Office Ladies - Cafe Disco

Episode Date: December 15, 2021

This week we’re breaking down “Cafe Disco”. Michael still has that seven year lease on the Michael Scott Paper Company office so he turns it into a cafe disco! Meanwhile Jim and Pam plan to sneak away to Ohio to elope. The ladies reveal how the writers came up with the idea of a cafe disco, Angela shares what she calls the “Kevin Bacon” deleted scenes and Jenna breaks down some of the cast’s dancing moves and the songs chosen for cafe disco. So don’t be that person who hates the general spirit of music and groove to this episode!   Vote for “Office Ladies” for the iHeart Podcast of the Year! Go to Twitter and use hashtags #PodcastOfTheYear + #iHeartPodcastAwards + #OfficeLadies Check out David Giffels’ book, “All the Way Home”: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/all-the-way-home-david-giffels?variant=32206503706658

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. Hello everybody and Angela, can I get a good morning? Yeah, you can.

Good morning, Jenna. Good morning, Sam. Good morning, Cassie. Good morning to you out there who's just starting your day and you're listening to us in your car or good evening to my night owls who are listening maybe by the fire, maybe with a glass of wine. I don't know. That was a beautiful picture that you just painted.

Lady, guess what I did this morning? What? Something new. I've never done it before. Exercise. No, but I'm so tickled by that. I took a contrast shower. I don't know what that is.

I didn't know what it was. Is it a cold shower? It is an alternating hot and cold shower. Why would you do that? Okay, because it's supposed to have a bunch of health benefits and you know me, I'll try anything. I've gotten that shower at my grandparents' house in their guest bathroom. Does it just automatically alternate for you?

It used to. It's like, oh, wait, wait, who just started the dishwasher? Don't shower. Oh, that's true at our house. Don't do a load of laundry before you get in the shower. Or you could have a contrast shower. Well, here's what it's supposed to do. It's supposed to improve blood flow, reduce systemic inflammation.

It supports a connection between the brain and digestive system, but it's also just supposed to like energize you and kind of boost your immune system. I don't know. It's supposed to be beneficial and it's sort of based on a thing that athletes do, you know, where they do a cold plunge and a hot shower and things. Right. Oh my gosh. I wonder if Tom Brady does contrast showers.

Tom Brady does it all. That's what I mean. I'm telling you. He does it all. I should Google that. Do you think that's on the internet? His water drinking is on the internet? Okay.

It is. Okay. Well, listen. I did it this morning. You know what? Google Tom Brady's shower. Oh no. Don't Google that.

See what you get. Oh. Okay. Well. My husband's going to be like, why are you Googling? What is this search? They've given up on our search history. This is true.

Wait, wait. Do you feel energized? I kind of do. Okay. I do. I definitely felt energized when the freezing cold water hit my body after being in warm water. It was going to be called grumpy shower in my house.

I had to sort of sing it out during the cold part. Like when the cold water hit me, I was like, and it's cold. Yes, it's cold. You turned into like a ye olde musical. I did. And my kids were like, what is mom doing today? Anyway, there you go. That's what I did today.

This morning. Did you do anything special or new or different, Ange? I did like 15 push-ups. This morning? Yeah. Before we got here. I remember John Krasinski used to do that. What?

Yes. In the mornings, he would get to work and before hair and makeup, he would do a bunch of push-ups and a bunch of sit-ups to energize himself in the morning. You don't remember that? No. I was always so impressed and I was inspired and I thought, oh, I should do that. I tried it one morning and I was like, I'm not doing that again. Well, I didn't do it either.

I was lying. I was doing a joke, but geez, John. Wow. I know. Should we get into this episode? Let's do it. The next episode today is Cafe Disco. It is season five, episode 27, written by Warren Lieberstein and Halstead Sullivan and

directed by Randall Einhorn. Would you like a summary? Yes. Concerned about the serious mood of his employees and just the general drab work environment at Dunder Mifflin, since Charles Minor left, Michael has decided to transform the former Michael Scott paper company into a Cafe Disco for socializing, dancing, and sipping espresso. Now, initially, nobody is interested, but it does slowly take off and ends up exceeding Michael's expectations.

Meanwhile, Pam and Jim planned to secretly elope to Youngstown, Ohio and Dwight tries to help Phyllis with an injury. That's a lot. That's a lot happening. That's a lot. But it's a pretty simple episode, really. Fast fact number one was a fan question from Becca D. What was the inspiration for this episode?

We reached out to writers, Warren Lieberstein and Halstead Sullivan. Yes. Warren and Halstead were a fantastic writing team. I knew them for a long time from our days at the groundlings, and some of you guys listening to this know and some don't, but Warren and I used to be married and we're good friends and it was really fun to reminisce with both of them about this episode. Well, here's what he said about the inspiration for this episode, which I thought was amazing. He said that he and Halstead were pretty new writers at the time.

They joined in this season and they were tasked with coming up with an episode idea for what Michael Scott could do with this space that was formerly the Michael Scott paper company. He said that they were working in the writers' trailer with Brent Forrester and the three of them were kind of pitching ideas like, oh, what if it's a cafe? What if it's a disco? And they couldn't really decide. He said for some reason that day, Paul Lieberstein was also working in the writers' trailer. He was working out of BJ Novak's office that was sort of off of this communal area.

So he could hear them going back and forth. Yes, exactly. And Warren said that Paul just suddenly came out of the office and said, it's a cafe and a disco. Michael Scott lives two things more than anything, coffee and dancing. It's a cafe disco. And then he turned around, went back into BJ's office and shut the door. And Warren said he remembers Brent turning to them and saying, well, you heard him.

And then the three of them just started outlining. What is a cafe disco to Michael Scott? It feels very much like something your dad would do, you know, like he'd come out as you're arguing and be like, it's both. Just do it. Yes, exactly. Well, it is more interesting being both, isn't it? And it's more Michael Scott that it would be a strange hybrid of two things.

Yes. Halstead had some really great stuff to share as well. And he told us that they won an NAACP Image Award for Best Writing for a Comedy Series for this episode. This episode is really popular. When I told people that we were breaking down cafe disco and when we were trading emails with Randy Cordray about this one, he was like, I love this episode. I love the simplicity of it.

It's just so beautiful. Yeah. Well, Halstead also said, Ang, guess what? There is a bakery in Oklahoma named Cafe Disco because they loved this episode so much. You can find them at cafe-disco.com. He said, have you ever heard of that? Have any of the other episodes had a bakery named after them? No, we've just heard of Shulalas, but I think they existed before Michael's Shulala.

That's true. Fast fact number two, we shot this episode in four days instead of five. How did we do that? Randy shared that because all the work was so contained in that one tiny location of the cafe disco, there weren't like a ton of different ways to cover it with the camera. So we were able to kind of get it pretty quickly. So they would basically, rather than having some giant master shot and all these close-ups, they just covered it.

He said it was kind of important that we do this in four days because this episode filmed the week right before Easter. And we were already meant to have Good Friday off for Easter weekend. And if we hadn't finished, we would have had to come back the Monday after Easter and pick up our fifth day. But that would have really thrown off our 100th episode, Company Picnic, which was happening the next week. It was a huge company move.

That would have been. Yeah. That would have been really hard. Yeah. That's what she said. So that leads me into fast fact number three, while there were no locations for this episode, no expensive stunts or props, there was a lot of music. And to get the rights to all the music that was in this episode was a very complicated

thing to pull off. Randy shared that there are two kinds of music rights. There are sync rights, which is where you're going to play a song by the original artist. And that's all you're just going to hear their song. Okay. But then there are master rights. And that's what you need. If a character is going to sing or hum a song, sort of do their interpretation.

Yes. The artist. And Randy said that they wanted us to be able to sing along or hum along as we were dancing. And so we had to get both sync and master rights to every single song. There was only one song that appeared in the script. If you read the script, different scenes will say music is playing, Aaron presses play, but it doesn't say what song comes out except for one time in the script. What did it say?

The one song that appears in the script is Everybody Dance Now. And it's the song where Michael is playing it through the vents to get everybody to come down. And that song cost $40,000. Wow. And so Randy had our post production supervisor, Jake Oust, reach out to Universal Music, you know, because our show was made by NBC Universal. And see if they could get a list of songs that we could license for either free or for

not that much money. And then he gave that list to Warren and Halstead and he said, what do you think? So Warren and Halstead made a list of like their dream music list. And then next to it, they would put a free alternative. And Randy sent this list over, it was really fascinating to look at. I'll just give one example. You know that opening scene when Michael's kind of dancing alone? Their first choice was Disturbia by Rihanna.

Their free alternative, which appears in the show, is Car Wash. All right, for the most part, we had to go with their free alternative. I was going to say, I'm sure. The ultimate music budget for this episode was $85,200. Wow. Most of that money paid for Everybody Dance Now and YMCA. But Randy said that another perk of not having that fifth shoot day was that they were able to allocate some of that shoot days budget to music.

That makes sense. We were able to pull it off, but I mean, that is all Randy's job. He's just like a spreadsheet and he has to move things around. Numbers, numbers, numbers. And make it all happen. Well, my lady, those were some great fast facts. Thank you. Did you feel like they came from a person who had improved blood flow or maybe had a connection

between their brain and digestive system? A hundred percent I did. Thank you. A hundred percent. I felt like that too. Yeah, my lady and not just lady. Oh, yeah. Now we know.

You got a special one. Well, I think we should take a break and when we get back, someone has won an art contest and it's not Pam. I know, snark. We are back and before we dive into this episode, we have an exciting announcement. We do office ladies was nominated once again for the I heart radio podcast of the year award. We are so sick and excited.

This award is based on votes from the public. That's you guys. It means so much to us. We won last year. Thanks to you. And you know, I'm not going to lie. I'd really like to win again. Lady.

Yeah. I'm not going to back to back. I do too. I want bookings. Back to back. Bookings. Oh my gosh. Yes.

I'm going to put my books in the middle of my words. Oh my gosh. All right. So here's the deal. The voting is open now. Basically you vote using Twitter. Okay. You just have to tweet with three hashtags, hashtag podcast of the year, hashtag I heart

podcast awards, hashtag office ladies. Yes. That's the most important one. Yes. You can find the instructions, you know, in our show notes on our website and on Instagram, and you can find more information at I heart podcast awards.com. I want to win so much. I know.

Is it tacky to say that? It's my truth. I don't think it's tacky. I just, I love making the podcast so much. I do too. I want to win an award for something I love doing. I know. And you know what?

You don't want it to be an award that I make you because I did try to make you a lady. I know. It was a good effort. Thank you. You're welcome. You know what? You take one of your daughter's old Barbies and a hot glue gun and a little piece of wood you found.

Maybe it looks like an award. Maybe it looks like a cry for help. Okay. Should we get into this episode? Let's do it. How does it start? Well, we are in the Dunder Mifflin bullpen. When Erin, the new receptionist, squeals that she's won an art contest.

Pam is not amused. Jenna was not amused. I had totally forgotten this cold open and I was like, oh my God. Dwight is such an ass in this cold open. He really is. And he's so tickled. He's so pleased with himself. I do want to point out, while Pam is exchanging looks with Dwight in their desk pod, Pam's

plant is on her desk as well as the little candy dispenser with jelly beans. Lady, we got an email from Audrey L who also noticed Pam's little candy dish. Audrey also mentioned that she really liked my hair in this scene. She thought it was super cute. Did you notice my hair? Yes. It's one of those ponytails where you do ponytail. And then you, how do you explain it?

Then you flip it through itself. Like a French. Oh my gosh. I 100% did my hair that way for one of my school dances, like back in the day. Do people still do that hairstyle? I don't know if they still do the hairstyle, Jenna, but it's clear to me we were meant to be best friends because I once went to a high school dance with a side ponytail. And that was my choice.

I styled it like that on purpose. Well, we often did ponytails when there was a standalone cold open. It was a way to differentiate Pam's look and hair from the actual episode. So something, if you feel like it, you could track it and see when Pam has ponytails. It's usually the cold open. We did a lot of that with Angela Martin too. Just something different. It wasn't always a ponytail, but just something a little different for a cold open.

I remember Angela early in the series, you did a lot of buns and then they started to give you headaches. Horrible headaches, guys. But then I remember you were like, you know what, I'll do a bun for the cold open. Yeah. I didn't want to get rid of this hairstyle for Angela completely because it had been so established. But if you did a bun for a cold open, you only had to wear it for like four hours.

Exactly. Our one full day, maybe. Yes, but not five days. All day. Not five days for 12 hours. I guess I just have one more question about this, which is, did you ever wear a bun to a school dance? No.

No, but I did wear an updo the year we won the SAG Award and I was super pregnant. I had an updo. I liked that on you. That looked nice. Thank you. Yeah. I was just so pregnant. I just was like, do I have to get an evening gown?

But no, no buns at high school dances. I don't think I did either. It's a bold choice. It is. In high school. True. Yeah. Well, this episode starts with Michael dancing by himself to car wash in what was Michael

Scott Paper Company? All I could think about when I was watching him in there dancing was, look at all the stuff Phil Shea had to get. He had to get an espresso maker, then the little espresso coffee cups and saucers, napkins, espresso coffee, the boombox, a lava lamp, a little desk lamp, a lay, all kinds of coffee accessories, an empty cheese puff container, a couple of chairs, and then eventually he'd have to get a tiny disco ball and some kind of the, I don't know, were they red chili pepper lights?

Oh, yeah. Yeah. So Phil Shea, once again, simple episode, but he had all these little things he had to get. A lot of details. Yeah. Michael comes up to the office now and he would like to have lunch with someone. Yeah.

He really loved lunches at Michael Scott Paper Company. You know, I have to say, why did the camaraderie between Pam, Michael, and Ryan have to end? I was loving it. Now it seems like, you know, their relationship is just kind of back where it started. I think that happens sometimes. I guess it does. They've sort of returned to their old roles, their routines. Well then Michael has this kind of depressing talking head where he says, at Dundermiflin,

there is a very strict no lunch with the boss policy, and I don't know who instituted it. That broke my heart. I know. You know, Ryan says he can't have lunch with Michael because he's doing five small meals a day. That was a really popular thing. Have you ever done that? I think that's just how I naturally eat.

I thought of you when he said that. That is not how I naturally eat. I just sort of snack all day. Here's what I need to get through a day. I need three full meals. I also need a snack, and I'm going to need a dessert. I forget to eat until about noon, and then I'm crazy hungry, and then I don't understand forgetting to eat.

I wake up, and the first thing I think of is when am I eating? It's like constantly on my mind. I'm already thinking about the yogurt that I brought for our snack the next time we take a break on the podcast. I'm like so food-centered. Well, no one wants to have lunch with Michael. They say they have a lot of work to do. Michael starts doing his robot.

Pam has to take the battery out, or he'll just keep going, I guess. During this scene, at three minutes, three seconds, there is a shot of my outfit. I have to point it out. I noticed it. I'm wearing a gray cardigan, a gray blouse, a gray skirt, and Jenna, I'm wearing gray tights. I am wearing something on my legs. I never wore anything on my legs.

I don't know why in this episode, but I do. And I wonder if it was really cold, because we were shooting this in what sounds like March, early April, if it was around Easter, and that is cold in LA. That's like our cold stretch. I know. I just got excited, guys, because I would never wear the pantyhose they put in my trailer. I was anti-pantyhose. Also, maybe did you notice my shoes?

I'm going to bring them up later. I didn't. Okay. But you're going to make me wait. Yeah. Okay. So, at three minutes, 10 seconds, Erin finds a map of Youngstown, Ohio, in the printer. And she brings it to Dwight, and he says, this is a map to the superior court, and the

only reason to go there is if you've been charged with a crime, or if you want to try to get a learner's permit at 14 and a half. But this scene starts with Erin saying, hi, guys, how are you doing? And then Dwight is like, Erin, how many times do I have to tell you? It's not necessary for you to ask us how we are every time you interact with us. We got a fan question from Lloyd C. in Australia, who said, I recall in a previous podcast, it was mentioned that Rainn Wilson made a big announcement about not needing to ask how his weekend was at the start of each week.

He said, just assume it was good. Is this bit at Rainn's desk between Dwight and Erin may be based on Rainn's weekend question rule? I don't know, but I will tell you the minute I saw that, it was the first thing I thought of. Same here. I was like, that just feels like Rainn. Yes.

Yes. We also had a fan catch from Samantha R. who said that Dwight mentions one of the reasons you would go to the courthouse is to obtain a learner's permit at age 14 and a half instead of 15. However, you have to be 16 to obtain a learner's permit. This has always stood out to me. And then Hannah W. said, I'm from Ohio and the minimum age for a learner's permit is 15 and a half, well, I had to know.

Okay. Here's the deal. You must be 15 and a half to obtain a learner's permit to drive a car. However, you can get a learner's permit for a motorized bicycle at the age of 14. All right. That's next year for Isabelle and Jack. And I cannot imagine those two, my kids, with anything motorized. Well, I don't want them on anything that moves faster than a bicycle.

If you were in Youngstown, Ohio, they could get a learner's permit. Oh my gosh. Dwight had a really funny deleted talking head here. Oh, I can't wait. I'm going to read it to you. It cracked me up. Very sarcastically Dwight says, oh no, I love Ohio. Next time you're there, say hi to my cousin, Emile, and then kick him in the groin area

because he's a cheat and a ball hog. And if he's still married to Clarissa, kick her in the groin area, too, because she's a heartbreaking tart and a ball hog. Oh my gosh. What were they playing? Did they play like basketball and Clarissa and Emile, like hog the ball? What is happening in Ohio? Dwight's family is a mystery and very complex.

Who knew he had relatives in Ohio? And also, apparently from this talking head, if Dwight were in Ohio and saw Clarissa and Emile, he would kick them in the groin area, both of them. Incidentally, I am currently reading a book about Akron, Ohio. Okay. It's by this amazing writer, this guy, David Giffels. He lives in Ohio and he and his wife decided to put a low ball offer on this like broken down house mansion, like literally when he describes it, there's like sunshine coming

through this thing. Right, right. It's like the money pit. 100% the money pit. And the book is just a memoir of them fixing it up absolutely by themselves while they lived in it. I don't know. It's just this amazing book and I'm loving it.

I had thought of it for my dad who's a big like DIY fixer person. I gave it to him for his birthday and he loved it. So I like Ohio. At least through the eyes of this book, for sure. Are you and I going to get a fixer upper in Ohio? No, I bought a fixer upper in LA and spent a year. And so maybe that's also why I'm relating to it, but yeah. Same.

You and I love a home project, man. I got a fixer upper too and I'm still fixing it up. Pam and Jim are going to have this talking head where they say there are other reasons to go to Ohio. And the reason they're going is because they're getting married and it's the closest place that they can get a marriage license without the three day waiting period. This talking head is so cute. I mean, my gosh, we are so cutie pie in this.

Jim and Pam at peak cuteness. Yes. They just feel like the wedding planning, it's getting really complicated, it's getting really expensive. And Jim said at breakfast, I want to marry you today. So they're going to go for it. It's so sweet. It's very much young love to me.

Yeah. Yeah. You're in wedding planning, having that moment where you get overwhelmed and you're like, why are we doing this? I know. So I could relate as well. I mean, Josh and I, we went to the courthouse and stay in a Barbara a month before our wedding and we're like, just get married.

Let's just take that off the plate, you know? Then I guess the wedding is more of a celebration. Exactly. You can separate those two moments. Yeah, we did that. I loved it. We had a fan catch about this bit of info about Youngston, Ohio as well. Mary C wrote in and said, I've lived in Youngston, Ohio all my life.

I got married in Youngston and you cannot get a marriage license the same day here. It takes 10 to 14 working days, but I do love the Youngston reference. You can get a same day marriage license in Las Vegas. Well, Mary L wrote in to say that there is no waiting period, that it's true. And then Andrea V said, I did a little deep dive and there is no superior court in Youngston, Ohio. So a lot of mail about these Youngston, Ohio details. Yes.

So here I'm going to clear it up for everybody. Andrea's right. There is no superior court. But there is the Youngston Municipal Court. And as far as marriage licenses go, I went to the city applications, frequently asked questions, and it says that while there is a Youngston Municipal Court, that's not where you go for your marriage license anyway. You need to apply for a marriage license at the Mahoning County Probate Court.

And even if you're out of state, you can get a marriage license there as long as you have your wedding ceremony in Mahoning County. You need to be 18 years old. You're going to need your Social Security card, two forms of identification. You're going to have to state your place of birth, your parents' names, no blood test, and it costs $43 cash, 43 cash, cash, no Venmo, not PayPal, no, no, cash only, not in Mahoning. Nope. How long is your marriage license valid in Youngston, Ohio?

Are you asking me? The website asked and answered. It is valid for 60 days. And here it is. There is no waiting period before you can use your marriage license in Mahoning County. There it is. There it is. Everything you ever needed to know about getting a marriage license in Ohio, specifically

Mahoning County, correct. During all of this Ohio conversation, Michael is on a dance break, guys, and Aaron is going to bring him some messages and he's like, no, no, no, no work here. They have Expresso, they come upstairs and Michael decides to tell the group about the downstairs room. Yeah. He and Aaron entered, they both have their little Espresso cups, and by the way, I just noticed that you say it the way I used to say it.

Oh, I put an X in it. You say Expresso. I know, it's Espresso. But a lot of people say Expresso. I know. And I think it's okay. I think we should let it go. It's Espresso.

Espresso. Espresso. We had a fan catch from Hannah C, who says in this episode, Aaron drinks an Espresso, but in season nine, episode 11, the office gets an Espresso machine and Aaron says she's never had one before. Oh, good catch. I thought that was good. Yeah.

Michael's going to give a big speech now. He is. And I absolutely love this runner. To me, this is classic, the office bullpen back and forth where everyone is chiming in, where it really gets funny to me is when Dwight does his Jack Nicholson impression, which I thought Rain did a really good job. I thought so too. And this takes us down this road where Meredith is like, wait, it's a haunted coffee house?

Michael's like, no, no, Dwight's confusing you. It's more of a disco. And then Andy says, a haunted disco. Michael's like, with coffee, but without the haunted. And then Phyllis is like, it's a combo dance house coffee bar. And Michael says, it's a daytime disco on the ground floor of an industrial office building. And Aaron goes, it's a cafe disco. Michael's like, exactly.

And then Kevin says, so like a disco cafe and Michael's like, no, not even close. These are more of my favorite kind of scenes to shoot. And immediately after this scene, there would have been a Stanley talking head where he says this, how did I end up back in crazy town? And then immediately after that would have been an Oscar talking head. And Oscar said this, it still seems really confusing as a concept. That would be Oscars like take on it. He's very practical and literal.

Right. Like what is your business plan? This seems confusing. Then Michael tries to entice everyone to come. He offers them all the espresso you can eat. Oh, well done, Angela. Thank you. And this is when this awesome runner would have started that I'm calling Kevin's bacon

runner. Oh, Kevin bacon runner. Kevin bacon runner. It's in deleted scenes. Kevin sees Lynn at the elevators and they have this exchange. Hi, Kevin. Hi, Lynn. Did you have bacon for breakfast?

No. Oh, because you smell like bacon. I didn't think I did. How's everything going? Great. I'm going down the hall to this office to see Michael. There's three espressos. I would invite you, but I remember that you just want to be friends.

We can still. Are you sure that you didn't eat bacon? Yes. Whatever it is, I like it. Okay. So then he walks away and Lynn has a talking head. Did she eat bacon? You got to hear it.

Yes. I had some bacon this morning. I just didn't think it was anyone's business. Isn't that funny? But wait, it gets better. Kevin just can't get Lynn and the bacon smell off his mind and he asks her out. I love the smell of bacon on a woman. Hey, Lynn, it's Kevin.

I was thinking about going and getting a coffee at the Cafe Disco. I'm wondering if you want to go with. Wow. Yes. So later when you see them slow dancing and then when they have a full on make out, it all started with this bacon scene by the elevators. That was amazing. What a find.

I know. I so enjoyed it. Well, when Michael is kind of describing his inspiration for this disco and how it's going to bring people together and it's going to make people happy and kind of break them out of their funk, I have to say that he has right on about disco in general. I was reading a bunch about disco and listening to disco music when I was prepping this episode. This is very you. I know.

I like the sound of Scranton. It really is. And here is what I found out and I pulled a couple of quotes because I loved them. So disco in general is just a very inclusive and accepting culture. It was very communal. It was more than just music. It really was a cultural movement. And there's this book called Turn the Beat Around by author Peter Shapiro and he called

disco, quote, the embodiment of the vision of peace that the 60s yearned for. An article in Timeline.com went on to say, disco was created by black and Latino musicians in the early 70s and popularized by mostly gay DJs for a mostly gay crowd celebrating new freedoms earned by the gay rights movement. And finally, now Rogers, the guitarist for the hit disco band Chic said, this was the world I wanted to live in where everybody was cool with everyone. That was because of the music. That was disco.

That was disco. I mean, I'm a kid of the 70s, you know, my mom and her friends were so excited because they got to go see Donna summer in concert disco, the queen of disco. My mom said it was a phenomenal show. How cool that your mom got to see her perform live. I know. I would have loved to have gone with my mom. I was too little because I love disco.

But Angela Martin, of course, is not a fan of Michael pulling everyone off of work and taking them down to his disco cafe. Cafe disco. His cafe disco. And you'll see that Kevin is there very messily making his espresso. And it's because he's waiting for Lynn. Had you seen all of that deleted runner, you would know he's hoping Lynn will show up. In fact, in the shooting draft, the scene is more extended.

And Kevin tells Michael he's waiting for Lynn. Wow. And Angela enters and this scene when I enter, I could barely get through Jenna. I think you can tell I'm breaking if you watch it because whenever Steve is Michael offers Kevin the fake cookie in his hand, I literally, I start smiling when I talk because I'm having such a hard time not laughing. It's so absurd and wonderful. And a lot of that is Brian Baumgartner's performance.

Yes. His like immediate belief that there's a cookie in a hand that clearly didn't have a cookie one second ago. Yes. Well, the three of us improvised the whole last couplet of dialogue. No way. Yes. So in the script, I mean, the script was phenomenal, but as we started doing it, Steve, as Michael

just kept messing with Kevin, he kept showing him the cookie, but then pulling it a little out of reach. So Kevin had to walk further into the room and that was just stuff we were making up on the day. Well, in the script, it was just a little cleaner of an ending, right? It was a little simpler. It was like, Michael said Kevin stay, Angela said Kevin come, and then Michael's like Kevin cookie.

And then Kevin's like, what? There's a cookie. And then I drag him away. We just had so much fun with this fake cookie. We just improvised this little couplet at the end where Kevin's like, wait, is there a cookie? And Michael's like, mm-hmm. And I'm like, no, for goodness sakes, Kevin, there's no cookie.

There's no cookie. Come on. And I kind of like show him. I'm trying to pry Michael's hand. And Kevin's like, I wanted a cookie. And then I look back at Michael and I'm like, completely unacceptable. It was so fun. We had a blast.

And somewhere out there, there's just footage of me laughing every time Kevin looks at Michael's hand and is like, was there a cookie? It's so good. Well now Michael is alone. He really wants people to come. So he is going to blast music through the vent. Yes. And people up in the bullpen can hear it.

And everyone kind of starts, you know, moving and grooving a little bit, so much so that Phyllis decides she's going to go. Yeah, she says to heck with it. But first she's going to stop by Vance Refrigeration to invite Bob, where she runs into Bob's younger, yet sort of look-alike secretary. This is how this character was described in the script. As Phyllis walks in, Bob's busty secretary, Jessica, is coming out of Bob's office and closing the door behind her.

She wears a low-cut top. Phyllis looks her up and down. Oh, wow, so it doesn't mention that she's meant to sort of be this younger version of Phyllis. Because they dressed her just like Phyllis dresses. I know, I know. And I felt like even like their little noses were similar in everything. Their hairstyles.

Yes. She's clearly like what Phyllis would think Bob would want in a younger woman. Yes. Which I thought was such a great casting choice. The woman who played Jessica was Alyssa Preston, and according to her IMDB, this job was her first television credit. Oh, she did so great. Do you remember your first television job?

Oh, God, I do. I think I was horrible. What was it? What was it? Oh, my very first line on a television show was a TV show called Step by Step. The big stars were Suzanne Summers and Patrick Duffy. Was it a three-camera show? It was a multi-camera show.

In the episode, they think their daughter has run off to a lope. And I was cast because I was the same height and same hair color as the young girl playing their daughter. And they burst into this wedding chapel like in Vegas or somewhere. They burst in and I'm up there saying my vows. So Suzanne Summers whips me around at the altar and she goes, you're not Dana. And I say, no, I'm Simone and thanks for ruining the best day of my life. Wow.

Is that crazy that I remember that? And I auditioned for it and it wasn't for like two months later that I shot it. And I said to the director that day, I said, how do you want me to do it? And he said, just like you did in the audition, I couldn't remember how I did it in the audition. Oh, no. And then when I did it, they were like, can you tone it down? Because I guess I was like, but thanks for ruining the best day of my life. Well, that's the worst.

When you have one or two lines on a show and there's no like entrance ramp to your performance, you just have to deliver this one line exactly right. And you're on this new set with new people and there's all this just adrenaline running through you. And Suzanne Summers. Hi. I've watched her my whole childhood whips me around. Well, I was waiting to do my scene after the director gave me that note in rehearsals.

I literally was in the wings going, thanks for ruining the best day of my life. Thanks for ruining the best day of my life. Thank you for ruining the best day. That's other problem when you have one line. You way over analyze it. So much. I was horrible. Well, Alyssa Preston was amazing.

She was. Her first TV job, she has gone on to work steadily in television and film. She was in Grey's Anatomy, Modern Family, Jane the Virgin, the movie, Horrible Bosses 2, No Monk, No Law and Order, comedy. She's a comedy gal. Comedy gal. Back to the story at hand, Phyllis has decided to go down and start dancing with Michael while she waits for Bob to join her.

Yeah. And she's really getting into it so much so she does kind of this pony move and throws out her back. That gasping sort of bleeped mother effort that she says is not in the shooting draft. Really? Yeah. It says that she lets out a yell, you know, but I think that they had fun with that on the day.

Can I just say that Phyllis is very good at fake injury? I so believed it. I was worried for her. I know. I mean, she gets her like whole face to turn red and stuff and like everything she does as a person with a back injury was so right on for me. She's great at physical comedy. I've got a side story.

What? I know we just had one. Uh-oh. I threw out my back once just like Phyllis and it was while I was talking to Christy Brinkley. What? Yeah. Christy Brinkley.

How do you throw out your back while talking? Phyllis was dancing. Well, I was backstage. I was doing this game show and Christy Brinkley was in the waiting room. She was going to be a guest on the next version of the game show, you know, the next episode. Sure. I was just so excited, I mean, to maybe meet Christy Brinkley. Did you run up or something?

I threw my arms out in a gesture where I was like, hi, Christy Brinkley. And in throwing, just gesturing my arms open, I threw out my back. It was like a pop. It felt like something popped in my back, but I was trying to hold it together because she smiled and she was talking with me and I don't know if she could see the pain like washing over my eyes and my whole body. And like I said, you know, Phyllis gets all red. I felt hot.

Like I felt that and then it just seized up like I couldn't even move. They brought the medic in. On the game show. Yes. They gave me some ice and some Advil and from there I had to get loaded in a car to go to this movie in Canada with Ben Stiller and Mike White. It was my dream job, my dream job. I'm playing Ben Stiller's wife in a Mike White movie.

And you couldn't move. I couldn't move. All because you wanted to show Christy Brinkley that I was excited to meet her. Hey. Yes. When I got to the airport, they had to have a wheelchair load me onto the plane. I mean, I really couldn't walk. When I got to Canada, they had a doctor meet me at my hotel.

This is crazy. And the next day it was a driving scene. My character was supposed to drive and I couldn't do it. And I was mortified. I was mortified because of course when everybody was like, how did you throw out your back? And you were like, I just made a hugging gesture. Yeah. I just went, hey.

And then I seemed like a Looney Tune, but anyway, you can throw out your back very easily. You can. Just a lot of stories for me today. Okay. Is this what the shower has done to me? Yes. It has opened up my vault of story. It has.

Well, I want you guys to notice while Phyllis is being lowered to the ground by Michael, that black pipe on the wall by the shower, yeah, does not have any lights on it, but that will change. Oh. It's not lighted now, but it will be. That's right. Michael calls Dwight down to help him get Phyllis back up into the office. Or is it Philip?

Is it? He gets a text. He goes, you said, you said something happened to Philip. And then he looks at Phyllis and goes, did Philip do this to you? They are hilarious, the two of them. Well, this is going to start a whole runner where Dwight is going to be tasked with taking care of Phyllis in the conference room. They're going to wheel her in there.

He's going to shut all the curtains. And then there's a huge commotion. He comes out in just his tank top. I love moments like that because we don't know what happened in there, clearly something. Halstead shared that in addition to being tasked with creating a storyline that used the old Michael Scott paper company set, they also needed a storyline that they could cut away to. They needed somewhere to go.

But that story also had to take place at Dunder Mifflin because we did not have the budget to go anywhere. Right. And we only had four days. So this story of Phyllis throwing out her back and Dwight helping her was the solution. And I love how scripts and stories sometimes evolve out of that just necessity. Everyone is concerned about Phyllis. There's like moaning sounds coming from the conference room.

And Angela has a line to Michael where she says, can you please go back to work instead of masterminding these situations where in we hurt ourselves? This line was so hard for me to say. Why? Because I don't speak like that. I don't say stop masterminding situations where in we hurt ourselves. Yeah. But Angela had a very formal way of speaking.

She did. And it was something that was really important to the writers. They carry it through the whole entire series where she has sort of this clipped formality in her voice. I'm just pointing it out because I had a hard time saying it. To me, a sentence like that is very similar to being a doctor on like a show, but you're not really a doctor. Right.

And you have to say medical jargon. I'd never make it. Grey's Anatomy? I'd never be able to do it. No. No, I can't do it. Can't do it. Well, somehow Aaron and Kelly are going to wind up down in Cafe Disco.

Aaron presses play on some music and the ladies start dancing. Yeah. Do you know what this song was? Was it Boyfriend Hangover? Yeah. It's called Boy Hangover. Boy Hangover. Do you know who wrote it?

No. Our writer, Lester Lewis. You are kidding me. No. I thought it was so catchy. It's sung by this woman named Bonnie McKee. She's a Grammy nominated singer-songwriter. She has written number one hits for Britney Spears, Katy Perry, and Tau Cruz.

I thought we should listen to it. Here's Boy Hangover. How great is it that Lester wrote the lyrics to that song? It's so good. I loved the song. I thought it was catchy. I downloaded it and now I have it. This was one of the songs I was listening to because I like to stay on theme while working

on an episode. Yeah. Well, maybe we should take a break. I want to go eat my yogurt. It's been on my mind. Honey, I know it. If you are okay with that. I know it.

I saw you eyeing your snack bag. I know. It's time. It's time. We'll be back after I eat my yogurt. Okay. We'll be back. My yogurt was great.

Yay. And speaking of eating, Michael is eating his lunch alone. Might as well be dinner. That broke my heart. I know. So sad. Michael. Meanwhile, Phyllis is in the conference room.

Dwight has started working on her back and Jim is outside collecting flowers. Yeah. It's very sweet. He's making a little bouquet for Pam. Jenna, this is on the side of the writer's building where the warehouse was. So automatically, I was like, is this 3.30 p.m.? Yes. Because we learned last week we filmed there at 3.30.

Also, you know those flowers weren't there. No. They had planted them just for the scene so that he could then cut them. There have never been flowers there. Just some weeds, kind of. Yeah. And a giant bug. But that's it.

Yeah. We had a big bunch of parrots that we had for a small period of time. And that one rooster across the way. But not flowers. But not flowers. So they would plant and then replant these flowers so that Jim could collect them. So those were some fakie real flowers. Meanwhile, Cafe Disco is popping.

Aaron has invited a friend, Ashley. I loved the exchange between Oscar and Aaron when he's like, what, you invited someone? And Aaron's like, yeah, is that not okay? And Oscar's like, I mean, I've worked here eight years and I never. And then they just run off and he goes, rude. I just loved it. Ashley doesn't have any lines, but she was played by Alexis Teague and now begins what looks like a dance-off between Kelly and Andy.

We had a fan question from Geanna W. The dance-off runner between Andy and Kelly is so great. I personally think they would have made a good couple. Did the writers ever think of doing that? So I asked Warren about this and he said, the writer's room pretty much discussed every possible dating scenario for Kelly. But Andy and Kelly never made it on one of those note cards and he said, you know what? That would have been great.

I wish we would have gone there. I thought they had great chemistry. I did too. They seem great for each other. And I would like you to note at 13 minutes 54 seconds at the beginning of the dance-off, red chili pepper lights on the black pipe by the shower. Where did those come from? I don't know.

Did Aaron and Kelly like start decorating when they went down there? Did Ashley bring them? No, Ashley didn't bring them. Were they there? They were there. Oh yeah, Ashley just got there. They weren't there when Phyllis was dancing, but now they're there for the dance-off. And Michael is missing all of it.

He's up in the kitchen being a sad sack. But he can hear it. He says, I can still hear the music in my head. Well, Creed is going to exit the bathroom. The men's room. While eating chicken, I really love that detail. Halstead mentioned it was one of the little jokes that he loved as well. He's full on eating a chicken leg.

Yeah. Coming out of the restroom. And Creed's like, I hear it too, Michael. Creed says, I hear it too, boss. Oh yeah, I hear it too, boss. So Michael's like, oh my gosh, something's happening. And sure enough, he gets down to the cafe disco and it's like happening. It's a party.

There's a limbo pole. Yeah. And I have questions. Okay. Because it's so great. You see two people walk in and they have to like, you know, limbo under. Meredith does a shimmy. Your character walks in and just walks under it.

Just straight under it. No problem. Didn't have to bend at all. Who wrote that joke? Well, I asked Warren and Halstead and they both were like, it was Warren. Warren was like, yeah, that was me. Well, it's hilarious to me, this is my ex-husband's joke because he clearly knows I'm a short stack.

Well, how did you do it? Did they bring you down and measure you to set the pole? Oh yeah. They duct taped that pole to the wall, right, that everyone walked under. It's like a broom. It's meant to look like a broom handle, right? And I had to practice walking under it. I on purpose this episode, I wear flats.

My character never wears flats. My character is always in three inch heels. This entire episode I had on little tiny flats. Wow. This is the shoe thing you were mentioning earlier. Yes. I'll put it in stories. I took a screen grab of them and I did ever so slightly guys have to tilt my head just

very tiny, but I could walk right under that pole. It was so funny. I'm the person, guys, when your plane lands and everyone stands up and they're waiting and everyone has to duck because the overhead compartments, you know, when you are still at your seat, you haven't been able to get in the aisle because there's so many people getting their stuff. I can stand fully upright under the overhead. That must feel so good.

Yeah. I just look at all these people hunched over while they're waiting to get off a plane. I got no problem. But don't ask you to get something off the top shelf. No. Why would I put anything on the top shelf? You don't. The only reason Angela is there is to get some signatures on a piece of paper and Michael

says he's only going to give her one signature per song. And Angela, you have this line where you say, I don't like the general spirit of music. My character says, look, I hate to be that person, but I just don't like the general spirit of music. Renee from Fargo, North Dakota would like to know who wrote that line. She loves it. So we asked Warren and Halstead this question and Warren said it's probably his favorite question because he loves that line too.

He shared that he and Halstead were writing together on a short-lived show for the WB called Modern Men, starring Jane Seymour and Max Greenfield. And in one of the episodes, one of the guys is trying to break up with his drab girlfriend played by guest actor, Arden Mirren. Oh, I love her. She's hilarious. She's so funny. Warren said she was amazingly funny.

And Halstead and Warren had pitched a line that she hates music. And what Arden's character said was, not a fan, like about music. And they said that Arden killed it and it was really funny. And when they went to write this episode, they really could see Angela identifying with that and they borrowed their own line and added a little tweak. I think it is such an amazing character trait for a person to just be like, I don't get music. Yeah, I'm not a fan.

I'm not a big music person myself. I know this about you, Jenna, because when we went on our writer's retreat, you were very concentrated on our meal plan. What were we going to be eating? Yes. And I said something like, what about a playlist for the car ride? And you're like, yeah, I don't care. I don't know if this is why, but the car that I drove out to LA, it had no air conditioning,

and no working radio. Oh my gosh, you were driving in a car with no music on a road trip? Yeah. And I also had this car in college and my college was three hours from my hometown. And so I would often drive very, very, very long distances in silence or I sometimes did bring like an old fashioned cassette player and hit play. I hope. And I could play off of that, but I got really conditioned to driving without sound.

And now I listen to news or podcasts, but I just never kind of got into playlists or music. Oh my gosh. I find it like, I don't know. I do like music. Like I have whole albums. I have sounds of Scranton, you know, like I use music a lot when I'm formulating a character, which is so interesting because if you had to formulate the character of Jenna Fisher,

you would have no music, you'd have no music, but good food. Yeah. I mean, I love a combo. I love, I love a playlist for a road trip, but then I like to turn it off and talk, you know, because I'm chatty. My mom always says the best place to talk is in the car. That's why I love to do school pick up and drop off. I feel like my kids are super chatty.

Yeah. Talking about their day. Right after school. Yeah. My dad loves a playlist and he makes a playlist for every road trip we take and it's really cute because the kids now are so connected to it. So we were listening a lot to the red hot chili peppers when we went up to the mountains in Big Bear and Jack will say whenever they come on now, he's like, that's Big Bear.

You know, my kids and Lee are very connected to music and they do the same thing and we have those same things. Like Vampire Weekend for us was like the summer of 2019. That's Vampire Weekend. White Stripes, Seven Nation Army. Love it. They would listen to that song as we were driving up to go skiing in Santa Fe. Oh, yeah.

So whenever I hear that song, I just feel the snowy mountain. I'm going to Wichita. Yeah. It's so good. So good. Oh, can I take us into the conference room with Dwight and Phyllis where he's treating her like livestock and he's rubbing otter oil into her back. Yeah.

I'm giving her a carrot. I thought for sure this otter oil thing was made up. Is it real? Lady otter glands can be purchased. Oh, how do they get them? Well from dead otters. They take their anal glands. Oh Lord.

And they grind them up and they age them and then they preserve them. Who thought of that? Who thought of is like, save that otter's ass. I don't know. There's some stuff in there I need to grind up. You can get one ounce for about eight bucks on another website. I saw you could get it for six. So if you're in the market, shop around.

Then what do people use it for? That's what I wanted to know. I guess you use it to lure an otter. Which made me wonder. You lure an otter with their own anal glands crushed up. Yeah. With the scent of their own anal glands. Why?

Exactly. Why am I luring an otter? I guess hunting. But it's just for sport because you don't really use them for anything. You don't use their fur or you don't eat them. You just, I guess, sprinkle their anal glands and then kill them. Why? This is horrible.

Well, there's a whole market for this sort of like- Surely there's something we don't know. I don't know. But there's like a lot of gland. You can buy a lot of glands of different animals for this purpose of luring them. So basically these animals smell their own. And I guess they think it's another otter and they come out to say hi. Terrible.

This is like Bambi all over again for me. I know. And no references to rubbing it into someone's back for an injury. I just want to say if Phyllis went out to the woods, she would be very popular. It would be like a snow white moment for her. She would have a lot of otters coming to say hi. So Dwight and the Shroots could kill them. I guess so.

But that is some information I found. I am confused by all of that information, but thank you for sharing it. You're welcome. Okay. There is a full-on dance competition happening now. There sure is. And we got mail from Alexis W. in Australia who said, I have to know if the dance competition between Andy and Kelly was freestyle or scripted.

Lady, I went to the script. And guess what? It is fully scripted. I'm going to read you the descriptions. Here is Andy's dance-off description of the script. Andy takes a chair and hops over the back of it, turns around, does a Fred Astaire walk over it so that the chair's back falls to the ground. He picks it up, sits on it, and spins on it in a Bob Fosse fashion flashing jazz hands.

He then throws one leg over the back of the chair, gets up, picks up the chair, and pretends that the chair is attacking him and then pretends to be killed by the chair. He gets up and eyes Kelly like try to top that. Kelly's description is this. Kelly walks over to the shower area. She pretends to turn on the shower and mimes getting wet and lathering herself with soap. Oh my. She then walks to the chair, which is next to where Andy stands.

She stops at the chair, turns like a runway model, winks at Andy, picks up the chair, and walks back to the shower area with it. She sits down, arches her back, a la flash dance, and pretends to be drenched by the shower. She whips her hair around her head in a frenzy. And Kelly starts krunking. Okay. That's a dance move.

She's putting all her best stuff out there. She is. Well, you might notice that the way it is described is not exactly how you end up seeing it in the show. And that is because Randy did hire a choreographer, and the choreographer's job was to interpret the script and then work with the actors to come up with their moves. Randy said our choreographer's name was Mary Ann Kellogg, and she came to us via recommendation from our first AD, Kelly Cantley.

Randy said she was absolutely superb and really got this scene. And Warren said they had to use a good choreographer because if the actors had just freestyled the whole time, it would have been impossible to edit. So although Mindy and Ed brought a lot of ideas for what they would do, this was a planned out dance off. Yeah. Kind of bass loosely on the script, it seems, but it morphed. It evolved in this rehearsal process.

And Halstead said he definitely remembers them pitching that flash dance moment, and that made it in. You know, something else that Randy shared with us was that we were not listening to music during this. They were using what's called a thump track. Again, for editing purposes, they would just have this speaker that would play the sort of baseline beat of the song so that the actors would be on tempo. But for editing purposes, they put the song on later.

I know. So these guys are doing this whole thing. You were there. Was it so crazy? It was so crazy. And also, this is not about the dance off, but I could always really tell when there was no music when Ellie was dancing because Ellie just kind of does these jabs and kind of runs in place, like not at all to what the beat of the song was that's playing.

But there was one little moment in the background. I start to tidy up. Yes. And Michael tells Angela to stop. And this cracked me up, Jenna, because I do this in real life. I often at a party at a total stranger's house will start stacking plates, busing dirty cups, putting napkins in the trash bin. Well, this is where we're similar because I do the same thing.

Someone did that to me once. I had thrown a party and one of the moms went around and was tidying kind of near the end. And I was like, oh my gosh, that just took up like 25% of the cleaning. And it was such a nice gesture. So now I like to do it too. When I leave a party, I'll first do a sweep. I get rid of all the empty cans and glasses and stack the plastic cups. Yes.

Yes. Put stuff by the sink. I know. I related to Angela in that moment, but I love how she's like, am I not supposed to have any fun? Yes, because tidying is fun for her. We should probably check back in on Phyllis. Yeah.

Dwight is still trying to work out this kink in her back and then Phyllis just blurts out. I think Bob's going to cheat on me with his new secretary. And then she starts laughing. And then her back is better. Yeah. And Dwight's like, why are you laughing? And she said, oh, just saying it out loud. It just sounds so ridiculous.

And she was able to let all that tension and stress go. We had a fan question from Liz B. in Columbus, Ohio. She said, in this episode, Phyllis mentions that Bob might be having an affair, but then no one mentions it again. Was there more to this storyline that got deleted, either from this episode or future episodes? No. We asked Warren and Halstead about this, and they told us that their idea here was just

that the cause of her back pain was the stress. And they thought it was a funny way to end this storyline of Dwight trying to heal her. Like, Dwight's treatments weren't the cure, and the dancing wasn't even the problem. Right. Like, she was going to throw her back out anyway from just holding on to this little stress, and then she cured herself. And then Dwight had to staple her blouse back together. He did.

So now we're about to see Jim and Pam. And Pam's going to come out of the bathroom. So cute. She looked so sweet, Jenna, in your pink dress and your hair up. I have to say something, though. What? Did you notice throughout the whole beginning of this episode that I had this pink dress on underneath my sweater?

Well, it looked like a pink sweater with a pink skirt, so I thought it was a good, fakey sale. But then that tells me you wore the dress the whole day. Why? Yeah. But why did— She went and did her hair all different and put flowers in her hair. Why couldn't she just bring her dress to work?

I know. But also, why did she drive to New York to start art school in a pencil skirt? I don't know. Pam's a mystery when she comes to some of her wardrobe choices. She really is. She really, really is. I feel like people in the office would have clocked this strange, poofy, bubble skirt coming out of her bottom half.

I clocked it in the very first scene. I was sitting in my chair, and I was like, what is that? You know what I thought it was? I thought I had a blanket. Blanket. Because you were cold. Yes. And I was like, oh my gosh, they caught my blanket.

And I was going to do a blanket catch, proof of cold. I was like, oh no, that's my wardrobe. Well, as they're walking out of the office, they hear the music playing, and they're like, I think we should pop in. We should go just for a minute before we head to the courthouse. I think Jim says it would mean so much to him. Mm-hmm. Michael is thrilled.

Oh my gosh, he's so happy the whole gang is there. And now everyone is dancing, I mean, except Angela. And Kevin and Lynn, who are making out. Full on make out, which is the end of the Kevin Bacon's runner. We got some mail about the dancing here. We're dancing to YMCA. Monica A. and Jennifer P. said, were Jim's dorky dance moves choreographed, or is that John Krasinski's own true style?

I don't think your dance moves were choreographed in the background. Sarah Lassen89 said, please address the fact that John Krasinski seems to only have one dance move jumping up and down. He does the same thing in the lip dub cold open of nepotism. Oh my gosh. I will tell you, John and I met with the choreographer. Did you really? We did.

Because we had this discussion, like, what is Jim and Pam's dancing gonna be when they get there? And also they say they like cheesy, so what does that mean? Well, we had all these conversations and one of them was, is there any reason why Jim and Pam might be slow dancing to YMCA, where they're making kind of a wedding moment out of it? We discussed, we were like, I don't think so. I think we need to lean into the kind of like they like cheesy, you know.

It's part of the reason they want a big wedding, so they can be dorky with their friends on the dance floor. Yes. And so the choreographer just was like, well, let's see how you two would do it. I'll just remember, I feel like you could hear a pin drop. We're like, okay. I mean, that's really pretty much just us. That's just, that's what I thought.

Me and John just, I was shocked when you said you met with a choreographer. But they liked it, and so the choreographer was like, yeah, just do that. That's good. Perfect. That's good. Maybe she was like, I don't even know where to begin, so just do what you're doing. Well I'll say, I loved shooting these dance scenes. I was so happy to finally be down in the disco, but lady, I love a dance party.

I know you do. And I will stay on the dance floor the whole time at your wedding. I want to be out on that dance floor, you know, for my 30th birthday, I had a dance party and I danced the whole time. And my 50th is going to be coming up in a few years and I want a dance party again. You should have a dance party. And I maybe should put on the invitation, wear comfy shoes. And I may not talk to you because I'm going to be dancing the whole time and that's what

I want for my party. But for my 40th, I was seven months pregnant with my daughter. And so Lee and I just went and had a little baby moon slash birthday. So it'll be like 20 years since I had a dance party. Well, I can't wait because I want me, you and Oscar to recreate what we did for years, which was we did all the single ladies by Beyonce, the three of us. I want all the single ladies. I want sexy back.

I want gold digger. I want some Lady Gaga. Oh yeah. I want them all. I just rewatched my wedding video because for my anniversary this year, my husband finally edited together all the footage from our wedding. Really? Yes.

He said it took him a year because he just had to work on it a little bit at a time. It's almost 30 minutes and we sat down with the kids and watched it. And it was so fun to see all of us dancing, Jenna. I mean, there were so many elements that were great, but it just warmed my heart. Like there you are on the dance floor, we're like dancing our hearts out. It's just so great. Well I want it. You're going to have it.

You're going to have a dance party. Okay, good. We painted hummingbirds for my 50th and by God, we're going to dance on your 50th. Good. Yay. I'm going to make sure it happens. Well there's one person who refuses to dance in Cafe Disco and that is Angela, but, but she's going to sway her foot a little bit to the music.

She's going to tap her finger. Yeah. And Paul Stitch shared that this whole storyline of Michael starting a Cafe Disco was always going to end with this moment. I did not know that. He said that their litmus test for whether or not Michael could pull off his Cafe Disco dream was Angela because she thought that hanging out at a disco all day was completely unacceptable.

She was the lone holdout through most of the show and Michael, if you notice, keeps checking in with her, checking in with her, trying to engage her. So in the end, that little tap and that little foot sway, that is Michael's victory. That's his big win. And Warren shared, by the way, that in his mind, he thought that this moment actually is the beginning of an evolution for the character of Angela, that this moment that shows how severe and closed off her character can be, but it's a baby step toward her maybe opening up to new possibilities.

Ooh, I like that. So this moment was very rich in their outline and their writing of this episode. And very thought out. Mm-hmm. Well, I went to the script. I wanted to see what was in the shooting draft for this moment. There was a Michael voiceover. Here's what it says in the script.

Michael sits with Angela. He looks around the room and takes in all of the dancing couples, Jim and Pam, Phyllis and Bob, Kelly and Andy, and Kevin and Lynn, who are furiously making out. Michael notices Angela is tapping her foot to the music and he smiles to himself. And this is the voiceover that would then play. They needed me. I left. I will never let them down again.

I will always be there for them. I will be at every important moment of their lives, their births, their deaths, their babies, their hospital stuff, no matter where or whether they want me there or not for them. That actually made me get a little choked up. I know. Isn't that so sweet? I really wish that had been in. I know.

I thought that was really sweet. One other thing I want to share is that when we were filming in Cafe Disco and trying to figure out this moment of how Michael would see my foot swaying, my finger tapping, we shot just a quick little tag that didn't make it in. And everyone has left Cafe Disco and only Angela Martin is in there cleaning. And Michael walks by and she is dancing as she cleans. Why do I remember this? We just shot it really quickly and just as an alt, just in case.

Yeah. Like you actually respond to the music when everybody's left, but it's still that victory. He's still got you. Yeah. It didn't make it in. It's not in the shooting draft. It's not in deleted scenes. But that was an alt that they shot.

I wonder if we were all like waiting in the hallway while you did that or something because I have such a memory of it. It was really quick. We just sort of grabbed it in the moment. But of course the actual tag that made it in, which is so great, is Kelly piercing Andy's ear in the restroom. This really lends itself to that idea that they could be a couple. I know.

Because this is a very cute coupley thing. It is. Halstead said that they actually did a take where Mindy, as Kelly, fully pierces Andy's ear and it was painful and bloody and a mess, but they cut it for time. Well, that's it, guys. That's Cafe Disco. It is. And it was so fun.

I loved rewatching this. Thank you so much to Warren Lieberstein and Halstead Sullivan, Randy Cordray for giving us all kinds of fun behind the scenes details. And Lady, before we go, you know how at the beginning of the episodes we always say, like, when do you listen? Where do you listen? You always say good morning and then you remember that people might not listen in the morning. Yes.

Well, we got a letter from Katie C, who is 14 years old, lives in the UK. And she said, I listen to Office Ladies whilst delivering newspapers every day and it makes it so much more fun when it's raining or way too warm for my ginger jeans. I know I have the podcast to keep me going and I never give up. I love that. Well, hi, Katie. Hi, Katie. Good luck today on your paper route.

Be safe. And Jenna and I are sending you big hugs. Thanks for listening to Office Ladies. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is produced by Earwolf, Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey. Our show is executive produced by Cody Fisher. Our producer is Cassie Jerkins. Our sound engineer is Sam Kieffer.

And our associate producer is Ainsley Bubicoe. Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton. For ad-free versions of Office Ladies, go to StitcherPremium.com. For a free one-month trial at Stitcher Premium, use code, Office.