Transcript - Ep 151 - Threat Level Midnight with B.J. Novak

TRANSCRIPT

Office Ladies | Episode 151 - Threat Level Midnight with B.J. Novak

Jenna [00:00:03] I'm Jenna Fischer. 

Angela [00:00:04] And I'm Angela Kinsey. 

Jenna [00:00:06] We were on the office together, and. 

Angela [00:00:07] We're best friends. 

Jenna [00:00:08] And now we're doing the Ultimate Office Rewatch podcast just for you. 

Angela [00:00:12] 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. 

Jenna [00:00:19] Where the Office Ladies. 

Angela [00:00:23] Everybody there. 

Jenna [00:00:26] It's time. 

Angela [00:00:27] It is time. We have arrived at the right level. Midnight. 

Jenna [00:00:32] It is Season seven Episode 17. It was directed by Tucker Gates, written by B.J. Novak. And guess who is here with us today? 

Angela [00:00:41] Be. 

B.J. [00:00:44] All the Tucker Gates fans are like, oh, okay. That's that's okay, too. 

Jenna [00:00:47] But B.J., we're so excited that you're going to talk about this episode with us. I absolutely loved rewatching it. I watched the extended version on the DVD. Great, which is also amazing. 

Angela [00:01:01] I watched the extended version and then I went back and I watched the client because I was like, I need to know where it all began. I need to see it again. Oh, my God. I forgot so many different twists and turns of my life. Yeah. 

B.J. [00:01:13] The great thing that we discovered with the client, I feel, is how many things you learn about someone by watching something they didn't know was revealing something about them. So, Michael, screenplay like. I forget it, brother. And that too. Where? Oh, wow. Okay. He changed, Dwight. You know, all these little things. It's not just what a stupid screenplay. It's you actually get a window into who he was writing it, which is so cute and and hard to watch, which is like a lot of Michael Scott. So, yeah, I, I, let me just say how happy I am that you brought me on to talk about this. This is my happiest experience, probably with an episode, and it's the one that I especially like to have you on about is Scott starts and it was like, I. 

Jenna [00:02:00] Know, right? 

B.J. [00:02:00] Let's get into it. That's the least comfortable one that I worked on. This is the most joyous. Like, this was really a victory lap for Steve and the whole cast. For me and the writers, it was just like off. Like it was really a pure, joyous episode. We could have done a two hour version. So I'm just happy to to reminisce about it. 

Jenna [00:02:23] Angela Weren't you saying that on the commentary Dave Rogers was talking about the joy? 

Angela [00:02:28] Yes. On the DVD commentary there are you Craig Robinson, Creed Bratton, Charlie Grandy and Dave Rodgers. And Dave shared how jazzed everyone was after the table read. He said The table read was so electric and everyone was so into it and having such a ball. Steve was so into it and everyone left feeling super pumped after the table read. They couldn't wait to dove in this episode like all departments were so excited. 

B.J. [00:02:55] Yeah. And you see that in the episode. 

Jenna [00:02:57] Well, B.J., where did the idea for doing Threat Level Midnight as a full episode come from? 

B.J. [00:03:03] It came directly from Steve when we went into the final season, I, I might be conflating memories, but as I remember it, Greg asked Steve. Greg Daniels asked him, Is there anything you want to do before you leave? And he said, Let me think about it. And then one day I remember I was walking from the writers building to the part of the parking lot where you run into each other, right? Yeah. Yeah, right. Between, like, the writer's office, which is part of Dunder-Mifflin, the other part. And Steve is there, like with his suit and untucked shirt holding one of those Styrofoam plates. You know, he was like, Hey, I realized the episode I want to do, I want to see Threat Level Midnight. And I was so excited to run back and tell the writers. And it's like, you know, when you get news before anyone else, like I had just received this news little nugget. I was like, I talked to Steve. Like, Steve, here's the Steve wants to do Threat Level Midnight. And everyone led into a big grin. It's like we can grant that wish. That is a great wish. And probably because I reported it with such excitement, it seemed like I was the guy to write it and I was, you know, I got these guys going to. 

Jenna [00:04:14] Ask you that. How did you get assigned the script? Do you think it was because you're the person who ran into him in the parking lot? 

B.J. [00:04:20] I think the fact that I came in with that big grin, that grin was intoxicating to the room and I was the right messenger of it. But I also think because I had been there, I had been there from the client, not all the writers were still there is only a few of us that had been there back then and it was really like a full circle. It was also my swan song the way it was Steve's as a writer. That's the kind of thing I loved writing. I had been I had been kind of in a rut writing, in my opinion. I mean, the viewers don't notice this stuff because they all end up being written collectively anyway. But like I'm like assigned Prince family paper. I don't remember what it is exactly like, just like I'm like, what happened to that? That's what she said. Like the greatest hits, you know, and just like a big, funny, juicy topic. And so to have Threat Level Midnight, it kind of was like, there's got to be some metaphor there, but like, you know. Time travel to me, like back to the early days of like anything can happen. You know, these characters are so wild and yet so rich. And it was and it was comedy. It wasn't. We didn't have too much drama to service. Although the poignancy of Michael having made this ridiculous movie that he has invested all of this fantasy in the idea that it's great and we we all have that thing, you know, the novel that you've you're going to write someday, the screenplay you're going to write someday, the role you're going to play someday. You know, and not just us in the business. Everybody pretty much has that thing they they think they might write some day and they'd be very crushed if it were read and declared not good. You know, we cling to that. And so Michael had that. And so the poignancy of something that to us is the silliest thing we've ever seen in the best way. And to him is like, that's his masterpiece. If he doesn't have that, he's not, you know, not a secret genius, not talented. That made it poignant. But there wasn't it wasn't like, you know, Jim and Karen getting serious. You know, it wasn't any one of those plots. 

Angela [00:06:27] I loved watching it just because it made me miss the early seasons. We're having so much fun rewatching it. 

B.J. [00:06:34] That's what I mean. It was the it was an early season vibe. 

Angela [00:06:38] Yeah. And just even from like the conference room scene in the very beginning where everyone's, like, laughing at the movie and he gets his feelings hurt. Yeah. And you're dressed as Pam. I mean, you're just. This is like og PM with your cardigan in your hair and the whole thing. Yeah. And you just felt that sort of Jim and Pam, I don't know, early days. It made me nostalgic to want to go back and start the start the rewatch over again. 

Jenna [00:07:01] Yeah, that was a really smart thing this late in the run of the show to give us like this this. Travel back in time to Pam sitting next to Roy on the floor, and you're like, Oh my gosh, look how far you have come. 

Angela [00:07:20] I know. And then and then to cut back to Jim and Pam went like Jim as golden face. And he Pam looks at him like, Oh, my God, I can't believe you did that. Like you, you see so much, right? 

B.J. [00:07:30] Things you wouldn't have done then. And like the people doing the scarring is so interesting because it's like who he did and didn't. You get like, I think Rashida is in it, right? It's yeah, that's the last person that would have done this. And yet, you know what? At that moment he was her boss and it wasn't that stupid a thing to do, I guess. Didn't take up too much time. So here we go. We learn the dance. You know, it's funny. It's cute that that some people would have done it. 

Jenna [00:08:00] Did you have to justify that when you were writing it? Did you think, why did all these people agree? Oh, yeah, has movie. Oh, I mean, I know why Jim and Pam did it. They did it because this was a chance for them to spend time together outside of work, because it goes back to that time when any excuse to be around each other. 

Angela [00:08:21] Yeah. Yes. 

B.J. [00:08:21] I think that was definitely yours. I mean, you know, way better than I do what your character's feelings were. 

Jenna [00:08:27] Angela, your character does this garden. 

Angela [00:08:30] Oh, yes, I do this garden. 

B.J. [00:08:33] Yes. You're doing this gardeners even while they're. But it's. Well, boss. 

Angela [00:08:37] Well, it's really funny. I went back and read the shooting draft and it said that when you cut to the bachelorette group in the corner, it's Meredith, Phyllis, Karen. 

B.J. [00:08:46] Right. 

Angela [00:08:47] Angela has brought her work and is doing work. She has papers like accounting papers. So she's sort of begrudgingly that. Okay, okay. And then we each have a line when I'm the bartender, you know, when Andie's like the bachelor party since you over a cocktail. I actually printed out what we said over in the bachelorette corner. So both Meredith and Phyllis go, Hey. And then Meredith goes, Who ordered the man burger well-done? And Phyllis says, Hey, hot stuff, one last fling. And then Angela says, Come and ride the two cheers. And then in parentheses it says, Pained sex. Two, two. That sounds right. And then it cuts to Karen's line, and that's what made it in. But we filmed that. I remember filming The Sex Choo-Choo. 

Jenna [00:09:32] It's in the extended DVD version. 

Angela [00:09:35] That's right. 

Jenna [00:09:35] That whole bachelorette scene. Yeah, and that version. 

B.J. [00:09:38] And Andy is like such a ham, of course. 

Angela [00:09:42] Oh, my God. 

B.J. [00:09:43] As the bartender. Which he would be. 

Angela [00:09:45] Yeah. 

B.J. [00:09:46] So, yeah, that was very fun doing all that math. But I think a lot of it, which is sweet and part of the spirit of the office too, is that people just do things when someone is excited about it, you know, a guy. And I think that's why Michael Scott was a good salesman and that's why the people at the bar to discard a guy comes in with wild eyes and little boy energy and tells you everything he's going to do. And here's what you're going to do and here's how great it's going to be. And like, you're just like, okay, sure. Like, it's harder to, like, cross your arms to be like, no, thank you. Some people do that, but people just do things. And that's what you sent me last night, that David Wallace talking head that got cut where he says, I should have done it. You know, like, yeah, I think at the end of the day, you look back on things and you the people who do say, I'm not doing that, they regret it. Like life is short. No one's paying attention to what you do. Like, even if you, David Wallace, shouldn't be in this movie. Like, whatever. You're all not working. Or some day just say, you know. 

Jenna [00:10:47] That energy, that little boy wild eyed energy where someone gets an idea and then you end up doing something that you didn't think you were going to do is literally every situation I've ever been in with John Krasinski. Yeah, right. Doesn't John great. He'll be like. 

Angela [00:11:02] Jenna. 

Jenna [00:11:03] Gently. We're going to Vegas this weekend. I'm like, We are. We're going to. He's like, We're doing it. I have tickets. I'm like. 

Angela [00:11:11] You have a ticket in my hand. No, no, no. 

Jenna [00:11:14] I have tickets. You get tickets. 

B.J. [00:11:16] We're going on about this trip. Did this trip happen or is this this. 

Jenna [00:11:20] Was a. 

Angela [00:11:20] Real trip. Yes. Yeah. 

Jenna [00:11:23] One, we're standing out in the parking lot of Dunder Mifflin. We're doing some scene. Jon's on the phone. He comes back, he's like, What are you doing this weekend? I'm like, I don't know. I think Lee and I might. He goes, You're going to Vegas. We're all going to Vegas. I'm like, We are. We're going to Vegas. He's like, Yeah, yeah, can you make a 630 flight? 

Angela [00:11:44] And I'm like, I don't, I haven't. 

Jenna [00:11:47] And then I've called Lee and I'm like, I think we're going to Vegas. 

B.J. [00:11:50] It's the best. It's why he's so successful. It's why Michael Scott was successful in his way. It's all of us should be more like that because think of how it feels. And the other side, I mean, you were that person. If someone comes up to you with that while excited and say you're going to Vegas, you're like, we are three things I need to take care. Of how quickly you know, I have. 

Jenna [00:12:12] To undo three. 

Angela [00:12:13] Much. I was making a decision again. 

B.J. [00:12:16] And the worst the worst is when you're making plans with someone that I don't know, where where do you want to go? You know? Oh, no. Then you're never even going to get to Chili's that way, you know? 

Angela [00:12:27] Oh, I know, I know. I once wrote in my journal don't don't find a mr.. Maybe I found that. 

B.J. [00:12:34] Wow. 

Angela [00:12:34] Yeah, I don't know. Mr. Maybes. 

B.J. [00:12:37] For me, this is a good that's a good rom com better dialog. 

Jenna [00:12:41] So Mr.. 

Angela [00:12:41] Maybe. 

B.J. [00:12:42] While the title you know it's a lame movie but that. 

Angela [00:12:46] Scene. 

B.J. [00:12:48] That scene and like a Nora Ephron novel rom com is the scene people quote it's like, you know that scene where Angela goes, I don't want a mr. maybe that's that's who he is. He's a mr. maybe. 

Angela [00:12:58] Yeah. 

B.J. [00:12:59] Can I just go on a tangent like also and Michael tried to do this in threat level midnight, so it ties it in, but people don't go for the catchphrases enough anymore. Oh, like Mike Myers was the king, like Mike Myers in Wayne's World and Austin Powers. So it wasn't a fluke. There are like five catchphrases that are famous 30 years later, you know, not, yeah, baby. Oh, be like, there's so many things that are catchphrases. And I watched Jerry Maguire recently. There are like five catchphrases you have. Hello, you had me. Hello. You complete me. 

Angela [00:13:35] Show me the. 

B.J. [00:13:35] Money. Show me that money like this is crazy. And if people like that can do it, like we should be doing it more, you know? But like Michael knew that. Michael knew that. Well, we had. That's what she said we had. That's what you said. 

Angela [00:13:49] You said on the commentary that you guys had so much fun in the writers room just pitching Michael's catchphrase so, you know, clean up on all five books here. But apparently there's like so many more. 

B.J. [00:14:01] Yes, there are so many more, including by now five, I think was the best because like it didn't have a double meaning. 

Angela [00:14:08] Exactly. 

B.J. [00:14:09] It didn't even have one meaning it. Yeah. If there ever happened in a store it would have a meaning and like there is just no meaning. 

Jenna [00:14:21] So I remember we were talking once, B.J., about how there was a lot of discussion about whether or not the threat level midnight episode should include, like scenes at the office or it should be standalone, right? You talk about. 

Angela [00:14:35] That. 

B.J. [00:14:36] Yeah. There were a couple of big decisions to make and I lost that argument. I'm so glad I did. The two ways to go were be really like comedy nerd purist and just drop threat level Midnight the movie. As an episode, fans will figure it out. It will be so special. And there's there's an argument for that. There still is it is more special and eye catching. And yet it's like what community would have done? Like its gimmicks are not that rare, actually, when you think about it, you know, and it we're not like a gimmick show. We have a structure and it calls attention to the structure. If you break the structure, you know, the invisible documentary structure. So I am very glad even and also cutting those scenes about threat level, I mean, that would have allowed more of the movie, which I wish we could have seen. But you do see that I think that's also like a DVD extra like or it's on YouTube. I think the whole movie. 

Angela [00:15:34] The whole. 

Jenna [00:15:35] Movie is both on the DVD and yeah, on YouTube. 

B.J. [00:15:38] I'm so glad I lost that argument because it is so much. 

Jenna [00:15:41] Because you're arguing to drop it as its own episode. 

B.J. [00:15:44] Yeah, I want it to be cool and like comedy, you know, show off to the other comedy nerds that we did something that was a little hard to get at first, but, you know, and I'm glad it was. 

Angela [00:15:55] You get it. You get. 

B.J. [00:15:56] It. Yeah. Yeah, I I'm glad I lost that argument because a that is a distracting thing from investing in the reality. The show and also the emotional meaning of that is very important. And, you know, like I was saying that this is so silly and how silly it is, is breaking Michael Scott's brain because he can't wrap his mind around it not being good and it's breaking his heart if he accepts that. And Holly is there to take him from the fantasy kid version of him, which is like I can be Sylvester Stallone if I want, you know, to the adult version, which is you are a wonderful guy who made a silly movie at one point with his friends and like, that's so much more beautiful, but it's hard to accept. But that gives it that gives it some meaning. 

Angela [00:16:50] Well, and Michael can start letting go of his fantasy, like, yeah, yeah. Or now because he's invested in his real life now. 

B.J. [00:16:57] It's a huge growing up thing for him. 

Jenna [00:16:59] I love that scene back in, I guess, the. 

Angela [00:17:03] A-list desk. 

Jenna [00:17:04] When Michael is coming to the realization that she doesn't see it as the masterpiece that. He does, yeah. And she has that line where she says, I think it's a really fun thing you did with your friends. 

Angela [00:17:16] Yeah, I think I. 

Jenna [00:17:18] Think you should value that. 

B.J. [00:17:19] That directly comes from a hard moment in my youth when I had I had spent all year making a movie in college that I thought would be, you know, oh, I had always wanted to be a filmmaker. And, you know, this is this is it was called Alphabet Soup, by the way. And and I made this movie and I spent all year on it, and it starred my roommate Chess and Chess Mom and others saw it at the end of the year. And she said, the important thing is that you got to make something fun with your friends. I was enraged. I was so upset that it was so obvious to her that that's all it was. It was, you know, a sentimental like, oh, I remember we made that movie and I was like, no, I would never have done I couldn't goof around with my friends on the weekend like this was my film and and so many times. And it's funny, I mean, even this our reunion here on Office Ladies is, is an example of that tension in life, too. You know, at the end of the day, Jenna and Angela, like you as the office, something you did with your friends or is it something honestly like obviously it's so much more you made money and career on it and it's meant like a lot of people, if I had to pick one, I mean, on the other hand, that's your life at the end of the day, you know? So if if someone said and I think you're probably so secure about the office and if not, you're psychotic because you never get it never breaks that. Well, you know, when you sign up for something. But if someone said to you, you know, isn't that great? It isn't the most important thing that you got to make that with your friends. I think you'd say 100% because we're secure about that. But I think for me, as someone who was so ambitious from the second I was born and did not value life and love and connections and stuff, that has been a slower lesson for me and a harder one. And so I really I put that into the the Holly scene because I had I had been Michael Scott, you know about that. 

Jenna [00:19:28] But to be fair, when you have put your heart into something to lead with that compliment, isn't it great that you made something with your friend? It's like we we can say like, isn't it great at the end of the day? Yeah, yeah. This is something we made as our friends because there's, like, a lot of foundation come before that, you know? 

B.J. [00:19:48] No, you're right. Is it? 

Angela [00:19:50] Is it is. 

B.J. [00:19:51] Yeah, you're right in my defense for being offended. It is a very dismissive thing to say about someone's work. I agree with that. 

Jenna [00:19:59] Yeah. 

Angela [00:20:00] So one of the things you guys talked about on the commentary, B.J., literally you and Charlie were giggling when the scene came up. Like giggling. Laughing was the monologue about Ants versus A Bug's Life. The two of you, I guess, worked on that, and you really had a great time and love that monologue. 

B.J. [00:20:17] That is my favorite Michael Scott, talking head of all time. 

Angela [00:20:21] Oh, you guys, we should hear it. We have it. 

Speaker 4 [00:20:23] I'm a huge Woody Allen fan, although I have only seen ants. But I'll tell you something. What I respect about that man is that when he was going through all of that stuff that came out in the press about how arts was just a rip off of A Bug's Life, he stayed true to his films, or at least a film that I saw, which again was Art's thing is, I thought Bug's Life was better. 

Angela [00:20:48] Much better, since the point is. 

B.J. [00:20:52] Don't listen. Your critics. 

Angela [00:20:54] Listen. Your fans started watching you. I it's. 

B.J. [00:21:01] Still my favorite. 

Angela [00:21:02] Joy. And I remember. 

B.J. [00:21:04] You know, when you direct an episode or you supervise your writing, generally you crouch below the camera with the actor, right? And so, you know, and you have all written down and like little ideas. So I'm there off and if one of you laughs, the other laughs, right? Yeah. So I know this is like the greatest take of all time and and a lot of the takes. What I laugh at the end. And then Steve laughs and I'm like, Nobody laughs. Nobody ruin this because it's one take. And we just got it. And I think it laughs right afterwards. But this is just my absolute favorite. First of all, his performance is astounding in that he has so much anguish and fury behind it. True, true emotion. True emotion. Not a parody emotion. True emotion behind this thing that he also knows is so insanely off topic, so many levels. He's a huge Woody Allen fan. Okay. That's a surprise from. Michael Scott, although he's only seen Ants, which is a minor animated movie that Woody Allen is only a voice in, a very weird one off in Woody Allen's career. He didn't write or direct it or even a bureaucrat. 

Angela [00:22:27] And it's not a Woody Allen film, but that that's how he knows Woody Allen is from ads. 

B.J. [00:22:33] Right. And he knows that Woody Allen went through a lot of controversy in the press. He only knows about the extremely minor controversy that ends with a rip off of A Bug's Life. Clearly, not all the stuff that is the real obvious scandal about Woody Allen. And he also he thinks which one does he think is better than the other, which everyone's. 

Jenna [00:22:59] Life, a bug's life. 

B.J. [00:23:00] Better. He thinks A Bug's Life is better than ass, even though he's a huge fan. It's just and all of this is to say that you don't listen to your critics, which he really means. And by the way, I think of this line sometimes you don't listen, you don't make a few credits, you make a for your fans. And that's true. And I think that's actually I probably the reason I think of this a lot is in the social media age, everything you do has critics. Everything you do, you post a photo of yourself at with your family. It has critics, you know, that probably have a point. They probably have a point, you know, because you can criticize anything. And, you know, these days, there's there's someone said about a comedian that I know, you know, I would you think he'll have an audience. Whatever my friend said, he'll be the way everyone is, not for everyone. And I'm like, right, nobody's for everyone. You can't make anything for everyone. You have to make it for the people that get it for your fans. So I actually think about Michael Scott line a lot, but it's crazy that that's how it got there. I feel like I just took the whole episode breaking that one thing down, but you can see how much I love that. 

Angela [00:24:13] Oh, my gosh. I mean, I could listen to you talk about any of your process, B.J., and what inspires you. I mean, Jen and I talk about that all the time. 

B.J. [00:24:21] Oh, well, thanks. But yes, I think that giggling, the off camera giggling that you watch while you were playing that clip is probably says it all about me. 

Jenna [00:24:32] B.J., we have a fan question. This is from John C and Silverdale, Pennsylvania. Who would like to know, were there any other previous cast members or guest stars that you wanted to bring in for this episode but were unable to get? Due to scheduling conflicts, you brought back so many people. 

B.J. [00:24:50] Yes, I think Amy Adams couldn't do it. 

Jenna [00:24:55] Yes, Randy Randy said that you guys tried to get Amy Adams back and she was doing a film and she was really bummed out. She even sent like a letter. You said, thank you so much for thinking of me and that she was so bummed that she couldn't be. 

B.J. [00:25:09] That was really classy. And I didn't remember that. But but it just goes to show like we thought like, well, Amy, she was doing such enormous movies and she had been like on a few episodes, one of the she didn't want to come back to do a guest like Flashback and Threat of Midnight, but she did you know, she didn't do it, but she wanted to. That alone says a lot about her and about the show. 

Jenna [00:25:30] So, B.J., do you remember what role she was going to play? 

B.J. [00:25:33] I don't. 

Jenna [00:25:35] Well, I found an old interview with you. Okay, great. And you said that she was going to play a floozy who was in bed with Michael Strahan, that Dwight would wake him up and tell him about the mission from the president. And in the scene, Michael was going to tell her that he was unsatisfied with their empty lovemaking because no one has ever been as good as his wife. And then there was going to be a talking head with Katie, where she says with embarrassment how she did the role, because she had some interest in acting back in the day. And then you were going to kind of catch up with what she's up to now. 

B.J. [00:26:13] I love that the word floozy would only have been I must have really been channeling Michael Scott because I can't imagine saying, Oh, yeah, she'd play a floozy. I'm not totally sure what a floozy is, but I know it's like a dime a dozen dame from an old man. 

Angela [00:26:32] Yeah. 

B.J. [00:26:34] That was just. Is clearly so much fun. We could have gone on forever. 

Angela [00:26:38] It was really fun to see all the warehouse guys doing this card. Yeah. And you got Dave Koechner back. My gosh, everybody was the one was there. 

Jenna [00:26:46] Yeah, my Laura. 

B.J. [00:26:47] I actually love that. I love that song. And I also really love, I think, the end credits of the episode. It has like the Will Smith version of The Scar and we're like. 

Jenna [00:27:01] Oh, it's a totally different song. It's not even. 

Angela [00:27:03] The it's not even the. 

Jenna [00:27:04] Song. Threat Level Midnight. 

Angela [00:27:06] Yeah, it's Andy Bernard song. Yeah. 

Jenna [00:27:08] Sung by. Ed Helms, you know, Will Smith style. 

B.J. [00:27:12] Right. And that was Michael's vision. How is it? You know, it's so good. I didn't write. I think Charlie wrote that. It's so funny. Makes all the ladies feel all right from Madonna to Madeleine Albright. And I did admire that Michael Scott would pick such strong women as his dream women. 

Angela [00:27:32] It's true, right? 

B.J. [00:27:34] I know. I really thought like that was a great choice. Michael is sort of like an instinctive feminist. He does admire he like Jan, you know, he likes a strong woman. He thinks they're sexy. And I think that is cool about Michael. And yes, that to him, his go to dream women would be Madonna and Madeleine Albright back whenever he wrote this thing in 2003 or whatever is funny. 

Angela [00:27:58] Well, we have it. Here it is. 

Unidentified [00:28:01] Yeah. Before midnight meets off, the girls feel all right. From Madonna to Madeleine Albright all night. It's a dream. Oh, he's the greatest focus. All right, so you get what I call score threat level five guys got to win it. 

B.J. [00:28:22] Three Mandela fighting apartheid, which he probably meant. But it was like the cause of the moment when he the song he was writing that lyric just so smart. 

Angela [00:28:38] So last week we talked to Billie Eilish and we talked about how she sampled Threat Level Midnight for her song, My Strange Addiction. 

Jenna [00:28:44] BJ What was it like when you got the call that you had to give permission because your voice is in it? 

B.J. [00:28:51] I knew who Billie Eilish was. I was I don't really know her music then. Now I'm a fan, and now I am friends with her brother Finneas, who does a lot of that stuff. He composed the score to my movie Vengeance, but at the time I didn't. I just knew she was like some cool singer. So I was like, Oh, cool. And, you know, since then, she became so big and I knew she was. But to me, the fun part is that song will come on and I will just say to someone, Oh, I'm actually on the song as though I as though I'm a rapper or something. I'm actually. Well, what, you mean you're on the song? No, no. My voice, it's like, what? And that, like, obviously, it's not as cool as it sounds, but it's still like it's true. 

Angela [00:29:31] It's still pretty cool. 

B.J. [00:29:32] Yeah, like I'm on this. 

Angela [00:29:34] See. 

Jenna [00:29:35] There's the legacy of the office, but then there's also the legacy that is threat level midnight office. 

B.J. [00:29:41] Someone sent me a touchdown dance. Someone did the scoring as a dance in the end zone and people recognize that. I wouldn't have recognized that like it does. It hits, you know. And I think, you know what it is. I think it's that Michael Scott boyish enthusiasm. You actually leapt through the whole screen and everything like that. Contagious Michael Scott energy. Just people got it even now, like a football player got it so much that he's like, I am, I get it. I man, I'm going to get this scar. And here it has come. 

Angela [00:30:16] Full of adrenaline. I'm going to get that's the thing he thought of to do. 

Jenna [00:30:19] I remember that because it was a game against the Cowboys and it was a touchdown against the cowboy. 

Angela [00:30:24] No way. Yeah. Yeah. So so my my. 

Jenna [00:30:27] Team is my team is losing in this moment, and the receiver's doing a decision. 

B.J. [00:30:34] That must have been painful. 

Angela [00:30:36] It was. 

B.J. [00:30:37] Yeah. 

Angela [00:30:38] I was looking online and just also the fandom. They've made their own trailers for Threat Level Midnight. They've done I mean, fans have done some really cool stuff with it too. 

B.J. [00:30:49] Yeah, it has that thing. I mean, the name is so funny. I didn't name it. I forget who did way back, but. But the names are of level midnight. It's like it it it sounds right. It has the right ring to it for like a Sylvester Stallone eighties movie. But, like, that's not a level midnight. 

Jenna [00:31:13] Well, B.J., is there anything that we have not had a chance to discuss? 

B.J. [00:31:18] The takeaway for me, besides how fun it is to talk about this, is how similar talking about this with you two is to the spirit of threat level midnight, which is it really is about how much fun it was to do something when you were younger that you took so seriously. And we are very lucky. And, you know, we are just a little part of the hundreds of people who made the office what it was. But we are very lucky that our thing. There's something that everyone validates. As for we're proud of, but I think that over time you realize, Oh, that was my that was my heart and soul in life, no matter what anyone thought of it. And that is what Michael realizes. That is what I realize over time. I'm sure it's what you're realizing with your show. So the sort of there I love them. Tonight was a trip down memory lane for the office writers and cast and crew, and it was a trip down memory lane for Michael Scott in a painful way for him because he had to confront his delusions of grandeur that he hadn't given up. So, yeah, just talking about it with you, I feel like I feel like Michael and Holly, you know, I feel like where we're doing that kind of thing. 

Angela [00:32:28] It's so fun. 

Jenna [00:32:29] B.J., we love having you on the show. You're always so generous with us, and it's just good to see you. 

B.J. [00:32:35] I love it. It's great to see you. Thank you. See you soon. 

Angela [00:32:38] Thank you. 

B.J. [00:32:39] Love you, too. Bye bye. 

Jenna [00:32:43] That was great talking to B.J. always. Yes. Now it's time to break down this episode. And Angela, I don't know about you, but I have so much. 

Angela [00:32:53] Look at this phone book I'm holding, so. 

Jenna [00:32:54] It's very thick. 

Angela [00:32:56] These are my notes. It's like 28 pages. 

Jenna [00:32:59] I have so much to say about this. I mean, it's threat level midnight now. All right. How does it open? 

Angela [00:33:05] Well, the scene opens with a delivery man named Archie. Did anyone else catch that said Archie on a shirt? 

Jenna [00:33:11] No. 

Angela [00:33:12] Oh, well, I caught it. Look at this. We're already off to a great start. We have background catches. We have Archie. He's got a package for Michael. And guess what? What? There's going to be a shootout. 

Jenna [00:33:24] There really is. Michael is going to win the shootout. 

Angela [00:33:28] He does like a robot dance. 

Jenna [00:33:30] No, he's not doing a robot dance. He's doing like The Matrix, right? He's being like Neo. Yes. Angela Quijano, did. 

Angela [00:33:38] You not get this? Yes. What I mean? Yes. Are you robot dance? Of course I got it. I mean, you were just so excited. Look at you. You're having a moment because you're like, I got the matrix reference. Oh, my God. Letting you have a moment, letting me have a word. 

Jenna [00:33:56] I don't believe you. I don't think. 

Angela [00:33:57] You caught it, bitch. Look at my notes. What is happening today? My notes. 

Jenna [00:34:03] Okay. Okay. Her notes do say I sensed a little bit of the matrix in the scene when Neo dodges the agents fire when he's on top of the building. That is what Angela wrote down. 

Angela [00:34:15] Here's one of Jenna's phrases that I love. It's when someone crosses the line with her, she goes, You're going to want to back that up. And that's how I felt when you were like, Did you not catch that? Of course I caught that. 

Jenna [00:34:27] All right. Well, I'm going to have to back that up. You caught it. Thank goodness. I would have been confused. 

Angela [00:34:34] Okay. We can continue being friends now. 

Jenna [00:34:36] We can. 

Angela [00:34:37] There is no spoon. 

Jenna [00:34:38] Well, we had a fan question from Kendal Tea in Durham, Maine, who asked who plays the deliveryman that Michael Jackson shoots at the beginning of the episode? Archie. Yes, Archie. So the actor who played Archie was an actor named Greg Collins, who Randy Cordray pitched for the role because the actor who was originally scripted to play this part was not available. 

Angela [00:34:59] Michael Norton. 

Jenna [00:35:01] Michael Naughton, Michael's improv teacher from Email Surveillance. I'm sorry, but that would have been amazing. 

Angela [00:35:08] That would have been so funny. 

Jenna [00:35:10] I mean, that's the guy who took away Michael's pretend guns and improv class. 

Angela [00:35:14] Also, you guys, if you ever get a chance to see Michael Norton on stage, he's so hilarious. 

Jenna [00:35:19] Well, I thought Greg Collins did a wonderful job. 

Angela [00:35:21] He did. He was perfect. Even looked how I thought a delivery guy in this type of movie would look. Yes. Did you notice that 41 seconds his shirt is unbuttoned all of a sudden? 

Jenna [00:35:30] No, I didn't. Was that to show the blood? 

Angela [00:35:33] Yes. So he had like a Navy button up and then all of a sudden, at 41 seconds, it's unbuttoned. 

Jenna [00:35:38] I love that. Randy said that the guns were dummy guns. They held no ammunition and they put all the sound effects and the muzzle flashes in during post-production. I watched that scene knowing that it was done in post-production and I kind of couldn't believe it. 

Angela [00:35:54] That is wild, because you could see Steve as Michael kind of flinching, you know? 

Jenna [00:35:58] I know he did the kick back. 

Angela [00:36:00] That's some good fakey kick back acting. 

Jenna [00:36:02] It really was. We also had a fan question from Matt Opie in Toronto, Canada, who says, I immediately recognized the music from The Bourne Identity when I first watched this episode. How much did it cost to get the rights? Well, I'm impressed that you spotted that. It was The Bourne Identity. It was scripted. Randy Cordray said it cost $25,000 to get that. B.J. said he thought Michael Scott would have pirated it off of like a DVD he had probably. 

Angela [00:36:35] Right? Yeah. Well, at the end of the scene, Michael's going to say, clean up on our five. Mm hmm. We talked about this with B.J.. I went to the table, redrafted the script, and they had to phrase this from the very beginning. It made it all the way to the shooting draft, and it was recorded. But they ultimately went with clean up on all five. The other one was Return to Sender. It even made it into the bloopers. I think we should hear it. 

B.J. [00:37:05] Don't make me fire you. 

Jenna [00:37:06] Okay. So clearly clean up on oh five is the thing that made everyone crack up. And that's how it won. 

Angela [00:37:12] It seems like it. Yet. 

Jenna [00:37:13] Exactly. 

Angela [00:37:15] And then Michael has this talking head where he says, after three years of writing, one year of shooting, four years of reshooting and two years of editing, I have finally completed my movie Threat Level Midnight Jenna. It took Michael Scott and you and I the same amount of time to write something. Are you talking about our book? Yes. It took us three years and seven months to write our book. 

Jenna [00:37:39] So the episode begins with Aaron making an announcement in the bullpen. Michael is with her. She says threat level midnight is complete. And Michael's willing to watch it with everyone, but only if everyone is dying to see it. 

Angela [00:37:53] The Jim and Pam talking head is so good. 

Jenna [00:37:56] We are so giddy. 

Angela [00:37:57] You're so giddy. Also, when I rewatched this, I thought John looked all sweaty throughout this episode. You know, I don't know if I was really tired as the. 

Jenna [00:38:07] Golden face or as Jim. 

Angela [00:38:09] As Jim and the bullpen. I was like, I wonder if it was a hot day where we insisted on them cranking the heat. I even went to the shooting draft to see the week we filmed it. To see the date. I was like, Oh, I bet it was in the summer. No, it was January. But Jake, you look all sweaty. 

Jenna [00:38:23] I wonder what that was about. Just him. 

Angela [00:38:26] I thought so. Sorry, Jake. I just thought it looked. You had a little bit of a glow. He had a glow and a glow. All right. 

Jenna [00:38:35] Pam tells Michael they definitely want to watch the movie. And after he leaves, she gives the bullpen a little. 

Angela [00:38:41] A little pep talk to set. 

Jenna [00:38:43] The right mood for watching this movie. Kind of a mom speech. 

Angela [00:38:47] Oh, yeah, she says. So let's stay positive and no laughing, no comments, just positive energy. And we'll have a pure fun day. Okay. And Creed's like, Thanks, Mom. 

Jenna [00:39:00] Everyone's really excited. They start to gather in the conference room. Phyllis is going to bring in some popcorn. 

Angela [00:39:06] And Holly did not know that Michael had made a movie and he's really excited for her to see it. And she says, I can't wait. 

Jenna [00:39:14] The first shot of the film is a picture of the exterior of Scarred Mansion. And we got a fan question from Davina Kaye in Illinois who said, in looking at the main image of Karen Manor in the movie, you can see in the bottom right hand corner of the screen a small picture of Carol's face. Did Michael use an image of one of Carol's real estate listings? 

Angela [00:39:37] Yes, yes, yes. 

Jenna [00:39:39] That is exactly what he did. Randy said that this image of this house was actually a stock photo. And we brought in Nancy Corral and took a picture of her. And Michael Gallenberg added it. 

Angela [00:39:51] To the bottom. Yes. Well, like I said, there is a DVD commentary for this episode. And Charlie Grandy shared that there was a lot of debate in the writers room about the size of this house that they used for Michael Jackson's banner because they wanted it to be a house realistically that Carol would be showing. And this area. 

Jenna [00:40:11] It did look like a mansion definition of a mansion. 

Angela [00:40:15] It did. And the address is 451 Hanover Lane, Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania. I looked it up. I couldn't find a house. Oh, we made it up. Maybe so. Now we're going to see a montage of news clippings. You know, Michael, here's the directors trying to tell you a back story, guys. 

Jenna [00:40:32] He is all of these headlines were scripted, Phil, she had to make all of these little fake newspapers. The first clipping that we see says Scarf saves NFL All-Star Game. And it says that the article is written by Yvonne Garnier. Well, she was one of Michael Gallenberg art department assistants. Oh, and then at 2 minutes, 50 seconds, the next clipping says Scott Brown saves MLB All-Star Game. And it says that article was written by James McDermott. Jim was our lead man in the set dressing department, so we put in all our crew members. So then we see a bunch of magazine covers announcing Michael Jackson's marriage to Catherine Zeta. 

Angela [00:41:15] Mm hmm. 

Jenna [00:41:15] And then the announcement of her death at the Hands of Golden Face. Yeah, we had a fan question from Kristen M from Cedar Falls, Iowa, who said, did Catherine Zeta Jones have to give her permission to be featured in this episode? Did she get paid as a guest star? Actually, no. We did not pay her or ask her permission. 

Angela [00:41:35] Was it like a stock photo? 

Jenna [00:41:36] It was a stock photo that we bought from the photographer for $790. Yeah. And then Michael Gallenberg took a picture of Steve dressed in a tuxedo. And then that's how they made the picture. 

Angela [00:41:47] Well, it's a very good picture. I thought she looked beautiful. 

Jenna [00:41:50] And, you know, she was excited. Her family is a fan of The Office, and she even came on our podcast for the client and read our summary. 

Angela [00:41:57] And we had a huge cut out of her that we put next to us when we recorded because she had to send in an audio clip. But it was like she was right in the room with. 

Jenna [00:42:04] She was our first A-list guest. 

Angela [00:42:07] I think so, yeah. 

Jenna [00:42:08] Even though she was a cutout. 

Angela [00:42:10] That's right. Well, now we're going to find O-Khan face down in bed, bottle of booze. His butler is going to be waking him, holding a very elaborate silver tray, very fancy breakfast tray. Did anyone else think Michael Jackson lying face down like that with like a little nod to Major League? Do you remember that opening sequence where they go and find Tom Berenger and he's like. Face down with some booze. No one else remember? Major League. 

Speaker 4 [00:42:40] I do in. Yes. 

Angela [00:42:41] Thank you. Oh, wasn't it exactly the same? Yes. Thank you. 

Jenna [00:42:45] Well, I noticed that Steve's face was all scruffy. When he wakes. 

Angela [00:42:49] Up, he's been on a bender. He's not making good choices. 

Jenna [00:42:53] Well, Randy said that in order to get that scruffy look, they had to put a note on the call sheet reminding him not to shave before coming to work, because Steve would always shave before coming to work. And they had a little note that said, Steve, don't shave, don't shave. 

Angela [00:43:08] I have a question. 

Jenna [00:43:10] What is it? 

Angela [00:43:10] What was Michael's budget for this movie? 

Jenna [00:43:14] I don't know. But he made it over a very long period of time. 

Angela [00:43:18] He did. But we're about to be in the Oval Office. We've already seen what his condo looks like. It's candelabras and. 

Jenna [00:43:24] Silver. 

Angela [00:43:24] Trays and whatnot. But this Oval Office, which is supposed to be, I'm guessing, the conference room. 

Jenna [00:43:30] Yes, it is the conference room. And you can even see reception through the door when the shot is on. Michael and Dwight are. I'm sorry. On Michael and Samuel. 

Angela [00:43:42] Samuel, did you see what was outside the window behind President Jackson? What? Cherry blossoms. 

Jenna [00:43:50] It was amazing. Our set dressing team was incredible. I didn't know where we were when the scene started until we reversed the shot. But they put one of those, like, fake light box window things behind him. It was amazing. 

Angela [00:44:07] Michael, put that there. Yes. And he hung the elaborate curtains and he got the sculptures and all the paintings. Did you catch the address of the White House? 

Jenna [00:44:17] 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. 

Angela [00:44:19] Washington, D.C. Comedy. See? Oh. 

Jenna [00:44:22] I did not. 

Angela [00:44:23] Washington, D.C., D.C.. 

Jenna [00:44:28] Well, in this scene, the president is going to explain that scar's old enemy, gold and face, is planning to bomb the NHL All-Star Game, and he's also taken hostages. Now, this is really personal for the president because he owns the stadium. It's his retirement plan. I know that's what the president is going to retire doing, is owning this one stadium. 

Angela [00:44:54] Scar and can't decide if he's going to take this job on or not. So he's got to flip a coin seven times. 

Jenna [00:44:59] That's not a. 

Angela [00:45:00] Seven. And he doesn't edit around that. You're going to see all seven coin flips. That's right. 

Jenna [00:45:07] So something B.J. said in an interview that I thought was so funny because, you know, there is an obsession with all star games in this movie. He said he thought that Michael Scott would view an All-Star Game as the most important event in sports, even though in real life they're kind of irrelevant. 

Angela [00:45:27] It's more about the championship game. 

Jenna [00:45:29] Yes. He said he also liked that golden face had a thing for all star games and he had previously blown up the WNBA All-Star Game, which is how Catherine Zeta Scar died. 

Angela [00:45:39] Did anyone else catch it? 4 minutes and 10 seconds that Darryl is clean shaven. I did. 

Jenna [00:45:46] It's the first time we've seen Darryl without facial hair ever. An episode of The Office. 

Angela [00:45:52] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:45:53] We got a fan question from Peter in Poland, who said, did the writers have to plan out a theoretical timeline for Michael's film schedule so that hair and wardrobe could represent it? For example, in addition to the fact that Darryl is clean shaven. I noticed that we see Jim and Pam's season one and two hairstyle. Kelly has her up. 

Angela [00:46:16] Oh, yeah. 

Jenna [00:46:17] Angela has her braid from the early days. I can only imagine the amount of planning and wardrobe meetings. Oh, yes, this was the whole thing. Just speaking of Darryl, Randy said that we had to pick up some Darryl work from a previous episode, and hair and makeup had to add back a fake, like mustache, goatee for Darryl to match. 

Angela [00:46:39] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:46:39] At one point. 

Angela [00:46:40] Oh, yeah. Craig talked about this on the DVD commentary. I think it was a big thing for him. He did not want to shave, and B.J. really insisted on it. I guess B.J. wanted the character that Darryl plays President Jackson to be distinct in time from Darryl Philbin. Mm hmm. But that meant he had to get this weird, fakey beard in between as they cut back and forth. 

Jenna [00:47:02] Well, I guess this was really a whole inter department effort. B.J. and our director, Tucker Gates, they worked with our script supervisor, Vito, who tracks all the continuity on the show. They consulted our editors and our hair and makeup and wardrobe departments. I guess at some point they were like, well, wait, if this shot during season three, what did Jim look like then? And they would go in the editing room and bring up episodes from season three. 

Angela [00:47:30] B.J. also shared that they had to glue sideburns onto his face. 

Jenna [00:47:36] I'd even noticed that. 

Angela [00:47:37] Yeah. You know where you can really see it? Well, first of all, if you got a one minute, 55 seconds, you can see it. But then later in the episode, when he's on that ice skating rink is when I really saw it. 

Jenna [00:47:47] Oh, okay. 

Angela [00:47:48] Yeah. Fake sideburns. 

Jenna [00:47:50] Well, Randy said this was also a really big consideration when trying to approach guest cast who had been on the show? 

Angela [00:47:57] Yes. Randy told us he found a letter he wrote to Allison Jones. And here's what it said. We need all these actors to be willing to look like they did in seasons two and three. So, for instance, if Roy was clean shaven, then we would want him to look that way again. Can we find out if we can be permitted to have their hair color, length, etc. match those earlier seasons, please. Thanks, Randy. 

Jenna [00:48:21] Well, I'll tell you what. And when I got cast in the movie Walk Hard. Yeah, they wanted my character of Darlene to have red hair, like fiery red hair. And they had to call the office because the office had me, like, I guess under contract in first position. They had to call the office and ask permission to dye my hair red with the promise that they would diet back to Pam's color by the time the season started shooting again. Guess what? 

Angela [00:48:50] What? 

Jenna [00:48:51] NBC or I don't know who they asked permission of. They said, no, you can't color her hair. So guess what I did. 

Angela [00:48:57] What did you do? I colored it anyway. You did? Yes. And then did you? 

Jenna [00:49:03] Nothing happened. We colored it back. We said, Oh, okay. Thanks. Sorry about that. 

Angela [00:49:07] I colored it. Yeah, it was. 

Jenna [00:49:09] Stupid. But I understand cutting your hair or shaving or something. You know what I mean? Like that. You can't put back. 

Angela [00:49:20] By color. 

Jenna [00:49:21] Color. 

Angela [00:49:22] Color and B.S.. 

Jenna [00:49:24] So that's why we had to ask, was David Denman doing another show where he had to have a beard and now we were going to make him shave and it was going to mess up all their continuity. It was a lot to juggle. 

Angela [00:49:35] Well, we all know Michael is going to take the job. He didn't need to flip the coin seven times. No. Clean up on aisle five. Cleanup on all five guys. We are now going to the stadium where the hostages are being held. Mm hmm. And we meet Golden Face. Mm hmm. Played by Jim. Also a very giddy John Krasinski, who wanted the gold makeup. He was excited to become golden face. 

Jenna [00:50:00] You have no idea how excited John was to film Threat Level Midnight, all of it. Later, we're going to get to that skating scene where he's in that just ridiculous hating outfit with the gold face. He was so on board for all of it, and you can see it in his performance. It is so incredibly charming and fun. John's performance as Golden Face is one of my favorite parts of threat level. Midnight. 

Angela [00:50:26] Same. John is going to have a talking head where he said obviously, you know, he didn't love the dialog of Golden Face. 

Jenna [00:50:33] He didn't love saying that he was going to dig up Stan's wife and offer real good. 

Angela [00:50:38] Yeah, but he obviously took the part to impress a receptionist. This scene was longer. It's in the extended cut. That's on the DVD. 

Jenna [00:50:47] I remember it. It's amazing. 

Angela [00:50:49] Yeah. So golden face leaves. And when he does, the hostages quickly are like, we've got to pick a leader. I went to the shooting draft as well because I wanted to read it. Roy says We need to choose a leader, someone tough enough to take on golden face. And Pam says, I can be the leader. Kevin's like you. What makes you so tough? And Pam says, I have experience as a leader, a negotiator, a general, and a cop. In other words, I'm a mom. 

Jenna [00:51:16] I remember that line. 

Angela [00:51:18] Everyone smiles and nods. Toby puts his hand on Pam's leg and says, Yeah, it'll be Sandra. That was your character's name. So then Golden Face is going to reenter. And Pam goes, Nope. I remember that, too. Jenna, you had to do that gulp so many times because you guys kept laughing, and it's in the bloopers, and I want you to hear it. 

Speaker 4 [00:51:45] So you chose a leader. You. 

Unidentified [00:51:52] What's wrong? Oh. Don't look at me. 

Angela [00:52:03] No, I mean. Yeah. 

Jenna [00:52:09] Oh, that was fun. I remember. So that was shot in the warehouse. You can probably tell they tried to dress it as if we were behind the scenes at a hockey stadium. But I have strong memories. 

Angela [00:52:22] Of. 

Jenna [00:52:22] Shooting those scenes. 

Angela [00:52:23] There's a few others in the bloopers, too. It looked like you guys were having a lot of fun. There's one that I can't play because it's all visual. But Brian, as Kevin has to stand up, but his hands are tied. Yeah, he kind of flops over on you guys as he tries to get up. And it's so funny. Well, big. 

Jenna [00:52:41] Twist in the plot is coming up scar and finds out that the all star game is sold out. And the only way he's going to be able to get in is to be a player in the game. But he doesn't know how to skate. 

Angela [00:52:54] And that's when we meet Cherokee Jack. 

Jenna [00:52:57] You know that Creed's part of Cherokee Jack was initially scripted to be Idris Elba? 

Angela [00:53:03] No way. 

Jenna [00:53:04] Yes, but we couldn't get him. He was filming a movie in, like, Hungary or something. And Randy. 

Angela [00:53:09] Tell. 

Jenna [00:53:09] You that? Yeah, I. Oh, that. Randy said that the logistics of getting Idris on an international flight for one day of shooting in Venice was, quote, too big a hurdle to overcome. So B.J. pivoted. He rewrote the part for Creed, which I love. 

Angela [00:53:26] Oh, my God. I loved everything about it. I loved his tasseled jacket. It's very Karate Kid. You got a mop? 

Jenna [00:53:32] The I mop the ice. Why do I. 

Angela [00:53:34] Have to mop the ice? You'll see. 

Jenna [00:53:36] We also got a fan question from Angie in Birmingham, Alabama, who said, what is the song that is playing while Michael is mopping the ice? Angie, that is the the Billy Joel song Running on Ice. Randy said it cost us $40,000 for that song and that montage of Michael doing his Bowflex and mopping the ice. 

Angela [00:53:57] Steve doing the Bowflex is in the bloopers. There's no music. You know, they added the music later. It looks like they're like throwing water on him. I don't know. But he's going, ha ha. And he just cracks himself up. I also noticed they're really good, like figure skaters skating behind Michael as he's learning to skate. 

Jenna [00:54:19] I saw that as well. 

Angela [00:54:21] Next up, our director, Michael, is going to do that classic thing that happens in movies where they show a passage of time with this calendar. Right. The dates are falling on the ground. It's one of those pages. They tear off calendars. Well, it was a Dave Berry calendar. And B.J. told us that Dave Berry was a favorite of his in his formative years, and he loved his comedy. He would read Dave's books out loud at summer camps to make other kids laugh. And so he was really excited to have this calendar be part of Threat Level Midnight. 

Jenna [00:54:51] I love that. I love imagining B.J. at summer camp reading a Dave Berry book to the other campers. It's so. 

Angela [00:55:00] Cute. Randy also shared with us that when they reached out to Dave Berry's legal representation to see if they could use his calendar, his assistant, Judy Smith, was a huge fan of the show. 

Jenna [00:55:11] That always helps. 

Angela [00:55:12] Yes, Dave was out of town, but Judy tracked him down, got his permission. So Randy said a big thank you to Judy Smith for helping us make this happen. And on the commentary, Charlie shared that Dave Berry also sent in a letter to the writers and an autographed photograph of himself, and the writers hung it in the writer's room. That is so cool. That must have been. 

Jenna [00:55:36] Such a weird full circle moment for B.J.. 

Angela [00:55:39] I know. 

Jenna [00:55:41] Can I interrupt our breakdown for one quick second to tell you what a TMI thing. 

Angela [00:55:47] What's going on? 

Jenna [00:55:49] I'm wearing a new bra. 

Angela [00:55:51] Oh, I. 

Jenna [00:55:51] Wanted to get new bras. And I love it. Okay, great. It's a Natori but brand that I learned about. My left boob is kind of fallen. 

Angela [00:56:04] Out of your bra right now. 

Jenna [00:56:07] It's not completely falling out, but it's more out. And I can just feel that it's not symmetrically supported. I think maybe I got to small size. 

Angela [00:56:19] Do you need to? Well, we know you have a big rack to do it. I wasn't trying to say it like that. 

Jenna [00:56:29] I was saying I think I didn't you know, I didn't want to take group. Do you know? I don't know. I've tried scooping it. 

Angela [00:56:35] I saw you fidgeting. 

Jenna [00:56:36] I know. I know. And that was the thing. I wanted to fidget again, but I was getting self-conscious about constantly tugging at my left boob. But here's the thing. I didn't do the extra step of having the lady with the tape measure help measure me for the correct bra size because I didn't want to deal with it. Right. And now I think I bought the wrong size. But everything else about it I like, it's just I don't have symmetrical cups support, boobs support. 

Angela [00:57:04] Two things are going through my mind right now. One is that the left side doesn't fit, but the right side does. Yeah, that's correct. Left side, bigger. 

Jenna [00:57:14] Left side's always been bigger. Okay. It's over my heart. And I think that's actually really common that your left breast is larger than your right calf. 

Angela [00:57:22] Happy? No, I've never gotten them properly measured. Okay. 

Jenna [00:57:27] Okay. 

Angela [00:57:29] Here's my other thing that's going through my mind. I went to get my mammogram. You guys, I've been putting it off. Jenna fussed at me hardcore. She's like, Lady, it is time. Go do it. I'm bad about that stuff. I'm bad about making doctor's appointments. So I went. I was so. 

Jenna [00:57:45] Branded. I was so proud of you. 

Angela [00:57:48] I texted you, I'm going to get my flippin mammogram. I went in there. I put on the little pink robe, you know, that opens in the front. 

Jenna [00:57:56] She sent me a photo from the mammogram place. A robe saying it's happening. Loading. You should be proud of me. 

Angela [00:58:03] The lady, her name was Ashley. She said, Step up to the machine. Turn your cheek to the left. Did my right boob first. Turn your cheek to the left. I'm going to take your right boob. I'm going to put it on this like metal tray. And then I'm going to hit this button and it's going to compress it. But I need you to lean into it. Mm hmm. Squished my boob, and then I had to hold it. And then all the lights flickered and everything stopped, and the machine broke with my right boob in it. The machine broke. They hit a button, released my boob. And then the lady was like, I don't I don't know what just happened. I don't know. The computer's frozen. And then it said, Emergency shut down here. 

Jenna [00:58:45] Boob broke the mammogram machine. 

Angela [00:58:47] Lady, the joke, the nurse kind of was like, your boob broke it anyway, so they couldn't fix the machine. And I left. I left. So there you go. Josh kind of jokes that whenever I get around, like any kind of electrical device, it shortens out, like, maybe I have tungsten, maybe I have tungsten in my boobs. 

Jenna [00:59:08] I hope everyone enjoyed these two boob stories today. 

Angela [00:59:11] Well. 

Jenna [00:59:12] It was just Jenna's left. 

Angela [00:59:14] Boob is too big, and my right boob has superpowers. So what? 

Jenna [00:59:18] What an amazing thing. 

Angela [00:59:20] But I already rescheduled my mammogram. I'm going to a different facility with a different machine. 

Jenna [00:59:26] I hope so. Well, we should probably get back to this episode. There's a very intense skate off that's about to happen. 

Angela [00:59:34] Oh, my gosh. I lived for the skate off. It was. 

Jenna [00:59:37] So good. 

Angela [00:59:37] There are three contestants in the skate off scarred and then a guy in an all black suit with a white mask and then a guy in all blue. I will never get over Oscar in that blue suit. I will never get over it. I was very curious about the speed skating suits, so I did a mini dove. 

Jenna [00:59:56] On speed skating. 

Angela [00:59:57] Suit. Yes. 

Jenna [00:59:58] Do tell. 

Angela [01:00:00] I found a great article on Romper dot com about the evolution of speed skating outfits. It started really in the Olympics in 1924, and the article goes all the way to present day. In 1972, skaters started wearing something along the lines of what we see now. It's known as a skin suit. They are one piece. Uniforms. They're ultra tight. They include gloves and a cap or a hood. And they help make the skaters more aerodynamic. Mm hmm. They even have Kevlar patches built in. 

Jenna [01:00:33] Kevlar. 

Angela [01:00:34] To protect vital body parts. That seems. 

Jenna [01:00:37] Heavy. Isn't that the thing that stops bullets? 

Angela [01:00:40] I mean, that's. But it's sad for every player. The skin suit is designed by taking the overall measurements of body parts chest, waist, thigh. They're all measured. 

Jenna [01:00:49] They're custom made. 

Angela [01:00:51] Well, I'm guessing at the Olympic level they are. Yeah, sure. Maybe there's a generic one that you can just by small, medium or large. I don't know. Helmets are now mandatory as part of a short track speed skating. And also skaters may wear Kevlar gloves to prevent them from getting cut by their competitor skates. But long track skaters, which is kind of what golden face and scarf are doing, they don't have to wear helmets or gloves. But now eye protection is mandatory. Wow. 

Speaker 4 [01:01:21] In general, the answer to your question is no Kevlar super light. That's one of the things that makes it such a cool product. 

Jenna [01:01:26] But does it stop bullets? 

Speaker 4 [01:01:28] It can. It's it's extremely it's like a couple of times stronger than steel and super, super light. I only know that they make some really great motorcycle stuff that's you wouldn't know is not regular leather jacket, but keeps you nice and safe. 

Angela [01:01:40] Wow. How about that? It also protects your private parts when you're skating. 

Speaker 4 [01:01:45] Which are very important to. 

Angela [01:01:46] Me. Mm hmm. 

Jenna [01:01:48] Well, the winner of this race is going to get to skate in the All-Star Game. 

Angela [01:01:52] Yeah. 

Jenna [01:01:53] Who knew? And speaking of bullets and being bullet proof, this skate off is going to also turn into a shootout. 

Angela [01:02:02] But Golden Face didn't mean to hurt scoring. He just wanted him to lose. Ah. 

Jenna [01:02:08] And how's your wife? 

Angela [01:02:12] We should talk a little bit about how we filmed these skating scenes. The shots on the ice rink were shot by Matt Stone, who was a very skilled skater himself. I mean, Steve is very good. You can see. But Matt was able to skate backwards while holding a camera. Wow. I know. Randy spoke to Matt and he said our key grip. Dale Alexander built a tiny dolly on ice skate blades to help get the camera down at ice level. Wow. Our camera got to skate, too. Here is Matt's exact quote. You can remind Jenna and Angela that it was the most. We used a dolly for the entire run of the whole show. Wow. Yeah. 

Jenna [01:02:55] That is very technical. That is the kind of advanced technical shoot. And this is reminding me of a conversation that I had with B.J.. You know, I went to his restaurant pop up that he does chain. Yeah, because they were doing a collaboration with Chili's. 

Angela [01:03:11] Even a chain. 

Jenna [01:03:12] Yes. I got to feel God in this chain tonight. The food was really good. I know you got it as takeout. 

Angela [01:03:19] I did. I was so hungry, and I had missed dinner, and I ate all of it at, like, 10:00 at night. 

Jenna [01:03:24] They were amazing. They even made me a gluten free version. 

Angela [01:03:27] Hmm. 

Jenna [01:03:27] The chef's amazing. Okay. Anyway, while we were there, I was chatting with B.J. about threat level midnight, and he said that there was a huge debate about whether or not Michael's movie should be shot. Well or not well. And he's told me that Paul Lieberstein, who was the showrunner at the time, was very adamant that it should look better than you expect, not worse than you expect. And the reason for that was Paul just said it'll be more fun to watch. We don't need the joke to be like that. Michael. Cut off someone's head. 

Angela [01:04:01] Or, like, the camera's, like, shaky. 

Jenna [01:04:04] Exactly. And B.J. told me that the way he justified that was that he like to imagine that over the years, Michael had become friends with a couple of the documentary guys. Mm hmm. And that he roped them into shooting this in their free time, but they couldn't use any of their amazing equipment. They just used Michael's home video equipment. But because of their expertize, they could come up with these ways where, like, you would do it at home, like you would. Instead of having a dolly, you would put it on a shopping cart and roll it or put it on a skateboard or something. But they had these tricks and that's why threat level midnight is shot so well. 

Angela [01:04:40] It does beg the question, then. Has this documentary crew been around for 11 years? 

Jenna [01:04:46] I guess so. They have had no other job. Are they brothers? 

Angela [01:04:49] Granted, yeah. 

Jenna [01:04:51] What time did they relocate to Scranton? These are good questions. 

Angela [01:04:55] Well, on the DVD commentary, B.J. said that Matt Stone did a really cool thing after everything was shot. He went back in and washed out the color of the footage of the movie to make it look even more distinctly different from the documentary footage. And I could see it. 

Jenna [01:05:11] I thought that was really smart because then you knew when you were watching the episode versus when you were watching Threat Level Midnight? 

Angela [01:05:17] Yeah. 

Jenna [01:05:18] Oh, one more thing from this scene that I thought was really fun. You know, golden face has a golden gun. 

Angela [01:05:24] Yeah. 

Jenna [01:05:25] B.J. said Phil Shaye just took it upon himself to make a golden gun. It was not scripted that way. 

Angela [01:05:30] Oh, it was perfect. 

Jenna [01:05:31] I know. And B.J. was so tickled when he got to the ice rink and he saw the gold gun for golden face. 

Angela [01:05:37] But this is just the example of how every department. Was so excited to be a part of this project. 

Jenna [01:05:43] It's so true. 

Angela [01:05:44] Scarlett is going to realize that he's got to take out the guy who won. 

Jenna [01:05:48] Well, he was number two. So if number one is gone, he'll get the slot. 

Angela [01:05:53] That's right. So he strangles Oscar's character. 

Jenna [01:05:56] With an American. 

Angela [01:05:57] Flag. He apologizes. 

Jenna [01:06:00] This scene is much longer in the DVD version. 

Angela [01:06:03] So much longer. Oscar really makes a meal out of, like, his, like, legs kicking and, like, all of it. 

Jenna [01:06:11] It's pretty hilarious. One of my favorite details is that after Oscar has died, he continues to blink. Yeah. Did you notice? I noticed this death scene is making everyone in the conference room a little uncomfortable. They're like, Wow, that was dark. 

Angela [01:06:26] Yeah, well, you have to believe that they watch the extended cut. Yes. Back at screen manner, Samuel is going to reveal some information. He has intercepted a name, Jasmyne, one song, but he doesn't know who the funky cat is. And Screen says not who what? Because the funky cat is the hippest jazz club in town. 

Jenna [01:06:49] Well, lady, before we go to the Funky Cat, I think we should take a little break now because. 

Angela [01:06:56] You're going to put your booty back in your bra. 

Jenna [01:06:58] I actually am going to go and see if maybe I do some adjustments, if I can make some more room on the left side. I'll let you know. 

Angela [01:07:07] When we come back. Jenna's boob will be in place, and we're going to meet Jasmine when? Thong. 

Jenna [01:07:15] We're back. Here's what I've discovered. 

Angela [01:07:18] Okay. 

Jenna [01:07:19] My boobs in. But it doesn't feel in because there's cup and then there's a little lace. Hmm. And I'm feeling it kind of bulge on the lace. 

Angela [01:07:29] Okay. 

Jenna [01:07:30] So it's in. 

Angela [01:07:31] Yeah. 

Jenna [01:07:32] It's going to be fine. 

Angela [01:07:33] But it doesn't want to be there. 

Jenna [01:07:35] You know, I was trying to level up Angela. I was trying to maybe. 

Angela [01:07:39] Give the undergarments to judge. 

Jenna [01:07:41] Yes. And so I went with a bra with some lace on it. 

Angela [01:07:45] Yeah. 

Jenna [01:07:46] And I don't think the lace is for me. I just, you know, I'm almost 50, and I think I know what I like. I just. 

Angela [01:07:52] Agree. I think you can wear lace in your. 

Jenna [01:07:54] I'm not saying you can't wear lace in your fifties. I'm saying my left boob is not a lace fan. 

Angela [01:08:00] I think your left boob is a lace fan. I just think the lace is a little wimpy and you might need some stronger lace. Oh, you need. You need big boob place. Oh, maybe right now you have medium boobs, lace. I don't know. Well, you know who's probably wearing some lace? 

Jenna [01:08:18] Jasmine, wind thong. 

Angela [01:08:19] How do you like that for a transition? 

Jenna [01:08:21] I think you did that. Great. She's up on the piano. She's singing as Michael enters the funky cat. 

Angela [01:08:30] Room. 

Jenna [01:08:31] And Michael Jackson sits down at the piano. We cut to this amazing jam talking head that I just simply could not love more. 

Angela [01:08:39] It was so perfect. I had to go to the shooting draft because I had to know if the bit she was doing. 

Jenna [01:08:45] Where she couldn't open the. 

Angela [01:08:46] Car door. Yes, I had to know if that was scripted or. 

Jenna [01:08:48] Was it. 

Angela [01:08:49] Scripted? 

Jenna [01:08:49] No, it's so great. 

Angela [01:08:51] It's not in the script. This is all it says in the shooting draft. Jan Talking Head. She's on the street walking to her car. Jan says he finished his movie. No kidding. Wow. That's great. Good for him. And I heard he has a serious girlfriend. That's so great. I'm great, too. 

Jenna [01:09:10] Okay, well, sadly, they cut out the end. Yeah, because I would have loved that snark from Jan. 

Angela [01:09:15] Mm hmm. 

Jenna [01:09:16] I love the choice that she is carrying a bag of dry cleaning to her car. I love that she can't get the door open. I love that they've clearly ambushed her on the street to ask her about her role in Threat Level Midnight. I love it all. I love her performance. And by the way, Jasmine, when song is a very important part of this movie, because she is going to sing backwards, a very important clue. 

Angela [01:09:40] Yes. Michael is going to record it with a special meaning tape recorder that has like a little label maker that says backwards. 

Jenna [01:09:46] Because if you put a label that says backwards, it just plays things backwards for you. 

Angela [01:09:51] The message says the hostages are under the stadium. 

Jenna [01:09:55] But as soon as she delivers that message, she gets a dart to the neck. 

Angela [01:10:00] By assassin Troy. 

Jenna [01:10:02] Yes, Troy under bridges back. And you know, his role is even larger in the extended version. 

Angela [01:10:08] Yeah. 

Jenna [01:10:09] Location alert. The Funky Cat Jazz Club was filmed at Stove Piper Lounge in Northridge, California. And the lyrics for the song, they call me Jasmine when song were written by B.J. Novak. And the music was written by Eve Nelson, who was our amazing go to composer on our show. 

Angela [01:10:27] Back at the stadium. Our hostage, Sandra, played by Pam. Yes. Is going to beg golden face to let them all go. But it doesn't. 

Jenna [01:10:36] Work. No. 

Angela [01:10:37] In fact, he decides to take out a hostage. Toby? 

Jenna [01:10:41] Yeah. He needs to show how serious he is. We had a fan question from Amity in Peoria, Illinois. In this episode, Michael says that the scene with Toby's head explosion was the most expensive among all the scenes in the movie. And I'm wondering which scene was the most expensive that you shot in the whole series of the office? And which one was the most expensive for this episode? Well, as far as being the most expensive in the whole series, I. 

Angela [01:11:11] Have a guess. 

Jenna [01:11:12] Yes. 

Angela [01:11:13] I know. They had to build a whole entire gas station in a freeway. 

Jenna [01:11:16] Yes, you're right, Angela. The Jim Pam proposal scene. Randi told us it cost $177,000 for 40 seconds of screen time, 40 seconds. He said the second most expensive would probably go to filming on the boat in Niagara Falls, especially if you include all the travel and location expenses to get there. 

Angela [01:11:38] And Anna, as far as the most expensive scene in the episode on the commentary, B.J. said definitely he thought it was the Toby explosion. But Randy said that's not accurate. 

Jenna [01:11:48] Oh, really? 

Angela [01:11:49] Really. Randy thinks the sequence of scenes at the Funky Cat Bar were more expensive because included all of these elements the music, the choreography, the extras, the costumes, the set dressing, all the signage, the locations and the guest stars. 

Jenna [01:12:04] Oh, yeah, that makes sense. 

Angela [01:12:06] Mm hmm. So, funky cat Wen's most expensive scene. 

Jenna [01:12:10] We got another fan question from Hanna B in Wisconsin. I would love to know how you did make Toby's head explode. How many times were you able to get this shot and did you have a safety meeting? Well, Hanna, B.J. said they made two Toby heads, and in order to make the heads, Paul had to sit in a full face plaster mold for hours, hours of time that B.J. said he could have been producing our show, but instead he was just sitting in a face mold after that was done to get this shot. They rigged each of the molds with mild explosives. They filled one of them with blood. And then they set up cameras from three different angles and they filmed them exploding in slow motion. When they went back to review the footage. They said the one that was filled with blood was just too disturbing. Oh, was. Was just too gruesome. 

Angela [01:13:01] It needed to look super fake. 

Jenna [01:13:02] It did. So that's why they ended up using the one that they did. 

Angela [01:13:07] I do remember Paul talking about sitting in all that plaster, though, and he said it was a miserable experience. 

Jenna [01:13:13] I mean. 

Angela [01:13:14] Claustrophobic, but yeah, I was like, don't you have, like, a little tiny straw? You breathe through? Yeah. Oh. 

Jenna [01:13:20] Randy confirmed that. Yes. We definitely had a safety meeting. Oh, yeah. We had to discuss protecting the camera crew from the shards of Toby's. 

Angela [01:13:32] Plaster. 

Jenna [01:13:33] Face. Yes, everywhere. But we removed the cast from the shot, which you can tell, which is very funny. No one is sitting around the dummy, Toby. And the whole thing cost about $5,700 in special effects in labor. And since we're talking about budgets and money, we had a fan question from Angie in Birmingham, Alabama, who wanted to know what was the total budget for this episode? Angela, you were asking, what did Michael spend? 

Angela [01:13:59] Yeah, to. 

Jenna [01:14:00] Make threat level midnight. Do you have any guests? It was so much more than I thought. 

Angela [01:14:04] Now I'm not going to guess correctly. 

Jenna [01:14:06] Okay, well, I'll just tell you. $3.6 million down for this one episode. 

Angela [01:14:12] Oh, my Lord. 

Jenna [01:14:14] He said it was slightly less than Andy's play. 

Angela [01:14:17] And his play was more than threat level midnight. 

Jenna [01:14:20] Yeah. Yeah. 

Angela [01:14:23] Oh, yeah. 

Jenna [01:14:24] Crazy. 

Angela [01:14:25] Has a Scalia and Samuel are going to arrive to save the hostages. 

Jenna [01:14:30] It's very exciting. 

Angela [01:14:32] I know. 

Jenna [01:14:33] And for some reason, Golden Face is going to reveal where the bomb is hidden. 

Angela [01:14:38] It's in the puck. Yeah. He tosses it to scorn and scorn, holds it and starts to reminisce about his life with his wife. There's like a little montage playing on the hockey puck. This was our director, Tucker Gates's idea. And in the flashback montage, here's what scoring sees. He sees himself painting his wife's toenails, and it's kind of blowing on them to dry them. Mm hmm. He's also walking, maybe ammo, cookie crackers or some kind of cracker across a woman's belly while they're laying on the grass and then a ketchup fight. 

Jenna [01:15:16] I think this is so this montage makes so obvious how Michael has never really been in a healthy relationship, because when he had to create a flashback, love montage, these were. 

Angela [01:15:34] The. 

Jenna [01:15:36] Ideas he had of a blissful relationship. But I mean, Angela, ketchup fight. We've all done that, right? 

Angela [01:15:44] Oh, yeah. That's totally a normal part of courtship. 

Jenna [01:15:47] And I personally love when Lee and I are in bed and he moves the animal cracker across my belly. 

Angela [01:15:54] Well, I'm. 

Jenna [01:15:55] Like, hot. 

Angela [01:15:56] I'm like, Hey, what you want paint my toenails? 

Jenna [01:15:58] I mean, only if you. 

Angela [01:15:59] Blow on them after. Well, Skynet is going to hurl the puck right back at Golden Face, and he's going to yell, Go puck yourself. Charlie Grandy shared that. He wrote, Go Fuck Yourself, nice. 

Jenna [01:16:11] This whole thing is going to end terribly. Golden Face is going to try to shoot Michael Scorn and Samuel is going to jump in and take that bullet and then Golden Face is going to shoot Michael scurrying right after. 

Angela [01:16:25] Apparently Samuel diving in front of the bullet was not scripted. 

Jenna [01:16:28] It was. 

Angela [01:16:28] Not. That was just Dwight. 

Jenna [01:16:30] That one bullet pierced Michael Skarsgard's brain, lungs, heart, back and forth. 

Angela [01:16:38] But it's going to take a lot more than that to take scarring down. Good thing he's got a big, busty nurse to help make everything feel better. 

Jenna [01:16:45] Oh, Helene, how. 

Angela [01:16:47] Awkward could you imagine? 

Jenna [01:16:50] I mean, Pam is trying so hard to be supportive of this movie, and clearly, clearly, she never knew that her mom filmed a scene for Threat Level Midnight. I feel like she's discovering it in the moment. 

Angela [01:17:04] I can't believe her mom wouldn't tell her. I wore a super duper push up bra and leaned into the camera. 

Jenna [01:17:11] B.J. said one of his favorite parts about writing this episode was getting to create a movie from Michael's perspective. And he said it got to include a lot of moments of wish fulfillment. 

Angela [01:17:23] Hmm. 

Jenna [01:17:24] For example, blowing up Toby's head. Or the fact that very soon he's going to walk into a bar and everyone's going to know his name. 

Angela [01:17:32] Mm hmm. 

Jenna [01:17:32] But he also got to write things that Michael wouldn't have intended. For example, in this scene, Michael views Tylenol as a hard drug because he says, Can I have more Tylenol? And the nurse says, You've had four already. And B.J. said that he wrote lines like that to point toward Michael's innocence. 

Angela [01:17:53] Back at the White House, a fully recovered scarring is going to tell the president that the bomb is in the park. Plot twist coming. Yeah. 

Jenna [01:18:03] A golden face and his sidekick are going to walk. Into the president's office. Their machine guns? 

Angela [01:18:11] Yeah. 

Jenna [01:18:11] The president is in on it. 

Angela [01:18:13] Scorn is going to smash a picture of Abraham Lincoln over the president's head to escape. Kari Kemper pitched the joke of Michael smashing the painting over the president's head. 

Jenna [01:18:23] Well, Randy said that that picture was a public domain image. It was free to use. And our art department printed multiple copies of it on Easy to Tear Paper. I love the choice that Craig made as the president in this movie to sort of stick his head out in anticipation of getting the Abraham Lincoln portrait on his head. 

Angela [01:18:45] Yeah. 

Jenna [01:18:46] It's so good. 

Angela [01:18:47] It's so good. I also love whenever Andy's character, Billy the Bartender, is in a scene. When it cuts to Andy, he's mouthing the words yes. 

Jenna [01:18:54] In the conference room. Yeah. So we had a fan question from Tom in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who said, I imagine this was a tricky episode to film, since you have to act in this movie, how your character would act. And none of the characters are professional actors except for maybe Andy. How hard was that as an actor to act poorly? Were there takes where maybe your acting was too good? Tom This is really interesting because we did all put a lot of thought into what kind of performers were each of our characters. And again, kind of like what B.J. said about how Paul didn't want the camerawork to be terrible. We were also directed to not be awful actors. Maybe a little stiff. Mm hmm. 

Angela [01:19:41] Maybe camera aware? 

Jenna [01:19:43] Yes. 

Angela [01:19:43] Yeah. 

Jenna [01:19:44] But you've seen those videos that people post maybe where they're acting out a skit at their job. I watched some of those on YouTube because I was like, I think that would be Pam. Mm hmm. Like, Pam would just say all of her lines very simply, with earnestness. Almost as if she was reading them. 

Angela [01:20:02] Yeah. Without any pauses. 

Jenna [01:20:04] Yes, exactly. Without any inflections. 

Angela [01:20:07] Well, we're not at this part yet, but I can tell you, when I had to learn the dance, I had to take the hip sass down a notch. 

Jenna [01:20:14] Oh, because of your natural hips that. 

Angela [01:20:16] I like to, you know, sashay. And I had to tone that down. We are finally going to make it to the bar and we see Billy played by Andy. Andy was so excited to make this character happen. Billy's TV doesn't work. How's that for problems? And I loved it when Michael was like, Don't ever change Billy. At 12 minutes, 52 seconds, when the group of bachelorettes give Michael a drink. Does anyone else think it looked like my husband's the f train to Brooklyn Extra Bitters? 

Jenna [01:20:45] Yes, I did, Angela. 

Angela [01:20:47] Yeah, with the little toothpick, the whole thing. We talked about this with B.J.. All of the bachelorettes actually had a line. It's in the extended cut on the DVD, if you want to see the full scene. 

Jenna [01:20:56] Yes, I've got a location alert. This location was the same as the funky cat. We just used a different side of the bar. Oh, yeah. 

Angela [01:21:06] So smart. Mm hmm. Well, Karen is going to have a talking head saying, why did you single my line out? Like, a million years later? And at 13 minutes, 4 seconds for my background, folks, you will see another cameo callback. Dan Gore is exiting the cafe behind Karen's talking head. You know, Dan played Karen's baby daddy. Yes. 

Jenna [01:21:27] Didn't he dress as a hot dog in a photo? Oh, yeah. Her death or something like that. That's amazing. 

Angela [01:21:32] As the scene continues in the bar, we find out that Scarlett is really depressed, you know, and Billy is going to cheer him up. He tells a random kid in overalls, who was this kid? 

Jenna [01:21:44] That kid was played by Joshua Reed. 

Angela [01:21:46] All I could think of is like, is this a Schrute? Like is one of Dwight's nephews or cousins in town. Anyway, he tells the little boy to hit G nine on the jukebox. It's time to dance the scone. Oh. 

Jenna [01:22:00] We talked about this with B.J.. It was so fun. All you guys are so funny. I love all the cameos in the background of this scene. We've got the whole warehouse, and then we have Leo from Vance Refrigeration, but not Gino. 

Angela [01:22:12] I guess in real life, Gene was like, No, I don't want to. I want to do this. 

Jenna [01:22:16] Well, Leo's having a good time. And we also have Todd Packer. 

Angela [01:22:19] Yeah, I will tell you, the day we filmed this was such a blast. We, of course, had to learn the dance and practice it a few times. And we also had to figure out how our character would dance, how up for it they would be. And I just have such fond memories of this day. 

Jenna [01:22:36] We had a fan question from Avery in Idaho, who asked who choreographed the scarring? Well, I'll tell you, first of all, the lyrics were by B.J. and the music was by Eve Nelson again, and the choreography was by Marianne Kellogg. She's done all our choreography on the show, and she's great. 

Angela [01:22:53] Well, she was very patient with us. If you look at the group who learned the scoring, we are all different levels of dance skill set. 

Jenna [01:22:59] I mean, this is not a difficult dance, though. 

Angela [01:23:01] It's not. But we had to get the timing right. But we also had to make it look like we didn't over know it. Do you know what I mean? 

Jenna [01:23:07] I do. Back in the conference room, the guard is giving Jim the giggles. He can't stop laughing. 

Angela [01:23:14] Here's a tidbit for you on the DVD. They said we shot this conference room scene with everyone reacting on the first day, so nothing had been filmed yet. So John is laughing at nothing. 

Jenna [01:23:26] Wait. So the entire time we got back to the conference room, all of us are watching. Nothing. 

Angela [01:23:32] Nothing. Can you believe that? I mean. 

Jenna [01:23:36] I don't even remember it that way. That's what's so crazy. I was there. 

Angela [01:23:41] B.J. said, John, when he's having this laughing fit, is watching nothing. And he was amazed at how well it timed out. Wow. 

Jenna [01:23:49] Well, the laughing is going to really upset Michael. So much so he's going to pause the movie and walk out. 

Angela [01:23:55] Yep. And everyone is like, no, no, no. The movie's great. Don't leave. And that's when Michael turns to Holly and says, if she liked the movie and she says, Which part? Oh, no. 

Jenna [01:24:06] Yeah. This leads to that scene in the annex that we talked all about with B.J. and Michael's talking head about ants versus A Bug's Life. 

Angela [01:24:16] Yeah. 

Jenna [01:24:17] And Michael, who is heartbroken that Holly does not understand how important this movie is to him, is going to watch the rest of the. 

Angela [01:24:24] Movie without her. Yeah. Mm hmm. But as he watches it without her, he starts to sort of see it through her filter. Right. Yeah. And as he's looking at her empty seat, he then looks out the conference room window. And there she is. She's watching it. He runs out to her. He apologizes. She apologizes. They kiss. They go back in to watch it together. They're such a good couple. They really are. She gets him and she's making him a better person. Yes. 

Jenna [01:24:54] Yes. I think that was the whole point of this plot was to mature. Michael. 

Angela [01:24:59] Mm hmm. 

Jenna [01:25:00] Lady, we had a fan question from Paige M in Philly. Paige asks, When everyone is watching threat level midnight for the second time, Michael gets up to check on Holly. At that time, Golden Face is telling Pam why his face is gold. However, the audience misses it because we are listening to Michael and Holly's conversation. I want to. 

Angela [01:25:20] Know. 

Jenna [01:25:21] What was he. 

Angela [01:25:22] Saying? I actually found the scene in the shooting draft, but it's also in the extended movie on the DVD as well. I'm going to set it up from the shooting draft and then I'm going to play the clip. Great. The script said Interior Stadium Warehouse. The hostages are scared. Kevin is praying. Roy says to Pam, Now's your chance. Go talk to Golden Face. See what you can do. Pam approaches Golden Face and in the script, it says that Pam's character is flirtatious. Oh. Mm hmm. So Pam had some stage direction. Let's hear the rest of it. 

Speaker 4 [01:25:58] Now's your chance. Go talk to Golden Face. See what you can do. Okay. 

Angela [01:26:05] Hey, Gold. 

Jenna [01:26:07] Can I ask you a question? I mean, since we're all going to die here anyway. Why is your face gold? 

Speaker 4 [01:26:15] Why do you care? 

Jenna [01:26:16] I'm just making conversation. 

Speaker 4 [01:26:19] I worked in a gold factory. We had a boss who only cared about money and he wouldn't give us lunch breaks. So we had to. Eat the cold. And then one day I looked in the mirror and. Well, I guess you are what you eat. 

Jenna [01:26:39] Golden face. That is so sad. 

Speaker 4 [01:26:42] Well, I just thought if I could blow up all the All-Star games, all the trophies would explode all over the place, and then everyone would be gold. 

B.J. [01:26:51] Just like me. Please let us go. Golden face. 

Jenna [01:26:56] So sad. You know what you can't see when you play that clip is that at the end of that scene, Sandra, played by PM, gives golden face a kiss on his cheek. 

Angela [01:27:11] Yeah. And in the shooting draft, it's said after the scene plays, you cut back to real time in the conference room. And Jim and Pam are holding hands, enjoying the scene, remembering what that meant to them. 

Jenna [01:27:25] I mean, Pam got to kiss Jim's cheek in front of Roy. 

Angela [01:27:29] I know. Wow. 

Jenna [01:27:32] Back in the movie, Michael Strahan has taken to the ice. I really love the detail that Michael tells us in the conference room, which is that he filmed this during an actual Scranton High School hockey game and that it was kind of a big deal because they were trying to qualify. And then the team got disqualified because Michael Yeah. 

Angela [01:27:54] Must think he ruined all of their dreams of, like, going on and winning a championship. 

Jenna [01:28:00] They had had an undefeated season up and now. 

Angela [01:28:02] Yeah. And they were disqualified because this idiot took to the ice to film his movie. 

Jenna [01:28:07] Well, the actual location of this shoot was at the Valencia ice station, and all of those people were extras that we hired. Of course. 

Angela [01:28:16] It's a big production. It really was Cherokee. Jack is going to revisit Scarring from the dead. See a ghost. Yeah. Yeah. And he's going to tell Scar and to take out all of his frustrations on that hockey puck. And scarring hits it so hard that it flies into space. 

Jenna [01:28:34] It hits the satellite. 

Angela [01:28:35] Yeah. All of a sudden, Belize TV, it works again. 

Jenna [01:28:38] And then it eventually lands in the lap of Golden Face, who's sitting in his backyard counting a suitcase full of money. 

Angela [01:28:48] Yeah, he's in a lawn chair counting money. 

Jenna [01:28:52] Where did the money come from? 

Angela [01:28:54] I don't know. But he goes, Oh, sure. Oh. 

Jenna [01:28:59] Oh. Standards Lip. 

Angela [01:29:01] Gloss. 

Jenna [01:29:01] Lady. Here were the notes from Standards and Practices. Scene 86. Please lose the underlined or have the explosion start sooner when we see the puck land on Golden Face's lap and he says, Oh shit. And they underlined the show. 

Angela [01:29:22] Somebody was like, Listen, they're not going to take us seriously unless you underline it. 

Jenna [01:29:26] It's in bold. They know what in bold do. 

Angela [01:29:28] Here's my other note. Make it bold. Underline it. Do you have a highlight or highlight it? Put an arrow by it. 

Jenna [01:29:34] So that's why we can see John's mouth go into the ash. We were allowed that silent lip flap, but the explosion had to go off before we heard him make the sound. 

Angela [01:29:46] Underline it? 

Jenna [01:29:47] Exactly. 

Angela [01:29:49] Well, the location of the scene was our very own Tom Shelby's backyard. 

Jenna [01:29:53] I recognized it immediately. 

Angela [01:29:55] Too, right away. 

Jenna [01:29:56] He lived in a house right behind our stages. 

Angela [01:30:00] Yeah, we've talked about it. He had a little swing, and I'd walk over there with Isabel on my lunch. Well, everyone. Cheers. Scarred has saved the day. 

Jenna [01:30:09] It's amazing. He's back at his house. He's having breakfast and the president calls again. He has another mission. First gone. 

Angela [01:30:21] Should he choose to accept? Also, one side note. Yes, he realizes. Oh, yeah. He did make Dwight a robot. 

Jenna [01:30:27] Yes. Because there is a scene of him oiling his circuit board. And as the movie comes to an end, the narrator it's been Stanley's voice this whole time. 

Angela [01:30:38] Plot twist. 

Jenna [01:30:39] That voice is coming out of Michael Jackson. He is Mike Oscar. He's been narrating his own story. 

Angela [01:30:48] The whole time. 

Jenna [01:30:49] The office erupts in cheers. It's a huge hit. Everybody loved threat level midnight. 

Angela [01:30:56] Yeah, it was a pretty fun day at the office. 

Jenna [01:30:59] You know, the episode ends with the sort of end credits for the movie and the theme song of Threat Level Midnight that we talked about with B.J.. I thought it was really cute on the DVD. This is how that song is credited. It says Theme from Threat Level Midnight Music and Lyrics by Michael Scott performed by Andrew Bernard, inspired by the music of Will Smith. I just love when Michael always gives credit to who inspired him. 

Angela [01:31:29] Well, on the DVD, B.J. and Charlie talked about this final rap at the end, and Charlie wrote it, and B.J. said he remembered that Charlie wrote it in what seemed to be like 5 minutes. It just flowed. Yeah. 

Jenna [01:31:43] Well, at the end of the credits, there was going to be an additional tag of Dwight as Samuel coming in and telling you to go home. Go home? The movie's over, like at the end of Ferris Bueller. 

Angela [01:31:56] Yeah, but. 

Jenna [01:31:57] We didn't have time. 

Angela [01:31:58] It's really cute, though. It's in the extended cut. Well, that. 

Jenna [01:32:01] Was our breakdown of threat level midnight. But I do have one more little tidbit to share, Angela. 

Angela [01:32:06] Mm hmm. 

Jenna [01:32:07] Last year, there was a band called The Network who appeared on The Tonight Show, and they performed a song called Threat Level Midnight. 

Angela [01:32:15] Oh, yeah. 

Jenna [01:32:16] The network is a new wave band, but they are a side project of the rock band. 

Angela [01:32:23] Green Day. Oh, Billy Joe, our best friend. Your best friend? I'm kind of glomming on now. You hung out? I met him. We hung out. We had a really nice conversation. 

Jenna [01:32:34] The three of us are basically best friends now. 

Angela [01:32:36] Angela, in your mind. 

Jenna [01:32:38] We have a photo to prove it. Well, put it in stories, because I'm dying to prove our friendship. But anyway, it's a really fun song. And actually, when they went to release this, Billie Joe texted me this song out of nowhere with no context. I didn't even know he had started watching the office yet. It's really catchy and my family listens to it all the time, so I thought maybe we could end this episode by playing it. 

Angela [01:33:04] Let's hear it. Threat level midnight by the network. 

Jenna [01:33:07] Yes. Well, there you have it, guys. That threat level midnight, a big thank you to B.J. Novak for joining us today. 

Angela [01:33:31] Yes. And Randy Cordray for all the behind the scenes details and you guys for sending in your questions and comments. Thanks so much. 

Jenna [01:33:39] See you next week. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is produced by Earwolf. Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. Our show is executive produced by Codi Fischer. Our producer is Cathy Jerkins. Our sound engineer is Sam Kieffer and our associate producer is Ainsley Babaeko. 

Angela [01:34:03] Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton. For ad free versions of Office Ladies, go to Stitcher premium com for a free one month trial of Stitcher Premium Use Code. Office.