Office Ladies - A Look Back on Murder

Episode Date: March 27, 2024

This week we take a look back on “Murder”! When the office learns Dunder Mifflin might be going bankrupt, Michael tames their nerves with a good ol’ Southern game of “Murder”! Jenna points out Pam is wearing the same outfit two episodes in a row, Angela shares the time she played a murder mystery game at a party hosted by Oscar Nuñez, and of course, the ladies give you all the details behind Tube City. But we’re not going down for this! So back away slowly, run to your car and enjoy this episode. Check out Office Ladies Merch at Podswag: https://www.podswag.com/collections/office-ladies Office Ladies Website - Submit a fan question: https://officeladies.com/submitaquestionFollow Us on Instagram: OfficeLadiesPod

I'm Jenna Fisher. And I'm Angela Kinsey. We were on The Office together. And we're best friends. And now we're doing the ultimate office rewatch podcast just for you. Each week we will break down an episode of The Office and give exclusive behind the scenes stories that only two people who were there can tell you. We're The Office ladies.

Good morning. Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. You're very peppy for some reason. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. You're very peppy for such a serious subject. I am really excited about this episode. Everyone it's murder.

Oh, dun dun dun. Season six, episode ten, written by Daniel Chun and directed by Greg Daniels. And we have a special treat this week for you for our summary. So, 10, written by Daniel Chun and directed by Greg Daniels. And we have a special treat this week for you for our summary. We do. Okay, so you guys, you know I have a big Southern family. We're spread out between Louisiana and Texas.

And I know it's not Savannah, Georgia, but my sister, Billy Jo, has a great Southern accent. And I asked her to read our summary today. And she did. Here it is. I do declare there's been a mudda. Michael attempts to distract his employees with a mudda mystery party after everyone hears rumors that the company might be going bankrupt. Jim wants everyone to keep walking and is frustrated by Michael's game. Meanwhile, Andy attempts

to ask Erin out on a date. Angela, she nailed it. She nailed it. Jenna, I was so tickled by this. I knew I wanted someone in my family because this episode partly takes place in Savannah, Georgia. Yes. So I knew I would want someone from my Southern family to give the summary a go. And thank you, Billy. Thank you, Billy, for giving it a shot. Well, she can do the summary anytime, Ange. Billy Jo, did you hear that? Right now she's like, no, no, no, no, no.

Somewhere she's yelling, no, no, no. Well let's get into fast facts. Fast fact number one is all about our new writer for this episode, Daniel Chun. We know him as Danny. He started on the writing staff for season six. He was a supervising producer and this was his first script. Danny had previously written on The Simpsons for six years. I was able to get back in touch with him, which was so fun. And he told me that he knew a lot of the office writers socially

just through the comedy writing community. He knew BJ for a long time. He said that he loved being at the Simpsons, but he kind of felt like 80% of working on that show was just punching up jokes, unless you were the show runner. So he didn't get to do a lot of long form writing there, I guess. He said he was really hungry for a different challenge. BJ had always been a big supporter of his writing and he showed Mindy and Paul some stuff that Danny had written just for fun on MySpace. Remember MySpace? No way!

Oh my God, yeah! He said, that gives you a sense of how long ago this was. But the stuff he had written on MySpace got him a meeting. They brought him in and that's how he got hired to be one of our writers for season six. See guys, you never know. You never know. Yeah, all that stuff that you're writing, if it's a blog, if it's a vlog, I don't even know. All the logs. You're creating it. All the logs out there.

All of them. Someone could see it. Yes. So, fast fact number two, I was able to talk to Danny a little bit about the inspiration for this episode of Murder. What was it? He said this was a card on the wall. What did the card say?

The card said, Michael makes everyone play a murder mystery game. It was one of the pitches they had come up with over the summer. He also remembered a card that never got made. It was this. They go on a ski trip and someone makes a huge stain on the wall. Ew! I know! But he was pointing out, like, this is how simple a card could be. But they picked

this one, and then they had to figure out how, why, what happens, how is this a whole episode? So on Mom Detectives a card could be two ladies on a train with a succulent. Yes and that has to be a whole episode. That's an episode. Yeah. Now you have to turn that into something. Yeah. Danny said they also for season six had all of these mini-arcs that they were going to add to the season. Those are little stories that take place over several episodes. And one of those ideas was that Dunder Mifflin was going to go bankrupt. And another one was that Jim would get this co-manager position. That's already happened. But this episode of the Murder Mystery Game, they thought it tied in really well with that mini arc

of Dundermifflin going out of business. Oh, for sure. So there is a DVD commentary for this episode. Oh, so it features Ellie Kemper, Danny Chun and Greg Daniels. And they talked a little bit about this episode setting up three major arcs. Like exactly what you're saying, the crumbling of Dundra Mifflin, the sale to Saber, and Andy and Aaron. Yes, the Andy and Aaron. You're right. That's another one. Danny also told me that the writers played one of these murder mystery games for research in the writer's room. He said they noticed that in all of the games, the people had silly pun names,

so they knew they were gonna have to do that. There was a CD with a narrator that would help you along. He said in the game they played, his character was a Frenchman, and so he was stumbling through a French accent while they were playing, and that kind of gave them the idea that they should have a game where everybody has to have accents.

He also said that they originally thought that this game could be Murder in Little Italy, but they were afraid that would feel too much like the Mafia episode, and so that's when they pitched the game be set in Savannah. Well, Danny said mainly he just remembered feeling like the game was not that much fun. It involved a lot of acting. And so he thought about that. And he thought that's why people like Andy and Michael would like the game. I just really like how much playing this game in the writer's room informed them.

You know? Yeah. Because Danny was like, I don't like playing this game. I don't like doing an accent and it's too much acting. I feel like he now could write very well for Angela. And Stanley. Yeah. But he's like, somebody would like this.

I guess Andy and Michael. I thought this was an amazing episode. So Danny, my gosh, your first one out of the gate. Home run. I really liked it too. All right, fast fact number three, Angela, is a fan question from Megan H. in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, who would like to know if either of us

have ever done a murder mystery event, like in the show. Great question. I actually have a story. Jenna, do you have one? I do too. Okay. You go first. Oh, okay. I was once invited to a dinner party where they said there will be dinner and then we will be playing a game as a group. Did they say what the game was? No. Oh. And when I got there at dinner, the host explained the game while we ate our meal. Guess who the hosts were? Who? Oscar Nunez.

What? Yes, and his wife Ursula. Oscar hosted you for a murder mystery game night? Yes. Was this before this episode or after? Before this episode. Oh my gosh. So the game was called Mafia. Oh yeah. This is really a popular game. This was like all the

rage in Los Angeles for a very long time. I don't know if this went over the whole country, but people were crazy about this game. Crazy about it. And they had the rules. I was actually texting with Ursula yesterday. I was like, Ursula, what did you guys call it? Because in my memory, they called it killer. And she goes, no, Angela, it was called mafia. Yes. And so there were about 10 of us at the dinner party. And there's a few different ways you can play this.

But the way we played it was there was one mafia, one killer, a detective, a doctor, and a narrator. And then you had the civilians. Okay. And the narrator kind of moves it along. The narrator's who knows who's who, right? Oh, okay. Because that seems like not as much fun of a part.

It actually is. I've been the narrator before and it's kind of fun. Oh, okay. Go ahead. I never played Mafia, which I kind of can't believe because I'm a sucker for these games. I want us to do this. Oh my gosh, Earwolf Company Party. We play Mafia.

Have you guys played it? Sam, Cassie, have you played Mafia? No, I haven't, but I do remember the absolute stranglehold that it had over everybody for a while. Oh yeah. Wurdle or Animal Crossing at that time. Yes. Everybody was in it.

Everyone was playing it. So in Mafia, the game is divided into two phases, day and night. During the night, everyone closes their eyes, and the narrator awakens each role. So the narrator starts with the Mafia person, lets them know who it is, because in each round, it's someone new, right?

And as the Mafia person, the way you kill someone is you wink at them. So you have to be real sneaky. At least that's how we played it. And then the doctor can choose to save someone or not. And the civilians have to try to figure out because every time they awaken, someone is dead. Oh. Right?

Because the mafia person kills someone each time. So the civilians begin questioning each other and there's a detective role. But I imagine though also the mafia person is, and the doctor, they're pretending, everyone's pretending to be a civilian. Yes. Right. Yes. And it's so much fun.

In one time I was the mafia person and no one figured me out. But what does that say? It says you were very good at pretending to be a civilian. You're diabolical. It was really, really fun. But yes, I played a version of this murder mystery with Oscar in real life. Wow, before this episode. Before this episode.

That's very cool. I know, is that crazy? I did not have to wear a funny hat or have an accent, I should say. I guess you could have chosen to. Well, it is very funny that you say that, Angela, because I did a mini deep dive on the murder mystery game genre, and they believe that it began in the first half of the 19th century with a party game called Wink Murder. Oh!

Yeah, one player is secretly selected as a murderer and they kill other players by winking at them. That's what we did! If you get killed, you have to count to five before you die. Yes! Right, is this it? Yes, because you can't just give it away, so you have to like make a moment of it.

This is so weird. Is mafia just based on wink murder? So far it's sounding like it. I will say this. If you play mafia with your friends and you're the murderer and you're not good at winking. Oh no. I never thought of that. Like me.

I think I'm good with one eye. You just winked at me great with both eyes. Did I really? Yeah, you did fine. Oh. Well, I'm sorry. No, see, I'm right. I've watched you closer this time.

The right eye. You do regular wink with this eye, and then the other eye, you go. I know. So I can wink in normal speed with one eye, but the other one is like, bonk, bonk, bonk, bonk. I can see you concentrating on it. To try to wink. Yeah. So you got to figure out what's your good eye.

Well, I have never played Mafia. I have never played a murder mystery game. Yeah, what's your story? But I was an actor. What? In Murder Mystery Dinner Theater. Come on! Yep.

Is there any footage of that? Can I see any of that? I have a photo of myself in my crushed velvet gown. I played several parts in several different shows. This was my very first paid live theater acting gig. I did it in St. Louis, Missouri at the Lemp Mansion. A bunch of people would come in. Wait, was it like an old mansion?

Like a haunted sort of cool like old mansion? Yeah, and I even had a ghost encounter there. Come on. While I was working there, I did. I did, I saw the Lavender Lady. Come on. I did. What is the Lavender Lady?

I don't know. I didn't know who the Lavender Lady? I don't know. I didn't know who the Lavender Lady was, but I was in what was one of the rooms of the house that they designated for the actors to change in. And no one was supposed to come in there because that was our changing room. And I heard the door open behind me. And I looked up in the mirror in front of me and behind me by the door, saw a woman and I said I'm sorry you can't be in here and when I turned around there was nothing there. So I was fired up. I went to the owner of the place and I said listen if you're gonna give us a place to change our

clothes you need to make sure it's secure. A woman walked right into that room and he said no one was in that area and I said well explain to me how this to change our clothes, you need to make sure it's secure." A woman walked right into that room. And he said, no one was in that area. And I said, well, explain to me how this woman walked in. He said, what'd she look like? And I said, well, she was, I kind of tried to describe her. I was like, as I was describing her, I realized like, I was like, she's wearing a big hat and like a dress.

And sort of, I realized I was describing an old timey lady and then his face got all white and he was like, oh my gosh, you saw the lavender lady. What? Yeah. I'm out at that point. I'm bye bye, bye dinner theater career. Listen, I have to go entertain folks.

They're on their salad course. I've got to get out there and tell them a murder has happened. Wow. Yeah. Oh my gosh, that's creepy. Yeah. Wow you did dinner theater lady you did theater while someone was like buttering a baguette. Well here's the thing we did it between courses so we'd bring everybody in we'd sit them down they're getting their drinks we're handing out slips of paper.

It was our job during this mingle to find the people who seemed outgoing enough to play the major roles. Because you don't want to give... Wait, wait, the people eating dinner play a part? Oh yes, everybody gets a part. Everybody has a funny name. Someone in the room is the murderer. Oh, I didn't realize that. I thought you were performing a murder mystery while people ate dinner and watched you. No, interactive improvisation slash scripted. We had jokes, we had to keep people kind of on the plot. But you know, you'd walk people to their table, you waiters giving them a drink,

you're hobnobbing with them in character. And you find the people that seem like they can play the different roles. And then you've got these slips of paper and you hand it to them and then later you'd be like, where's Bobby Oilton? Bobby Oilton? Oh yes, I saw you when you came in. Bobby, what do you have to say for yourself? And then he has to read off of his little slip of paper. Oh my gosh, you were Michael Scott. Yes, I sort of was. You were Caleb Crawdad.

I was sort of Caleb Crawdad. I was sort of Caleb Crawdad, yeah. Wow. Yeah, so I did that for two years. But I got 50 bucks a night. That was like good money for acting, for doing what I loved. I need mom detectives to go

to a murder mystery dinner theater. Put it on a card, Jenna. Yeah, we should investigate the Lavender Lady sighting. Yes! We'll get to the bottom of it. We will, but we'll have to be in character to wear outfits. Yes, because we'll pretend like we're part of the dinner theater. We'll pretend we're part of the show.

My God, it writes itself! My God! If I see this on TV one day, I'm going to be so pissed. I'm going to kick someone's ass if it's not you and I. I know. Kicking some butts. All right. Let's take a break and call our agents. We're back, and today only. Dwight Schrute presents this year in martial arts, colon updates, advancements, and etc.

Yes, like Jim said, there's always lots of changes to the 1,000-year-old martial arts traditions. Dwight's going to start with Phyllis. I clock some moves. Phyllis charges Dwight with what looks to be a two-finger eye jab. Dwight stops her with an arm block that I guess would have broken her arm and then he's going to flip her over. Yeah. He tries to engage Kevin. Kevin's a big no. And all of this is going to lead to

Dwight fighting himself. Yes. I'd like to point out in this scene at 39 seconds, Meredith is wearing the designer sweater vest again. I clocked that too. I mean I feel like this is some sort of personal trolling of me. Well I have a few tidbits about this cold open. Oh really? I have some as well. Well I'll start by saying we got a lot of mail of people asking if Dwight's self-fight was choreographed.

And I would like to tell you guys that was all Rain Wilson. Bravo, Rain! Yes. He came up with all of those moves based on descriptions in the script. We did have our stunt coordinator, Eric Sulky, on board for the day just to make sure that Rain didn't actually hurt himself. Well, in the DVD commentary, Danny shared that the original version of this cold open ended with Dwight and Michael kicking each other in the groin. Oh, yeah. But instead, they went with a pitch from Jen Salata where Dwight fights himself instead.

It still ends with Dwight punching himself in the groin, but it was originally scripted to be a self-kick in the groin. It said this. How do you kick yourself in the groin? Exactly. Yeah. Here's what the script said, quote,

Dwight snaps his leg up and kicks himself in the balls. Dwight's face shows equally the pain of the kick and the pride of winning. That's so great. On the day they realized there was no way for Rain to self kick himself in the balls, that it was just sort of physically impossible. However, Danny said in an interview

that Greg was convinced there was a way to do it if maybe they could attach a strap to Rain's leg that would help sort of hoist it up somehow. He even sketched it out on the back of his script, which is a very Greg move. Can't you see Greg turning a script over and like sketching out the self groin kick strap? Here's how it works, here's the mechanics. I want that sketch and I want it in a frame. Right?

Where is that sketch? In the end, obviously this was not happening, so they had Rain punch himself in the groin. Greg shared that he really enjoyed directing the cold open and the tag for this episode because they were like mini action movies or the closest thing our show got to little action sequences. And Jenna Ellie shared something.

She said the cold open was filmed the morning of the Emmys. Oh, so after Rain beat himself up, he had to go to the Emmys? We all did. Wow. We worked that day. We have shared this before, that many times we worked right up until an event and we would have to get ready at the set.

Yeah. And the Emmys were traditionally on a Monday night. Yeah. Which was rough because it would be like the beginning of your work week. Oh, and you'd be wrecked. For the whole rest of the week. Wow. We worked this day and then we went to the Emmys. Oh one last thing, I have a Dwight flyer count. Oh. Because clearly you need to have multiple flyers for your year in martial art update. We have one on each of Jim's glass walls and we have one on the door by accounting.

Three in view during the whole cold open. I don't know about the rest of the bullpen. Or the kitchen or the break room. I know. I'm sure they're everywhere. They're not there for the rest of the episode, but there's three visible for the cold open. Well, now we're going to get into this episode. It opens with some weird banter between Michael and Andy about sculpting stand-up comedy. And it's interrupted by Dwight receiving an email. And Michael's like, you need to be more specific. I get like eight emails a day. Eight, Jenna.

He gets eight. It's really weird that before we started recording today, we were discussing our email inboxes. Yeah. So guys, Sam and Jenna are really tidy about their email inbox. Like, they get to zero and then they ask me what my inbox said and my inbox says 1,582. And Sam and I are still processing that and we're... It gave you like hives for a minute. Yeah, we're having a hard time. I don't mean this as an attack, but the way you live is chaos.

Sam's at zero right now. I'm at 10 unread emails. Actually, do you remember in the break, there was a great Jenna moment where you were looking for an email and you couldn't find it and Jenna goes, oh, I'm sorry, can you not? Yeah, I was like, oh, you can't find the email I sent you? I think I sent it on Monday or Tuesday. Well, I got a few emails since I last checked and now I'm 1,583.

See, you do what Lee does, which is if you can tell that it's something you don't need to read, like it's, I don't know, an ad or something, you don't delete it, you just skip it. And then it stays unread. Yes. I delete those. I don't want that cluttering me.

No, you do it right. That's the way you should do it. But if it doesn't bother you, then you're not doing it wrong. It would bother me if I did it your way. Well Michael only gets eight, so I guess he's not super stressed out. I guess he's not. The email that Dwight is talking about is from David Wallace, and it is referring to an article in the journal.

I mean, the wall, as Michael calls it. Oh, the wall, right? Oscar finds the article, but in order to read it, you have to pay an extra $1.99 to get past the paywall. Danny shared that they spent like five hours researching the rules of the Wall Street Journal's paywall at that time. He said, apparently, if you're referencing a specific publication, you cannot make up a fact like that that's not true. Oh, so at that time, that was the rule of the paywall. Interesting. Why did it take five hours to get that information? I think they just had to get it correctly and Jenna they didn't have the Google back then.

They had Google back then. It was like 2009. They didn't have the same search engines. 100% they did. How old do you think Google is? It's new. Google is new. I'm going to Google, when did Google start? Well, I don't know why it took them five hours, but that's what he said on the DVD commentary. They had to be thorough, Jenna. What were you Googling in 2009?

Don't put this on us. Any number I'm not saying you, I'm saying you. I mean, people listening. Hold on. What did you Google in 2009? Google started September 4th, 1998. But their search engine. I'm going to get more specific.

Thank you. When did the Google search engine really come into effect? Not really come into effect. When did people start using the Google search engine? 1998. And it really became popular around 2000. Thank you, Sam. I don't believe it.

No one was Googling until like two years ago. Oh, God. I don't know. Yeah. OK. Everyone, Android discovered Google a couple of years ago. Listen, I don't know why it took them five hours, but they clearly had to get it right. Maybe they had to get on the phone with someone. I'm not judging our writers, Jenna. I just thought it was a long time.

Well, Jenna's judging you guys. Here's what I want to point out about this scene, as we're all gathered around the computer and everybody's reading this article off of Oscar's computer, we're learning that Dunder Mifflin might be, I guess, going into debt, going under, filing for bankruptcy. Angela, this entire scene, you are blocking me. You cannot see my face in this scene because you are standing directly in front of me. And then finally, you move out of the way and John blocks me. I took pictures.

Did you take a picture? Yes, I did. It was so funny to me because one of you is blocking me the whole time. We talked that morning and we were like, today is the day, John. You and I, I'm gonna wear my three inch heels and I'm gonna make sure I block that shot. Here, I put them all together. We really are. Why didn't anyone say anything? I don't know.

So we don't know how Pam feels about this article because we can never see her. You can't see her face. Sorry. I rarely was able to block anyone. Personal victory, I guess. I know. Well, what's funny is they all stop at the $1.99.

They're like, oh, I guess we're not gonna know what really happens with the company. And then Jim enters in his information. Yes. This sends Michael on a spiral and he calls David Wallace, but David's in a meeting. I was curious about two moments in this scene. Okay.

One was I was wondering if Steve improvised the way he said, you should spy on him, wouldn't that be so hilarious? Okay. I was like, did they tell Steve to say it like that? I went to the script and it said on that line in parentheses, Valley Girl. Oh yeah. So they did give him sort of a line read.

Yes. The other thing I was curious about was the line in the script when Michael says, catch you on the flippity flip. I was like, that sounds like something Steve would improvise. No. So that line was in the script too.

And Danny shared on the DVD commentary that Gene Stupnitsky actually pitched Catch You on the Flippity Flip for a different episode. And the writers loved it, but it didn't make it in. So they kept trying to get this line in. Oh my gosh. Episode after episode, and they finally got it in. Well, you know when Michael goes to the bathroom

and he's been vomiting, but then he tries to tell Kevin he was just pooping. We had a fan question from Kelly C. in Michigan, who wrote the line, just pooping, you know how I be? That was Danny. Danny said it's one of the lines he's most proud of. It's a great line. Oh, I also wanted to say one more thing, Angela.

Back in the office when Michael calls and tries to get in touch with David Wallace, once again we had Suzanne Watson as the voice of David's assistant, Stephanie. And she is always great. So great. So in the script, Jenna, they built in more scenes to show Michael really spiraling.

You know, he calls David, he vomits in the bathroom. He also just starts pacing in front of Erin's reception, waiting for the phone call, waiting to see if she signals him that someone's calling. It's so funny. I want to play it for you. It's in the deleted scenes. The first part I'm calling, Michael is pissed. If it's not for me, don't make it look like it's for me, okay?

I'm sorry. Because I'm going to **** my pants. Okay? I'm sorry. Because I'm going to sh- my pants. Okay, I'm sorry. It's my fault. Michael? Um, I'm sorry before that I did not know what you were talking about. Don't... okay. Do you want anything for-

Don't even talk. Don't even talk to me. Okay? Alright? If they do call, don't- Only if they call me, then talk to me, okay? All right? If they do call, don't. Only if they call me, then talk to me, okay? If it's anything else, or if you wanna apologize to me for calling me when they weren't calling, then don't do that, all right?

Do you understand? You're very, very nice, but you're really, you're kinda pissing me off, okay? Sorry. All right. Did she laugh at the end? No. I thought she lied.

I thought she said sorry. So her sorry looks like she's about to laugh, but then she turns it into like a cry. And then poor Erin, she's so confused by Michael, it continues and you've got to hear it. Don't cry. Don't cry, please. Don't cry. Everybody's sort of high strungung so chalk it up to that. We're all in it together.

Well, don't laugh either. Just don't cry and don't laugh. Good? All right. It's such a funny moment. Oh my gosh. I love the dynamic between those two. They really did a good job of creating a different dynamic than what Pam and Michael had.

Yeah, I mean... She so earnestly wants to help him. She so earnestly wants to be liked by him. Yeah. And Michael with Pam, it's the reverse. Michael wants to be in Pam's life. Yes. Well, instead of all that, he's going to go into his office and play the Sean Mullins song Lullaby. I found out from Randy Cordray that it cost us $45,000

to have this song in the show, to have this clip. Well, I have a background catch at five minutes 29 seconds. Michael says he needs more Mullins and he hits the volume button on his keyboard repeatedly. Okay. Greg shared that they worked really hard in editing to get that sound to match Steve hitting the keyboard. And Danny shared that after the episode aired,

the comment boards were full of people saying that that was a Mac sound and Michael is using a PC. Oh my gosh. Is that funny? Yes. Oh wow, they picked the wrong volume up sound. Well, Jim's going to come in during all of this. He's like, Michael, you have to pull it together.

Like basically he's saying, you're our leader and if you're freaking out, it's freaking out everyone. We need to just make this a normal day. What's on the agenda? Michael's like, well, we're supposed to have a staff meeting. And Jim's like, great! Right. Everyone in the conference room.

Have we ever seen Jim so excited to go into the conference room before? No, but he says he only slacks off when things are good. So I guess, you know, when the shit hits the fan, he becomes very professional. It's so funny because I feel like people would be equally freaked out by Jim suddenly having a work ethic.

They'd be like, uh-oh, uh-oh. What's happening? Stuff is bad. Jim wants to work. Yeah. Mom is getting serious. What's going on? Exactly. In the conference room, Jim addresses the group. At 5 minutes 56 seconds, Ryan is wearing glasses. That was my big takeaway. minutes 56 seconds Ryan is wearing glasses. That was my big takeaway. Ryan is wearing glasses and everyone's in the conference room but Kelly. Where's Kelly? Where is Kelly? Let me tell you she's only in one scene this entire episode. What was she doing? Where was Mindy? I don't know.

Michael has to leave the conference room to take a phone call. And Dwight has one of my favorite lines in the episode. What is it? He says, he needs me. Seat saved infinity. Aw. Our kids save seats. They're still in that phase of their life.

We're like, I want that seat. That's my seat. Seat saved infinity. Dwight came to play. Well, Michael's going to come back. His phone call was bad news, Angela. Yeah. Very bad news.

There's been a murder in Savannah. And that was the end of the act break. It was supposed to be. They were supposed to go to commercial. Yeah. And then when they were editing, they thought that would be stressful. They thought it would be mean also to the audience.

But instead, we have this Michael talking head where we also see him going through his closet. He's looking for something. His office armoire. Yes. There are many games inside and we realize there has not been a real murder, but we're going to play a murder mystery game. Yes, because Michael thinks games help distract you

in stressful situations. Yes. Did you see the games in his armoire? I did. Let's read them off. All right, I don't know if we wrote them in the same order. Well, you do one, I'll do one. All right, connect four.

Stratego. Operation. Trouble. Sorry. Risk. Battleship. That's it connect four. Stratego. Operation. Trouble. Sorry. Risk. Battleship. That's it. That's what I had. Me too. Well, the game he brings in to the conference room is called Bells, Bourbon, and Bullets, a murder mystery dinner party game. Yes, we got a lot of mail. People wanted to know is this a real game? Can I buy it? Can I play it? Well, it was a made-up game.

The box and all the cards and the props inside were created just for our episode. The box and the logos were designed by our new graphic designer Henry Sane, and Phil Shea worked with Danny Chun to come up with all of the props and paraphernalia that each character would have. And Randy even shared with us that the box and cards were printed by Phil's go-to prop manufacturing company called the Hand Prop Room. Now we know where all this stuff comes from! Well, they crushed it. I thought it looked so amazing. I zoomed in on it. I loved the catchphrase on the front. What was it? Everything you need to have a deadly good time.

Ooh. Ooh. And there was like a fan with blood on it and like a pistol and a glass of bourbon. I love it. Jim is not for this. Jim does not want this, but Michael's like, you owe me one. Tube City. Tube City.

Yeah. He shut down Tube City, so he owes Michael one. Tube City is a bunch of tubes with a hamster inside that was going to go all over the whole office. We had a fan question from Emmy in Baltimore, Maryland. Who set up Tube City? Phil Shea? Yes, Emmy.

Mm-hmm. Yes. And the hamsters were provided by Bob Dunn's Animal Services. Who set up Tube City? Phil Shea? Yes, Emmy. Mm-hmm. Yes, and the hamsters were provided by Bob Dunn's Animal Services. Denise Sanders was our hamster wrangler. Greg shared they only had half an hour to shoot the whole B-roll of Tube City. Oh my God.

Not a lot of time. No. And he said that this whole B-roll idea was kind of an afterthought, and so they really didn't have a ton of time to do it. Tube City made me laugh out loud. Laugh so hard. The little hamster and the very end, he's just a cute little hamster nose coming out of there.

I know. Well back in the conference room Michael plays the recording that sets up the whole murder mystery game and I am so sorry to say that despite my Googling. Mm-hmm. That you just learned how to do in like the last five years. Just a couple years ago. And Randy's research, we could not find the name of the person whose voice is on the tape. Anywhere.

So listen, if you are the voice of Bells, Bullets, and Bourbon, will you let us know? You can write to us at officeladiesatearwolf.com. We'd love to hear from ya. Well, this is what the voice on the CD player said. Should I do it in an accent? Please, please, Angela. Okay, who knows how this is gonna go. August the 5th, 1955.

It's a sad day down here in Savannah. Local magnet Bill Bourbon was killed last night, and all y'all have congregated tonight for a meal to celebrate Bill as he passes on to his great reward. You're not just here to pay your respects. You have to figure out which of y'all is the no-count scoundrel who killed him. That feels good. I'm ready for my dinner theater. You'd be great.

You'd love it. It's a lot of improv, Angela. I'd have a great time. And I also love like vintage costumes. Oh, we got to do one of these. Nifty 50s murder mystery dinner theater. A special episode of Mom detective i mean god we just don't have enough time to do it all michael starts passing out the character cards and the props

angela does not like her character no we had a fan catch from katie k in san jose california i think i have a Southern Angela catch. When Angela says, I don't like my character at 8 minutes and 54 seconds, Cassie pulled an audio clip. Let's hear it. Michael, I don't like this game. It's scary. It's not scary.

I don't like my character. Who are you? Voodoo Mama Juju, the witch doctor of the Savannah swamps. I'm not comfortable with this. There's so many words that are southern. I don't like this game. Swamps. I don't like my character.

I don't like my character. I don't like the game. I don't like my character. It's scary and it's set in a swamp. Yeah. Voodoo Mama Juju. Yep. I hear a hint of it.

I don't think it's your strongest accent slip, but I hear a hint. It's always there, guys. I wanna point something out. As we rewatch these episodes, Jenna and I have talked about this. Sometimes we'll just watch a scene and a flood of memories come back

that we had totally forgotten about. It's like in a little folder in your brain that hasn't been opened in years. As I watched this scene, when Angela goes to leave and Michael says, there'll be baby carrots, and she pivots back to her seat, my skirt is so bunched up. And I instantly remembered that this was the week I wanted to wear tights. I was cold. I never wore tights and I wore thick winter tights, but I was wearing a gray pencil skirt that would climb up all day because of the static and the tights.

And I wrestled that skirt this whole episode. And when I watched this moment with the baby carrots, I was like, oh my gosh, that was the week with the skirt that kept crawling up my legs. They used to spray me with static guard. Yeah, it didn't matter though because of my tights. Anyway, this is the week I wrestled a skirt. Sometimes those are the things you remember when you rewatch a show.

And you know what? We are going to leave no detail unturned in this rewatch. That's right. In this oral history that we're creating for all time. We're leaving nothing out. Nothing out. We are gonna tell you the week that Jenna's allergies were bad. Yep.

And she sneezed a bunch. Mm-hmm. And this is the Skirt Bunch. This is the Skirt Bunch. Forever to be known now as the Skirt Bunch episode. We got a continuity catch from Leah in New Albany, Indiana, who says, I think I have a continuity catch. So, you know, Michael gets mad and he takes Oscar's Blackberry at nine minutes, 25 seconds. Michael is seen holding it in his hand at nine

minutes, 44 seconds. But then at nine minutes, 46 seconds seconds when Pam stands up to do her character intro, Oscar is looking down again, like maybe he's looking at his blackberry, and then at 9 minutes 59 seconds the camera switches angles and you can clearly see that Oscar has his blackberry back. Good catch! I know! I thought that was pretty good. Yeah. Well speaking of Pam does offer to go first and

She speaks in an accent to introduce herself as Deb you taunt Deb for short Then we're gonna go through we're gonna meet Andy's character Nathaniel nutmeg and Aaron's character naughty Nellie nutmeg This is when Andy is very sad to learn that they are brother and sister. Phyllis is Beatrix Bourbon. Michael is successful playboy Caleb Crawdad. Angela, we know you are Voodoo Mama Juju.

Well, Danny revealed that he wrote names for the whole cast, and Phil created cards for everybody. And we didn't get to hear all the names, but he told me what they were. Do you want to hear? I absolutely do. All right. Kevin is Dick Sealand. Okay.

Oscar is Chad Anuga. Dwight is the butler Jeeves Julep. Jim is George Apeach. Ryan is Paul Meadow. Meredith is Connie Federate. And then he can't remember who got to sign these characters, but he did have to write two more prop cards and they were Barbecue and Carl Earned greens earned greens like it's a play on collard greens, but it's like Carl earned greens So those are all the names in here. Well, I did make note of all the props that went with each character. Voodoo Mama Juju. Angela had a voodoo head and a hat she had to wear. I did have a wardrobe fitting for that hat. Somewhere there were photos of me and multiple versions of that

hat and that's the one the writers picked. Pam had lace gloves. Yes. Meredith had a long cigarette. Like a cigarette holder. Holder, yes. Kevin had a cigar. Phyllis had a feathery fan. Dwight had white butler gloves and it looked like a napkin over his arm. Erin had a lace garter and there was a deleted scene of her putting it on that didn't make it, but you see it ever so slightly at the end when she runs in the conference room.

Andy had on men's sleeve garters, and I couldn't see what everyone else had, but those were the main ones that were visible. So Andy is going to try to teach Pam how to do a better accent because everyone's saying she just sounds like Forrest Gump. And he is able to do, like, a Florida panhandle accent, and then he gets into his description of a Savannah accent, where he says it's like, -"Malaya's just coming out of your mouth." It's so good.

Dani said they were originally planning for Andy to have a horrible accent, but on the day they realized that Ed was very good at these different accents and so they rewrote it. Well, he is from Georgia and he probably has a good ear for all the accents there. Interestingly enough, there was an Andy talking head in the shooting draft that did not make it.

This is what it said. I went to dialect camp every summer from the age 7 to 18. Then I was a counselor for 10 years. Hmm. What? It was Andy's childhood. So we learned in the meeting that he spent a summer in Toulouse apprenticing for a fromager. Now we find out that he went to a dialect camp for years.

Well, it's interesting, Angela, because we have wondered if deleted scenes count. If something doesn't make it into an episode, does it still count in that character's lore, in the story, whatnot? And sort of in the canon of the show, is it part of that? And we sort of said, no. No.

It's what aired. Yes. That is what would be the show Bible. Well, I found an old article on officeTally.com from 2007. Right when Google started, right, there was an interview with Greg Daniels. And he talked about this? Yes. What did he say? He said, quote, for the writers in our minds those scenes have happened. We wrote them, we shot them, and at the last minute I cut them in the editing room.

But we're relying on them anyway for the mythology of the show. Wow, okay, so per Greg, if it made it in the shooting draft. If we shot it, then it's part of the mythology of the show. So that would mean that yes, Andy did spend a summer as a fromagee. He did do this weird accent camp. But here is the problem. SONIA DARA GILMORE What?

KATE BOWEN The exception that proves the rule would be Pam's painting. SONIA DARA GILMORE Because Pam's painting, they shot it being destroyed. It stayed off the wall for several episodes. It's still off the wall in this episode. In this episode, they're still just golfing inspiration. But it came back. So I don't know. I think it's still up for debate, Greg. Sorry, Greg.

We don't know. This interview does predate the destruction of the painting. So he's allowed to change his mind on that one. We don't know. This interview does predate the destruction of the painting. Okay. He's allowed to change his mind on that one. People are pretty impressed by Andy's accents. Kevin has a request. The sweetest chef. Andy's like, what province is he from?

And Kevin says, he lives on Sesame Street, dumbass. This got such a huge laugh at the table read, like people lost their minds. And when the final edit of the episode came and Greg saw it, it wasn't in. It got cut. Really? And Greg was like, where's Kevin's line about Sesame Street? He absolutely loved this line. And Greg fought really hard to have it put back in.

Well, I'll have you know, Stephanie M. from Salt Lake City, Utah, would like to point out that the sweetest chef does not live on Sesame Street. He's from The Muppet Show. Yes. Which makes the line even funnier. Yes. Well, why don't we take a break? Because when we come back, I need to point out a line that Phyllis could not say.

Ooh. And I have some things to say about Creed. We'll be back. We are back. And as you guys rewatch this episode with us, please go to the conference room scene where Phyllis has to say, I overheard you asking the butler whether pistol was kept.

Okay. Jenna, do you remember every time Phyllis got to the word pistol, she started to snicker and we all started to break? No. If you listen to it, she says pistol Pistole, because she can barely get through that word. We got tickled every single time. Oh my gosh. Now that you say it, I remember that.

That would happen with Phyllis in general too. Yeah. It was everything. It was the Southern accent. She had to be doing the fan. And then when she said Pist pistol, it made me laugh. I remembered instantly how tickled we got. Well guys, Creed is gonna arrive to work.

He's late, he's sorry. He asks Michael what's going on, and Michael says, as Caleb crawdad, there's been a murder and you're a suspect. And Creed is like, oh, okay, great. Can I just have a... Let me get settled. I'll be right back. Yeah, I'll be right back. And he just high tails it right out of there. Now, some people

on some message boards think that this is an indication that Creed is the Scranton Strangler. Oh, sorry, that reaction was like a cartoon. Oh, I do declare. Yes, my goodness. However, I will say this. We see Creed leave. We see him jump into a car. I was like, oh, I think this is our first time seeing Creed's car.

I even asked Randy about it. He said that our transportation coordinator, Jesse Dutchover, rented that car from Cinema Vehicle Services. It is a picture car. That means cars that are rented out to productions to be in movies and TV. And that the rental facility was just a few blocks away. And we established this as Creed's car. And whenever we needed to see Creed in his car, this was the car they rented from this facility. Until he drove a Porsche years later. Correct. But in the future, when we see news footage of the police chasing who they think might be the Scranton Strangler, look at the car. Oh. It is not the car that Creed jumps into right here.

Now, does Creed have many cars at his disposal after his work as the Scranton Strangler? Possibly yes, but I did just want to point out that there's a little bit of a car thing going on. I mean, Creed also, we have found out, lives under his desk and has a home in Canada. So anything can happen with Creed. I have some things to share as well. Greg said that Creed running to his car was actually a lot harder to shoot than it looks.

Really? First of all, the timing of it. I mean, Creed had to really book it. He had to run to the car, he had to jump in, and then doing this back out and pull out move with a car as big as a Lincoln Town Car, which is what it is, was not easy. So this quick little moment actually took a little bit of planning. And lady, it's at this moment I realized that Creed the Character and me in real life have a little something in common. What's that?

We have both driven Lincoln Town cars. Oh, you had a Lincoln Town car once? My grandmother's car was a green Lincoln Town car with a white top. And my grandmother's who taught me how to drive, because in the summers I would go stay with my grandparents for a visit. And when I was turning 16, she took me out

in her enormous Lincoln Town car. And that's was turning 16, she took me out in her enormous Lincoln Town car. And that's what I learned to drive a car in. Wow. You know, I learned how to drive in an enormous car as well. What was the enormous car? It was a 1978 Pontiac Catalina. Hey! That was a big long car. That was a big long car. My grandmother had pedal extenders, so that was good. So I wasn't right up on the steering wheel. You sort of had to learn in your grandmother's car.

Why? Because I'm short? Well, yeah, those pedal extenders really helped you out. They were very helpful. Apparently, I made my mom stressed out when she rode with me to teach me how to drive. So she gave it to your grandma. Yeah, my dad was like, I'm not getting in the car with her. So my grandmother said, I'll teach her to drive. And she did. Well, as your BFF who's ridden in many cars with you,

you're a great driver. Thank you. Yeah, no pedal extenders anymore either. The seat goes all the way up. Although I wouldn't mind. Really? Yeah, cause then you're not so close to the steering wheel. Yeah.

So now we have a little romance in the kitchen. Andy and Erin, they're chatting, they're still doing their accents, but he asks her out on a date and she says yes. But then later in the conference room, other people start asking her out on a date and she's saying yes. And then Andy is like, oh wait, was she just in character in the kitchen? Or are we really going on a date? Did I ask out Naughty Nellie or did I ask out Erin?

Well, in the conference room at 12 minutes 36 seconds, there is a really good shot of Kevin's character card where you can very plainly see that his name is Dixieland. And he's also has an extra prop in this scene. He's got a wad of money. Oh, yes. It's said in the script that he was one of the richest men in all of Savannah. Yeah. Well, so much so that he walks around carrying a wad of money. Oscar interrupts the game. He shares that he received an email from corporate instructing the accounting department to stop

all payments to vendors. Wow, that's serious. Yeah. Well, Michael insists that Oscar give no more details unless he is speaking in character. He cannot use his Yankee accent, Michael says. So Oscar tries. To give important news about the company as a Southern character. We got mail. Mm-hmm.

Fan mail flurry on this one. Starting with Zach M. from Venice Center, New York. Does Oscar struggle with a southern accent in real life or was this just more of his brilliant acting? Zach, it was just brilliant acting. A hundred percent amazing acting job by Oscar. We did about six takes of this and Danny Chun spoke about this in an interview with OfficeTeli.com. He reminded me that at first Oscar was doing a really deep voice and it was the last take where he did the super high voice that we used in the show. Yeah. None of us were expecting it. We had gotten used to his low voice southern accent.

That's right. We had a fan question from Jenny F. in Amarillo, Texas, and many others who wanted to know how did we keep a straight face during this scene. Oh, we did not. No. Especially not on that last take. Not the one you see. No. When he came in in that higher falsetto and he's talking about the greenback, we were on the floor. Even Steve broke and Steve never breaks. It made it onto the season six bloopers. I asked Cassie to pull it so we could hear it.

This here plantation is running low on greenbacks. Um, we ain't got no money to pay the people who sell us the seeds and dirt, manure. I can't do this, Michael. Basically. Thanks, go back. That was almost impossible. You can sort of hear Steve. I can recognize everybody's different laughs.

I do too. I hear John. I hear definitely Brian and Steve. Oh yeah. Oh man, I rewatched the bloopers for that as well. And from the camera angle from our backs, my head is just bent over. Like I'm bent over. Oh, I have to say, whenever Oscar and Steve were paired together in a scene, just, I don't

know what it was, those two, I think because they were the two that never broke, they got each other. They really did. Yeah. I wish, you know, there were more Oscar Michael moments. Like in re-watching, I'm like, gosh, man, I really wish that Oscar had to like do a sales call with Michael or something. Well, I know there's some good ones coming up. Oh, yeah.

This news from Oscar really bumps people out and they go back to work. Also, the murderer is revealed on the tape. It was Phyllis. And she was really bummed because she felt like she was doing a good job. Yeah. Andy wants to figure out if he asked Erin out or if he asked out Naughty Nellie.

Right. So they have this great scene at front reception. I thought Ed and Ellie did such a great job just playing two people who like each other but are afraid to admit it. Mm-hmm. I agree. It ultimately ends up that neither of them admit that it was real when it was real for both of them. Yeah. So it's not gonna happen yet, but we are solidifying the information that they're into each other. Michael insists the game isn't over.

He is now, I think he's in a full spiral. He will not break character. Danny talked about this and the challenge of writing for Michael when Michael isn't his true self. Oh. He said he had to write for Michael as Caleb Crawdad. And Greg compared this episode to grief counseling when Michael was unaware of what was motivating him. And the episode was playing out in his subconscious. And he said this episode is a variation of that

where Michael is not sure what's motivating him, but he's locked into this character. That's really interesting. You know, Pam and Jim are going to have a talking head where they ask the question, has Michael snapped? Is he stuck in character? What's going on? I noticed something in this talking head.

What? I am wearing the same outfit that I wore in Double Date, which was last week's episode. It's exactly the same. I kind of noticed it earlier in the episode, but this talking head solidified it for me. Yeah, now that you say it, it's the exact same outfit. Exactly the same.

It's that very kind of dark gray shirt with that lighter gray blazer. Yes, thank you. I was trying to get the words. The only thing that's different is that in Double Date, I'm wearing some little hoop earrings that I'm not wearing in this episode. I tried to figure out how did this happen?

Why would Alicia put the same outfit in my trailer on Back to Back Weeks? Well, she didn't. I have a mom detective's moment. What? What'd you find out? I found out that we filmed these episodes in a different order than they aired. We originally filmed Double Date, then Koi Pond, then Murder.

Oh. So, there was a week in between. They aired as koi pond first, then double date, then murder. So I had gone up to the bigger belly bump, the Belly B, and it was only meant for these three episodes. And we had to tailor the clothes to the bump so I think Alicia was trying to get a little extra mileage out of my B bump wardrobe and she thought well as long as I throw an episode in between we won't notice that Pam has

recycled this outfit but then they ended up airing back-to-back. So Pam's in the same clothes. Same clothes two weeks in a row. Good mom detective catch. Thank you. You know Dunder Mifflin closing is really gonna hit Pam and Jim hard. They both work there. They're married and both working at the same company. With a baby on the way. Yes I know and they're talking about that in Jim's office when Michael busts in and he's like, "'Come on, Deb, we need you, we need you.'" And Pam goes. At 17 minutes, two seconds, if you're curious what is splattered on the floor

by Meredith's head, that's roast beef. It's from the little lunch platter that is there on the table. You can see all the roast beef has been placed on the floor. Jim has really lost his patience at this point and he demands to speak to Michael and Michael snaps back at him so hard. He's like, you shut up. Yeah. And we have one of those drama moments. Here's the thing. We've been wondering is Michael losing it? Has he gone crazy? And here's where you realize he's actually quite lucid.

And this is a choice. He is choosing to lose himself and help the office lose themselves in this game. Yep. It is a strategy. During all of this, David Wallace finally calls back. Jim takes the call. I thought Andy Buckley did such a great job, cuz you can just hear how distracted,

slash worried, slash trying to put out a bunch of fires like his day, you know? Yeah, yeah, he was just sitting back in the annex at Kelly's desk making this phone call in real life, that's where he was. Well, everyone knows that Jim has just taken this call, and they're so anxious about what he's going to say. And there's no really anything good to say. And so Jim decides to join Michael. And he's like, turns out there's been another murder. And the look on Michael's face of like, oh, thank God he's with me. Well, I love their talking head. Michael has this line that rang so true to me.

He says, today is the hardest I've worked in a long, long time. That was a pitch from Steve. Yeah, it's good. It's so good. I didn't know that he pitched that. Yeah. I mean, I also just thought of how hard Steve worked this week. Yeah.

Like, that was a hard week. Yeah. Well, now Andy, Michael, and Dwight are in a three-way standoff with, like, finger guns. They're, like, pointed at each other. I guess Jim shares that Andy revealed himself to be a double agent, and then so was Dwight and as it turns out so was Michael.

Also it's six o'clock and Jim would really like to go home. Yeah, but guess who he needs to get out of the conference room? Pam is part of this standoff. She is. Her finger guns are drawn as well. And she says to Jim, grab the keys, start the car. She's going to slowly back out of the conference room. And then the three-way standoff turns into a dramatic shootout. Everyone's writhing

on the floor. We had a fan question from Caroline P. in Honolulu, Hawaii, for the tag at the end. How much of that scene was scripted and how much of it was just Steve, Ed, and Rain improvising and having fun with it? Well, I'll tell you what. In the script, it ends with Pam backing out of the conference room. It was supposed to just end on a standoff. And then on the day, they started doing the shootout, all shooting each other, and this is how it ended up being. Greg shared that when the guys fell on the ground

and were like convulsing and everything, that was just them, they were just having fun. He said it was like little kids getting to play. Yeah, it looked like it. It did. Well, at 20 minutes, 44 seconds, I wanted to point out one thing. The reveal of Pam is so great. And Greg shared what really made that happen was our camera operator, Matt Sohn.

His ability to whip around in a circle like that is what really captured the moment. Matt and Randall were so amazing. So whenever we can give a shout out to them. Way to go, Matt Sohn. We got another fan question from Patricia B. in Oklahoma who said, Jenna, how much did you enjoy that final scene when you were in the conference room doing your finger gun standoff? It was so fun. And it's like a very popular meme of me, you know, that says, I'm not going down for this, that line. It was so funny. I remember the direction from Greg was like,

you need to act like you are 100% invested in this. Like this is real in your mind. You have to get out. You have to get out and you're gonna get out safe. Yeah. I was like, all right, let's do it. And you got to be in a mini action movie. I did. On the office.

I did. Well, there you have it. That is murder. I wanna give a big thank you to Danny Chun for all of his details. He said you can find him at Danny Chun on Twitter. He's got a bunch of fun stuff coming up, but he said it's gonna be a while, not till the summer, but we'll post all about it when it's there.

Well, of course, we always want to give a big shout out and lots of love to Randy Cordray, every week answering our questions. We love you, Randy. All right, you guys, well, we're taking next week off for spring break, but we'll be back the week after with Shareholder Meeting. Ooh, that's the RecycleOps. Oh yeah. And I am already trading emails with our costume designer Alicia Raycraft to get all the details on that RecycleOps costume transformation. I can't wait you guys have a great one.

Bye. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is produced by Earwulf, Jenna Fischer, and Angela Kinsey. Our show is executive produced by Cody Fischer. Our producer is Cassie Jerkins, our sound engineer is Sam Keefer, and our associate producer is Ainsley Bubico. Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton. For ad-free versions of Office Ladies, go to StitcherPremium.com.

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