Second Drink: Michael Scott Paper Company

This week we’re breaking down “Michael Scott Paper Company”. Michael throws a pancake luncheon to promote his new company, Jim struggles with making Charles a “rundown” and the new receptionist has newfound friends, Dwight and Andy, in another romantic competition. By the way, the new receptionist is Erin played by Ellie Kemper! Angela points out that Jenna has been a Fun/Fast Fact Queen well before “Office Ladies”, Jenna reveals that while shooting this episode paparazzi snuck onto “The Office” set and both ladies have something to say about a couple pairs of sunglasses in this episode. So it’s Brittany, bitch! … Err no, it’s not, Michael, but let’s dance to this fantastic 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

• 0:02Speaker 00

  Hello and welcome to your second drink of Michael Scott Paper Company. We got a lot of fun details from our producer Randy Cordray for this one about Michael's car, goldfish, music rights, and what it was like fitting everyone into that tiny office.

• 0:15Speaker 01

  Yes. This episode opens with Michael driving his car, listening to music, and we got a fan mail flurry from Lee and Mallory M., Tanya D., and Sarah W., who all had the same observation as Kirsten H. about Michael's car. Here is what Kirsten said. "Love this podcast so much. Being a new mama, staying at home, this always helps me get through the day while doing chores around the house and not feel so lonely. My question is this: Didn't Dunder Mifflin give Michael Scott his convertible PT Cruiser for a company car? If so, how did he get to keep it after quitting?" That's a really good point.

• 0:55Speaker 00

  It is a good point.

• 0:57Speaker 01

  How did he? Did they just know this is a short-lived? They're like, did they just like not have time to take it back yet?

• 1:05Speaker 00

  I never thought about that. That's such a great observation.

• 1:08Speaker 01

  But yeah, after giving us two weeks' notice, you would think he'd have to return the company car.

• 1:13Speaker 00

  Yeah, he would.

• 1:14Speaker 01

  Unless maybe he purchased it from them? I don't know. We'll never know.

• 1:18Speaker 00

  We'll never know. We also got a fan mail flurry for the favorite scene of this episode, and there was a clear favorite. Rebecca R., Sean C., Maddie S., Carly T., Simon C., and more all said their favorite moment in this episode is when Dwight and Andy are singing "Country Roads" to Aaron in the break room. And you know, we love it, too. We played it in our breakdown.

• 1:40Speaker 01

  Yes, I love that moment. And you know something that occurred to me when I was revisiting this episode, and we did not talk about this in our breakdown, was that this was Ellie's first week of work. Michael Scott Paper Company is her first episode. I mean, what a way to jump in with this serenade.

• 2:02Speaker 00

  That's bonkers for me to think about.

• 2:05Speaker 01

  I know.

• 2:06Speaker 00

  I mean, that's an amazing first week of work.

• 2:09Speaker 01

  Well, we had to reach out to Ellie and ask her about this, and here is what she had to say. She said, "That banjo scene was insane for me. Yes, as a fan of the show, I was already living in a sort of semi-conscious dream state, but then to have these two icons serenading me..." And then in parentheses, she said, "My character," but let's be honest, really me, just kidding, just kidding. But Ellie said it felt extremely surreal. She said, "I remember feeling that same sense of disbelief when Michael Scott and D'Angelo Vickers were giving me conflicting instructions on how and whether to answer the phone at

• 2:51Speaker 01

  reception, just all these giants of comedy." Ellie said, "Anyway, at the time, I was only booked for four episodes, so I was especially conscious of absorbing every moment. But also, I was in a semi-conscious dream state. It was a very complicated experience of consciousness." Well, this was taking me back because my first one-on-one scene with Ed Helms was him playing banjo to me, to Pam, Rainbow Connection.

• 3:20Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 3:21Speaker 01

  So Ellie and I both got banjo from Ed Helms, like, in our first week of working with him.

• 3:28Speaker 00

  I never got banjo. I did get the sitar.

• 3:32Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 3:33Speaker 00

  And also, I got, you know, Broccoli Rob and him singing a cappella to me. But getting Ed to sing to you in a scene is pretty amazing.

• 3:42Speaker 01

  Well, also in this episode, I did a little mini deep dive on why pancakes like to be round and why making square pancakes for this episode was a bit of a challenge.

• 3:52Speaker 00

  I have to say that just the wording of that makes me laugh because it makes me feel like you've given pancakes a personality.

• 3:59Speaker 01

  Why pancakes like to be round.

• 4:01Speaker 00

  They like to be round.

• 4:04Speaker 01

  But we got an interesting letter from Luke M., who said that actually, it's not just pancakes that like to be round, but all matter likes to be round. So to further my deep dive, I thought I'd read what Luke had to say. Luke said, "Hi, lady. My degree is in science, and I thought I could clarify why pancakes are round. Matter likes to be at its lowest possible energy, and circles are the lowest energy shape. That is why raindrops are circular (they're not actually teardrop-shaped) and why you see circular bubbles of oil on unmixed salad dressing. There's a lot of fairly complex chemistry that makes this the case, but it boils down

• 4:46Speaker 01

  to the fact that matter likes to be bonded to other things. Molecules on the edge have less things to bond to than matter in the middle, where they are surrounded on all sides. And circles have the lowest surface area edge and highest volume middle. So that's why it's matter's favorite shape to make."

• 5:05Speaker 00

  Well, isn't that just beautiful? I love that.

• 5:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, so every time you see a circle, I guess you can just imagine, oh, that matter is really happy. It's matter's favorite way to be is a circle.

• 5:17Speaker 00

  Well, finally, we got this letter from April C. April says, "Question for your next second drink episode. Who the hell is Toby talking to while he's peeing? We don't know much about Toby's social life, other than the fact that he doesn't seem to have one. Talking to someone while you're in the bathroom is intimate, to say the least. So who is Toby so comfortable with that he talks to them while he pees at work? And he's asking them for fashion advice? Who does Toby go to with these kinds of questions? Who is Toby's person? Does Toby have a person? Is this a partner? A sibling? His mom? Theories, please."

• 5:57Speaker 01

  Oh, my gosh. This letter makes me laugh so hard. So of course, the scene April is talking about is down in Michael Scott Paper Company, Pam and Ryan and Michael can all overhear the bathroom above them.

• 6:09Speaker 00

  The vent, yes.

• 6:10Speaker 01

  And you hear the flush, and then they hear Toby go into the bathroom, and he's like on the phone with someone while he's peeing. Should we listen to it?

• 6:18Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 6:19Speaker 01

  It's a little muffled.

• 6:20Speaker 00

  It's a little muffled, but let's hear it.

• 6:21Speaker 02

  Not much. What's up with you? Nah, it's okay. I'm in the bathroom. Hey, you been watching Damages this year? It's so good. Now, you gotta tune in. It's as good as anything on HBO. Hey, does blue go with tan?

• 6:40Speaker 03

  Somebody just made the copy.

• 6:42Speaker 02

  Like a blue shirt. I don't wear a lot of colors, but I have a lot of tan.

• 6:48Speaker 01

  I mean, this is such a good point. He didn't just go in there to make a phone call because you hear him peeing.

• 6:54Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 6:55Speaker 01

  Who is he talking to? Lady, there are two people that I talk to when I'm peeing. You and Lee. That's it. Not even my sister.

• 7:02Speaker 00

  I talk to you.

• 7:03Speaker 01

  Not my mom.

• 7:04Speaker 00

  Well, I talk to you, I mean, I should say, I'm not going in the bathroom just having conversations. Just happens sometimes, okay? You and Josh, I will talk to while I'm peeing, and Isabel.

• 7:17Speaker 01

  Well, yeah, my kids in the house.

• 7:19Speaker 00

  Your kids, yeah, yeah.

• 7:20Speaker 01

  But I'm saying like, I'll answer a phone call from you or Lee if I'm peeing.

• 7:23Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 7:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:25Speaker 00

  Same. You and Josh and my friend Mika.

• 7:27Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 7:28Speaker 00

  I mean, I've, yeah, that's it.

• 7:30Speaker 01

  So who is Toby's person that he's talking to? This is such a good point.

• 7:34Speaker 00

  It really is. I mean, it feels very like family, right? It's a sibling or his mom.

• 7:42Speaker 01

  I don't know. He's asking his mom about watching Damages?

• 7:46Speaker 00

  I know. That's the thing that threw me.

• 7:48Speaker 01

  I know.

• 7:49Speaker 00

  But it sounds sibling-like to me.

• 7:51Speaker 01

  Maybe. Wait, is it his brother?

• 7:53Speaker 00

  That's what it's gotta be. Rory, his brother.

• 7:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, maybe so.

• 7:57Speaker 00

  Played by Warren.

• 7:58Speaker 01

  Yes. Okay, I think that's what we're gonna go with.

• 8:00Speaker 00

  Okay, that's what we're going with. That is a really, really funny question, though. I loved it.

• 8:05Speaker 01

  All right. Thank you all for writing in with your questions and comments. We hope you enjoy your second drink of Michael Scott Paper Company. I'm Jenna Fischer.

• 8:16Speaker 00

  And I'm Angela Kinsey.

• 8:17Speaker 01

  We were on The Office together.

• 8:19Speaker 00

  And we're best friends.

• 8:20Speaker 01

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

• 8:24Speaker 00

  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.

• 8:31Speaker 01

  We're the Office Ladies.

• 8:34Speaker 01

  Hello, everybody.

• 8:36Speaker 00

  There is a new paper company in town.

• 8:39Speaker 01

  Michael Scott Paper Company.

• 8:41Speaker 00

  Holy moly.

• 8:42Speaker 01

  We're going to talk about it today. However, I have to say this before we get started.

• 8:47Speaker 00

  What?

• 8:48Speaker 01

  We look gorgeous today. You all should know, I don't know what this podcast is going to be today, but we look hot.

• 8:57Speaker 00

  Well, Jenna has that like dark smokey eyeliner.

• 9:01Speaker 01

  I did a smokey eye today.

• 9:02Speaker 00

  How do you even do that? I need a tutorial.

• 9:05Speaker 01

  Oh, multiple YouTube tutorials is how we got this smokey eye today.

• 9:10Speaker 00

  I did super straight hair.

• 9:11Speaker 01

  You look amazing. You look like you're about to take over like multiple corporations.

• 9:17Speaker 00

  I am wearing a blazer.

• 9:18Speaker 01

  I know. I guess we have to say that because people can't see us, but we look amazing. Angela, your nails look incredible. I mean, details, we have details. We look good, guys.

• 9:29Speaker 00

  We're feeling it today. We cannot wait to talk about this episode. And then we have a photo shoot. Jenna, who are we? What is happening?

• 9:36Speaker 01

  We're a big deal. I don't know.

• 9:39Speaker 00

  Will you tell my kids that next time we're at Target? Hey, hey.

• 9:43Speaker 01

  Big deal over there in the seasonal aisle.

• 9:46Speaker 00

  Yeah, and you can only pick one of those things. Pick one. You're not getting all three.

• 9:51Speaker 01

  Let's get to talking about what we're here for. It's season five, episode 23, written by the amazing Justin Spitzer and directed by Gene Stupnitsky. He's the credited director on this one, but he actually had a partner. This episode was co-directed by Gene Stupnitsky and his longtime writing partner, Lee Eisenberg.

• 10:14Speaker 00

  That's right. They would go on to direct many more episodes together of The Office. They shared a little bit in the commentary that they would rotate who would take credit. It sort of went along some DGA rules at the time. So Gene got credit for this one, but they were both there together every day. So we want to give Lee a shout out. And then the next time there's an episode up that says Lee directed, know that Gene was right there by his side.

• 10:37Speaker 01

  And we reached out to both of them and they shared a ton of great details for this episode. So I'm very, very excited. Here is your summary. Michael, Pam, and Ryan are in their new office. They're struggling to adjust. It's a very tiny intimate work environment.

• 10:56Speaker 00

  Very tiny. Can I tell you one thing? Justin said they even considered finding a smaller room.

• 11:02Speaker 01

  What?

• 11:03Speaker 00

  Can you imagine?

• 11:05Speaker 01

  I can't because I was there and I know how almost impossible it was to shoot in that room.

• 11:10Speaker 00

  With like the camera operators, the sound department, you guys.

• 11:14Speaker 01

  Smaller room. That's bonkers to me. Well, upstairs in Dunder Mifflin, there is a new receptionist in town.

• 11:22Speaker 00

  Mm hmm.

• 11:23Speaker 01

  A new lady named Kelly Erin Hannan. Dwight and Andy are both kind of crushing on her. But they also have this new friendship. So this crush is going to really challenge their new bond. In the meantime, Jim is trying to figure out what the heck is a rundown?

• 11:41Speaker 00

  What is a rundown? Poor guy. And let's not forget, there's going to be some giant square pancakes.

• 11:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:51Speaker 00

  Lady, I forgot that they were big squares.

• 11:53Speaker 01

  I have details on that.

• 11:55Speaker 00

  You do? Oh, I can't wait. All right.

• 11:57Speaker 01

  I have some pancake details.

• 11:58Speaker 00

  I can't wait. Let's get into some fast facts.

• 12:00Speaker 01

  All right, here's a mini fast fact. This episode actually aired the same night as Dream Team. In between these two episodes, they ran the very first episode of Parks and Recreation.

• 12:12Speaker 00

  How about that? We were like a little sandwich.

• 12:15Speaker 01

  We were, and we were the bread and Parks and Recreation was the...

• 12:19Speaker 00

  Bologna.

• 12:20Speaker 01

  The cheese.

• 12:21Speaker 00

  Cheese.

• 12:21Speaker 01

  Sounds like a dig. We don't mean it.

• 12:23Speaker 00

  No, I didn't mean it to be. I had a bologna sandwich every day in my lunch growing up.

• 12:28Speaker 01

  No, but it's, you know, saying something is bologna or something is cheese. It seems like a dig, but...

• 12:34Speaker 00

  They were the meat.

• 12:35Speaker 01

  Well, now that seems like a dig on the bread. As if the bread isn't important.

• 12:40Speaker 00

  Well, the bread's the best part.

• 12:43Speaker 00

  That's just because I love bread. Okay, we'll leave this analogy. There you have it. It was Office, Parks and Rec, Office.

• 12:50Speaker 01

  Yes. Fast fact number one, I thought we should talk a little bit about this teeny tiny space of Michael Scott Paper Company. This 165 square foot office with no windows on the bottom floor of Dunder Mifflin.

• 13:05Speaker 00

  With a exposed shower in the corner?

• 13:08Speaker 01

  Yes, correct. Now that was a fakey shower.

• 13:10Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 13:11Speaker 01

  That was a design by our set designer, Michael Gallenberg.

• 13:15Speaker 00

  Because there was a real shower down there. I had to use it one time, not in that room. Across the hallway, there was an office that had a tiny shower.

• 13:24Speaker 01

  Really?

• 13:25Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 13:26Speaker 01

  Why did you have to use it?

• 13:28Speaker 00

  Okay, well, do you remember the summer my hair turned green?

• 13:31Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 13:32Speaker 00

  You could really see it on camera. Guys, I spent the whole summer swimming with the kids in the pool and my hair turned green. It happens to the blondies out there. And Kim put this thing on my hair to like kind of tint it, you know?

• 13:45Speaker 01

  To get the green out?

• 13:46Speaker 00

  To get the green out. And I had to wash it out of my hair. Like you put it on and then I had to rinse it out and then she had to blow dry my hair.

• 13:53Speaker 01

  Okay, now why didn't they just use the little sink in the hair and makeup trailer or the shower in your trailer?

• 13:59Speaker 00

  Because the sink in the hair and makeup trailer, first of all, it didn't get hot. And Kim was a little concerned because the water is like this sort of recycled water that it would strip the color off my hair that she was trying to put in.

• 14:14Speaker 01

  Now that you say that, I know that because there have been times when I've needed to shower off. Your trailers have a shower, but it is exactly that. It's like a tank of weird sort of chemically treated water.

• 14:28Speaker 00

  Right.

• 14:28Speaker 01

  So that it can stay in the tank and then not be poisonous.

• 14:32Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 14:32Speaker 01

  And it doesn't get very hot. And also I've had people tell me not to use it. I sort of was like, maybe just get rid of the showers in the trailers.

• 14:42Speaker 00

  Yeah, put in a closet.

• 14:43Speaker 01

  They're taking up space.

• 14:43Speaker 00

  We all need a closet.

• 14:45Speaker 01

  Always need more closets.

• 14:46Speaker 00

  I mean, it's part of my life mantra. Can I have more closets?

• 14:51Speaker 01

  Well, you need closets for your baskets, lady. Your basket collection.

• 14:55Speaker 00

  Give me all the baskets.

• 14:56Speaker 01

  Well, listen, this little room, it was located in our writers' building. It was on the bottom floor and it was an actual storage closet. It was not a set, so the walls did not move. They talked about, should we build Michael Scott Paper Company in the warehouse?

• 15:15Speaker 00

  That was my thought.

• 15:17Speaker 01

  Where we've built many a set. No, for whatever reason, they crammed us into the post-production storage room where previous to us shooting in there, they had stored thousands of hours of archived tape of our show. This was back in the day and we just had walls and walls of five seasons of tape on our show. They had to relocate all the tapes. They had to redress the room. I said, the shower is fake, but those pipes were real. There really were these giant pipes.

• 15:51Speaker 00

  Yes, the big black pipes that were coming out, those were real.

• 15:54Speaker 01

  Yes. Also, the bathrooms that are outside in the hallway, the two doors on either side of the Michael Scott Paper Company door, those bathrooms were real. Those were the actual working bathrooms for anybody who worked on the bottom floor.

• 16:09Speaker 00

  Those were the bathrooms we would use in between scenes when we filmed in the warehouse.

• 16:12Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 16:13Speaker 00

  Or in that hallway by the editing bay.

• 16:15Speaker 01

  Right across from us were our two editors, Claire and Dave. And above us were the writers' offices. So we were over in that building with the writers. Also in this building is the lobby area that leads out into the parking lot.

• 16:33Speaker 00

  This room also gets repurposed for Cafe Disco.

• 16:36Speaker 01

  Yes, we went back down there for that. So those are all my details on that room. I'll have more to share as we break down the episode. More little quirks of working in there.

• 16:45Speaker 00

  Yeah, you spent a lot of time in there.

• 16:47Speaker 01

  We did. Are you ready for fast fact number two?

• 16:50Speaker 00

  I am.

• 16:51Speaker 01

  Remember last week when I told you that Michael sent a letter to everybody through NBC.com?

• 16:58Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 16:59Speaker 01

  Announcing his new paper company? Well, this week, he unveiled his website. And NBC created a Michael Scott Paper Company website and it had photos of the room. It was basically the same room taken from three different angles. It had the downloadable coupon that is shown in this episode. You know, the one that promises unparalleled customer service?

• 17:26Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 17:27Speaker 01

  That Pam and Ryan refused to copy. And it also had the mission statement for Michael Scott Paper Company.

• 17:35Speaker 00

  Yes, it did. And we reached out to Joya. You know, we've talked about Joya before. She was in charge of all the digital content for The Office that was on NBC.com. She shared with us what the mission statement said. Here it is. It's the Michael Scott Paper Company's mission to provide you the highest quality paper, the best possible service at the lowest possible prices. Sounds good. Just wait. There's more. This paper business is more than just paper, more than just a business. It's about establishing quality human relationships with our clients. While little Timmy wakes up in the middle of the night with whooping cough and you need someone to call, we'll be there.

• 18:18Speaker 00

  When sweet Christine gets stood up by her prom date, we'll be there. When the dam breaks in your backyard and the only thing that can stop the flow of water from flooding your house is a ream of paper, we'll be there. At the Michael Scott Paper Company, we'll always be there through thick and thin, in sickness and health, till death or retirement do us part, we'll be there.

• 18:41Speaker 01

  For a while, it's just pretty...

• 18:45Speaker 00

  Standard.

• 18:46Speaker 01

  Kind of boilerplate.

• 18:47Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 18:47Speaker 01

  Yeah. But I, I really like it when he says, we're more than just a business. We're about quality human relationships with our clients. I'm like, oh. And then it goes off into some very specific examples of when you might be there for me. But in the end, I liked it.

• 19:04Speaker 00

  I think I was a little curious about what kind of backyard you have that has a dam.

• 19:11Speaker 01

  Well, listen, we'll be there. Fast fact number three, Ellie Kemper is our new receptionist. Woohoo! We love Ellie. We are definitely going to have her on the show. You know, Ellie and I both grew up in St. Louis.

• 19:25Speaker 00

  I know.

• 19:26Speaker 01

  Now, I did not know her growing up. She is six years younger than me. I had actually graduated college and moved to Los Angeles while she was still in high school.

• 19:37Speaker 00

  I'm six years older than my husband. You just described our relationship, I guess. Had we known each other back then?

• 19:46Speaker 01

  By the way, do you know who her high school drama teacher was?

• 19:50Speaker 00

  Ellie's?

• 19:51Speaker 01

  Uh huh.

• 19:51Speaker 00

  No.

• 19:52Speaker 01

  Jon Hamm.

• 19:53Speaker 00

  Shut the front door!

• 19:55Speaker 01

  Yeah. Jon Hamm also grew up in St. Louis. I also did not know Jon Hamm growing up, even though we were closer in age.

• 20:03Speaker 00

  I can't believe that was Ellie's drama teacher.

• 20:06Speaker 01

  Yeah. But of course, you know, Phyllis was also from St. Louis. Our director, Ken Quappas, was from St. Louis, and our first AD, Rusty Mahmoud, was from St. Louis. So we were all very excited.

• 20:18Speaker 00

  Well, you know, on the DVD commentary, there was a little bit of chatter. On the DVD was Jenna, Jean, and Lee and Justin.

• 20:26Speaker 01

  Nice group.

• 20:26Speaker 00

  Nice group. There was a little bit of chatter about which city in America was most represented in the cast and crew of The Office.

• 20:34Speaker 01

  I think with the addition of Ellie, it became St. Louis.

• 20:37Speaker 00

  It was Boston. It became St. Louis.

• 20:40Speaker 01

  Yes!

• 20:41Speaker 00

  And Jenna, I want you to know, you have clearly been, this is gonna make me laugh, obsessed with facts for a long time. I want you to hear what you brought to the DVD commentary.

• 20:54Speaker 04

  Our AD is also from St. Louis, and so is Shannon, one of our PAs, and Ken Quappas, one of our directors.

• 21:01Speaker 05

  See, you said you were not gonna have any fun facts. Now you're just pulling them out.

• 21:05Speaker 04

  So many. People are having so much fun with my facts.

• 21:10Speaker 01

  Oh, my God! And by the way, I forgot about Shannon, who was also from St. Louis.

• 21:13Speaker 00

  I know. Well, you listed them all. I sort of just took a snippet out. You sort of talked for a while about St. Louis. But clearly, you went into this DVD commentary saying, guys, I hope I have some fun facts. So much so that they were like, you do have great facts. And it just cracked me up to hear you talking about your fun facts, and now you have your fast facts.

• 21:34Speaker 01

  I'll tell you what, when I would go into DVD commentaries, I was often worried that I wouldn't have anything to talk about. So I would do kind of the equivalent of a mini deep dive on something. I wanted to come in with like an interesting tidbit that we could throw in there if there was ever a moment where we weren't covering something about the show.

• 21:54Speaker 00

  This is why I love you.

• 21:55Speaker 01

  Goes back so far.

• 21:57Speaker 00

  It does, but it just got me so tickled.

• 22:00Speaker 01

  We had a fan question from KJ Davy. Erin is my favorite character of The Office. How did the producers come up with her personality and her character as a whole? And how much creative liberty did Ellie have in creating her character's quirks and traits? KJ, Jean told me something crazy about the development of the character of Kelly Erin. He said that the writers had not fully fleshed out Erin's personality by the time we started shooting. So when we started, they had Ellie perform all of her scenes and all of her talking heads two different ways as two different characters.

• 22:42Speaker 00

  I remember this.

• 22:43Speaker 01

  She had to do them in like that earnest quirky way that we know and love as Erin. That's the one we eventually go with. But Jean said, believe it or not, there exists a bizarro Erin where her lines are also delivered in a no-nonsense way. And I asked him, how long did she have to do this before they decided? And he said, they definitely had like two totally different versions of her talking heads written. And then in her scenes with Dwight and Andy hitting on her, she had to then perform those with different characteristics. I mean, Jean said he gives her so much credit because this was her first big role on a TV show,

• 23:26Speaker 01

  and she basically did two versions of Erin in every scene for the entire week.

• 23:30Speaker 00

  So until you shared about that sort of two versions of Erin, I had forgotten about it. But now there's a deleted scene that makes sense to me. Erin just looks at camera, you know, she's doing a talking head, and she's just like, do I have to do one of these on all of my breaks?

• 23:44Speaker 01

  Yes! Angela, James Carrey had the candy bag for this episode, and it included Erin's two talking heads, neither of which end up in the episode.

• 23:55Speaker 00

  Well, one of them is on the DVD.

• 23:57Speaker 01

  Okay, this is the one that was in the candy bag as their first choice, which was, it's pretty cool. Like any other office, I guess. Phones, computers, copiers. Do I have to do this on all my breaks?

• 24:12Speaker 00

  Yeah!

• 24:13Speaker 01

  Is that the one that's included?

• 24:14Speaker 00

  I was a little confused because I thought it felt sort of off.

• 24:18Speaker 01

  Then they had this must-shoot alternate, which went like this. Most places you go, the chairs are really crappy, and you're uncomfortable all day. My chair here is great. I really hope this works out.

• 24:31Speaker 01

  And that was like the one that quirky Erin would say.

• 24:34Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 24:35Speaker 01

  I guess that's our sign that The Office got the new chairs, because she's loving Pam's chair.

• 24:40Speaker 00

  That's it.

• 24:40Speaker 01

  I think Pam finally got her new chair, and now she's working down in Michael Scott Paper Company.

• 24:44Speaker 00

  Pam talks about the chairs too later on.

• 24:46Speaker 01

  I know. I want to say that this doing two versions of your character happened to me on the film Blades of Glory.

• 24:54Speaker 00

  Really?

• 24:55Speaker 01

  Yeah. I had gone in with this idea for this version of the character that was based kind of on like Bernadette Peters' performance in The Jerk.

• 25:03Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 25:03Speaker 01

  I just really loved her wide-eyed, innocent, earnest approach to love and sex and just sort of all of it. And being was sort of an oddball guy, and that is very similar to my character of Katie in Blades of Glory. But I think there was a little bit of concern that that might feel like too big of a choice. And so they also had me do all the scenes just pretty straight. And I did that for a couple of days, every scene. And eventually, they went with my quirky version. I was so proud. But it was super intense, because I remember one day, I was shooting the scene with Will Arnett and Amy Poehler. They played a brother-sister ice skating duo.

• 25:49Speaker 00

  Yeah, I remember.

• 25:49Speaker 01

  And their little sister slash assistant. Oh, my God, it was so much fun shooting with those guys.

• 25:55Speaker 00

  That whole movie looked like a blast. The cast looked like so much fun.

• 25:58Speaker 01

  We, we had a blast. And, um, but we had this scene, and they, they were like, okay, we're going to lunch. Jenna, you get two takes. One in one version and one in the other. And I had to just nail both versions. And I remember someone, and I can't remember who, came up to me early, and they were like, just don't do a good job of the version you don't want to have them pick. Just do the version you like really well.

• 26:27Speaker 00

  Take one of them.

• 26:27Speaker 01

  Yeah. And then they'll be forced to go with, you know, your vision of the character. I couldn't do it. My actor integrity.

• 26:36Speaker 00

  No, just your whole moral compass. You could never do that.

• 26:39Speaker 01

  I couldn't do it.

• 26:40Speaker 00

  It is interesting to me how characters become like who they are on a show or in a movie. This is reminding me of a project that one of my friends wrote. It was based on a real-life story from her life. And she had this character of a guy named Ed, and he was based on her friend in real-life Ed. And Ed was also an actor, so Ed went in to audition for Ed. So he's in front of the network, and he's like, hi, I'm Ed. I'm reading for Ed. And he just was himself. She wrote him as himself. We were all like, Ed's gonna get the part of Ed, right? I mean, they wrote it for Ed. And he didn't get it. I was like, how can Ed not get Ed? It's based on Ed. Like, what?

• 27:25Speaker 01

  I have a very similar story. Okay, I auditioned for this lead role in a pilot opposite Dan Finnerty. He's from the Dan Band.

• 27:31Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 27:32Speaker 01

  It was hilarious. And when I read the role, I thought to myself, oh, this is so Mary Lynn Ricegub. And so I went in, and I just did my best impression of Mary Lynn.

• 27:46Speaker 00

  I love Mary Lynn.

• 27:47Speaker 01

  I know.

• 27:47Speaker 00

  I have worked with her many times. Love her.

• 27:49Speaker 01

  I super copied her. I get to the final audition. It's me and two other women. One of them is like a tall, gorgeous blonde. The other one is Mary Lynn Ricegub. Then I find out that Dan knows Mary Lynn, and he wrote the role for her.

• 28:07Speaker 00

  Any wonder?

• 28:09Speaker 01

  Well, I was proud of myself because I was like, well, I guess I nailed it on what he was going for. He was going for Mary Lynn.

• 28:16Speaker 00

  Did Mary Lynn get it?

• 28:17Speaker 01

  No, neither of us did. They gave it to the blonde.

• 28:20Speaker 00

  Oh, no!

• 28:21Speaker 01

  I know. And it was so funny, because I thought to myself, well, obviously, they're gonna go with Mary Lynn. They're not gonna go with me. I'm copying her.

• 28:29Speaker 00

  Right.

• 28:30Speaker 01

  They didn't give it to either of us. But the two of us were at least doing what he intended when he wrote it.

• 28:36Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 28:36Speaker 01

  No, they went the other way. You never know.

• 28:39Speaker 00

  You never know.

• 28:41Speaker 01

  Well, why don't we take a break? And when we come back, we will really get into this episode. I have a lot of fun stuff this week, I think.

• 28:47Speaker 00

  Me too. I have some sunglasses information.

• 28:52Speaker 01

  Hold up. I have sunglasses information.

• 28:54Speaker 00

  Oh, my God, what if we have the same sunglasses information?

• 28:57Speaker 01

  Whose sunglasses are you gonna talk about?

• 28:59Speaker 00

  Two different people's sunglasses.

• 29:03Speaker 01

  I have photo evidence of somebody's sunglasses.

• 29:08Speaker 00

  I have photo evidence of somebody's sunglasses. This is how you guys know that we don't talk to each other. We show up and try to surprise each other, and sometimes we find the same things. We'll be back.

• 29:32Speaker 01

  We are back and this episode opens with Michael driving up in his convertible. He's got the top down. He's blasting his music.

• 29:42Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 29:43Speaker 01

  It's Britney, bitch.

• 29:45Speaker 00

  But it's Lady Gaga.

• 29:46Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 29:47Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's Lady Gaga singing "Just Dance," but it's Britney, bitch. At 18 seconds, I caught the camera crew in Michael's sunglasses.

• 29:56Speaker 01

  You did?

• 29:57Speaker 00

  Yep. Go to 18 seconds. You can see our camera crew in his sunglasses. You guys, there was some debate about Michael's sunglasses.

• 30:05Speaker 01

  Ooh, we're already into the sunglasses info.

• 30:09Speaker 00

  It's right out of the gate. They couldn't decide. Two things. One, should he leave the sunglasses on the whole time? Or should he take them off?

• 30:19Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 30:20Speaker 00

  They decided it's better for comedy if your sunglasses are off because you use your face, you guys.

• 30:26Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 30:26Speaker 00

  Right? Number two, they were trying to debate between the pair of sunglasses they picked or a pair that were really popular at the time that P. Diddy was wearing.

• 30:37Speaker 01

  Oh, okay. And they picked not P. Diddy's glasses?

• 30:41Speaker 00

  That's right. So they picked not P. Diddy's glasses, but to also take them off for the sake of comedy.

• 30:48Speaker 01

  Well, at 32 seconds, Michael is going to try to parallel park. He's going to do this unsuccessfully. There's just not enough room.

• 30:57Speaker 00

  I love when he said, "Not going to make this one."

• 30:59Speaker 01

  There's like three car lengths of curb available. Randy Cordray told us that we did this in cuts. So first, they padded the rear bumper of Michael's PT Cruiser so that it wouldn't actually damage the car behind him. They shot it in a way so you can't see the padding. When Michael pulls away, they had removed the foam cushioning and that crunch you hear was a special effects sound that they added in post.

• 31:24Speaker 00

  Well, I thought it was a really relatable moment because I know I've bailed mid-perimal park before. Especially if you're trying to parallel park somewhere where people are like eating outside, like

• 31:35Speaker 01

  and they're watching you.

• 31:37Speaker 00

  Watching you do that.

• 31:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:38Speaker 00

  Eat, eat, eat, like trying to back in. And then you're just like, forget it, bailing.

• 31:43Speaker 01

  When I went to take my driving test, I was about to fail. The last task was parallel park.

• 31:50Speaker 00

  Same.

• 31:52Speaker 01

  And I nailed it and I passed my driving test.

• 31:55Speaker 00

  Yeah, same here. I was doing horribly, but Coach Wolf, who taught me driver's ed, had really worked with me on parallel parking.

• 32:04Speaker 01

  My dad had really worked with me on parallel parking.

• 32:08Speaker 00

  Does this make us sound like bad drivers that parallel parking saved us?

• 32:12Speaker 01

  Well, here's the thing. Ironically, I do not get in actual car accidents, but I am constantly hitting things when I'm trying to park.

• 32:21Speaker 00

  I know. I've seen you like get real close to hitting something when you were parking one time. I was like, Jenna, Jenna, Jenna.

• 32:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:28Speaker 00

  Well, when I took my driver's ed test, the tester guy, he wrote a little note on my test score.

• 32:35Speaker 01

  What did it say?

• 32:36Speaker 00

  Very distracted.

• 32:38Speaker 01

  Distracted?

• 32:41Speaker 00

  Because when he was giving me my driver's ed test, we drove down the little main street of the small town I'm from and my friends were all hanging out at this car wash that had gone out of business. People would park their cars there and hang out.

• 32:54Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 32:54Speaker 00

  Like teenagers. And a bunch of my friends were parked there and they all knew I was taking my test. And so as I drove by, I honked and waved.

• 33:03Speaker 00

  And my tester guy did not like that.

• 33:06Speaker 01

  But you still passed.

• 33:07Speaker 00

  I still passed because of parallel parking.

• 33:10Speaker 01

  Well, also arriving this morning to the Scranton Business Park is Ryan. And Jim and Pam are walking in.

• 33:19Speaker 00

  Pam in her blazer.

• 33:20Speaker 01

  And her new plant alert.

• 33:23Speaker 00

  I know.

• 33:24Speaker 01

  People wrote in about the plant, Angela.

• 33:27Speaker 00

  It's the first thing I noticed. Forty-two seconds. Spotted a potted plant is what I wrote in my notes.

• 33:34Speaker 01

  And it's very cute and it's going to stay on the little desk in Michael Scott Paper Company.

• 33:39Speaker 00

  Well, for a long time, we've wondered who would bring in the potted plants at reception. I guess this solves it. It was Pam.

• 33:44Speaker 01

  It was Pam.

• 33:46Speaker 00

  While Pam and Jim are walking into the parking lot, Michael has wedged his car between two other cars and he's trying to shimmy out over the back, holding the Cheetos, by the way.

• 33:57Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 33:58Speaker 00

  Jenna, Steve ripped his pants in this scene.

• 34:01Speaker 01

  He did?

• 34:02Speaker 00

  Yeah. He was trying to scooch over the back of the PT Cruiser and his pants got hung up on the back of the little convertible part.

• 34:10Speaker 01

  Uh huh.

• 34:11Speaker 00

  And he's scooching. It's in the bloopers and I was going to play it, but the majority of the bloopers is Steve scooching and grunting, trying to get over the back hump of the car. And then he finally says, "I'm going to need a new pair of pants."

• 34:28Speaker 00

  It just made me laugh. You know what? I'll put the blooper in our stories because it's really one you have to watch to appreciate.

• 34:35Speaker 01

  Now we go to our opening credits and they are all new this episode in honor of Michael Scott Paper Company.

• 34:43Speaker 00

  I was very excited for you. I was like, oh, I bet Jenna has a whole breakdown because you've done a whole thing about the opening credits.

• 34:49Speaker 01

  First of all, I did not remember this. So when this came on, I was so delighted. And then all the memories came flooding back of us filming these new opening credits. They were also not in the script. This was Mindy Kaling's idea. Lee and Jean said they absolutely loved getting to shoot them and they really tried to match the tone and style of the original main titles. So I did a whole breakdown of the Michael Scott Paper Company main titles and our usual main titles. And they match up almost shot for shot. It's pretty cool.

• 35:22Speaker 00

  That's awesome.

• 35:23Speaker 01

  I have some fun tidbits about some of the things we saw in those opening credits.

• 35:28Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 35:28Speaker 01

  First of all, the goldfish on Michael's desk.

• 35:32Speaker 00

  Oh yeah, this all happens about one minute, 18 seconds, right? There's a great overview of the whole room.

• 35:37Speaker 01

  We got a fan mail flurry about this goldfish lady.

• 35:41Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah.

• 35:42Speaker 01

  Remember last week, we talked about the Jerry Maguire goldfish and how Michael and Pam had their Jerry Maguire moment? Well, Michael is going to have a goldfish on his desk now. But fan mail flurry points out that there is going to be a different goldfish every time we cut to a shot of Michael's desk. And there is a reason for that. Randy Cordray said this was an Easter egg that they planted in these episodes. It's never talked about, but the idea was that Michael could not keep this fish alive. Randy told me that every Friday, they would give the goldfish to a crew member who wanted it. And then they would replace it with a new fish for the next episode.

• 36:24Speaker 01

  So moving forward, folks, I will track the fish. It starts as your standard orange goldfish.

• 36:31Speaker 00

  Okay. Goldfish tracker.

• 36:34Speaker 01

  Next up, I would really like to talk about the stapler that BJ is using in the opening credits. It is a Paper Pro stapler and we were obsessed with it in Michael Scott Paper Company. Obsessed.

• 36:49Speaker 00

  Why?

• 36:50Speaker 01

  It is the greatest stapler you will ever use, ever. Phil Shea let me keep one. I still have it. You do not have to push on it the way BJ is in the opening credits. He is operating the stapler incorrectly. You just give it a little squeeze and the air pressure, some sort of mechanism makes it staple perfectly. I looked it up. Here's how it is described.

• 37:17Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 37:18Speaker 01

  "The Paper Pro is the first engineering breakthrough in staplers since, well, the stapler. Push it with one finger's worth of effort and a spring-loaded mechanism drives the staple with 30 pounds of force through up to 20 sheets of paper."

• 37:36Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 37:37Speaker 01

  We loved that stapler. We loved it.

• 37:40Speaker 00

  Of all the things I thought we would talk about today, I did not think we'd talk about a super air pressure powered stapler.

• 37:48Speaker 01

  I recommend it.

• 37:49Speaker 00

  I'm dying to use one.

• 37:51Speaker 01

  Finally, the copier that you see in the opening credits and throughout this episode is the broken copier from The Surplus.

• 38:00Speaker 00

  I love that written on the side. It says trash.

• 38:03Speaker 01

  I know. That copier is just haunting Pam. She's lost her comfortable chair and now she's back with this horrible copier. What has she done to her life?

• 38:12Speaker 00

  You know, that was sitting out by the dumpsters. They wrote trash on it and set it out.

• 38:20Speaker 00

  So right at the beginning of their first day of the Michael Scott Paper Company, there would have been a series of talking heads. Ryan had one, Michael had one, Pam had one about her first day. And I thought it was really sweet and also made me a little curious. I think we need to hear it.

• 38:38Speaker 01

  Embarking on a new adventure. There was a fork in the road and I took the road less traveled. Never traveled, not even a road, really, more of a path with a sign that says, "Those who pass shall die," and a skull and crossbones. The other road was kind of like Putnam Road. That's a really boring road in Scranton.

• 39:01Speaker 00

  So these were the two paths that you were choosing between. But guys, in Scranton, I Google image Putnam Road. It looks like a fine road.

• 39:11Speaker 01

  Here's something crazy. I worked at Putnam Investments as an executive secretary for years. That was my last full-time job I had as an executive assistant before I was able to earn my living full-time as an actor.

• 39:25Speaker 00

  Woo!

• 39:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:26Speaker 00

  That's a full circle life moment. Well, back upstairs, you know, this is such a funny scene. Kelly is sort of leaning up on Jim's desk and she's just sort of mumbling things like Jim's like, you're worried you're not really talking to me. She is just waiting for Charles to say, Kelly. And then she runs in and she's like, you wanted me? And he's like, no, no, no, I meant that Kelly. And this is when we meet Erin.

• 39:53Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 39:54Speaker 00

  Jim has this fantastic talking head that he says that Kelly thinks if she says you wanted me enough, that Charles will in fact want her. It's not the worst plan she's ever had. Lady, this made me think, like, this is like self fulfilling prophecy.

• 40:09Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 40:10Speaker 00

  Like Kelly is using self fulfilling prophecy. My mom used to have this saying, and I think it's like paraphrasing scripture and proverbs, but speak of what is not as if it were so, and it shall become.

• 40:22Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 40:23Speaker 00

  And I think I was like, sort of in a very deep place when I was watching this episode. I had some things in my life that I had sort of written out, like something I was meditating about, praying about, and it was coming to fruition. And I was trying to plant these seeds of like, positive, good intention, right?

• 40:41Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 40:42Speaker 00

  To then have this great harvest of this good thing. And when you watch The Office through that filter, you're like, Kelly, Kelly is practicing self fulfilling prophecy.

• 40:54Speaker 01

  It's great. I use that all the time. We talk about that.

• 40:58Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:58Speaker 01

  I mean, just in the formation of this podcast, we must have said what we wanted for two years.

• 41:05Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 41:05Speaker 01

  Before we developed this show and signed a contract.

• 41:09Speaker 00

  Speak the positive.

• 41:11Speaker 01

  Speak it. I always say, when you blow out your birthday candles, you should tell everyone your wish, because the more people who know, there's more people invested in helping you make it come true.

• 41:22Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 41:22Speaker 01

  Share your wishes. Share it.

• 41:24Speaker 00

  I love that. I had to share that.

• 41:27Speaker 01

  Well, I have got a bit of a bombshell regarding this scene.

• 41:32Speaker 00

  What?

• 41:32Speaker 01

  A full bombshell.

• 41:34Speaker 00

  What?

• 41:35Speaker 01

  So you know, Charles says, I wasn't talking about you, Kelly. I was talking about the other Kelly. And they eventually settle on the fact that they will call the second Kelly by her middle name, Erin.

• 41:45Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 41:45Speaker 01

  The original name for Ellie's character, the one that appears in the table draft.

• 41:52Speaker 00

  What?

• 41:53Speaker 01

  Was not Kelly. It was not Erin. Her name was Mary.

• 41:59Speaker 00

  Mary?

• 42:00Speaker 01

  Yeah. And this scene was not a thing where they have the same name. That was a late addition.

• 42:06Speaker 00

  Oh, wow. I love this scene.

• 42:08Speaker 01

  I know, me too. Well, fan question from Kellyanne M., who says, we need to track Erin's hair progression. When did she go red? She will eventually win cutest redhead in The Office, but she's a brunette here. We need to track it. Well, Lee Eisenberg filled me in on this.

• 42:29Speaker 00

  Well, I remember some of this.

• 42:32Speaker 01

  He said, when Ellie showed up for her very first day of work, her hair color was almost identical to mine.

• 42:38Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 42:39Speaker 01

  And everyone freaked out.

• 42:41Speaker 00

  Mm hmm.

• 42:42Speaker 01

  They were not trying to tell a story that Pam was being replaced by a sort of lookalike person. And they were really worried that if they put her on camera, having the same color hair, that it was going to tell a story they weren't telling.

• 43:00Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 43:01Speaker 01

  So they had to change the whole schedule for the day and color her hair.

• 43:08Speaker 00

  I was in the hair and makeup trailer when she was getting her hair colored by Kim Ferry.

• 43:12Speaker 01

  And I guess Kim just has a drawer of hair color.

• 43:16Speaker 00

  Sure.

• 43:16Speaker 01

  And they came up with this sort of brunette color, which will now evolve. The character of Erin was also not originally meant to become a full-time, regular character. This was just going to be a few episodes. So we will track it. But I believe her hair is going to get to sort of change over to that red color as they make her a more permanent character on the show.

• 43:40Speaker 00

  Yeah, I remember that day. And Ellie is such a team player, you know? If my memory's correct, they dyed it one time and then dyed it again.

• 43:49Speaker 01

  Oh, boy.

• 43:50Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 43:51Speaker 01

  Oh, boy.

• 43:52Speaker 00

  Michael Scott Paper Company has kind of come already to a standstill. They don't know what to do. They're like, what do we do now? They're just sitting there, looking at each other.

• 44:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, Michael's working on his Evite for his pancake luncheon. We had a fan catch from Ria V. and Abby M., who noticed if you look closely, it says that the luncheon is going to take place on Saturday.

• 44:14Speaker 00

  I saw that, too.

• 44:16Speaker 01

  Also, during this scene, you can hear the sounds of toilets flushing through the pipes overhead. You're really getting a sense of this workspace. So we could actually hear toilets flushing if somebody used the real bathrooms outside. So while we were shooting, they would not allow anyone in there. But while we rehearsed, or while we were waiting to shoot, people could use the bathrooms. And so we would really sit in that room and hear flushing toilets. And I also don't know if you noticed the spot that BJ and I are sitting in. When we first walked into that room, our natural inclination was to sit across

• 44:57Speaker 01

  from one another at the table, because it gave you maximum space for your elbows.

• 45:02Speaker 00

  Sure, sure.

• 45:03Speaker 01

  You know, but you couldn't shoot us that way. We had to both sort of sit with our backs like scrunched up against that wall, kind of next to each other, facing Michael, because it was literally the only way to get us on camera.

• 45:19Speaker 00

  Last week in Dream Team for the DVD commentary for that episode, Matt Soan actually talked about this episode and how hard it was to shoot in that room because of the angles, exactly what you were talking about. They kept catching each other, our two camera operators kept catching each other in the shot. So they had to sort of position you guys so that they could get these single camera shots of you.

• 45:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think that's something you don't think about when you watch the scene is how there's all these extra people in the room.

• 45:44Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 45:45Speaker 01

  But they're magically avoiding one another on camera.

• 45:48Speaker 00

  But at the same time, Steve, as Michael, can't walk from his desk to the poker table without bonking his leg into things. You know, it's like that tight.

• 45:56Speaker 01

  Well, now Michael is going to ask Pam to make 800 copies of his unparalleled customer service coupon. But Pam has a talking head, and I really relate to this. She says, if I make this one copy, then I'll become the girl who makes copies, and then I'm basically a receptionist again. And I don't know if you noticed where the phone was on that table, but it is right in front of Pam. So she's already clearly closest to the phone.

• 46:22Speaker 00

  And even later, when it rings, Michael says, answer it.

• 46:26Speaker 01

  I know.

• 46:26Speaker 00

  Right?

• 46:27Speaker 01

  Yeah. She's really trying to break out of this role of receptionist, and she refuses to make the copy.

• 46:34Speaker 00

  She doesn't want to go down Putnam Road, guys.

• 46:36Speaker 01

  She doesn't.

• 46:37Speaker 00

  She wants the other path, the more exciting path. Well, it's a pretty big day for a few other characters at Dunder Mifflin. Dwight is going to take Andy hunting.

• 46:47Speaker 01

  They're like buddy buddy.

• 46:49Speaker 00

  There's so much more of this scene where they're sort of wrestling and like doing all this stuff. It goes on for so long.

• 46:57Speaker 01

  I have no doubt. Do not ask the fellas to roughhouse or wrestle in a scene unless you want to have an hour of additional footage of it. Because anytime they had Rain Wilson and John Krasinski have to do something like that, like last week's knock, knock joke thing, any scuffle.

• 47:16Speaker 00

  It's worth a watch in the deleted scenes because those two fellows, they go for so long and all their fake different ways of attacking each other. And they get so into John's personal space. And his face is hilarious. I don't know how he kept a straight face. Andy had a talking head that was deleted where he talks about this bromance. You know, we see Dwight's in the episode.

• 47:38Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 47:39Speaker 00

  But Andy had a counterpart one, and I think we need to hear it.

• 47:42Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 47:43Speaker 05

  Let me tell you something. When Angela and I split, ha, oh, I went through it big time. Lost my high notes. Top of my range was like, baa. Then it took some time. I got my heel on. I got some perspective on. And I found a new friend in the most unlikely of places, the enemy Ben. And now.

• 48:22Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 48:23Speaker 00

  He got his high notes back.

• 48:24Speaker 01

  He did.

• 48:25Speaker 00

  He got his heel on, he got his perspective on.

• 48:27Speaker 01

  And he found it all in the enemy bin.

• 48:29Speaker 00

  I know. I also really love the storyline of Charles asking Jim for the rundown.

• 48:35Speaker 01

  Yes, and Jim has no idea what a rundown is.

• 48:40Speaker 00

  And he's not gonna ask.

• 48:42Speaker 01

  He's too afraid.

• 48:43Speaker 00

  I know. So when we reached out to Jean and Lee, they said that this whole rundown story was a late addition. It was part of a rewrite session. And you know, we've talked about how some of the writers would break off into these little pods. So Paul Lieberstein, Jen Salata, and BJ Novak broke away from the group. And in about two hours, they came up with this whole rundown storyline.

• 49:06Speaker 01

  I love it.

• 49:07Speaker 00

  I know. And then Justin Spitzer said, they thought this was great. This sort of rundown was sort of this vague term. And no one in the writers room really knew what it meant. So they thought, well, that's perfect. Maybe Jim wouldn't know either. And they said, after the episode aired, that they got mail that people were like, yeah, duh, a rundown. Yeah, rundown. Like, people had heard of it. And they were like, no way. So I looked it up. I Googled, because we're ladies that Google.

• 49:33Speaker 01

  We are.

• 49:33Speaker 00

  I just wrote, what is a rundown? And this is what the internet had to say.

• 49:38Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 49:39Speaker 00

  "In businesses, a rundown is a status report or summary."

• 49:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, common sense would lead me in that direction. If I had to guess, I would think, oh, I should make a list of all my current clients and their status.

• 49:54Speaker 00

  Yeah, I think I could have been a little confused. Like, is a rundown my sales? Is it like an itemized thing of how much product I move? Or is it more just my clients' names and how long they've been my clients? You know, I think there is a little bit of vagueness, like Justin said. But Jim just needs to ask, what do you want a rundown of? My clients? The inventory? What exactly? Sales?

• 50:20Speaker 01

  Well, I'll tell you what, we got a lot of mail on this. And Hannah Q. had a strong opinion.

• 50:25Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 50:25Speaker 01

  Saying, forgive me for saying this, but I think I'm on Charles' side when it comes to the rundown. I've never had an office job, and even I have a pretty clear idea of what it could or should look like. Come on, Jim, you're a smart guy. Look within and find the rundown.

• 50:41Speaker 00

  Hannah's not having it.

• 50:43Speaker 01

  She's not having it. Meanwhile, in the kitchen, we're gonna kick off this storyline where Dwight and Andy are both kind of flirting with Erin. Dwight does this weird thing where he teases her about the office being haunted. And then Andy comes in and they end up doing a little dance together.

• 51:03Speaker 00

  It's gonna get awkward real fast.

• 51:04Speaker 01

  It really is.

• 51:05Speaker 00

  What happened to their bromance?

• 51:07Speaker 01

  It's already being tested.

• 51:09Speaker 00

  I know. Jenna, you know, like, when you make a personal call and you know you need to make a personal call, but you know, other people can overhear you. So you try to practice some form of etiquette in that phone call?

• 51:20Speaker 01

  Or speak in code a little bit?

• 51:22Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm.

• 51:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 51:23Speaker 00

  That's gonna be happening at the Michael Scott Paper Company.

• 51:26Speaker 01

  It sure is. And there is a joke right off the bat that was so funny to me. Where Ryan is making plans for the weekend. And then he says, yeah, she's like a New York six, but in Scranton, she's a seven. And then he says, and my boss is my old boss, which makes it very clear that the Scranton seven is Pam.

• 51:49Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 51:50Speaker 01

  New York six.

• 51:51Speaker 00

  And they cut to you and your face as you realize it. It's so great. Justin said he felt like this was one of those amazing moments where the joke came before the setup.

• 52:01Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 52:01Speaker 00

  And paid off in this amazing way.

• 52:03Speaker 01

  The whole thing is such a smart joke. It's so well crafted. It made me laugh. I absolutely loved it. So I think we should stay down here in Michael Scott Paper Company and discuss the next thing that's gonna happen, which is Ryan watching a video online instead of making the copies that Michael has requested.

• 52:22Speaker 00

  Yes, at seven minutes, seven seconds, you can see the video that Ryan is watching. It was actually a local commercial in Alabama that became very popular on YouTube. And I want to tell you a little bit about it. So this went viral in 2006. A man named Sammy Stevens created and wrote and performed a jingle for his Montgomery, Alabama business. It was a flea market.

• 52:47Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 52:47Speaker 00

  Yeah. And he did his own commercial. And it went viral. Over 12 million people have watched this video. Of course, it went viral before YouTube was kind of YouTube, right? And it wasn't monetized. So he has said in interviews, he didn't make any money off that. But it really took off. And Ellen DeGeneres had him on as a guest.

• 53:06Speaker 01

  Really?

• 53:06Speaker 00

  Uh-huh. The flea market is no longer in business, but Sammy is still writing commercial campaigns and performing. He has appearances on TV and a radio show. And I found Sammy on Instagram. He's at TheRealSammyStevens, S-T-E-P-H-E-N-S.

• 53:23Speaker 01

  Something I love about our show is that we were always working in these pop culture topical moments. Because that's what people do. That's what you would do is watch this YouTube video that was very popular while you were at work. It makes total sense to me.

• 53:38Speaker 00

  Yeah, and you would show all your coworkers. It's actually something that would happen on our set. As we've shared, Oscar had the only working computer with sound, and we would all huddle around his computer and watch videos.

• 53:50Speaker 01

  Well, at seven minutes and five seconds, at the very top of this scene, you can see something sitting next to Ryan in the little, like, poker chip.

• 54:01Speaker 00

  Caddy?

• 54:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, because we're sitting at a poker table, which is amazing. It is an inhaler.

• 54:07Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 54:08Speaker 01

  This was a whole deleted runner.

• 54:11Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 54:11Speaker 01

  That Ryan uses an inhaler. And he and Pam even get in a fight at one point, and she steals his inhaler.

• 54:19Speaker 00

  Well, because Michael, he hands it to Michael for Michael to use. And she's like, wait, that might be bad for him.

• 54:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's a whole thing. It ended up getting cut, but that's why there is this inhaler. And you can spot it throughout the episode, sitting next to the laptop.

• 54:34Speaker 00

  There is also a fantastic shot at seven minutes, 36 seconds of all the clocks on the wall.

• 54:41Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 54:41Speaker 00

  I think we have to talk about them. There is a clock for Paris, London, Beijing, and the USA. According to Jean and Lee and Justin, the USA clock was set to Scranton. But all the other clocks were set to the time interval between those cities and Los Angeles. And they caught this error halfway through the episode, and they were just like, ah, we can't change it now. We have to just leave it.

• 55:09Speaker 01

  Oh, we got a lot of mail about those clocks, Angela. I'm very glad that you brought it up. People will feel very satisfied because that has been spotted. You know, also in this scene, there is this very subtle thing that happens between Ryan and Pam that makes me laugh. They're discussing who should make the copies. And Ryan says, you're just so good at it. You should do it, Pam. And she's like, you're saying that what I'm good at is pressing a big green button. And he's kind of like, listen, I don't judge what we're good at.

• 55:42Speaker 00

  Yeah, he's like, why is it insulting to say that you're good at something?

• 55:45Speaker 01

  Yeah. So this reminded me of this very funny back and forth that my husband and I have had. Because I always say that Lee makes the best coffee in the morning and the best eggs. And I guess I'm very complimentary about it. I'm always like, these are the best eggs. This is the best coffee. So about like, five years into our marriage, Lee says to me, do I really make the best eggs?

• 56:17Speaker 00

  Five years?

• 56:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 56:18Speaker 00

  He's been holding on to that.

• 56:21Speaker 01

  He says, do I really make the best coffee and the best eggs? Or is it just that you don't want to make them?

• 56:30Speaker 01

  And I was like, what? And he said, I mean, how hard is it to make good coffee and eggs, really?

• 56:40Speaker 00

  No.

• 56:40Speaker 01

  I feel like maybe you're just complimenting my coffee and eggs so that I make you coffee and eggs every day. And I was like, no, they really are superior. I swear, it's better coffee than I make. I mean, that we could prove, because there were some mornings when I made the coffee and Lee was like, oh, yeah, it's not great. But Lee doesn't eat eggs. I eat eggs in the morning, and he would always make me my eggs. But it's the truth, babe. Lee, you make the best coffee and eggs. You just do.

• 57:15Speaker 00

  Lee, I've traveled only a handful of times with your wife. I know you have traveled with her many, many times. And I know that this woman does not lie about food or beverage.

• 57:26Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 57:26Speaker 00

  Um, she is completely earnest when she likes something. And when she doesn't, you're gonna know about it.

• 57:31Speaker 01

  That's the thing. I'm not gonna eat mediocre eggs for five years just because someone else made them for me. I mean, if I really believed I could make better eggs, I'd be making my own eggs.

• 57:43Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah. Well, once again, while people are Talking in Michael Scott Paper Company, you hear someone in the bathroom.

• 57:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, you hear their voice through the ceiling. You hear them peeing. We had a fan question from Afrin R. in the scene where Michael, Pam, and Ryan are in their small new office and we hear a male voice talking on his phone in the bathroom. Whose voice is it? It sounds like Toby, but the conversation made me doubt it. It was Toby. Paul did the voice. Now, on the commentary, I think Jean and Lee joked that they made Paul sit up in the ceiling tiles to do his lines. But that is not true. He was actually just off camera. He was not in the ceiling. They added all the effects in post to make it sound like he was in the bathroom above us, including like all the peeing sounds.

• 58:33Speaker 00

  But it really sounds like he's above you. I mean, I was so sold on that.

• 58:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, no, he was not. He was just off camera. But incidentally, I would like to point out that our sound team was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series Half Hour for this episode.

• 58:52Speaker 00

  Well, they deserve it.

• 58:53Speaker 01

  I know. That really sounded like he was up there.

• 58:56Speaker 00

  And all the flushing and everything. Well, Michael's gonna call his mom and talk in code, Jenna, much in the way that you and I talk in code. He's really bad at it.

• 59:05Speaker 01

  It's so obvious.

• 59:06Speaker 00

  So obvious. He says, Mom, they're getting on my nerves. R thinks he's too good to be here and P is not as much fun without Jim. And then he's like, Mom, I gotta go. P's being a giant B. This is us, lady.

• 59:18Speaker 01

  Well, this whole thing is gonna end with Pam and Ryan bickering over the computer. I mean, they get in a huge fight over who gets to use it. And at eight minutes and 20 seconds, at the end of this scene, the camera pushes in on Michael. He's standing in front of the whiteboard. And written on the whiteboard is a quote that says, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." Wayne Gretzky, Michael Scott.

• 59:49Speaker 00

  As if Wayne Gretzky is part of the quote.

• 59:52Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 59:53Speaker 00

  Right?

• 59:54Speaker 01

  Michael Scott is quoting himself quoting Wayne Gretzky. Justin Spitzer wrote that joke. Jean and Lee both brought it up, saying it was one of their favorite parts of the episode. Like, I see that meme all the time.

• 1:00:09Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:00:09Speaker 01

  It's so brilliant.

• 1:00:10Speaker 00

  If you Google Wayne Gretzky's quote, a Michael Scott version, with his picture comes up. It's crazy.

• 1:00:18Speaker 01

  Well, why don't we take a break? And when we come back, we still have to discuss the pancake luncheon and Dwight and Andy's rivalry and Jim maybe finally figuring out what a rundown is.

• 1:00:33Speaker 00

  And also a scene where maybe Jim has disappeared. Where has he gone? He might have the answer.

• 1:00:39Speaker 01

  Oh, wow. Oh, I also have a sunglasses thing.

• 1:00:42Speaker 00

  Oh, and I do too. There's so much to come back for.

• 1:00:55Speaker 00

  We're back. Dwight is going to approach Andy about his obvious attraction to Erin in only a way that Dwight would about tingly feelings and blood flow to places.

• 1:01:08Speaker 01

  Yes. But he also confesses that he has his own feelings for Erin.

• 1:01:14Speaker 00

  Mm hmm. And they sort of talk about like, no, no, no, I'm not, I don't want to get in your way and vice versa. I want you to note at nine minutes, 28 seconds, while Dwight and Andy are talking, Erin is in the background directly in the middle of these two guys.

• 1:01:30Speaker 01

  Oh, I'm sure that was on purpose.

• 1:01:32Speaker 00

  Oh, it was. Jean and Lee said that was intentional. They said they did this as many times as they could in this episode because it is a story about a woman coming between two guys.

• 1:01:43Speaker 01

  I really loved Leslie's look. In the background as well. There's a lot to see in the background of this scene. That's pretty great.

• 1:01:52Speaker 00

  And there's also someone missing in the background of this scene. Where is Jim?

• 1:01:57Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:01:59Speaker 00

  I can tell you where he was.

• 1:02:00Speaker 01

  Where was he?

• 1:02:01Speaker 00

  They shared in the commentary that John had to leave early to be on The Tonight Show.

• 1:02:05Speaker 01

  Oh, my gosh. Well, you know, we were rapidly approaching our 100th episode of The Office, which is going to be Company Picnic, the finale of season five. And we were starting to do a lot of press and promotion for that. I saw on the call sheets that after work on Thursday of this week, me and John and Rain stayed after work and we shot some syndicated promos.

• 1:02:32Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah. I found some old emails that a few of us did a satellite media tour as well.

• 1:02:38Speaker 01

  I bet.

• 1:02:38Speaker 00

  Yeah. I always got roped in for those and they started at four in the morning because you do east coast to west coast. We were very excited. We were happy to do it. We were team players. I was always really proud of our group effort for the show. Well, Jim is going to reappear pretty quickly because he's asking Oscar what the rundown is, right? He's gone over to the accounting nook, much in the way that Michael used to do. He would go ask Oscar what something meant. And now Jim is doing it.

• 1:03:08Speaker 01

  I mean, Oscar's kind of the smartest guy in the office.

• 1:03:11Speaker 00

  Jenna, I love that you said that because Justin Spitzer said this in the commentary. He joked that Oscar was the voice of the writers. He's the smartest guy who's always judging everyone.

• 1:03:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, 100%.

• 1:03:28Speaker 00

  But Oscar says, why don't you just ask him? Just ask Charles what the rundown is. So there was a deleted scene where Jim actually took Oscar's advice.

• 1:03:39Speaker 01

  What?

• 1:03:39Speaker 00

  Yeah, you've got to hear it.

• 1:03:44Speaker 03

  You have a second?

• 1:03:45Speaker 06

  What is it, Jim?

• 1:03:46Speaker 03

  It's about the rundown.

• 1:03:47Speaker 06

  Jim, God, this rundown is taking more of my time than if I did it myself. What? What is the question now?

• 1:03:55Speaker 03

  What's a rundown?

• 1:03:58Speaker 06

  Is this one of your pranks?

• 1:04:04Speaker 06

  Huh?

• 1:04:06Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 1:04:08Speaker 03

  Boom.

• 1:04:08Speaker 06

  Jim.

• 1:04:09Speaker 03

  Sorry.

• 1:04:09Speaker 06

  I don't have time.

• 1:04:10Speaker 03

  I know.

• 1:04:10Speaker 06

  Okay.

• 1:04:11Speaker 03

  All right. I'm gonna get you that rundown.

• 1:04:12Speaker 06

  Just get it to me, Jim.

• 1:04:13Speaker 03

  Right now. I'm gonna go out and find it.

• 1:04:17Speaker 01

  Oh, my gosh.

• 1:04:18Speaker 00

  Isn't that amazing? And I love that Charles clearly knows that Jim's the prankster, which he probably, you know, just add that to the list of things he doesn't like about Jim. But Jim actually asked him and then failed.

• 1:04:32Speaker 01

  I bet that was a really funny scene. I wish that had stayed in.

• 1:04:35Speaker 00

  It was great. There was so much awkward, just long pauses. Oh.

• 1:04:40Speaker 01

  Well, back downstairs, Michael determines that their office space is too small. He says that the solution is for Pam and Ryan to each choose a corner. Pam suggests they work from home. Ryan suggests Michael fire whichever of them has less education. There's a little bit of that passive aggressive. But Michael is like, no, my corner idea is what it is. I want you to know there was a talking head in the script where Michael says that he negotiated a seven-year lease on this space.

• 1:05:11Speaker 00

  No.

• 1:05:13Speaker 01

  No. But it gets worse. He says originally Billy started at three years. Michael countered with seven.

• 1:05:21Speaker 00

  Oh, Michael.

• 1:05:22Speaker 01

  And then Michael says, I should have said 10.

• 1:05:26Speaker 01

  So this is gonna be their space for seven years.

• 1:05:30Speaker 00

  Oh, my gosh. Justin pointed out something really funny. He was like, you know, when Michael says there are four corners in this room and you guys kind of looked at camera like, yeah, idiot. Actually, there were more than four.

• 1:05:44Speaker 01

  There were because there were some like weird bumpy things.

• 1:05:47Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:05:50Speaker 01

  Well, Pam is going to retreat to her corner. By the way, her corner is next to the sewage pipe and the shower.

• 1:05:57Speaker 00

  Facing a wall.

• 1:05:58Speaker 01

  You think it can't get worse. Ryan's corner is like behind a plant. It's actually kind of the nicest corner, really. But things are gonna get worse for Pam because Michael says that's his corner because he can't work in the same corner that he relaxes in.

• 1:06:14Speaker 00

  Right.

• 1:06:15Speaker 01

  So she's like, which one's mine? And he says, yours is the one over there.

• 1:06:19Speaker 00

  By the copier.

• 1:06:20Speaker 01

  Oh. We had a fan catch at 12 minutes, one second. And it's a great continuity catch. It's very subtle. So hats off to Tatiana V., who says, "When Pam goes to sit in her corner, she takes a small black object with her. You can see her holding it in her lap as the camera swings back and forth from her and Michael. But right before she gets up to leave, it has disappeared from her hands because Pam is now holding the arms of her chair."

• 1:06:53Speaker 00

  What is it?

• 1:06:54Speaker 01

  That's what she wanted to know. It was Pam's flip phone. Pam grabs her flip phone off of the poker table, but clearly I didn't do it in every take because it does just vanish.

• 1:07:06Speaker 00

  I miss my flip phone.

• 1:07:08Speaker 01

  You do?

• 1:07:09Speaker 00

  I do. And I miss the little antenna it had and how I would close the antenna with my chin. I'd like shove it into my chin.

• 1:07:16Speaker 01

  It did feel fun.

• 1:07:18Speaker 00

  I loved it.

• 1:07:19Speaker 01

  Phone.

• 1:07:19Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:07:20Speaker 01

  Well, you know, Samsung has a new flip phone thing where you flip it open and it becomes like a big screen. Have you seen the commercials for it?

• 1:07:27Speaker 00

  I'll never be able to figure it out. There's too many moving parts.

• 1:07:29Speaker 01

  I know, but it looks cool in the commercials.

• 1:07:32Speaker 00

  It really does, Samsung.

• 1:07:33Speaker 01

  You know what I don't miss about my flip phone, lady?

• 1:07:35Speaker 00

  What?

• 1:07:36Speaker 01

  I don't miss the texting where you had to.

• 1:07:39Speaker 00

  A, A, B, B, C, C.

• 1:07:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:07:41Speaker 00

  D, E, E. Like you had to click, click, click.

• 1:07:43Speaker 01

  Yeah. Listen, all of this business with Ryan and the corners, Pam's gonna leave. She goes upstairs and she asks Charles for her old job back.

• 1:07:56Speaker 00

  She doesn't consult her fiance. Not that she needs to consult him, but you know what I mean? You would think she'd loop him in. You'd think she'd like say, Jim, I'm gonna ask for my job back.

• 1:08:06Speaker 01

  No.

• 1:08:06Speaker 00

  But she didn't consult him when she quit and she's not gonna consult him now.

• 1:08:10Speaker 01

  She's desperate. She doesn't have time for that conversation.

• 1:08:13Speaker 00

  No.

• 1:08:14Speaker 01

  Well, Charles says the position has been filled. She says maybe a sales job, maybe a job as his personal assistant, personal shopper? Nope. No dice.

• 1:08:24Speaker 00

  So Justin talked about several different alts in the scene where they had Charles be really sort of abrupt with Pam.

• 1:08:34Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:08:34Speaker 00

  And they dialed it back because it seemed too harsh. So he's just more indifferent. He's just more business.

• 1:08:40Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, this was my only real one-on-one scene with Idris, except for when he sort of came in the first day, but that wasn't much of an exchange. I was so nervous. I was such a fan. And to be standing there with this actor that I admired so much, because I was a huge fan of The Wire.

• 1:09:01Speaker 00

  And he has such a patient, quiet power in his scenes.

• 1:09:05Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm. And he's such a pro. I mean, I was just, I think some of my nervousness as Pam was just my nervousness as Jenna, performing with this person that I admired.

• 1:09:18Speaker 00

  Yeah. Word has clearly gotten out about the Michael Scott Paper Company being downstairs because Phyllis and Stanley decide to go pop by and say hi. We really know what it was. They were just snooping.

• 1:09:30Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:09:31Speaker 00

  Yeah, I would do the same thing. Are you kidding?

• 1:09:33Speaker 01

  Well, at the top of the scene, when Phyllis and Stanley poke their head in, I want you to notice that Michael is playing with the stapler. The stapler that we loved, that none of us could keep our hands off of. We would seriously staple papers on our desk.

• 1:09:53Speaker 00

  So do you think Steve was just like playing with the stapler? He thought was cool?

• 1:09:57Speaker 01

  Because I don't know how to explain this air pressure mechanism of the stapler.

• 1:10:01Speaker 00

  Okay, next time I'm over at your house, will you just show me the stapler?

• 1:10:05Speaker 01

  I seriously should have brought it in because you can hear it. It's like

• 1:10:09Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 1:10:09Speaker 01

  It's like having all the power of an industrial stapler.

• 1:10:13Speaker 00

  In the palm of your hand. You should do commercials for them.

• 1:10:16Speaker 01

  I really should. They should sponsor us. It's just the push of your finger. And when you do it, it's such an engineering marvel that you just want to staple everything in sight.

• 1:10:27Speaker 00

  Well, good Lord, I need to see the stapler.

• 1:10:30Speaker 01

  Maybe I should do a video of myself stapling things and you can put it in the office of these Instagram stories.

• 1:10:36Speaker 00

  Give it to me. We all need to see it.

• 1:10:38Speaker 01

  Okay, I'll do it.

• 1:10:39Speaker 00

  I need to hold it in my hand. I need to touch it. Wait a second, wait a second.

• 1:10:42Speaker 01

  That is what she said.

• 1:10:45Speaker 00

  The minute I started going down that road, I was like, no, back up.

• 1:10:48Speaker 01

  Wow. Moving us along, lady, it is time to kick off this pancake luncheon. Michael is outside. He is making square pancakes for nobody yet.

• 1:11:02Speaker 00

  Ryan is texting. I love that Michael's like, stop with the texting machine.

• 1:11:06Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:11:08Speaker 00

  So here we are, Jenna, at our second pair of sunglasses at 14 minutes, 59 seconds.

• 1:11:14Speaker 01

  Oh, yes. I have the same time code. What do you want to say about these sunglasses?

• 1:11:19Speaker 00

  Wait, can we say it right at the same time? It'll be garbled, but let's see if it sounds the same.

• 1:11:23Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:11:24Speaker 00

  These sunglasses.

• 1:11:25Speaker 01

  These are Tom Ford sunglasses.

• 1:11:27Speaker 00

  Inspired by Joaquin Phoenix's appearance.

• 1:11:30Speaker 01

  On the David Letterman Show. In 2009, when he was promoting I'm Still Here.

• 1:11:37Speaker 00

  It was a very odd appearance. I watched that in real time, but it was all part of like a, a marketing ploy or something.

• 1:11:44Speaker 01

  He did this film, and I guess he was trying to make us believe that he had actually switched careers. And it was sort of like an Andy Kaufman-esque thing.

• 1:11:57Speaker 00

  I took a screen grab.

• 1:11:58Speaker 01

  I did a side-by-side for you, lady.

• 1:12:01Speaker 00

  Oh, give it to me.

• 1:12:03Speaker 01

  Joaquin Phoenix and Ryan, same sunglasses.

• 1:12:06Speaker 00

  Putting that in stories.

• 1:12:08Speaker 01

  They retail for about $400.

• 1:12:10Speaker 00

  What? For sunglasses?

• 1:12:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:12:13Speaker 00

  Are you crazy? Are they prescription?

• 1:12:15Speaker 01

  No, they're just fancy.

• 1:12:17Speaker 00

  That's nuts.

• 1:12:18Speaker 01

  I mean, if I bought that pair of sunglasses, I might as well just flush $400 down the toilet because I'm going to lose them in less than a year.

• 1:12:25Speaker 00

  I know some people like fancy sunglasses. And listen, you do you. But I don't know, three kids, sunglasses, soccer games, mine just get wrecked.

• 1:12:34Speaker 01

  I splurged on a pair of $200 prescription sunglasses.

• 1:12:40Speaker 00

  I have to have prescription sunglasses.

• 1:12:41Speaker 01

  Because I was doing the double glasses for so long, you know, where you buy a giant pair of regular sunglasses that you put over your real glasses.

• 1:12:49Speaker 00

  I saw it, Jenna. You look like you need to live in like a Florida retirement community.

• 1:12:52Speaker 01

  I know. And you know what? I managed to keep those prescription sunglasses for almost two years. I lost them somewhere and now I'm back to double glasses.

• 1:13:05Speaker 00

  You know what we need?

• 1:13:06Speaker 01

  What?

• 1:13:07Speaker 00

  Josh says I need the chain on my glasses.

• 1:13:10Speaker 01

  Oh, I have a story about my mom.

• 1:13:12Speaker 00

  What happens? That's it, right? That's it. Your sexy days are over. If you put your glasses on a chain, I don't know.

• 1:13:17Speaker 01

  Well, my mom, we affectionately call her Lucy, because when you go into a store with her, it's like you're shopping with Lucille Ball from I Love Lucy, because she will manage to get tangled in or knock over any store display.

• 1:13:34Speaker 00

  I was going to say, does she knock things over or try to put too many chocolates in her mouth?

• 1:13:38Speaker 01

  So we were shopping with her and she had on her glasses around one of those chains. But it was winter, so she also had a scarf. And she also had, I don't know why, like long necklaces, a purse, you know, cross-bodied. She goes to take off her cross-body purse. It yanks on her sunglasses chain. Elbows are flying. She takes down a whole display of earrings.

• 1:14:06Speaker 00

  Oh, no.

• 1:14:07Speaker 01

  My sister and I are like rushing in to like help her. She's tangled. She looks like a cat tangled in string. And just displays are falling down. So whenever I think about putting my glasses on a chain, that memory comes back to me and I think, that could be me. I could be that. I could easily have done that. I could take down a display.

• 1:14:32Speaker 00

  You could take down a display. I saw you almost take out a few people on an airplane with a guitar.

• 1:14:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:14:38Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:14:39Speaker 01

  I mean, so I can't, I can't chain my glasses is the bottom line.

• 1:14:43Speaker 00

  Oh, well.

• 1:14:45Speaker 01

  I'm sorry.

• 1:14:45Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 1:14:46Speaker 01

  But we spent $400 on these glasses for the character of Ryan for this very subtle inside joke that clearly Ryan is a Joaquin Phoenix fan and probably saw that. It's in character. He is the kind of guy who has to have the thing, the latest thing.

• 1:15:03Speaker 00

  Even though his mom is driving him to work.

• 1:15:06Speaker 01

  Yes, exactly.

• 1:15:07Speaker 00

  He's really not employed. Like, he's not earning a paycheck.

• 1:15:10Speaker 01

  He isn't.

• 1:15:11Speaker 00

  He's going to get $400 sunglasses. At 15 minutes, 10 seconds, right as Pam is walking up, there's a great shot of some fakie grocery bags.

• 1:15:21Speaker 01

  Ooh, fakie bags.

• 1:15:22Speaker 00

  We got some fakie bags. And Jenna, you shared on the commentary something that jogged my memory. It took me back immediately to this day. You shared while you were filming this parking lot scene, the paparazzi snuck onto our set.

• 1:15:39Speaker 01

  Oh, my gosh, I remember that.

• 1:15:41Speaker 00

  Yes. We had a guy. So you guys, we weren't on a big lot. We've shared that before.

• 1:15:46Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:15:47Speaker 00

  We didn't have security. You just drove in.

• 1:15:49Speaker 01

  You did.

• 1:15:50Speaker 00

  And after this day, we got a security guard.

• 1:15:53Speaker 01

  In a little hut.

• 1:15:54Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:15:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:15:55Speaker 00

  This paparazzi guy clearly staked us out, realized you could just drive right on the set, came right on and just started clicking pictures of the set, the parking lot, actors coming out of their trailers. They got one of Steve coming out of his trailer. And it took us all a while to be like, oh, who's that guy? Oh, my God. Oh, wait, wait, we don't, no one knows that guy.

• 1:16:14Speaker 01

  Did I mention in the commentary why we think this happened? Finally, after five seasons?

• 1:16:20Speaker 00

  No.

• 1:16:22Speaker 01

  John had started dating Emily Blunt.

• 1:16:24Speaker 00

  Oh, no.

• 1:16:25Speaker 01

  Yeah. So that was sort of tabloidy interesting.

• 1:16:30Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:16:31Speaker 01

  Until now, none of us did anything of tabloid interest, basically.

• 1:16:36Speaker 00

  No.

• 1:16:37Speaker 01

  So I remember this because I was dating Lee at the time. He and I were starting to get serious. And John started dating Emily. And we became couple friends.

• 1:16:46Speaker 00

  You did. You guys would like go and do things.

• 1:16:48Speaker 01

  We did. And the news finally broke that the two of them were dating one another. And I think that's why the paparazzi showed up.

• 1:16:57Speaker 00

  Maybe so.

• 1:16:58Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:16:59Speaker 00

  Because it was just sort of, what, five years in, out of nowhere? Oh, this guy wants pictures.

• 1:17:04Speaker 01

  Yes, exactly. The one other time we had paparazzi show up was when we were shooting on location for Jim and Pam's wedding.

• 1:17:12Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah. Well, that would have been a big.

• 1:17:14Speaker 01

  That was like a big show event.

• 1:17:16Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:17:16Speaker 01

  Within the show. But for the most part, we didn't have any of that stuff.

• 1:17:20Speaker 00

  We didn't, thankfully. I'm glad that we were our, just our little tucked away little studio.

• 1:17:26Speaker 01

  I agree. I do think at one point, the paparazzi got a shot of me leaving my trailer with like my empty lunch plate. And it is the most.

• 1:17:37Speaker 00

  That made me like start laugh.

• 1:17:40Speaker 01

  It is just like the most unflattering photo.

• 1:17:44Speaker 00

  That is so horrific.

• 1:17:44Speaker 01

  Of a person who has finished their lunch.

• 1:17:46Speaker 00

  I, I, this was years later, you guys, like the show had ended and I was vacationing. And I was at a beach that I guess Maria Sharapova was at.

• 1:17:59Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:18:00Speaker 00

  And the paparazzi clearly showed up for her, but I was like, side dish. So they got the photos of her and then they snapped a few of me and it ended up in a tabloid magazine. And I saw the picture of me and I was like, how do I send them a thank you?

• 1:18:18Speaker 01

  Was it a really good picture of you on vacation?

• 1:18:21Speaker 00

  In my bathing suit. And I was like, I, I should thank someone.

• 1:18:25Speaker 01

  I would say that we could put these photos in our stories, but it's gonna be like me hunching out of my empty food plate and you vacationing in Mexico.

• 1:18:35Speaker 00

  I had just like been working out and I just want to tell someone, thank you.

• 1:18:39Speaker 01

  Thanks for getting that for me. Well, since we're on the subject, I will just give this one more anecdote. I really, really did not get photographed by the paparazzi ever, and I still don't. In fact, one time I got in a car accident. I was rear-ended by the paparazzi who were chasing Christina Ricci. And I had to get out of my car.

• 1:19:03Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:19:03Speaker 01

  And we had to exchange all of our information. The guy never took my picture.

• 1:19:07Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:19:07Speaker 01

  In the whole exchange. And then another time I was out to dinner with Andy Roddick and Brooklyn Decker.

• 1:19:14Speaker 00

  No one took your picture.

• 1:19:16Speaker 01

  They swarmed them and then everyone was taking their picture.

• 1:19:19Speaker 00

  Someone said, hey, can you hold my camera?

• 1:19:21Speaker 01

  Were behind them. Yeah. They were almost like, could you get out of the way of the picture of the beautiful people, please? You're really, you two are messing up our shot of the glamour couple.

• 1:19:31Speaker 00

  That was truly our story.

• 1:19:33Speaker 01

  When I was in the proximity of people being photographed by the paparazzi.

• 1:19:37Speaker 00

  This is so true.

• 1:19:39Speaker 01

  No one cared.

• 1:19:39Speaker 00

  So true.

• 1:19:39Speaker 01

  I'm grateful.

• 1:19:40Speaker 00

  Yeah, me too.

• 1:19:42Speaker 01

  All right, moving on. Jim has completed his rundown, everybody.

• 1:19:47Speaker 00

  Huge news.

• 1:19:49Speaker 01

  He presents it to Charles. Charles doesn't even want to look at it. Charles is like, just fax it to everyone on the distribution list.

• 1:19:58Speaker 00

  He is so annoyed with Jim that it took him all day.

• 1:20:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:20:02Speaker 00

  To just compose a list. And Jim, once again, is like embarrassed and tries to make up this thing like, ah, yeah, I was just, you know, just gonna see if, you know, you and I had the same format. So, yeah.

• 1:20:12Speaker 01

  And also now Jim is not even sure what the distribution list is.

• 1:20:16Speaker 00

  I know.

• 1:20:16Speaker 01

  Has Jim done his job before? What is he doing all the time? I want you guys to know something. The shot of Jim faxing his dad the distribution list was the very first thing that Ellie shot on her very first day of work on the office.

• 1:20:32Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 1:20:33Speaker 01

  That was her first scene on the call sheet. And then the second scene that she shot that day was that scene from the very top of the show where her and Kelly go into Charles' office and they decide to name her Erin.

• 1:20:44Speaker 00

  Those are two good first scenes.

• 1:20:46Speaker 01

  I would be so grateful if my first scene on a show was me just sitting at the desk in the background.

• 1:20:52Speaker 00

  Not speaking.

• 1:20:53Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:20:54Speaker 00

  Just getting a feel for the room. Yeah. Well, we are about to have a guest star alert.

• 1:20:59Speaker 01

  We are because Pam is chatting up a potential client. One person has come to the pancake luncheon. He seems slightly interested, maybe not really interested, slightly interested in Michael Scott Paper Company.

• 1:21:12Speaker 00

  You can't really tell.

• 1:21:13Speaker 01

  Well, Pam doesn't have a business card on her, so she's gonna tear off a scrap of paper. She finds that poetic because, you know, they sell paper. She's putting a spin on it. That potential client that Pam is talking to is named Patrick Losassos and he was Jean and Lee's boxing trainer.

• 1:21:32Speaker 00

  Yeah. I remember them taking boxing classes. They were really into it.

• 1:21:37Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, that was really popular at the time. It's still kind of popular, but it had a huge flourish around this time. I mean, people were getting those, what are those bags?

• 1:21:48Speaker 00

  That they hit.

• 1:21:49Speaker 01

  Cylinder bags.

• 1:21:50Speaker 00

  Well, clearly Jenna and I did not take any boxing classes. We get to see Creed and Meredith in this scene as well. And Meredith wants to take a bunch of extra pancakes. And did you guys catch this? She said, for my kid.

• 1:22:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:22:06Speaker 00

  One kid, for my kid.

• 1:22:08Speaker 01

  For one kid. We've received a lot of mail about that, Angela. Apparently in one of the webisodes, Meredith explains the mystery of the second kid.

• 1:22:20Speaker 00

  We've got to re-watch the webisodes.

• 1:22:21Speaker 01

  We really do. We should break down the webisodes.

• 1:22:23Speaker 00

  We should add it to our re-watch, the webisodes.

• 1:22:26Speaker 01

  Absolutely. We must do this.

• 1:22:29Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 1:22:29Speaker 01

  We will do this.

• 1:22:30Speaker 00

  We will do this.

• 1:22:31Speaker 01

  Well, apparently Meredith says that when she got divorced, her ex-husband got the good kid. And she got the other one. So there are two kids.

• 1:22:41Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 1:22:42Speaker 01

  We had a fan question from Alyssa, Ryan, and Madeline. They wanted to know, were those real pancakes at the brunch? They were real pancakes.

• 1:22:52Speaker 00

  No way.

• 1:22:53Speaker 01

  Phil Shea hired a food stylist who had a bunch of griddles set up in the warehouse and she made all of those square pancakes.

• 1:23:01Speaker 00

  I thought they were like fakie foam pancakes.

• 1:23:03Speaker 01

  No, they were real edible pancakes.

• 1:23:06Speaker 00

  I would have eaten one. I love pancakes.

• 1:23:09Speaker 01

  Well, you know, it is very hard to make a square pancake.

• 1:23:13Speaker 00

  Yeah. Do you have to have a special pan or something?

• 1:23:15Speaker 01

  It's really like what Michael did where you have almost like a cookie cutter thing, but it is still incredibly difficult to do. Ainsley, our associate producer who helps us prep our episodes, sent me a deep dive on why pancakes are round and why it is so difficult to make them any other shape. I will share with you. It is because gravity pulls on fluid uniformly. So when the dollop of batter hits the griddle at a right angle, it gets tugged down into a round, symmetrical shape due to what physicists call cylindrical symmetry. This means that its shape will not change if you rotate it around its axis.

• 1:24:00Speaker 01

  That is what cylindrical symmetry is. All directions except up and down are the same. Also, I guess the scientific thing that is surface tension, whatever that is, is the physics, that helps hold it in a perfect circle.

• 1:24:18Speaker 00

  We should do a science podcast.

• 1:24:20Speaker 01

  Clearly. Clearly. I'm good at it.

• 1:24:24Speaker 00

  I think that's physics. Is that the centrifugal? There's a pulling and then there's a, you know what, gravity. I'm gonna go back to gravity.

• 1:24:32Speaker 01

  Yeah. That is some reason why pancakes are round. Thanks to some articles by Mental Floss and Quora.com.

• 1:24:40Speaker 00

  Truly, it is fascinating to me. I don't know how to retell that and I don't even understand what you said, but I appreciate the science behind it.

• 1:24:50Speaker 01

  When you make a pancake, just know there's a lot of physics at work.

• 1:24:54Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:24:55Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm. I mean, listen, I think that if you memorized what I said and you're making pancakes for your kids next time and you just throw that out there, you're gonna sound pretty smart.

• 1:25:06Speaker 00

  I'll get it wrong. They'll call me on it. They'll be like, what are you talking about?

• 1:25:10Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:25:11Speaker 00

  Or on a card.

• 1:25:12Speaker 01

  I need a cue card.

• 1:25:13Speaker 00

  Which brings me to.

• 1:25:15Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:25:15Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 1:25:16Speaker 01

  Such a great scene. Andy and Dwight in the break room. Andy's playing banjo and Dwight is playing guitar and they are jamming to Take Me Home Country Road as Erin looks on, impressed.

• 1:25:33Speaker 00

  Oh yeah, they're really trying to one-up each other in front of her.

• 1:25:36Speaker 01

  And she sings along.

• 1:25:38Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:25:39Speaker 01

  It's amazing. We got so much fan mail about this. Abby K wanted to know, was any of this improvised? Because Erin looks genuinely shocked when they start singing. And then Jasper D wants to know, does Rain actually play the guitar in real life or did he have to learn it just for this scene? Well, first of all, this was all planned. It was all scripted.

• 1:25:59Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:26:00Speaker 01

  In fact, Randy Cordray told us that it costs $22,000 to license the song for this scene. Also, Rain does play guitar. He also plays the drums.

• 1:26:11Speaker 00

  Ed does the recorder.

• 1:26:13Speaker 01

  And the recorder, which we know.

• 1:26:15Speaker 00

  And the bassoon.

• 1:26:16Speaker 01

  Oh my gosh, he plays a lot of instruments. He can also juggle. He's a great juggler.

• 1:26:22Speaker 00

  He's like a Renaissance fear guy.

• 1:26:24Speaker 01

  He is. Didn't he go to clown school? I'm pretty sure he did. I'm pretty sure he did.

• 1:26:30Speaker 00

  That sounds right.

• 1:26:30Speaker 01

  Okay. Well, Ed really does play the banjo. In fact, Ed started a bluegrass band in college called The Lonesome Trio. Ed can play banjo, guitar, and piano. And these guys, they just practiced together at lunch on the day of the scene to get this right.

• 1:26:46Speaker 00

  Yeah, you know, when they were filming it, everything was going well. And then they got to the part where Rain had to sing Take Me Home Country Road in German.

• 1:26:55Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:26:56Speaker 00

  And something about having to do it in German and keep the tune and play the guitar while Ed's playing. He was struggling a little bit. So Randy said they got him really big cue cards and they wrote out the German part of the lyrics phonetically. They had hired a translator to translate the song.

• 1:27:15Speaker 01

  Oh yeah, he's really singing the lyrics in German.

• 1:27:17Speaker 00

  Yeah. They put these huge cue cards right behind Ellie's shoulder, just off camera. And I want you to know, if you go to 17 minutes, 47 seconds, Rain, right in that moment, I see you look at the cue card.

• 1:27:30Speaker 01

  You see him check it?

• 1:27:31Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:27:31Speaker 01

  Uh, I mean, that is hard. It's hard to sing a song you know in another language, but also it's a song you just learned on the guitar.

• 1:27:40Speaker 00

  Yeah. I remember one Christmas song I learned in Indonesian. Salamat Hari Nata, salamat Hari Nata, salamat Hari Nata, Danta Un Baru. We wish you a Merry Christmas.

• 1:27:55Speaker 01

  Nice.

• 1:27:57Speaker 00

  You guys know I grew up in Jakarta, but there were times when you would learn a very sort of westernized song in a different language.

• 1:28:05Speaker 01

  Well, did you notice that when Rain is singing in English, he actually gets the lyrics a little wrong?

• 1:28:14Speaker 00

  Yeah, he flipped it.

• 1:28:15Speaker 01

  He did. So the real lyrics are, "Country roads take me home," but Rain sings, "Take me home, country roads."

• 1:28:24Speaker 00

  Right. Well, I just thought we had to hear this. Can we hear Ed playing the banjo and Rain playing the guitar?

• 1:28:59Speaker 05

  You have to stop.

• 1:29:02Speaker 01

  How fun is it to hear those guys play? Well, I know they must have had so much fun doing that. I loved listening to it because it made me just think of them in real life and... Yeah. The only thing missing for me was Creed because you know Creed would have just been jamming on his mandolin. I just loved that moment. One of the things I also loved was Justin said that, you know, this really showed the bromance because while the beginning, they're trying to one up each other and they're playing and they're playing over each other, it ends up in just a bromance mutual admiration. And Erin's not even there. She walks away and now they're just looking at each other harmonizing and jamming out and they're back.

• 1:29:44Speaker 01

  Well, while I was researching this episode, I found this really cool quote from Ed where he talked about Andy's banjo playing on the show. It's from an E Magazine article. And here's what he said. He said, "I'm happy to play my banjo at any opportunity I can get, but there's no real explanation why Andy plays the banjo. It's so fun and weird, but he's a Connecticut preppy guy. How did he pick up a banjo? It's one of Andy's many mysteries, not all of which I even understand." But I love that Andy plays the banjo, but Ed is so right. Like, I never thought, how or why does Andy know how to play the banjo? Yeah, it doesn't clock at all. And also that he could just pick up a sitar and play

• 1:30:29Speaker 01

  it, you know? It's like, he's so musically talented. I get the a cappella side, but this like banjo is so specific. It is. Well, sad to say, the pancake brunch was a little bit of a wash. Yeah. Other than the one dude, I don't think anyone came. Creed and Meredith, that's it. Yeah. At 18 minutes, 22 seconds, we have a very sad shot of Michael. The wind is blowing the paper all over. Randy told me that we set up huge special effects fans to create this wind that it would make the whole thing feel even sadder if all these papers were blowing around and the tablecloth was blowing in the wind. And then Jean told

• 1:31:12Speaker 01

  me that Randall, our cinematographer, spent almost an hour filming paper blowing across the parking lot. Like sad shots of paper. Oh, my gosh. Blowing. He said, "We never used any of it." It's an hour of paper blowing footage. Yes, that would have gone into the closet of tapes. Somewhere. Which is now Michael Scott Paper Company. Well, now they're all really down in the dumps. They go back into their tiny closet office and you kind of feel like they're giving up. And then the phone rings and Pam answers it. And guess what? It's Russell. The guy. Luncheon. He wants paper.

• 1:31:55Speaker 01

  He does. He places an order and Pam guarantees his satisfaction. She guarantees it. It is her guarantee. Mm hmm. Pam has made her first sale. Not only the first sale of Michael Scott Paper Company, but her first sale, they're going to tack a dollar up to the wall? It's a huge celebration. Pam leaves with a spring in her step. Oh, yeah. She runs out, gives Jim a kiss in the parking lot. This is an amazing day. Ryan's mom is there to pick him up. Sure. Ryan's mom was played by Cindy Drummond, and there was actually a scene that got cut from the very top of the show of her dropping him off at work and giving him a

• 1:32:38Speaker 01

  sack lunch. Cindy is an amazing actress. She's been in a ton of television comedy. Her scenes just got cut for time. It's really unfortunate because we were really lucky to have her on the show. I love that detail. Every time I see her pull up in her station wagon, I just love it. Well, the episode's going to end with Andy and Dwight. They're just in such a great mood. They're walking through the kitchen. Oscar and Angela are sitting there. Angela does a massive eye roll. Mm hmm. And there was an Angela talking head that got deleted. Dwight and Andy, friends. I mean, what do those two possibly have in common?

• 1:33:24Speaker 01

  She just takes a minute and she's like, what could they possibly have in common? And then looks at the camera like a little embarrassed. Mm hmm. That was Michael Scott Paper Company. Oh, and next week is Heavy Competition, which happens to be Office Ladies 100th episode. I can't believe it. Yeah. I can't believe it. Driving into Earwolf today, I always call my mom on my drive and she said, "Well, how many have you done?" She was like, "Are you almost done?" I said, "Mom, we're coming up on 100." She said, "Is that it?" I said, "No, we're halfway."

• 1:34:06Speaker 01

  Halfway there. All right. So we will see you next week for Office Ladies 100th episode, Heavy Competition. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you, guys. And I know we just heard Dwight and Andy playing together, but I want to hear as we leave the episode, Ed's solo as we say goodbye. I can always listen to Ed play that banjo.

• 1:34:38Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 1:34:40Speaker 05

  What? Oh, my God. You heard that? I'm so embarrassed.

• 1:34:48Speaker 01

  Thank you for listening to Office Ladies Second Drink. This episode was initially created in collaboration with Earwolf. Office Ladies is a presentation of Odyssey and is produced by Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey. Our senior producer is Matt Beagle. Our Second Drinks episodes are produced by Molly Nugent. Our audio engineer is Sam Pfeifer. Odyssey's executive producer is Leah Reese Dennis. Office Ladies was mixed and mastered by Bill Schultz. Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.