Office Ladies - Dream Team

Episode Date: November 3, 2021

This week we’re breaking down “Dream Team”! Michael puts together his dream team for the Michael Scott Paper Company which consists of Vikram, Pam and… Ryan. Meanwhile, Jim kisses up to Charles Miner by pretending to be a soccer player and this fib results in Phyllis getting hit in the head with a soccer ball and possibly swallowing a crown. Angela breaks down the OG Dream Team from the 1992 Men’s Olympics Basketball team, Jenna is bringing back the flower lapel and the ladies discuss Vikram's famous quote, “Confidence. It’s the food of the wise man, but the liquor of the fool” and why it’s so mysterious. So make lots of french toast, perfect your best soccer moves and enjoy this episode.

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. Hi everyone. Hi. Lady, I want you to look at me. I am looking at you and the first thing I said when I sat down was, I love this top. What is this? I said I'm gonna bring it up. It is a sweatshirt. Uh-huh. But look, it has poofies. Poofy shoulders. Is that a hood? It's a poofy, shouldered, hooded sweatshirt. Remember, I told you these poofy things are

back. This is true. Jenna went to the mall yesterday and she was texting me pictures of what I can only describe as Angela Martin's dream wardrobe. Yes, it's lacy, high neck, poofy shoulders, poofy arms. When we do our book tour, we're gonna be dressing this way. And I will also have, you know, speaking of our book tour wardrobe, remember, I said, I was gonna bring back the giant, like, cloth flower that I don't know why I have so many in my closet. It was a thing. I was watching Drew Barrymore's talk show last week. She was wearing one. No. I took a picture. What, on her blouse? Yeah, her shirt. She had a fakie flower. Oh, I need to see it. Mark my words. I am on trend. It's poofy sleeves

and fakie flowers. 2022, they're coming at ya. It's all happening, guys. Angela Martin fashion is here, mixed in with a little Jenna Fisher. A lot of people wrote in to say the fakie flower was from Sex and the City. I guess Carrie Bradshaw loved a fakie flower. She is not the OG of the fakie flower. Who is? I mean, I can't even tell you how much mail we got about it. I mean, I feel like fakie flower was here in the 80s. Let's look up some Molly Ringwald. Come on. I'm with you there. Yeah. I'm positive I had a fakie flower. I clipped on a hat because I was trying to be, like, was that movie pretty in pink? I have decided that I'm going to single-handedly bring back the fakie flower during our book

tour. Even though Drew Barrymore wore one on her show, I'm going to bring it wide in 2022. Bring it wide? Yeah, I am. That should be our book tour slogan. Bring it wide. No. You know what? Let's rethink that. We should not. You know what? I'm going to think on it. Okay. Bring your flower. No. Well, maybe. No. We'll see you on the book tour. But for today, we're going to be discussing Dream Team, which is season five, episode 20 of The Office written by BJ Novak and directed by Paul Feig. Let's have a summary. Here it is. Michael has officially left under Mifflin, and he has started his own paper company called Michael Scott Paper Company in his condo. Pam has joined him. Michael is having a little

trouble facing his workday, but with Pam's encouragement, he decides to assemble a Dream Team to get their company started, and they are also going to have a meeting with a potential investor. Things are looking up. Yeah. Meanwhile, back at the office, Charles is in charge. I know. In Scranton. Hmm. Andy discovers that Charles is a soccer fan, and now everybody is trying to kiss up to Charles and get on his good side. It's the first time we've seen the man smile. Jim is even going to pretend that he used to play soccer. This does not go well. No. You know what I loved about the storyline, and it's something BJ talked about in the

DVD commentary for this episode. He said, normally, when you break a story, you have the A story, which is the main story, and then you have the B story, which is like the other side dish, if you will. He said that Idris's scenes were so great, and the dynamic that Charles Miner had with the rest of the office was so interesting for them. They really felt like his storyline as two A stories. It felt like that. Yeah. Yeah. This felt like a very well-balanced episode. Right. I thought that was interesting. In fact, number one, this episode starts a delightful arc where Michael is going to run his own paper company. And I found out that it was our writer Charlie Grandy who came

up with this idea, and they had been planning this arc for months. Oh. Well, he was on the DVD commentary for this episode. I don't know if they mentioned this on the commentary, but this episode was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Single Camera Editing for a Comedy Series. Our editors were nominated. That's fantastic. It was edited by Claire Scanlon. Now, Claire came in to replace Dean Holland when he moved over to work as an editor and eventually a director on Parks and Recreation. So now our two editors were Dave Rogers and Claire Scanlon. You might remember Claire because she had a cameo as Freckles in Lecture Circuit Part 2. Before this, she edited Golden Ticket, but Dream Team was her second episode

and she was nominated for an Emmy. Claire. Claire. Of course, now Claire is like big badass director. Amazing. I would love to have Claire on. We should have Claire on. I know. Fast fact number two is a location breakdown. I knew you'd have one. Well, a good deal of this episode takes place at Michael's condo and this was not an easy feat. Randy Cordray told me we went back to the same condo complex where we shot Michael's condo before for dinner party and pretty much any episode featuring Michael's condo. It was in Recita, California and it was owned now by a married couple. In order to use their condo, we had to move them into a hotel for

an entire week. Okay. We had to take all of their stuff out. They put it into cartons in the garage. We painted the entire downstairs and decorated it. They made a point to decorate it differently from dinner party because, you know, now Michael is single. Yes. I noticed the only thing that remained that I recognized from dinner party was the St. Pauli girl beer sign. Same in the dining room. Yes. We only shot at this condo for one day and then they had to completely restore it back to the way the couple had it. Here is the thing that is fascinating to me because what they would do is they would take like a gazillion photos of every shelf, of everything. Anything that we moved, they took a picture

of it before they moved it and they would put it in a binder, like hard copy photos because back then, you know, that's what it was. Yes. It would be like kitchen counter. Yes. Know that when the people came back, like even their little spoon caddy was where they left it or if they had a bookshelf, all their stuff, the books were in the same order as before. The picture frames were right where they left them. Everything. Everything. Isn't that fascinating? I know. It is amazing. In the DVD commentary, BJ talked about how carefully they decorated every wall. They put so much thought in detail and you just see it just quickly in the background, but I caught a few things I'm sure you guys did too. I'm

going to bring them up when we get to it. I love it. Fast fact number three is a guest star homage to the amazing actress who played Nana. Her name is Connie Sawyer. Just incredible. We got a piece of mail from Meredith Q who wrote, I did a deep dive. The woman who played Nana needs some recognition. Yes, she does. First of all, she lived to be 105. Who does that? Wow. Is what Meredith said. And according to IMDB, her first acting credit was in 1953 at the age of 40. Her last acting credit was in 2014 at the age of 101. That 61 years of acting plus she acted over the age of 100. What a rock star. Tell me everything. Well, I looked into this woman and performance had

been a part of her life, her whole life. She had done vaudeville. She had performed live with Frank Sinatra, but it's true that she never had a film or television role until she was 40. So on the commentary, the writers were talking about her on set. They said she had the most amazing stories. She was throwing out stories about Bing Crosby, Bob Hope. They were just like, oh my gosh, she was fascinating. What I love about her story, Jenna, is that she did stage shows for years. She didn't get an on camera role till 40, but this was her passion. And you should never let anyone take that away from you. However, your passion manifests itself. I just love her story. She just kept at it. She has over 140 acting credits

and almost all of them are small roles. And she has this quote about her acting career where she said, life is fun. That has nothing to do with whether you become a star or not. And if the parts aren't too large, I can go around talking to everybody. It's like going to a party. And when she was 104, she wrote an autobiography called, I never wanted to be a star and I wasn't. And she self published it in 2017 at 104. Wow. Well, that is amazing. BJ said the scenes that you guys did with her, that when they threw out some improv, she didn't miss a beat. Well, I remember her from when Harry met Sally. She is one of the women in the couples that they interview documentary style. Yes. Yes. She has no lines. Her husband

speaks the whole time, but it all plays out on her face. And she is so good. And she has this story where she says that she read the script and she went to Rob Reiner and she said, I want to be the woman in the deli who says the famous line, I'll have what she's loving. She said, I want the show stopping line. And he said, I'm sorry, we already shot that. My mother did it. Yeah, his mom did it. But she's just so good. She passed away in 2018 at the age of 105. And at the time of her death, she was the oldest working actress in Hollywood and the oldest member of the Screen Actors Guild Union. Amazing woman. Amazing. Connie Sawyer, everybody. Well, that's all I've got for Fast Facts.

But before we go to break, you know, Marcus York, who played Billy Merchant. Yeah. Is in this episode. This is his last appearance on the show. And he actually passed away earlier this year. He was just wonderful. And he was so wonderful to us. He shared a story with us. He did. He and I would text and we talked on the phone several times. He loved his character of Billy Merchant. He was so supportive of the show. And we were just so fond of him. We got a letter from a man named Nathan N. And I thought this summed up Marcus pretty well. He said, I just wanted to comment on Marcus York, because I believe this is his last episode. And I wanted to let people know what kind of guy he is. He was from Dark County,

Ohio, which is near where I work as a police officer. Just so happens that my partner met him one night when he was checking on him when he pulled over to use his phone. Upon Marcus telling him he was on the office, my partner said that he's never watched the show, but that I did and I was going to be so bummed that I missed him because I've talked about him in the past. Marcus asked him if I was working and he said I wouldn't be in for about an hour. Not only did Marcus wait that hour, but on top of that, he took a picture with me, his idea, hung out for an hour and gave me an autographed picture made out to my wife. He seemed so happy to meet a fan that knew him and was interested in him and

his career. Even though I only met him that one time, he definitely left a lasting impression for sure. Such a nice guy and a tragic loss. That is so well said. He was such a nice person. And he was so aware of the joy that he could bring to people by just being open to that fan experience or talking about his time on the show. And he certainly did that with us here at Office Ladies. He did. Much love to Marcus and his family. All right, let's go to break. Let's do it. Well, we are back from break. And before we get into Dream Team, I couldn't help but remember the OG Dream Team, Jenna. Was it basketball? Yes. Yes. You guys, the 1992 United

States men's Olympic basketball team, nicknamed the Dream Team. It was the first American Olympic team to feature active professional players from the National Basketball Association. And the team has been described from journalists around the world as the greatest sports team ever assembled. Wow. I know. I mean, I totally remember that. Me too. It was a big deal. It was a big deal, you guys. And listen, this is like when I was in school. So when this episode was coming up, whenever I saw the title Dream Team, I just always think, that's what I think of too. Yeah, I don't know if you guys think of that. But I just want to read the roster and just a few stats, okay, of this team. All right, the full roster for

the 1992 Dream Team was Charles Barkley, Larry Bird, Patrick Ewing, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Carl Malone, Chris Mullins, Scottie Pippin, David Robinson, John Stockton. Then they added two players later, Clyde Drexler, and they included one collegiate player, Christian Leightner of Duke University, who was chosen over Louisiana State University's Shaquille O'Neal. Wow. Yeah. Head coach was Chuck Daly. Here are some things I thought were fun. The co-captains of the team were Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. They were undefeated in the Olympics. Chuck Daly used zero timeouts for the entire eight games. Not a single timeout was called, which is wild to me. Larry Bird was the oldest member of the Dream Team, and

guess how old he was? He was the oldest member of the Dream Team. 41. 35. Wow. That was the old guy. And I thought this was interesting. Guess who led the Dream Team in scoring? I'm going to admit here that I don't watch basketball, and I don't know anything about basketball. So I know these people's names, and I know that they played basketball. Okay. Okay. Well, I would have guessed Michael Jordan. Who shoots the most? Wouldn't you have guessed Michael Jordan, Sam, Cassie? He's a good player. He's amazing. Watch the last dance documentary. Amazing. I would have guessed Michael Jordan, but in fact, it was Charles Barkley, and Michael Jordan came in second. Oh, how about them apples? But anyway, when I think of Dream Team,

I think of the OG Dream Team. But you know, Jenna, this isn't the only time in the course of our show that we mention the Dream Team. When else do we mention the Dream Team? Bonus points if you can guess this. The Dream Team in Meredith. I mean, I'm assuming it's a party planning thing, but I don't know what episode that's from. The Dream Team in Meredith is from, some of you out there probably guessed this, season seven, Goodbye, Michael. Oh, and it was about the party planning committee. It's Angela, Phyllis, and Pam. And then Meredith kind of pops her head in the back. Are we planning the goodbye party for Michael? Is that what's going to happen? I think so. All right. So Dream Team, two of them in the course

of the office. One is Michael Scott Paper Company, which is Vikram, Pam, Ryan, and Michael, and the other is the party planning committee. Well, let's get into this episode, Jenna, because phones are ringing. Kevin's at reception. It's not going well. He's trying so hard to transfer these calls. I mean, he's just yelling across the office rather than transfer the calls because he can't remember everyone's extension. And he's sort of yelling personal stuff like it cracked me up that Oscar's mom was calling. Yes. He yelled it across the bullpen. Well, he is going to try to transfer a call to Andy. Yeah. But first he's going to transfer it to pretty much every other desk in the office. He's going to run around

and then transfer it and then transfer it and transfer it. Yeah, like it goes to Creed and then it goes, he's just running all over the place. We got a question from Brenda R. in Mexico who wants to know, was Brian really transferring the phone calls on set or was this some behind the scenes magic? Well, when I would be Pam at the reception desk, they had a list of the real extensions because the phones really worked. Yeah. And I would really transfer the calls. But the initial ring would come from somebody behind the scenes. There was a desk with a phone that was also connected to our phones backstage. So there were two options when you wanted to transfer a call. Either you did it for real

or you would just hang up and the person backstage would make another person's phone ring. But that would require them sort of trying to whisper into a walkie talkie to get them to coordinate all that. Yeah. So I always just transferred the calls. I mean, I had my real life receptionist experience. Yeah. I got to put it to use. Yeah. But I didn't know what Brian did. So I texted him and he said he also really transferred the calls. But he would have to remember the extensions because he was running around. After the first transfer, he couldn't take his slip of paper with him anymore. Right. Oh my gosh. I still have a photo of all of our transfer numbers that was taped to my phone. I took a picture

of it. Oh, wow. Yeah. Well, in the DVD commentary, Matt Sohn, our camera operator, shared with us that on the day they were filming, Brian was doing the transferring, but they were having some issues with the phones. And so they weren't going to some of the desk clumps they were supposed to. And so Brian actually ended up running around to wherever it was ringing. Oh, wow. So that mania was a little real. He really didn't know where it was going to ring. I think there's at least one time where it didn't ring where it was supposed to. And he just ran. And Matt said they were just following him. We had a fan question from Monica in Scranton, Angela. And this one's for you. Okay. When Angela yells out,

you're bad at this too. Were you implying that Pam is bad at it? And so is Kevin or that Kevin is bad at everything? Well, first of all, that line is scripted. That was not improv. And I think Angela is just implying that Kevin is horrible at everything. Okay. I actually don't think it's a dig at Pam for once. I think it's more of a dig at Kevin. We also got a piece of mail from Grace B. Who said, Kevin taught me how to transfer a call. She said she was an office aide in high school. They got a new phone system. She wasn't sure what to do, but she remembered this episode, transfer extension transfer, and it worked. Oh my gosh. So she says, thank you. You're welcome. Well, in the script,

when Kevin finally gets the call to Andy, this was the stage direction. People add lib, way to go. All right. Applaud. Giving Kevin fist bumps. He is very happy. In the background of Andy's talking head, the celebration continues. Kevin shakes up a soda can and opens it. That's very dream team ask. I know. Very sports celebration. I know. Well, now Pam is going to arrive for her first day of work. First day. There's a sign and everything. I know. It's official. I don't know if you noticed her little blazer. I did. There was a very big wardrobe discussion about where we started this arc. Yes. For what Pams, I'm a paper salesman outfit is. Yes. So here's one thing. We originally thought, should she

wear a pants suit, like kind of a power suit. So bold, Pam. But listen to this. In an earlier season, there had been a discussion about if Pam could sometimes wear pants to the office because she had such a uniform of her cardigan and her pencil skirt and everything. And it went all the way up to the network. And the network said, Pam must wear pencil skirts. Yeah. Okay. I have wondered about this, Jenna. And I've never told you this, but for a few episodes, they put Angela Martin in dress pants and then all of a sudden the pants went away. And so I went to wardrobe and I said, Hey, can we bring back the dress pants? Those are so comfortable. And they said, Oh, actually, we got a note that they just want you in skirts.

Isn't that interesting? I did not know you got the same note. I thought that was crazy. And so we were reminded that I could not wear a pants suit. We had to keep the pencil skirt. So only thing we could change was the top half of my body. Who was the brass at the top of NBC that was like office ladies must wear skirts. Well, look at Phyllis always in a skirt. Meredith always in some kind of jumper. Kelly. Kelly. Jan. And Nellie. Skirts. However, Karen always wore pants. I don't think she ever wore a skirt. And I think that sometimes Holly wore pants. Am I right? But mostly it was dresses and skirts. Joe Bennett wore pants. But those were all guest stars. Core cast had to be in skirts, I guess. I

don't know. Who was the network brass at the time? Was it the guy from Mad Men? Was Don Draper running the network? Is that who maybe I fill a soap box of coming? No, I'm gonna leave it. I'll leave it. Let's leave it. Everyone knows it. They heard it. They heard it was subtle. It was there. Okay, so bottom line is here's what we did. I switched out my pantyhose for tights. I'm wearing a little bit more of a heel bit of a power shoe and a blazer. So they were little changes, but they did feel impactful. I thought Pam felt a little more polished. Yeah. That was our goal. Well, Michael is going to start his first day of work in a bathrobe. Pam's like, Michael, you were expecting me, weren't you?

He's like, yeah. Yeah. She's like, are you wearing anything under the robe? And he's like, that's inappropriate. He brings her inside and he actually has set up his dining room. Sort of office-like. It's nice. It is nice. I think these are all items he took from the supply chest as he was leaving. Clearly. And he starts making French toast. A lot of French toast. And there was a deleted Pam talking head where she explains her motivation to join Michael. She steps outside on the patio while he's making French toast. Here it is. I felt ready for a change. After all these years at Dunder Mifflin, I just wasn't getting the same rush that I used to get from being a receptionist. This feels good.

This egg won't crack. Oh, okay. The egg won't crack. Yeah. He interrupts her to help him crack eggs. Pam enjoys her French toast. It was very good. I ate it. Did you really? It was delicious. That was just real. Way to go, prop food. I know. We had a fan question from Ayla H who said who had to make all the French toast? Phil Shea and his team. They made a bunch of French toast. But here's the problem. Michael won't stop making French toast. And Pam realizes it's because he's having some feelings about really getting started in this new company. She tries to get him to stop mixing the eggs and it ends up spilling eggs all over him. All over him and into his crocs. We got questions about

that. People wanted to know, was it real egg in the bowl? Was the line, I have egg in my crocs improvised? And people are also curious, how did we do this scene? Because it seems difficult to have the egg go in the same place each time. Well, I will say that Steve did improvise the line, I have egg in my crocs. It was very hard not to laugh, but it's true. We couldn't get the egg to splash in the same way every time. So I could not laugh because this was a winner. We would have to use a whole take. We couldn't cut between different takes because the egg would be different. So much pressure. It's so hard to not laugh with Steve. I know. But I didn't. But I think you can tell how hard I am trying not to laugh

in this scene. Do you constipate it or something? Yeah, I do. I look like you can tell I'm like tensely holding in. It works though. It just looks like Pam is like watching someone who she thinks is supposed to know what they're doing, who clearly doesn't. She's like, oh, crap, what have I gotten myself into? Well, we did do several takes of this and it was a big reset every time because we would have to clean up all the eggs in the kitchen. We'd have to clean up all the eggs on Steve. He would have to change his bathrobe. But this one was perfect. This was the time he improvised that line and the egg just went everywhere. So I also knew as I was standing there, this is the one. Do not mess this up. Right. So

one thing to point out, you guys, which I love about our show, to nerd out on you for a minute. Since Steve improvised the line, eggs in my crocs, that meant our camera operator had to improvise the move to pan down to his feet. Yes. That wouldn't have been planned, but it sells the joke. So good. Such a great two-hander. We also had a fan catch in this scene in the kitchen. Sierra G and Lauren W point out that at four minutes 31 seconds, there's a sign on his kitchen counter that says his. Yeah. But there is no hers. Hers. I saw that too. And they were like, I guess Jan took the hers when she left. Or maybe she never even wanted hers out. Maybe Michael just bought a his. I think he bought a his

her and she never put hers out. I don't know. It's sad no matter how it shook out. Should we go back to the office and see what's happening back there? Yes, because this was a really fun conference room scene. We were having a absolute blast with Idris. He's holding court the way Michael used to, and he's telling them how things are going to proceed now that they've lost two employees. But Kelly and Angela just want to know more about Charles. I love that Kelly's like, where are you staying in Scranton? And he's like a hotel. And Angela goes, where were you born? Where were you born? It was so fun. It was hard not to laugh. And I want you guys to know when Andy asked how the operations of the company are going

in the background, I caught Brian out of character. He is clearly just Brian in this moment. If you go to three minutes, two seconds, it's very subtle, but look at his face. That is Brian and not Kevin. I'm going to show you a picture, Jenna, because we were just having a great time in this scene. There were all these moments when you didn't know if you were on camera and sometimes look at that face. Oh, that's Brian. I know. That's 100% Brian. He's just trying not to laugh and he's looking at John. Well then we're going to see Phyllis Creed and Stanley sort of observing Charles in his office. Charles is on the phone. They're like, does he eat? Does he go to the bathroom?

He's the total mystery to them. Jenna, there was more to this. There was a series of talking heads where everyone in the office is sort of commenting on how Charles is a mystery. It starts with Angela Martin. Get ready for some titillated Angela. Charles is a mystery. I wish there was a way I could curl up by the fire with him and flip right to his last page. Okay. I am in love with that phrase. The next time I seduce my husband, I'm going to say, baby, I want to flip right to your last page. I know, right? See what he says. I love that. I thought that was amazing. And then Toby has one and Toby basically is like, I don't know why everyone thinks Charles is a mystery. If anyone would just come back

and talk to me, I can share with you. I have a lot of information about him. If anyone just wants to talk to me. I mean, I'm sure Toby does know where he was born, I guess. Yeah. And then Jenna Charles had a really big talking head. He's super relaxed. This is what it said in the script. Charles seems relaxed, his guard down, speaking casually to the camera in a way he never would to his employees. Oh, and this is what was in the shooting draft. Mysterious. Just because I show some restraint with my employees when it comes to talking about my personal life doesn't mean there's some big mystery. I grew up in a suburb of DC, middle class family. My dad was a CPA, went to University of Maryland, studied business,

engaged once, childhood friend, didn't work out. Then he shows a picture to the camera. I'll always love her. Then I get my haircut on the first day of every month. So I remember there's always less to cut on March 1st. I like sour foods, but I hate grapefruit. Couldn't tell you why just don't get it. I have a parakeet named Murphy trying to teach it to talk. It repeats whatever I say. If the thing I say is squawk, who is this person? Oh my gosh. Those talking heads would have filled out the rest of the story. I wonder if that talking head exists somewhere. I don't know. Dave Rogers. Dave Rogers does it because that is priceless, but the Angela and Toby one are in the deleted scenes on the DVD. Back at

Michael's condo, he is doing some ab exercises. He is. And Jenna, if you have a camera operator on a DVD commentary, here are some things you'd learn. While Michael's doing his sit-ups, the shot that's on Pam at four minutes, 45 seconds, that was Matt soon. Oh, you were his shot. Okay. I don't know. I just love that. We had a fan question from Gianna W. When Michael is working out in his condo, is that supposed to be the core blaster from the money episode that he's using? Remember, he spent his money on a core blaster. I think so. I went to the script. It doesn't say specifically, but I was so charmed by the scene description. In the script. Oh, let's hear it. Here's what it said. Michael is working out on his ab

roller incorrectly using no range of motion. That is what they wanted Steve to do. Pam can see that Michael is a little bit spiraling. Is that a good description? Yeah. And she says that when she feels overwhelmed, she likes to make a list of things to do and then start with the easy stuff. I think this is great life advice. We got mail about that advice. Oh, no. And I was really flattered because people say this reminds me of Jenna Fisher. Because I did too. When I rewatched this, I was like, it's a little bit of what is it again? Life imitating art. Yeah. I get it right. I got it right. I did. Shannon L said, Jenna, I know that I don't know you, but when Pam tells Michael he needs to make a list for his

day, that sounded like something you would do. And Kayla C agrees. She said, after listening to every episode of this podcast, I can say with confidence that is the most Jenna thing I've ever heard. I would have to say there are two things on the office that were 100% me. One is this list making advice. And the other is my line and dinner party when I say I just want to eat. Yeah. Those are me. You do have a tour list. You also have sort of like your meals planned for the week. I never wonder about that. I have a plan. I like to know what I'm eating and I like to check something off a list. You really do. I really do. When we went on our writer's retreat, I learned very quickly that you need to know what you're eating. Like that is no joke. I would be like,

what should we do for dinner? You'd be like, I already brought stuff that we're doing this this night. And I'm like, oh, okay. We had two hello, fresh nights and a takeout night. And then I said we bring our own breakfast and lunch and snacks. Done. Done. This was one of the first emails you sent to me when we were going to go on our writer's retreat. It wasn't about our work. No, no, no, no, no. It was about the meals. Let's plan our food. And then we'll come up with a work plan. I mean, I can't work on an empty stomach. I cannot. Well, one of the first things on Pam's list is let's just start small. Let's get you dressed, Michael. Yeah. And then there's that moment where he sits in the chair across from her and his robe opens up. Go to season five bloopers

on YouTube. Jenna, I don't even know how you salvaged anything from that scene. Matt Stone even talked about it in the DVD commentary. He was like, Jenna kept breaking up. She laughed every time. So Steve was wearing underwear. He was. He was not nude. They were like flesh toned, right? Yes, exactly. But on the day we had this idea that Pam would keep talking to him, but she would just move her little clipboard up so that she wouldn't have to see him. His business. Yes. But every time I did the gesture to move my clipboard up, it would make me laugh. Like the idea of it, all of it, it was one of those moments where I couldn't stay focused because I could see it from the outside and it was just so tickled me. It was such a funny moment. And Steve never broke.

Steve could just keep a straight face. And then I would get to a point where I couldn't go on and they'd be like, okay, cut. But Steve would just be like, what? Well, what is it? I was going to play the blooper. But when I rewatched it, Jenna, you're laughing so hard, you're making no sound. I know. So if I played it, it'd just be like, yes, it's true. While we're in this moment, I would love to point out some stuff in the background. Please. There is a shelf of dundies behind Michael during the scene. Also, you probably noticed all of the inspirational posters all over the condo. I did count though, 10 dundies. Let me know if you guys got the same amount, 10 dundies, plus a no right turn, no left turn and no U turn sign. Oh, during the scene. Okay. Well, I don't know if you noticed

this. I did not notice it at first. But luckily, Floor H wrote in to say, there are two television sets in Michael's condo. Well, there's a big box one. And then there's the little one. Yes. So you can really see it at seven minutes, 29 seconds. He has bought himself a new TV, but he has not taken down the broken plasma. So it's like the new television is sitting on a TV stand. It's your standard square TV. It's much bigger, by the way, than the little mounted one on the wall. Yes. And it sits right under that broken one. But here's the thing. Michael is actually going to come up with some good ideas for today. He says they should assemble a dream team starting with Vikram. Yeah. He was the best seller at the telemarketing company. Pam's like, oh, okay.

And he reveals that they're going to have a meeting with a potential investor. But first, but first we need to get Michael dressed. Well, back at the office, Andy has put on his computer sort of like a montage of soccer moments, right? Like a soccer photo slideshow. Exactly. Charles sees it. He loves soccer. Andy is clearly sucking up to Charles. I actually remember us talking about soccer and Idris plays soccer. Really? Yes. He's like a good soccer player. He like played growing up. He like played on like a soccer league on the weekend. So he actually knew a lot about soccer. Well, he's British football, football. Yes. What am I saying? Football. Jim has this talking head about how he's just never been a kiss up. You know,

that's just not how he operates. And BJ talked a little bit about his own experience for this Jim Andy suck up storyline. Let's hear it. This was based in my mind on an experience when I felt I had too much integrity to kiss up in a situation where I really wanted to impress people and I saw everyone else kissing up and getting ahead. Man, I should just go up there, you know. So I like the idea of a guy who who does it who just says screw it. Like I'm going to do this because this is how you get ahead. And maybe I I'm being lazy by not kissing up. And then it comes back to bite him. But I liked a good guy like Jim deciding to do it. Interesting, right? I just love that BJ takes moments like that and then puts it into his episodes. No, he reflects on things in

the moment and they stay with him. He's a very thoughtful person in that way. Yeah. Well, Jim is going to suck up by pretending like he played soccer or is a soccer player. I know there's this moment where he's like, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. And then he just succumbs and was like, yeah, I'm a player. And Dwight could not be happier. He's like, oh, really, Jim? I have never heard you talk about soccer. And he's like, you should play Charles, the two of you, today. And Charles is all about it. He's like, yes, I would love it. And Charles's whole demeanor changes toward Jim, toward everyone in the office. He's this very sort of smiley guy all of a sudden. Yeah. It's a big difference. Well, now Jim's going to be in a big pickle. He said,

he played soccer from second to fourth grade. He was on the orange team. I love that talking head. I do too. It made me laugh. Well, listen, I think we should take a break because in the second half of the episode, we are going to see this dream team get assembled and we're going to see Jim have to deal with his soccer promise. It's good stuff. All right. We are back. And you guys, the dream team got Vikram. We got him. Vikram played by the awesome Ranjit Choudhury. He was so fun to work with. You know, he passed away last year. I know. He was so funny. We're in the car and, you know, Michael's all excited. They pull up to the bowling alley. Michael's like, I have to use the bathroom. And Vikram has this line. It's so good where he

says, confidence. It's the food of the wise man, but the liquor of the fool. I was so struck by this when I watched this episode. Me too. So I Googled it because I thought, is that like an old, I don't know, expression, proverb, like a Greek philosopher. No, it's nowhere. There are Reddit threads dedicated to trying to figure out where this line came from. There was an article written about this one line. You're kidding. And how wise it is and how the writer of the article couldn't find its origin either. Someone on our writing staff wrote that line. And we don't know who? I asked BJ. I asked Mindy. I asked Aaron Scher. No one can take credit for it. Aaron Scher said something that I really liked. He said, I don't know. Let's give credit to the whole writing

staff. Like some sort of collective genius came up with this line. But someone wrote that from the office. Really? And it's so good. And then last week, we talked about Vikram having this amazing talking head that got deleted. That got deleted. This is where it would have lived, you guys. Right after the scene in the car where he says this amazing proverb, he would have said, when you put your telemarketing career on the line, you're not putting much on the line. And Ranjit was just perfection. Everything, his delivery, I just, I couldn't get enough of him. Well, you just so believe him. And our guest actors were always that way. Alison Jones had this amazing ability to find people who didn't seem like they were acting at all.

Yeah. Well, Michael is going to go into the bowling alley. He wants a pair of nine shoes. Guess who's working the counter? Ryan. Ryan, who's not on the list. You know, Vikram has this great line in the car where he's like, he's been gone a long time. Is it possible he went bowling? You know him better than I do. And I thought, Jenna, your delivery is Pam was so great when you're like, yeah. Yeah. So Pam goes in and sees what's happening and says this was not on the list, Michael. And then she looks at the list and then she's like, when did you put this on the list? I loved that. We noticed right away that Ryan is very tan and very blonde. I was really curious, when did BJ know he was going to have to do this with his hair?

This is what he said on the DVD commentary. So when I was in Germany and wasn't able to be on the show for a while, my character ran off to Thailand, all I knew about Ryan coming back was that he was going to be blonde. Now the tan. The tan is great, too. The tan is very funny. I heard of the hair as frosted tips. And then when we did it, Mindy, whose idea it was, came and was like, no, no, no, we're only going to go for this joke once you have to be completely blonde. And so we dyed it and I wore a hat in public for weeks trying to save the surprise and say, save my dignity. And he goes on to say that he was also touring stand up during this time. So he got a spray in brown coloring, you know that you could like, yeah. And so he sprayed

his hair brown and then he went on stage and it started coming off, like dripping off. Like what happened to Rudy Giuliani? Oh my God. Same thing. Yes, exactly. So he had to wear this hat, but it was like really stressful. He was trying to keep it a secret. I've used that spray for when my roots are coming in. It's genius. I love the spray, by the way. Yeah, it's great. But if you get really warm, it will sweat off. Yeah. Beware. Where are we? I'll give you a little location breakdown on the bowling alley. Idol Hour Lanes, which is the sign out sign, is a real bowling alley in Scranton. We matched their logo and in Scranton there's two and one of them is next to poor Richards. Yes, I've been to that

one. I thought you had. It's part of the bar kind of like when you go into poor Richards, you think at least I thought I was walking into a bar, but I actually was walking into a bowling alley and then the bar was to the right. It's interesting. I thought that we were at Pickwick Bowl, which does have a bar next to it, sort of similar to the real Idol Hour Lanes, but no. Randy Cordray said that we shot hours in Canoga Park. It was a bowling alley in Canoga Park. I also have a little guest star shout out to the bowling alley manager who calls Ryan a shoobitch. He was played by Jim Woods. He has appeared on How I Met Your Mother, Reno 911, and was a regular on the Comedy Satire Safety Geeks, S-V-I. Again, another person who did not seem like an actor to

me. Yeah. Seemed like a real grouchy bowling alley manager. Exactly. There was some delicious Pamsas because I mean, Pam just does not like Ryan. When he tells her he makes 60 grand a year and she's like, really? They pay you a yearly salary at the bowling alley? Yeah. So good. Well, the Dream Team is going to arrive to meet their investor. That's right. It's at what appears to be a nursing home. Can I tell you there was a beat in the script where Michael describes who the investor is? Okay. He says her name is Barbara Keevis. She invests in local businesses and I've been putting together a little presentation for her. Oh. But that didn't make it in the episode, but I'm like, okay, who's Barbara Keevis? I've got a location breakdown on where we shot this. Oh. Which is

interesting to me. It was a best Western hotel that was attached to the bowling alley and we redressed their conference room to look like a nursing home. Randy Cordray said that our location manager, Kyle Alexander, was really awesome that he would do this kind of thing all the time. If we had an episode that had two locations, he would somehow manage to find them right next to each other so that we could avoid having to do what they call a company move. Right. We have to move all the trailers, all the people, all the equipment. Save so much time and money. We were able to shoot the bowling alley and the nursing home all in one day. It saved so much money. It saved so much time and Randy was just giving a lot of compliments to Kyle saying that

Kyle was able to do this all the time and it was a huge, huge benefit to our production. Amazing. And it was a benefit on a very practical level because it would save the time, which also wouldn't run down the crew as much. And it also made it so that the actors, we could flow from one experience sort of emotionally in the story and comedically right into another one. We didn't have to stop. It was awesome on many levels. Kyle, we love you. Thank you, Kyle. I want to point out right as the dream team is entering the retirement home at 12 minutes. Was it just me? Did anyone else notice the two retirement home employees wheeling someone in a blanket? I don't know. Was it a corpse under a blanket? Oh my God, I did not notice that. I mean, I went over and over to it

just like, I couldn't stop looking at it. I was like, who is this back there? I'm going to show you, Jenna. It's so brief. But look, I don't know. This person's like on a cot or a stretcher. Do you see? Yes. I'll put it in stories. My other background catch for this scene is at 12 minutes, 27 seconds, the elderly gentleman that Michael is like snapping like, Hey, hey, over here. He is watching Maury Povich. Yes. And it's actually Maury Povich. That was scripted that he was watching Maury Povich. And they were able to get the rights to it. Yes. And on the screen, if you zoom in, there's a woman and there's a Chiron underneath her with like writing. Yeah. This is what it said. Tell the truth. Is my fiance in love with my mom? Oh, that's what they were watching.

Okay. Well, Michael is going to make his pitch to this investment club. And it's a real club. There's three people, two women and the man who's watching Maury. But Pam and Ryan realized very quickly that one of the women is Michael's Nana. Yeah. It's not just Barbara Keevis. It's Nana. It's Nana. During this pitch, he's going to start by introducing his team. B.J. said he loved that he got the title in the episode. Oh, yeah. That's always kind of a fun thing when that happens. So Michael's like, Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the dream team. Did you notice at 13 minutes 20 seconds when Michael is introducing Ryan that he winks at Nana while eating vanilla pudding in like a flirty way and Nana is delighted. I mean, he's buttering her up in the best way.

Ryan is a hot mess. B.J. said, by the way, that he ate a ton of vanilla pudding and that it was delicious. I love a vanilla pudding. I also want to point out that at 13 minutes 41 seconds, there is a big zit on my jawline. No. This is the only time you see it because at 14 minutes 46 seconds, the zit is gone. So clearly, I got a touch up. Only you would notice that. I did not notice that. It's so large. It's one of those undergrounders that is, you know, had its own heartbeat. Yeah. And I would get those on my jawline. But thank you Laverne for covering that up by 14 minutes 46 seconds. And by the way, I can imagine, because they almost never let us get touch ups after we started rolling, I can imagine Laverne sitting at the monitors and just being

like, you need to let me get in there. You need to let me get in there. And so she probably convinced them and she was able to come in and touch up my zit. But you do see it at 13 minutes 41 seconds. Do you know what was super embarrassing? And this would happen every once in a while. What is when like someone like Matt, so on camera operator would be like, you would hear him sort of radio. Hey, Laverne, why don't you why don't you step in? It's because he is looking at it through the camera. That's true. That happened to me. That happened to me one time. I definitely had like one big one on my forehead and Matt was like, I think we should get a little powder for you. I'm like, Oh my God, Matt.

Well, have you know the woman in this investment group who wants to give Michael the money was played by Eve Seagal. Eve has appeared in Shameless Superstar dead to me in the Legion. I was not able to figure out who played the gentleman. It was a non speaking role. So he was a background performer. So he is uncredited as far as I can find. But you know, in the end, Nana is going to say no. Nana says, this is an investment club. We're not about handouts here. And so she's a no. In the car ride, leaving there, Vikram made me laugh because he's like, Nana brought up some good points. I know. And then he's like, what kind of name is Nana? And Pam's like, it means grandmother. And then Vikram is like, I'm out. He's like sweet. Goodbye.

At Dunder Mifflin, the soccer game is about to be underway. There was a deleted Dwight talking head. He is setting up the whole parking lot. He's drawing chalk. I wondered how it got there. Yeah, the cones. There's a talking head while Dwight's doing this. And he shares one of his childhood dreams. Can we hear that? When I was a child, I always dreamed of being a referee, penalizing people, enforcing the rules. But I never could have dreamed of this. Wow. He would have been a great referee, actually. Yeah. Very quickly, we see that the group of Dunder Mifflin employees, they don't know anything about soccer. In the deleted scenes, there was a moment where Creed picks up the soccer ball and throws it at Kelly's back

like dodgeball. And he's like, you're out. Oh, well, this is interesting because we got a piece of mail from Kyle T who wanted to know how long did you guys have to play soccer? Did you have any training or did they just let you guys go crazy? Was any of it choreographed? You were there. I mean, obviously the stunt that's coming up was choreographed, but the other stuff, was it just kind of freeform? Yeah, we could just sort of like fart around in the background. Okay. I did ask for sneakers. So I'm in sneakers. I thought Angela Martin might have taken it very seriously. Sure. So I'm in my sneakers. And then I actually caught a moment in the background that I kind of vaguely remember because it was that art imitating life, life imitating art, whatever.

Phyllis actually did get hit with the ball. What? When we were just horsing around. And you can see it? It's very subtle in the background. Hit where? I think up in her upper torso. Not hard, right? But that we were kicking around back there. If you go to 19 minutes, 28 seconds, tell me what you see. It was Creed. Creed, which is no surprise to me because Creed would sometimes get a little crazy with props. So I did a slow motion screen play by play that I will put in our stories. If my memory is correct, it didn't hurt hurt, but she did get hit with the soccer ball and we were like, oh my gosh. Okay. So here's the beginning of the ball. Uh-huh. Okay. Coming from Creed. Yep. Okay. Wow. It's high up. Next frame. See where it's headed? Right to her face. I know Phyllis

in the red sweater. Ironically. Then you kind of see her bending over. And then here. I see what looks like some people running to her aid. Yeah. Ed, you see the ball sort of hitting right there? Yeah. In her red. It looks like her shoulder maybe. There it makes contact. And then here you kind of see her face. Yeah. Like she's kind of bending to the side. So yeah. Oh my gosh. Phyllis did get hit with the ball in the episode where she gets hit with the ball. Yes. And so did Kelly. A lot of people were getting hit with the ball. Oh my gosh. Well, we did also get some fan mail. People wanted to know, did Phyllis perform her own stunt? Now, this is totally separate, guys. You know, what I just showed you was not a scripted moment. Here's what happens. There's this moment

where Charles is gonna kick the ball super hard toward Jim and Jim ducks and Phyllis gets clocked in the face. And everybody is like, Jim, why did you duck? Yeah. Dwight's like, Jim, why did you duck? An experienced soccer player wouldn't duck. First of all, I will tell you that there was no soccer ball used in this particular shot. Idris was kicking air and Phyllis faked getting hit. It is an amazing, fakey hit. Yes. Randy Cordray told me that we added the soccer ball using CGI magic. It was the folks at Stargate International. Randy actually said, I dare say it's one of the most effective uses of CGI that the office ever incorporated. I mean, it looks totally real. Big applause to John for his like, fakey seeing of the ball

and ducking. All of it. It all works. And then Phyllis is like, I think I swallowed a crown. I know. We also got a fan mail flurry. What about? Jim ducking. Oh, is this a soccer fan mail flurry, like soccer knowledge? Yeah, people coming to Jim's defense. Oh. So Ashley T said, I don't understand how Jim got blamed for this soccer ball hitting Phyllis in the face. Charles is the one who kicked it. It's clearly Charles' fault because I would have ducked too. Joseph F said, listen, I get it that maybe an experienced soccer player shouldn't have ducked that they should have jumped up and intercepted the ball with their chest. Yeah. However, Charles crossed the ball toward the side, in which case Jim and any other professional player

would have ducked. Really? Because then the ball goes out. I guess so. Yeah. So a fan mail flurry, lots of people commenting that Jim was not wrong for ducking. I do not know enough about soccer to comment. I don't either, even though I live on a soccer field every single Saturday with our kids, like we're always there. And my husband played soccer and he's coaching soccer. I should have asked Josh about it. Lee is coaching both of our kids' soccer teams this year. I know both of our husbands are soccer coaches this year. Yeah. And I just sit there and I'm just trying to figure out off sides. I'll never figure it out. I don't get it. I'll never figure it out. I don't think the kids get it. No. The referees call it, I don't get it. I don't ever get it. I'm like,

what happened off sides? What? Listen, I've said in this episode that I don't know much about basketball. That's true. I don't know a lot about soccer. But talk to me about hockey, football, or baseball. You're very well versed in hockey. I don't get hockey. I've been into those sports. A live hockey game, there's nothing like it. I think it's the best sport to watch live. Personally, I know people love watching basketball live. I mean, watching basketball live, especially if you can get close to the court, it's like an amazing game live. I just love the whole hockey community. I love everything about it. I went one time and met some of your hockey mom friends. Yeah. And what I didn't know you guys is that hockey games, they serve beer at 10 in the morning.

They do. I was like, oh my gosh. They sure do. We have like juice boxes at soccer. I remember going to like one of our early hockey games for my son and it was at 7.30 in the morning and I brought a coffee and people were like, does anyone want a beer from the concessions? And I was like, I don't think so, but thank you. Pretty amazing. Well, listen, the Dream team has lost a member and they get back to Michael's condo. Ryan's going to run inside. He wants to watch the closer on TNT. Very important to him. Pam's upset. She can't get out of the car. Now, Pam's going to spiral. So guess what? It was not in the script that you stayed in the car. I remember. It was Jen Salata's idea and she fought for it to have Pam stay in the car during the

scene. Yeah. I was supposed to get out of the car and then sort of the idea was lean against it. And part of that was because it would be really easy to stage it camera-wise. Yeah. Well, I loved her staying in the car and I love this shot at 16 minutes, 22 seconds when you see Pam in the side mirror and Michael standing next to the car. It's such a cool shot. I had to bring a lot of emotion to the scene. You had to see Pam be convinced by Michael and this is one of those moments when Michael becomes really good at being a boss. And he's so serious. He's like, listen kiddo. Yeah. You quit. I quit. So that's the truth. It was very easy to get emotional because to have Steve Carell say, listen kiddo. I mean, I know he wasn't much older than us,

but he did always have sort of like a wise fatherly. He was our mentor. Yeah. Like exactly. And so to have your mentor coach you, it felt real and it made me emotional. And we just really connected there in a real way and it was really sweet. I just love those Pam Michael moments that reminds me of when he came to her art show and he shows up for her. Yeah. And it was great. Well, next we're going to see Michael on the phone and he's asking Billy Merchant if he has any free office space anywhere because they can't work out of Michael's condo anymore. They're going to throw him out. They got a letter and Billy says, I got something for you. It's like a supply room maybe, but there's also like a shower. It's also back at the

Dunder Mifflin Scranton building. Yeah. I probably should have led with that. And that's exactly right. It's like a supply room closet, but the gang is like, I could work here. Yeah. They can see it. And it's really sweet because the episode ends with Michael adding Michael Scott paper company to the little board in the lobby and Pam's handing him the little letters. Matt Sohn shared that there was a take where instead of you guys already having the letters that you were taking the letters from other people's businesses names. Oh, yeah. I remember that. I remember that. Which is really funny to me. And there was a tag that didn't make it in the episode. Kevin is back at reception. The phone rings. Kevin answers it and he's able to transfer

the call to Dwight successfully. He's so happy. He looks all cocky to camera. Charles comes out and says, Hey, Kevin, I need you to set up a conference call with David Wallace and the other branch managers in 10 minutes. I'll take it in the conference room. Kevin looks like he's going to crap his pants. He goes, you got it, boss. And then he runs out of the office and never comes back. I asked Brian, what was it like to be at the reception desk for that week? Because I noticed throughout the whole episode, he's in the background and he was doing what I had to do, which is being in the background a lot. And he did point out that just because you guys were in the corner, which is something you've talked about, you know, they would make you guys stand at the

copier. So he was just happy he got to sit for his background work. I'm telling you, I stood for almost nine years. Yeah, I love that. Well, that was dream team. Next up is Michael Scott Paper Company. We're going to get busy in that little storage room. I can't wait. Me too. All right, have a great week, you guys. See you then. 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 Kiefer, 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. For a free one-month trial

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