TRANSCRIPT
Office Ladies | Episode 190 - New Guys
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.
Angela [00:00:07] And 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] We're the Office Ladies. Hello!
Angela [00:00:24] Hey there!
Jenna [00:00:26] Happy New Year!
Angela [00:00:27] Happy New Year. Happy New Guys.
Jenna [00:00:30] Happy new season!
Angela [00:00:32] All of the new stuff!
Jenna [00:00:34] This is exciting!
Angela [00:00:35] It is!
Jenna [00:00:36] Also happy new projects to us.
Angela [00:00:39] Yeah!
Jenna [00:00:41] We both have some exciting new projects. I have the Mean Girls movie. It's coming out on January 12th.
Angela [00:00:48] I cannot wait to see it.
Jenna [00:00:50] I cannot wait to see it. I have not seen it yet. So I'm going to be seeing it in the theaters with everybody else. Angela, I had such a fun time making this movie. I have a small role I play. Ms.. Heron. You know, the lead girl is Cady Heron. She was originally played by Lindsay Lohan in the first movie. In this movie she's played by Angouri Rice. When I got the email about this movie, Tina Fey wrote me an email.
Angela [00:01:19] If Tina Fey emailed me, I would print it out and probably- I don't know, I'd definitely put it in my journal.
Jenna [00:01:24] I about pooped my pants. First of all, I didn't know Tina had my email. She has her ways, I guess. So I get this email from Tina Fey and it's like, Jenna, we're doing a Mean Girls movie for a new generation, and I would love for you to play the role of Miss Heron. And I'm thinking to myself, I've been a little bit out of the acting game for a while. We've been happily podcasting. I thought, Why in the world would she even think of me for this part? I was so flattered. And then she said in her email, The person playing your daughter is Angouri Rice. And she's a fantastic actress. So I Google her. Lady. It immediately became clear to me why they thought of me to play her mother. She looks like...
Angela [00:02:08] It's eerie. It's eerie.
Jenna [00:02:10] We look the same.
Angela [00:02:11] Literally. You could be related.
Jenna [00:02:13] She looks like my daughter if my daughter grew up.
Angela [00:02:16] Yes. I so believe it. I see it.
Jenna [00:02:19] I know. I was like, oh, well, now I know why they thought of me. Anyway, Tina sent me the script, and from the first five pages I was like, I'm in. It was so funny. It was so good. It has musical numbers!
Angela [00:02:33] My daughter and her friends cannot wait to see it.
Jenna [00:02:35] Well, my daughter and her friends are so excited because the trailer for this first ran before the Taylor Swift movie.
Angela [00:02:42] Oh, get out!
Jenna [00:02:43] And I guess they all freaked out.
Angela [00:02:44] You're cool now! You're cool!
Jenna [00:02:46] I am!
Angela [00:02:47] This is what happened to me when I did Tall Girl. My daughter was like, Oh, my friends saw you in a movie.
Jenna [00:02:53] Well, anyway, everybody please check it out. Mean Girls movie. January 12th. And Angela, you have some big deal news, too.
Angela [00:03:01] I do. I'm really excited. This is such a passion project for my husband and I. For those of you that have been listening to the podcast, you know my husband's an amazing baker and a cook. We have done a little YouTube series called Baking with Josh and Ange. But let's be honest, he bakes and I just taste everything. I'm a little bit of a hot mess in the kitchen, but I've learned so much with him. And the kitchen is really where our family came together. We're a blended family and it's the heart of our home and we're going to do a cookbook!
Jenna [00:03:32] It's so cool.
Angela [00:03:33] It's all of our favorite family recipes, plus ones from our moms and our grandmothers and little stories and photos. And I can't wait.
Jenna [00:03:43] I told Lee and he said, Oh, that is just perfect. That is so perfect. And then he said, Does she realize she is writing another book?
Angela [00:03:53] Well, listen, Josh is doing all the recipes, and then I'm doing just like the little pops of stories, you know?
Jenna [00:03:59] Okay.
Angela [00:04:00] I know. It's going to take two years. Who are we kidding? I'll be talking about this for a long time, but it is official. We're doing a cookbook! Yay!
Jenna [00:04:10] Yay! And then Office Ladies has really big news that we're not allowed to share yet.
Angela [00:04:14] I was going to say, Wait, we can't share that yet. What are you doing?
Jenna [00:04:16] I know. I'm so excited. At the end of the month. At the end of this month of January, something very, very big is happening.
Angela [00:04:23] Yes. And it's awesome. And we can't wait for you to be a part of it. But we can't say anything yet, lady!
Jenna [00:04:29] We can't say anything yet.
Angela [00:04:29] Okay.
Jenna [00:04:30] All right. Well, let's jump into this episode. It is New Guys. It is season nine, episode one.
Angela [00:04:36] Season nine. Let that sit in.
Jenna [00:04:39] I know.
Angela [00:04:39] We're here.
Jenna [00:04:41] Sink in? Or are you going to sit it in?
Angela [00:04:43] I'm going to sit it in.
Jenna [00:04:44] Okay.
Angela [00:04:44] I am not going to sink into any- I'm sitting in.
Jenna [00:04:47] Sit into it.
Angela [00:04:47] Let that sit into it. Let that s- anyway, you know what I'm saying.
Jenna [00:04:54] Okay. This was written by Greg Daniels, directed by Greg Daniels. And here is your summary: The Scranton branch underwent many changes over the summer. We're going to get updates. We have said goodbye to a few employees and we're welcoming some new ones. Also in this episode, Andy returns from Outward Bound as a terrible person who bullies Nellie.
Angela [00:05:16] He went to Outward Bound to become like a dickhead. I don't understand what happened.
Jenna [00:05:22] It's the worst advertising for Outward Bound in the history of advertising.
Angela [00:05:23] Sorry, Outward Bound. Oh, my gosh.
Jenna [00:05:27] Also, Angela needs to rehome her cat.
Angela [00:05:30] Yes. Comstock. Mm hmm.
Jenna [00:05:33] Jim is going to do some soul searching, and Dwight has found himself a new rival in Dwight Junior.
Angela [00:05:40] Dwight Jr. Who apparently is a slack line aficionado.
Jenna [00:05:44] Yeah, who knew?
Angela [00:05:45] Who knew?
Jenna [00:05:46] Fast fact number one, Greg Daniels is back.
Angela [00:05:49] He's come home.
Jenna [00:05:51] That's right. Like I said before, this episode was both written by and directed by Greg. It is the first episode of The Office that he has written since Goodbye Michael in season seven.
Angela [00:06:03] Hmm.
Jenna [00:06:03] Yeah, so it's been a while and he is also back as our showrunner. For the whole season.
Angela [00:06:10] Yes. We were so excited.
Jenna [00:06:12] Greg gave an interview to Variety where he talked a little bit about his vision for this season. First of all, he said, We will not be telling the story of who is in the manager's chair. Who is manager is no longer a story.
Angela [00:06:27] Thank the Lord. You know what? I was done with that.
Jenna [00:06:31] Mmhmm. Me too.
Angela [00:06:31] Not that anyone asked.
Jenna [00:06:35] I think we were all done with it.
Angela [00:06:36] Yeah.
Jenna [00:06:37] Greg said instead, he hoped to focus on big arcs in relationships.
Angela [00:06:42] Mmmm.
Jenna [00:06:43] He also wanted to write stories where different characters were the lead of each episode. And you're going to really see that in season nine. Each of our characters is going to have a real nice A story.
Angela [00:06:54] Yeah.
Jenna [00:06:54] Greg also announced that all of the questions about who was behind the documentary would be answered this year.
Angela [00:07:02] Dun dun dun.
Jenna [00:07:04] So something I think everyone should know is that when we started shooting this episode, we did not know that season nine would be the last season of The Office. They did not tell us that until we were shooting Work Bus.
Angela [00:07:16] We talked about this in our book, The Office BFFs. That would be the first book I've written. This will be my second book. Yeah, we didn't know yet.
Jenna [00:07:25] Yeah, but by the time this episode aired, we did know. So when it premiered, there was a lot of press about this being our last season. But at this point, what we knew was that Rainn had only signed up to do 13 episodes of season nine because he and Paul Lieberstein were branching out and developing a spin-off of the office called The Farm.
Angela [00:07:49] Featuring Dwight!
Jenna [00:07:51] Yes. And this is why Paul stepped down as showrunner and Greg stepped back in. The idea was that Rainn Wilson would do a half season of The Office, and then The Farm would come out in January. And then Rainn would leave The Office, do The Farm, and the two shows would overlap. Another thing that we knew was that Ed Helms only signed up to do a half a year because he was going to leave in the middle to shoot The Hangover Three. So we knew we would have Ed for a few episodes at the beginning and then a few at the end. So the only sort of two like quote unquote lead characters that were left were me and John. And John wanted to do one more full year, but it kind of seemed like after that we weren't sure if he was going to be up for a season ten. And I wasn't really sure how Pam was going to stay on The Office without Jim. I was open to hearing options, but it did kind of seem like this was going to be Jim and Pam's last year all together.
Angela [00:08:48] Yes. At Dunder Mifflin.
Jenna [00:08:50] Yes. So as a result, they asked John and I to come on this season as producers so that we could help direct the Jim and Pam storyline since it was going to be our last full year together on the show.
Angela [00:09:02] And I have to applaud my BFF because all of a sudden this meant that you were going to have information that you couldn't share right away with me because you were now our producer. You were very professional. You never spilled the beans on anything, even though I'm sure you wanted to. So, professional BFF.
Jenna [00:09:21] Thank you very much. It was actually very difficult.
Angela [00:09:24] I know it was. And I tried not to bug you because I knew it was hard.
Jenna [00:09:29] And I appreciate that, Angela. Well, like I said, by the time the season was ready to premiere, we all knew it would be our last season, and we did tons of press and interviews about it. You can see all of them on OfficeTally.com. Angela, we are all so emotional.
Angela [00:09:43] I know. I watched a few. We're all very weepy.
Jenna [00:09:47] Phyllis is like choking back tears the entire time she's being interviewed. And I feel like if you want to truly understand how emotional we all were, you just have to listen to Creed's interview because he does not make a single joke in the interview.
Angela [00:10:00] Aw. Yeah.
Jenna [00:10:02] He's totally serious. I have the audio clip. Want to hear it?
Angela [00:10:04] I want to hear it. Yeah.
Creed [00:10:06] I think we want to go out with with a bang and and raise our game and walk out of here feeling like we've- well, we already feel like we've been on a winning show and we've left a mark. And but obviously you want to take it up, take up the take the bar, raise the bar a little bit higher. So I think we're all pulling together as a team and- not that we always haven't, but yeah, it's it's kind of- I would say I'm not maudlin about it, but it's been- it's family, you know, so it's going to be sad leaving these people.
Jenna [00:10:40] Right? Right?
Angela [00:10:41] Aw. Yeah. Because Creed normally cuts stuff with a joke, you know? But that was just so honest and yeah.
Jenna [00:10:49] Yeah. And I felt like it kind of summed up perfectly how we felt about it.
Angela [00:10:53] Yeah.
Jenna [00:10:54] Mmhm. Are you ready for fast fact number two?
Angela [00:10:57] I am. I'm just like, oh my gosh, am I going to be weepy this whole last season nine?
Jenna [00:11:01] Maybe.
Angela [00:11:02] Maybe. Okay.
Jenna [00:11:03] Well, fast fact number two is all about finding our new guys, Clark and Pete!
Angela [00:11:08] Yes. Or Plop and Dwight Jr. Who could have been called fart, but, no.
Jenna [00:11:14] No. Went another way.
Angela [00:11:14] Went another way.
Jenna [00:11:16] Well, we got a lot of fan mail. Corey K from Illinois said, Please tell us everything about the actors who played Clark and Plop. Love these two additions to The Office. And Jamie D from Atlanta, Georgia, said, I love the addition of Clark and Plop, especially Clark, who is in my top three favorite Office characters. And I want to know everything about how he came to be. Give me the deets, please and thank you. Well, I reached out to our casting director, Allison Jones, to find out what exactly happened. How did we find these guys? Allison said this was an extensive search. She said not since she had to cast the role of Karen has she auditioned so many people for a role in The Office.
Angela [00:12:00] I bet. Two new people coming in at this stage in the show?
Jenna [00:12:04] She said she auditioned people in New York. She auditioned people in Los Angeles. And one of the reasons that they searched so intensely to cast these two actors was because at this point, there was an idea that The Office would continue into season ten. Even if some of the regular cast members moved on, the idea was that these two new people were going to move us in to the next generation of The Office.
Angela [00:12:30] Mm hmm.
Jenna [00:12:31] And Clark Duke did an interview where he said, When Jake and I joined the show, the idea was that this was going to be a show like E.R. where new leads could move in and out, and it might run for, like, 20 years. So that was the vision. Allison wasn't just casting like guest stars or recurring characters. She was casting the next phase of The Office.
Angela [00:12:53] The comedy E.R.. The 20 years in Dunder-Mifflin just rotating people through this paper company.
Jenna [00:13:02] That's right.
Angela [00:13:03] The most successful small paper company.
Jenna [00:13:07] With a documentary that never ends.
Angela [00:13:09] Never ends.
Jenna [00:13:11] Well, Allison knew Clark Duke, who was cast as Clark. He was cast first. He had done a show called Clark and Michael starring himself and Michael Cera. He was also in Hot Tub Time Machine with Craig Robinson and Kick Ass. He was sort of in that Judd Apatow comedy circle. Allison thinks that he did not even audition, that they offered him the role. So they got that done first. And I found an audio clip of Clark talking about joining the show. Would you like to hear it?
Angela [00:13:41] Yes.
Clark Duke [00:13:43] I was really flattered when they when they approached me about it. I'm a big fan of the show and have been since it started, I guess, nine years ago. And the British one before that. So I was I was very excited, thrilled to be a part of it. My character is also named Clark, which is convenient because it's easy to remember, you know, on the call sheet, too. You know, without giving too much away, but there's really not, like, any big secrets, my guy is just sort of a new guy that works at the office. He's not like a secret agent or anything that's infiltrated the office.
Jenna [00:14:14] So there you go.
Angela [00:14:15] Well, I have two things to share about Clark and Jake. So since you're talking about Clark, we got into this conversation one day on set because his last name is Duke. And my mom's maiden name is Duke. And I was like, Clark, what if we're related? And so then we started trying to figure it out. And he talked to his mom and I talked to my mom. And we're like, my mom was like, Well, we did have some family that moved around. And so we sort of joked that we were maybe distant cousins.
Jenna [00:14:46] But you never found out for sure?
Angela [00:14:48] We never found out for sure. But I did start sending his family my Christmas card.
Jenna [00:14:52] Just in case.
Angela [00:14:53] Just in case. And his mom would send me their Christmas card.
Jenna [00:14:57] That is the sweetest thing. I just love that. Well, let's move on to Jake Lacy now, who got the role of Pete. Allison said that they ran a couple hundred people for the role of Pete, and eventually they settled on a handful of people. They flew Jake in from New York to meet with Greg. And Jake did not have a lot of TV credits when he got the role on The Office. He basically just killed it in his audition. And that is how he got the role.
Angela [00:15:23] By the way, not having a lot of TV credits with Greg doesn't mean anything.
Jenna [00:15:27] No. That was the wonderful thing about all of us getting cast on The Office. He was like, I don't care about your experience. Are you great?
Angela [00:15:35] Yeah.
Jenna [00:15:35] Done. You get the job. Jake did an interview at the start of the season where he said he had started watching The Office when he was in college, and he was a huge fan of the show. And I remember this, Angela. I remember talking about this. It made me feel very old on set. But here's the audio clip.
Jake Lacy [00:15:54] Yeah, this was definitely my dream job. I think, you know, three months ago, if you had said there's any show, you pick it, you can be on it, I would have said The Office. And I was just blown away when this opportunity came up. And then to get out here and test for it and think like, wow, it's getting close, you know? And then to find out that I got it was thrilling. Absolutely thrilling.
Angela [00:16:19] I mean, yeah, they were so young. We were dinosaurs. I remember feeling very old around them.
Jenna [00:16:24] Me too. I loved them.
Angela [00:16:26] I know. They were wonderful. And you know what? They were this really fun new energy. They were the new guys!
Jenna [00:16:32] They were!
Angela [00:16:33] It was like it was great having them around. Here's my little thing about Jake Lacy. I was walking down the hallway to the set. We had this sort of area behind the set we've talked about where hair and makeup was, and you would walk down this little corridor and then all of a sudden you were in the bullpen of Dunder-Mifflin. And I'm walking down this corridor and I hear this voice behind me talking to someone. And I thought, oh, Jenna's husband, Lee, is on set today! And I turned, I literally I think I said, Lee, as I turned around. I think I was like, Lee? And it was Jake! I thought he sounded so similar to your husband. His voice is- the cadence, something about it is so similar that it would just throw me off. The first big conference room scenes we would have, I'd be like, I keep thinking Lee is here.
Jenna [00:17:20] That's so funny. I remember you telling me that, and I hear it. I can hear it. Well, we will have more stories about these guys and obviously we're going to ask them to come on Office Ladies.
Angela [00:17:30] Yes, Jake and Clark, you have to come on.
Jenna [00:17:33] Now fast fact number three is a fan question from Elsa S in Minnesota, who asked, This episode is the first time we see a big shift in Andy's personality that continues for the rest of season nine.
Angela [00:17:45] Elsa. Oh, my gosh. Elsa I have so many thoughts on this. I'm so glad you wrote in. Sorry, Jenna, I interrupted you. Go on.
Jenna [00:17:53] No, no. Elsa went on to say, He has always had flaws, but generally been a likable guy until now. Do you have any insights into why the writers chose to make this change?
Angela [00:18:04] Well, clearly, from what you shared, he was going to be leaving the show. But my thought is like, I imagine this writer's room meeting, which I know didn't happen, where they're like, how do we just burn Andy to the ground? How do we make him so horrible?
Jenna [00:18:20] Well, I traded emails with Greg Daniels about this episode, and he said, Yes, they knew that Ed was going to be missing for a big chunk of episodes in the middle of the season, and they had to write toward that. They had to come up with a reason why he was going to disappear. So that kind of started from there and they worked backwards. But in the writers room, they talked about who is Andy? And Greg said he was originally a guy with anger management issues who put his fist through a wall. And over in Stamford, he had been introduced as kind of like an antagonistic Dwight-like annoying desk mate for Jim, and they wanted to bring back some of the old qualities of the character. They said they actually feel like the Andy we're seeing in season nine is a truer extension of where Andy started than the softer character that we've been seeing for the last season. He said, you know, Andy wasn't designed to be the lead of a show. He was designed to be a flavor. And they wanted to bring that flavor back to the show. Greg also said that this version of Andy was more capable of foolishness. Foolishness-ness. Foolishness. Foolishness.
Angela [00:19:32] Foolishness-ness.
Jenna [00:19:32] I don't know.
Angela [00:19:33] That's ultimate foolishness. If you're foolishness-ness.
Jenna [00:19:37] It's ultimate.
Angela [00:19:38] It's ultimate.
Jenna [00:19:39] Finally, Greg said that this change in Andy's character was also going to help kind of serve his vision, which was to center the season around Jim and Pam and Dwight and Angela as our core characters and follow their relationships through. Well, Ange, that's all I got. That was a long top of show today.
Angela [00:20:00] Yeah, you had a lot of stuff. I loved it all.
Jenna [00:20:02] It's a new season. It's a new year.
Angela [00:20:04] Yes. Well, I have quite a bit for this episode from my digital clutter. I have call sheets.
Jenna [00:20:12] Ooh!
Angela [00:20:13] Ooh! But why don't we take a break? Because when we come back, we'll get into this episode.
Jenna [00:20:17] I have a lot of questions about Erin's new hairdo to kick things off.
Angela [00:20:21] Oh! Okay. Well, we are back. Erin is at work. She's very excited because Andy's coming back today! Andy's coming back today!
Jenna [00:20:41] Mm hmm.
Angela [00:20:42] Nellie's not so excited.
Jenna [00:20:43] Why is she nervous? I mean, I'm going to have to say that as we go through the very top of this episode, I have some continuity things that don't quite line up.
Angela [00:20:54] Yeah.
Jenna [00:20:54] I'm going to bring them up. And the first one is, why is Nellie nervous about Andy's return if we don't know that he's a total jerk yet?
Angela [00:21:02] Right.
Jenna [00:21:02] Did something happen we didn't see before he left?
Angela [00:21:05] I might have a few things from the shooting draft that might help, but not really. There's just some continuity holes.
Jenna [00:21:12] Yeah.
Angela [00:21:12] Well, you know I said I had a lot from my digital clutter?
Jenna [00:21:16] Mm hmm.
Angela [00:21:16] And I found a call sheet for this episode. It was originally called Workplace Bully.
Jenna [00:21:20] Yes.
Angela [00:21:21] Yep. And I was trying to Mom Detective something, so I reached out to Steve Burgess, and I said, Can I have all of the call sheets for this episode? Here's what I was trying to Mom Detective- which then also just opened up a whole bunch of great stuff on the call sheets. But this is what it started with. I found an email that I sent to you this week titled Earthquake? And then when you opened the email, it said, In my trailer. Did you feel that earthquake? And you wrote back, When? And then I never responded to you.
Jenna [00:21:54] Oh, okay.
Angela [00:21:55] This is true Mom Detective already, right? It's like we have a thing and we don't know the answer. So I thought maybe it might have been somewhere in the call sheets. They would do that. They would put the weather. They might say there was a earthquake. So I looked through all the weeks call sheets. There is no mention of an earthquake. For all I know, there was a big truck driving by my trailer. But I found some fun things to share. First of all, this scene where Erin's saying Andy's coming back, Andy's coming back, that was day one of filming. It was Monday, July 30th, 2012. The high was going to be 95.
Jenna [00:22:33] Wow.
Angela [00:22:34] The whole week it was actually in the nineties. And there was a special note on the call sheet for this day that said Slack Line Rehearsals with Dwight, Clark and Nellie will take place in the swing set area of the warehouse after lunch today.
Jenna [00:22:47] Oh?
Angela [00:22:48] So this was their first day to practice slack lining.
Jenna [00:22:51] Their first day back to work after the summer break and it's going to kick off with some slack line practice.
Angela [00:22:58] And it's in the nineties.
Jenna [00:22:59] Wow.
Angela [00:23:00] And then Jenna, as I was looking over the call sheet, I saw this little thing that just made me smile. You'll remember it as soon as I say it. On the back of the call sheets they would do a little blurb called, Get to know your cast and crew.
Jenna [00:23:13] Mm hmm.
Angela [00:23:14] And basically they would share fun little tidbits and feature one person a day. I loved them so much, I would look forward to them, so I thought I'd sprinkle a few of those in. But let's get to this episode.
Jenna [00:23:26] Well, I love that. We'll have little news breaks where you help us get to know our cast and crew.
Angela [00:23:31] We'll have call sheet news breaks.
Jenna [00:23:33] Oh, this is, I hope, going to be a new element here for season nine.
Angela [00:23:38] Oh, let's do it!
Jenna [00:23:39] let's get all the call sheets!
Angela [00:23:40] Yes!
Jenna [00:23:40] Well, next up, Erin is going to have a talking head where she explains that David Wallace sent Andy on an Outward Bound wilderness adventure. It's supposed to help with his confidence and his decisiveness. David Wallace's son also went, and I guess the counselor reported back that both David Wallace's son and Andy, quote, grew up big time.
Angela [00:24:01] Big time.
Jenna [00:24:02] You know, we got a fan question from Chloe S in Baltimore, Maryland, who said, I am a full time lead instructor- they're not called counselors- and trainer at the Outward Bound School in Baltimore. Chloe said, This episode makes me laugh out loud every time. But Chloe would like you all to know that Outward Bound would never allow a grown man to join a teen course as a student. So this concept tickles me greatly. However, when Andy brings his instructors to work and calls them by their trail names, does the slack line, and mentions his, "I thought about this place a lot while on solo" just brings me to tears laughing. Chloe said, There is so much I could say or add to this episode. Thank you all. Chloe, trail mame: Bundles. Thank you, Bundles.
Angela [00:24:59] Thank you, Bundles. I wonder what your trill name would be?
Jenna [00:25:03] Oh. I don't know. What's your trail name?
Angela [00:25:07] Snacks.
Jenna [00:25:08] Snacks?
Angela [00:25:09] Mine's snacks.
Jenna [00:25:10] Do you get to pick your own name or does someone give it to you?
Angela [00:25:13] No. I'm sure someone gives it to you. I bet that's the spirit of things.
Jenna [00:25:14] We don't know. Chloe, how does it work?
Angela [00:25:18] What are our trail names, Chloe? Well, Dwight is now going to arrive to work. This is so interesting to me that everyone is talking about their summer. Jenna, you and I had a sidebar conversation where were like, I guess the documentary crew takes off for the summer? Every year?
Jenna [00:25:32] Every year they take off for the summer.
Angela [00:25:33] It just happened to coincide with our hiatus as well.
Jenna [00:25:36] Yeah.
Angela [00:25:37] So Dwight says, You know what? During his summer, he created a new energy drink made from beet runoff. It's so good. It's bright blue. It looks like the blue raspberry Gatorade to me. And he said he also got some disappointing medical news.
Jenna [00:25:54] Yeah.
Angela [00:25:55] Before we get to that, I just want you to know, I thought about making some kind of beet runoff drink for us today because I did make beet vodka.
Jenna [00:26:03] But you didn't.
Angela [00:26:05] I didn't because I looked it up, and I don't think you can drink it. And in fact, the only thing I found that you can do with beet runoff, someone can correct me if I'm wrong, is I found that they're using it as an alternative to road salt. It's true.
Jenna [00:26:25] Like in bad weather?
Angela [00:26:26] I guess for years, engineers have been trying to find alternatives to road salt which can cause less damage to the environment and to our infrastructure. It's very bad for concrete. So they've started using this type of beet juice runoff.
Jenna [00:26:40] Hmm. It doesn't sound like you should put it in your body then, right?
Angela [00:26:46] Well, it says that it's capable of causing a disruption in ice crystals, much like salt.
Jenna [00:26:52] Hmm.
Angela [00:26:53] You know, the article was very interesting. I'll put a link to it, But there was a comment section, and there was a comment that made me laugh out loud. Cindy wrote in to say, One other downside to using beet juice is the odor. In my town of Lexington, Massachusetts it smells like dead fish after it's applied.
Jenna [00:27:12] Oh!
Angela [00:27:12] So, you know, I guess there are some uses for beet juice runoff.
Jenna [00:27:18] Okay.
Angela [00:27:19] Yeah. I don't think you should be drinking it.
Jenna [00:27:22] Well, if the next scene is any indication if you should be drinking it, I think it's going to be another no.
Angela [00:27:29] Mm hmm.
Jenna [00:27:30] We flash back to the hospital waiting room. Dwight and Angela are there.
Angela [00:27:34] Yeah.
Jenna [00:27:35] They're waiting for news from the doctor.
Angela [00:27:37] Angela's put her hair in a ponytail.
Jenna [00:27:38] Oh. Fan catch from Jenna F in Los Angeles, California.
Angela [00:27:42] Wait, I know a Jenna F in Los Angeles.
Jenna [00:27:45] Well, Jenna had some questions about how Angela's hair is suddenly in a ponytail.
Angela [00:27:49] And how long have they been there? And why do we have a blanket?
Jenna [00:27:52] I don't know. But the doctor is going to come out and break the news that Dwight is not the father. And then Dwight is going to vomit his beet energy drink all over Angela.
Angela [00:28:03] All. Over.
Jenna [00:28:05] Fan catch from Jenna F in Los Angeles, California.
Angela [00:28:08] Jenna wrote in a lot for this episode.
Jenna [00:28:10] Yes, she did. Dwight says he started making his beet runoff juice over the summer. So how did he vomit it all over Angela at the hospital, which was before the summer?
Angela [00:28:20] Yes. This was not explained in the shooting draft.
Jenna [00:28:24] And now, Angela, fan question from Valeria in Italy. Obviously, I need to know how Angela and Rainn shot the vomit scene. I can clearly see that some of the stuff went into Angela's mouth.
Angela [00:28:37] Okay, I have all the details. First of all, the reason I have a ponytail is because they were worried the stuff was going to get in my hair and we wouldn't be able to reset as quickly.
Jenna [00:28:48] Okay.
Angela [00:28:49] Right? Cuz that would mean washing my hair, blow drying my hair, flat ironing my hair. You can't do that in between takes. So that's why the ponytail. Secondly, they made this- it looked like, you know, when people go hiking and they drink out of those, like, pouches of water and they have the, the little bendy straw they suck on?
Jenna [00:29:10] Yeah. Like Camelbak, right?
Angela [00:29:12] Yes, that's it!
Jenna [00:29:13] Yeah.
Angela [00:29:14] They made one of these and they sort of strapped it to Rainn, under his blazer jacket.
Jenna [00:29:20] Really?
Angela [00:29:20] So he turned to me when it was time to vomit and just kind of squirted this blue stuff all over me.
Jenna [00:29:28] So it didn't really come out of his mouth?
Angela [00:29:30] No! No!
Jenna [00:29:32] I would have never guessed that.
Angela [00:29:33] You really thought that Rainn- they had Rainn spit blue, like hurl blue stuff at me out of his own mouth?
Jenna [00:29:40] Yes!
Angela [00:29:41] No.
Jenna [00:29:41] That's what it look like to me. I would have never guessed that this was rigged. It looked so real.
Angela [00:29:46] No, it's- look at it. It looks so projectile.
Jenna [00:29:48] I know. I couldn't figure out how he did it! Wow.
Angela [00:29:50] It was a little like Camelbak thing that he squirted with a hose. He had, like, a little hose thing. That's why he turned so much to the wall. But, yeah, it got all over me.
Jenna [00:30:02] Did it get in your mouth?
Angela [00:30:03] Some of it went in my mouth.
Jenna [00:30:04] What did it taste like?
Angela [00:30:05] I do think it was like some kind of blue Gatorade. I do. I can't remember. It didn't taste horrible. I remember that. And I have a photo backstage after our first take of this, where I am doused with all this blue stuff. They had a second set of the wardrobe and a robe for me to change, but I'm just standing in the hallway with, like, my arms out, and I'm just covered in this blue liquid. So, yeah, I, I have this great picture and my digital clutter that I'll put in stories of me just covered in the blue beet runoff drink.
Jenna [00:30:39] How many takes did you do? Do you remember?
Angela [00:30:42] I don't remember, but I think we had to- I know we did two, for sure. And I think we might have gotten in two. But it was a lot to clean up.
Jenna [00:30:51] Mm hmm. Well, before we move on, I would like to give a guest star shout out to the doctor who was played by Oliver Vaquer. He's done a mix of comedy and drama. He was most recently in the Barbie movie, and he co-created and wrote a fictional true crime podcast called The Angel of Vine, which stars Alfred Molina and Constance Zimmer.
Angela [00:31:12] Oh!
Jenna [00:31:13] Your friend Constance.
Angela [00:31:13] I love Constance. And Monk crossover, my character kills Alfred Molina in Monk.
Jenna [00:31:21] There you go.
Angela [00:31:22] There you go. Well, we're going to continue finding out what people did over the summer. Kevin shares that his summer was an emotional rollercoaster. I guess he was pulling into the parking lot and he ran over a turtle. And then he tried to save him by gluing his shell back together. But he's really not good at puzzles, so he just kind of found random things on his desk to help make the shell. And then as he was trying to rebuild the shell, he just crushed it again with his knee. And then he had to rebuild it even better. But then he thinks maybe the turtle was dead the whole time.
Jenna [00:31:50] We got a fan question from Jenna F in Los Angeles, California, who would like to know, If the documentary crew was on a break over the summer, how did they get all the footage of Kevin running over the turtle and gluing it back together?
Angela [00:32:04] Jenna F has caught a lot of continuity errors in this episode.
Jenna [00:32:08] Well. She has questions.
Angela [00:32:10] I found some fun stuff online about this episode. First of all, there was a great fan catch about the moment where Kevin runs over the turtle. They did a side by side of when Michael Scott hits Meredith. The moments are framed exactly the same, and both characters go from this moment of like being really happy to these looks of like, Oh (BLEEP).
Jenna [00:32:31] That's funny.
Angela [00:32:31] And they did a side by side. I'm going to share in stories.
Jenna [00:32:33] I love that.
Angela [00:32:34] There was also some online chatter about Kevin's turtle. Here's something I found on a Reddit thread: a user said, Season nine episode one, New Guys. Is Kevin's turtle an allegory for the show? Was Greg Daniels acknowledging the state of the show through Kevin? Is the turtle the show? Is Greg Kevin?
Jenna [00:32:57] Oh my gosh! I mean...
Angela [00:33:03] Was the show like run over? And then he was trying to piece it back together?
Jenna [00:33:08] Only to discover that it was dead?
Angela [00:33:10] Oh, no!
Jenna [00:33:12] I mean, I hope not!
Angela [00:33:13] I know.
Jenna [00:33:14] So now we're going to hear about Jim and Pam's summer. They have a talking head together, and Pam sort of says nothing new happened. But then Jim says, What are you talking about? You did that mural in the kids room!
Angela [00:33:26] Yeah.
Jenna [00:33:27] Lady, I want you to know that was my pitch as producer.
Angela [00:33:31] Hey!
Jenna [00:33:32] For season nine, one of the things we talked about was Pam's art. And how could this come back into her life? And how could she be expressed creatively? And my son had a mural in his nursery.
Angela [00:33:45] So did my daughter. We both loved this little detail of our nurseries.
Jenna [00:33:50] And so I said, What if Pam starts painting murals? If this becomes kind of a side gig for her. Because we know she's not going to do graphic design. She didn't like it. She didn't take to it. I said, she is a paint on canvas kind of person. Let's follow that thread. So we're starting with this mural in Phillip's room.
Angela [00:34:13] I love that. And now Pam is going to gush on Jim a little bit. She says, You know what? Jim's friend is starting a sports marketing company. And it was based on an idea that Jim had back in college.
Jenna [00:34:26] Yeah. And he says he wanted Jim to be part of the company. But, you know, it's happening in Philly, and that didn't really work for their family. But still, how cool, right?
Angela [00:34:35] Yeah. And Jim says, I mean he'll probably make $1,000,000,000 off my idea. Ha ha ha. Hmm. Planting the seeds.
Jenna [00:34:44] Yes. Well, this was John's pitch. When we were sitting down with Greg talking about season nine, we wanted to talk about what is going to come between Jim and Pam that is not another person?
Angela [00:34:55] Right.
Jenna [00:34:56] What is going to test their relationship? And John pitched, What if Jim finally has an opportunity outside of Dunder Mifflin, but taking that opportunity is going to cause tension between him and Pam? And that is how we got that storyline.
Angela [00:35:12] I mean, I thought it was a really great storyline.
Jenna [00:35:15] Yeah. It already made me mad in this episode. We'll get to it.
Angela [00:35:19] Next up, Toby is going to share some things that happened over the summer. Kelly is gone. Her fiancé Ravi-
Jenna [00:35:26] Fiancé!
Angela [00:35:26] Oh, yeah. Fiancé. That's big info. Her fiancee, Ravi, got a job as a pediatrics professor at Miami University. I looked it up. It is a real university in Ohio. It's a public research university. Was founded in 1809, making it the second oldest university in Ohio and the 10th oldest public university in the United States.
Jenna [00:35:49] Well, we got a fan question from Kay Elizabeth in Oxford, Ohio, who is a graduate of Miami University and was also very familiar with the confusion between Miami University and University of Miami. Kelly is...
Angela [00:36:06] Also confused.
Jenna [00:36:07] Yes. She believes she's going to Florida.
Angela [00:36:10] She walks through the office throwing coats at everyone.
Jenna [00:36:13] Mm hmm.
Angela [00:36:13] I remember this.
Jenna [00:36:15] I do too.
Angela [00:36:15] I remember after she threw me the coat, I thought, Oh, I'm going to use it to cover my legs in the next scene because it was freezing.
Jenna [00:36:23] You're like, I'm going to keep this.
Angela [00:36:24] Well, it was, you know, in the nineties outside, so they cranked the air on the inside.
Jenna [00:36:29] Mmhm. Kay Elizabeth went on to say, quote, My fellow Redhawks are all too familiar with the fact that Miami University was an established school before Florida was even a state.
Angela [00:36:41] Yeah.
Jenna [00:36:42] And often get Florida related questions from non- Ohioans.
Angela [00:36:46] Mm hmm. Toby is then going to share that Ryan quit shortly after Kelly left and moved to Ohio for, quote, unrelated reasons. Then we see Ryan at a bus stop with a, with his luggage and trash bags full of clothes. He says based on market research, southern western Ohio is the Silicon Prairie, a.k.a. the next Silicon Valley.
Jenna [00:37:09] Fan Deep dive from Elliot K in Southwest Ohio, who says, I cannot wait for you to address the opening when Ryan leaves the office suddenly to follow Kelly. Of course Ryan needs an excuse to not just be following a girl, so he claims that he's leaving for Southwest Ohio because it is the next Silicon Valley, which he calls the Silicon Prairie. But this opening grates on me like nails on a chalkboard every time for two reasons. Do you want to hear why Elliot is so annoyed?
Angela [00:37:40] Elliott, I would love nothing more.
Jenna [00:37:43] Elliott is annoyed because Southwest Ohio is hundreds of miles away from the nearest prairie. But more importantly, Elliott is annoyed because Southwest Ohio was the original Silicon Valley!
Angela [00:37:58] Oh, so this stings, Elliott.
Jenna [00:38:02] It does. Elliott says, Have you ever flown on a plane, started a car, bought something requiring a cash register, opened a can of pop, used an ice tray, eaten a Cheez-It? Because all of these things and many more were invented in Dayton, Ohio. Daytonians are a proud people, so will you please do what you can to set the record straight? P.S. Don't let North Carolina fool you. Ohio invented flight.
Angela [00:38:28] Wow. Elliott!
Jenna [00:38:29] Yeah.
Angela [00:38:30] Hot to trot!
Jenna [00:38:32] Sure is.
Angela [00:38:33] That's a lot of impressive things that were created in Dayton.
Jenna [00:38:36] Should we go to Dayton? I bet there's a museum about it.
Angela [00:38:39] I bet there's a factory.
Jenna [00:38:41] Oh, there's got to be a factory or two. For the Cheez-It maybe? The Cheez-It factory? Is it in Ohio?
Angela [00:38:46] Elliott, tell us which factory to go to in Dayton.
Jenna [00:38:49] Thank you for sending in that deep dive. We're happy to set the record straight.
Angela [00:38:53] Yes. Next up, Jim and Pam are going to say, well, that's our summer. And they're going to start to take off their mic packs. This was huge. This is part of Greg's plan to start really showing the documentary crew. Right?
Jenna [00:39:05] And we're going to hear the voice of the documentarian.
Angela [00:39:08] Dave Rogers.
Jenna [00:39:09] Yes. Our editor and sometimes director.
Angela [00:39:14] Pam says something we've all been thinking. She says, Don't you guys have all the footage you need? It's just a paper company.
Jenna [00:39:22] Yes. And the documentarian says, Well, we're actually kind of following you guys. I think, meaning all of you guys in your lives.
Angela [00:39:31] Right.
Jenna [00:39:31] And Pam sort of says, Well, listen, you can follow us, but I don't think anything interesting is going to happen to us for a long, long time. We're in a routine, a life routine called work and kids.
Angela [00:39:40] Oh, push in on Jim's face.
Jenna [00:39:43] Right?
Angela [00:39:44] Oh, Lord.
Jenna [00:39:44] Mm hmm. This was another one of the pitches that we came up with over the summer, which was that Pam is happy and content, and Jim starts to get a little restless. Which I think is a very relatable, very real thing in a marriage.
Angela [00:39:59] Yes! I think it is. The show is going to start. Erin is still very excited telling everyone Andy's coming back.
Jenna [00:40:05] And we got a fan mail flurry about her new curly hair. She's standing at the window and the sunlight is coming in. And you can very clearly see that her hair has bumped up to a much brighter red color.
Angela [00:40:19] Yeah.
Jenna [00:40:19] It's curly. Anne M from Florida said, Holy moly, Erin's wavy hair is awesome. Tally M from Canada said, This new curled style looks amazing. And Jasmine B from Southern Manitoba said, Erin's hair evolution is similar to Pam's. Was this intentional? The color change from brunette to red is similar to Pam's. Her hairstyle is mirroring that of Pam's when she started styling it with heat. Were they trying to keep the comfort and familiarity of Pam at reception via Erin's hair?
Angela [00:40:56] Hmm.
Jenna [00:40:57] Guess what?
Angela [00:40:58] What?
Jenna [00:40:59] I have no answers. I don't know.
Angela [00:41:02] Way to Mom Detective. Well, you know what? I think she had some time away from Andy. Maybe she's trying to find herself a little.
Jenna [00:41:11] You know, that's what we said when Pam changed her hair.
Angela [00:41:13] Usually when women change their hair, they're going through something. Just word to the wise. Well, our two new employees enter the bullpen. They ask where they can throw away coffee filters. They get a lot of Stanley and Phyllis sass.
Jenna [00:41:27] They really do.
Angela [00:41:28] Just right away. Toby has a talking head where he says the new guys back in the annex are in their twenties, and he gets along really great with them. They all play video games on their computers. Although it looks like Toby is really bad at it.
Jenna [00:41:41] Yeah.
Angela [00:41:42] They're just three single guys getting into trouble. Well, there are two delicious candy bag alts for this Toby talking head.
Jenna [00:41:49] Ooh.
Angela [00:41:50] They were in the shooting draft. I want to share them with you. Here's one. Toby would have said, There's two new guys back here with me going through Kelly's old complaints. They're in their twenties, and we really get along. Maybe that's been my problem. I was born in the wrong generation. Well, that's one of my problems. Wah! Wah! And here's the other one. There are two new guys in the annex with me now. Young guys in their twenties. I don't have a lot of friends, so it's nice to finally have two best friends.
Jenna [00:42:22] Oh, Toby.
Angela [00:42:23] Oh, Toby.
Jenna [00:42:23] Stop breaking my heart, bud.
Angela [00:42:25] Oh come on.
Jenna [00:42:28] Ugh. Well, Stanley is going to say that the new guys are like the new Jim and Dwight. Nellie agrees. Phyllis agrees. Jim and Dwight don't quite see it. Meredith invites new Jim to sit on her face. He says, No, thank you, and also says his name is Pete. Jim is going to have a talking head where he says, Pete is not the new Jim. The only thing they have in common is that they both don't want to sit on Meredith's face.
Angela [00:42:55] And if that makes him the new Jim, then every human in the world is new Jim.
Jenna [00:42:59] I thought that was really funny.
Angela [00:43:00] I did too.
Jenna [00:43:01] Greg said that from a storytelling standpoint, the theme of the year was kind of a realization from both Dwight and Jim that they had been at Dunder Mifflin for a very long time. By having these new guys come in who everybody was calling the new Dwight and the new Jim was a way to have Dwight and Jim think about just how long they've been in the same job and maybe to prod them into getting their lives moving into the next stage.
Angela [00:43:25] Well, now it's time for a get to know your cast and crew moment from our call sheet.
Jenna [00:43:30] Yay!
Angela [00:43:31] This one is about Anna Coates, who is our key assistant location manager. Three things you didn't know about Anna Coates: Anna's favorite book is The Poisonwood Bible. It's about four sisters from Africa. She enjoyed rolling down hills as a child and now looks forward to long runs. If time traveling were an option, she would go to the 1960s, then the forties, then shopping. There you go. You just got to know our key assistant location manager.
Jenna [00:44:00] I am going to tell you right now that I'm going to need this to become a regular thing.
Angela [00:44:05] I should have been doing it all along. Nothing like picking something up in the last stretch, Ange.
Jenna [00:44:10] Guess what, everyone? Andy finally walks in the door. Apparently, when you come back to work for the first time, you're allowed to be late. He missed everyone, and he is immediately a jerk.
Angela [00:44:27] Immediately.
Jenna [00:44:28] Immediately.
Angela [00:44:29] He wants to know why Nellie is still working there. He said he had a dream she died. And then says, Meet me in my office later. Well, I'm going to call a bull (BLEEP) card here.
Jenna [00:44:39] What is it?
Angela [00:44:40] Because at the end of Free Family Portrait, Andy calls Nellie a sly bastard and hires her back as special projects manager.
Jenna [00:44:47] This was my question earlier!
Angela [00:44:48] Yes, they even shake on it.
Jenna [00:44:50] Right!
Angela [00:44:51] So I'm like, What happened? How did Outward Bound make Andy a colossal (BLEEP)? I found this in the shooting draft. It doesn't help much, but it might have tipped off why Nellie was nervous.
Jenna [00:45:02] Okay.
Angela [00:45:03] Andy calls Toby into his office and says, Hey, why is Nellie still here? Didn't you get my postcard? Toby has a talking head where he's holding up a postcard. He shows the postcard to the camera and says, On the front is a pretty waterfall. On the back, it says, Fire Nellie. Then he smells it and says, I don't think this is ink.
Jenna [00:45:24] Oh.
Angela [00:45:25] Ew. What did he write it in? We don't know. But it does tell us that Toby might have known that Andy wanted Nellie gone.
Jenna [00:45:34] Okay.
Angela [00:45:35] Okay.
Jenna [00:45:35] Okay. Now Andy's going to greet the new guys, and he's going to give them nicknames.
Angela [00:45:40] Yeah, he said because Outward Bound is all about nicknames. His was Iceman. He decides Pete will be Plop because he dumps all the time. And he was going to call Clark Fart because they both do these things constantly, even though he doesn't know them at all. Doesn't know any of their BMs.
Jenna [00:45:56] You know what? We got a fan question from Jenna F in Los Angeles, California.
Angela [00:46:00] Oh, Jenna wrote in again?
Jenna [00:46:01] Who would like to know, Who hired the new guys if Andy was away?
Angela [00:46:06] Oh, good call.
Jenna [00:46:08] Ange, was there a postcard to Toby saying, Hire two new guys?
Angela [00:46:12] Yeah, I want to make fun of them and call them Plop and Fart?
Jenna [00:46:15] Exactly.
Angela [00:46:16] Darryl says they've been calling Clark Dwight Jr.
Jenna [00:46:19] Clark says, I prefer Fart.
Angela [00:46:20] I know. But Dwight is very excited about this idea. He's like, in a way, he has a son. Maybe someday they'll hire someone who looks like a younger Clark, and then he'll have a grandson.
Jenna [00:46:32] So ridiculous. It's so incredibly ridiculous. Well, next up starts a storyline for Angela, but I think we should take a break, and then we'll come back and discuss the rehoming of Comstock.
Angela [00:46:44] Yes. It also has a line that I get quoted a lot.
Jenna [00:46:48] I know it.
Angela [00:47:01] Well, we're back and we're over in accounting, Angela's sharing that she has to put up one of her cats for adoption. Kevin wonders which one and starts listing them. This is how it read in the shooting draft: Kevin: The one who uses the doorbell? Or the one with the Mexican hat? Or the one with the rain galoshes? Or the one you let go around naked?
Jenna [00:47:20] Yes.
Angela [00:47:21] Angela says, No. The one with the long hair and the denim pants. Comstock!
Jenna [00:47:26] Mm hmm.
Angela [00:47:27] She shows Kevin and Oscar photos of Comstock. And this is what the shooting draft said: There's a video of a long haired cat in little jeans, sitting on a motorcycle and sitting on a pillow, being hugged by the senator as the song Nobody Does It Better plays. The videos of Comstock were some of the first scenes that we filmed on day two of filming this episode, which was July 31st. And there were some additional notes on the call sheet for this day. Here's one. There will be a large working crane in the main parking lot. Please see attached memo regarding where to park across the street. Second announcement: A slack line rehearsal will take place for Dwight and Clark in the swing set area of the warehouse.
Jenna [00:48:12] More slack line rehearsal.
Angela [00:48:14] Second slack line rehearsal for those guys. Kevin is now going to offer to take Comstock, but Angela quickly rejects this because of um, hello, the turtle. Okay?
Jenna [00:48:24] Hey. Kevin is enormously proud of what he did for that turtle.
Angela [00:48:28] She says, Oscar, will you take him? And he says, No, I'm a dog person. And here, for those of you who know all of Angela Martin's famous lines, is one of my famous lines: If you pray enough, you can change yourself into a cat person.
Jenna [00:48:43] Mm hmm.
Angela [00:48:44] And Oscar says, Those guys always turn back, Angela.
Jenna [00:48:46] I know it's so funny. Ange, we got a fan question from Ellen C in Scotland who said, I have a theory that Angela got her cat Comstock when she was dating Andy and that maybe it was Andy who named the cat. Because I noticed that in season five, episode six, when Andy is getting annoyed with Dwight for applying to Cornell, Dwight references Comstock Hall, which is a building at Cornell. Could that be the story behind Comstock, the cat's name?
Angela [00:49:18] Ellen, I saw a few comments like this. I think it's really a great catch. I mean, I like to think that Andy got her this cat, but I think she is also worried about Phillip's allergies.
Jenna [00:49:30] Yeah.
Angela [00:49:30] I like to think that everyone Angela ever dated got her a cat. She has Comstock. She has Garbage.
Jenna [00:49:38] Yeah.
Angela [00:49:39] We are now in Andy's office. He's getting off the phone with David Wallace. Toby enters, and Andy is going to ask him why Nellie is still there. And Toby says, You know what? He can only fire her for cause. So Andy has decided that he's going to try to make something up to get her fired.
Jenna [00:49:54] Yeah, but Toby says, Well, now we can't fire her because you told me that it's going to be made up.
Angela [00:50:00] And now I know.
Jenna [00:50:01] Yeah, and Andy's like, Well, forget I said that. And Toby says, I can't forget because I went to the Weintraub Memory Academy.
Angela [00:50:08] Yes.
Jenna [00:50:09] Not real. I looked it up.
Angela [00:50:10] Not real. I looked it up. Toby says, I sat next to Beverly Brooke, who ate a Greek salad for lunch. And Andy goes, Oh, I now understand why Michael hated you so much. Dwight is now going to approach Clark in the break room. This line made me laugh so hard.
Jenna [00:50:27] Which one?
Angela [00:50:28] He- there's so many. But when Dwight invites him to a Slayer concert that's ten months away. It's like, who does that? It made me very curious, though. I was like, What is invitation etiquette? I went to EmilyPost.com. Here's what they say for a few different types of gatherings. Anniversary party, 3 to 6 weeks.
Jenna [00:50:51] Notice?
Angela [00:50:52] Notice.
Jenna [00:50:53] Okay.
Angela [00:50:54] Holiday dinner, two weeks to two months.
Jenna [00:50:57] Okay.
Angela [00:50:59] Formal dinner, 3 to 6 weeks. Graduation party, three weeks notice. Lunch or tea, a few days to two weeks. They did not have any tips for how long in advance do you invite someone to a concert. But I did find a Reddit thread inspired by this episode that said around three months.
Jenna [00:51:20] Well, listen, if you want to go see a Taylor Swift concert, you might need to talk about it ten months in advance.
Angela [00:51:26] A year in advance!
Jenna [00:51:27] Yes. So sometimes I think it depends on who's playing.
Angela [00:51:30] Yeah. Well, Clark is going to tell Dwight he'll be busy in ten months.
Jenna [00:51:34] Yeah, he's pretty sure he's busy that night.
Angela [00:51:35] Yeah.
Jenna [00:51:36] So Dwight is going to pivot. He's like, Dude, what's up with you? Like, let's talk farming.
Angela [00:51:41] Yeah. Are you a fruit guy or a root guy?
Jenna [00:51:46] And Clark said, Is this some sort of code for gay stuff? Because, I mean, I'm totally fine with it, but I'm into the ladies. Spoken like a true root man.
Angela [00:51:57] And then Clark says, Hey, if you're ever swamped, maybe I could take some of your sales calls. Oh, no.
Jenna [00:52:04] Now, Dwight is done. You're not my son anymore. I over you.
Angela [00:52:08] No, no. It's done.
Jenna [00:52:09] It's a quick turn.
Angela [00:52:10] Oh, yeah.
Jenna [00:52:11] Dwight is going to go warn Jim, I think the new guys are trying to take our jobs.
Angela [00:52:15] Yeah.
Jenna [00:52:16] And so Jim immediately decides to mess with him and says, Oh, yeah, that must be what Pete was talking about at the sales meeting yesterday. Dwight's like, What sales meeting? What are you talking about?
Angela [00:52:27] Yeah, I guess Clark ended the meeting with karate. Apparently, he's above a black belt. Oh, lady, this scene was longer.
Jenna [00:52:35] It was?
Angela [00:52:36] And Dwight keeps coming back and reporting to Jim about it. And I need to play a clip because there's a Star Wars reference.
Dwight [00:52:45] Psst. Clark just told me that he never studied karate. Why would he lie to me?
Jim [00:52:49] I don't know. I thought you guys really had a good father-son thing going. Kind of like Luke and Darth Vader.
Dwight [00:52:53] No, idiot. Luke and Darth Vader are enemies.
Jim [00:52:57] What?
Dwight [00:52:57] Yeah.
Jim [00:52:58] Darth Vader tried to attach a hand on Luke's arm.
Dwight [00:53:00] No, he cut it off. What Star Wars are you watching? Luke is trying to destroy Darth Vader.
Jenna [00:53:07] Well, Angela, as you know, I understood that entire scene. I understood why it is funny. I chuckled along with it because we revealed in our Monday mailbag episode that ran back in December that I watched Star Wars.
Angela [00:53:20] She watched Star Wars and didn't tell me.
Jenna [00:53:23] So if you want to hear it and you want to hear Angela's reaction, go back and listen.
Angela [00:53:28] My reaction and Sam's. We couldn't believe it. Angela now addresses the bullpen. She has a flier for Comstock and she shares that he needs a home and she'll be conducting 20 minute interviews for anyone interested. Phil Shea made those fliers. I even kept one of my trailer for a long time.
Jenna [00:53:44] Oh.
Angela [00:53:44] Yeah. I had it hanging in my trailer for so long. I'm going to try to find it. It's probably in one of my bins. Why do they keep these things? I'm like, such a little rat packer. Like, I'm like, I'll put it in my scrapbook. But anyway, Angela goes over her criteria for her candidates in true Angela fashion, and she tells Pam she really needs to wow her, but she's still in the running.
Jenna [00:54:05] Yeah. Pam is like, I never entered this contest.
Angela [00:54:09] Well, time to turn on the charm.
Jenna [00:54:13] Next up, Andy has called Nellie into his office, and this scene is really going to make the original title of this episode make sense, because there's going to be a lot of workplace bullying.
Angela [00:54:25] Yeah. He says he doesn't like to throw around the B-word, but he's going to be a huge bitch to her.
Jenna [00:54:31] Yeah. God, Andy.
Angela [00:54:33] I know. He doesn't stop there. He is now set up in the parking lot a slack line to teach focus and discipline, and in some cases, humiliation.
Jenna [00:54:43] Yeah. He's gathered everyone down in the parking lot, and he says, We're going to walk across it. And if you make it, you're going to feel awesome. But if you Toby out, you're going to feel like a real Nellie.
Angela [00:54:56] Yeah.
Jenna [00:54:57] He's also brought along a couple of the instructors from his Outward Bound trip. Rafe and Feather.
Angela [00:55:03] Yeah.
Jenna [00:55:04] So this scene would have continued. I was in the script looking up some descriptions of the stunts, and I came across this little nugget. You know, Andy is referring to these guys by their Outward Bound names, and they are going to refer to Andy as Iceman.
Angela [00:55:19] Right.
Jenna [00:55:19] And then Rafe is going to explain to camera, We called him Iceman because he always complained about his canteen water being warm. That's how Andy got his nickname.
Angela [00:55:30] Not because he was like, really tough and like, could be out there freezing and be fine. While Rafe and Feather are helping set up, Jim is going to find out that he has nothing in common with Plop.
Jenna [00:55:43] Yeah, he really tries to bond with him, but there's nothing. He lists a bunch of things and there is nothing.
Angela [00:55:49] Nope.
Jenna [00:55:49] We had a fan question from David H in Preston, England, who wanted to know who plays Feather the tightrope guy. He's not listed on IMDB. Well, David, it was Cody Gilbert, and he is a professional stunt person. The character of Rafe was played by Jeff Bea.
Angela [00:56:05] First up on the Slack line, and he's going to make Nellie go. He says, Take off your heels. Get up there. She says, No, I'd rather keep them on. I'm very insecure about my feet. So she gets up on the slack line in high heels.
Jenna [00:56:18] Yeah.
Angela [00:56:19] And we don't even know if she can do it because Andy immediately pushes her off face down.
Jenna [00:56:24] Yes. So we had a stunt person for Catherine Tate. Catherine's stunt person was Jennifer Cobb. But Catherine still had to try and get up on that slack line with the high heels. Before we cut to the fall, that was really her in high heels getting up on that slack line. It was bonkers.
Angela [00:56:43] I can't believe that you can just shove someone to the ground at work and not have any repercussions.
Jenna [00:56:49] I mean. Don't get me started.
Angela [00:56:51] Don't get me started. There's a little something in the shooting draft I'm going to share here in a minute where they would have tried to address it. Clark is now going to volunteer. He gives it a try and he crushes it.
Jenna [00:57:02] Yep. This is going to inspire Dwight to try. I mean, Dwight Jr did it. Let's see Dwight Senior do it.
Angela [00:57:07] Yeah.
Jenna [00:57:09] It doesn't go well.
Angela [00:57:10] How many times could one person fall off a slack line?
Jenna [00:57:14] There was one time when he falls on his shoulder and I could barely watch it because it reminded me of breaking my own shoulder. We had fan questions from Ashley O in Utah and Heather F in California, who wanted to know, Did Rainn perform his own stunts? Was it choreographed or planned how he would fall? Did Rainn make any of the creative decisions on how he would fall? Well, I'll tell you guys, it was Rainn and it was also his stunt double, Kevin Foster, who is also the person who doubles for him later on the bicycle. We'll get to it. But the descriptions for how he falls were meticulously scripted, and I have them here to read to you. First up, Dwight tries to step onto the slack line and is immediately pitched forward into a somersault and on to the mat. We saw that move. Next up. Dwight leaps onto the slack line again and is flung off even more violently. He crawls around looking for his glasses and one of his shoes. Next, Dwight keeps trying and gets flung off each time. Ad lib, trash talking from Clark. That was the note in the script. Finally, it says Dwight has a bloody lip. Nobody understands what he's saying. Dwight becomes frustrated and runs off saying, Buck, you brother buckers.
Angela [00:58:34] I did love that he tried the door and it wouldn't open.
Jenna [00:58:38] Me too!
Angela [00:58:38] Cause I feel like that's so classic when you want to quickly get away from a situation and you can't.
Jenna [00:58:43] Yes.
Angela [00:58:44] Well, immediately after the slack line scene, Toby would have called a conference room meeting about workplace bullying. It was in the shooting draft. It's a really long conference room scene. Everyone attends and they all share when they felt bullied by Andy.
Jenna [00:59:01] I remember shooting this!
Angela [00:59:02] Jenna, there are some really hilarious moments. I'm telling you right now. You and I broke a few times. It's in the DVD extras. I want to just share a few bits of it.
Jenna [00:59:13] Okay.
Angela [00:59:14] Toby starts off the meeting and says, I felt bullied when Andy said he knew why Michael hated me. Pete says, I felt bullied by Andy when he gave me a nickname I'm not comfortable with. And then Andy says, Hey, Andy's a nickname. Maybe you're bullying me right now. And Toby says, Toby's a nickname, too. It's short for Tobert.
Jenna [00:59:35] Wow.
Angela [00:59:35] You're changing the subject. Then Kevin says, Angela bullies me. She won't let me have her cat because I killed my turtle so many times. Everyone starts turning on everyone. Then somehow everyone ends up ganging up on Creed and he leaves the room and the camera follows him to that hallway where we all go to have private conversations and Creed starts crying.
Jenna [00:59:58] Oh, no!
Angela [00:59:59] Yeah. Then it comes back to the conference room scene and things get really heated between Phyllis and Angela. You have to hear it.
Phyllis [01:00:06] And how can I be a bully? I'm a sweetie pie.
Angela Martin [01:00:09] You're a bitch.
Stanley [01:00:10] Oh. Oh, God.
Jenna [01:00:14] Oh, my gosh!
Angela [01:00:18] Angela calls Phyllis a bitch. And then Stanley goes, Oh, no. And Stanley has brought an extra crossword and passes it to Jim. And then Jim leans over to Pam and goes, Well, I guess I'm not even the new Jim now. I'm the new Stanley. And then Pam goes, Well, if you become the new Creed, I'll divorce you- right as Creed is coming back in, and then he starts tearing up again!
Jenna [01:00:42] Oh, my gosh. I am remembering this now, as you describe it.
Angela [01:00:46] It was a huge, epic conference room scene.
Jenna [01:00:49] Well, instead, this episode goes to the warehouse where Dwight is deconstructing a bicycle. I'll have you know that this was also meticulously described in the script. There was a whole paragraph describing how he takes this bicycle apart, and it just delighted me because it's very Greg Daniels.
Angela [01:01:08] I bet Greg literally met with so many people and they had to have precise, like drawings and sketches and the physics of it and how it worked.
Jenna [01:01:18] Angela, he made sketches.
Angela [01:01:20] I'm sure he did.
Jenna [01:01:20] Steve Burgess sent them to me. When we get up on the roof, like the whole thing, he sketched it out, and this is like- this is the mad scientist part of Greg's brain. And I think Greg would think he could really do this stunt. He just needs a counterweight, that's all.
Angela [01:01:40] Yes. Yes. Sure. Just grab a printer and duct tape it to the bottom of the bicycle. No problem.
Jenna [01:01:44] Yeah, but first, first, I do believe that Greg would ask someone to sit on the bar. I do. We got ahead of ourselves. As you know, Dwight is going to call Pam up onto the roof and reveal what he's doing in the warehouse. And he explains that he is going to ride a bicycle, I guess, from the top of the building to a phone pole. And he wants Pam to be a counterweight, and she refuses. It's a whole thing.
Angela [01:02:12] Well, I'll have you know, on the call sheet for this day, we filmed on August 1st, which is a Wednesday, and the comments on the call sheet were that temperatures were going to exceed 85 degrees. Please stay hydrated. Avoid the sun whenever possible. See the safety bulletin posted by the medic for more information. And that stunt rehearsals and tests for Thursday's aerial work would begin when the company moves to the alley mid-afternoon.
Jenna [01:02:35] I see. Yeah.
Angela [01:02:36] Stunt rehearsals. This was a huge stunt.
Jenna [01:02:41] Well, meanwhile, Angela is interviewing Pete, who doesn't want Comstock, yet is going through an extensive interview about his goals in life.
Angela [01:02:50] Yeah, she says, Why do you want this cat? He says, I don't want it. She says, How would you support the cat? What are your ambitions? Pete says, I want to start my own business. I want to be a millionaire. Lots of things. Travel, make the world a better place. Earn an MBA at night. Angela says, Have you taken any concrete steps? He says, Well, I'm still just fitting in here, you know, getting used to the new job. But definitely on the agenda. It's a good idea, Angela. I should make a list. Oh, Jim is listening to all of this. It is hitting him hard. He has a talking head immediately after where he says, You know what? If he's not careful, he'll get stuck there for years doing nothing. Wow. Maybe Pete is the new Jim after all.
Jenna [01:03:34] Mmhmm. Angela is now going to explain to Pete that the reason she's getting rid of Comstock is because the baby is allergic and that Comstock is the senator's favorite cat. And he's heartbroken.
Angela [01:03:46] Heartbroken over this. Oh, do Oscar's ears perk up? He says, You know what? I will take the cat. Angela is overjoyed. She's like, Thank you, Oscar.
Jenna [01:03:58] Yeah. Oscar says, I'll come pick him up this evening. And Angela says, Oh, boy, well, Robert won't get to say goodbye, I guess, because he told me he has plans tonight.
Angela [01:04:09] Yeah. And Oscar says, C'est la vie. And Angela says, Please don't teach French to my cat.
Jenna [01:04:15] Mm hmm.
Angela [01:04:16] Yeah.
Jenna [01:04:17] Well, then Oscar's going to sneak away. He's on the phone, and guess who he's talking to?
Angela [01:04:22] His date for the evening, Robert!
Jenna [01:04:24] Yep. He says, You're going to be able to play with Comstock tonight at dinner.
Angela [01:04:30] Mmhmm.
Jenna [01:04:30] I have a question. How do we think Gerald is going to like Comstock?
Angela [01:04:35] I know.
Jenna [01:04:36] There's a whole dog/cat introduction that needs to happen here.
Angela [01:04:38] Yeah.
Jenna [01:04:39] Oscar must really like the senator.
Angela [01:04:42] A lot. Because he said he's a dog person.
Jenna [01:04:46] Yeah. Now it's the end of the day, and everyone's leaving. Jim is going to linger. He says, I'll meet you down there, Pam. Oh, I can barely talk about it. It makes me so upset.
Angela [01:04:57] Well, I know, I know. I have to say, though, I thought John's performance of Jim in this moment was so great.
Jenna [01:05:04] Great. So good.
Angela [01:05:06] You can see how torn up inside he is about it. He goes to call his friend, then he bails. He's like, No, no. And he gets up and then he goes back and he does it. And when he finally commits and says, I'm all in and hangs up, he's like, Yes! It felt so good for him. It's hard. It's hard. I feel, you know, obviously, like as someone in a relationship, I'm like, hey, what are you doing? You got to, like, include your partner in this moment. What are you doing? And then at the same time, I see how much he's struggling with making this decision. I thought it was played out really well.
Jenna [01:05:43] Well, the whole point of this storyline is to create tension in this relationship.
Angela [01:05:47] Yeah.
Jenna [01:05:47] And this is going to do it. I wrote in all caps, This is not right. Talk to your wife first. This is a major life decision that affects the entire family.
Angela [01:05:57] Yes.
Jenna [01:05:58] And when we were talking about this over the summer, I said this would devastate me. It would devastate me if my husband and I sat down, we talked about a life decision, we made an agreement, and then without talking to me first, he changed that agreement and took some action. It would devastate me, not because he took the action, but because he felt like he couldn't trust me enough to talk about it a second time.
Angela [01:06:28] Well, that's the big thing. That's that's it right there. Which is, when you're in a partnership, a partnership is sharing. And the fact that Jim didn't feel like he could share this with his partner.
Jenna [01:06:43] Mmhm.
Angela [01:06:44] That's the real thing when you peel back the layers.
Jenna [01:06:46] Yeah.
Angela [01:06:47] Why couldn't he share this with Pam?
Jenna [01:06:50] Yes. And that would eat away at me as his partner. It would eat away at me to think about.
Angela [01:06:57] Well, then your mind jumps to well, what else do you not feel comfortable sharing with me?
Jenna [01:07:00] Exactly. Because I truly believe, as Pam, that if Jim came to me and said, I've been thinking about this and I have to say I want to do it. And I know it's going to be crazy and I know it means Philadelphia, can we make this work for me? That Pam would have said yes. But he didn't give her the opportunity to support him. He went off on his own and he made a decision. And as we're going to find out in the next episode, keeps that decision from her for a long time.
Angela [01:07:31] Yes. Yes.
Jenna [01:07:35] He does not go home tonight and say anything to her for weeks.
Angela [01:07:40] And that's another layer to it.
Jenna [01:07:42] That's the betrayal to me.
Angela [01:07:43] Yeah. And, you know, he sort of alludes to the fact that he didn't want to tell her until it was real. But the minute he said, I'm all in, it was real.
Jenna [01:07:52] Yes. And it has the potential to uproot their life in a major way.
Angela [01:07:57] Yeah.
Jenna [01:07:58] Ugh. It just- I see the foreshadowing of what is to come.
Angela [01:08:03] I thought it was brilliantly acted and written because it's doing everything it was supposed to do.
Jenna [01:08:08] Yes.
Angela [01:08:09] Well, we're now in the parking lot. Dwight has found a counterweight for his bicycle. He calls down to his coworkers. He says he's going to show the cool new guys what a real salesman looks like. You only live once, and he's going to prove it. Lady, I want you to know in the call sheet for the shoot day, there were an additional five pages of safety bulletins. Five pages.
Jenna [01:08:34] I believe it.
Angela [01:08:35] Of all the different precautions they were taking.
Jenna [01:08:39] Well, Dwight is going to ride the bike along the wire, but when he gets midway, it tips over. He is dangling from the handlebars and has to be rescued by the fire department. We got a fan question from Juan R in Duluth, Georgia, who said, Tell us everything about Rainn's cycling stunt in this episode. Well, of course, I reached out to Steve Burgess.
Angela [01:09:02] He is the best.
Jenna [01:09:03] And he said, Oh, there's a lot to say about this stunt. He said they started with the rough concept drawings that Greg did. Greg drew it all out, how he imagined it in his head. They brought in Al and Brent Jones, the stunt coordinators, and started discussing how to make it a reality. They brought in Pat Romano to do all the rigging. Steve said we had to put in our own telephone pole. We could not use the real one for safety and legal reasons.
Angela [01:09:31] Well, yeah!
Jenna [01:09:32] So we had to put a second telephone pole up.
Angela [01:09:35] Let's not tie this to something that has electricity.
Jenna [01:09:39] That's right. We also had to put the giant crane that you mentioned in the parking lot in order to get the wire across the roof. He said that the ends of the wire were attached to huge grade walls, which are like bulldozers, because that would really keep it strong. Right? He said it took over a week just to do all the rigging. And for the stunt they had a giant air bag in the parking lot. And I remember it.
Angela [01:10:07] I remember it, too. It's also in the call sheet. There were multiple pages just describing this airbag.
Jenna [01:10:14] Steve sent us pictures. We'll put it in stories. Steve also mentioned that it was really windy that day.
Angela [01:10:20] Oh, Lord.
Jenna [01:10:21] And it was actually hard to ride the bike on the wire because of the wind. And so he said we did three takes of the stunt, but it worked. I remember standing in the parking lot looking up at the stunt guy.
Angela [01:10:34] All of us there.
Jenna [01:10:35] I was convinced I was going to see a death that day. I'm going to be honest with you.
Angela [01:10:40] I was terrified. It was the most stressful thing. I don't know how anyone works on action movies where they do all of these crazy stunts. It was so terrifying.
Jenna [01:10:54] So terrifying. Steve Burgess says the shot of Rainn hanging from the bike is actually Rainn. However, what they did was they built a scaffold under the bike, so Rainn was actually just about eight or ten inches above the scaffold.
Angela [01:11:10] I remember that too, and that was still scary.
Jenna [01:11:13] I have photos of that as well.
Angela [01:11:15] Oy.
Jenna [01:11:16] We also had to hire a stunt fireman to carry Rainn's stunt double down the fire truck ladder. It is not easy to carry someone down a ladder like that.
Angela [01:11:26] It was described in the shooting draft that the firemen carried Dwight down like a bride.
Jenna [01:11:33] I like that description. And Steve Burgess said there were many, many, many safety meetings about this and even had to include the NBC safety guy. There were a lot of people who had to sign off on this stunt before we did it.
Angela [01:11:50] Well, this episode is going to end with Nellie at her desk. She is surrounded by big recycling bins and people are tossing their trash towards her. She's getting hit by the trash. I hated this.
Jenna [01:12:07] I didn't buy it.
Angela [01:12:09] I didn't think that other people would participate.
Jenna [01:12:11] Same!
Angela [01:12:11] I didn't think that Phyllis or Stanley would do this.
Jenna [01:12:14] Agree.
Angela [01:12:14] We get that Andy has a beef with her. I don't think anyone else cares.
Jenna [01:12:18] I'm with you.
Angela [01:12:20] Andy says he's passionate about two things: recycling and revenge. Now, Nellie's in the conference room doing a talking head, but there's still trash coming at her. She's trying to be positive. She goes, That's a fluke.
Jenna [01:12:34] Mhmm.
Angela [01:12:34] Well, I don't think we should end on that note. Let's end on an upbeat note, which is one last get to know your cast and crew from the call sheet.
Jenna [01:12:43] New favorite segment.
Angela [01:12:44] This one is about Joseph, who was part of our security team.
Jenna [01:12:48] Oh, I remember Joseph.
Angela [01:12:49] Yes. Things you did not know about Joseph Wang. Joseph knows Chinese, Taiwanese and English. His favorite books are the Harry Potter books. The prettiest place he has ever been is Paris. His favorite superhero is Speedy Gonzalez. His first encounter with the TV film business was security, of course, and he was once a sports agent and has three tattoos.
Jenna [01:13:15] I love this. And we ran into Joseph because he now does security for the Kelly Clarkson show.
Angela [01:13:21] We were so excited. We took pictures. We hugged. Office family forever.
Jenna [01:13:26] Aww. Well, guys, that was New Guys! A big thank you to Greg Daniels and to Steve Burgess for your contributions to this episode. I think we're off to a good start. I'm excited for this season.
Angela [01:13:38] Next up is Roy's Wedding.
Jenna [01:13:41] Chore Wheel.
Angela [01:13:42] Chore Wheel. And I'm sorry, Roy plays the piano now? Excuse me?
Jenna [01:13:48] Ohh it's so delicious!
Angela [01:13:50] See you next week.
Jenna [01:13:51] See you then. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies.
Angela [01:13:59] Office Ladies is produced by Earwolf, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey.
Jenna [01:14:03] Our senior producer is Cassi Jerkins. Our in-studio engineer is Sam Kieffer. Our editing and mixing engineer is Jordan Duffy. And our associate producer is Aynsley Bubbico.
Angela [01:14:12] Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.