Office Ladies - Dunder Mifflin Infinity Pt 1

Episode Date: December 16, 2020

This week we’re breaking down Dunder Mifflin Infinity. To kick off this two-part episode, Angela announces herself as 'Kinseypedia' for this episode and gets the inside scoop on the Dunder Mifflin Infinity website. Then, we discuss Toby outing Jim and Pam's relationship to the whole office, we learn how to make a cat look feral, and we get a major Old Tech Alert with Ryan's mandated Blackberry's. Finally, we discuss some very funny Kelly-Ryan drama, Jan's trendy outfit that is not too dissimilar to something Jenna may have worn, and Creed helps us answer fan questions about his hair dye job in this episode. We hope your hearts soar with the eagle’s nest after this episode! Special thanks to Joya Balfour. Check out joyabalfour.com for a look at what the Dunder Mifflin Infinity website looked like!

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, Pamsas. I'm wearing my Pamsas shirt. And I'm loving it. It is so stinking cute. I can't wait to get mine. They're really cute. And I, they're a conversation starter because I parked in the parking lot here at Airwolf. And as I was walking in, a guy, by the way, it was 10.50 a.m. The guy had a cocktail in his hand and said, what party are you going

to? I was like, he was in fluorescent yellow shorts with a white t-shirt. And I was like, I'm what? Is it because of my, is it because of my Pamsas shirt? You think I'm going to a party? I'm pretty sure it had absolutely nothing to do with your shirt that you could have been dressed in literally anything. This is 100% about him and his shorts and his cocktail before 11. Yeah. Well, he's, he's, he's doing it. All right. Today is Dunder Mifflin Infinity Part 1. This is Season 4, Episode 3. This is another one of our one hour shows that was meant to kick off Season 4. We're dividing it into two parts. This episode was written by Michael Shore and it was directed by Craig

Zisk. Yes. All right, Jenna, you're up. It's summery time. Here is a summary of what we are covering today. When Ryan tries to implement new ideas like issuing everyone a blackberry and announcing the new Dunder Mifflin Infinity website, Michael feels he may be a victim of ageism. Jim and Pam's relationship goes public and they are now forced to face the scrutiny of the entire staff. Meanwhile, Angela is going to give Dwight one more chance after his mercy killing of Sprinkles. Yep. All right. Fast fact number one, like I said, this episode was directed by Craig Zisk. He

had been an executive producer on Weeds, the United States of Terra, and the Larry Sanders show. And more recently, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, he's directed a ton of television. He directed a bunch of episodes of scrubs and movies. Do you remember Craig? I do remember Craig. And actually, when Craig came to direct, we had a little thing in common, which is I had worked with his brother, Randy Zisk, who's also a producer and director, and he had directed me on my episode of Monk. So when I saw Craig, we had, we sort of like had this moment. He was like, Hey, you were on my brother's show. And I was like, Yes, how are you?

Well, I had a little thing not in common with Craig, but in adoration of him. Because when he was 25 years old, he was one of the producers of the television show, Cop Rock. Do you remember Cop Rock, Angela? No, I've never heard of it. Oh my God. What? Oh my God. Okay. It came out in 1990. Okay. It was on ABC. It was Brace Yourself, a musical comedy drama

show about the LAPD. Oh my gosh, there's so much happening. Okay. It was created by Steven Bochko, who had also created the very famous Hill Street Blues. And basically, Angela, it was a cop show, like maybe imagine law and order. If all of a sudden, in the middle of the episode, they break into song. No. Yep. No, I can't, I can't do it.

Here is an audio clip from an episode, you know, when they all gather in the room and like the lieutenant is like, here's what's on the docket today. We got this happening and this happening. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's what he's doing at the top of this scene. Sam, will you play the clip? Sam, last on the teletype, we still got the Franklin Avenue flashers. Okay. That's it. And hey, hey, let's be careful out there. Let's be careful out there.

No, they did not. They did. No, they didn't. It was canceled after 11 episodes. Why? TV Guide ranked it number eight on its list of the 50 worst TV shows of all time in 2002. Wow. But it actually won two Emmy Awards for editing and outstanding achievement in music and lyrics.

I want you to know I loved this show. I watched every episode. This is all we need to know about you, Jenna. It was like glee, but a cop show. It was brilliant. You can find it on YouTube. It sounds like an SNL parody of like a cop show or something. That is amazing. I now have to go see just one. I mean, I mean, I have to see one where they're like, we got the perp in the cell. We're going to frisk him now. I think that's a song. I think there's I got the perp. Frisk him up. Oh, frisk him up, frisk him up, frisk him up, frisk him up, frisk him down. What did

you find? Is there a gun? Is there a knife? Are you just happy to see me? The show really rates itself. Oh my gosh. Wow. I want you to be safe out there. You heard him. Be safe. Be safe. This is no like a hybrid West Side Story cop rock. That's all I could picture in my mind. Oh my Lord. Okay. That's amazing. And Craig worked on it. He was one of the producers. Well, I'll bring us back with fast fact number two. Okay. This episode, Dunder Mifflin Infinity aired in October of 2007. And also in October 2007 was a big office convention in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Yes. And a whole bunch of us went. A huge group. I mean, it was like Greg went and Mike

Schur and Jen Salata, a bunch of the writers and the cast. I think the whole entire cast was there except for you and Steve, right? And John, everyone else went like the whole shebang. I was not allowed to go because remember I shared last week about how I broke my back. Yeah. I was not cleared for plane travel at this time. I was super sad you weren't there. I found some emails where we traded emails. You're like, please tell everyone I said hi. But it was a absolute blast. Scranton was so much fun. Scranton. Everyone there was great. And then me and Craig and Brian went on the Today Show with Al Roker. Al Roker came to Scranton and we did the Today Show

from there with him. And I mean, it was just a blast. I was so jealous. That looked like so much fun. You guys did like a whole Q&A panel and like a meet and greet, right? And we did like a concert. Like there was a concert and a bunch of people from the office performed like Craig and Melora and like everyone got up on stage. It was so much fun. But you know, lady, this was something you and I both share because I was able to go to this convention. But then at the end of the show, there was another one like a big rap party convention and it was my daughter's birthday. So you went to that one. So I found all these emails, Jenna, where we sort of

bookend this experience for each other because I went to one and you got to go to the other. Yeah. I remember that. I was so glad I got to go to that one at the end of the show because I couldn't, I couldn't like leave the experience of the office having never visited Scranton. So I just remember I was really jealous that you got to go and I was bummed that I had to stay home. But you know, well, you know, we've never gotten to go together and that's on my bucket list. When this podcast is done, I want you and I to go to Scranton. That's on my wish list. I want you and I to go to Scranton and just anonymously sign up for the office tour and just show up and be like, take us on the tour.

Yes, to all the spots. I want to do it. Well, listen, there was something else going on during this time. I don't know if you remember, but we were on the cover of Entertainment Weekly Magazine. We were? It came out October 5th, which was the day after this episode aired. And there were a few sets of couples. Steve and Melora as Jan and Michael were on one cover and then Angela and Dwight were on one and Jim and Pam and then Ryan and Kelly. So you could pick which issue had the cover, but then we were all on the inside in this big group photo. I remember doing that photo shoot. It was so fun. It was such a such a cool day and I couldn't believe it. Like I had always, you know, picked up Entertainment

Weekly. I love television. It was like my dream to be on TV and then to all of a sudden be on the cover and be in it with you guys. I couldn't even believe it. I have one framed. Well, this is what was happening at this time, which was that the show was truly blowing up and we were on covers of magazines and it was so surreal. Early on, I tried to save every single mention of us or the show from any publication because I it just felt so fleeting. And then at this time, it became it became impossible. It was just constant and we were really out in the zeitgeist. Is that the right word? Yeah, yeah, no, the show was just really catching on. I'll tell you what, between my mom and my grandmother

and my cousin Carol and my Aunt Brenda, I think I have everything we were ever mentioned in because they saved everything and they would send it to me. Well, speaking of being out in the world in a big way, Fast Fact number three, we got a lot of fan mail from people about the Dunder Mifflin Infinity website and they wanted to know if it was real. Well, it was real and it went out into the world around this exact same time as this episode. That is right. And we reached out to Joya Balfour. Joya, as you remember, Jenna was part of the team at NBC.com. And you guys, networks were not doing digital content during this time. It's just something they didn't do. So NBC was really on the forefront and

I talked to Joya and she was saying they were trying to find ways to sustain the fandom to keep fans engaged. And one of the things they did was they launched Dunder Mifflin Infinity.com. You could go on and play these games. There were virtual branches that fans could join. They could perform tasks where they would earn shrewt bucks. And then they could spend their shrewt bucks on virtual items in sort of like the office. And they went around to all of our desks. They took pictures of the set so that they could actually buy virtual items. And this site ran for three years on NBC.com. And fans got signed items from the show. And also if they submitted their artwork, it would be displayed in episodes.

Jenna, fan art was put around the set. So your art might make it into the show. It might end up on the refrigerator in the kitchen or on a bulletin board like by Creed and Meredith. And fans could look for their art if they won. Isn't that amazing? It's really incredible because I just want to remind everyone, there was no Instagram. There were no apps back then. Like this was really, really revolutionary in terms of that idea of fan engagement and getting to participate in some way actively with your favorite show. Yes. And they even made a video. And actually, I have audio of it. Sam, can you play the video of DunderMifflinInfinity.com?

Do you like paper? Well, we like you. DunderMifflin is looking for bright, energetic paper people to open up their own branch and become part of the DunderMifflin family. Interested in your own future? Go to DunderMifflinInfinity.com to find out more. I love it. Isn't that great? And I asked Joia, who did that voiceover? And she said, that's just a voiceover actor that they hired. She has a whole page on her website, JoiaBalfor.com, where you can look at DunderMifflin Infinity and what all they did with it. You can actually watch that video that we just played for you. And I told Joia over the next few episodes and next few seasons, I'm going to reach out to her, kind of like your kentipedia, because

I really started becoming a more active participant on NBC.com. I did a thing called Adventures with Angela. We had the accountants' webisodes. There were a lot more fun things we started to do. And I'm going to hit her up along the way. I love that. They should relaunch this. They should relaunch DunderMifflin Infinity as an app. I know. And you can do all these same things. Someone, Joia, I don't know, who does this? Peacock, get on it. Peacock, are you listening? Do this. Yeah. Well, lady, listen, I think we should take a break. Those were incredible fast facts. We are killing it today and giving us compliments. But let's take a break and then we'll come back in and get

into this episode. Okay, great, because I've got more details, lady. More details. I know I'm not kentipedia, but maybe I'm kensipedia on this one. Kensipedia after the break. Kensipedia. All right, we are back. And we open this episode in the break room where there is no more heart break. In fact, there is flirty flirt cuteness in there. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's now called the flirt room. I think you're right. Jim and Pam. Pam has already gotten Jim a soda. Because she knows what he likes because she's his girlfriend. And then she gives him a little peck, little kiss as she's leaving. But Toby sees. Can we talk about Paul's expression? We can. I froze on his face. I was laughing so hard. I don't even know what all it's

conveying. It's conveying so many things at 20 seconds, Toby's face. Well, Paul does some amazing reaction acting in this episode. If you are an actor and you would like to study great reactions, this is a real good one to study. Yeah. Well, what happens after this is that Toby puts out a memo regarding PDA in the workplace and everyone's reading it. And Jim and Pam are like, what is this about? Toby is so passive aggressive. He really is. He clearly has issue, but he's going to put out a memo. Come on, Toby. Well, Michael thinks that the memo is about that night that he and Jan did some stuff in his office. But I mean, he says almost everyone was gone for the day. This is ridiculous, Toby. Yeah.

And then Angela thinks it might be about her and Dwight. So she yells from across the room and makes this big statement that she's never been intimate with anyone in the office. And that is when Toby says, no, no, it was a complaint about Jim and Pam. And then he basically outs their relationship to the whole office. I mean, Toby, this is twice now because he did this with Oscar. And now with Jim and Pam, he's announced that they're dating and everyone freaks out, but no one, no one freaks out more than Michael. Well, Michael is giddy. Michael doesn't even know what to do with himself. And Steve's performance is so sweet. He is so genuinely excited that Jim and Pam are together. He makes them hold hands and

he makes a big declaration. This day will go down in infamy. He makes you guys hold hands and then he really bear hugs Jim. And then he goes to hug you, but your phone starts ringing and Pam's like, oh, like rescued by my phone. And he's like, no, no, Pam, let it ring. Let the bells of Dunder Mifflin chime out your love. But then he has that really famous line that I've seen people write on their graduation hats. I've seen it everywhere. I've seen it like stitched on a pillow on a graduation hat. It's, it's so good. Say it, Ange. My heart soars with the eagle's nest. Incredible. Now we said this episode was written by Mike Schur and that has to be a Mike Schur special right there. It has

to be. Now we see a series of talking heads. And Jenna, I was very curious about this because you like to deep dive on positioning. Ooh, that sounds like a, that's what she said. That sounded different than what I think you mean. Go on. As it was coming out of my mouth, I knew it was wrong. Oh, that's what she said. That's what she said. So Dwight's talking head. He's like, I don't see it. I think they could do better. He is sitting in front of the wall and off of his left shoulder is the bullpen. Right? Yep. Yep. Then it cuts to me. And I say, I'm not surprised. Pam is the office mattress, which is such a great line. But I'm sitting in front of the window with the

wall to my right shoulder. Yeah, there's more wall and more window depending on who's talking head it is. It's not always the exact same shot. I noticed that too. And then it cuts to Andy and he's framed the exact same way that Dwight was. And I'm, I realize I'm becoming one of the fans of the show where I'm like, hmm, is there something there? But I'm like, this is an interesting love triangle that's about to play out. And this is a little bit of a Dwight Angela Andy sandwich. I don't think you are reading into it. I noticed the same thing. I feel like they purposely didn't set all the shots the same. And they also differentiated Angela from the two men. Yeah, that can't be an accident. It can't be. All right, well,

now we're going to get into the episode, right? We have our opening credits. And the first scene is the party planning committee. They're setting up for Ryan's return. Phyllis and Angela are hanging a banner that says welcome back, Ryan. Three minutes, 28 seconds, skin alert. What's a skin alert? Well, my sweater in this episode, I feel like the dry clean shrunk it like it fit one day and then the next got a little tighter. And as I'm hanging the banner, you see like my mid rift. Oh my gosh, that's very out of character for Angela Martin. It's very scandalous. It's scandalous. Well, double skin alert. Kelly arrives. She is all jujda. She's like, Oh, is Ryan coming back today? I had no idea. She looks super cutie pie.

She looks super cutie pie. We also in this scene have a list of that's what she says that Michael had ready to go. Oh, please, please read it. Here it is. Can you make that straighter? That job looks hard. You should put your mouth on that. You might want to trim it a little. Yeah. I liked it when he said you might want to put your mouth on that and Pam says how I don't understand how you were even planning to use that naturally. And he was like under his breath. He's like, if you if you were blowing up balloons, I was just balloons. I had it ready. I was ready to go. Well, now we have sort of a interesting little spy shot. We've got some black and white footage of the elevator bay, which is

meant to be, I guess, security camera footage. Yeah, but they this is like something we don't do on the show. So it was jarring to me when I saw it again, because I hadn't seen this episode in so long. And I was like, whoa, what's up with the security camera footage? Well, what was odd is that we then switch to a spy shot from our regular documentary camera. Yeah. So it was a little bit I found it a little bit odd as well. But that's what that black and white footage is supposed to be. And the reason they're showing this is because Dwight and Angela have met in this elevator vestibule so that he can present her with a new cat, a feral barn cat, feral, feral. How do you say feral, feral, feral

you say tomato, you say feral, feral, a feral cat, a feral cat, feral, feral. It's feral, right? It's tomato tomato, Sam. Feral. Oh, Sam sided with me. And Dwight says feral in the episode. But anyway, Jenna, we'll just we'll just chunk that aside and let you say feral. Listeners, do any of you say feral, please write us. Alright, so yes, Dwight gives her garbage. And this poor cat, they put like stuff in its hair to make it look kind of grungy like it had been eating garbage. Well, we had a fan question from Rivka Wasserman. Did they gel the cat's hair before the shoot to make him look like more of a stray cat? Well, I reached out to Kim Ferry and she said they did that her memory is that the trainer had a little bit of honey.

We had warned the trainer of this very well trained domesticated cat that we wanted it to look feral. And so they suggested something natural like honey to kind of rough up the cat's fur. And so that's what they used. Yes, these trainers were so great with the cats and obviously honey isn't going to do anything, you know, that's just like organic. I do have amazing memories of this scene. I want you guys to know that this cat was crawling all over rain, all over him. Well, you can see it in the episode like every shot the cat is in a different position. It kept jumping out of his arms. And so we really had to sort of deliver the emotion of the scene but get our lines out quickly because this thing was climbing off rain and wanted to go exploring the whole

scene. Well, my favorite is the shot where it's like clearly crawling over his shoulder and then one second later he's holding it like a baby. Yeah. In his arms because amazing. Clearly the cat was everywhere. The cat was everywhere and the cat wranglers were like stepping in and being like, okay, here, try holding him this way. Try this. When the cat jumps out of rain's arms at the end, that was like the easiest moment to film because it wanted to go explore. Well, Ange, a lot of people asked if this was the same cat that Andy gives you later that becomes Bandit. I mean, it's, I wouldn't think it was meant to be the same cat. Like I think what they're thinking is, oh Dwight lets this cat go and then years later Andy finds it again and calls it Bandit. Well,

that would be hilarious, but that was never conveyed to us in the script. It's just that Andy wants to give Angela a cat. What I found interesting about that, and obviously we're gonna get to that episode is that Angela accepts the cat from Andy, right? Yeah. But does not accept the cat from Dwight and does it right in front of Dwight to sort of, you know, just really drive the point home that he's not, he's not her fella anymore. Well, as a person who worked in Animal Rescue for years and years, I will tell you that I don't recommend giving pets as gifts because so many of the pets that are surrendered were gifts that people were not prepared to take care of in the long run, or they break up or whatever happens. I just think people should pick their own pets,

or really what my mom always said is let the pet pick you. That's how you get your match. Yeah. I like that. I definitely feel our pets picked us for sure. Yeah, that's how we got sunny. We went into this rescue center because we were told that one of the volunteers was gonna bring in this box of fluffy gray and white cats. They were so cute. They'd sent us pictures. My daughter was all excited. And we got there and the woman was running late. So they took us into a room with all of these adoptable cats and kittens and this one little scrappy orange fella would not leave us alone. I always say it was like he walked up to us and he was like, Hey guys, what's up? Good to see you. My name is Sunny. I'll be coming home with you. You can take a look at these other guys

if you want, but I will be your cat. Yeah. And that's kind of how we got sunny. He wouldn't leave us alone. Yeah. We could never have been happier. That was biscuit. Biscuit just tried to hide in my sweatshirt and I thought, well, you got to come home with me now. Exactly. My sweatshirt is your home. Well, listen, switching gears back to the show. Yeah, don't get us started on our rescue pets. It'd be a huge tangent. Pam and Jim are gonna go out to Toby and offer to sign one of the famous love documents. Yes, the relationship disclosure form. And Toby's like, you know what? That's only for people who are serious. And he's sort of implying this isn't serious, right? Because you know, Toby has his big crush on Pam. And so he's hoping this is casual. But Jenna,

there's a great scene in the bloopers where at the end of the scene, Toby just tries to hold Pam's hand in front of Jim. And you guys couldn't get through it. You just start laughing. I remember trying to shoot that. I don't think we ever got it. And that's why we never included it. But it was also just something we thought was so funny in the moment. It was like an improvisation that Toby would slowly try to hold Pam's hand during the scene and squeeze her hand. Yeah. And Jim's like, what's happening? Well, then Ryan returns. Yes, Ryan with his new look and his love of Black Berries walks in. Oh my God. BJ's performance is so good when he's absorbed in his phone. And Pam's like, Hey, Ryan, well, he's like one second. And then like, after he's done typing, he puts it down.

And he's like, Hey, Pam, how's it going? It was so good. Well, you know, in this scene, I know what you guys are all really here to find out about is a sad plant alert. Oh, no. Six minutes, seven seconds, sad plant. I think Pam now for sure the plants aren't going to have a chance because she's in love. Yeah, she doesn't have time for that. It's the tiniest little like two like green leaves sticking out of the pot. It's like so tiny. Well, the thing that I remember about this scene, Angela, is when the character of Kevin runs up to Ryan and like ruffles his hair. He gives him a noogie. He like puts him in a headlock and gives him a noogie. Those guys could not get through that moment. Every time it would make BJ laugh, BJ thought it was so funny. And he would break. And I

remember we couldn't get through it. And Brian too. I loved it when when he's like fire guy. And then Andy comes over and he's like fire guy. And Brian is Kevin is like, you weren't here for that. And then Andy says here for what? Yeah. So good. It's so good. Well, we had a fan question from Lauren C. She wanted to know about Ryan's new look. You know, he's got the facial stubble. He's slicked his hair back. He's wearing a fancy suit. Lauren wants to know was BJ told to grow facial hair for this season where he's the boss? Or did he just personally decide to grow some? Well, I texted BJ about this. He said this look was definitely not a personal choice. He said he thinks it was a pitch by Jean and Lee. At first the pitch was a goatee. But Greg

said no. He said it was two on the nose. Yeah, go to is too much. The whole look was very kind of like Gordon Gekko, you know, the movie Wall Street. It was like, you know, Ryan thinks he's the king of New York now. Yes. BJ said that he always just kind of rolled with pitches like this. And then he said case in point, the upcoming blonde hair. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Ryan's going to go through a few looks before this whole thing is over. Well, Ryan in the scene, though, really puts Michael in his place and everyone he's like, Hey, you know what? Enough. This is inappropriate and it stops right now. And the whole bullpen, it's like, you could hear a pin drop. We're like, Oh, my God. And then Michael has this fantastic talking

head. I just loved it so much. He's like, yeah, maybe, you know, maybe he spoke to me like that. But there was a twinkle in his eye. And that twinkle said, dude, we're friends. And you know me. And I'd never take you for granted in a million years. I miss you. I love you. And then he's like, he goes on and on. He's like, his words, not mine. This episode, in addition to having great facial expressions from Paul has amazing Michael talking heads. They're so good. Well, now everyone's going to meet in the conference room so that Ryan can unveil his Dunder Mifflin infinity program. I have to point out something. First of all, where did the giant TV screen come from? It's not in there when the party planning committee is setting up. Secondly, you might notice there's no more

banner on the wall, because there's a deleted scene where as they all come in on the banner, Kelly has written, she's scratched out Ryan. And it says, welcome back asshole. And Michael runs up to it and quickly rips it down. So Ryan won't see it. That is amazing. Well, in this scene, Michael announces two pretty big things. Number one, all essential personnel will be receiving an office blackberry phone. And second, we are soon to be launching the Dunder Mifflin infinity website that is going to streamline ordering. It's going to streamline efficiency. These are his two big announcements. Yeah, he says the company is going to get younger and sleeker. And this starts a Creed storyline that is so fantastic. Creed played this so well.

His reaction to the words younger, sleeker, he starts looking around. And then he goes up to Ryan at the end. He's like, when's this a new website launch? And then he's like, cool beans. Like he's trying to be hip or something. Well, he runs into Michael's office after the meeting. And he's like, you realize what this means, right? You, me, Sammy, Phyllis, the chick you hit with your car, we're all goners. Who is Sammy? Who is Sammy? Who does Creed think Sammy is? I don't know. Did he mean Stanley? Probably. Also, he has sat across from Meredith for years and couldn't think of her name. It's incredible. It's just great. Well, he calls my character Andrea the office bitch. So Sammy is probably Stanley. So now we have a very cute scene back

in the flirt room, the flirt room, break room, Jim and Pam are eating lunch together. And Jim's like, I can't believe I, you know, didn't tell you this is going to blow your mind. And he tells Pam that Dwight and Angela are dating. And Pam's like, um, yeah, I already knew that. It's been like a long time since before your barbecue, she says. Yeah. And then I love this. This next moment is just titled Phyllis Sass. Phyllis walks in and says, sorry, I didn't know you guys were in here. And Jim says, oh, we're just sitting here and Phyllis goes, couldn't see your hands. What? What is she applying? First of all, she knew they were in there. Okay. So she knew they were in there. She went to find Pam to tell her this information. Secondly, couldn't see

your hands. Well, and then John does this awesome move with his hands. It where he shows them the camera like they're so clearly right here. I loved that moment. That was a Krasinski special right there. No, it was perfect. And then Phyllis with the smile, Sass with a smile is like, you know, I'm glad you guys are dating. But Pam, when we get a new client, you have to just send it to, you know, the first available salesperson, not whoever you're sleeping with that week. That week. That week. It's like Phyllis and Angela both are in cahoots this episode because Pam is the office mattress. Well, Angela, I'm calling this a fan sass catch from Sneha G. She points out the major Phyllis sass as well. But she added this.

According to Phyllis, Pam is in charge of assigning clients to salesmen randomly. Well, according to my husband, who's in a similar kind of office, this is a lot of power given to one person. That is not how the customers are typically assigned to salespeople. The assignment is based on the client's zip code or county to ensure that there is always a clear rule regarding this assignment. Well, I have to say, after college, before I moved to Los Angeles, I was the only receptionist slash administrative assistant at a small marine audio company in Missouri. And marine audio. They made like water resistant, waterproof stereo systems for boats. Thank you. I needed clarity. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay. Whenever we got a cold call

for marine audio, right? I would just transfer them randomly to an available sales associate. It was kind of my call. Wow. Yeah, it didn't come up very often. But every once in a while, we would get a cold call. Pam's job has this weird hierarchy. First of all, she has to ask Angela for petty cash. And then she has these sad plants and this candy that Angela expects her to put out. But now we find out she passes on clients to the sales department. Yeah. And she's Michael's secretary. It's very layered. You know, I based a lot of my Pam stuff off of this job that I had at this marine audio place. It was about the same number of people as Dunder Mifflin. There was a warehouse where we shipped all the orders.

And I was literally Pam. I made the coffee in the morning. I answered the phones. I did everyone's administrative work. Did you date anyone there? I did not. Smart. Yeah. I did not date anyone at marine audio. Okay. Well, now we have a gym talking head. And he says that is why we waited so long to tell people. Did you notice Jim is facing the bullpen with his back to the outside? No, because his future's in the bullpen. His future is Pam and she's out there. Yeah. He now has a future at Dunder Mifflin. Yes. In his heart. It's very interesting. I know. I want to go back one second. Okay. Just one second. I have been wondering, for several episodes now out loud, when did Jim and Pam tell one another about their shared

knowledge of Dwight and Angela? And it is finally revealed in this episode. It's right now at work. What? Do we believe this? This took forever. No, I believe it because I think the beginning of them falling in love and finally getting to be together, it was so special to them. I mean, I just feel like they were really absorbed with one another. And now, now they're at the point they've been dating a few months where they're like, oh, by the way, did you know, you know what I mean? I think they're at that place. I think they were sort of in that fog of love for a few weeks. I buy it. You do not buy it by your sassy. I think it would have been the first thing I would have said on our first dinner date. I don't think so. Hey, by the way.

I don't think after years of loving this guy, the first time you're alone with him, he's like, wait, wait, wait, I'll kiss you in a second. First, we need to talk about Dwight and Angela. You're probably right. All right. Well, now Michael and Ryan are in Michael's office. Ryan is so busy typing on his Blackberry. Do you remember at this time, Rain and I both had Blackberries in real life and we were Ryan? We were constantly on our Blackberries. We were so annoying. I think Brian Baumgartner had one too. Excuse me. I had one. This, we all had one. That's what you had. You had a Blackberry. There were no smartphones. You had a Blackberry and you did not take pictures with your phone, which is why you and I have so many photos, like old-timey

photos, because we would bring our cameras to the set and we would take pictures and then we would go to the mall to that kiosk and we would develop our photos. Yep. It's true. But we could now do emails at work while we were standing between scenes because we had our Blackberries. Yes. And our thumbs were so fast. We got so good at it. And I was a holdout. I did not get the iPhone to way late because I was so attached to my Blackberry. I was the same. I really resented the smartphone screen thing where I, like, pressed on the screen. I was real into the, like, the tangible button thing. I kept on my phone for a long time when I finally got an iPhone. You know how you can choose the sound so it goes click, click, click, click, click, click, click.

Yeah. Because I was attached to the sound. Well, Michael in this scene wants to make sure that they're on the same page. It's business as usual. And Ryan is like, no, it's the opposite of business as usual. We're literally throwing out the old playbook. We're starting over. We want a younger, faster company, which leads us into just an incredible talking head by Michael. Just incredible. Yeah. He, I mean, they had a foreign exchange student that lived with him. And he said, we called him my brother because he was, and then he went back to what was formally Yugoslavia and he took all of Michael's blue jeans. Yeah. Michael had to wear shorts all winter. Why Jenna? Why? Why couldn't his mother buy him any replacement blue jeans for the winter?

I don't know, but we had several people write in and wonder if this is why Michael covets his blue jeans today and why he dry cleans them because of this traumatic event where this foreign exchange student stole all his jeans. And his mother punished him by not letting him buy any new ones. But yeah, he says that is what Ryan is like, a fake brother who steals your jeans. Well, Jenna, we should probably take a break. Before we do, I want you to know there was a deleted scene that would have happened in this area of the episode where Michael gets a message and he says to Pam, hey, can you put that in my blackberry? I'm too busy right now to input it. Will you put that in my blackberry? And he makes a big speech. So it's like, I am using

my blackberry. Pam, please enter that in my blackberry. And then there's a Pam talking head and she goes, um, yeah, Michael doesn't know how to use his blackberry. And so when he says for me to put it in his blackberry, he means for me to write it on a post-it and stick it on top of the blackberry. And then you see, you see his phone is covered, his blackberry is covered with all these little miniature post-it notes, stickies. You would love that. I would love that. That's the best way to give you a message on your blackberry. I know, just put a sticky on it. All right, well, we'll take a break and we will be back with some Kelly Ryan drama. Oh man, Kelly, Kelly's in rare form. So now we're in the annex and Kelly is telling Ryan, you know what,

I am doing great. In fact, I am dating a lot of guys and he's like Kelly and she's like, what? She's like so pissed. And of course, Toby, Toby is listening to the whole conversation. Well, then Kelly says she's pregnant. Yeah. And then she has a talking head where she just shakes her head now. It made me laugh out loud. It was so funny. And then, and then this is how she gets Ryan to go to dinner with her. He's like, okay, she's like, I'm keeping the baby. And he's like, let's just, I can't talk about this now. Let's go to dinner. And then she has a talking head where she's like, we have a date. Yes. Well, also in this conversation, Ryan says, I did take our relationship seriously. Karen asked me out six months ago and I said no. Oh, he's such a liar.

He's such a liar. Well, this was a fan question from Hannah Colson. Do we think Karen really asked Ryan out or was he just saying that to make Kelly jealous? No, he was trying to show Kelly how committed he was. The truth is he hit on Karen and asked her out. And they talked about it in the bathroom in women's appreciation. That's right. It came up. Jim was like, yes, she told me about that. So no, Ryan's being a big old liar right here. Well, we got a letter from Renata in Brazil about the Ryan and Kelly relationship. Okay, Renata, she was very passionate about it. And here is what she had to say. Okay. She says, I love this episode so much, but I just need to make a comment about Kelly and Ryan's relationship and how relatable it can be and how it shouldn't be.

I've met a lot of Ryan's in my life and ladies, it is not worth it. I just want to send some love to all of you and say that you deserve someone who's going to put your love on top. So I hope that this crazy relationship will teach you something about what not to accept because you deserve more. I don't know. Maybe someone out there needs to hear this. That's from Renata. Renata, applause. You're right. You're absolutely right. Another thing going on during the scene is we quickly see Phyllis and Stanley trying to figure out the Blackberry. And Jenna, if you go to 12 minutes 41 seconds in the deep background, you can just see me surfing the internet. You see me like scrolling through. I jot something down. I scroll through some more. I'm probably

shopping. That's amazing. Well, then we move into Angela and Dwight having another one of their back-to-back conversations in the kitchen. Yes, but do you know who we have to thank for this moment? Who? Pam. Why? In a deleted scene that would have come right before this, Pam is going to give Angela some advice. Sam, I'm going to play the clip. He tried to give me a new cat to replace sprinkles as if you could replace sprinkles. He just has a hard time expressing himself. Well, it's really upsetting me. You probably noticed, but this last week I've been a raging bitch. What should I do? Look, there's a lot of good parts of this relationship, right?

None of your business. Right. Well, just try to focus on those. Why don't you guys go out to dinner tonight and talk about whatever you always talk about? Maybe you're right. Yeah. Yeah. I said maybe. So yes, Angela and Pam met at the elevators and Pam gives her this relationship advice. I am so sad that did not make it in. That was delightful. It was so fun. It was so fun. So Angela actually takes Pam's advice and is like, okay, there's something worth fighting for here. I'll ask him out to dinner and maybe I'll be able to forgive him and I'll start with this dinner.

Well, Dwight offers to make you dinner. He says he will cook you noodles and cauliflower with a side of baked potato. I want you to know, Angela, for whatever reason, this caused me to Google noodles and cauliflower. I just saw it as like she loves her starches and she's a vegetarian. What'd you find? Noodles and cauliflower is a very popular vegetarian dish. Oh. The New York Times cooking page had a recipe that looks so good. I think I'm going to make it. Oh, send it to me. Guys, Google noodles and cauliflower. Okay. It's a bonanza. It's fantastic. I can't wait. My Lord, who knew? Well, now we have what I think is such a deliciously

tacky scene. It is a tacky off, if you will, between Jan and Ryan. Oh, it's so good. He's like, well, you know, we should probably talk about the elephant in the room. I got your job and she's like, didn't get my job, not my salary, but you'll get there and it's super tacky. And then Ryan says, Scranton suits you. And Jan says, best decision I ever made. Ryan says, you were let go. And then Jan goes, and she looks maniacal. She says, you know what? Love the beard. Keep it forever. And scratches his beard. And that makes him super insecure about his beard. I thought it was amazing. Love the beard. Keep it forever. Well, did you notice what she's wearing in the scene? It's a velour jumpsuit, right? A juicy couture velour jumpsuit, which were all the rage at this time.

Yeah, they said juicy across the butt. Do you remember that? Some of them did, not all of them, but the zipper for the hoodie, because it was a hoodie and pants set. The zipper, it had a little J as it's, what do you call that thing you hold in your thumb and finger to zipper? The zipper toggle? Yeah, is it called a zipper toggle? I don't know. That's what I call it. Yeah, well, it was a J. I remember there was this really, really popular thing, which was that brides would change into a white juicy couture jumpsuit after the wedding, some point during the reception, and they would get it embroidered with like just married or like Mrs, whatever their new last name is going to be. And I might have done that when Lee and I got married. I might have

ordered one of these white. But you didn't wear it. I was at your reception. You never came out in your your little jogging outfit. Well, Angela, there was like an after after party for the reception for everyone who stayed at the hotel. You left at a certain point. I look early. You were annoyed with me a little bit, but I was. I don't remember being annoyed. You just said, and you can't leave yet. And I was like, Jenna, because I, you know, I had a toddler. I was like, it doesn't matter what time I go to bed. She's going to wake up at the same time. Were you there for the miniature burgers and fries because those came out at midnight? And I think that might have been why I wanted you to stay. There were also miniature shakes because you know I like miniature

foods. I know you do. No, I like it when you take a regular burger and you just shrink it on down to baby size. I know. Little fries, little fry containers, a little shake with a tiny straw. I left around 1030 and you were like, what? You left at 1030? I had a young kid. Nothing had happened yet. I had a young kid. I had to get home. I had a sitter. I had a sitter who I said I'd be home by 11 and you said to me, you're like, Angela, we're going to watch the sun come up. And I don't know if you know this about yourself, but every once in a while you're determined to party until sunrise. Yes. And I've done it a handful of times and it's always the best time. I don't do it too much. I keep it as like a special treat. My wedding night was one of them and around 2.30 in the morning,

I changed into my white velour, juicy couture, custom embroidered, just married, Mrs. Kirk jumpsuit. Well, that's so cute. I want to see a picture of that. I did get a cute little jacket that I wore at the end of my wedding as I left that said Mrs. Snyder on the back. I remember that. Yeah. Okay. So I didn't know that was a thing and I didn't even know you did it. Oh my God. Well, now you know. Now I know. I'll show you pictures. Yeah, I want to see. Well, now Jan and Michael are having lunch and Jan is going to explain ageism to Michael, which is just wonderful. It's so good. And there is a deleted scene that they cut to where Michael says to Dwight, I need you to find out everything you can about something for

me. Ready? It's called ageism. Write it down. And he's like, I don't know what it is. I need to find all the details. I don't know if Jan is just pranking me or if it's a real thing, but I need you to find it all out. I need you to do it in an hour. Well, Michael has this great line where he's like, wait, are you saying that old people have the same rights as young people? And Jan's like, yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So fan catch from Sadie S in this scene. Hi, Jenna and Angela. I'm Sadie. I'm 14 and I love the office and your podcast. Thank you, Sadie. At 15 minutes, 10 seconds, when Michael is having lunch with Jan, it looks like Michael has a personal homemade salad dressing. It is on his desk in a jar with his face on it, a picture of a salad,

and it says, Great Scott, just like the production company of Threat Level Midnight. She said, I couldn't stop laughing when I noticed this. Who thought to make this prop? Oh, Sadie, you and I are on the same page. I have a post-it note. 15 minutes, 10 seconds, I put salad dressing. I think it's a callback from the Fun Run episode. But wasn't that a deleted scene? Yes. So guys, there's a deleted scene and it's so good. It's in Fun Run. Michael has this talking head where he's talking about his charity for rabies and he says, look, it's struggling. And he says, what do I look like? Paul Newman. And then he goes, actually, that's not a bad example because people have told me, I look like Paul Newman. You know,

it's the eyes and the face. And he said, also, I make my own salad dressing. He mixes Newman's ranch with Newman's Italian and sells it at a flea market for a loss. He could make a profit on it if he changed one of the ingredients to wishbone, but he won't do it. That is incredible. So I think that is his mixture of Newman's ranch and Newman's Italian. Well, what I like to think is that, you know, once something has been established on the show, we like to track it. They're eating a salad. So of course, they're going to put his salad dressing out. I bet when we filmed this episode, we didn't yet know that that was going to be cut out from Fun Run because they were still in post-production on it. And that's why the salad

dressing remains. Yeah, that's right. I totally believe that. And you guys, as they continue talking and eating their salad, I want you to know at 15 minutes, 50 seconds, I think Steve, as an actor, makes a very bold choice. The broccoli? He eats a piece of broccoli. I mean, you can't talk after that. It's a good thing the scene ended. That would have taken a long time to chew. And I feel like I see a moment, not Michael Scott. I see Steve Carell go, oh, crap, I just put this piece of broccoli in my mouth. I think you're right. I do too. I think you see a moment of regret. Well, now, Angela, someone enters the office with jet black hair. We don't know who because the camera is tracking

him behind his head through the office. And it is revealed to be Creed. He wants you to know he's only 30. I mean, well, in November, he'll be 30. He'll be 30. Yeah. Yeah. In November. We got a lot of fan questions about this. Sharlia G., Catherine Otto, Kelly Hendricks, Andrea V., and Julie Brown all asked, did Creed really dye his hair for this episode? Well, we texted Creed. We did. We had a delightful text thread with him yesterday. It was so funny. I know. Well, he said that it was a vegetable dye that washed out completely no problem, but he suggested that we tell you all that it was a permanent dye that caused all of his hair to fall out so that he could possibly use this as evidence to sue him. Ferry, who would then

counter sue him for libel. And I was like, you're turning our podcast into a courtroom thriller. I think Creed yesterday was really tickled because he had a whole text thread with us where he went on and on about his different ideas of like a better story of how they dyed his hair. Yes. He was having a good time texting us. But the truth was, it was just a washout vegetable dye. Sorry, Creed. And of course, we find out in this conference room scene that Creed used all the ink from the printer. Yeah. He put the printer ink. There is a deleted scene, you know, where he has a mirror and he's filling in the spots he missed with the black Sharpie. Oh my gosh. I know. I know. Oh my goodness. Well, we might have to start a different text

thread with him about that black Sharpie deleted scene because I need to know more. By the way, we not only had a text thread with Creed yesterday, just the three of us, we also had a lot of activity on our group office text thread. We were in like all texting each other at the storm. Yes. And I had a separate text thread with just the accountants going. Oh my gosh. We were text happy as a cast yesterday. I guess we were. Well, like Angela said, everyone is gathered in the conference room. Ryan enters to do his Blackberry tutorial, but Michael tells Ryan, I'm sorry, this is still my office. Have a seat. I could not believe that Ryan entertained this. I couldn't believe it. Yeah. I mean,

as soon as he saw the pictures on the wall, yeah, he was like, Oh, Michael, here we go. Here we go. It's the lady from Titanic. Mm hmm. The where's the beef lady? Yeah. And then the picture from big where they're dancing on the keyboard. Yes. And then the last one has been Kingsley. Yeah. And this is when Pam is like, why did you reuse the old photos? And Michael says, because the ink ran out of the printer. Yeah. And Creed kind of was like, huh, there's like, but then all of a sudden someone enters the room, just as Ryan has had enough enough in walks. Robert Dunder, one of the founders of Dunder Mifflin. How fantastic was that scene with him? It was so good. Oh man, I rewatched it like a few times because he's so

perfect. His delivery is spot on. Well, Robert Dunder was played by this actor named John Ingle. And this is the only episode that Robert Dunder appears in. But John Ingle starred on General Hospital. He played Patriarch Edward Quartermaine from 1993 to 2012. He did 485 episodes of General Hospital. Wow. He also did a ton of other television work. He was also an acting teacher at Beverly Hills High School from 1964 to 1985. And listen to who he taught while he was a teacher there. He taught Nicholas Cage, Albert Brooks, Swoosie Kurtz, David Schwimmer, and Jonathan Silverman, among others. He was also an active volunteer for Habitat for Humanity. He had five daughters and he passed away in 2012. Well, we were so fortunate to have him. He was such a

seasoned actor and so, so delightful. And I love the scene. He goes on this very, very long meandering story. But the way he connects it all is so real and organic. And you guys, we have been there. We have all been there at that, you know, family gathering where someone gets up to talk and you're like, what, what are we talking about? Yeah, you ask some innocent question like, oh my gosh, where'd you get your sweater? And they're like, well, it was three years ago and it was raining that day. I remember. I remember because I just got my hair done and they gave me a plastic net to put over it. Yes. And my friend Cynthia called and she said, well, you know, Cynthia, she had lived abroad. And when she came back, she divorced and married that younger guy. Well, she did. But

first remember, she had that period of time where she went on that sex sabbatical. She did. That's right about when she got that mole removed. You remember her dermatologist? He was such a nice guy. Tall guy, tall guy, tall and had an accent. Yeah. But I could never figure out where he was from. Yeah. He made a very good dip. And you're like, what? You're like, where's the sweater from? Where's the sweater? Jenna and I just completely improvised this random conversation. But you guys know you've been in this moment. Yeah, that was Robert Dunder. And so Michael throws him out. Wait, can we also, sorry, this is hopping around. Can we also talk about how Michael introduces Robert to everyone? Please. He says, who is this worthless bag of bones? That's his introduction

to the founder of the company. Well, we also had a fan question query from Aaron Kearney, who says, Robert Dunder mentions Robert Mifflin's wife and her husband, Jerry Truppiano, a South Jersey guy who was tall. My question is, was this a reference to Jerry Truppiano, the long time Red Sox broadcaster? I thought it might be because so many of the cast members and writers were Boston area folks. Well, I believe it to be true because Mike Scherr, who wrote this episode, is a huge baseball fan. Yeah. And I 100% think that's true. I think that's a good catch. Yeah. Good catch. Yeah, he's snuck in a baseball player in there. Well, as everyone is leaving the conference room, Ryan tells Michael, this day was a wash. Michael needs to embrace the new technology

as the way of the future. He really needs to get behind this new way of doing things. And Michael's like, no, you know what? I'm going to prove you wrong. That the old way is the best way. I'm going to prove you wrong. We don't know what that's going to be. But Michael says that. And Jenna, there is a deleted scene. I have to tell you, there's another department that's very stressed out about this because Ryan has a moment with the accountants where he shows them the new program they're going to use online for all of the accounting of Dunder Mifflin. And it's basically going to make them obsolete. Wow. So people are freaking out about this, this new technology that Dunder Mifflin is going to be using. Well, we're going to get more of Michael's reaction

to all of this in the next episode. We end this episode, though, with Angela and Dwight's dinner date. Yes. Well, lady, I have some location trivia. I know you love a good location story. I do, and I will tell you Ivy Burke will be very excited to hear what you have to say because Ivy would like to know where you filmed the Dwight and Angela dinner. We filmed it in the most beautiful neighborhood. It's called the Malibu Lake Mountain Club. It's a private community, so much so that there are no signs off the freeway for it. Wow. Yeah, it's like they don't want to be found. It's really, really beautiful. This neighborhood was created in 1924. It was just like a valley and they made a lake, a manmade lake, and the members really wanted

to keep it a secret. So they removed the highway signs that gave directions to the lake, hoping to hide it from tourists. In 1936, they built a clubhouse with a ballroom and a large patio, and it had a speakeasy poker room and a mural of the original members, and only members can use the lake and the swimming pool in the tennis court. So it's this little private community. Ronald Reagan was the honorary mayor, and technically, that's the first political office he ever held. Wow. Now, let me ask you a question. Did you film at this location because this lake is going to feature prominently in the next episode? Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Okay, so we had this location for one day. Dwight and Angela filmed their dinner date

in the lodge at Malibu Lake, their restaurant, and then we will see what happens to Michael and Dwight with the lake in the next episode. But that was all the same day. We filmed our scene at night, so Jenna, I had a late call time. Oh, there was this huge moon, and after we did the scene, I walked out on this floating dock and just watched the moon for a minute, and it was just like, you know, one of those magical nights on set where you're like, this feels so cool, because it's really a beautiful little area. And Steve Carell has made their official website ready for this. It says, just a few of the famous faces that have shot here. Charlie Chaplin, W.C. Fields, Diane Lane, Lloyd Bridges, Lucille Ball, Steve Carell, Betty Davis, Henry Fonda,

it goes on and on, but Steve Carell made the list. I love that. I know, right? Really fun. But this scene between Rain and I, I just loved doing it. We took the scene apart because Dwight is hoping that it's one thing. Angela's trying for it to be a reconciliation. And then she just can't do it. Yeah. And they wanted me to be able to show that emotion in my face that I was trying. And then I just couldn't get past it. I couldn't get past it. And it's got a couplet of dialogue that I love. It's when Angela says, I heard a joke today. And Dwight says, Oh, that's funny. And Angela says, Yes, it was. Yeah. Well, this scene is just beautiful. It's beautiful for all the reasons you said it's funny,

but then it breaks your heart because your performance, Angela, we really see your character's heart breaking in this moment. And it's just real. Like you aren't playing it for comedy. It's just real. And these are the moments of the office that I'm so proud of as a television comedy that we took these moments to get really real. Thanks, lady. Thanks. I really enjoyed the storyline. I loved Dwight and Angela being together. And I loved when they were at odds. It was equally fun to play. Yeah, it's such a good dynamic. Well, you know, Jenna, one of the things that got me so tickled was that during this time, the Dwight-Angela relationship was compared by a TV journalist to Hot Lips Hulahan and Frank from MASH. And that was a show I grew up watching with

my dad. And I just was so tickled by that. Oh, that's perfect. And that was Dunder Mifflin Infinity part one. Yes. And I would like to say thank you to Joya Balfour for giving us the digital media inside info. And you can check out her website at JoyaBalfour.com for some fun stuff that they were doing at NBC.com. Well, when we pick up this storyline, we're going to have some lovely gift baskets and a huge stunt, especially for our show. I was so impressed. I can't wait to talk about it. All right, you guys have a great week. We'll see you next time. Bye. Bye. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is produced by Irwin, Jenna Fisher, and Angela Kinsey. Our producer is Cody Fisher. Our sound engineer is Sam Kiefer.

And our associate producer is Ainsley Bubakow. 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 of StitcherPremium, use code Office.