TRANSCRIPT
Office Ladies | Episode 295 - 500 Million Downloads & The Original Office Ladies Pilot!
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 [00:00:13] 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.
Jenna [00:00:00] HELLO!
Angela [00:00:01] Hi there! Oh my goodness. Jenna Fischer.
Jenna [00:00:06] Angela Kinsey.
Angela [00:00:07] We have a big episode today. Office Ladies has hit a huge milestone this month and we're gonna do a whole episode to celebrate it. We wanna celebrate it with you guys. Jenna, tell them what's happening.
Jenna [00:00:24] We just hit over 500 million downloads for Office Ladies podcast.
Angela [00:00:30] Yeah, 500 million. Over.
Jenna [00:00:34] Over. We'd been tracking it, lady, and all of a sudden, when we went back to see where we were, we were actually at 501 million.
Angela [00:00:43] [laughing] I know.
Jenna [00:00:44] We missed it by a whole million!
Angela [00:00:45] I know.
Jenna [00:00:46] You brought in balloons that spell out "500 million." You told me you were going to this. I said, "Lady, I don't... Is it necessary?" You said, "I feel very strongly about this." You said it in a tone.
Angela [00:00:59] I did.
Jenna [00:01:00] You were like, "I am NOT f*cking around."
Angela [00:01:03] This is a big number.
Jenna [00:01:05] Yeah. Balloons, it is.
Angela [00:01:07] Well, balloons, damn it. And here's the thing I didn't realize when I ordered them, is that we had to blow them up.
Jenna [00:01:13] Yeah, it feels like when you've hit 500 million downloads, someone else blows up your balloons.
Angela [00:01:20] No, as it turns out, no.
Jenna [00:01:22] Not here.
Angela [00:01:22] You do it over a week at home with your husband. Thank you, Josh.
Jenna [00:01:26] You also brought in a treat.
Angela [00:01:29] I did. We have a cake! Because on Office Ladies, we celebrate everything with cake. We have cake. Guess what, guys? It didn't have space for the word million. It says 500.
Jenna [00:01:39] Great. 500 what? They don't know. When they made it, they didn't know.
Angela [00:01:44] They don't know. Basically it's like Jim and Dwight planned our 500 million download party because we have some sad balloons. We have a sad cake, but we have lots of happiness in our heart, you guys. And I got you something.
Jenna [00:02:00] You got me something?
Angela [00:02:01] I did, and me. I got us matching gifts.
Jenna [00:02:04] What is it?
Angela [00:02:04] This is very on brand for me because over the years I've gotten us many matching gifts
Jenna [00:02:08] This is true.
Angela [00:02:09] You're probably never going to wear this.
Jenna [00:02:11] It's something I wear?
Angela [00:02:13] I got so dialed in to this number. 500 million! Are you crazy? That's nuts!
Jenna [00:02:22] What is it?
Angela [00:02:23] It's a gold necklace.
Jenna [00:02:25] Oh, I was afraid it was a shirt that said "500 million."
Angela [00:02:29] No, I thought about a hoodie, but I didn't do it. I got us each a necklace. Look, it's gold-plated, and then the number 500 is gonna hang around your neck.
Jenna [00:02:40] Let me see this. Let me see this... I love it.
Angela [00:02:44] And you know what? I purposely didn't put the million. Because kind of like with the cake, if you know, you know.
Jenna [00:02:51] If you know, you know.
Angela [00:02:53] And there's going to be some school assembly, Jenna, you're going be sitting there, and someone's going to be like, "500, huh?" And you're gonna be like "Uh-huh, that's right."
Jenna [00:03:05] 500.
Angela [00:03:06] 500. [starts singing "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by The Proclaimers] I've had that song stuck in my head. And I tried to think of a way to make it into downloads.
Jenna [00:03:16] You almost did a song parody as well?
Angela [00:03:17] I did. I gave up on that really quick.
Jenna [00:03:19] Well, thank you for not giving up on these other celebratory items, I appreciate them very much.
Angela [00:03:25] You're welcome.
Jenna [00:03:26] Truly, I'm saying that sincerely.
Angela [00:03:27] You're welcome, Sam, there's cake.
Sam [00:03:29] Great, I look forward to it.
Angela [00:03:33] Well, you know, hitting this milestone has made us both really reflective on how it all began.
Jenna [00:03:40] Yes, and there is a question that we have gotten a lot over the years that we've always wanted to answer and this week seemed like, finally, the perfect timing. A lot of people have written in and asked how we started Office Ladies.
Angela [00:03:53] Yes, here is a letter from Rachel W. in Washington, D.C. Rachel says, "I'm very interested in hearing more about your thought and decision making process that led to Office Ladies. I just had my first baby and wanna figure out a way to have a better balance between work and spending time with my family. But it feels like there are so few options between full time work or full time at home. I love how you ladies figured out how to make work fit into your ideal work-life balance and I wanna hear more about it." And another letter from Paula M. in Monterrey, Mexico. Paula says, "I recently got fired from a job I hated. I've been working in the same industry for 15 plus years and I want to try something new. How did you guys find your ideal job?"
Jenna [00:04:36] Well, Rachel and Paula, we actually have a great story about how this podcast started. The reasons touch on some of the same themes that you mentioned in your letters about wanting to find work-life balance and also wanting to try something new. Angela and I have shared a little bit about how podcasting came into our lives. We do write about it in our book, "The Office BFFs." But I would think that the main driving factor (and tell me if you agree with me here) of how we got here is simply that we always wanted to work together again. Ever since we wrapped The Office, we've daydreamed about working together again
Angela [00:05:15] Yeah. I think we always assumed it would be an on-camera job. Like, maybe we would host a game show or be in a TV show together again. We talk about this all the time. About seven years ago, we were trading messages about how we wanted to organize our garages and sheds. Sometimes you need a buddy to get this stuff done, right? You were my accountability buddy that I was finally going to get through all these bins because we had so much junk that we were storing.
Jenna [00:05:42] Mm-hmm, and we had both been putting it off and putting it up and I said, "Let's pick a day and both get started." Because then that way we're kind of doing it together.
Angela [00:05:51] Yeah, and we would give each other little progress reports, you know?
Jenna [00:05:54] Exactly. It's very funny to me though that, seven years later, I had accumulated so much junk again that I had to reclean my garage.
Angela [00:06:03] I can't even open my shed door. Like, it's honestly one of the things Josh is like, "I can even walk past it."
Jenna [00:06:11] Listen, seven years ago these things were clean.
Angela [00:06:14] I know, they were!
Jenna [00:06:15] And mine is clean again. So lady, if you need help... I don't know what we'll get out of it. But let's stay on track here. While we were cleaning this stuff out, we both found a ton of Office memorabilia. We had these old photos, old scripts, old call sheets. Like, all the stuff that we had saved for our whole nine years on The Office.
Angela [00:06:34] I still had a bin of everything I kept in my trailer.
Jenna [00:06:37] Mm-hmm. I had that too. Labeled "trailer."
Angela [00:06:40] I also had a ton of baskets and you had broken lamps. Those are other things we tend to collect.
Jenna [00:06:45] I guess I love lamps.
Angela [00:06:47] You love lamps.
Jenna [00:06:48] Even if they're broken.
Angela [00:06:49] I love baskets. But anyway, so we had all this Office memorabilia. We weren't really sure what to do with it. I told Jenna, "Maybe we should write a book" and you said, "Hell no."
Jenna [00:06:59] I said no.
Angela [00:07:00] "I'm never doing that again." I think it was a more emphatic no.
Jenna [00:07:07] I was fresh off my first book and it... You know, it's a lot.
Angela [00:07:10] It's a lot. By the way, when Josh wanted to do a book I said "Hell no."
Jenna [00:07:14] And then you did.
Angela [00:07:15] And then I did. But anyway, I just thought we really needed to preserve our Office stuff, and we were trying to figure out how to do that
Jenna [00:07:23] Yeah, and I had this idea because one of the things that we both had a lot of were photos from Halloween episodes.
Angela [00:07:29] Yeah.
Jenna [00:07:29] Because we often brought our cameras, all nine years, for any of the holiday episodes in particular. They were always so much fun. So I said, "Ange, why don't we go through all of our Halloween memorabilia from The Office? Let's jot down some of our memories and then we'll get together with one another and we'll read each other what we wrote. We'll just trade stories."
Angela [00:07:52] Yeah, we had no idea what this was gonna be. We just felt sort of compelled in this artist's journey to be like, "We have this stuff, let's share about it."
Jenna [00:08:00] Yeah, it was kind of like, "How do we commit this stuff to memory before we don't remember it anymore?"
Angela [00:08:07] Exactly. So we did that and Jenna came over to my house. We had just gone for a hike, lady. It was your birthday. We sat in my garage, that we were in the process of converting into a guest room/office. I remember Josh had just bought a sectional sofa from Ikea, so we actually had something to sit on. We decided to record this visit so we could have it saved for some future inspiration. I basically took my iPhone and I just set it on the sofa between us and I hit the record button. I also was eating a turkey wrap. I do remember, sorry about that.
Jenna [00:08:43] You were.
Angela [00:08:44] Yeah, and we just started talking.
Jenna [00:08:46] Yeah, and we weren't thinking this was gonna be anything. Again, we were just recording stories. But I just remember how much fun it was to sit and remember The Office with you. Then after I left your house, that was it. I was like, "Okay, what box are we gonna clean out next?" Was all I was thinking.
Angela [00:09:03] I mean, I thought it was fun, but I also thought it was just fun having a day with you. I didn't know if we'd write a book or if we do anything. But because I had recorded our hangout, we had that. I remember I texted you the audio file. I didn't even listen to it. You didn't even listen to it.
Jenna [00:09:17] I didn't listen to it.
Angela [00:09:18] Yeah. Then both of our husbands were like, "Well, how'd it go today?" And I remember telling Josh, "Well, it was really fun. I don't know what it is." And he was like, "Well I'd love to hear it." So he listens to it and he finds me later that evening. I'm in the kitchen and he comes in and he's like, "Ange, this is great. Like, I think this could be a podcast or something."
Jenna [00:09:38] Yeah, and you told me that. So then I said, "Lee, will you listen to this thing we recorded? Because Josh thinks it could be a podcast." So Lee listened to it and he was like, "Yes, oh my gosh, this is a podcast. My friend Jeff should listen to this." He said his friend Jeff knew a lot about podcasting. So I'm like, "Okay, so we email it to Jeff," not knowing that Jeff was Jeff Ullrich, one of the founders of EarWolf. He's like the Steve Jobs of podcasting, basically. So Jeff he agreed to listen and then he said, "Do you wanna meet with some people?" And he eventually introduced us to a lot of people in the podcasting world.
Angela [00:10:23] You know what I remember? We went to his house and we were talking about it with him and you kept saying, "But where do we plug in the microphones?"
Jenna [00:10:30] I was like, "How do you get the microphones for it?"
Angela [00:10:32] Like, "Where do you get the microphones?"
Jenna [00:10:33] Because we recorded this on our iPhone, but we'll need regular microphones.
Angela [00:10:36] You were so curious about the production from the very beginning.
Jenna [00:10:40] And he was like, "I don't want to talk about the microphones. That'll happen." He's like, "I'm talking about a vision for what this could be to you." I'm like, "Yeah, I know. I guess I just am wondering, like, where do you... How do you upload it?"
Angela [00:10:52] Well you always said (and I love this), you were like, "Don't be afraid to ask a lot of dumb questions" because we were learning a whole new genre. This was an absolute big career pivot and we didn't know what we were doing.
Jenna [00:11:04] Yeah, and we had the benefit of our name value, right? Like, that's something and that is valuable.
Angela [00:11:09] And we had our true life memories of working on this show and our friendships with the cast and crew.
Jenna [00:11:15] But otherwise, this was a whole new section of the entertainment industry. We didn't know anything about it. So we did. We went out there, we made ourselves vulnerable. We asked a lot of dumb questions in a lot of meetings. But the more we looked at it, the more podcasting really made sense because it was a stable job in Los Angeles, which is not easy to come by in the entertainment industry. We would be able to set our own schedules, which was very important to us. It was something we could do while our kids were at school. It just, it really seemed like it could open up a whole new lifestyle for us. And then of course, best of all, we could work together again in a creative way.
Angela [00:11:52] It was best friendship and putting family first.
Jenna [00:11:54] And that's how we got here, and cleaning out our garages and sheds, which makes me say, "Lady, what could happen on the next big clean?" I don't know.
Angela [00:12:05] What's in there? You know, I hadn't listened to this recording since we did it. It's been seven years. It's a pretty crazy time capsule of where we were in life, and I'm so glad we have it. After we recorded it and we decided to kind of use it as a sizzle to take meetings, Josh sort of tidied it up. There was, I think, 40 seconds of me unwrapping a turkey wrap. He took that out.
Jenna [00:12:35] Yeah.
Angela [00:12:35] And he added some little musical stings and it's just wild to hear again, isn't it?
Jenna [00:12:42] It really is, and we kind of thought that we could play it for y'all today in honor of reaching 500 million downloads. We thank you so much for being on this journey with us.
Angela [00:12:52] 100% there is no Office Ladies without this community. You guys are the 500 million downloads. It's you. You're the reason we're here. You're the reasons why we get to be at our kids soccer games and we get work with each other as best friends again. We just love you guys from the bottom of our hearts.
Jenna [00:13:11] Also I would say to Rachel and Paula, in answer to your questions, starting something new, particularly a new career, takes a big leap of faith and you have to be willing to risk being a beginner at something again. You have to willing to look stupid and to not know everything. It can be a very humbling thing to start something new and that's another reason why we wanted to play this for you, so that you can see where we started. Because it is not perfect.
Angela [00:13:39] Oh no, not at all.
Jenna [00:13:39] It is far from perfect, but it was the start of something.
Angela [00:13:43] It's the very beginning for us. It was a spark, you know? What we've learned in our careers is that you've got to lean into that creative spark and see where it takes you. So let's take a quick break. When we come back, it is our Office Ladies pilot, that we didn't even know was gonna be our pilot, that we've never shared before.
audio cue [00:14:13] [musical sting]
Angela [00:14:13] Okay, this is March 7th, it is Jenna's birthday. She is 45 today.
Jenna [00:14:17] I am.
Angela [00:14:18] We just went on a hike for her birthday and now we are sitting in what was once my rundown garage that we have made into my office.
Jenna [00:14:25] Office/guest room/pool house/game room?
Angela [00:14:31] Jenna and I are really excited. This is the first time we are gonna read some of our pages out loud together. While Jenna reads, she's going first. I am eating a turkey wrap and chips and salsa, so I hope that's not annoying.
Jenna [00:14:42] Well, I'm just really excited to listen to this later and transcribe it and hear your chips. I think that is going to be really fun for me.
Jenna [00:14:48] The gift that keeps on giving.
Jenna [00:14:51] Alright, so it was my job to dive deep into the Halloween episodes. Not just the Halloween episodes, but just Halloween in general on The Office, because it was a very special time.
Angela [00:15:03] It was. We had a lot of fun.
Jenna [00:15:05] And I was thinking about why. Why was it such a very, special, highly anticipated holiday on the set of The Office? Well, first of all, Pam always had candy on her desk. One of my favorite candies, personally, is candy corn.
Angela [00:15:19] [mouth full] You love candy corn. I'm eating.
Jenna [00:15:21] And they would put candy corn in my candy dish the week that we shot Halloween episodes. The first year they did it, I ate so much of it. I think the props people were so annoyed with me because they had to keep refilling that dish for continuity and then I actually got sick. I actually got a stomach ache from eating too much candy. I was like a child.
Angela [00:15:43] It's like what our parents tell us. "It'll make you sick."
Jenna [00:15:46] It did, but it was just right there. So I was thinking about, besides the candy corn, why did we love it so much? And I thought about it. Our regular wardrobe was so routine. Every character basically had a uniform; Dwight had mustard shirts, Pam was pastel cardigans and pencil skirts. Angela, you were just high necks and gray.
Angela [00:16:10] Gray. Charcoal. I literally have a line where I improvise (that I was so proud of) where Amy Adams was like, "What's your favorite color?" And I said "gray, charcoal, shades of gray."
Jenna [00:16:21] Phyllis basically just dressed in purple, right?
Angela [00:16:25] [mouth full] Or tiger print. Oh no, leopard print.
Jenna [00:16:27] Leopard print, animal print, or purple. At least Andy got the preppy plaids and interesting belts. He always had some really interesting belts.
Angela [00:16:36] So many belts.
Jenna [00:16:36] And if you think about it, our hairstyles never really changed either. So I feel like we just really craved any chance to break out and Halloween was the chance.
Angela [00:16:44] Oh, it was a big chance. It wasn't just a slight breakout, it was a huge one.
Jenna [00:16:46] It was the most exciting thing to happen to the wardrobe department, to the hair and makeup department. Everyone was very excited.
Angela [00:16:55] And you know, it was equal among genders. I remember Rainn getting so excited about his costumes.
Jenna [00:17:00] So sometimes people ask me if we ever had any say in what our characters dressed as for Halloween. And the very simple answer to that is no.
Angela [00:17:08] Absolutely not.
Jenna [00:17:09] Absolutely not, so many of our costumes were plot related. There was the joke that you could wear the same white cat costume year after year, even when you were pregnant. Which is a very funny, snarky scene that we have. Or the time that Creed, Dwight, and Kevin all dressed as the Joker. Or the time when Pam dresses Charlie Chaplin just to find out she was the only person to dress up in a costume at her new job. That was when she was off at art school. Then she couldn't take off her hat because then she looked like Hitler.
Angela [00:17:35] [laughing] Yeah.
Jenna [00:17:36] The costume choices were mostly dictated by the story that the writer wanted to tell, that happened to be on Halloween. But I feel like there was one exception. Do you know who I'm thinking of?
Angela [00:17:46] Oh my God, can I guess? Mindy Kaling?
Jenna [00:17:52] Yes! Mindy Kaling! Since Mindy was also on the writing staff, she got to be part of picking her own costume. Mindy loves to dress up. She loves to go big, right?
Angela [00:18:00] Yes, she does.
Jenna [00:18:01] And she had the best costumes. She was Carrie Bradshaw, she was Snooki, Katy Perry, and then Leeloo from "The Fifth Element." And I have this picture of you and Mindy. You were, like, a black widow.
Angela [00:18:12] I took my camera that day. That's a cold open we shot that didn't get used. She was Leeloo and she had a multi pass. [does impression of Leeloo from The Fifth Element, Jenna doesn't respond]. You haven't seen The Fifth Element?
Jenna [00:18:25] No.
Angela [00:18:26] Jenna, this is a great movie and I think it still holds up. I'm just gonna say that. "Leeloo multipass"
Jenna [00:18:30] What does that mean? Are you saying her last name or are you saying Leeloo has a multi-pass? Like she's going to a-
Angela [00:18:35] She's going to outer space. You have to have this multi-pass to get on this ship.
Jenna [00:18:39] Like a metro card?
Angela [00:18:41] Kind of. Oh, you have to see this. Bruce Willis is in it.
Jenna [00:18:44] I do love Bruce Willis.
Angela [00:18:46] Chris Tucker's in it.
Jenna [00:18:46] But this Leeloo costume was basically white gauze. So much skin.
Angela [00:18:52] Yes, well, you have to see it because she's in this... Oh God, I don't even know how to explain it. But she is the fifth element.
Jenna [00:18:59] Okay.
Angela [00:19:00] So I guessed Mindy Kaling and I was right.
audio cue [00:19:02] [musical sting]
Jenna [00:19:07] I want to talk about one of my personal favorite episodes of The Office, which also happens to be our very first Halloween episode. It aired during season two and was called, appropriately, "Halloween." I cry at the end, every time I watch it. So the plot is very simple, if you don't remember. Michael is told that he must fire someone during the month of October due to cutbacks at Dunder Mifflin. But in true Michael fashion, he waits until the very last day of October, which also happens to be Halloween. Greg Daniels wrote this episode. I remember him telling me that the inspiration for the episode was that he had always wanted to do a story about someone being fired, but from the point of view of the boss rather than the employee. He said, "We always see stories of the people being fired, but rarely stories about the person having to do the firing." I always thought that Greg's decision to set the story on Halloween when everyone is dressed up and excited for our office Halloween party made the whole thing even more delightfully uncomfortable.
Angela [00:19:59] Oh, so tragic. Like, no one wants to get fired when they're dressed up like a clown or something. It's depressing.
Jenna [00:20:06] Exactly. But the one problem that this plot presented for Greg was that he would actually have to fire someone on the show. He didn't want to fire any of the core cast members, even though many of the supporting characters at this time were still under weekly contracts. You guys were not considered series regulars yet.
Angela [00:20:22] Oh no, not at all. You know how you say you have a photo of the exact moment you knew we'd be best friends?
Jenna [00:20:27] Yes.
Angela [00:20:27] I have a the photo of exact moment I was made series regular. You and I are jumping up and down, giddy, holding hands, jumping up and down because I got the news while we were on "Booze Cruise." That's when we became series regulars.
Jenna [00:20:40] But this was before that. So he could have -
Angela [00:20:44] Any of us.
Jenna [00:20:45] Fired any of you guys, but he didn't want to. But he also didn't wanna hire a new person just for one episode, establish them, and fire them because it felt dishonest. He said it felt like cheating. So he had to fire someone we'd already seen on the show. So we had two stand-ins at the time, and maybe we should tell people what a stand-in is. A stand-in is a person who fills in for the actor after the rehearsal of a scene while the crew adjusts the lights. They walk where the actor would walk, or sit or stand where the actors would sit or stand during the scene and the crew figures out where to put the cameras and the lights. Then when it's time for the camera to roll, the actors are called back to the set and begin shooting the scene. So we had two stand-ins, they were Creed and Devon. Both Creed and Devon had also appeared on camera, in the background of some conference room scenes, or in the annex by the break room. Maybe they would cross in the deep background of a scene, like they were delivering mail. I remember we had that mail cart that really made no sense because we didn't have a mail room, but whatever. But they'd never spoken. They'd been established so that was enough for Greg. But then Greg, who is the gentlest man, had the dilemma of picking who to fire: Creed or Devon.
Angela [00:21:53] I can't imagine how that weighed on Greg because he really is just a kind, kind-hearted person and it just must have wrecked him.
Jenna [00:22:02] So Greg spoke with both of them, and he found out that Devon had just been cast in an off-Broadway play in New York. So this was all Greg needed to hear. He decided Devon would be fired, since he had this job to go to, and Creed went from being a non-speaking stand-in in our show to getting a five-page scene with Steve Carell. No audition, Greg had never seen him act, handed him a five page scene with Steven Carell. The scene was so popular with fans, and Greg was so delighted, that he started writing more stuff for Creed, and then Creed eventually also became a series regular. All because Greg needed someone to fire. So in addition to this being the episode that launched Creed into the Office family, it is responsible for a number of firsts. This is the episode that features Jim and Pam's first air high five.
Jenna [00:22:54] Aww, Jam! Jam air high five!
Jenna [00:22:58] It is also the first time Pam is seen wearing her hair down rather than half up half down, which I call the Pam mullet. And it was a huge debate, about whether or not this hair change could be allowed. It went several rounds with the producers and writers before being approved. Would Pam look too cute if she wore her hair down? They decided to go for it. Then the next time you see a hair change from Pam is "Casino Night."
Angela [00:23:23] I mean, if we know a lot of details about hair and stuff like that, it's cause these were huge discussions. We just always wanted to stay true to the integrity of who these people were, and not zhuzh them up too much as the success of the show grew. They were still in Scranton in a paper company, even though the show was gaining more popularity and we were sort of becoming a little bit like, I don't know... Like, fancier.
Jenna [00:23:48] Well, this was true of wardrobe as well. They only shopped at places that our characters could realistically afford to shop at. So if Pam had to wear a pair of jeans, I wore a pair jeans from the Gap. I did not wear 200 dollar designer jeans.
Angela [00:24:05] Right. And also, our wardrobe department was amazing. They made sure your pants weren't too long or things like that, but they did not fit you. Like, they didn't alter things the way most TV shows do. After The Office, I worked on a show called "Your Family or Mine," and the women that did the wardrobe also did a wardrobe for 'Friends." And those women looked amazing on friends and I have never looked so kabam, ever in my life. They altered everything. They altered where your shoulder hem is and where the inseam is, like... Everything fit me like a glove.
Jenna [00:24:38] Yeah, most shows tailor-clothes to your body. That's why everybody looks so fabulous on TV.
Angela [00:24:42] They said to me, "Do you know what's the difference between just a normal person walking down the street and someone walking down street on a TV show?" And I said, "What?" And they said, "Alterations."
Jenna [00:24:51] It's a hundred percent true.
Angela [00:24:52] Because most people figure out how to blow out their hair and put a little bit of makeup on, but having clothes fit you like that. And they were blown away because I was like, "Oh my gosh, look how this fits me! Oh, you're gonna take that in, you're going to sew this?" And they're like, "Angela, have you never had your clothes altered on The Office?" I was, like, "Uhhhh, no." Because we had to look realistic for that world.
Jenna [00:25:17] Another thing about Halloween is that people dress up as our office characters for Halloween on Halloween.
Angela [00:25:23] Which I love so much.
Jenna [00:25:24] Which is crazy, right?
Angela [00:25:25] When I get tagged in a "Dwight & Angela," I love it so much!
Jenna [00:25:27] You are a Halloween costume.
Angela [00:25:30] Yeah.
Jenna [00:25:30] I also want to say that of all the photos that I get, I think that the most popular (the one I see the most) is the Pam Cat/three hole punch Jim. That's the one I get the most.
Angela [00:25:42] I get just myself in an Argyle sweater, usually the girls have their hair in a headband or a slicked back pony and they're all holding a cat stuffed animal.
Jenna [00:25:52] I get a lot where girls are wearing the white keds. Another first, this Halloween episode was the first time since our pilot that the creators of the original British series of The Office, Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais, visited our set. They stayed almost an entire day one day when we were filming, we were all geeking out. Before they left, I asked for a photo with them and some of the American producers of the show. But I am the only person in the photo who is obviously dressed in a Halloween costume.
Angela [00:26:23] Do you have it?
Jenna [00:26:24] You can kind of see Jim has one circle of his three hole punch. When I look at the photo, I like to imagine that I was doing a school play about a cat, and all these people came to see me, and I posed for a picture backstage.
Angela [00:26:36] Yeah, that's backstage at your cat play. Here's my one story about Ricky Gervais. So they were on set. We were all kind of nervous about it and I hadn't really been in scenes yet. After lunch I had a talking head and I come through the lunch area and I see Ricky Gervais and I'm introduced to him and they're like, "Ricky's actually going back to video village now because he's going to watch everything from lunch on to the end of day."
Jenna [00:27:03] And you were the first thing that he started watching?
Angela [00:27:05] I was like, "Great" and they're like, "Angela, you're first up." I said, "Oh, fantastic" and I looked to Ricky Gervais and he goes, "Don't worry, I don't tsk too loudly." That's what he said to me.
Jenna [00:27:18] That's amazing!
Angela [00:27:18] I know!
audio cue [00:27:18] [musical sting]
Jenna [00:27:24] For all of these reasons, I love this first Halloween episode, but I especially love the end. I don't know if you remember the end, but at the end Michael hands out candy to little kids and I cry every time. I'm getting choked up thinking about it. I remember there was a big debate over how that final moment should be played out. There was a discussion as to whether or not the kids should be nice to Michael or if they should be annoyed by him, because he was gonna be cracking jokes while he handed out candy. The writers and producers also discussed if Steve should be happy or sad while handing out the candy. It was decided that they would start on a spy shot of Michael looking sad and lonely inside of his house, alone on Halloween night. He's just fired someone. Then you hear the doorbell and when he gets to the door and sees the kids he lights up, he makes his silly jokes, and the kids just laugh and laugh and are delighted by him and he makes this connection. I'm crying. It's just beautiful and kind and heartbreaking. And it's moments like this that make The Office so special. We can spend an entire episode laughing at Michael Scott or finding him annoying, but in the end, he will break your heart with his kindness and vulnerability and his desire to have what we all want, which is just to love and be loved in return.
Angela [00:28:36] Yes, that is heartbreaking and so sweet and so real, isn't it? It's just such an honest moment. I think that's what Greg Daniels was so great at in our show, is finding these real life moments that were so honest. And you've got to know firing someone was so hard for Michael because all he wanted to do was be liked, and this dysfunctional office family was truly his family.
Jenna [00:29:02] It was such a great choice to have him go home, and you see why he's so needy at work.
Angela [00:29:09] Yes. He's so lonely.
Jenna [00:29:10] He's just so lonely.
Angela [00:29:11] And I loved that the kids delighted in him. There's this thing that Steve did with his face. He just looked like lit up inside, when they laughed you saw that joy come over Michael. Oh, it was so sweet.
Jenna [00:29:26] If we ever get to do a reunion episode, I just need to see Michael Scott with his kid.
Angela [00:29:33] Yes, and he's the best dad.
Jenna [00:29:37] Yeah, and that kid just thinks he is everything.
Angela [00:29:41] Exactly, and him and Holly are just happy. It would make me so happy.
Jenna [00:29:44] I would cry.
Angela [00:29:45] And maybe he still annoys people at work, but he's the best dad.
Jenna [00:29:48] The best dad. I think it hit me even harder now that I have kids, because I just know what kids bring to your life. The episode was written by resident genius Greg Daniels. It was directed by, do you know? Paul Feig!
Angela [00:30:07] Oh, Paul Feig! Well, you know, I was going to guess Ken Kwapis or Paul Feig because they're in the early years. That's a good guess.
Jenna [00:30:13] Yeah, and also, we gave them a lot of the big milestone episodes. During his time on the show, I'm going to give you some fast facts about Paul Feig. He directed 14 episodes of The Office, but he also spent an entire season where he was a consulting producer.
Angela [00:30:28] That's right.
Jenna [00:30:29] He was there every day on set.
Angela [00:30:30] When he left I was like, "No, Paul, don't!" I felt so safe with him there.
Jenna [00:30:34] It was a dream. Also, I think, he hosted the most cast viewing parties (of anyone) in his home with his incredible wife, Laurie.
Angela [00:30:43] Yes, and their home was beautiful. Just so warm and inviting. I loved it.
Jenna [00:30:48] They put out a little, like...
Angela [00:30:50] Snack.
Jenna [00:30:50] Snack in the kitchen and then we would all get our stuff and we would go watch the show together. We did we that so much!
Angela [00:30:56] So much, so many viewing parties. Paul and Laurie are just such great party hosts. Paul is one of the best dressed people you will ever meet in your life.
Jenna [00:31:05] Full suit, with tie.
Angela [00:31:06] I've never not seen him in a suit and his Instagram is all him in suits with cocktails. You have to see it because it's very enjoyable.
Jenna [00:31:13] It's very impressive.
Angela [00:31:14] Paul, we're about to deep dive on your feed on Instagram. Don't get freaked out. Um, also did you talk about what the crew would do on Friday when it was Paul Feig's episode? They would all wear a tie.
Jenna [00:31:24] Oh, yes!
Angela [00:31:25] Yeah, It would be Paul Feig day; suit day. Every Friday when Paul Feig directed, and all the crew members and the camera guys would all wear ties.
Jenna [00:31:37] Halloween did not end with our Halloween episodes. In order to edit the episodes in time to air during the actual week of Halloween, we filmed our Halloween episode usually in August, like months before. So every year we got two Halloween celebrations. First was the week that we shot the Halloween episode but then there was actual Halloween. During actual Halloween week, our crew would all dress up and we would have a costume parade at lunch. The crew went all out. We would shoot a whole day with them all in costumes and us dressed as our characters. One year, I don't know if you remember this, the wardrobe department dressed as the characters from our show and I have pictures.
Angela [00:32:12] Oh! That is hilarious.
Jenna [00:32:15] Although, this guy was a props guy. He wasn't wardrobe, but wardrobe dressed as us.
Angela [00:32:19] Oh my gosh, that's amazing.
Jenna [00:32:21] I know, it was pretty great. Because I think something that people say a lot but was very true for us, and maybe it's true for them too, is that we were like one big family.
Angela [00:32:30] We were.
Jenna [00:32:31] But not just the cast, it the crew. We looked out for one another, we enjoyed being together. Our work days were long, but they were not as long as a typical television show. We averaged about 12 hours a day, and it usually was something like 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.. It was rare to go as late as 7:30, but it did happen occasionally. But it never happened on Halloween. We were always wrapped early, always. I think it's because so many of our crew members had families with young kids, and the producers wanted to make sure that everyone was home in time to celebrate with their families.
Angela [00:33:07] That's right, and you know, Greg himself is a very big family man. I think that those things are important. They were important to him, and I think when you're on a show where your show runner/creator has a family, they just go into it thinking about people's families. I always felt that way. I felt like they knew when I went to them, when I had Isabel and I was gonna be bringing her to set, I felt I could go and have a conversation and they would help make it work.
Jenna [00:33:36] I know that it was very important to Steve, that he'd be home for dinner with his family every night.
Angela [00:33:40] Yes.
Jenna [00:33:41] He would come in first thing in the morning, 5:30, 6 a.m., so that he could be finished by 5:30 at night. And then some of the people who didn't have kids would stay later and then work to that 6-6:30 time frame for him, happily. In fact, there were a lot of younger people who preferred coming in at 8 a.m. and working later.
Angela [00:34:00] Right, right, right.
Jenna [00:34:01] They did not want to come in at 5 a.m., but once you have kids you're awake anyway, you know. So.
Angela [00:34:06] You don't want to miss bedtime.
Jenna [00:34:08] You don't want to missed that dinner and bedtime. It can be made to work if the people who are in charge make it work. And it happened on Halloween. Also, every year, Matt Stone, who was one of our camera operators (then later he became our director of photography and even directed some episodes) would throw a party at his house, after work for everyone and their families. He lived in this great neighborhood for trick-or-treating. We'd show up and he would have these little tables that had crafts for the kids.
Angela [00:34:37] It was so cute, the front room of their house had little low tables with little chairs. It was like kid paradise over there.
Jenna [00:34:43] Little stickers, projects, you could make a little pumpkin, and then food. They'd order pizza, and then we'd just go out and canvass the neighborhood. Even cast members without kids would come. I know BJ Novak used to go over and hand out candy, because someone had to man the door, right? If everybody leaves, someone has to be there and hand over the candy, and BJ was like, "I'll do it."
Angela [00:35:02] I'll never forget, one of the years we went, Isabel was Tinker Bell and she was so excited when she rang the door that people gave her candy. She couldn't believe it. She was like, "What is happening?" But it was really sweet that we all did that.
Jenna [00:35:14] Even though we spent all day working together, we still shared these occasions with one another. It was really sweet.
Angela [00:35:26] I had this professor in college, I'm going to get really nerdy for a second, and he was my creative writing professor and he used to say that what's a pleasure to do is a pleasure experience. So if you're writing and you love what you're writing, I am going to love reading it. I felt that way about The Office. We so loved what we were doing that I think it comes through. I think we cared a lot for each other. We were very invested in each other's lives. I think, now, the show still resonates because when you watch that, you feel it.
Jenna [00:35:59] We were genuinely connected.
Angela [00:36:01] Yeah, and we still are.
Jenna [00:36:03] We still are, all these years later.
Angela [00:36:05] You and I hiked this morning, Brian Baumgartner texted me this morning.
Jenna [00:36:09] Rainn Wilson texts me constantly.
Angela [00:36:10] I know, what's great is Rainn will text you out of nowhere and just be like, "Hey monkey." He'll just text you outta nowhere, "I love you."
Jenna [00:36:19] It's so true.
Angela [00:36:20] I feel like if Rainn listened to this he would probably text us and be like, "I am not surprised the two of you have just... You can just talk about anything."
Jenna [00:36:26] Yammering on and on.
audio cue [00:36:28] [musical sting]
Jenna [00:36:33] Because of how we were on The Office, and The Office was my first job, it created an expectation in me that my future job experiences would be similar. I thought that if I got a job and I went to the producers and I said, "I want this time off to go to my kid's open house," or "I need to be finished early because this is my dad's 70th birthday" or whatever it is, that they would be like... "Oh yes, of course! We can manipulate the schedule to make that time for you." But guess what? As it turns out, it does not work that way. We had a very special thing on The Office. The way that this hit me the year that I was working on my new show, "Splitting Up Together," and it was the first season and when you do the first season of show people are especially hyper about everything. Because every week they might pull the plug and I had asked them at the beginning of the season. I said, "I just need to be finished by five o'clock on Halloween so that I can go trick-or-treating with my little kids." Halloween was on a Tuesday that year. The Friday before, the producers came to me and said, "Jenna, we've run late this week and we had to drop a couple of scenes and the only day that we can rent this crane in order to get this shot that we missed this week is on Halloween, and we're going to need to tack it on to the end of the day, so I'm very sorry. We'll still get you out by 7:30/8 o'clock."
Angela [00:38:02] First of all, you have to understand Jenna's children are young. They're not trick or treating at eight o'clock. They're little.
Jenna [00:38:07] No, I said, "Guys, Halloween's over by eight o'clock. It's over, we're sleeping at eight." They're in the early window.
Angela [00:38:14] Yeah, it's still a little light out.
Jenna [00:38:17] Yeah. It's still a little daylight out, at that age. Then on Sunday morning, you call me up. Now I'm gonna start crying. You called me up and you said, "What are you doing tonight at five o' clock?" And I said "Nothing." And you said, "I know what you're doing. Dress up your kids, come over to my house. I've talked to six of my neighbors and they're going to hand out candy to your kids. I'll get my kids dressed up and we're going trick-or-treating. You will not miss Halloween on my watch. You will NOT miss it." I started sobbing. I'm sobbing now.
Angela [00:38:50] We're both tearing up now.
Jenna [00:38:51] We're tearing up. And we did just that. I got to dress up my kids in their Halloween costumes. You dressed up your kids, in not their Halloween costume, but in costume. Right, because you didn't want to -
Angela [00:39:03] Our kids still have two huge dress up bins because they love to play dress up. They still do, and I told the kids what was going to happen and my kids were like, "Weston and Harper cannot miss halloween with their mom. They cannot miss Halloween." I said, "I know guys, so we're going to make halloween happen for them" and they were so excited. Their one thing was, "Well, we don't want to mess up our actual costumes, because they still had their-
Jenna [00:39:31] They wanted to wait for Halloween to put on their costumes. They had their parade at school coming up and all that. And I said, 'Why don't we all pick out a costume from the dress up bin, and we'll all dress up to trick or treat?" And they were so excited and they all dressed up.
Jenna [00:39:45] Now here's a question that I have for you, which I've always wondered, did your neighbors have candy or did you go to their houses and give them candy to give me?
Angela [00:39:55] Okay, so I live in a very cute neighborhood. It's like white picket fences. It's very cute.
Jenna [00:40:00] You do. You know all your neighbors.
Angela [00:40:01] I know all my neighbors.
Jenna [00:40:02] You guys do block parties and stuff. Like, summertime, fourth of July, barbecues.
Angela [00:40:08] Yeah, we do barbecues and we have an, oh gosh, what's it called?
Jenna [00:40:13] Bocce ball?
Angela [00:40:13] Bocce ball tournament and we just always are hanging out. So, I knew who I could go to on my street and they all have children and they all know what this means, to go trick-or-treating with your kids when they're little. I went to them and I said, "Here's the deal, my best friend is going to have to work Halloween and she's not going to be able to be with her kids on Halloween and they're little and she won't be able take them trick-or-treating and I'm going have to them come over here and it would just mean so much to me." I said, "I will bring you candy" and all of them were like, "We are so happy to help. You don't even need to bring us candy. We have so much candy. We want to get rid of candy." They were like, "Just tell us when," and I told them I would text them when we were coming because they were all saying they wanted to make sure they'd be home at that time. And so they all knew we were coming, and I texted them when Jenna and her kids were on the way, and I said, "Okay, we're on."
Jenna [00:41:06] We came over, and it was the cutest thing and we trick-or-treated and then we came back to your house and we had s'mores. Remember, we did s'mores in the backyard?
Angela [00:41:14] Yeah, I do remember.
Jenna [00:41:15] It was amazing and it is one of the kindest things that anyone has ever done for me in my life. There's already so many ways, as a working parent, that we feel conflicted about missing things. I am always trying to balance my personal ambition with my desire to be a very present parent and I give up a lot of opportunities and I know you do too. There are a lot of jobs that work outside of the city and we don't even throw our hat in the ring because we don't like to leave. So, anyway, thank you. That was amazing. It saved the day.
Angela [00:41:53] Well, I was so happy to do it, Jenna. I just love you and I just know what it means and I know as a working parent, we all have to make sacrifices that are really hard. I'm a working parents and I'm also a parent who has a child that has to navigate joint custody. It hits a real nerve with me because there are some moments that I miss out on because of joint custody. Even though my joint custody is exceptionally great, really. We get along great, we work well together. I'm on very good terms with her dad and her stepmom and we really work together to make it all happen. But there are still moments that you miss. For example, some years you trade off Christmas Day and that's really hard, even though you're gonna see her the next day to it make fair to both houses. And so what we have stated in our family is, it doesn't matter what date it is. It matters that you celebrate together as a family and that's what I thought. I was like, "You know what? That TV show might get to take 'Halloween' from you, the date, but they don't get to the experience away from you."
Jenna [00:43:00] And you know what, Angela, when I was on set, I said to them, "The thing is, I can't make Halloween happen on any other day. It's not like Thanksgiving or Christmas or these other holidays." Even your birthday, where you're like, "Oh, I'm sorry, I can come in for Thanksgiving." I've had many Thanksgivings a week late. The family couldn't be a unit until later and you make your own Thanksgiving and you make own holidays. You open gifts three days after Christmas, but it's your Christmas. I said, "I can't make a neighborhood handout candy."
Angela [00:43:34] Yes, you can, Jenna.
Jenna [00:43:36] Angela Kinsey can!
Angela [00:43:39] Well, I was happy that we could do that, and I would do it again. I'd go bug all my neighbors.
Jenna [00:43:45] I know you would. I know, you would. But it created a really special memory for the family. Yeah, that was our Halloween.
Angela [00:43:50] BFF, air high five.
Jenna [00:43:52] Air high five, boom.
audio cue [00:43:53] [musical sting]
Jenna [00:44:01] Okay, Ange, what are your thoughts after listening to that again?
Angela [00:44:06] Well, first of all, I wanna bring back the birthday hike tradition. Because we did that for a few years and then instead we would meet and have lunch or something. I wanna do the birthday hike again.
Jenna [00:44:16] Birthday hike again.
Angela [00:44:17] And I want you to wear that hat you wore that was a birthday cake.
Jenna [00:44:21] I found that when I was cleaning out my garage this time!
Angela [00:44:24] Get out! No way!
Jenna [00:44:25] Yes!
Angela [00:44:26] Okay. Save it. We're gonna go for a hike on my birthday, and I will wear it.
Jenna [00:44:30] I will bring it.
Angela [00:44:30] Done. And then, just listening to us, lady, what was so wild to me was the seeds of so many things. One you, in your brain, just was like, "Oh, here's a fast fact." Little did you know that you were gonna be locked into those for years. Also, your thoughts are so organized, you know? You had this multiple printed out document. I remember I had a stack of note cards in front of me that I had jotted a bunch of things down on that I spread out over this coffee table. I also had all these pictures from Halloween that I'd spread out in front us that we could look at. I had my script from Halloween. But we come at things from these different perspectives. I love that neither of us knew what we were gonna share exactly and that's just something I love about our friendship, is just how so much of what matters to us is the same at our core, you know?
Jenna [00:45:27] Our values.
Angela [00:45:28] Our values, our moral compass, our love for our families. But you know, you and I can take a walk down the street right now and what you would see and share about and what I would see and share would be completely different. Yours is always fascinating to me and entertaining and interesting. I love how your brain works. I just felt like I was reliving all of that and it's such a fun conversation between two friends about a magical time in our life and I'm just so thankful that we get to continue talking and sharing all these years later, you know?
Jenna [00:46:05] Mm-hmm.
Angela [00:46:06] I mean, this has been a real gift to my life.
Jenna [00:46:09] Yeah, same.
Angela [00:46:11] What about you, what about you hearing us in my garage?
Jenna [00:46:15] My first thought was that it's very hilarious to me that you were eating.
Angela [00:46:19] I'm sorry.
Jenna [00:46:20] And I felt like I was talking really fast. Really fast. It's funny because it's kind of what you said. I think that the things that make our partnership as podcast hosts work so well, it's evident in that very first recording.
Angela [00:46:34] I also know why you were talking fast. Lady, don't you remember?
Jenna [00:46:38] No.
Angela [00:46:39] OK, so.
Jenna [00:46:40] Was I in a hurry?
Angela [00:46:41] No, but it was your birthday, so we went for this hike. And then we came back, and I was hungry, so we stopped to get something for me to eat. And then we had a pick-up that day, but our kids were younger, and they got out earlier.
Jenna [00:46:57] Oh. Is that right? So we did have a deadline.
Angela [00:46:59] We had a time deadline.
Jenna [00:47:01] We were in a little bit of a hurry.
Angela [00:46:59] We had a time deadline, so we weren't rushed but we also didn't have all afternoon.
Jenna [00:47:07] You have a good memory.
Angela [00:47:08] Well, also, I found emails between us after we had recorded it and I was like, "That was so much fun, did you make it?" And you're like, "Yeah, I made it in plenty of time," all that kind of stuff.
Jenna [00:47:19] Oh wow, your digital clutter is filling in the picture for us once again.
Angela [00:47:24] You're welcome.
Jenna [00:47:25] Oh, well, we've come a long way, seven years, 500 million downloads, and it all started with that one recording in your garage. Just amazing.
Angela [00:47:36] And all of it happened because of you guys, listening.
Jenna [00:47:39] Thank you so much. And it's also due to a really great team of people, currently and throughout the years. We actually thought that for our Around the Town segment, in honor of this milestone, it would be kind of fun to catch up with our Office Ladies' family and see what they have been up to. So, let's kick things off with a little message from someone who's been with us from the very beginning, Colin Anderson.
Colin Anderson [00:48:10] Hi ladies, this is Colin Anderson. I was the exec who signed Office Ladies to Earwolf back in the day. One of my favorite things about the Office Ladies launch (which was October 2019) was that our company, the marketing team, shout out to Bill Irwin, forecasted the show to get 400,000 downloads a month. We hit over a million in the first week. Absolutely crazy numbers. More than double any of the other shows we had on the network at the time. And 200,000 of those listeners told us that Office Ladies was the first podcast they'd ever listened to. I wonder how many new listeners you've brought into podcasting since then. So I guess the personal tid bit that Office Ladies listeners might know about me is that I had a kidney stone last year that seemed to go away. I had an ultrasound. They said, "No, no kidney stones. You must've passed it." And then a couple of weeks later, I was in a lot of pain, ended up in urgent care and had to have an emergency operation to remove my kidney stone. It was painful, undignified, a lot for a gentleman to go through. Listening to Office Ladies a couple of weeks ago and hearing that Billie Eilish has listened to every episode, I'm like, "Oh, great. Now Billie Eillish knows about my kidney stone." I set up my own podcast business about a year ago and Office Ladies were one of my first clients. So since then I've been helping build the Office Ladies network with Lazy Genius and we brought in "How We Made Your Mother" last year. So please go and listen to both of those shows once you've finished this episode. The three of us just got talking a few weeks ago about a new Office Ladies idea that I'm hoping listeners get to hear at some point this year. Congratulations, Jenna and Angela on this brilliant show and the community that you've built. Congrats on 500 million downloads.
Angela [00:50:02] Everything about that was perfection.
Jenna [00:50:04] I also like love people hearing just the joy that is Colin Anderson.
Angela [00:50:10] Mm-hmm. I loved all of that. I love that we got the update on his kidney stone journey.
Jenna [00:50:15] Mm-hmm.
Angela [00:50:16] Colin was part of the team that signed us to EarWolf.
Jenna [00:50:21] Yes, and then our very first producer, who we worked with at Earwolf, and then when we moved to SiriusXM was Codi Fischer (no relation) and here's what she's been up to.
Codi Fischer [00:50:32] Hi Jenna, hi Angela, hi Office Ladies listeners. It's me, Codi. First, I just wanna say, Jenna and Angela, congratulations on 500 million downloads. I'm so impressed, it's so cool, but I'm also not surprised. The show rules. What have I been up to since my time on Office Ladies? Well, I'm still making podcasts. I'm at SiriusXM. I have taken up five million hobbies that I've given up on. But I managed to rewire two antique lamps without burning my house down. Very proud of that. I'm also still worrying about the sound quality of this voice memo and what Sam will have to do to clean it up. Sam, I'm trying my best. I'm in my closet. I've re-recorded this four times because I heard noise in the background. I hope this is good. Bye everyone.
Jenna [00:51:24] Ah, Codi, thank you.
Sam [00:51:26] That sounded great, Codi.
Angela [00:51:27] It did.
Jenna [00:51:29] I also think I know who I should hit up with all my extra lamps.
Angela [00:51:33] I was thinking that immediately.
Jenna [00:51:35] Okay, this is really good information.
Angela [00:51:37] Also, Codi's cat and my cat look like they're siblings. She has a tuxedo cat, who I love.
Jenna [00:51:43] Okay, and now we're gonna hear from Aynsley Bubbico, everyone.
Angela [00:51:48] Yeah, get it right.
Jenna [00:51:49] Who I've known pre-office ladies. She's gonna explain a little bit about that and tell you all what she's up to.
Aynsley Bubbico [00:51:57] Hello, Office Ladies, it is Aynsley. Congratulations on 500 million downloads. I honestly can't even wrap my brain around that number, but I will say it is well-deserved. I know how much time and love goes into each episode and how much you care about the fans, so it's only fitting that you've hit this huge milestone. My time on the Office Ladies team started just as me helping Jenna during the pandemic while she was homeschooling her kids and turned into a five plus year job that brought me wonderful new friends into my life. So I'm very grateful to have been a part of it. I'd actually never seen The Office before I started working on the podcast. It's funny, I see why people love it. What am I doing now? I am currently performing in a musical, which Angela and Jenna came to see me in this past weekend. Next week I'm traveling to Paris with some friends and hopefully by the time this airs I'll be doing something else fabulous. Thank you for checking in and cheers to the next 500 million downloads. Lots of love.
[00:53:13] I like that she was like, "It's funny."
Jenna [00:53:16] "It's pretty good." Guys, Aynsley is a phenomenal actress.
Angela [00:53:21] She's a superstar and she can sing.
Jenna [00:53:24] Oh, her voice is amazing. Yeah. She was terrific in this musical. Really great. It might be going to New York, so we're going to have to have her let us know. We'll shout it out.
Angela [00:53:32] We'll shout it out. and we also reached out to Cassi. You know, Cassi, huge part of Office Ladies. She is actually traveling internationally right now, and Cassi and I have been trading messages, and she said, "Ange, I owe you an email. apologies for the delay," but she's gonna get back to us when she's done with all her travels, and it looks like she's having an amazing time.
Jenna I am so excited that she's traveling, and we do have a don't bother me when I'm traveling policy here on Office Ladies. So, we like to give people the space to enjoy their vacations. But yeah, Cassi, just if you're listening, thank you so much for being such a big part of these 500 million downloads. We're so happy that you're out there living your best life.
Angela Yeah. And when you're back, you'll have to share all about your travels uh, and we can't wait to hear from you.
Jenna We would accept a travel journal.
Angela Oh, yes, we would.
Jenna [00:53:34] And then I think before we go, we need to get a little Around the Town from Matt and Sam. Sam, you want to go first?
Angela [00:53:42] Sam, day one in the studio with us, 500 million downloads later.
Sam [00:53:47] I chose to answer this the same way Codi and Colin and Aynsley did, as if we haven't seen each other every day for the last couple years.
Angela [00:53:54] Oh, great!
Sam [00:53:55] So, Jenna and Angela, it's so good to hear from you. First, I miss you both so much every day. Second, life is good. Life is small for me right now. I make two to three podcasts a week, which seems wild to me that I used to make five to ten per week for ten years. So since I've seen you last, EarWolf was acquired by SiriusXM, which was great for the owners of EarWolf. Pretty weak for everyone else. I made it about two years before being laid off, which I'll admit was terrifying. But I don't know if you two remember the show I was on before I left, "The Office Ladies." Those two absolute angels swooped in and saved me by rehiring me on the show I was laid off from, which as far as I know, is the only instance of that happening that I can think of. I got out of that toxic relationship I was in when we met, I've recently started dating a lovely woman in Canada named Stephanie. It's new to me, I'm taking it slowly, but I do love her very much. My dog Ramen is still alive, he turns 9 this month. He's still very fat and very dumb and very wonderful. I got sober about a year ago, I've been slowly rebuilding my life since then. No complaints though, whatever I left behind in my old life has been repaid to me currently 10 times over. As I wrap this up, I just wanted to say how good it is to hear from you both. You both changed my life in many ways and I'm proud to be a part of this show still. I was aware from our very first taping that we had something special. I lost all emails from the last 10 years when I left SiriusXM, but I'm genuinely pretty sure you both have emails from me around that time telling you guys in that very fact that you guys were onto something very magical here. I tried to do the math and by my rough estimate, I've made probably three to 4,000 podcasts over the last decade. I made some really magical stuff, I've met some really truly special people, but it all pales in comparison to what you two have built here. You two have build a community. Every person that has talked to you today has used that phrase. Podcasts and the communities last forever and to the people that email me saying they listen to the show while they're running marathons, having babies, getting married, I see you and I hear you and every email blows my mind. Thank you, truly. I'm always available. Please email me at the next 500 million mark.
Angela [00:55:50] Aww, Sam. Sam, can I also say your email reminded me of my journals.
Sam [00:55:56] Yeah, yeah
Angela [00:55:56] You wrote it as if Jenna and I weren't sitting in the room with you. We love you so much.
Sam [00:56:03] I love you, too. I can't believe the reach. 500 million... Congrats, I hope you guys are genuinely so proud of what you built.
Angela [00:56:09] Thank you so much. I am really proud of it. I really am. So many people that we meet now when we're out and about in the world... You know, my favorite thing is when I'll be at an airport and someone goes, "Ladyyyy." Because I know immediately that they're an Office Ladies listener.
Jenna [00:56:27] Yes. Well, listen, finally, Matt Beagle, we want to hear from you, our newest member of The Office Ladies team. We need everyone to understand how amazing Matt Beagle is.
Angela [00:56:38] Matt is just the most fantastic, calming presence, no matter what we need, when we need it. He's anticipated our need and he's taken care of it. Matt, I hope your family knows what a badass you are.
Jenna [00:56:54] You're a treasure and you will do things that are just so near and dear to my heart. Before every zoom that we have, you will set out an agenda in a Google Doc, but you have links to all the other Google Docs that we might need to reference. Like, maybe we will, maybe we won't, but it's there. It's all in one document.
Angela [00:57:15] Another thing Matt will do. He knew I was taking a road trip with Josh. He knew we had an edit coming up and that I wouldn't be able to access it in a computer, like in a Google Doc. So he texted it to me, "Hey, Ange, in case you want to listen on your car ride." I was like, that's amazing!
Jenna [00:57:31] Amazing.
Matt Beagle [00:57:32] Well, thank you. Can I stop following Sam, too? I'm always following Sam after he's read some poetry or something beautiful.
Angela [00:57:40] I know, and he has such a rich history here.
Matt Beagle [00:57:42] Can I go first next time? I'm kidding. Congratulations. This is just such a special place to be. I feel so lucky to be part of this team and family and history. I'm just thrilled to be here and I'm super excited for everyone involved for this milestone. So thank you to everyone.
Jenna [00:57:58] Thanks Matt. We're so glad you're a part of this team as well. From day one. We call you "command F."
Angela [00:58:06] We do, because we were both in a Google Doc and it was really hard to search for things. And Matt just goes, "Well, do command F"
Jenna [00:58:15] And we were like, "What? What's command F?"
Angela [00:58:18] We had never heard of it.
Jenna [00:58:19] We've never heard of command F. So now we call you our command F, because you help us find everything and figure everything out.
Angela [00:58:27] And you might have a coffee mug waiting for you here that says "command + F"
Jenna [00:58:31] Might?! I know that you do. If you know Angela, you know that's been ordered.
Angela [00:58:39] Well, you guys, I hope you just feel our love coming through your headphones or your car radio. Car radio? How do you listen to podcasts? However you're listening to our podcasts, I just hope you feel the love that we have for you all and what this has meant to us and it's changed our lives. And we're so, so thankful and we just love you and we hope you have a great week.
Jenna [00:59:02] Yes, and we will be here trying to come up with what is the next fun thing we're going to chat about, because we like chatting.
Angela [00:59:08] We love to chat with you guys. Like Colin said, we do have a fun Office Ladies idea that we can't wait to share about. Now that I'm looking at these balloons, I realize I should have gotten 501 million.
Jenna [00:59:19] Oh, yeah. I don't know. I like this.
Angela [00:59:23] 601. I'll wait for that one.
Jenna [00:59:25] Okay, deal. We'll see you next week.
Jenna [00:00:17] Thank you for listening to Office Ladies.
Angela [00:00:19] Office Ladies is a presentation of Audacy and is produced by Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey.
Jenna [00:00:24] Our senior producer is Matt Beagle. Our audio engineer is Sam Kieffer, and our associate producer is Aynsley Bubbico.
Angela [00:00:32] Audacy's executive producer is Leah Reis-Dennis.
Jenna [00:00:35] Office Ladies was mixed and mastered by Bill Schultz.
Angela [00:00:37] Our theme song is "Rubber Tree" by Creed Bratton.