to figure out who played the gentleman. It was a non-speaking role. So he was a background performer. So he is uncredited as far as I can find. But you know, in the end, Nana is going to say no. Nana says, this is an investment club. We're not about handouts here. And so she's a no.

• 59:41Speaker 01

  In the car ride, leaving there, Vikram made me laugh because he's like, Nana brought up some good points.

• 59:46Speaker 00

  I know. And then he's like, what kind of name is Nana? And Pam's like, it means grandmother. And then Vikram is like, I'm out.

• 59:53Speaker 01

  He's like, sweet.

• 59:54Speaker 00

  Goodbye.

• 59:56Speaker 01

  At Dunder Mifflin, the soccer game is about to be underway. There was a deleted Dwight talking head. He is setting up the whole parking lot. He's drawing chalk.

• 1:00:07Speaker 00

  I wondered how it got there.

• 1:00:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, the cones. There's a talking head while Dwight's doing this. And he shares one of his childhood dreams. Can we hear that? When I was a child, I always dreamed of being a referee, penalizing people, enforcing the rules.

• 1:00:23Speaker 00

  But I never could have dreamed of this.

• 1:00:28Speaker 01

  Wow. He would have been a great referee, actually.

• 1:00:31Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:00:33Speaker 01

  Very quickly, we see that the group of Dunder Mifflin employees, they don't know anything about soccer. In the deleted scenes, there was a moment where Creed picks up the soccer ball and throws it at Kelly's back like dodgeball. And he's like, you're out.

• 1:00:47Speaker 00

  Oh, well, this is interesting because we got a piece of mail from Kyle T, who wanted to know, how long did you guys have to play soccer? Did you have any training or did they just let you guys go crazy? Was any of it choreographed? You were there. I mean, obviously, the stunt that's coming up was choreographed, but the other stuff, was it just kind of free form?

• 1:01:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, we could just sort of like fart around in the background.

• 1:01:11Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 1:01:12Speaker 01

  I did ask for sneakers, so I'm in sneakers. I thought Angela Martin might have taken it very seriously.

• 1:01:17Speaker 00

  Sure.

• 1:01:18Speaker 01

  So I'm in my sneakers. And then I actually caught a moment in the background that I kind of vaguely remember because it was that art imitating life, life imitating art, whatever. Phyllis actually did get hit with the ball.

• 1:01:30Speaker 00

  What?

• 1:01:31Speaker 01

  When we were just horsing around.

• 1:01:32Speaker 00

  And you can see it?

• 1:01:33Speaker 01

  It's very subtle in the background.

• 1:01:35Speaker 00

  Hit where?

• 1:01:36Speaker 01

  I think up in her upper torso. Not hard, right? But that we were kicking around back there. If you go to 19 minutes, 28 seconds, tell me what you see. It was Creed. Creed, which is no surprise to me because Creed would sometimes get a little crazy with props. So I did a slow motion screen play by play.

• 1:01:59Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 1:02:00Speaker 01

  That I will put in our stories. If my memory is correct, it didn't hurt, hurt, but she did get hit with the soccer ball. And we were like, oh, my gosh. Okay, so here's the beginning of the ball.

• 1:02:10Speaker 00

  Uh huh.

• 1:02:11Speaker 01

  Okay, coming from Creed.

• 1:02:12Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 1:02:12Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:02:13Speaker 00

  Wow, it's high up.

• 1:02:14Speaker 01

  Next frame, see where it's headed.

• 1:02:16Speaker 00

  Right to her face.

• 1:02:18Speaker 01

  I know, Phyllis in the red sweater.

• 1:02:19Speaker 00

  Ironically.

• 1:02:20Speaker 01

  Then you kind of see her bending over. And then here.

• 1:02:24Speaker 00

  I see what looks like some people running to her aid.

• 1:02:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, Ed, you see the ball sort of hitting right there.

• 1:02:30Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:02:30Speaker 01

  On her red, it looks like her shoulder, maybe.

• 1:02:32Speaker 00

  Mm hmm.

• 1:02:33Speaker 01

  There it makes contact. And then here you kind of see her face.

• 1:02:37Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:02:37Speaker 01

  Like she's kind of bending to the side. So, yeah.

• 1:02:40Speaker 00

  Oh, my gosh, Phyllis did get hit with the ball in the episode where she gets hit with the ball.

• 1:02:46Speaker 01

  Yes, and so did Kelly. A lot of people were getting hit with the ball.

• 1:02:50Speaker 00

  Well, we did also get some fan mail. People wanted to know, did Phyllis perform her own stunt?

• 1:02:55Speaker 01

  Now, this is totally separate, guys. You know, what I just showed you was not.

• 1:02:59Speaker 00

  No.

• 1:03:00Speaker 01

  The scripted moment.

• 1:03:01Speaker 00

  Here's what happens. There's this moment where Charles is gonna kick the ball super hard toward Jim and Jim ducks. And Phyllis gets clocked in the face. And everybody is like, Jim, why did you duck?

• 1:03:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, Dwight's like, Jim, why did you duck? An experienced soccer player wouldn't duck.

• 1:03:20Speaker 00

  First of all, I will tell you that there was no soccer ball used in this particular shot. Idris was kicking air and Phyllis faked getting hit. It is an amazing fakie hit.

• 1:03:34Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:03:35Speaker 00

  Randy Cordray told me that we added the soccer ball using CGI magic. It was the folks at Stargate International. Randy actually said, I dare say it's one of the most effective uses of CGI that the office ever incorporated. I mean, it looks totally real. Big applause to John for his like fakie seeing of the ball and ducking. I mean, all of it, it all works.

• 1:04:00Speaker 01

  And then Phyllis is like, I think I swallowed a crown.

• 1:04:03Speaker 00

  I know. We also got a fan mail flurry.

• 1:04:07Speaker 01

  What about?

• 1:04:09Speaker 00

  Jim ducking.

• 1:04:10Speaker 01

  Oh, is this a soccer fan mail flurry, like soccer?

• 1:04:14Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:04:15Speaker 01

  Knowledge.

• 1:04:15Speaker 00

  People coming to Jim's defense.

• 1:04:17Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:04:18Speaker 00

  So Ashley T said, I don't understand how Jim got blamed for this soccer ball hitting Phyllis in the face. Charles is the one who kicked it. It's clearly Charles's fault because I would have ducked too. Joseph F said, listen, I get it that maybe an experienced soccer player shouldn't have ducked, that they should have jumped up and intercepted the ball with their chest.

• 1:04:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:04:43Speaker 00

  However, Charles crossed the ball toward the side, in which case Jim and any other professional player would have ducked.

• 1:04:52Speaker 01

  Really? Because what, then the ball goes out?

• 1:04:54Speaker 00

  I guess so.

• 1:04:55Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:04:56Speaker 00

  Yeah. Mm hmm.

• 1:04:57Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 1:04:58Speaker 00

  So a fan mail flurry, lots of people commenting that Jim was not wrong for ducking. I do not know enough about soccer to comment.

• 1:05:08Speaker 01

  I don't either, even though I live on a soccer field every single Saturday with our kids. Like, we're always there. And my husband played soccer and he's coaching soccer. I should have asked Josh about it.

• 1:05:19Speaker 00

  Lee is coaching both of our kids' soccer teams this year.

• 1:05:23Speaker 01

  I know, both of our husbands are soccer coaches this year.

• 1:05:26Speaker 00

  Yeah, and I just sit there and I'm just trying to figure out offsides.

• 1:05:31Speaker 01

  I'll never figure it out.

• 1:05:32Speaker 00

  I don't get it.

• 1:05:32Speaker 01

  I'll never figure it out.

• 1:05:33Speaker 00

  I don't think the kids get it.

• 1:05:34Speaker 01

  No.

• 1:05:35Speaker 00

  The referees call it. I don't get it.

• 1:05:37Speaker 01

  I don't ever get it. I'm like, what happened offsides? What?

• 1:05:40Speaker 00

  Listen, I've said in this episode that I don't know much about basketball. That's true. I don't know a lot about soccer. But talk to me about like hockey, football, or baseball.

• 1:05:51Speaker 01

  You're very well versed in hockey.

• 1:05:52Speaker 00

  I'm like into those sports. A live hockey game, there's nothing like it. I think it's the best sport to watch live. Personally, I know people love watching basketball live.

• 1:06:02Speaker 01

  I mean, watching basketball live, especially if you can get close to the court, it's like an amazing game live.

• 1:06:09Speaker 00

  I just love the whole hockey community. I love everything about it.

• 1:06:12Speaker 01

  I went one time and met some of your hockey mom friends.

• 1:06:16Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:06:16Speaker 01

  And what I didn't know you guys is that hockey games, they serve beer at 10:00 in the morning.

• 1:06:21Speaker 00

  They do.

• 1:06:22Speaker 01

  I was like, oh, my gosh.

• 1:06:23Speaker 00

  They sure do.

• 1:06:24Speaker 01

  We have like juice boxes at soccer.

• 1:06:27Speaker 00

  No. I remember going to like one of our early hockey games for my son. And it was at 7:30 in the morning and I brought a coffee. And people were like, does anyone want a beer from the concessions? And I was like, um, I don't think so, but thank you. Pretty amazing. Well, listen, the Dream Team has lost a member. And they get back to Michael's condo. Ryan's gonna run inside. He wants to watch the closer on TNT.

• 1:06:57Speaker 01

  Very important to him.

• 1:06:59Speaker 00

  Pam's upset she can't get out of the car. Now Pam's gonna spiral.

• 1:07:02Speaker 01

  So guess what? It was not in the script that you stayed in the car.

• 1:07:07Speaker 00

  I remember.

• 1:07:08Speaker 01

  It was Jen Salata's idea. And she fought for it to have Pam stay in the car during the scene.

• 1:07:14Speaker 00

  Yeah, I was supposed to get out of the car and then sort of, the idea was lean against it. And part of that was because it would be really easy to stage it camera wise.

• 1:07:24Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, I loved her staying in the car. And I love this shot at 16 minutes, 22 seconds when you see Pam in the side mirror and Michael's standing next to the car. It's such a cool shot.

• 1:07:37Speaker 00

  I had to bring a lot of emotion to this scene. You had to see Pam be convinced by Michael. And this is one of those moments when Michael becomes really good at being a boss.

• 1:07:49Speaker 01

  And he's so serious. He's like, listen kiddo.

• 1:07:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:07:52Speaker 01

  You quit. I quit.

• 1:07:54Speaker 00

  Mm hmm.

• 1:07:55Speaker 01

  So that's the truth.

• 1:07:57Speaker 00

  It was very easy to get emotional because to have Steve Carell say, listen kiddo. I mean, I know he wasn't much older than us, but he did always have sort of like a wise.

• 1:08:10Speaker 01

  He was our mentor.

• 1:08:11Speaker 00

  Yeah, like exactly. And so to have your mentor coach you.

• 1:08:16Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 1:08:17Speaker 00

  It felt real, you know? And it made me emotional. And we just really connected there in a real way. And it was really sweet. I just love those Pam Michael moments. It reminds me of when he came to her art show. And he shows up for her.

• 1:08:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:08:33Speaker 00

  And it was great. Well, next we're gonna see Michael on the phone. And he's asking Billy Merchant if he has any free office space anywhere. Because they can't work out of Michael's condo anymore. They're gonna throw him out. They got a letter. And Billy says, I got something for you.

• 1:08:49Speaker 01

  It's like a supply room, maybe, but there's also like a shower?

• 1:08:54Speaker 00

  It's also back at the Dunder Mifflin Scranton building.

• 1:08:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, I probably should have led with that.

• 1:09:00Speaker 00

  And that's exactly right. It's like a supply room closet. But the gang is like, I could work here.

• 1:09:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, they can see it.

• 1:09:10Speaker 00

  And it's really sweet because the episode ends with Michael adding Michael Scott Paper Company to the little board in the lobby. And Pam's handing him the little letters.

• 1:09:21Speaker 01

  Matt Sown shared that there was a take where instead of you guys already having the letters, that you were taking the letters from other people's businesses names.

• 1:09:30Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah, I remember that. I remember that.

• 1:09:33Speaker 01

  Which is really funny to me. And there was a tag that didn't make it in the episode. Kevin is back at reception. The phone rings. Kevin answers it and he's able to transfer the call to Dwight successfully. He's so happy. He looks all cocky to camera. Charles comes out and says, hey, Kevin, I need you to set up a conference call with David Wallace and the other branch managers in 10 minutes. I'll take it in the conference room. Kevin looks like he's gonna crap his pants. He goes, you got it, boss. And then he runs out of the office and never comes back.

• 1:10:09Speaker 00

  You know, I asked Brian, what was it like to be at the reception desk for that week? You know, because I noticed throughout the whole episode, he's in the background. And he was doing what I had to do, which is be in the background a lot.

• 1:10:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:10:23Speaker 00

  And he did point out that just because you guys were in the corner, which is something you've talked about, you know, they would make you guys.

• 1:10:31Speaker 01

  Stand.

• 1:10:32Speaker 00

  Stand at the copier. So he was just happy he got to sit for his background work.

• 1:10:37Speaker 01

  I'm telling you, I stood for almost nine years.

• 1:10:39Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:10:41Speaker 01

  I love that.

• 1:10:41Speaker 00

  Well, that was Dream Team. Next up is Michael Scott Paper Company. We're gonna get busy in that little storage room. I can't wait.

• 1:10:50Speaker 01

  Me too. All right, have a great week, you guys.

• 1:10:52Speaker 00

  See you then.

• 1:10:59Speaker 00

  Thank you for listening to Office Ladies Second Drink.

• 1:11:02Speaker 01

  This episode was initially created in collaboration with Earwolf.

• 1:11:06Speaker 00

  Office Ladies is a presentation of Odyssey and is produced by Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey. Our senior producer is Matt Beagle.

• 1:11:13Speaker 01

  Our Second Drinks episodes are produced by Molly Nugent.

• 1:11:16Speaker 00

  Our audio engineer is Sam Pfeifer.

• 1:11:18Speaker 01

  Odyssey's executive producer is Leah Reese Dennis.

• 1:11:22Speaker 00

  Office Ladies was mixed and mastered by Bill Schultz.

• 1:11:25Speaker 01

  Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Braden.