TRANSCRIPT
Office Ladies | Episode 274 – The Paper Ep 2: The Five Ws
Jenna [00:00:04] I'm Jenna Fischer,
Angela [00:00:05] and I'm Angela Kinsey.
Jenna [00:00:06] We were on The Office together,
Angela [00:00:08] and we're best friends.
Jenna [00:00:09] And now we're doing the ultimate Office lover's podcast, just for you.
Angela [00:00:14] Each week, we will dive deeper into the world of The Office with exclusive interviews, behind the scenes details and lots of BFF stories.
Jenna [00:00:21] We're the Office Ladies 6.0.
audio cue [00:00:27] [musical sting]
Jenna [00:00:27] Hello!
Angela [00:00:27] Hey, happy new year!
Jenna [00:00:28] Happy 2026.
Angela [00:00:31] 2026, lady.
Jenna [00:00:32] We have a New Year's resolution.
Angela [00:00:34] We do.
Jenna [00:00:35] Should we share it?
Angela [00:00:35] Yes. This is a shared BFF (not only just in our work life, but in our home life) New Year's resolution.
Jenna [00:00:43] I've never had a shared New Year's resolution before!
Angela [00:00:45] Me either! I highly recommend it, because I feel like we're gonna hold each other accountable.
Jenna [00:00:49] I do too.
Angela [00:00:50] Okay, say what it is.
Jenna [00:00:52] It's called "get off the hamster wheel."
Angela [00:00:53] That's right.
Jenna [00:00:54] Because we work from home (and I've talked to a lot of people who manage businesses from home), you can very easily always be working or always be doing a chore. It's like, "Oh, I'm just gonna throw this laundry in before I get on this Zoom."
Angela [00:01:08] Yeah.
Jenna [00:01:09] Or, "It's Saturday, so I'm gonna just bang out a couple hours of work, here, in the morning."
Angela [00:01:13] Yeah.
Jenna [00:01:14] But what happens is, you were saying, Ange, it's like all of a sudden you wake up and you're like, "I have worked 20 days in a row without a full day off."
Angela [00:01:22] Yeah, because you just scooch little things in every day but what you were saying (and I so agree) is that let's say you're like, "Oh you know it's Saturday morning, I'm gonna do a few hours of work." But then it stays with you.
Jenna [00:01:36] All day.
Angela [00:01:36] All day. So then you're like, "Hmm I wonder if Jenna saw that email" and I'm like, "No, no, no. Turn that part of my brain off!"
Jenna [00:01:41] Yeah.
Angela [00:01:42] So, I am committed to you, Jenna, that we are to take two days off every week.
Jenna [00:01:48] Yes, weekends off.
Angela [00:01:50] Yes.
Jenna [00:01:51] We're getting off the hamster wheel for a full decompress. And this was inspired by our break, where we took a full week off for our break. And we were like, "Oh wow. That feels good." So we're getting off the wheel.
Angela [00:02:01] Yeah. Then, I want to get us a gift [giggles] that I was telling Jenna about... I'm sure you're going to be like, "I don't want it." I wanna get, on a pillow or some kind of embroidery, a little hamster on a wheel with a big X across it.
Jenna [00:02:17] Why would I not want that? I want that.
Angela [00:02:20] I want it to be a visual reminder because it's easy to climb on that wheel.
Jenna [00:02:25] It is.
Angela [00:02:25] Right?
Jenna [00:02:26] Yes. Alright.
Angela [00:02:27] Alright. Shared New Year's resolution.
Jenna [00:02:30] Well, listen, we are excited to be back! We're excited to breaking down all of the episodes of "The Paper" in the new year, but we have a new, what would you call it? More new things. We have a format for the new year. We are gonna kick off each episode with a chit chat suggestion from one of you.
Angela [00:02:49] Yeah, we're having so much fun. You guys have sent us really great topics.
Jenna [00:02:53] So let's kick off this episode with a suggestion from Stephanie A. in San Diego, California.
Stephanie A [00:03:01] Hi Office Ladies, this is Stephanie in San Diego, California, originally from Ohio. Go Buckeyes! My question for you is, where is the worst place you have been stuck for a long time? Looking forward to hearing the answers!
Angela [00:03:17] I knew mine right away.
Jenna [00:03:18] Same.
Angela [00:03:19] Go, you go.
Jenna [00:03:20] Me go?
Angela [00:03:21] Yeah, you, go. Mine's kind of long.
Jenna [00:03:23] Mine's also long.
Angela [00:03:24] Oh, no! [laughs]. Well, these were clearly core memories for us. Stephanie, great question.
Jenna [00:03:31] Many, many, many years ago, when I was still married to James, we received a Christmas gift. It was to go on an outing on a shark boat.
Angela [00:03:45] Oh, my gosh. What's a shark boat?
Jenna [00:03:47] You get on a boat, somewhere in the Long Beach Harbor, and you go out to sea and then you see sharks, I guess.
Angela [00:03:59] Like, they swim up by the boat?
Jenna [00:04:01] I think you go down in a cage,
Angela [00:04:04] NO.
Jenna [00:04:04] And then you can see sharks.
Angela [00:04:06] [in disbelief and horror] Jenna.
Jenna [00:04:08] Let me tell you what happened though. We loaded onto the boat with enthusiasm. We got out, oh, we were 10 minutes on this boat. I got so, so seasick. Like, so seasick that I spent the whole trip inside the little galley of the boat, curled up under the dining table.
Angela [00:04:34] Oh no.
Jenna [00:04:34] There was no Dramamine, there were no options. It was just me and my personal grit.
Angela [00:04:41] Just muscling through it. That is a miserable feeling, that kind of nausea, that rocking back and forth.
Jenna [00:04:47] Yes. Because when you get out there, they stop the boat. So you're just rocking for hours. And my kids know about the shark boat experience because I have said, as an anecdote, "If I can survive the shark boat, I can survive anything." And when I was getting chemo and I said that I didn't feel good, my kids said, "Is it worse than the shark boat?" Like, that's how awful the shark boats was.
Angela [00:05:20] Right.
Jenna [00:05:20] I texted James about it. I said, "Do you mind if I tell the shark boat story? And also, I can't remember. Did you enjoy the shark boat?"
Angela [00:05:29] Yeah, did he go in the cage?
Jenna [00:05:32] No, he didn't. He wrote me and he said (and he said I could quote him), "It was one of the worst days of my life."
Angela [00:05:40] Oh, no.
Jenna [00:05:41] He said "I was miserable. I didn't throw up like nearly everyone else around me." And then I asked him about the cage. I said, "Did you see any sharks?" I wouldn't know. I spent the whole trip under the table. He said, "They brought out a shark that was about nine inches long and I pet it and I felt terrible for it. That's the only f***ing shark we saw. Worst day of my life."
Angela [00:06:06] Oh, that's Josh's worst nightmare. He gets so motion sick. He can't go on a boat. I have swam with sharks. You know that, though.
Jenna [00:06:14] Yes.
Angela [00:06:15] But they weren't big, scary sharks and they were well fed. Rashida and I swim with them.
Jenna [00:06:21] I mean, it sounds like the only shark that James saw was about the size of a large fish.
Angela [00:06:25] Oh no.
Jenna [00:06:26] Nine inches? I mean...
Angela [00:06:28] And you guys were there all day on that boat. That's horrible.
Jenna [00:06:33] All day. Yeah I got through it by telling myself that time passes. Time can't stop. This day will end. The sun will move through the sky. Night will come. The boat will dock and I will get off. That was the mantra I played in my head. It was my own personal "The Edge."
Angela [00:06:52] I was just going to say you're, like, singing Annie. [singing] "The sun'll come out, tomorrow..."
Jenna [00:06:57] Basically.
Angela [00:06:58] Oh my gosh.
Jenna [00:06:58] Alright, that's the worst place I've ever been stuck. What about you?
Angela [00:07:02] Well, Jenna, I actually was texting you from the worst place I've ever been stuck. So I'm going to jog your memory now.
Jenna [00:07:10] Was it...? Well...
Angela [00:07:12] It was the biggest snowstorm in North Texas in 21 years. It was December 24th, Christmas Eve, 2009. It's actually called the Christmas Eve Blizzard. I was flying back to see my family, for the holidays, with Isabelle the morning of Christmas Eve. I think, Jenna, that year we worked right up into the holidays. So that was the day I could get out of town. And my dad said, "Well, there's a big storm coming in so get the early flight. Get the earliest flight." Because once you land in Dallas, our family farm is a good two and a half hour drive from Dallas. So we're talking rural farm to market roads. And they don't go out and treat those roads. They don't put salt on them. They ice over. So my dad was like, "We are going to need to get on the road."
Jenna [00:08:00] Mhm.
Angela [00:08:00] So we land. Temperatures drop to, like, the 20's. Winds kick up to, like, 60 miles an hour. It's snowing like crazy when we land. They closed DFW airport.
Jenna [00:08:11] Oh, I remember all this now.
Angela [00:08:13] Yeah, no more flights going out. So we get in the car, and as we start to drive, it is just coming down and coming down. Isabel was only 19 months old. It was me, my mom, my dad, Isabel, and Warren. It was a white out. My dad could barely see. We were watching cars slide off the road into snow drifts.
Jenna [00:08:32] I remember this.
Angela [00:08:33] Hundreds of people were stranded in this storm. And these little towns did not have the resources to get this many people stranded out of the snow. So they called out to local farmers. They were getting their tractors, their plows, trying to get people out. I ran out of everything in our diaper bag. We ran out food. We were stuck. We made it as far as outside of this town called "Decatur." And we were at the bottom of this hill. When you got to the other side, the farmers had been kind of successful clearing the road on the other side but no one could get over the hill. All of these cars slid off, in the snow, and then you'd watch another one try.
[00:09:19] My dad sat there, we were running out of gas and he would turn the car off to save the gas. And we'd get really cold, we would be able to see our breath and then he'd turn the car on for a little bit and we'd warm up. We were doing this, like, intermittently. Just sitting there, watching car after car try this hill and go into the snowbank. Now it's nightfall, our windshield has frozen over and I'm getting really worried because I have a 19 month old and I am just like, "It's cold, we're running out of gas." My dad was like, "We gotta go for it, we gotta for the hill, we just have to." Oh my gosh, my dad felt so bad. Because we never get this kind of weather there. He didn't have an ice scraper for the windshield.
[00:10:08] So he got out his country music CDs and busted them apart so they'd get sharp and jagged. And they got out there, him and Warren, scraping off the ice on that windshield. My dad slipped and fell. I was like, "Oh my gosh, dad, are you okay?" And I'll never forget, my dad goes, "I'm alright, but my dignity took a hit." Because he wiped out. Okay, I have to tell you. That's when I start texting you. I was like, "Jenna, I'm worried. It is dark. People are stranded in their cars." And you said, "Ange, I am scared."
Jenna [00:10:40] I mean, as you're retelling this story, I am having all those feelings come back. Also, this is like, this is not a funny story. This is a traumatic story.
Angela [00:10:52] No, it's not. I'm sorry.
Jenna [00:10:54] It's the truth!
Angela [00:10:54] It's the worst place I've ever been stuck in. So then, while we're scraping the ice off the windshield, there's a young woman holding this little dog. She's out in the snow. Her car has run out of gas. She is going from car to car that's stranded, knocking on the windows to see if someone will take her in. I don't know, she's probably in her 20s. My dad waves at her. He's like, "We'll make room," because we had a big SUV. So now, this young gal gets in the car with us with her Chihuahua. I remember the Chihuahuas name was Giselle. So now we're all in it and there's an 18 wheeler that's in front of us, that's going to try the hill. He starts to go up, he slides sideways off and now it's our turn.
Jenna [00:11:43] You have to remind me, why have you not stopped for shelter?
Angela [00:11:46] There's nothing!
Jenna [00:11:46] There's just a vast nothingness between where you left and where you're going?
Angela [00:11:50] Once you pass Decatur, for those of you guys that drive north in Texas, there's nothing for a while.
Jenna [00:11:57] No, that's what it's like when you drive to Kirksville, Missouri, which is where I went to school. There's just long stretches of no gas stations, nothing.
Angela [00:12:06] There's nothing, just pasture. Just acres land with nothing on it, but some cows. So the 18-wheeler slides off, and I'm like, "Oh my god," and now it's our turn. And I'm, like, "If we slide off, we're in a snowbank. Right now, we are on a road." So my mom just starts praying. Even if we get to the other side of the hill, we didn't have a plan. Except that in the neighboring little town, my parents knew a pastor that lived there. He said if we could make it to the town, we could stay at their house for the night. Him and his wife and their two kids. So we start. My dad was such a hero in this moment. He starts the SUV with everything he has. He's just, like, gonna gun it.
[00:12:49] He guns it and we're going up and we are sliding left and right and sliding and he's not turning into the slide. He's letting the car just go with the slide. There were a few times I was like, "We're gonna go off, we're go off" and we didn't. We made it to the top. I mean, you could have heard, it was like the winning touchdown at the Super Bowl. In that car, we were like, [screaming] And Isabel, poor Isabel. I just don't even know what she remembers about this. I asked her if she remembered, and she said she remembered snow. We get to the the top of the hill, and then we just slide. We just coast down. Little by little, we make it to this town. We can't even get down the road that the pastor and his family live on. But we get out and we wade through the snow.
Jenna [00:13:32] And Giselle?
Angela [00:13:33] And Giselle.
Jenna [00:13:34] Did she stay at the pastor's house, too?
Angela [00:13:35] Yes, and I want to give a shout out to this pastor and his family. His name is Mike Sanders and he and his wife, Andrea, were so lovely to me and my family. I'm forever grateful. On Christmas Eve night, at 11 PM (we started our drive at 3 PM), we arrived at this pastor's house. We're wading through the snow. I remember holding Isabel high up, so she wouldn't get damp from all the snow. Because it was waist-high. They took us in. We were starving. They fed five adults, a Chihuahua and a 19-month-old. And we woke up Christmas morning with this family. Finally, that young woman who got in the car with us was able to reach her dad, because she'd run out of cell service and everything.
[00:14:24] She was driving home for the holidays. They didn't know where she was. They knew she was stuck in this storm. Her dad and her brothers, because the roads still weren't cleared, slowly made it to the pastor's house on Christmas Day. When he arrived and he saw his daughter, he hugged her and began to cry. Then he turned to my dad, choked up and shook my dad's hand and said, "Thank you. Thank you." Not a dry eye. We all were sobbing. Then she was able to leave and go to her family's home. We didn't make it to our farm until Christmas Day, late in the day, because we had to go so slow. But the roads were better, it was melting. That's the longest I've ever been stuck anywhere.
Jenna [00:15:06] I mean, this also sounds like an answer to the question, "What's your most memorable Christmas?"
Angela [00:15:11] I mean... That's right up there. Yeah.
Jenna [00:15:14] Wow. Well, I think that if i had to choose, I would get back on the shark boat rather than do your adventure.
Angela [00:15:24] Oh gosh.
Jenna [00:15:26] And I've never chosen the shark boat.
Angela [00:15:29] Over something else?
Jenna [00:15:30] Over something else. I have never... The shark boat has never won anything. Because you know why? Because you weren't just stuck, you were terrified. I wasn't scared on the shark boat. I was just miserable.
Angela [00:15:45] Yeah.
Jenna [00:15:46] Wow. Well, Stephanie, thank you for your question.
Angela [00:15:49] I mean, that was a real zing-dinger. I don't know the expression. But that was my honest answer. That's the worst place I've ever been stuck.
Jenna [00:16:02] Well, listen. Why don't we take a break and when we come back, we're going to break down The Paper season one, episode two.
Angela [00:16:08] Where no one is stuck anywhere.
Jenna [00:16:08] True!
audio cue [00:16:08] [musical sting]
Jenna [00:16:20] Alright, we are back. We will be talking about The Paper; season one, episode two, "The Five W's." This episode was written by Greg Daniels and Michael Koman and directed by Ken Kwapis.
Angela [00:16:38] Aw, our favorite.
Jenna [00:16:40] Let me give you a summary. It's been a long time.
Angela [00:16:44] Were you excited to give a summary?
Jenna [00:16:46] I was excited to give a summary! But I'm only doing one Fast Fact.
Angela [00:16:52] And that's OK.
Jenna [00:16:53] Moving forward, these breakdowns will contain a single Fast Fact, not three.
Angela [00:16:58] Here's the thing: we are not on The Paper, but we know so many people who are working on The Paper. So they're giving us little, you know, behind the scenes details. I think it's okay that you're only doing one Fast Fact.
Jenna [00:17:10] Thank you, lady. Thank you. Well, here is your summary: Ned is struggling to stitch together his first issue of the floundering "Toledo Truth Teller" newspaper. Esmeralda sabotages Ned's efforts by killing their wire service and doctoring his first letter to the readers.
Angela [00:17:29] She still has it out for him.
Jenna [00:17:31] Well, yeah, she's bitter.
Angela [00:17:33] Yeah, he's kind of replaced her.
Jenna [00:17:35] Yes, for sure. He also stole her office.
Angela [00:17:38] That wasn't necessary, I didn't think.
Jenna [00:17:39] I agree! The staff of the paper become reporters, but no one really writes anything. He has to turn this flop into a feature by writing a blunt and very earnest letter, owning that it was a quiet news day, and rebooting the paper's promise to tell the truth. There you go. Alright, Fast Fact number one, we are watching the broadcast version of these episodes of The Paper. You know they live on Peacock, but now they're also living on NBC Monday nights at 8:30 PM. I thought to myself, "Wait a second, they were really long on Peacock, but to be on broadcast, they can only be 22 minutes."
Angela [00:18:21] Yeah.
Jenna [00:18:22] I asked Dave Rogers about it. He said, "Yeah, we had to cut them down." He said that most of the episodes were in the 28 to 29 minute range, and he had to spend his entire summer cutting them all down to 21 minutes and 30 seconds. It was like reverse supersizing, that he's doing. For "The Office," he's doing the supersized episodes for Peacock. He had to do like reverse-supersize.
Angela [00:18:48] My gosh.
Jenna [00:18:48] What would you call that?
Angela [00:18:50] Reverse supersize, I guess.
Jenna [00:18:51] I guess so. Yes, he said that because so much time had to come out of each episode, both Greg and Michael really wanted to be involved in the process and they each had their own way of trimming the episode. He said Greg would take the broadcast scripts - So, like, after a show is broadcast they turn it into a script because then it will incorporate all of the improvs.
Angela [00:19:18] Mm-hmm.
Jenna [00:19:19] And the way it was edited.
Angela [00:19:20] That's right, it's like the transcripts you find online.
Jenna [00:19:23] Exactly.
Angela [00:19:23] The [gorgeous and brave] transcriptionists form those after the episode airs.
Jenna [00:19:26] So Greg would take the broadcast scripts and he would do what they call "box cuts." That's where he would just put a giant box around certain scenes. Then, if there were other little bits that related to that scene, they would cut those out too. But I guess Michael Koman would take the Peacock cuts and actually use editing software. Where he pulled out little pieces of scenes and little pieces of dialog to try to get down to the 21 minutes, 30 seconds.
Angela [00:19:56] This is very interesting because it also is a little bit of a generational choice. Greg is clearly paper and pen, and Michael is computer.
Jenna [00:20:07] Dave said he would kind of use both of those as "notes" to determine how he would cut the episode down. But he said there were a couple times, early on, that Michael would suggest doing a different take of a scene because it was shorter or faster. And he and Greg had to explain that since this is a documentary, there aren't multiple takes.
Angela [00:20:33] Right.
Jenna [00:20:33] So if a take, or an angle, lives in the original episode...
Angela [00:20:38] That's it.
Jenna [00:20:39] It can't be changed.
Angela [00:20:40] It can be removed but it can't be a new version of that same scene.
Jenna [00:20:44] Exactly. So there you have it. That's your single Fast Fact.
Angela [00:20:49] I like it.
Jenna [00:20:50] Well, let's get into the episode. This episode opens with Ned welcoming everyone into the conference room. Ned, you remember, is the brand new editor-in-chief of the Truth Teller paper, a newspaper that up until now has written no original stories.
Angela [00:21:05] Yeah, they would just pull clips off of other news sites. But now they have to do it all on their own. Did you notice what the sign said on the door?
Jenna [00:21:13] I did.
Angela [00:21:14] There's a handmade sign on the door, as you walk into the conference room. It says "Truth Teller staff meeting, 9 AM." I was like, "That's kind of early."
Jenna [00:21:25] I mean, he has to get going.
Angela [00:21:26] He does.
Jenna [00:21:27] Everyone is in the conference room except for two people: Oscar is not there, and Esmeralda is not there. Ned starts by asking, "How many people have written for a newspaper before?" It's only Mare.
Angela [00:21:40] Only Mare, and everyone else's experience is pretty thin. Someone's like, "Oh, I have a text thread?" Really?
Jenna [00:21:48] That's their writing experience.
Angela [00:21:50] "I've tweeted," like, the experience is real slim.
Jenna [00:21:53] Ned is now going to share his favorite issues of the Toledo Truth Teller. He's taken these newspapers, these front pages. They've been framed.
Angela [00:22:03] They're, like, antiques that hang in the hallway of the building.
Jenna [00:22:06] And he brings his favorites into the room. These are the headlines on his favorite issues: "Shepherd Orbits the Earth," "Dr. Salk Cures Polio," and "Victory in Europe." I looked up the headlines.
Angela [00:22:20] I figured you would.
Jenna [00:22:22] So Alan Shepard did do a sub orbit of the earth in 1961. Dr. Salk created the polio vaccine in 1955, and victory in Europe was declared in 1945. I was like, "How old is this paper?" These headlines go back to 1945.
Angela [00:22:39] I mean, you remember what the printing press looked like? It was in black and white.
Jenna [00:22:47] Oh yeah, that's right. Well, then I looked up my hometown paper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Angela [00:22:51] Yeah?
Jenna [00:22:52] The first issue of the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch was December 12, 1878!
Angela [00:22:58] You go, St. Louis.
Jenna [00:23:02] I saw a picture of the front page, it was almost all ads. Were early newspapers... It looked kind of like an ad section. Oh, the ads... Lady, you would have loved it.
Angela [00:23:15] Oh, I bet.
Jenna [00:23:15] It was, like, "Needlepoint napkins, now on sale."
Angela [00:23:20] Mm-hmm. "Lace gloves. Half off."
Jenna [00:23:22] Yes! Lace Gloves! Yes!
Angela [00:23:24] Well, Ken, he's one of the boss guys over everything. He's this British guy. He's going to come in and stir up some shit. I just want you guys to know, I have a few people in this episode that I'm calling s*** stirrers.
Jenna [00:23:38] Oh. Is he one of them?
Angela [00:23:39] He's one of him. I had to call a bulls**t card on him, right out of the gate.
Jenna [00:23:44] Already?
Angela [00:23:44] Yeah, I'm sorry.
Jenna [00:23:45] What is it?
Angela [00:23:46] Well, Ken comes in the room and he's like, "I'm sorry, you can't use these framed newspapers in your conference room meeting. I'm going to take them all back." Why? Why, Ken? Why? Why can't he show these framed newspapers to his staff? Oh, I am sorry, he's got to go hang them back in the hallway? OK, great, then everyone can just walk to the hallway. Really?
Jenna [00:24:09] I guess he was worried about them getting damaged, but did you see the person who drops them on the floor? It's Ken.
Angela [00:24:16] I know!
Jenna [00:24:17] At two minutes, as he's leaving the conference room, he drops them on the floor. Guess what? I have a tidbit about that. So when we shared that we were going to be breaking down these episodes, the amazing Chelsea Frei (who plays Mare) reached out to us, and she said she was so excited. She said, "Ask me any questions." So I asked her if she had any memories from this episode, and she said this conference room meeting. She said it was essentially the first conference room meeting where everybody was all together and they were so nervous. They felt like there was a lot to live up to. So she said that when Tim Key (who plays Ken) left with all the framed articles, he dropped them and it was an accident.
Angela [00:25:01] No, it's so perfect!
Jenna [00:25:02] It's so perfect, and she said that it broke the tension. Everybody couldn't stop laughing, and then they left it in.
Angela [00:25:09] I think that's great. Ah, Chelsea, great tidbit. I do have a favorite moment in this conference room scene. And it's when Barry lights a cigarette and he smokes a cigarette.
Jenna [00:25:21] I know, that's longer in the Peacock version.
Angela [00:25:24] He's smoking a cigarette through the whole meeting, no one says anything. No one's like, "Umm, do you mind?" Nothing.
Jenna [00:25:31] Yes, and by the way, after Ken leaves, this conference room meeting just sort of ends.
Angela [00:25:37] Yeah, it just sort of ends and everyone kind of goes back to their desk, I guess? Ned is going to go up to Mare at her desk. They're excited. They're going to start this first issue. They're gonna go to the AP wire and start pulling articles. And then Ned spies a tin of popcorn under Mare's desk and is like, "Hey, can I have some of that?" And she's like, "Yeah, sure." Here's the thing: there would have been a Mare talking head right after this. Like, as soon as Ned starts diving in that popcorn tin, Mare would have said something I thought was hilarious. It's still in the Peacock version. It's not in the NBC broadcast, but I want you to hear about this popcorn. It brought back some memories for me.
audio clip from The Paper - Ned [00:26:19] Hey, can I have some of this?
audio clip from The Paper - Mare [00:26:21] Uh, yeah sure. Dive in.
audio clip from The Paper - Ned [00:26:21] Looks good.
audio clip from The Paper - Mare, talking head [00:26:25] That popcorn was a gift to Maria, who had my desk before me. From Enrique, who used to work in sales. They have two kids now.
Jenna [00:26:35] This popcorn, it's one of those giant tins that's divided in three. And Ned's gonna eat it through this entire episode. You see him carry this tin around. He's like basically like...
Angela [00:26:47] Stress eating.
Jenna [00:26:48] Yes.
Angela [00:26:50] He's stress eating, maybe, four-year-old popcorn?
Jenna [00:26:53] I mean, they have two kids?
Angela [00:26:55] Two kids.
Jenna [00:26:56] Six-year-old popcorn? I mean they had to fall in love, get married, and have two children and not work there anymore.
Angela [00:27:02] It reminded me of when Ed ate those Twizzlers that had been on the set for, like, four years.
Jenna [00:27:07] What is that story?
Angela [00:27:09] Don't you remember? We had all those, were they Twizzler's or Red Vines? I can't remember, in the kitchen. And they'd been there for years.
Jenna [00:27:16] Oh, the big tub of Red Vines!
Angela [00:27:17] Yes, on the set of "The Office," in the kitchen, and they were there for years. When Ed was new to the show, one day I saw him open it up and take one out. I'm like, "Ah, buddy. They've been here a while." He'd already eaten, like, half of it.
Jenna [00:27:31] I think that they last forever.
Angela [00:27:34] I think they might. I do have a question for you.
Jenna [00:27:37] What is it?
Angela [00:27:38] Are you Red Vines or Twizzlers?
Jenna [00:27:41] Oh, this is a great question. This is tough. I am Red Vines at the movies, but I am Twizzlers at Lake of the Ozarks.
Angela [00:27:49] What?
Jenna [00:27:49] My whole childhood, my mom would buy a pack of Twizzler's, which she calls "lickwish."
Angela [00:27:56] "Lickwish."
Jenna [00:27:56] Yeah, "Do you want some"lickwish?"
Angela [00:27:58] This is adorable.
Jenna [00:27:59] She doesn't call it "licquorice." But she would buy -
Angela [00:28:03] Also, it's not "lickwish" or "licquorice."
Jenna [00:28:05] Isn't it licorice? It's red licorice.
Angela [00:28:07] Is it?
Jenna [00:28:08] I think so. But she would buy a big pack when we would go down to the lake for a week and you could just go in the cabinet, whenever you wanted, and you could take one. Because there's no, like... The cool thing about Lake of the Ozarks and my childhood was that you could just eat chips,
Angela [00:28:25] Different rules.
Jenna [00:28:26] Yes, Oreos and red licorice. Willy nilly.
Angela [00:28:31] This is what I do with plane travel. Like, we get to the airport the kids get whatever snack they want for the plane. You can get Skittles. Whatever, it's the plane.
Jenna [00:28:39] What are you?
Angela [00:28:39] I'm Red Vines.
Jenna [00:28:42] Well, Ned is old popcorn tin.
Angela [00:28:44] Super old popcorn tin.
Jenna [00:28:46] I asked Chelsea about the popcorn. Because as I was watching him eat this popcorn throughout the whole episode, I was like, "Did anybody, besides Domhnall, eat the popcorn?" Because I just had a hunch. Just like what you're talking about with Ed, eating food. I know BJ and I would eat prop food that wasn't ours.
Angela [00:29:06] Yeah.
Jenna [00:29:07] She said, "Oh my god, yes." She ate so much of it that she was sick by the end of the week. She said that Taylor from props had to refill it constantly.
Angela [00:29:16] OK, well, I was very curious about this popcorn tin as well. I reached out to the prop master for The Paper, Scott McGinnis. We met him, remember, when we were on set?
Jenna [00:29:26] Yes.
Angela [00:29:26] And I asked him these questions: Scott, do the actors all really eat the popcorn? It looked like a lot of popcorn. Where did you get it from? What were the flavors? And was there a spit bucket?
Jenna [00:29:36] What are the answers?
Angela [00:29:37] Here's what Scott said: The popcorn and tin were from Shirley's, a popular Ohio brand.
Jenna [00:29:43] Oh, I love this!
Angela [00:29:44] Yeah, and he sent me the link so I can share it. He said, "The actors ate quite a bit, but mostly Domhnall, who goes full into everything." Sounds like Rainn, doesn't it?
Jenna [00:29:55] Mhm.
Angela [00:29:55] Scott also said the most popular flavor was, any guesses?
Jenna [00:29:58] Cheese?
Angela [00:29:59] White cheddar.
Jenna [00:30:01] Oh!
Angela [00:30:02] He said, "It's good popcorn, and I don't remember needing a spit bucket."
Jenna [00:30:07] I like this inside info. Here's what's gonna happen next in the episode: Mare and Ned discover that the wire service has been canceled. They can't get any stories. Esmeralda comes by and in her very passive aggressive way, she's like, "Oh yes, I canceled the wire surface because you so brilliantly declared that we would be writing original news stories. This was your idea."
Angela [00:30:33] Yeah, "I did this for you." And he's like, "What the fuck?" She's very sabotagey. And then she mentions this lunch that they have.
Jenna [00:30:44] She's like, "I'll see you at lunch." Then Ned panics and he calls everybody back into the conference room, because now they have to go get news stories. Today, right now.
Angela [00:30:56] The deadline for printing is 6 PM.
Jenna [00:30:59] Here are the news stories that they're gonna chase down. This is all they could come up with. Adelola couldn't find a parking space at the dog park. They're on it.
Angela [00:31:10] They're gonna get to the bottom of that. Who's taking up all these extra parking spaces?
Jenna [00:31:15] There's a water main break in town. So Mare and Barry are gonna go find out what's going on with that.
Angela [00:31:21] Did you catch, as Barry gets up to leave, he throws his cigarette over his shoulder?
Jenna [00:31:26] No! I did not!
Angela [00:31:28] I was like, "Did he just throw a lit cigarette ver his shoulder?"
Jenna [00:31:33] My gosh! Travis says that there are some fishing limits that have changed at the Wildlife Preserve.
Angela [00:31:41] Mm-hmm.
Jenna [00:31:42] So he and Detrick are gonna go find out. Finally, Ned says, "Nicole, will you please look at the crime beat?" Like, look at all the apps and call all the places and find out if any crimes-
Angela [00:31:57] What's going on? Yeah.
Jenna [00:31:58] Yes. Then Ned says, "I'm going to write a letter from the editor. And this is going to be our paper. It's going to be great!"
Angela [00:32:04] "Now everyone go get to it!"
Jenna [00:32:07] Lady, did you know that I was a journalism minor?
Angela [00:32:10] Yes, I feel like in the back folder of my brain of our friendship, I remember this.
Jenna [00:32:14] Yes, I was a pre-law history major and a journalism minor. I changed my major to theater, but I did graduate with a minor in journalism. I found three of the stories that I wrote for "The Index," which was my college paper during my time in the journalism department.
Angela [00:32:37] Please tell me you're gonna share one.
Jenna [00:32:39] I'm just gonna share the subject of each of them because I thought they were pretty cool.
Angela [00:32:43] Can I just say, Jenna's holding up papers that have kind of started to turn yellow. They're so old.
Jenna [00:32:49] They were typed on a typewriter.
Angela [00:32:50] Oh my goodness.
Jenna [00:32:51] And then I would turn these in. So "Jenna Fischer, for The Index" is what it says. "They Might Be Giants and Matthew Sweet teamed up last Friday night in Pershing Arena for a very successful St. Patrick's Day concert. As of last Thursday, S.A.B. had sold a little over 1,000 tickets." And then, I have quotes because you had to get quotes.
Angela [00:33:16] Lady, you basically had Fast Facts.
Jenna [00:33:19] [laughing] My gosh, is this where it started?
Angela [00:33:21] [laughing] I think so.
Jenna [00:33:22] OK, here's my next one. "Jenna Fischer for The Index. Springtime is bringing more than flowers to Kirksville this year. The Kirksvile Planning and Zoning Commission met last Wednesday to discuss the possibility of adding a Walgreens drugstore, on the corner of Illinois and Baltimore streets across from Hy-Vee. But before the store can be built, the property must be rezoned from residential to commercial, causing controversy among some homeowners in the area."
Angela [00:33:48] Ooh, scuttlebutt.
Jenna [00:33:51] Mm-hmm. This was my two-part series. This is gonna get serious. "Jenna Fischer for The Index. This story is part one of a two- part series on how recent sexual attacks have shaken the normally quiet Midwestern college town of Crookesville, Missouri. Part one deals with the ongoing efforts of law enforcement officials to regain control of their town. Part two will deal with the ways citizens have decided to fight back against the recent attacks by taking matters into their own hands." So this was kind of my crime beat.
Angela [00:34:20] Yeah.
Jenna [00:34:20] They assign you different sections of the paper. So this is when I was on crime beat. I had to interview people, but apparently I didn't do a very good job in part one because my teacher wrote, "Anything from the police department? This is supposed to be the law enforcement side. You have very little from them." I guess that I didn't do a good job on that story. I don't even know if it ran. It may not have run.
Angela [00:34:43] Lady, I see so much of you. Like, early you, in all three of those. "Jenna Fischer from The Index." Oh my gosh.
Jenna [00:34:52] Oh lady, I used to walk around with a little spiral pad and I would say, "Hi, Jenna Fisher from The Index, I'm here to do a story on [whatever]."
Angela [00:34:59] Just like Adelola in the parking lot. She had her little notepad. She was very serious with it.
Jenna [00:35:02] Exactly!
Angela [00:35:04] Well, we had talked about this earlier when we were re-watching this episode. I shared with Jenna, and I have to tell you all (and I've mentioned this on the podcast before) that my grandmother, Lena Mae Kinsey, had a column in the Archer City paper.
Jenna [00:35:20] Yes.
Angela [00:35:22] I can't even believe this, you, guys. I found one of her columns. Get this. There is a website called "Portal to Texas History." They are archiving rare historical and primary source materials all about Texas. It's been created and maintained by the University of North Texas Libraries. Thank you so much to those folks, because I found my grandmother's column. It was like I got to spend a little moment in time with her. It was so wonderful.
Jenna [00:35:50] Are you gonna read it?
Angela [00:35:51] Yes, I am. First of all, I stand corrected. I always thought her column was called, "Around the Town." I think that was an early name of it. But it was actually called "Around Archer." And here it is, Around Archer by Mrs. Finis-Kinsey. I think people let her know what they were doing, and then she would write up and say what they we're doing. So here's an example: "Mr. And Mrs. Ralph Wolf of Azel visited their son and his wife, Coach Terry Wolf and Deidre, last Friday."
Jenna [00:36:25] That's it?
Angela [00:36:26] That's it. Next one. "Rattlesnakes are moving in. Ron Mullins killed one, in town, 47 inches long."
Jenna [00:36:34] I would read this column every week. I love this.
Angela [00:36:37] Here's one more: "The youth fellowship group of the First United Methodist Church traveled to Dallas, Texas on Saturday for the Tulane versus Southern Methodist University football game at Irving Stadium. The group of 20 camped out at the youth hall of a Dallas Methodist church where they attended services the following morning."
Jenna [00:36:54] Can I get on my soapbox for a second? Can I just say that this is what is missing from today? This. Tidbits of community. How amazing is this? How it stitches you together, just knowing little bitty things. That they went to visit their son. I love that. I love that the guy killed the rattlesnake.
Angela [00:37:17] "That was my brother-in-law."
Jenna [00:37:18] This is, we need more of this in our lives today! When I click on "news sites," it's not f***ing news. There's no news. It's just the same recycled bull**** over and over again. It's the same political divide. It doesn't build community, that builds community. That is beautiful, it's meaningful. We need more of that.
Angela [00:37:46] I know, I loved it. There's little tidbit after little tid bit and I just want to share with you the editor's note at the end.
Jenna [00:37:52] Please.
Angela [00:37:54] "Editor's note: Remember to call Mrs. Kinsey," and then they gave her phone number, "to report Archer City activities. We have had many, many requests from readers for more Around Archer events. This is the first time in four years that we have had a local correspondent. Help us to make the news your news!"
Jenna [00:38:13] I love it. How can we start this? How can this happen?
Angela [00:38:17] Isn't that wonderful? That was the first time in four years and the local correspondent was my grandmother.
Jenna [00:38:23] Now, I know that there are local church newsletters, school newsletters... I know there are community newsletters. I subscribe to my town newsletter.
Angela [00:38:37] I do, too.
Jenna [00:38:37] I get it quarterly and I love it for this reason. But we need this. How do we make this a national thing? Like, wouldn't you just feel so much closer to everybody if you got little tidbits?
Angela [00:38:49] Yeah, I think I would. I think it's nice. It makes people feel more similar than apart.
Jenna [00:39:00] Yes. I don't know how to make this happen.
Angela [00:39:02] Well, maybe we can start making it happen here; a little at a time.
Jenna [00:39:06] Should we start a folder called "Tidbits?"
Angela [00:39:08] Yes, and you could tell us just a little around your town tidbit and we'll share it on the podcast. I love this!
Jenna [00:39:15] Yes!
Angela [00:39:16] Oh, can we call it "Around the Town" in honor of my grandmother?
Jenna [00:39:19] Yes. Done. Everyone please go to OfficeLadies.com, look for our folder titled "Around the Town," and send us some news about your town.
Angela [00:39:30] Yeah, or what you did for the weekend.
Jenna [00:39:34] Exactly. Did you kill a rattlesnake? Wt to know.
Angela [00:39:37] Did your home football team go to the playoffs?
Jenna [00:39:41] Yes. Well, I'm very excited and I feel inspired.
Angela [00:39:44] Me too, and my grandmother would be so proud, I think.
Jenna [00:39:47] She should be proud. Well, let's get back to breaking down this episode. Nicole is going to knock on Ned's door and say, "Listen, as a single woman living alone, I cannot do the crime beat."
Angela [00:39:57] No.
Jenna [00:39:58] "I need my bubble of ignorance. Could we please switch assignments? How about I write the letter from the editor, and you do the Crime beat?"
Angela [00:40:06] I did notice, in the conference room, when she looked on her phone and saw one of the first crimes. It was a guy with a machete or something. She then took her phone and hid it under her purse. I thought that was a nice little nugget in there. That she does not want anything to do with this.
Jenna [00:40:25] I mean, it makes sense to me. This is why I don't watch haunted house scary movies, because I can't have that in my head as I'm falling asleep in my 100-year-old house that I'm convinced is maybe a little haunted. You know?
Angela [00:40:41] Too close to home. Yeah.
Jenna [00:40:43] Alright, now we're gonna go to the dog park, because we're going to try to figure out why there's no parking spaces. Remember? Adam and Adelola are asking questions of a park employee. They're asking them like there's something sketchy going on. Like, [in an accusatory tone] "What's up with the lack of parking?"
Angela [00:41:01] Yeah.
Jenna [00:41:02] And the guy's like, "Well, if you look at the sign, the parking is for park employees to unload their things."
Angela [00:41:08] This guy, that plays this role, is brilliant.
Jenna [00:41:13] Do you know who it is? I didn't know who was.
Angela [00:41:14] I did, it's Nick Thune.
Jenna [00:41:16] Yes!
Angela [00:41:16] Yeah.
Jenna [00:41:17] I went down a whole rabbit hole.
Angela [00:41:19] He's so good. He's no nonsense, but he's also not a dick, in the role.
Jenna [00:41:25] He's really great, he's a comedian, and he's been on tour with Nate Bargatze.
Angela [00:41:30] Yeah. No, he's fantastic. He's done a gazillion things.
Jenna [00:41:32] I started watching all his YouTube specials. He plays guitar while he does his comedy. It's very charming. It's soothing and very funny.
Angela [00:41:42] I feel like he was a huge get. Like, I hope he comes back in this role somehow.
Jenna [00:41:46] That would be amazing.
Angela [00:41:48] The other thing that's going on, is that Mare calls Ned to let him know that Barry is injured. I guess, somehow walking down the sidewalk, he put his foot through a wooden crate. He's sprawled out on the ground. He's in a lot of pain. Shout out to Chelsea to this deep squat that you hold, throughout the whole scene. I was very impressed.
Jenna [00:42:09] Ned is like, "OK, can you go see what's happening with the water main break?" And she's like, "I told him I'd ride in the ambulance with him." It doesn't look like he needs an ambulance, but apparently one has been called. Ned's like, "Could the ambulance swing by the water main break, on the way to the hospital?"
Angela [00:42:28] She's like, "No," and then he's like,
Jenna [00:42:28] Like, "I don't think so."
Angela [00:42:29] And then he was like, "Fine, can you just get me any details about what's happening at the hospital?" He's getting so desperate. I want to point out something, background catch. While Ned is talking to her, behind him on a credenza, go to nine minutes and 41 seconds, clacky balls.
Jenna [00:42:48] [in disbelief] No.
Angela [00:42:48] Yep.
Jenna [00:42:48] No, there's not.
Angela [00:42:49] Big old set of clack balls. Mm-hmm.
Jenna [00:42:54] Wow. Clacky balls.
Angela [00:42:55] Made it back. A little The Office Easter egg there.
Jenna [00:42:58] Well listen, on that note, I think we should take a break. When we come back, we're going to talk about what is my favorite scene in this whole episode.
Angela [00:43:05] Awesome.
audio cue [00:43:17] [musical sting]
Angela [00:43:17] Alright, we are back and we're going into, I think, you and I's favorite scene of the whole episode, lady.
Jenna [00:43:25] Yes. It's Travis and Detrick. They've gone to meet with the assistant fish and game warden to talk about this new fishing law.
Angela [00:43:32] Yeah and as they arrive, Travis is putting on a blazer over his "Softies" t-shirt. He's clearly wanting to look a little bit nicer and we find out that the assistant fishing game warden is Harper Brewster, his ex-girlfriend. I love this scene so much. It's perfection.
Jenna [00:43:52] Please tell me you pulled an audio clip.
Angela [00:43:53] I absolutely did. And I wanna give a shout out, as you listen, to Tawny Newsome who plays Harper, Detrick played by Melvin Gregg, and Matt Peters who plays Gary. They are so damn funny in it. Let's hear it.
audio clip from The Paper - Harper [00:44:06] Mr. Moore?
audio clip from The Paper - Detrick [00:44:07] Yes, assistant fishing game warden Brewster, right?
audio clip from The Paper - Harper [00:44:10] Travis?
audio clip from The Paper - Travis [00:44:11] Hello, Harper. How are you?
audio clip from The Paper - Harper [00:44:11] You know you're not supposed to be here.
audio clip from The Paper - Travis [00:44:13] I'm here in my official capacity as a reporter, okay? Not your ex-boyfriend. You have to respect me as a member of the press, alright? The First Amendment compels you.
audio clip from The Paper - Gary [00:44:22] Everything okay here?
audio clip from The Paper - Travis [00:44:23] What's up, Gary?
audio clip from The Paper - Harper [00:44:24] I'm with Gary now, Travis.
audio clip from The Paper - Travis [00:44:25] I'm just here to ask you guys some questions about fish. That's it.
audio clip from The Paper - Gary [00:44:28] I warned you what would happen. Now I have to tune you up.
audio clip from The Paper - Detrick [00:44:31] Wait, wait, wait. Wait, hold on a second, Gary. Okay, look, we're just here as reporters. We have one question. One question and we'll leave, right?
audio clip from The Paper - Travis [00:44:38] Has the bluegill limit, in the Lake Erie district, changed recently?
audio clip from The Paper - Harper [00:44:42] You know that it has. What are we doing?
audio clip from The Paper - Detrick [00:44:44] That's great, thank you.
audio clip from The Paper - Gary [00:44:45] That's one question, we're done.
audio clip from The Paper - Travis [00:44:46] That was a setup question, Gary. I obviously need to ask a follow-up.
audio clip from The Paper - Harper [00:44:50] [impatiently] Go! Yes!
audio clip from The Paper - Travis [00:44:51] Thank you. Follow-up. Harper, is there any part of you that still loves me?
audio clip from The Paper - Gary [00:44:56] Dude, I warned you!
audio clip from The Paper - Travis [00:44:57] Follow- up to that. This is the guy that you chose? Are you kidding me?
Jenna [00:45:07] [laughing] I mean, it's so good.
Angela [00:45:10] "That was a set-up question. Clearly I have a follow-up."
Jenna [00:45:15] I really love this scene. I wanted to know if we were gonna see more of the characters of Harper and Gary. I went to IMDb. This is the only episode that Tawny and Matt are listed in, as guest stars. Greg, Michael, if you are listening, can we please revisit this love triangle in season two? Because I know you're working on season two right now.
Angela [00:45:37] Yes, if you're listening, we want more of this love triangle.
Jenna [00:45:41] I loved it so much.
Angela [00:45:42] So much.
Jenna [00:45:43] Alright, now we are back at the Toledo Truth Teller offices and Nicole is working on her letter from the editor, even though she's not the editor. Esmeralda is gonna come by her desk, see what she's doing and you know, she's a saboteur.
Angela [00:45:58] She's the second sh**stirrer of this episode.
Jenna [00:46:00] Oh. Okay. She's going to tell Nicole, "I need you to defrost the freezer right now. You're the only person who can do this task." I have a question. Who is the boss of this office? Why is Esmeralda allowed to redirect what Nicole is doing? Because I thought Esmeralda was is in charge of online content. She's the online newspaper. But Ned is in-charge of the print newspaper and is sort of the boss of the office, but are they co-bosses?
Angela [00:46:32] I think they're co-bosses, but I think Esmeralda is senior to Nicole and has probably been her boss, in some form, for so long that she still bosses her around a little bit. But probably, this is not someone that Nicole has to listen to anymore. But it's just sort of learned behavior.
Jenna [00:46:50] Well, it sounds like this job of defrosting the freezer has happened before, as well. Nicole has had this job before.
Angela [00:46:58] Esmeralda might just boss Nicole around. That might be their dynamic.
Jenna [00:47:02] I had a question. Do they need a new freezer? I mean, how often-
Angela [00:47:06] If this keeps happening...
Jenna [00:47:07] How often do you defrost your freezer?
Angela [00:47:10] Yes. Here's my follow-up to that: I don't think they have the money for a new freezer.
Jenna [00:47:14] I guess you're right. Well, when Nicole gets up to go defrost this terrible freezer, Esmeralda sits down in Nicole's computer and starts typing out this letter from the editor. So now Esmeralda's writing it. You're gonna find out, it's not gonna be a great letter.
Angela [00:47:30] Right.
Jenna [00:47:31] Saboteur.
Angela [00:47:32] Saboteur. Meanwhile, Ned is on the phone. He's desperately trying to find if there's any crime in the area. He's not having any luck. He's very frustrated. He calls the morgue. He's like, "Are you sure? Can you look in any of the drawers?"
Jenna [00:47:46] Yeah. He's like, "Have any new bodies come in? Are you sure no new bodies have come in? Have you looked everywhere?"
Angela [00:47:50] Yeah, it's weird. It's creepy, but he's desperate. Did you clock how orange his fingers are getting?
Jenna [00:47:56] I literally wrote down, "Popcorn Tracker. He's eating the cheese popcorn now and his fingers are orange."
Angela [00:48:01] Mm-hmm.
Jenna [00:48:02] So yes, I did.
Angela [00:48:03] I thought it was such a great touch. It just kind of reminded me of when we got the kids Cheetos on this car ride. We took a road trip. And the backseat, like the window, it was just orange dust everywhere.
Jenna [00:48:16] Well, Esmeralda's going to pop her head into Ned's office and be like, "I'm excited for our lunch." And Ned is like, "I can't do lunch." And she's like, "Oh no, I invited Marv. It's your welcome lunch." And Ned's like, "Fine, fine."
Angela [00:48:30] He can't say no to Marv.
Jenna [00:48:32] No.
Angela [00:48:32] That's the boss boss.
Jenna [00:48:33] Yes. He's like, "I'll go to lunch, but it needs to be quick." And Esmeraldas says, "You know, in Italy we have a saying, 'If a man eats quick, he also finishes quick.'"
Angela [00:48:45] And then she sashays out.
Jenna [00:48:47] She does. God, I love her.
Angela [00:48:50] She's got some really great one-liners.
Jenna [00:48:52] She really does.
Angela [00:48:53] Well, now at the lunch, Esmeralda is trying to sabotage him, but it's backfiring. For example, she says, "You know, Ned got rid of the wire. That was his idea." And they're like, "Great. Take some balls."
Jenna [00:49:06] She's also trying to make this lunch last as long as possible. We find out that she sent her fish back, like, three times because she's trying to make it so that he can't get his paper done today.
Angela [00:49:19] She's also ordered wine.
Jenna [00:49:22] This restaurant that they're eating in, I recognized it and I'm really proud of myself.
Angela [00:49:27] Really?
Jenna [00:49:28] Yes. I was pretty sure, when I saw it, that I had shot something there before.
Angela [00:49:33] Where is it?
Jenna [00:49:34] It's a fakie restaurant on the Universal Lot. This was my suspicion. I'm like, "I have shot here." So I reached out to Kelly Cantley, First AD, and guess what? I was right!
Angela [00:49:45] What is it?
Jenna [00:49:48] She said, "We shot the restaurant on the 'New York Street' on the Universal back lot."
Angela [00:49:55] Ohhhh, I know the New York Street.
Jenna [00:49:57] Yes! Now here's the thing: when you shoot in a fakie restaurant, you have to create all of the business outside of the windows. This fakie restaurants has windows on two sides. So if you watch this scene, not only do you have to fill the restaurant with all the people inside, you have make all the business happen outside. You have watch this, cause it's really, really cool.
Angela [00:50:19] Mhm.
Jenna [00:50:20] You see cars driving by, you see pedestrians, all this is happening. I asked Kelly about it. She said, "We had 24 background performers inside the restaurant and 40 people outside the restaurant. 20 people were drivers and 20 people were pedestrians who were parking cars, or walking by." She said that Joe Moore (who was their second 2nd AD) and Elizabeth Robbins (their DGA trainee) and nine production assistants had to help with all of the traffic direction. She sent me the map that shows the loop that the cars made. And it reminded me of the proposal scene that John and I did.
Angela [00:51:02] I was going to say. Look at all of that sort of atmosphere and ambiance and background they had to create out of nothing.
Jenna [00:51:11] Yes. So when you watch this restaurant scene, just know it is all actors. Very good, right?
Angela [00:51:17] So good, and all the work that went into that one moment.
Jenna [00:51:21] Also at the end of this restaurant scene, did you see how Ned eats his cupcake?
Angela [00:51:26] Yes.
Jenna [00:51:27] He's running out - He got a cupcake, somehow, and he pulls the bottom off of the cupcake. Then he puts it on the top and he makes a little cupcake sandwich.
Angela [00:51:40] In the Peacock version, Marv thinks that the way he ate his cupcake is, like, visionary. And that just annoys the hell out of Esmeralda.
Jenna [00:51:48] That's how I eat my cupcakes.
Angela [00:51:49] Are you serious?
Jenna [00:51:50] Yes.
Angela [00:51:51] Why?
Jenna [00:51:52] If I'm on the go. You know why? Because I don't to have to smoosh all the icing into my upper lip and bottom of my nose, which is what happens when you eat a cupcake. But if you smoosh it down and eat it like a little cupcake sandwich,
Angela [00:52:11] Like a ding-dong.
Jenna [00:52:13] Yes. Then you get the icing right where you want it.
Angela [00:52:17] We've talked about so much snack food in this episode.
Jenna [00:52:20] What is happening?
Angela [00:52:21] I don't know, but now I'm hungry.
Jenna [00:52:24] Well, now we're going to go to Adelola and Adam, who are at the dog park. They're still trying to find some story. The parking thing is a bust. But they're like, "Let's ask these teenagers if there's anything happening around town."
Angela [00:52:39] And the teenagers immediately just mess with them. They say that there's a thing called "dogging," where they just act like dogs when they get together and hang out. They bark. And I can't believe Adelola and Adam think this is a thing.
Jenna [00:52:53] I'm gonna come to their defense.
Angela [00:52:56] Okay.
Jenna [00:52:56] First of all, I wanna give a guest star shout out to the teenagers, who were played by Jillian Craighead and Zaire Adams. Here is me coming to the defense of this storyline. Is the idea of dogging any less realistic than "6-7?"
Angela [00:53:17] Oh yeah, 6-7 makes everyone go berserk.
Jenna [00:53:20] 6-7 is so random, it makes no sense to me.
Angela [00:53:23] It has no meaning. It's not meant to make sense.
Jenna [00:53:27] So who's to say that kids aren't barking at each other and calling it dogging?
Angela [00:53:31] That's true, that's true.
Jenna [00:53:32] I'm dogging you.
Angela [00:53:33] And I remember there was a trend, it was a few years ago, where people would perch.
Jenna [00:53:38] What's perching?
Angela [00:53:39] I don't know, I did it with Sarah Hyland on this movie. You're supposed to just sit on the edge of something, like an owl. Like, you perch? I didn't even know what I was doing. I just did it because they were like, "Let's do this for a picture." But yeah, I mean, I'm just saying these things do come up. I'm agreeing with you. I mean, we're doing trends now. On TikTok, lady. What's happening?
Jenna [00:53:59] We are doing TikTok trends. Are people following us on TikTok? @OfficeLadiesPod?
Angela [00:54:04] I want you to know that we have this really young, fun team at Blockparty who tells us what trends are happening and then pitches us a few. Half the time, Jenna and I don't even know what we're doing, but we do them.
Jenna [00:54:17] Lady, you just sent me one. You wanna do that thing where one of us holds the other person's leg and then you try to thread through their arm.
Angela [00:54:24] You kind of have to dive through the other person's arm while someone's holding your leg. I mean, it's going to be a hot mess.
Jenna [00:54:30] I don't know, I'm worried I'm gonna get hurt.
Angela [00:54:33] [laughing] I know.
Jenna [00:54:33] We're too old for that one.
Angela [00:54:34] That one we might have to nix.
Jenna [00:54:36] Well, as Ned is leaving, he gets this phone call. He's, like, really excited. He's at this lunch. He gets this call and guess what? The police department calls. They're like, "Hey, are you the guy who called earlier wondering if there were any crime stories? Because we have a possible serial killer."
Angela [00:54:55] Yeah. And he's like, "That's fantastic!" And the guy's like, "What?" And he goes, "I mean, it's terrible. It's clearly terrible."
Jenna [00:54:59] Mm-hmm.
Angela [00:55:00] But now he might have a story for his paper.
Jenna [00:55:03] So he returns to the office, he's very excited, he tells Mare.
Angela [00:55:07] He tells Mare! Very close talking.
Jenna [00:55:10] Mhm.
Angela [00:55:10] She's the person he wanted to tell. Close talking sharing. So the two of them, they're off. They're going to go try to figure this out. Adelola and Adam come back. They're typing up their story. Oscar overhears them talking. He says, "Did you guys get any quotes?" They didn't. Oscar rolls his eyes, kind of looks to camera, has a classic snark look to camera. Is this the first time Oscar has spoken in this episode?
Jenna [00:55:39] It is.
Angela [00:55:40] It is.
Jenna [00:55:41] Yes. From the last episode, Oscar makes it clear he doesn't want to be part of this documentary and he doesn't want to participate.
Angela [00:55:48] "Leave me out of it." But guess what? He's getting curious.
Jenna [00:55:51] He is.
Angela [00:55:52] About being a reporter.
Jenna [00:55:53] And this is gonna pay off later. I really like how they incorporated the character of Oscar into this new show. They didn't make him front and center. He's very much a supporting character right now. I think that was really smart.
Angela [00:56:11] You're slowly going to see him getting more invested in the paper. And it plays out over time.
Jenna [00:56:17] So Detrick returns to the office and he says, "Travis has been arrested. We didn't get our fish story, but I sold an ad." This guy's trying to sell his boat. So they have one ad for the paper. That's, I think, all they have. So far, their paper is a single ad.
Angela [00:56:35] Yeah, but ads are good.
Jenna [00:56:37] After Adelola and Adam give Ned their story about the dogging, Ned says, "Yeah, I called two local high school principals and none of this story is real, I can't print it."
Angela [00:56:48] He does get a mystery manila envelope, though, and inside it is a sudoku!
Jenna [00:56:53] Yes, it has the version with all of the empty spaces and then it has the answer. So that's good. So now what do we have for the paper? We have the Sudoku and an ad.
Angela [00:57:04] That's it.
Jenna [00:57:06] Mhm. Because guess what? Nicole finally returns to her desk. She sees the letter from the editor written by Esmeralda. It's just basically a letter from Ned's point of view saying that he stole this job from a woman named Esmeralda. Who has a banging body, despite being a single mother. It's just all about Esmeralda and her awesome body.
Angela [00:57:27] Yeah, and how he took her job. So, clearly, they can't use that.
Jenna [00:57:32] No, so Nicole just deletes it.
Angela [00:57:34] Mare is going to have a talking head where she says, "It's 5:38," and she doesn't know what they're going to print. Maybe she'll just type up the train schedules to be safe. And lady, this made me curious.
Jenna [00:57:47] What?
Angela [00:57:48] I was curious about the 6 PM deadline that they're up against. And then I started researching what the hours are like to get a newspaper out into the world. I found this fantastic YouTube video about a local newspaper in Singapore called "The Straits Times." And they take you through their night getting a newspaper out. It starts at 5:30 PM. All throughout the night, different articles and headlines are coming together and they're printing and their day ends at 5:30 AM. So whoever Ned is turning this over to is gonna be the night shift that is then gonna get this newspaper out by daybreak.
Jenna [00:58:23] Wow.
Angela [00:58:23] It's a really interesting existence. Like, the man that was showing you around the newspaper in Singapore said that his wife is leaving for work when he's getting home. So shout out to the night shift at the newspaper.
Jenna [00:58:35] Yes, thank you. Well, guess what? Their final article, the one thing they thought they still had, this crime beat article, is also going to fall apart. Because what they realize is that the morgue called the police to say that some creep called them, insisting that there was a body they didn't know about and they needed to look around for it. And we realize it was Ned.
Angela [00:59:00] Yeah, Ned's really quickly hangs up, because he's like, "Oh, crap."
Jenna [00:59:04] It's like, "Oh no." So there's no serial killer. There's no nothing. So Ned has to quickly bang out a letter from the editor.
Angela [00:59:13] And he decides to title it, "No News is Good News."
Jenna [00:59:18] And he says, "That's not something you expect to hear from the editor-in-chief of the town newspaper, but a lack of crime is evidence of people who treasure their community." And so he releases this very long letter. In order to pad it, he just ends up kind of plagiarizing Elmore Leonard's novels.
Angela [00:59:36] Yeah. "52 Pickup." He just includes a few chapters of it, it sounds like.
Jenna [00:59:43] Yes, and "Get Shorty."
Angela [00:59:45] There is a great cutaway. It's Oscar. He's outside. He's at the newspaper stand. He's picking up the paper. He's really excited to see the Sudoku puzzle, because he created it.
Jenna [00:59:56] Yes, we didn't know who did it, but it's revealed it was Oscar.
Angela [01:00:00] Oscar calls Stanley, and is like, "Stanley, what'd you think?"
Jenna [01:00:04] Yeah, he sends him a picture of it. And he's like, "Oh, you would say it's too easy, Stanley. Of course." It's a very cute exchange, and it shows that Oscar's still in touch with Stanley.
Angela [01:00:14] Yeah, and it may be hints to the fact that Oscar is still in touch with other people from Dunder Mifflin.
Jenna [01:00:21] Yes.
Angela [01:00:22] Well the episode is gonna end with a Mare talking head. She says, "You know, it wasn't perfect, but it was his first issue" and she framed it and she put it in the hallway, next to the other antiques.
Jenna [01:00:32] It's very, very sweet. Well, you know, this episode was directed by Ken Kwapis, and we did reach out to him because I wanted to know, what was it like to return to the world of mockumentary, and did you have any challenges?
Angela [01:00:46] He wrote us back such a lovely email.
Jenna [01:00:47] He did. I remembered something that Greg told us when we visited. He said, "When we designed this space, we wanted it to look very different from Dunder Mifflin." And they also researched what these old newspaper buildings looked like, and they were big and expansive.
Angela [01:01:04] And beautiful, old, grand buildings with the big windows.
Jenna [01:01:08] Yes, so they have this giant bullpen, which Ken Kwapis said is so different from the Dunder Mifflin bullpen. He said that it was a challenge to visually connect people in the space. He said that he was very grateful that this opened with a conference room scene, because he could get everybody in the same room and really tell the story of who people were and connect them.
Angela [01:01:30] And he certainly has a lot of experience with conference room scenes.
Jenna [01:01:34] But he also confirmed what Greg said, which was that spy shots were difficult because when they were designing the set (the set was designed by Susie Mancini, by the way) and Greg said, "I want you to use different blinds because I don't want it to look like Dunder Mifflin." So they chose these tinier blinds. But then when you open them, it's really hard to do spy shots through them.
Angela [01:01:56] Yeah, the blinds being a bigger size was a good thing.
Jenna [01:02:00] Yes. But overall, Ken was just so happy to be back working with these people. He said, "It's an amazing group of actors," and he had a great time.
Angela [01:02:09] Well, I love that Ken is part of this world, too. I love seeing all the little crossover moments, but I'm excited to get to know these characters.
Jenna [01:02:17] Yeah, I agree. Well listen everybody, that's your breakdown of The Paper episode 2. A big thank you to Kelly Cantley, Ken Kwapis, Chelsea Frei,
Angela [01:02:27] and Scott McGinnis, The Prop Master.
Jenna [01:02:28] Thanks for answering our questions when we reached out, and we'll see you guys all next week.
Angela [01:02:33] See you then.
audio cue [01:02:33] [outro theme plays]
Jenna [01:02:37] Thank you for listening to Office Ladies.
Angela [01:02:39] Office Ladies is a presentation of Audacy and is produced by Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey.
Jenna [01:02:43] Our executive producer is Cassi Jerkins, our audio engineer is Sam Kieffer, and our associate producer is Aynsley Bubbico.
Angela [01:02:52] Audacy's executive producer is Leah Reis-Dennis.
Jenna [01:02:55] Office Ladies was mixed and mastered by Bill Schultz.
Angela [01:02:58] Our theme song is "Rubber Tree" by Creed Bratton.