Pod Insights Office Ladies Second Drink: Baby Shower About this episode This week we’re breaking down Baby Shower. Michael has the Party Planning Committee throw a baby shower for Jan, while Jan has already had her baby and just didn’t tell Michael about it. Jenna does a deep dive on the history of baby showers, the ladies explore the song Son of A Preacher Man, and Angela shares what Phil Shea gifted her after shooting this episode. So you can put this episode to the test, just like Dwight did with Jan’s stroller, but we guarantee it’s a very good, indestructible episode.
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Transcript 11,062 words · 6 speakers
0:01 Speaker 00 Hello there and welcome to your second Drink a Baby Shower. This is the episode where we throw a baby shower for Jan's baby who has already been born.
0:11 Speaker 01 Mm-hmm.
0:12 Speaker 00 We have some really great tidbits from the writer of this episode, Erin Schur, and from prop master Phil Shea, and we reveal which celebrity might be Jan's sperm donor. That was a big find.
0:22 Speaker 01 It was. I don't want to ruin it, you guys, but it was really fun. There are also several moments that fans flagged as their favorite from Baby Shower. They are also delicious. Two of the most popular were when Jan sings "Son of a Preacher Man" to the whole room at the shower. And then when Dwight tests the stroller. But the big winner of the favorite moment for this episode is a deleted scene. And it is when Kevin reveals he has donated sperm to the very same sperm bank that Jan used, the one by IHOP.
0:57 Speaker 00 Lady, you play it during our breakdown, but we also got a letter about this moment from Lea S. in Germany who said, "Hey, guys, amazing podcast. My favorite scene from Baby Shower is actually a blooper and I was wondering why it got cut and also if it was improvised or in the shooting draft. It's the moment when you're in the conference room and Kevin tells Jan that he donated sperm." Then Kevin asks Jan if she got the sperm from next to the IHOP, and Jan looks at him as if she wants to kill him. And in the blooper, he says, "You can just let me know personally if you want it to have a brother or sister." And then everybody breaks. Lea goes on to say, "I think that's so funny and I'm kind of sad it's not in the episode.
1:40 Speaker 00 And also, how on earth did you guys make it through that episode?" Well, Lea, in the breakdown, we talk about how we couldn't get through that scene.
1:50 Speaker 01 Couldn't get through it. The moment Melora as Jan has the look of realization that it's the same sperm bank every time got me.
1:58 Speaker 00 But I will tell you, this entire scene was scripted. It was not improvised. And Lea, you will be happy to know that it has all been added back to the superfan version of Baby Shower for all to see.
2:12 Speaker 01 I'm so glad it made it back in. Another fan favorite moment came in from Brianna E. from Illinois. She says, "The suburbs of Illinois. My favorite part was when Michael was explaining what it would be like to have a baby as a president."
2:28 Speaker 00 This is a really fun talking head. We didn't play it before. It's one of those classic Michael moments where he makes a declaration before he's really thought it through and then he kinda has to bail. Let's all hear it.
2:41 Speaker 02 I love babies. I think they are beautiful in all sorts of different ways. I try to pick up and hold a baby every day if possible because it nourishes me. It feeds my soul. Babies are drawn to me and I think it's because they see me as one of them. But cooler and with my life put together a little bit, if a baby were president, there would be no taxes, there would be no war, there would be no government and things could get terrible. It actually probably would be a better screenplay idea than a serious suggestion.
3:22 Speaker 00 I could see Michael writing the screenplay for like baby president and it would be like a look who's talking thing and he'd do the voice of the baby.
3:35 Speaker 01 Oh yeah, he thinks it would be so funny and the baby would have a little tiny suit on. Have a little Oval Office.
3:42 Speaker 00 All right, this next letter comes from Soyeon in South Korea. In the scene where the PPC and Michael are preparing the baby shower, they prepared two bowls of personalized M&Ms. One said Chevy if it's a boy and Michael said, "That's me," which sounds like he picked the name. Well, I just realized that Jan must have known the gender of the baby in advance without telling Michael and that's why she let him pick the boy name. What do you think? I love you ladies.
4:13 Speaker 01 I so agree. I so agree.
4:18 Speaker 00 Soyeon, I went to the Candy Bag Alts for this episode and there are a bunch of talking heads where Michael talks about picking the name Chevy and why. And then there is this one that was actually added back to the superfan episode that pretty much proves your theory. Let's listen.
4:37 Speaker 02 Jan knows his sex, but she's not telling me. She did say that I could pick out a boy name. Her exact words were, "Knock yourself out."
4:48 Speaker 00 She's like, "Sure."
4:49 Speaker 01 Go for it, because I know I'm having a girl and I'm naming her Astrid.
4:53 Speaker 00 Exactly. Well, everyone, there you go. Anna, please enjoy your second drink of baby shower. Thank you all for writing in with your favorite baby shower moments. You can submit more of your favorite episode moments for our second drinks at office ladies.com.
5:14 Speaker 00 I'm Jenna Fisher.
5:15 Speaker 01 And I'm Angela Kinsey.
5:16 Speaker 00 We were on The Office together.
5:17 Speaker 01 And we're best friends.
5:18 Speaker 00 And now we're doing the ultimate Office rewatch podcast just for you.
5:22 Speaker 01 Each week, we will break down an episode of The Office and give exclusive behind the scenes stories that only two people who were there can tell you.
5:29 Speaker 00 We're the Office Ladies.
5:33 Speaker 00 Are you ready for a baby shower?
5:36 Speaker 01 I sure am.
5:37 Speaker 00 It's Jan's baby shower today.
5:40 Speaker 01 At a company she no longer works at, with a man she no longer dates and is not the father of her baby, it's gonna be a huge success.
5:48 Speaker 00 Oh, yeah.
5:48 Speaker 01 Yeah.
5:49 Speaker 00 All the elements are there.
5:50 Speaker 01 Right?
5:51 Speaker 00 Yes. People she doesn't really like are throwing her a baby shower.
5:55 Speaker 01 And they don't like her.
5:56 Speaker 00 It's gonna be great. It's season five, episode four. This episode was written by Erin Schur and directed by Greg Daniels. I have a summary.
6:07 Speaker 01 Let's do it.
6:08 Speaker 00 Michael and the party planning committee, still headed by Phyllis, throw a baby shower for Jan, but they are unaware that she has already given birth to her daughter Astrid. Jan's presence in the office causes Michael to be rude to Holly, and Dwight spends the day putting Jan's luxury stroller to the test. Meanwhile, Jim and Pam feel the effects of their long-distance relationship.
6:34 Speaker 01 Oh, that was hard to watch.
6:36 Speaker 00 They were out of sync.
6:37 Speaker 01 They were.
6:38 Speaker 00 You don't like to see that.
6:40 Speaker 01 No, I don't.
6:41 Speaker 00 Fast fact number one, new writer alert, Erin Schur joined the writing staff this year in season five. Erin had been a writer on Everybody Loves Raymond, which is one of my favorite sitcoms of all time.
6:54 Speaker 01 It is such a great ensemble sitcom.
6:56 Speaker 00 Do you know that one where Marie goes to art class and she makes the sculpture? And then, guys, look it up, she makes a sculpture and she's so proud and she unveils it and it looks like a vagina. But she doesn't know, but everybody else is like, Marie, what inspired you to make this piece?
7:16 Speaker 01 Oh, my gosh.
7:17 Speaker 00 It's so good.
7:18 Speaker 01 Her character was so good.
7:20 Speaker 00 So, anyway, I was very excited to have Aaron join the writing staff because then I could ask him tons of questions about Everybody Loves Raymond.
7:27 Speaker 01 And you did.
7:28 Speaker 00 I did.
7:29 Speaker 01 You chatted him up a lot about it.
7:31 Speaker 00 Well, we have some news. Angela, do you want to share?
7:34 Speaker 01 I do. So, I reached out to Aaron. We had been trying to get ahold of him. You slid into his DMs.
7:39 Speaker 00 I did.
7:40 Speaker 01 He was like, I don't even know, do I have DMs? I'm like, yes. But I found an old email and we got in touch and it was so fun to talk to him. He's a huge fan of the podcast, Jenna. He told me that he listens to the podcast in the evenings and then sometimes when he drifts off to sleep, he dreams like that he's in the podcast with us.
7:57 Speaker 00 Oh, my goodness. Is that, is that a good dream or a nightmare? I don't know.
8:01 Speaker 01 I hope it's a good thing.
8:02 Speaker 00 I hope so.
8:03 Speaker 01 Aaron had lots of great stuff to share. We're going to hit him up quite a bit. We have Aaron now. We have James and also Randy Cordrick.
8:11 Speaker 00 Yes. When Angela told me that she got ahold of Aaron, I know you were going to ask him about The Office, but I had an Everybody Loves Raymond question. Still, this poor man. I cornered him on set and now you're calling him on the phone and my question is still about Everybody Loves Raymond. But here's the thing. I remember that there was this episode that was based on a story from his real life, but I couldn't remember all the details. It's the episode, it's called 10th Anniversary and Ray and Deborah are celebrating their 10th anniversary and they want to watch their wedding tape and they get it out and they put it in the VCR. They press play and Ray has recorded a football
8:49 Speaker 00 game over their wedding tape. And I remember that there is some story where I think Aaron recorded over his wedding tape with his wife.
9:00 Speaker 01 That is true.
9:02 Speaker 00 I knew it.
9:02 Speaker 01 That is true. So this is what happened. Okay. So Aaron was a fan of Everybody Loves Raymond. It was a show he wanted to meet on. So he thought, oh, I'll record a few episodes, watch them, really study the show. So when I go in and meet, you know, I have all this information. So he popped in VHS. Guys, this dates us all a little bit. And he hit record and it was his wedding video. Yeah. And back then, you guys, it's not like you have multiple copies. Like you get your wedding videotape and that's it.
9:30 Speaker 00 Yeah.
9:31 Speaker 01 Yeah, his wife was really upset.
9:33 Speaker 00 Oh, no.
9:34 Speaker 01 And he went in to meet on Everybody Loves Raymond and he told that story. He was like, I taped over my wedding video to watch Everybody Loves Raymond. So my wife is really mad. You gotta give me this job. And he got the job.
9:47 Speaker 00 And then that story made it into an episode.
9:50 Speaker 01 Yes.
9:51 Speaker 00 Ah, I love it.
9:53 Speaker 01 A lot of Aaron's life ends up in scripts, you guys. There's a few episodes coming up that his actual life inspired things that Michael does, and I can't wait to share those with you.
10:03 Speaker 00 I'm so glad we're in touch with him.
10:04 Speaker 01 I know.
10:05 Speaker 00 Fast fact number two. Angela, we shot this episode in August of 2008. And since we brought it up before, I thought it was worth mentioning that this same month, Steve Carell won his second surfboard at the 2018 Teen Choice Awards for TV Comedy Actor.
10:26 Speaker 01 Steve, where did you put your surfboards?
10:27 Speaker 00 Back to back surfboards.
10:29 Speaker 01 Wow.
10:30 Speaker 00 When we have him on the podcast, is it gonna be weird if we ask him where his surfboards are?
10:34 Speaker 01 It depends where he put them.
10:37 Speaker 00 It's gonna be such a weird question. Well, also, this same year, the movie Juno won Best Comedy Movie and Rainn Wilson was in that. Also, this same year, we won a SAG Award.
10:52 Speaker 01 Yes.
10:52 Speaker 00 So this was like, the awards and the surfboards were coming in now.
10:57 Speaker 01 Yeah.
10:57 Speaker 00 Right? It was really cool. And I remember at the 2008 SAG Awards, we were sitting at the table and everybody was like, who's gonna give the speech if we win? And we all assumed it would be Steve, like Steve will give the speech. And Steve said, guys, this is an ensemble. I don't want to always speak for the cast. That doesn't feel right to me. This is an ensemble award. I think someone else should speak. And I mean, first of all, amazing, right?
11:23 Speaker 01 He's so sweet.
11:24 Speaker 00 Awesome. And so then Rainn said, I think Jenna should do it. And I feel like none of us really thought we were going to win because we'd won the year before. And I said, oh, okay. Yeah, sure. I'll do it. And then we won. And I had to give a speech at an award show.
11:39 Speaker 01 And you did such a great job. You were so articulate and well spoken. I was in awe because we didn't think we were going to win.
11:47 Speaker 00 No.
11:48 Speaker 01 It was a total surprise.
11:49 Speaker 00 And then we won. And I'm like, walking to the stage and I'm like, oh, my God.
11:53 Speaker 01 Well, I know you guys are tired of me talking about being pregnant, but I was pregnant at that award show. And it's a very odd thing to be super huge and pregnant at an award show. But you did such a great job.
12:05 Speaker 00 Thank you. I ended up kind of going down a rabbit hole of all the like, cool things that happened for our show in 2008.
12:11 Speaker 01 It was a good year.
12:12 Speaker 00 It was a good year. James Carey sent me the call sheet for this episode.
12:17 Speaker 01 James-a-pedia.
12:18 Speaker 00 James-a-pedia. And on the call sheet, it said, there is a screening of Rainn Wilson's new movie, The Rocker, at Universal CityWalk for the cast and crew. All are welcome. So that was also happening.
12:33 Speaker 01 So a lot happening.
12:34 Speaker 00 All right. Fast fact number three. This episode is a baby shower. So I'm going to tell you some stuff about baby showers.
12:41 Speaker 01 You did a deep dive on baby showers?
12:43 Speaker 00 I did.
12:43 Speaker 01 What is there to know? It's a baby coming. Get some presents. Get everyone ready. What else is there to know?
12:49 Speaker 00 Well, baby showers are believed to date all the way back to the Egyptian and Greek civilizations.
12:55 Speaker 01 Whoa.
12:56 Speaker 00 But baby showers as we know them today began during the baby boom era of World War II. So traditionally, the baby shower was thrown by a close family member or a friend, and the mother to be opened gifts in a decorated chair.
13:12 Speaker 01 Well, Jan has a very decorated chair.
13:14 Speaker 00 I noticed.
13:15 Speaker 01 Yeah. Thank you, party planning committee.
13:17 Speaker 00 Thank you, Phyllis.
13:19 Speaker 01 Well, I think Angela did it because Phyllis is making her do everything. So thank you, Angela.
13:24 Speaker 00 Okay. I don't know. Well, listen, nowadays, we have all kinds of ways that we can celebrate a new baby. And here are some new updated baby showers. A diaper shower. That's where all you bring are diapers in different sizes. It's like, if you go to your baby shower, it's like you went to Costco and bought out all the diapers. You just go home with every diaper. Because diapers are expensive.
13:50 Speaker 01 What's the next one?
13:51 Speaker 00 Grandparents' shower.
13:53 Speaker 00 This is a shower that you throw for the grandparents and you give them stuff to keep at their house for when the baby comes over.
14:02 Speaker 01 Boo.
14:06 Speaker 01 I love you grandparents, but come on grandparents, they love to go get that stuff.
14:10 Speaker 00 Yeah, I don't know. Here's another one.
14:13 Speaker 01 Okay.
14:13 Speaker 00 I've heard of these, a sprinkle.
14:15 Speaker 01 What?
14:16 Speaker 00 You don't have a baby shower, you have a sprinkle.
14:18 Speaker 01 Sounds like you're going pee.
14:19 Speaker 00 It does. This is a shower that you throw for your second or third or fourth babies to collect maybe some of the things if you are having a baby of a different gender.
14:31 Speaker 01 Right, right.
14:32 Speaker 00 Or if you need to refresh.
14:33 Speaker 01 Oh my God, I just got it. A shower and a sprinkle.
14:37 Speaker 00 Yeah.
14:37 Speaker 01 It's not a full shower.
14:39 Speaker 00 It's just a sprinkle.
14:40 Speaker 01 Every time you say it, I just think of tinkling.
14:42 Speaker 00 I do too. All right. The final one is a sip and see.
14:48 Speaker 01 Does this involve wine?
14:50 Speaker 00 It does. It is a celebration planned by the new parents after the baby has arrived.
14:55 Speaker 01 Oh, you sip and you get to see the baby.
14:57 Speaker 00 Yes. So I have to say, what we are going to see in this episode is technically a sip and see.
15:03 Speaker 01 You know what? I have been to a sip and see, but I didn't even know it.
15:07 Speaker 00 I love the name sip and see.
15:09 Speaker 01 Sip and see.
15:10 Speaker 00 Can I have a sip and see for my new puppy? Can I do that?
15:15 Speaker 01 Yes.
15:16 Speaker 00 Okay, good. That's all I got, Ange. Anything you want to add? Do you have a Kinsey tidbit today?
15:21 Speaker 01 Well, here's a little Kinsey tidbit. One of the things Erin said, which we have talked about before, is how long these scripts came in. You know, they were pretty big episodes and then we would have to just chisel away and there was so much that didn't make it to the screen. For example, this episode came in at 49 pages, right?
15:39 Speaker 00 Wait, what? The script for this was 49 pages?
15:44 Speaker 01 Yeah, 49 pages.
15:46 Speaker 00 That's craziness.
15:48 Speaker 01 And you know how we've talked about how they would sort of rebuild the episodes and editing? Well, Aaron had this quote that I absolutely loved. He said that Greg liked to rebuild the ship at sea.
16:00 Speaker 00 Oh, yeah.
16:01 Speaker 01 Isn't that such a great phrase?
16:02 Speaker 00 I love that.
16:03 Speaker 01 I just love that. They would get in the editor's room, man, and they would just carve it up. And I told him, I said, it's always interesting for me, now that we have all these scripts, thank you, James, to see what makes it on the screen and what doesn't, and how they move everything around. And I'm always so happy with the final product, you know? But it's a cool thing to see. But I thought that Greg likes to rebuild the ship at sea was like, a great phrase. Well, I think those were really good fast facts. And we've got some more Aaron tidbits. We should take a break and get into this episode.
16:33 Speaker 00 I like it.
16:44 Speaker 01 All right, we are back. And you guys, at 12 seconds, everything you need to know about this episode is laid out by Jim. Jim has a dry erase board, and he's going to tell you everything you need to know about this episode. Sam, can you play that clip?
17:00 Speaker 03 Jan is about to have a baby with a sperm donor. And Michael is preparing for the birth of a watermelon with Dwight. Now, this baby will be related to Michael through
17:13 Speaker 03 delusion.
17:16 Speaker 01 There you go.
17:18 Speaker 00 That pretty much sums it up. That could have been the summary.
17:20 Speaker 01 I know, right? When I saw that, I was like, well, that's everything you need to know.
17:24 Speaker 00 Did you catch the Dwight?
17:25 Speaker 01 I know. I was about to say, and you got a real good Dwight in there.
17:30 Speaker 00 Well, it's true. Dwight is walking around. He's got a watermelon in his smock that he's wearing?
17:36 Speaker 01 Yeah.
17:37 Speaker 00 An apron?
17:37 Speaker 01 They've fastened like a smock to hold the baby.
17:40 Speaker 00 Yeah, the watermelon baby.
17:42 Speaker 01 Do you have some Phil Shea trivia about this?
17:45 Speaker 00 I do. I talked to Phil Shea for about an hour yesterday.
17:49 Speaker 01 Prop master extraordinaire.
17:51 Speaker 00 I know. And we are going to have him on for an extended interview because he has got just some great info and stories.
17:58 Speaker 01 I can't wait. We need to have Erin Schur on too.
18:00 Speaker 00 We really do.
18:01 Speaker 01 Let's load it up.
18:02 Speaker 00 All right. We had a fan question from Lisa W. How many watermelons were needed to do the practice birth scene with Michael and Dwight? Phil said in total, we used about 30 watermelons.
18:14 Speaker 01 What?
18:15 Speaker 00 For this whole episode.
18:16 Speaker 01 Oh, because he straps it into the stroller later.
18:19 Speaker 00 So for these scenes and for later. And Phil said, you know, it's great living in Southern California because you can get watermelons all year. So it wasn't a problem.
18:30 Speaker 01 Okay.
18:31 Speaker 00 Yeah. Fan catch from Evelyn V. said, at 1 minute 41 seconds, I think I can see other stains from when the watermelon crashed into the ground on previous takes. I looked at it. Evelyn, I think that's a stain from something else. I don't think it's a watermelon. I feel like as Pam, I have walked up to the front of Michael's desk and I've looked down at my feet enough in scenes. I recognize that stain. I don't know what that's from. I don't think it was watermelons.
19:01 Speaker 01 I don't know what to make of that other than maybe we should have splurged for new carpet.
19:06 Speaker 00 I think Michael needs new carpet.
19:08 Speaker 01 Yeah.
19:09 Speaker 00 We had this letter from Ben M. in Chicago. I am an ER doctor and whenever I'm teaching medical students how to deliver a baby, I like to show them the cold open from this episode.
19:20 Speaker 01 Get out.
19:21 Speaker 00 Yes. This reinforces to them that newborns are very slippery.
19:27 Speaker 01 Oh, come on.
19:28 Speaker 00 It helps teach them that you must always support the baby's head and neck and also hold an arm or a leg immediately after delivery. It is a very funny cold open, but also extremely accurate.
19:40 Speaker 01 Wow.
19:41 Speaker 00 Yeah.
19:41 Speaker 01 Well, Erin told me that this whole cold open was Greg's idea. The watermelon, the whole thing.
19:47 Speaker 00 Okay.
19:47 Speaker 01 He had this whole idea and Erin just ran with it.
19:50 Speaker 00 It's funny you say that because when I spoke with Phil, he said, I think Greg had an affinity for Gallagher. And that's why you see so many watermelon gags on our show.
20:01 Speaker 01 That is very funny.
20:02 Speaker 00 Yeah.
20:03 Speaker 01 The comedian Gallagher, he used to smash watermelons. And if you were on the front row, you just get splattered.
20:07 Speaker 00 Yeah. I think that was it. Aaron told me, because after he spoke with you, he came to the DM.
20:15 Speaker 01 Oh, he found you.
20:16 Speaker 00 We DM'd.
20:17 Speaker 01 Oh, good.
20:17 Speaker 00 He said this cold open was the first thing they shot, and it was his first time on set for the office, and he kept laughing out loud. And Greg had to say to him, Aaron, this is not Everybody Loves Raymond. It's not a live show. You can't laugh out loud. And he was like, oh, no.
20:33 Speaker 01 Yes, he told me that it became a thing he became very self-conscious about, because he'd only ever worked in four camera, where they encourage you to laugh and laugh and laugh. And then he had to start suppressing the laugh and suppressing the laugh. And he said, after a long day of work and suppressing the laugh, he would go home and just burp constantly.
20:50 Speaker 00 He told me that, too.
20:52 Speaker 01 He had given himself like some type of indigestion from holding in laughter all day.
20:57 Speaker 00 Oh.
20:58 Speaker 01 Well, you guys, this was very hard to watch without laughing, for all of us. And if you go to 1 minute 11 seconds, Phyllis had to put her head down, because she was laughing so hard.
21:09 Speaker 00 The shot of the bullpen.
21:12 Speaker 01 Reacting?
21:13 Speaker 00 Yeah, was so funny to me.
21:16 Speaker 01 Well, there is a lot in this episode that we could not get through. Oh, man, the conference room. We'll get there.
21:23 Speaker 00 I think we should get to the party planning committee now, because they have been very busy decorating the conference room for the shower.
21:30 Speaker 01 Yeah.
21:30 Speaker 00 They have two bowls of M&Ms.
21:32 Speaker 01 So I talked to Aaron about this, and I said, who came up with Astrid and Chevy? And he said Astrid was definitely Greg. He thought it'd be funny to see that name on an M&M.
21:45 Speaker 01 And then Chevy, he couldn't remember who came up with that. He said he thinks the room kind of pitched names.
21:50 Speaker 00 It's funny, when I saw the bowls of M&Ms with the names, that was like a really popular thing. It might still be popular, where you can get these personalized M&Ms.
21:58 Speaker 01 Oh, I went to the website. It's still a whole thing. High school graduation, anniversaries, and I did this for my parents. My parents' anniversary, I got M&Ms with their names on it.
22:08 Speaker 00 Well, when we did the Jim and Pam wedding episode, Greg threw the cast a viewing party that was kind of like a little mini reception.
22:19 Speaker 01 Mm-hmm.
22:19 Speaker 00 And he had bowls of M&Ms that said Jim and Pam.
22:22 Speaker 01 He clearly was a big fan.
22:24 Speaker 00 He loved that you could personalize an M&M.
22:26 Speaker 01 I know. Well, they've gotten the name wrong, though. The party planning committee has Ass Turd. Phyllis is like, that can't be right. Angela's like, Michael wrote down Ass Turd. And Michael said, yeah, it's like the name of a Viking princess. So of course I had to research Astrid. I didn't research Astrid. And he is right. Michael is right. According to the internet, Astrid has Norse, Danish, and Swedish roots. It can mean godly strength or divine beauty. And the name Astrid has been used by Norway's royal family for hundreds of years.
23:08 Speaker 00 You know, Michael is annoyed by their effort.
23:10 Speaker 01 Mm hmm.
23:11 Speaker 00 He says, Phyllis, we gave you a whole golden shower. I want my golden shower.
23:17 Speaker 01 He does. And then he has this talking head where he says he's gonna love this baby, even if it isn't his, like that dog that nursed the tiger cub. Right? Bizarre, but also beautiful. It happens. Jenna, I looked it up and there are so many stories of dogs nursing tigers. But the one that caught my eye was on the Today Show in August of 2008.
23:41 Speaker 00 That's when we shot this episode.
23:43 Speaker 01 I know. And there was a safari park in Kansas with a white tiger named Sassy.
23:49 Speaker 00 Oh.
23:49 Speaker 01 Who had cubs, but she was too sassy to nurse them.
23:53 Speaker 00 Okay.
23:54 Speaker 01 So a golden retriever stepped in, Isabella.
23:57 Speaker 00 Well, I would expect that from a golden retriever. I really would. What a good dog.
24:01 Speaker 01 Anyway, it just cracked me up that on the Today Show, there was a whole thing about Sassy and Isabella. And I think it ended up in our episode.
24:09 Speaker 00 Clearly it did.
24:10 Speaker 01 Michael is gonna bark orders at Phyllis. She's doing a talking head. I was supposed to be glaring at her in the background. And if you go to 4 minutes 11 seconds, you can see me talking to Andy. And I'm so delighted that Phyllis is messing up. And then Michael walks in and kind of yells at her and says, make the party, make the party. And then he leaves and Phyllis starts pumping the balloon.
24:31 Speaker 00 Mm hmm.
24:31 Speaker 01 Well, Steve improvised, walking back in and saying, puppet, puppet.
24:35 Speaker 00 He did?
24:36 Speaker 01 He did. That was all improv. We just started cracking up.
24:39 Speaker 00 I thought I could see you starting to break in the background of that.
24:42 Speaker 01 And Phyllis is starting to break too.
24:44 Speaker 00 So now Jim is at his desk and Pam is trying to tell him this story.
24:51 Speaker 01 I loved this.
24:52 Speaker 00 It was so funny.
24:53 Speaker 01 When she's like, Sarah Kaya comes in. And he goes, oh, wait, Sarah Kaya comes in? And she's like, no, Sarah Kaya comes in.
25:02 Speaker 01 And then at the very end of the scene, when Dwight's like, who's Sarah Kaya comes in? That was improvised.
25:09 Speaker 00 It was.
25:10 Speaker 01 Rain improvised that. That's not in the script.
25:12 Speaker 00 Oh, my gosh. I watched this and I feel like I have had these conversations.
25:18 Speaker 01 Yeah.
25:18 Speaker 00 100%. And I love the line when she's like, why can't you just be in art school with me? Cause she's trying so hard to tell him the story and you know, this is the beginning of this storyline with Jim and Pam, where we're going to show that this distance has gone on for a while and maybe they're not connecting as easily as they used to.
25:38 Speaker 01 You know, long distance relationships are hard and particularly when the people involved in your new life, the other person doesn't know. And it's kind of hard to keep track.
25:47 Speaker 00 Oh, yes. I mean, we experience this all the time when we go on locations. Or I remember Lee went on location to shoot a movie and he was directing a film. And he's trying to tell me this hilarious story about some prop mishap that happened and everyone was laughing about these prop glasses. And I'm just like, I don't know who any of these people are. And what's really hard about it is that I like to be able to imagine the people or where they are. And we've talked about this when we get to a new place, we're like, send me a video of where you are so that when I'm talking to you, I know what your little apartment looks like, or I know what your room looks like.
26:23 Speaker 01 Yeah, I have to have that. Otherwise I'm a little unsettled because I can't picture where you are.
26:27 Speaker 00 Yes. So I feel like that's what Pam and Jim are up against right now.
26:32 Speaker 01 Yeah, he doesn't know her world and it's some of that location situation kind of stuff.
26:38 Speaker 00 I love the next scene.
26:41 Speaker 00 I love it so much. Angela is preparing this poster board full of baby photos because they're going to play a game where you have to guess which baby photo belongs to which employee. And Andy comes in and he mistakes Phyllis's baby photo for Angela. Will you please tell me about shooting this scene, Angela?
27:02 Speaker 01 Well, one of the reasons I storm off is because I started to laugh.
27:05 Speaker 00 I could tell.
27:06 Speaker 01 That was me trying to get out of there before you saw me laughing on camera. So here's the thing, Greg. Directed this episode, right? And he said, you guys, can you bring in your actual baby photos? And he said, if you don't have a baby photo, it could be like when you're a toddler, just can I get photos of you guys when you were little? And we did.
27:24 Speaker 00 Yes, we got a lot of fan mail about that. Were these actual photos of the cast? They were.
27:30 Speaker 01 Yeah.
27:30 Speaker 00 There's three people who aren't on the poster. Me.
27:33 Speaker 01 Yep.
27:34 Speaker 00 John and Steve.
27:36 Speaker 01 Everyone else is an actual baby photo from their childhood.
27:40 Speaker 00 Including Amy Ryan. She's up there.
27:42 Speaker 01 Yes. And so was Mindy. I mean, and we're all on the board.
27:45 Speaker 00 Yeah.
27:46 Speaker 01 All on the board. Jenna, what did I bring in today? Do you want to share with them?
27:49 Speaker 00 You brought in your baby photo, the one that was on the board with your little hand up on your little chubby cheek.
27:58 Speaker 01 I know. You guys, it's really me. I get asked this all the time. And my mom, I called my mom and I said, Mom, we're doing the baby shower episode and it's my baby photo. And I want to know everything about it. She said, oh, I have several more of that same day where we put you in different poses. Oh, so there's more, but here's what my mom said. She took me to JCPenney's at the Acadiana Shopping Mall in Lafayette, Louisiana. I was around six months old and apparently I was born with just a ton of hair and it was sort of an Auburn brown. She said, I had so much hair, just right out of the gate. I had tons of hair. And so she tried to style it for the photo. I was like, Mom, you gave me like a mohawk with bangs.
28:42 Speaker 01 So yeah, she said she had tried to put a little ribbon at the top.
28:45 Speaker 00 That would have made more sense.
28:47 Speaker 01 Right. But it, I don't know, it fell out or something. And then they propped me up on my hand like that.
28:54 Speaker 00 It's so funny because I remember those photo studio photo shoots. That was a thing of my childhood as well. And they would have these carpeted blocks.
29:03 Speaker 01 Yes.
29:04 Speaker 00 And you would like be propped up on a little carpeted block.
29:07 Speaker 01 I'm propped up because I can't sit yet, really.
29:10 Speaker 00 Yes.
29:11 Speaker 01 Anyway, there you go. That's my actual baby photo, you guys.
29:14 Speaker 00 Well, since mine wasn't on the board, I tell you what, I'll post mine on the office lady's pod. So you can see me as a baby too.
29:21 Speaker 01 Yes. And I'll ask my mom if she can find any other photos from that particular photo shoot.
29:25 Speaker 00 Please. As Michael is preparing for Jan's arrival,
29:30 Speaker 01 Mm-hmm.
29:31 Speaker 00 he needs to tell Holly that he's gonna be kind of cold to her today because he needs to protect Jan's feelings.
29:40 Speaker 01 Jan's bloated feelings.
29:42 Speaker 00 Yeah, because Jan is gonna come in, she's gonna be so unattractive.
29:46 Speaker 01 And Holly is very attractive.
29:48 Speaker 00 And yeah, he just wants to be sensitive. So he warns her. But then Jan arrives.
29:56 Speaker 01 She's not pregnant.
29:57 Speaker 00 She has a baby.
29:59 Speaker 01 And she looks amazing.
30:01 Speaker 00 Yeah.
30:01 Speaker 01 But she's had the baby.
30:03 Speaker 00 We had a fan question from Brittany Y, Sarah M, and many more. Who is the baby that played Astrid? I will tell you, thanks to James Apedia. First of all, you know, babies are played by many babies.
30:18 Speaker 01 Mm-hmm.
30:19 Speaker 00 Sometimes there are a set of twins, like in the case of Cece. Cece was this set of twins and it was the same twin girls all through the show. They were absolute sweethearts and I loved them. But sometimes, especially with a baby this little, it's like three babies, five babies, lots of babies.
30:37 Speaker 01 Oh, Philip was several different babies and then a different toddler.
30:41 Speaker 00 Yes. So this is because there are rules about babies working on a set. They can only work for like 20 minutes.
30:49 Speaker 01 And I think that's a good thing.
30:50 Speaker 00 Yes. Also, if you have a baby and one of them's fussy, you can swap them out for a different baby. They're all dressed the same. You go backstage and there's like six babies in the same outfit. So Astrid was played first by a set of twins and another baby. Here's the crazy thing. The twins' names were Matthew and Joey Levinson.
31:12 Speaker 01 Crazy.
31:13 Speaker 00 Right?
31:13 Speaker 01 And they were playing Jan Levinson's baby.
31:15 Speaker 00 Yes. The other baby was Harvey Green. So her babies were the Levinson-Green babies.
31:22 Speaker 01 Okay.
31:24 Speaker 00 All right. And then that was on one day. The other day, we had a set of triplets playing Astrid. They were Chase, Chloe, and Juliet Purcell. So those are all the babies. We also had a fake baby.
31:37 Speaker 01 We did have a fake baby, yeah.
31:39 Speaker 00 And it's really funny, because if you look at the call sheet, scene by scene, it'll say, "Real baby or fake baby?" Like, what we're using in the scene. And they would stagger them, right? Because the babies could only work for 20 minutes. So you'd have a scene with a real baby, and then a scene with fake baby.
31:56 Speaker 01 Well, Michael walks out of the kitchen, and he sees Jan with the baby. I can't imagine how he felt. He'd been to all of his birthing classes with her, and then he was sort of left out of this big moment. And he confronts Jan about it. This is one of my favorite couplets of dialogue from the whole episode.
32:14 Speaker 00 Okay.
32:14 Speaker 01 It's so rich. Michael says, "Why didn't you call me? I could have helped." Jan said, "Well, the birth instructor thought it wasn't a good idea for you to be there." So, Michael says, "Aw, man, him? That guy? He had no sense of humor, and I proved him wrong in so many ways. And it just made me think about these classes. I wish we could have seen Michael trying to do comedy bits with, like, a birthing instructor. I would have loved to seen that scene."
32:43 Speaker 00 I think what Jan has done to Michael is so cruel.
32:46 Speaker 01 I know.
32:47 Speaker 00 That she didn't call him. And also in that scene, Jan is like, "Michael, you don't know what I've been through." And he said, "No, no, I don't." And I love Steve's delivery on that.
32:58 Speaker 01 I know. I guess she feels bad, and she lets him hold the baby, but it says the baby has to stay in the car seat. And then Michael has this very sweet talking head, where he says he loves babies, and he tries to pick them up and hold one every day. It just nourishes him. And then we see this really sweet montage of Michael and babies, and the babies love him.
33:19 Speaker 00 They really do. Well, that's because it's Steve Carell is holding the babies. I mean, not to say that they wouldn't have loved Michael, but Steve is a natural with kids.
33:28 Speaker 01 I know.
33:29 Speaker 00 We had a fan question from Evan L. and Stacy M. In the scenes where Michael is holding all the babies, were those hired actors, or did the crew just go out and let people line up to have their baby held by Steve Carell? All of those babies were the children of our writers and our crew. So here is a list of the babies. At nine minutes, you have baby on the street. This is Emma Holland, daughter of our editor Dean Holland. And that is also Dean's wife, Tasha. At nine minutes, nine seconds, I'm calling this one baby at the bathroom. That baby is Theodore Grandy. The woman is Sage Grandy. And this is the son of our writer Charlie Grandy.
34:15 Speaker 00 At nine minutes, 15 seconds, we have double baby. And that is our writer, Mike Schur's wife, JJ Philbin, and their baby, William, along with our camera operator, Matt Sohn's wife, Melissa, and their baby, Devon. And the final baby at nine minutes, 17 seconds, that is Avery Farrell, the daughter of our writer, Anthony Farrell. The woman was a background performer, but that's Anthony loading the stroller into the car. So we had had kind of like a little mini baby boom on our set. All of these kids were around the same age. I texted with Dean. He said his daughter, Emma, is now 13 years old. And she tells everybody that she's one of the babies on the office.
35:00 Speaker 00 And Angela, I know you get asked a lot about Isabel, because she was right around the same age, too.
35:06 Speaker 01 Yes, Isabel just had her 13th birthday. There was this baby boom, and it was really fun for us to have our babies on set. And I get asked if she was in this episode, and she wasn't. And you know why? The day they filmed the scene with all the babies was my day off.
35:20 Speaker 00 Oh.
35:21 Speaker 01 And I wanted to be home with my baby, not bringing my baby to work. So I wasn't in it. And they said, don't worry, Angela, we're going to get Isabel in there. And they did. She ended up having a very fun day on set years later at Cece's dance recital.
35:35 Speaker 00 I can't wait.
35:36 Speaker 01 I know.
35:37 Speaker 00 Well, Michael's going to try to make the best of it. Okay, he is going to present Astrid to the office, and they're going to go into the conference room.
35:45 Speaker 01 Jenna, he does the Lion King and holds the car seat over his head.
35:50 Speaker 00 I know. I hope that was all baby day.
35:52 Speaker 01 That was fake baby, and that was all scripted.
35:55 Speaker 00 Oh, boy. Well, when we move into the conference room, Kevin is like, you know, the fact that the babies here kind of ruins the games. And Michael is like, "No, it doesn't. No, it doesn't." It kinda did.
36:10 Speaker 01 It did. Well, you know, the theme is a baby shower and all the games are for an expecting mother, so it was really awkward. But there are a lot of scenes in this conference room baby shower that didn't make it. I'm gonna share a few. The first one is, Jenna, one of the funniest things I have had to witness, and we could not get through it. Kevin thinks he might be the sperm donor. And the look on Jan's face is amazing. Sam, can you play that from the deleted scenes?
36:38 Speaker 04 Hey, Jan, you went to a sperm bank?
36:40 Speaker 05 Uh, yes, I did.
36:42 Speaker 04 I donated sperm.
36:44 Speaker 05 Oh.
36:45 Speaker 04 Ooh. Maybe I'm the father.
36:49 Speaker 05 Well, this is a highly exclusive establishment.
36:52 Speaker 04 Next to the IHOP?
36:56 Speaker 05 Well, I paid for an ideal specimen. Are you saying Kevin is not an ideal specimen? This is a wonderful shower, everyone. Thank you.
37:06 Speaker 04 I might have done it with Jan.
37:09 Speaker 05 It's not Kevin.
37:13 Speaker 01 We could not get through it. Whenever Brian said, "You mean the one by IHOP?" Just every single time, because Melora's reaction as Jan was so good. And then, you know, she says she paid for premium sperm, which we learned might have been Andy Roddick's.
37:32 Speaker 00 I love, there are so many deleted scenes about who the father of Jan's baby is. We've got Andy Roddick, maybe Kevin. There's a lot of speculation that it's Hunter.
37:45 Speaker 01 Yes.
37:46 Speaker 00 And none of these scenes actually made it into the episodes. So what do you think about that? Do you think, like, if something didn't make it in, it counts? Or does it not count if it doesn't make it in the episode?
38:01 Speaker 01 So yeah, what is the canon, right?
38:03 Speaker 00 Yes, exactly.
38:04 Speaker 01 The show. Well, I guess it would have to be what aired, right?
38:09 Speaker 00 So then that would mean it's just a mystery.
38:11 Speaker 01 It's a mystery. She paid top dollar for it, though.
38:14 Speaker 00 That's what we know.
38:15 Speaker 01 Yeah, that's all we know and all we'll ever truly know. And I think the one thing we also know is that it's not Michael's because he had to wear two condoms.
38:24 Speaker 00 We know that.
38:25 Speaker 01 Yeah.
38:26 Speaker 00 We know whose baby it's not.
38:27 Speaker 01 That's right.
38:28 Speaker 00 I got this cool letter from Kristen B. She has a background catch and she said, "The first time I watched this episode after having my son, I almost jumped out of my seat when I saw the pink donut pillow on Jan's chair at the baby shower. I had never noticed it prior to giving birth, but after I got one at the hospital myself, I just have to say this is amazing and 10-10 for attention to detail."
38:54 Speaker 01 That is a great background catch. I noticed it as well.
38:57 Speaker 00 I loved that detail.
38:58 Speaker 01 I did too. I don't know if you guys also noticed behind Jan's chair, there's a little table and on the table is a Big Bird stuffed animal. There is a deleted scene where Michael tells Phyllis he wants storks. She said she couldn't get storks and he's like, "Look, I barely got Jan to even come today. This needs to be a big party. If you can't get a stork, I at least want Big Bird." And the best Phyllis could do is she got a Big Bird stuffed animal.
39:23 Speaker 00 Wow.
39:24 Speaker 01 Yeah.
39:25 Speaker 00 Oh, that is so great. Well, the group gives Jan her gift. It's a stroller.
39:31 Speaker 01 I think this is a very nice gift.
39:33 Speaker 00 It's a very nice gift because it's a big ticket item, but she's already got a stroller.
39:38 Speaker 01 She has an Orbit.
39:40 Speaker 00 That Oscar tells us costs $1,200.
39:44 Speaker 01 Yeah.
39:45 Speaker 00 Dwight is curious. He's like, "I need to see how good this stroller really is."
39:50 Speaker 01 Yeah, he said his whole bomb shelter bunker thing that he built didn't even cost that much. And he needs to see what the stroller's made of, if it's going to cost that much.
40:00 Speaker 00 So yeah, he wheels the stroller out and then Jan is gonna sing to the baby.
40:07 Speaker 01 Oh, Jenna.
40:08 Speaker 00 How did you get through this? How did you get through it?
40:11 Speaker 01 It was like bite the inside of your cheek, don't make eye contact with anyone. And also at the same time, In total awe of Malora.
40:22 Speaker 00 Yes, who has an amazing singing voice and performs as a singer, guys.
40:26 Speaker 01 Yes, she has albums.
40:28 Speaker 00 Yes.
40:28 Speaker 01 She's an amazing singer. She just owned this moment so wholeheartedly. There is a scene, Jenna, that was in the script that we shot. I remember shooting it because the timing and everything in it was amazing. So Jan is singing "Son of a Preacher Man." She's belting it out and Ryan comes in urgently to tell her something. She won't stop singing. And I printed out the script. Here Jenna, just read right here.
40:54 Speaker 00 Okay, so I'm gonna be Ryan.
40:55 Speaker 01 Yeah.
40:56 Speaker 00 Okay.
40:57 Speaker 01 And you guys forgive my singing. I'm not a singer, okay?
40:59 Speaker 00 Okay.
41:00 Speaker 01 Was a son of a preacher man. Yes, he was.
41:03 Speaker 00 Hey, Jan.
41:03 Speaker 01 He was.
41:04 Speaker 00 Jan.
41:05 Speaker 01 Yes, he was.
41:06 Speaker 00 You parked in the handicap spot.
41:08 Speaker 01 Keys are in my purse.
41:10 Speaker 00 I'll just, I'll take them. Did I do good?
41:13 Speaker 01 You did great. Sorry to make you guys suffer through my singing. Malora was amazing. She never missed a beat. She sang where her keys were. It was amazing.
41:23 Speaker 00 I did a mini deep dive on "Son of a Preacher Man."
41:27 Speaker 01 Did you really?
41:28 Speaker 00 Yes. I think we should take a break and when we come back, I'll tell you what I found.
41:32 Speaker 01 Okay.
41:44 Speaker 00 All right, we are back and I'm gonna start us off with a fan question from Yvette M. and Alexandra S. Why was the song "Son of a Preacher Man" chosen for Jan to sing to her baby?
41:56 Speaker 01 I asked Aaron who picked the song and Aaron said, he isn't sure if Mindy picked it per se, but she was pushing it. He said, I don't remember how exactly it came up in the writers room, but the minute it was out there, Mindy was like, that's gotta be it. That has got to be it. So I think we have Mindy to thank for that.
42:15 Speaker 00 I got curious about the song, so I did a little deep dive on it. "Son of a Preacher Man" was written by John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins. It was recorded by Dusty Springfield in 1968, and her version is most popular. It's been covered many times by many artists. Here's what I found interesting. Apparently, the rights to record the song were originally offered to Aretha Franklin. She was the daughter of a preacher, and the rumor is that she turned it down because she worried that maybe it might be a little disrespectful, but she changed her mind.
42:51 Speaker 01 Oh.
42:52 Speaker 00 And she recorded a cover version of the song just one year later in 1969 for her album Soul Sister. I had to hear it. Sam, will you play it?
43:33 Speaker 01 It's so good, isn't it? Mm-hmm. She always gives me chills.
43:36 Speaker 00 Dolly Parton also did a cover in 1996 for her album Treasures, and it is also a gem. Do you want to hear that one?
43:43 Speaker 01 Yes.
44:10 Speaker 01 I mean...
44:11 Speaker 00 I can listen to these women sing anything.
44:13 Speaker 01 They're legends, legends in our podcast today. Do we need to hear Dusty's?
44:19 Speaker 00 I think we need to hear Dusty's.
44:21 Speaker 01 I mean, we have to hear Dusty's.
44:23 Speaker 00 It's "Son of a Preacher Man" day today.
44:25 Speaker 01 I mean, I just want to hear all of them.
44:30 Speaker 01 I feel so embarrassed that I even attempted to sing it at all to recreate the scene with Ryan. I am so sorry.
45:02 Speaker 01 Ah, so good. All right, all right.
45:04 Speaker 00 Here's what I have to say. Kudos to John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins because when you write a song that can be sung by all of these different people with their different spins on it and their different arrangements.
45:16 Speaker 01 And it still knocks your socks off every time.
45:19 Speaker 00 You have written a good song.
45:20 Speaker 01 Yep. One last thing I want to say about "Son of a Preacher Man" is that when Melora sang it, she improvised the snapping. And you know what? It about got me on the floor. We were so trying to suppress laughter that one more thing was like the tipping point, you know?
45:40 Speaker 00 Yes.
45:41 Speaker 01 And so as she's swaying and singing, when she just starts doing that snap, I was like, oh, Lord, I'm not going to make it. I am not going to make it. There are really great scripted talking heads of people reacting to it. And Stanley had a great one where he was like, I used to like that song.
46:00 Speaker 00 Well, Jim is going to try to describe it to Pam. She's at the laundromat and she can't hear anything he's saying.
46:07 Speaker 01 Why couldn't she just walk away from the machines, Jenna?
46:10 Speaker 00 You know what? Megan P. would like to know the answer to that question as well.
46:13 Speaker 01 Megan, it's the first thing I thought. She hasn't talked to him all day. She finally has free time. Walk away from the machine.
46:19 Speaker 00 I'll tell you two things. Number one, right before this phone call, there was a bit of the scene that got clipped.
46:26 Speaker 01 Mm-hmm.
46:26 Speaker 00 Pam is with her friend at the laundromat and they are together and they're talking about a class assignment. And she says, oh, just one second. I'm going to take this call. So maybe she felt like she couldn't walk away. But also in the script, there is a version where she does walk away from the machines. And the problem is not that the machines are loud. The problem is simply that Pam is not understanding what's so bad about Jan singing to her baby. So it's another kind of like
46:57 Speaker 01 Miscommunication.
46:59 Speaker 00 Like you had to be there kind of things.
47:01 Speaker 01 Mm-hmm.
47:01 Speaker 00 But they kept the loud laundry machine version in. I'll have you know, location alert, the laundromat was Laundaland on Sherman Way in North Hollywood, California. I like to throw these out there because there are these office tours where people go around and look at our locations. And so I thought, I don't know if you want to see where Pam did her laundry. That's where.
47:23 Speaker 01 Okay.
47:24 Speaker 00 So Pam has this talking head at the laundromat where she says that she's not frustrated. You know, they have these kinds of days where they don't connect, even when they're together in Scranton. And then she discovers that she washed her lipstick and it got all over her green towel. You know, I recently washed Lee's wallet and car key.
47:42 Speaker 01 I remember this. You called me and you're like, I washed the keys to the car, his whole entire wallet.
47:50 Speaker 00 Whole wallet.
47:51 Speaker 01 Whole wallet.
47:51 Speaker 00 And now he couldn't find his wallet for days. He was like, where is my wallet? I can't find my wallet.
47:56 Speaker 01 It's in the laundry basket?
47:58 Speaker 00 It was in his pocket.
47:59 Speaker 01 Yeah.
48:00 Speaker 00 In the laundry basket. And I didn't check the pockets. I threw in the laundry. I found it in the dryer. It went through a full wash cycle, a full dryer cycle. I said, babe, I found your wallet.
48:14 Speaker 01 Wait, did the credit cards, did it all get melted? Did he have to get everything new?
48:20 Speaker 00 Lady, he went out, he bought some gas and the credit cards worked.
48:24 Speaker 01 Well, how about that?
48:26 Speaker 00 So.
48:26 Speaker 01 I guess you didn't have it. You didn't have it on high heat.
48:29 Speaker 00 No, I did dry on low. And the car key still works because it's one of those little like, boop, boop. Yeah, it still works.
48:37 Speaker 01 While all of the singing is going on, Dwight decides he's going to put the stroller to the ultimate test.
48:43 Speaker 00 Yes. We had a fan question from Beth E., Rachel R., Amy F., and Julie G. How many of those strollers did you use for the scenes where Dwight tests its durability? This is why I was on the phone with Phil Schae for an hour yesterday.
49:00 Speaker 01 Well, how many did they use?
49:02 Speaker 00 I'll tell you, it started with Phil Shea doing a ton of research to find the perfect stroller for this episode. He said he and Greg had a long talk about how Jan was the kind of person who would have to have the fanciest stroller.
49:19 Speaker 01 Mm-hmm.
49:19 Speaker 00 In the script, it's written that the stroller is indestructible, and he wanted to find something that would even look out of place in Scranton. So he went on a search for an indestructible luxury stroller, and he found out about the Orbit baby stroller, which was kind of a startup stroller at the time.
49:40 Speaker 01 Mm-hmm.
49:41 Speaker 00 It launched in September of 2006, so just two years before this episode. It was invented by two dads, Brian White and Joseph Hi. I think it's Hi, Joseph, I'm sorry if I got that wrong. And they made it because Brian had just become a dad, and he said that his back really hurt whenever he was trying to get the baby in and out of the car seat in the car. So in his garage, they made a wooden prototype. They studied all kinds of things, but they also sought to use green materials.
50:16 Speaker 01 I like these fellows.
50:17 Speaker 00 Yeah, and this car seat was cool because Phil said it looked kind of weird, but it also rotates 360 degrees. So Phil was like, it was so cool. Like, if you want to get your baby out of the car and not remove the car seat, you can swivel it, and then you can get your baby out of the car really easy.
50:35 Speaker 01 Well, Jenna, you know, Phil Shea had a few extra orbits left over, and I was a new mom on set, and he always was looking out for us. And he said, Ange, do you want one of these Orbit strollers? They're pretty amazing. And I said, yeah. And that was my favorite thing about it, too, what you just said. You could pivot and it would lock into place. So if you swiveled it, it could face left, right, front, back, and it would lock into place. Not only was it great when you got your baby out of the car seat, what I loved is you could attach it to the stroller, and let's say you're on a walk and the sun is Kind of beating down and you don't want to put the little flap over your baby because your baby wants to be able to see where you're going.
51:15 Speaker 00 Mm hmm.
51:15 Speaker 01 You could just pivot. So then the baby could look at everything on the right side of the street or everything on the left side or look at you. It was so great.
51:23 Speaker 00 I love that Phil gave you a stroller and that he gave you a chair from work bus.
51:27 Speaker 01 I know.
51:28 Speaker 00 Do you have any more things?
51:30 Speaker 01 I'm sure I do.
51:33 Speaker 00 Maybe your memory will be jogged as we go along.
51:35 Speaker 01 As we go through the episodes.
51:37 Speaker 00 Well, Phil said that he called Brian on the phone and he was like, listen, I've researched your stroller and I want to put it on the television show, The Office. And he told him the storyline and Brian agreed to send us 10 strollers. And then Brian flew out and watched the taping. Phil also said the stroller really was indestructible.
52:01 Speaker 01 He's not kidding. There are so many deleted scenes of Rain as Dwight doing things to that stroller.
52:08 Speaker 00 Oh, yeah.
52:08 Speaker 01 And the stroller just keeps on trekking.
52:10 Speaker 00 There's way more.
52:11 Speaker 01 Mm hmm.
52:12 Speaker 00 Phil told me that one of his favorite things to do was to reach out to these smaller companies that didn't normally do national advertising and feature their products on the show or collaborate with them. And he said, another one of the reasons that you saw all of the local foods or the local sodas on The Office was because one of our characters is eating like Lay's potato chips. That could be a conflict with maybe another big national potato chip brand that would have a national commercial running during our show. So we weren't allowed. So his choice was he could tape over Lay's or create a fakey.
52:50 Speaker 01 Fakey chip bag.
52:51 Speaker 00 Right. He said, but what he liked to do was feature products, local products like a Hearst chip.
52:59 Speaker 01 A smaller company.
53:00 Speaker 00 That is not going to be in competition for these national spots. And that's another way that he focused in on the orbit. He would try to find these companies that could be approved.
53:10 Speaker 01 Well, I love that because you know, we love supporting small business.
53:13 Speaker 00 Yeah. Well, the Orbit stroller is still available and it is now a big business. I saw online, you can get one at Nordstrom.
53:22 Speaker 01 Well, Jan is done singing. She's pooped out.
53:24 Speaker 00 I mean, all that singing is going to tire you out.
53:26 Speaker 01 Yeah, she wants to take a nap. She gives the baby to Michael and she says, when I wake up, I want to talk to you about Astrid's 529. Which I looked up. It's like a savings plan for college.
53:38 Speaker 00 Yeah.
53:39 Speaker 01 So what, Michael has to go to all the birthing classes, but he doesn't get to be there for the birth of the baby? And now he's going to contribute to the college fund?
53:46 Speaker 00 That's what it sounds like.
53:47 Speaker 01 Jan needs to go, buh buh.
53:49 Speaker 00 I agree. Well, Michael only holds the baby for a short time. He's not feeling that connection, and he gives the baby to Phyllis.
53:57 Speaker 01 Yeah.
53:58 Speaker 00 First, Michael has to go to the warehouse. He needs some advice from Daryl.
54:02 Speaker 01 Mm hmm.
54:03 Speaker 00 We had a fan question from Ethan B. Did Steve improvise the moment when he asks if he can hold Daryl? They get on this runner where Daryl's like, "Do you want to hold this? Do you want to hold that? And see if you have a connection? Do you want to hold me?" No, you guys, that was in the script. That whole scene was scripted just like that.
54:26 Speaker 01 Well, Jan is still sleeping. In the deleted scenes, she's like snoring and everyone's looking at her. She's covered herself with the plastic tablecloth from the shower, and she wakes up and has a pretty amazing exchange with Holly.
54:40 Speaker 00 Where she realizes what we have realized, which is that Holly has a little bit of Michael Scott in her.
54:46 Speaker 01 Yeah.
54:46 Speaker 00 She's making some real Michael Scott jokes here.
54:49 Speaker 01 Yeah. And Jan is like, "Oh, I get it. Funny."
54:52 Speaker 00 Mm hmm.
54:54 Speaker 01 But Astrid is now with Angela and Andy.
54:57 Speaker 00 I love this scene so much. Angela, please tell me everything about putting all these vegetables on this baby.
55:03 Speaker 01 All right. They had the table completely laid out. They had it all staged. They had the mom with the baby in the wings, standing right there. And literally, right before action, the mom put the baby down, and then I just put that big, giant fake piece of lettuce.
55:19 Speaker 00 Yes.
55:20 Speaker 01 On the baby. It was really hard for me because I was a new mom, and I was just was like, "Okay, I just want to do this so fast. I want to do the scene so quickly." And then it was so hard for me as a mom to not really connect with the baby at all and just say, like, "I need it to look up here. Make it look up here."
55:35 Speaker 00 Yes.
55:35 Speaker 01 But it's such a window into Angela. You know, she was a pageant baby. She dresses up her cats.
55:41 Speaker 00 Yes.
55:41 Speaker 01 I feel like her kids are going to be dressed up a lot for all kinds of... Photos and Andy is on board.
55:48 Speaker 00 I always imagined that Angela dressed Philip in like the little knee socks and shorts and suspenders with the little Peter Pan collar that you always see little Prince George wearing. That's how I imagined Philip dresses.
56:03 Speaker 01 Oh yeah. And I also imagined that Angela had like a little sailor suit for him.
56:07 Speaker 00 For sure.
56:08 Speaker 01 Sailor hat.
56:09 Speaker 00 A hundred percent.
56:10 Speaker 01 All of that.
56:10 Speaker 00 Yes.
56:11 Speaker 01 Jan comes in as Andy and Angela are having their Ann Geddes moment, creating this baby salad photo. And she is not happy.
56:21 Speaker 00 No, she's irritated and she wants to go.
56:24 Speaker 01 She's done.
56:25 Speaker 00 She's done. She finds Michael in the kitchen and she's ready to go. And Michael insults Holly again. I guess we've failed to mention that throughout this whole episode, every time Michael, Holly and Jan are together, Michael just keeps, you know, insulting her. When Holly was going to go into the conference room, he's like, ugh, HR. Now he says she smells like rotten tomatoes.
56:48 Speaker 01 And dirt.
56:49 Speaker 00 And dirt.
56:50 Speaker 01 She smells like tomatoes and dirt.
56:52 Speaker 00 Yeah.
56:53 Speaker 01 And you know what? Jan sees all of it. Jan knows what Michael's doing. And he walks her out to the car. And as she's putting the baby in the car seat, she turns around, she's like, there is one more thing you could do for me. And he's like, what? And she says, don't date Holly.
57:09 Speaker 00 Yeah.
57:09 Speaker 01 And he's like, why would I hate her? Why would I, you know?
57:13 Speaker 00 Yeah.
57:13 Speaker 01 He clearly likes her.
57:15 Speaker 00 Yeah. Jan leaves. She leaves the stroller that was gifted to her.
57:20 Speaker 01 I know. So tacky.
57:22 Speaker 00 So tacky.
57:24 Speaker 01 Tacky Jan.
57:25 Speaker 00 What was the point of the baby shower?
57:28 Speaker 01 That she could get a nap and maybe get some money out of Michael for a college fund.
57:32 Speaker 00 That's what it was.
57:33 Speaker 01 Yeah.
57:33 Speaker 00 Well, Michael is going to go upstairs.
57:36 Speaker 01 And he finds Holly and she says, Are you gonna still be mean to me?
57:42 Speaker 00 And he just gives her a hug.
57:44 Speaker 01 It's the warmest, most intimate hug. It's so intimate.
57:49 Speaker 00 Amy Ryan is so great. Her eyes just fill with tears. And then Michael has this talking head where he says he didn't feel much when he held Astrid. But he, he got a good feeling when he held Holly.
58:04 Speaker 01 He asked her out on a date.
58:06 Speaker 00 Mm hmm.
58:07 Speaker 01 A real official date.
58:09 Speaker 00 And she says yes.
58:10 Speaker 01 She sure does. So we're ending with a little love connection there. But now Jim and Pam are both trying to call each other at the same time and they miss each other.
58:20 Speaker 00 They both go to voicemail at the same time. And I remember Greg talking to me about this scene. I just loved this idea that we're gonna hear each side of their voicemail message. And you're gonna see they really are connected. They both recall this same story about the time that, you know, some man came into the laundromat and Jim had to save Pam and then they bought a washer dryer. They're recalling the same event. And at the end, they both say, I guess this was just one of those days. I miss you. I wish you were home.
58:54 Speaker 01 Yeah. Aaron shared with me that he was just so curious how this scene would turn out because you guys filmed it in two different locations. You didn't have the other person there.
59:05 Speaker 00 No, I couldn't hear John. It was like I was really leaving a message.
59:08 Speaker 01 Yeah. And so you guys were just in this vacuum, separate. And then in editing, they were gonna find the moment and create it. And he just sort of marveled at how the whole thing came together and just so perfectly.
59:21 Speaker 00 Yes. Well, I had to really imagine in my head as an actor that I was just leaving a message. So in the script, I could see how our dialogue was gonna alternate and sync up. But I put that out of my mind. And I just did my half without thinking of John's lines in my head at all.
59:39 Speaker 01 Right.
59:40 Speaker 00 And we filmed it like a monologue.
59:42 Speaker 01 Yeah, well, I loved it. I thought it was really sweet. And it also made me a little sad because you can tell the distance is starting to take a toll.
59:49 Speaker 00 Yeah. Well, that ends the episode, but Angela, I just realized I skipped a fan question.
59:56 Speaker 01 Okay.
59:56 Speaker 00 And I don't want to leave Evan L. hanging.
59:59 Speaker 01 Okay, Evan.
1:00:00 Speaker 00 Evan wrote in to say at 17 minutes, 30 seconds, was that really rain driving around with the stroller tied to the back of the car? Or was that a stunt driver? Well, we had a stunt driver. His name was Sean Crowder. We also had a stunt coordinator named Wally Crowder. And so Sean did the driving parts.
1:00:22 Speaker 01 Mm hmm.
1:00:22 Speaker 00 Now, you know, there were some shots of rain inside the car, but the other stuff, that was a stunt driver.
1:00:27 Speaker 01 Yes, we would often do the driving that was just sort of like where you pull up and stop.
1:00:32 Speaker 00 Yeah.
1:00:32 Speaker 01 But then if there was like aggressive driving, that's when the stunt driver would take over.
1:00:36 Speaker 00 Yes.
1:00:37 Speaker 01 Well, I loved this episode. I thought it was so good and layered with so much heartfelt stuff. And before we say goodbye, I have a little bit of trivia for you.
1:00:47 Speaker 00 Okay.
1:00:48 Speaker 01 According to babycenter.com, here are the top girl and boy names in 2008.
1:00:54 Speaker 00 Oh, from when we did this episode.
1:00:56 Speaker 01 That's right. Any guesses for the girl?
1:01:00 Speaker 00 Emma.
1:01:01 Speaker 01 Yes.
1:01:01 Speaker 00 Ah!
1:01:02 Speaker 01 You got it!
1:01:03 Speaker 00 I was thinking maybe because of the Friends baby.
1:01:06 Speaker 01 Yes, Rachel had Emma really put that name on the map. Guess what the boy name was? I guessed Emma for the girl like you, but I did not guess right for the boy name.
1:01:17 Speaker 00 Liam.
1:01:18 Speaker 01 Aiden.
1:01:19 Speaker 00 Aiden.
1:01:20 Speaker 01 Aiden was the top boy name.
1:01:22 Speaker 00 Was that from Sex and the City?
1:01:24 Speaker 01 I don't know. I guessed Jack.
1:01:27 Speaker 00 Okay.
1:01:27 Speaker 01 He was in the top five, but Aiden and Emma. Well, there it is. You've learned some new baby showers, the sip and see. M and Ms are still printing names.
1:01:39 Speaker 00 Yeah, and the Orbit stroller is actually really good.
1:01:42 Speaker 01 And Emma and Aiden, 2008 babies, where are you now?
1:01:45 Speaker 00 I would love it if an Emma and Aiden got married.
1:01:48 Speaker 01 Oh, well, that was baby shower.
1:01:51 Speaker 00 We'll see you next week.
1:01:52 Speaker 01 Bye, you guys.
1:01:56 Speaker 00 Thank you for listening to Office Ladies Second Drink.
1:01:59 Speaker 01 This episode was initially created in collaboration with Earwolf.
1:02:03 Speaker 00 Office Ladies is a presentation of Odyssey and is produced by Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey. Our senior producer is Matt Beagle.
1:02:10 Speaker 01 Our Second Drinks episodes are produced by Molly Nugent.
1:02:13 Speaker 00 Our audio engineer is Sam Kiefer.
1:02:15 Speaker 01 Odyssey's executive producer is Leah Reese-Dennis.
1:02:18 Speaker 00 Office Ladies was mixed and mastered by Bill Schultz.
1:02:21 Speaker 01 Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Braden.
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