Office Ladies - Employee Transfer

Episode Date: June 30, 2021

This week we’re breaking down Employee Transfer. When David Wallace finds out Michael and Holly are dating, he transfers Holly to the Nashua branch. Meanwhile Pam attempts to pull a prank on Jim wit...h his brothers, and Dwight pushes Andy’s Cornell buttons. Writer Anthony Q. Farrell sends in clips sharing what it was like to write this big episode. The ladies pitch a salad dressing, Angela gives a Halloween costume breakdown and Jenna reconnects with Tug Coker, an actor who played one of Jim’s brothers. This episode is like a highway, you’re gonna wanna ride it all night long! Check out Tug Coker and Kathryn Weil Coker’s podcast “The Long Finish”: https://www.tugcoker.com/podcast Follow on Instagram @thelongfinish

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 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. Dah na, nah na, nah, dah na, nah, nah, nah. Oh, Michael.
Starting point is 00:00:30 Michael. Bless his heart. You guys, today it's employee transfer. It is season five, episode six, written by Anthony Farrell and directed by Dave Rogers. We have lots to say. There was a really good DVD commentary. I didn't do any deep dives, though. What?
Starting point is 00:00:50 I'm sorry. in advance for anyone who likes them and you're welcome, the people who hate them. Who don't? I might need a minute, no deep dives. I have a summary. I know you have a summary and fast facts, but we also reached out to a ton of people.
Starting point is 00:01:03 So we have lots of good trivia. We did, that is very true. I will give you my summary. Do it. Pam is embarrassed when no one else at corporate wears a costume on Halloween. That is the worst. It was so funny.
Starting point is 00:01:17 It was so funny to do and it gets me every time. Holly and Michael deal with Holly's transfer to the Nashua branch. Remember when David Wallace last week saw them kissing after the auction? Yeah, yeah. He was like, I'm not having another Jan and Michael on my hands.
Starting point is 00:01:37 No, no depositions. Not on my watch. No. Also Dwight tries to get under Andy's skin by applying to Cornell. I love that storyline. Same. And finally, Pam is gonna team up with Jim's brothers
Starting point is 00:01:51 to play a prank on Jim. Telling you those Halperts in the pranks. You know how I feel about pranks. I know how you feel about them in real life. The same as how I feel about tickling. I know, but Pam is like, sign me up. Let's prank away. I know, Pam loves a prank.
Starting point is 00:02:06 That's why Pam married Jim. That's right. Jenna would not marry Jim. No. Because there'd be too much pranking. All right. Fast fact number one, new writer alert, Anthony Farrell. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:02:21 Anthony was with us for season five. He is a writer and a comedian. This was the first episode that he wrote for the show, but I didn't know this till I looked it up. The first thing he wrote was actually the Kevin's loan webisodes. That's right. He wrote a series of webisodes
Starting point is 00:02:38 and some of our writers got to break off and do that. I would have loved to done that. I would have loved to written a webisode. I feel like you had a lot of freedom on the webisodes. Yeah, you did. They were pretty fun, which reminds me we should break down the webisodes sometime.
Starting point is 00:02:52 I mean, you don't even have to make it into a question. We definitely should. The accountants, the webisodes, won an Emmy. An Emmy. I'm so jealous that you have an actual Emmy. I know, lady. In your house. I know.
Starting point is 00:03:04 It's very pointy. Yeah, those wings are pointy. It's pointy. Angela, do you wanna share that we got in touch with Anthony? Yes, we were emailing with Anthony. We had the wrong email. Aaron Sher to the rescue.
Starting point is 00:03:16 Thank you, Aaron. Thank you, Aaron. Got us in touch. It was so great to reconnect with him. He and his family are back in Toronto where he's from and they're doing awesome. He shared with me that he is the showrunner for a show called The Parker Anderson's Slash Amelia Parker.
Starting point is 00:03:32 And it's actually two shows about the same characters from two different perspectives. I love that. It's so cool. He shared a lot of stuff with us. We're gonna sprinkle it through the episode, but one of the things he said was, before he got the office,
Starting point is 00:03:44 he was a comedian but he still needed that day job and he was working at country-wide home loans. And he was so excited when he got the job as writer on the office because it meant he could quit country-wide home loans. He quit like the day before he started in the writers room, right? Something crazy.
Starting point is 00:04:04 Yeah, he was working at country-wide home loans. And then literally like the next day, it was like, I'm gonna go right now on a TV show. But all of that experience paid off because he was often called on in the writers room to pitch like those very minutia office space storylines. And he sent us an audio clips. We'll share those and some other trivia he gave us.
Starting point is 00:04:24 It's interesting because actually not a lot of our writers had real office work experience. So he was a find. This was awesome to have him in there. Great perspective. All right, fast fact number two, new director alert. Yes, our very own Dave Rogers, our editor. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:04:44 If you guys haven't listened to his extended interview in our revisited episode, you should check it out because he is an amazing person and knows so much about the show. I dare say, I don't know if anyone else knows the show as well as him. You should dare to say that. I dare say it then.
Starting point is 00:04:59 Say it. I dare say it. She said it. I said it. We were also able to get in touch with Dave. He shared with me that he was so nervous to direct. Very excited, but he had a ton of anxiety. He said he had a panic attack the night before filming,
Starting point is 00:05:16 but he just pushed through. I was really curious what the most challenging thing was coming from editing and then directing. Oh, that's a good question. He said the toughest thing about this episode was that there were so many locations. There were these multiple storylines. Michael had this huge emotional journey to go on.
Starting point is 00:05:36 Yeah, and a physical journey. Yes, he said that the most challenging thing for him was just the pace of shooting. And he said there's one thing if you have a ton of scenes in the bullpen and you have to make your day, but it's a whole other thing. If after you finish a scene,
Starting point is 00:05:53 you have to pick up the entire crew and all the gear and move to another place and reset up because that eats up so much of your on-camera shoot time. Yeah, but he did feel that coming from editing gave him an advantage because he just knew inherently the kind of stuff that got used on the show. He had watched so many directors do shots that were just never gonna make it in.
Starting point is 00:06:18 So he said he was able to be really, really efficient. And he got to edit this episode. Oh, that's great, because how hard would it be as an editor to then direct and then give it away? I know, right? Yeah, I would think. He said that Dean Holland assembled a few scenes and then Dave took over and he did a full assembly.
Starting point is 00:06:37 He did like a director's cut and he said not much changed. I doubt it. And he was really, really proud that basically it was his director's cut that went to air. Nice. Well, I have more stuff from Dave too. So we can share that. My fast fact number three is fun facts about Nashua.
Starting point is 00:06:56 Let's hear them. I mean, Holly has to go live in Nashua. Don't we wanna know more about it? I do. Good. I'm gonna tell you. Okay. Holly is lucky because Nashua was named
Starting point is 00:07:07 the best place to live in America two times in an annual survey by Money Magazine. And it is the only city to ever win that ranking twice. Holy crap, Nashua. It was in 1987 and 1998. Going strong at the end of the 90s. Really? What else you got?
Starting point is 00:07:26 Russian dressing. Originated in Nashua? Yeah. The salad dressing. You're kidding. Russian dressing. No. What?
Starting point is 00:07:34 You said you didn't have any deep dives. You were fooling. This is a mini deep dive on Nashua. Okay, you're right. It kind of is. And also on Russian dressing, it was created by a grocer named James Colburn. He started mixing it up.
Starting point is 00:07:47 It looks like around 1910. Okay. And he started selling it at his grocery store under the name Colburn's mayonnaise salad dressing. Well, that's not a catchy title. So I can see why they had to jizz it up. Soon he started manufacturing it on a bigger scale and shipping it around to other places.
Starting point is 00:08:06 And he got so rich that he was able to retire. Whoa. In 1924. Wow. So just 14 years of selling the salad dressing. And he was like, peace out. Should we make a salad dressing? What's our salad dressing?
Starting point is 00:08:22 What would be in it? What do you like in a salad dressing, lady? You had me at mayonnaise. Okay. So we'll do some kind of mayo based salad dressing. I also like lemon. Do those mix? I don't know.
Starting point is 00:08:36 I don't know. Cause I was going to say maybe like a spicy mustard. Because I know they do a honey mustard salad dressing, but has anyone paired a spicy mustard with a mayo yet? Probably. We need to cut this out. We need to cut this out because we're onto something and we'll never do it.
Starting point is 00:08:51 And someone else will. And then we'll be mad for the rest of our lives. Office ladies. But we need to give it a really long, clunky name. Office ladies, creamy mayonnaise, spicy mustard delight. Yes. And then later. Delight's gotta go on the end.
Starting point is 00:09:05 I don't care what it is. Later we'll call it like Dutch dressing. We'll just pick a country. Denmark dressing. We'll just pick a random country. Pick a country. Okay. This is the formula.
Starting point is 00:09:16 Okay. And then we'll retire in 14 years. Okay. All right, my final fun fact about Nashua is also about Amy Ryan, her character in Gone Baby Gone. Yeah. She is being interrogated. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:09:31 About a possible drug deal. Yeah. And she admits that she did in fact, make a drug run to Nashua. No. And she made $150,000 on this drug run. Amy, what is it all your roles lead back to Nashua? I don't know.
Starting point is 00:09:46 Love it. I now need to Google Nashua. Why? I already told you everything you need to know. There's only three things to know about Nashua and I've told you what they are. Well, I need to Google image Nashua. It's really cute.
Starting point is 00:09:58 I'm a big fan of the Google image button, guys. The button. Like I say it like it's an actual button on my computer. I would love it if it was a button on my computer. Less clicking. Yeah. Okay. Before we get into-
Starting point is 00:10:11 That's our next addition. Yeah. Like computers for old people. Before we get into employee transfer, I want to share that there is another great DVD commentary for this episode from our crew. And I want to let them introduce themselves because I'm going to be bringing up
Starting point is 00:10:26 some of the trivia they share. Here is the DVD crew commentary for this episode. Am I going to cry again? By the way, I'm Dave Rogers. I'm an Emmy award-winning editor on the show and this was my directorial debut. And to my left here is- I'm Kyle Alexander, location manager for the show.
Starting point is 00:10:44 I'm Anthony Farrell, writer of this fantastic episode. I'm Veda Samar, script supervisor. Been on the show for 99 episodes now. And I'm Philip Shea, the property master. And I have also been on the show since the first season. I'm Chuck Hansen-Ary and this was my first full year as a production assistant on The Funniest Show on TV. Oh my gosh, I love it!
Starting point is 00:11:05 I know, I love hearing their voices. So whenever there's a crew commentary, I just want to let them introduce themselves because it just brings back so many feelings, just hearing their voices. When Dave introduced himself as the Emmy-winning editor, it reminded me, Angela, that we were at that awards show. Remember, we read off the people.
Starting point is 00:11:27 We co-presented. Yes, and then we got to give the Emmy to our own editors and then we partied all night with them. That was so much fun. That was one of the most fun award shows. Absolutely, without a doubt. Yeah, so that is who does the DVD commentary for this episode.
Starting point is 00:11:43 I'll sprinkle in tidbits they share and then also you guys, the bloopers for this episode are some of my most favorite of all bloopers and you can't find them online, you know? They're not all there. So the bonus for this episode on the DVD box set is so great. I wish all of the driving scenes had been left in
Starting point is 00:12:03 because they are all gold. I am bummed because I have every DVD set for every season except this one. What? I don't know where my season five DVD went. Oh, lady, I know. Well, while we take a break, maybe I'll order that DVD, Ange.
Starting point is 00:12:19 Yeah. So I can watch these bloopers. These bloopers are my favorite, some of my absolute favorite. All right, I'll do it. We'll be right back. ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] All right, we are back and you guys,
Starting point is 00:12:38 it is Halloween at Dunder Mifflin. It sure is. This is our Halloween cold open. Not through the rest of the episode, just in the cold open. Well, we found out why. Let's play Anthony's first clip. He talks all about it. The show was initially,
Starting point is 00:12:51 the entire episode was supposed to be Halloween. So everyone was in their costumes for the entire episode. So Andy was a kitten initially. I think, and the whole B story with Dwight being in the Cornell sweater, that was his costume, an accidental costume initially. And that's where that story came from. So costume wise, we had a thing where once we decided
Starting point is 00:13:11 we were going to just put the Halloween stuff in the cold open, we rewrote the cold open. And that was mostly led by Lee and Jean. And that's where the idea for the three jokers came from. That was obviously a situation that year with that costume being super popular. And they just totally made the most of that situation. It was amazing.
Starting point is 00:13:33 The Charlie Chaplin thing, that was actually a full runner for you, Jenna. We had initially, in the first draft, where you were going to be, it was Halloween all day. So it was just going to be you running around the New York office as the only person dressed for Halloween, trying not to look like Hitler. And it was a fun little runner for you.
Starting point is 00:13:48 But I think the story we got eventually with Jim's brothers and that beautiful thing with you taking the heat like that around them and having that nice little moment. I think that to me felt more right. And I love that we ended up going there with the story. Yeah, it was going to be a whole Halloween episode. And then they changed it up.
Starting point is 00:14:07 Yes, Anthony shared in the DVD that all those Halloween costumes would actually be distracting from all the other storylines. So they just made it the cold open. And I have a costume breakdown. Oh, good, because I have some good details about some of the costumes. OK.
Starting point is 00:14:22 What's everyone wearing, Angela? So we have the scripts thanks to James Apedia. So per the script, here are some details. Stanley, in the script it says, is wearing a creature from the Black Lagoon rubber mask with his regular suit. OK. Creed, per the script, is an amazing Joker from Batman, whereas Kevin is a, quote, lame Joker.
Starting point is 00:14:46 And in the script, it says Dwight is also a Joker. Kelly is Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City. Ryan is Gordon Gekko from Wall Street. Very fitting for Ryan. Oscar is Uncle Sam. Meredith, a cheerleader. Phyllis is Raggedy Ann. Andy, per the script, it says, he's dressed as a cat
Starting point is 00:15:06 with whiskers on his face. Angela has brought back her cat costume, always a classic. And Jim is just wearing a name tag that says Dave. And of course, Pam, the solo Halloween costume wear at corporate is dressed as Charlie Chaplin. Yes. I reached out to our wardrobe designer, Alicia Raycraft. Oh, great.
Starting point is 00:15:27 So starting this season, Alicia took over for Carrie Bennett. Alicia was amazing, particularly, I think, at building wardrobe from scratch. My memories of her when I would visit her in the wardrobe trailer were that she always had one of those fabric mannequins with swatches on it, pinned on it, or on her wall. I am telling you, she was always pinning something to something.
Starting point is 00:15:51 Yes. And then standing back and looking at it, and then moving a swatch here up and down. She said that with this episode, she had to really ride the line of designing wardrobe, but also making sure that the costumes look like things that we could have put together ourselves. Right.
Starting point is 00:16:08 The idea is that if Kevin is going to dress like the Joker, it'd be Kevin's effort. It'd be like something Kevin had to put together. Yes. Like you said, the script said that Creed's Joker was supposed to be the best version of the Joker. Kevin's was supposed to be lame. And they're the Dark Knight Joker.
Starting point is 00:16:24 Yes. That's what Alicia said. They were supposed to be based on the Heath Ledger Joker. And so she had a picture, and she made a shopping list, and she still had her shopping list. Stop it. I love her. This is what it said.
Starting point is 00:16:39 They had to go shop for a vest with a high neck center front, green for Creed, not for Kevin. Because Creed got it right, and Kevin didn't. Correct. They needed a gray or dark lilac pattern shirt, green or olive tie with a pattern, pinstripe navy pants, pleated for Kevin, but flat front for Creed. Argyle socks, black Oxford shoes for Creed,
Starting point is 00:17:07 but Kevin is to wear his regular character shoes. She said the overall direction in shopping for Kevin was that all of the clothes they purchased should look like they came from his closet. And the direction for Creed was that Creed went out and picked it out specifically for Halloween. Yeah. But for Dwight, she said they went with a nod
Starting point is 00:17:28 to the Jack Nicholson version of the Joker. I thought something was different when I rewatched it, because the way they drew the smile yes, did not look like the Heath Ledger Joker. That's how they were like, how do we do three jokers, but it's not all the same costume or the same look. But she also shared with me that she brought in a rack of clothes and that Reign really put together his costume
Starting point is 00:17:49 from everything she had bought, which tracks with when we talked to Carrie. And Carrie Bennett said that Reign was always really invested in what his character wore. That's awesome. So let's see, what's next? We got a lot of questions about Andy's kitten costume. A lot of people wrote in to say they
Starting point is 00:18:07 thought it looked a little bit like, my favorite was Katie L said, it looks like an off-brand Rumtum Tugger costume from the musical Cats. She said, in my mind, I like to think Andy was in a school production of Cats and he still had his costume. Katie L, you would be right on there. Dave told me that Greg was very involved in Ed's costume.
Starting point is 00:18:32 Really? Yes, that he wanted it to look like it was from the musical Cats. And he went over the top to please Angela. Right. He was not just going to draw whiskers on his face, guys. Alicia said she showed Greg a bunch of photos from the Broadway musical of Cats.
Starting point is 00:18:48 And Greg picked his favorites, but she did not base this cat on any one character. It was a meld. She built that whole costume from scratch. She bought a unitard and hand-painted it. She used to do textile painting. I mean, that's amazing. And then she found another email that she shared with me.
Starting point is 00:19:07 It was an email to her crew detailing how to build the little fur diaper thing that he's wearing. What is it, right? Yeah, I don't know. It looks like fur underwear. And then there's also a rope belt and a tail. And oh, my goodness. Yes.
Starting point is 00:19:24 She said, please make a loincloth using a thong or small brief underwear as a base, and then swatch Phelps wool crepe and heavy knits on top. And please get faux fur for some gloves. So amazing. So that is how she put together all of those costumes, which were really amazing. And I remember my costume.
Starting point is 00:19:48 We did like Pam went to a store and rented a tux, basically. Well, I took a lot of photos this day. I have some great ones of you and Rain. You guys were hanging out by your trailer. I was walking by you guys in my cat costume. And I see Rain as the Joker talking to Jenna as Charlie Chaplin, just casually hanging out. So I took pictures.
Starting point is 00:20:09 They're some of my favorite. Well, I think he put that one in his book. I gave it to him. Yeah, that's for me. I loved this episode, Angela, because I had been away for a very long time at Pratt. But you know, the corporate offices were over on the warehouse set.
Starting point is 00:20:24 We never got to see you. But you did on this day. Exactly. And I got to participate in the Halloween, which was always one of my favorite things on our show. And I would have been really bummed if I didn't get to see everybody in their costumes. But I got to be in hair makeup.
Starting point is 00:20:39 And we were in there a long time. Me not so long, but oh my gosh, Ed had to come in really early. Yeah. And so did Phyllis. Like, there was a lot of makeup there. Well, my hair was not easy to wash out. I'll tell you that. Are your eyebrows.
Starting point is 00:20:51 I felt bad for your poor eyebrows. It was a real grease paint. They shall act you. Yeah. I have a few little background catches for this cold open. I want you guys to know that at 44 seconds, when Kevin is annoyed that Creed is such a good joker, he brushes past me and knocks me over.
Starting point is 00:21:10 This was like a little running bit Brian and I would have, that if Kevin bumped into Angela, she'd go flying. It was like our own personal bit that cracked us up to no end. When he did it, one of my cat ears fell forward and didn't come back up. And I could feel it laying on top of my head. And I was trying not to laugh. And if you go to 44 seconds, you'll
Starting point is 00:21:29 see that Angela's ear flops forward. I want you to know that three people that I reached out to on this episode pointed out that moment to me. I know. I know they talked about it in the commentary too. I think it's gone down in the lore of this episode. I know.
Starting point is 00:21:43 And then the other thing was, you guys, they really let Ed as that cat play around and mess with John. And in one take, Ed as Andy came up to Jim and rubbed on his leg, kind of rubbed on him like a cat. And the two of them lost it. It's in the bloopers. But they had a lot of fun with that. One of my favorite moments is when Andy, it says in the script,
Starting point is 00:22:06 Andy walks back to his desk smugly. And Ed's like sashay in that cat costume cracked me up. You guys know we love this fake elevator in our lobby, the Dunder Mifflin Lobby. We've talked about it. Two wooden doors and a guy pulling a rope on the side. And they add all the sound effects later. They added it all in.
Starting point is 00:22:26 Well, in the script, when Rain as Dwight arrives in the Joker outfit, he just was supposed to hop in the elevator and he was supposed to a la the Joker say, and here we go. And the doors would shut. But it was just kind of falling flat. So they came up with this alt about the magic trick of the pencil disappearing.
Starting point is 00:22:45 And it wasn't really working still. And so Anthony pitched, what if the doors close as he sang the line? And then he opens them back up to finish the sentence. And they said they played around with this for a bit with the doors opening and closing, which you and I know means that there was someone pulling a rope. Working that pulley really hard.
Starting point is 00:23:04 And that's how they found this moment. And I thought that was really fun. That is awesome. Those things that happened on the fly like that in the moment, I love to hear about. Now it's time to get into the episode. We're down in the warehouse. They are loading up a big truck so that they can take Holly
Starting point is 00:23:21 to Nashua. Yes. We got a fan question. OK. That is very funny to me. Two people. OK. Ian Oh and Mary S wrote in to say,
Starting point is 00:23:32 did Holly live in the warehouse? Isn't it odd that this road trip started from the office rather than from her home? This is such a good catch. It's true. Where is this stuff coming from? Oh my gosh. I guess we have to justify it that they went to her apartment,
Starting point is 00:23:53 packed it up, but then why did they drive to the warehouse? Why not just leave? This piggybacks very nicely on a question that I had along with Erin S and Amanda E. What is Holly wearing on the day she is moving? She is dressed in her work clothes, same as Pam, driving to Pratt. I know.
Starting point is 00:24:12 What is that? Michael's a casual. He's got his little casual little zipping jacket. Yes. Also, they pointed out, I don't think it looks like she had any intention of helping move any of her own belongings. She is not dressed for a move.
Starting point is 00:24:27 No. She's not. Why couldn't she be casual? What's happening? I thought these were good catches. You know, I talked to Dave about this, and he said that during the prep for this episode, they brought him a bunch of trucks to look at,
Starting point is 00:24:40 and they were all giant 18-wheeler moving trucks. And he was like, how am I going to film with that? How do I tow it? What am I doing? But he said he loves this truck that they found. It looked really realistic. He also just loved that the back was open, because then when you've got shots that, you know,
Starting point is 00:25:01 the farther shots of them going down the road, it just like you really felt the move. Yeah. Because you could see her bed. You could see the stuff. Right. They said that they wanted the table hanging off the front, like in the bubble wrap.
Starting point is 00:25:14 I love it. I loved it, too. Phil Props. You know, we love Phil Props. He shared that Anthony and Dave really wanted Michael to have packed all kinds of crazy things for the road trip. Like him and Holly are little kids, like the finger puppets and the cats and the cradle,
Starting point is 00:25:28 and the movies to watch. You guys, a lot of those are in the deleted scenes. I mean. Of them doing it in the van. And my absolute favorite is the two of them. The windows are down and they're watching a movie, and they are pissing themselves laughing. They are laughing so hard.
Starting point is 00:25:45 And Daryl looks miserable. And Daryl takes a hard turn on purpose. And the laptop that's playing the movie goes flying out the window. I remember that. It is so funny. I am so bummed it didn't make it in. Dave said they spent three hours on that gag
Starting point is 00:26:01 and finally had to just let it go. They said every time Craig turned, the computer would slide and never go out the window. It only went out the window one time. Oh my gosh. But it's in the bloopers on the DVD and it's so funny. We had a fan catch from a couple of people, from Erica S. and Mary S. and I have to say
Starting point is 00:26:22 they're making a good point. What? So it said repeatedly in Goodbye Toby that she's coming in to train for this new position and that they only allowed one day for training. And when she's on the Ferris Wheel with Michael, she talks about how she was unable to be promoted at her former company.
Starting point is 00:26:44 Former company. Right, right. But then in this episode, it says she's being transferred back to Nashua as if she's been a Dunder Mifflin employee all along. I don't know guys. I mean, I think they caught a continuity error there. Oh yeah.
Starting point is 00:26:59 Here's one of the things I was curious about. Why would Daryl agree to drive Michael and Holly, be in a car with Michael and Holly for seven hours? Well, there was a talking head in the script that didn't make it in. That explained this. Daryl said, I'm driving them up for five times what I would have made at work.
Starting point is 00:27:20 I thought I made a good deal. Then I realized I'm gonna be trapped in a truck with Michael all day. But he did earn a lot of money. So Michael paid him, is why? They paid him, yeah. Okay, that does make more sense. Well, Michael is not the only person
Starting point is 00:27:35 who's leaving for the day. Jim comes walking out of the building. He's saying goodbye to them, right? And we find out that Jim is gonna go to New York and he's gonna have lunch with Pam and his two brothers. So we set up that storyline. And I'm bringing this up because at three minutes, 24 seconds, Jim is holding the key chain that he got
Starting point is 00:27:55 in the Yankee Swap Christmas party from Oscar back in season two. Oh my gosh, what a great, tiny detail. Yeah, I love that. Phil Shea. Phil Shea, man. Well, as Jim and Michael are having this little scene in the parking lot, Holly would have said goodbye to everyone in the bullpen.
Starting point is 00:28:14 It was a deleted scene. Jenna, I laughed so hard in this scene. I was really glad I'm way deep behind the partition. It's a series of people saying goodbye to her. But my absolute favorite was Oscar. Oscar Nunez is so good at like being the character that reigns on your parade. But he's just being reasonable, right?
Starting point is 00:28:38 Yes. So he's like, you know, well, good luck. And she's like, well, I won't be that far. And then he goes on to say all of this and he just slowly, slowly reigns on her parade. Can you play it? We'll miss you. Oh, well, I'll be around. It's in a seven hour drive.
Starting point is 00:28:54 Well, it's not that bad. But if I'm really jonesing to see you guys, I can always fly. I don't know if it'll be shorter to fly. You have to drive to Boston, right? That's an hour and a half. Get to an hour before the flight. I air up two and a half hours.
Starting point is 00:29:08 The flight to Philadelphia is an hour 15. It's another two and a half hour drive to Scranton. Assuming there's no traffic. Well, I just want to say goodbye. Okay. Okay. It made me laugh so hard. Yeah, I just wanted to say goodbye.
Starting point is 00:29:21 Right, right. But like, she's trying to make, like it's not going to be that bad. And he's like, well, I don't know about that. Like that person, Oscar was so good at being that person. So it keeps coming up in this episode that it is seven hours from Scranton to Nashua. Did you Google it?
Starting point is 00:29:38 It's not true. How far is it? Less than five. What? It's such a big difference. Why didn't anyone look that up in the right room? No, but it's only like four hours and 45 minutes. Are you kidding me?
Starting point is 00:29:52 I'm not kidding you. What rules were they taking? Are there new freeways? There were some like fan theories that it took them seven hours in that big truck. But that's not how we present it in this episode. We present it like, how are they ever gonna see each other? Like Holly says, even if you leave right after work, Michael,
Starting point is 00:30:12 you won't even get her till after midnight. And then we'll just have one day together. And you'll have to go back, but it's not true. They really scared themselves. I mean, at four hours, they're in the middle of nowhere. That's how we sell it. Exactly. Oh, wow.
Starting point is 00:30:27 I know, so anyway, I just wanted to say that. I also did check the train schedule. For a reason I can't explain, it takes over 12 hours on the train. Maybe our writers check the train schedule. I don't know. Lot of stops though, I guess. My gosh.
Starting point is 00:30:44 Yeah, I know. Are you checking my work? You've got your phone out. She is checking my work. I'm not checking. What do you think? I don't know how to Google Scranton to Nashua? No, I'm very curious.
Starting point is 00:30:54 After all of my great information I've given you about rainbees. Can I tell you something right now? What? I'm doing it too. We're both Googling Scranton to Nashua. There it is, five hours. It's 311 miles.
Starting point is 00:31:09 Done. You know what's amazing is that a lot of people have written about this. I know, there's a whole Reddit thread. I know, I'm looking at the Reddit thread. See? Okay, well, this shouldn't have broken them up. It really should know.
Starting point is 00:31:22 They should have picked a further branch. Okay, well, all right. Speaking of all of these driving scenes, should we get into it a little bit? We'll come back. Stuff is happening back at the office with Dwight and Andy but we'll get back to it. Should we do the driving?
Starting point is 00:31:36 Let's do it. Let's get to the driving. Sam. Okay. I don't know, something all night long. Okay. Tom Cochran. According to James Apedia, they had two days
Starting point is 00:32:03 and a little more, like two days and a half to shoot the driving scenes. They shot mostly on the 118 freeway, a little bit on Burbank Boulevard. That's how we made it look like the East Coast. Some tidbits from Dave Rogers, they filmed this using lipstick cameras in the car and for the most part used a tow car.
Starting point is 00:32:25 So they had a big old truck that pulled the truck. Craig was not actually driving. So Dave told me that it was over 100 degrees. The days they were shooting. 104 is what they said in the commentary. And he, Randall Einhorn, RDP, Paul Feig and Veda had to sit in the back of the tow car. Under a tent.
Starting point is 00:32:50 Yes, like a black box tent where they could see monitors showing them what was happening inside the car. They had little walkie-talkies so that they could talk to Amy and Steve and Craig. He said Paul Feig started removing layers of his suit because you know Paul used to wear like a three-piece suit every day.
Starting point is 00:33:09 Yeah, he said they were really jealous because Randall Einhorn wore the cooling vest. Yes, the cooling vest that Steve Carell had worn. Yeah, Veda said inside the tent with five monitors, all the heat was trapped in there. She said it felt like it was 200 degrees in there. Dave sent me some pictures. Oh no, were they like all melting?
Starting point is 00:33:30 They were, they looked so hot. It was crazy. Yeah, so they are driving. They are singing the song over and over again. Over and over and then of course in the deleted scenes, you guys, they're pulling things out of that bag Michael packed and doing things.
Starting point is 00:33:45 And then one of the things they do is they just start doing like kissing push-ups. Oh my gosh, Daryl's face. They put their lips to each other and they're going one and two and three and four like that. It's so good and that didn't make it in but they're driving Daryl crazy. But then they start to realize this is far.
Starting point is 00:34:08 It's starting to hit them. Michael wants to save the day. He's like, stop right now. We're halfway. There's got to be an amazing bed and breakfast right here. Yeah, it's where we'll meet. It's going to be so cute. We'll meet in the middle.
Starting point is 00:34:20 So they pull off the road. There's nothing. They're in the woods. Kyle, our location manager, shared this. He said when they went tech scouting, they found this location kind of like off the side of the road. Oh, this will be perfect.
Starting point is 00:34:34 But then they found out another production was filming just a little ways down the way in the same area. He loves it. He didn't say who it was. But he said, normally this wouldn't concern us because we would film in our little nook. They would film in their nook and we'd be fine. He said, but then we found out
Starting point is 00:34:50 they were filming a live band all day. And he said, we couldn't have a live band. So we had to find a whole new location and this spot was actually in Griffith Park. Oh, wow. Yeah. It's so funny when you said another show was filming there. I assumed it was like a murder show or 24 or something.
Starting point is 00:35:10 Right. Because who else needs just like to be out in the weird woods? Maybe a teen rom-com. I guess so with a live band. Right. Here's another little thing I caught, Jenna. At 9 minutes, 53 seconds, while Michael and Holly are having this heart-to-heart in the car,
Starting point is 00:35:26 Darrell's getting gas, right? Yeah. Did you see what the front license plate said? No. It just says Rock 107. The license plate on the truck? Yes. On the front of the truck says Rock 107, a radio station.
Starting point is 00:35:43 Is there a Rock 107 in Scranton? Yes. Oh, my gosh. It plays classic rock. Of course it does, Sam. Rock 107, although I suppose, actually, these are all coming off of Michael's mixed CD that he made for the trip.
Starting point is 00:36:07 Life is a highway. Now, we all know I made. You're Scranton mixed CD. Sounds of Scranton. I would have put this on there because it was just a mix of classic rock. You know who would have appreciated my CD? Michael Scott.
Starting point is 00:36:20 Michael Scott. Jennifer Fisher and Michael Scott. Yes. Hanging out. So while Darrell is getting gas, Michael says that he's dated four women in the last 10 years, and Holly surpasses them all. Well, Veda, our script, he shared
Starting point is 00:36:35 that the last 10 years was an improv from Steve. Oh. It made it so much better, I have to say. I know. I know. Everything about that, when she thinks he means four people in the last year, and he says in the last 10 years,
Starting point is 00:36:50 kind of at the same time, I was like, oh, Michael. I know. I love you so much, Michael. And they were ad-libbing right there. Aw. All of it really breaks my heart, and because as they're getting closer, you can really see Holly shutting down.
Starting point is 00:37:05 Oh, she starts crying while the song is playing. And Amy Ryan crushed that. I know. That was so good. Well, Dave talked about this. He said he really wanted a three-shot. He wanted to see Michael and Holly having this moment. Michael begging Holly, no, don't do this.
Starting point is 00:37:22 We don't need to break up. And Daryl just making a random phone call. Like, just he need to talk to anyone, someone. Yes. And he wanted to see all of that at the same time. I mean, it's not an easy shot, but Dave was like, no, no, no. I want to see all three of them. You had to see all three of them.
Starting point is 00:37:37 Yeah. It only works that way. Because he said it's like two scenes happening at the same time. Well, maybe we should take a break from the car because we need to cover what's happening back at the office. Oh, yeah. Dwight is applying for Cornell, you guys.
Starting point is 00:37:50 Oh, yeah. And also, Pam's about to have lunch with Jim's brothers. There's a lot to still talk about. The pranksters. We'll be right back. MUSIC Dwight arrives to work. He is wearing a Cornell sweatshirt over his mustard
Starting point is 00:38:14 shirt. Yeah. You want to know why he's wearing that sweatshirt? Because he's applying to Cornell. That's right. Yes. I mean, did he know how to go after Andy or what? What does Andy covet, that Cornell diploma?
Starting point is 00:38:30 My favorite thing is when you see Andy fuming in the back of Dwight's talking head. When he's bobbing his chair back and forth. So good. So good. I have a little Phil Props tidbit about this talking head. Dwight is holding up a coffee mug that also says Cornell. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:38:47 Well, this was sort of a last minute pitch from Dave. He really wanted to pump up the Cornell merch. OK. So he was like, what if he's holding something? They made that mug in two hours. What? Our props department. Oh, my gosh.
Starting point is 00:39:01 Yeah. So that he could have it in this talking head. You know, I've seen that happen on set sometimes, where there'll be an actor and they're supposed to carry a briefcase, for example. And the props team will come up during the rehearsal of the scene on the day. We're lighting.
Starting point is 00:39:18 We're getting ready to shoot. And they show the actor three briefcase options. And then the actor says, oh, no, no. I imagined it would be like a distressed leather. Maybe it was my father's. They could pass down to me. And the props person, you just see them just having a heart attack, basically.
Starting point is 00:39:38 And I feel like the actor and director's producers, the writer of the episode, they might all have a thought last minute like that. On what this prop should look like. And the props person is like, always. Without fail, they're always like, oh, yeah, yeah, OK. No problem. We'll get that.
Starting point is 00:39:55 And then I know that they take a van to some warehouse. And they go through a giant shelf of all these briefcases to try to find the thing that the actor talked about. Or they run across the parking lot. Yeah. And try to get something printed in the moment. I have such a memory of Phil running across the parking lot. My only memories of Phil are that he is running.
Starting point is 00:40:19 Running or fast walking and talking. Hey, Phil, hey, how's it going? No, I've just got to make a coffee mug. I'm going to print out a thing. And we're going to get that. We're going to get that made. Yep. Can't wait.
Starting point is 00:40:29 Yeah. Props are amazing. Props, department, kick and butt. Well, throughout all of this, Dwight is just winding Andy up. They've got that scene in the kitchen. Dwight has clearly done his research. Oh, yeah. After that scene in the kitchen, there's
Starting point is 00:40:44 a deleted scene of Andy in the parking lot going off to his dad. Like, I died, dad. I'm going to get him. He's like so mad. One of my favorite scenes is the one with Dwight at his desk where he's got all this merch. There's like a pendant hanging from the ceiling. And then he reaches into his drawer
Starting point is 00:41:04 and he gets out a Cornell bobblehead. Yeah. And Andy loses it. He's like, that's big red bear. Well, I has Phil Shea if that was a real Cornell bobblehead or if we had to make it. And he said it was real throughout all these years of the show because Andy had gone to school at Cornell.
Starting point is 00:41:25 He made contacts at the school, particularly the Cornell bookstore. And that is where he got the bobblehead. He said, Claudia, Sandra, Peggy, and Patricia are the ladies at Cornell that would always help him out whenever we had a storyline that required some Cornell merch. There's going to be a really good one coming up. And I can't wait to share it in a future episode. Thank you, ladies.
Starting point is 00:41:50 I love that Phil had all his people. He had all his people everywhere. Oh, yeah. Well, I have a little thing to share about that Cornell bobblehead as well. So it was not the first choice. What was the first choice? So to ratchet Andy up, Dwight was going to have his cell phone
Starting point is 00:42:04 ringtone be the Cornell fight song. Ooh, that's a good idea. Yeah. But then when they heard it, it just didn't quite work in the moment. It was just like too much setup. And so they felt like the bobblehead was just like this quick, like boom, I now have the Cornell merch on my desk. Well, I like the personal connection to Angela and the bobbleheads as well.
Starting point is 00:42:26 Side by side. Yes. So I like that choice for that reason. Well, it almost was Give My Regards to Davey, which is the Cornell fight song playing on Dwight's cell phone. You know the scene where Andy confronts Dwight outside of the bathroom? Mm-hmm. And Dwight starts asking Andy what acapella group he should join?
Starting point is 00:42:47 Yeah. At Cornell. The Harmoniacs are the Doremigos? Yes. I looked it up. According to the Cornell acapella advisory council, there is a Cornell acapella advisory council. Amazing.
Starting point is 00:43:02 There are not any current acapella groups with those names, but I'm not sure about when we filmed. Aca what? Aca, let me tell you. Veda said that Rain was improvising quite a bit in this moment. Oh, some was scripted, and then he just started going off. I see. Yes.
Starting point is 00:43:20 And also, Anthony shared that he pitched that Stanley should be the first person to come out of the bathroom to kind of throw Andy off because Andy's so ready. And then Stanley comes out and he's like, and then he has to get his energy back up for Dwight. I love that little moment. Great detail. All of this is going to lead to a delicious scene in the conference room
Starting point is 00:43:44 because Andy informs Dwight, guess who is conducting your interview? He's contacted Cornell, and he's going to do the interview. Yeah. And Dwight's like, bring it on. I love this conference room scene so much. I love it so much. Dave shared that this conference room scene between Dwight and Andy was his first day of filming.
Starting point is 00:44:06 What? Yes, and he loved that because it was so contained, right? Oh my gosh, yes. Right? And he said it was about a 10 to 11 page scene. That's a huge scene. Yes, a lot of people asked, was this scripted or improvised? It was almost all scripted.
Starting point is 00:44:24 It was almost all scripted, but Veda said that they did let Rain and Ed really play around, especially with the role model name pitches. And these guys kept laughing. They were breaking so hard in the scene. In the end, Dwight says his role models are Dane Cook, Jack Bauer, and Eli Whitney, but in the script, they're different. And there's many takes of these names being different. But there was one big part of this scene that was improvised.
Starting point is 00:44:54 And Anthony talks about it. It's so good. That scene that we had in the conference room where they were, the double interview, as it were, that was always like, had always been in there as a fun scene for the two of them to square off at the end of that episode. I do remember there was a moment where it was either Rain or Ed started pulling the table.
Starting point is 00:45:16 And I was just like, ugh, we've got to do that more. So I talked to Dave Rogers, who was directing his first episode of The Office. And he's directed 1,000 things since because he's freaking amazing. I remember talking to him. They've got to just let him play with that table, let him pull it back and forth, let him struggle with that
Starting point is 00:45:34 and see what happens. And I think that was the only take I think we did of that, where Rain just pulls it all the way to the wall. And thanks him for coming. Just that whole, those characters are all about conflict, all about power shifts. And that whole dynamic just felt like the right place to end up with those characters.
Starting point is 00:45:52 And so that was a nice little bit of improv that we got to enhance on the day. I feel like Dave must have been so excited after this first shoot day to get that table tugging moment, to get this whole scene. These guys are so good in it. He had to have been fired up. You would think so.
Starting point is 00:46:11 I mean, the biggest stuff was ahead of him, but at least he had that first day in the conference room. Well, you know, it's interesting Dave shared with me, the last thing we shot for this episode was the Halloween cold open. That was the last day of shooting. Oh, wow. Yeah, he said we needed time to get all those costumes
Starting point is 00:46:28 and everything organized. Yeah. Should we talk about what's going on with Jim and Pam during all of this now? Yes. So we know that they're gonna have lunch with Jim's brothers, but what we find out is that Pam gets to the restaurant early. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:46:41 She wants to do a prank. Because she wants them to like her. Yeah. She's like gonna be the fun sister-in-law. Jenna, do you have a guest star breakdown? You know I do. Pete Halpert was played by Tug Coker. And Tom Halpert was played by Blake Robbins.
Starting point is 00:46:58 They were super tall. Very tall. There's the reason for that. John Krasinski has two very tall brothers in real life, and they thought this would be a fun nod to his family. Yeah. I was able to get in touch with Tug, by the way. And oh, my gosh.
Starting point is 00:47:18 I could not love this guy more. I mean, we had such a fun time shooting together, and I had so much fun reminiscing with him about this. He told me that the audition notice for this episode, it said it was looking for actors who were six foot one or taller, preferably with brown hair, but it did not reveal that you would be playing Jim Halpert's brother.
Starting point is 00:47:37 And when he got to the audition, he said, first of all, he's six foot five, and when he got to the audition, Alison Jones said, you look like you could play John Krasinski's brother. That's what she said, and he was like, oh, I'm going to be playing a helper. Yeah. That was his first clue.
Starting point is 00:47:55 He read with Alison's associate, Ben Harris, and the next day, he got a call that he'd gotten the part. Well, I definitely felt like these guys looked like they could be John's brothers. And you know John's brothers in real life are super tall. They're like 6' 8", or something. They're like the tallest family. Isn't John the short one?
Starting point is 00:48:12 Yes. And John is 6' 3". Yeah, and he's the shorty. That is so crazy. Well, Tug said, here's the thing that happens when you're a really tall actor. You usually have to bring your own clothes. Listen, Tug.
Starting point is 00:48:26 That's what happens when you're a really short actor, too. Angela can relate. He said that is his own suit, and those are his own shoes. I believe it. He's pretty sure that Blake wore his own clothes in the scene as well. So you know this first scene at the restaurant, Angela, where Pam has met them early, and she's pitching her idea
Starting point is 00:48:45 for what the prank could be. She says her ring, she put it in her little apron, she left it, she's going to throw another girl under the bus. This whole drama, she lost her engagement ring. And they're like, oh, we have a better idea. Their idea is that they're going to dog Pam about her career choice as an artist. Yeah, and they said, let's do the same thing we did to Jim's
Starting point is 00:49:08 girlfriend in high school. What the heck, guys? What is your pattern here? Oh, our bit is we make the girls that Jim's dating feel crappy about themselves. I know. What the heck? I know.
Starting point is 00:49:20 They said in the DVD commentary that they wanted Jim's brothers to be bad at pranking. Like, they're like the less sophisticated prankers of the family. Jim is better at pranking. They're kind of lame at it. So most of this stuff was scripted in the restaurant. We did not have a lot of time, actually, to play around.
Starting point is 00:49:38 But Tug reminded me that we did improvise the very end of this scene. He said, Jenna, I'm pretty sure you improvised that line. So not the ring thing, then. And then the two of them are like, no, no, no, no. This is better. This is better. And I checked the script and he's right.
Starting point is 00:49:55 The scene had actually been meant to end sooner. That sounds like you in real life, by the way. That sounds like something you would say. Maybe so. I feel like we've ordered lunch together. And I've gone back and forth about an appetizer. And you've said, so not the dip, then. We're not doing the dip.
Starting point is 00:50:10 Just to clarify. Well, Dave shared that you guys filmed this restaurant scene the day after Labor Day, Tuesday in September. I thought that was a fun little detail to know. And Kyle, the Locations Manager, said that this restaurant was called E3rd. And it was on the east side of downtown LA. They were really trying to get this area to double as Brooklyn,
Starting point is 00:50:34 where Pam was attending prep. I think they did a good job. Well, the restaurant was a steakhouse. And in the next scene where you see that we're eating, after Jim has arrived, we got to just pick off the menu. Oh, so you're really eating the restaurant food? Yeah. Oh, that's so lucky.
Starting point is 00:50:51 I know. Oh, that's cool. Well, Tug said he remembers it very clearly because it was the very first time he had to eat in a scene. And when they gave him the menu, he thought his character would order steak at a steakhouse. And that John Krasinski said, oh, dude, you're going to regret that choice.
Starting point is 00:51:09 You're going to be eating cold steak for several hours. And Tug was like, what do you mean I'm going to eat steak? And that's what my character would eat. And he said, John ordered a salad and a little protein on the side. And that's what I ordered as well. Well, Tug said that his concern about ordering a salad was that he didn't want any food to fall on him
Starting point is 00:51:30 during the scene. He was like, this is the first time I'm eating and acting. I think steak, I can get it on the fork. I can get it in my mouth. Well, steak is definitely easier to eat than salad. Well, Tug pointed out to me. And I didn't notice it the first time I watched it. But he said it's burned in his brain
Starting point is 00:51:46 because this is the scene that was on his acting reel for years and years. So at 12 minutes, 25 seconds, John is struggling with this bite of salad. You can see it. I saw that too. He's having a very hard time getting this piece of lettuce in his mouth.
Starting point is 00:52:02 And then, if you watch closely, one leaf misses his mouth and falls into his lap, which was exactly Tug's fear that if Tug had been eating salad, he would have missed his mouth. He was then glad he had ordered that steak and had to eat it for hours. John, as I rewatched that, I thought, that's a really big, aggressive bite of lettuce.
Starting point is 00:52:23 He really went for it. He did. Sometimes when you're eating salad in a scene, you don't realize what you've got on the fork, and then you just have to commit to it. And that was on Tug's reel, that he watched it over and over. Over and over again, he watched that piece of lettuce fall. So you know their dinner starts out pretty sweet, right?
Starting point is 00:52:41 Jim is holding up a photo of his niece, right? Yeah. So you feel like this is going to be nice. It's pre-prank. The prank hasn't started yet. Prank hasn't started yet. The photo that John is holding up is our set medic, Patrice King's daughter.
Starting point is 00:52:56 Aw. Yeah, Phil shared that. Phil would do that, you guys. This scene also has the moment where all of us, at the end of the scene, give a look to camera. And it's such a cool moment. Tug said he remembers Dave Roger giving him the direction to check in with the camera throughout the scene.
Starting point is 00:53:13 And this was like so crazy to him, because he'd never been in a project where you were allowed to look down the lens like that. But I love this moment. I love the look that he gives the camera. And you just go around the table, and we all give this little look to camera about this prank that is not going well.
Starting point is 00:53:30 Not going well. Dave talked about it a little bit. He said he wanted the brothers to look to camera to just give that subtle hint that their manualisms were similar to Jim, that they would check in like that. At eight minutes, 33 seconds, Pete gives a solo look to camera. And at 12 minutes, 31 seconds,
Starting point is 00:53:48 Tom gives a Jim kind of shrug to camera. I loved that one. I thought that was so good. Well, as this prank continues, it is really getting under Pam's skin. Like she is getting very flustered. I think particularly when he suggests that she pay the bill by drawing on the napkin.
Starting point is 00:54:07 Oh, Jenna, if you need a boost, listen to the DVD commentary, because Veda said she was so impressed with your performance. Aw. She said, you know, the way this was scripted is tough, because Pam has to wanna be on board to be pranked, but then also start clocking like,
Starting point is 00:54:25 hey, that's kind of a dig. Okay, you're kind of going too far. And she said, Jenna did such an amazing job. It was really sweet. Veda was showing you some love. That's really sweet. Well, it was kind of a fine line because everything that Veda said,
Starting point is 00:54:39 part of the storyline was also meant to further Pam's insecurity about the idea of being an artist. Oh. And, you know, because this is something that she wants, but Pam is not a person with a lot of certainty all the time. And this was supposed to play on that. It was a lot for Pam to go to art school. It really was.
Starting point is 00:55:03 Yeah. And so this is meant to kind of discourage her momentum. Aw, that makes me sad. Yeah. I know, I know. I have to say, it was so nice reconnecting with Tug about these scenes. You know, he said he's still in touch with Blake.
Starting point is 00:55:19 He still gets recognized for having been on the show. Something he told me that I thought was really special was that the day this episode aired, Dave Rogers called him personally, complimented his performance, and told him, hey, I wanted you to know that the bulk of the brother's scenes made it into the episode.
Starting point is 00:55:42 And so when you see it tonight, it's there. That is so nice. No one does that. That was so nice of Dave. No one does that. And Tug said, you know, I'd done a ton of guest roles, and sometimes you tell your whole family to watch it and they watch it,
Starting point is 00:55:57 and your whole part has been reduced to one line. All the time. He said, so he was so excited. He called his friends and family, and he was like, yes, yes, watch the show. I'm really on it. And the show was a big deal at the time. This was a big deal to him and his friends and family
Starting point is 00:56:12 that he had been on it. So Dave Rogers, you are a gem. Tug, thank you so much. I want you guys to know that you can catch him on a show called Now We're Talking. It is a scripted comedy series, and he co-created it, produced it, and stars in it. And it was nominated for a WGA Award.
Starting point is 00:56:33 It's produced by LeBron James and Maverick Carter's company, Spring Hill. But office fans, if you check it out, you might see some office alums on there. They've got Malcolm Barrett and Andy Buckley pop up on the show. Nice. So definitely check it out,
Starting point is 00:56:48 because this guy is amazing, Tug. Thank you so much. So we finished out this Jim and Pam story line. They're leaving the restaurant, the two of them are walking down the street, and Pam's like, that's not exactly how I had that going. Like I had a whole different prank, and she tells it to him.
Starting point is 00:57:01 And then Jenna, Veda shared that you ad-libbed the end. The line about him being bald. You ad-libbed, how about we prank him on Thanksgiving about him being bald? That was all you. I was really proud of that line. I thought that was funny. Yeah, it was really funny.
Starting point is 00:57:18 So you had some improvs in this one, lady. I did. I really did. Now I think we should wrap up this Michael and Holly storyline, because they've arrived at Holly's charming little house in Nashua. I know.
Starting point is 00:57:32 Anthony said in the script, he wanted it to be a basement apartment. Oh. But he was like, but we don't really have basement apartments here. So they found this little house in Angelino Heights. Oh. Isn't it so cute?
Starting point is 00:57:45 I thought it was so cute. It brought up a lot of questions for me though. Okay. If Holly was in Nashua, and she had to move her whole life and all her stuff and get rid of her house slash apartment that she had been living in and moved to Scranton, she was only in Scranton for,
Starting point is 00:58:03 I think like less than two months. And now she has to move all the way back. And it was kind of breaking my heart for her. I was glad they picked a cute location because I was thinking, oh my gosh, she just left this city. But then I thought it tracks that she would know where to get a cute place if she was from there.
Starting point is 00:58:24 Right. Maybe it's even her old place. Maybe it is. It's super cute. Super cute. Also per Dave, they were really stressed about losing light. And they were gonna be losing some of the crew
Starting point is 00:58:37 because they were gonna leave to go film the Jim and Pam proposal scene with Ken Quapas. Yeah. So we would do this sometimes. We filmed the Jim Pam proposal during this episode's week of filming. Right, because they had to build the whole thing. Sometimes the schedule just got wonky like that.
Starting point is 00:58:57 So Dave was really on a time crunch here to get this filmed. Well, Michael decides he's not gonna stay. He had planned to stay for the weekend. I guess to help her unpack, it seems pretty clear that they're gonna break up. Yeah. Because of the seven hour drive
Starting point is 00:59:15 that's really a five hour drive. Only four hours, four and a half. They could have totally done it. They could have done it. I wanted to go into the TV and tell them. But. Anthony said that he wrote dialogue here for them saying goodbye and how,
Starting point is 00:59:29 well, maybe I'll see you or maybe we'll go in this and that. And then in the moment, Amy and Steve just did this really big long lingering hug. And Dave was like, that's it. Yeah. They don't need to have the dialogue. That hug tells you everything. We had a lot of mail.
Starting point is 00:59:47 Oh yeah? From Chris W, Chelsea C, Hanlon H and many others just asking a couple of questions. Number one, how was Michael planning to get back to Scranton if he and Holly hadn't broken up? Right, neither of them have a car. That was the other thing. Did Holly not bring a car to Nashua?
Starting point is 01:00:11 What'd she do with her car? Did she leave it in Scranton? I don't know. They didn't tow it. I noticed, I looked for it. Poor Holly has just gotten dropped off with all her stuff, a mattress in like, you know, plastic wrap. No one is helping her unpack and she has no car
Starting point is 01:00:31 and she's dressed for work. Yeah. That's how we leave Holly and Nashua. I know. This whole storyline ends with such an amazing scene of Michael and Daryl in the car driving back. Dave was really stressed because like you said, they were losing light.
Starting point is 01:00:49 Yeah, he said Randall, our camera operator was going, come on, we gotta get this now, we gotta get it now. The sun was setting, but didn't it make for such a beautiful backdrop? Yes. It just meant that they didn't get a lot of takes. They had to nail it. Anthony said he loved that it was getting dark
Starting point is 01:01:05 because you really got the sense that they spent the whole day together. I liked that too. Dave told me this is his favorite scene from the episode. Anthony said the same thing. Yeah, Anthony was very excited because this was his pitch and his idea. He talks about it right here.
Starting point is 01:01:21 Yeah, this is my first ever episode of television that was written and got on to TV. So it holds a very near and dear place in my heart, this one, all the stuff with the breakup. And oh, the thing with them, oh my God, of course, the scene at the end where Michael's seeing the blues, that's a special moment for me in particular
Starting point is 01:01:38 because I do remember pitching that in the room. And it's one of those things as a writer, so many things you pitch, they might end up in other people's scripts, but they might end up in your scripts and you're just trying to tell the story the best way you can and every once in a while you get a situation where something you pitched is in your script
Starting point is 01:01:51 and it ends up being on the show and you feel like, oh, that's amazing. That whole blues moment at the end when Michael Scott just doesn't get it, but still has the cathartic moment he needs at the end of that. I thought, I remember pitching that in the room and thinking, oh, that'll be fun to get to do
Starting point is 01:02:04 and then I got to write the episode and then I got to watch it happen. And it was getting dark and it was just a perfect little moment for us. And I just remember feeling like I have the best job in the world. I know those scenes. Well, I just love that.
Starting point is 01:02:17 There was something so special about seeing your idea fully realized. And I just love that he shared that. Well, lady, we have one last scene. We do, you know, we don't really ever find out exactly how this Cornell interview application thing wraps up. I assume he doesn't get in, but that was never really the point.
Starting point is 01:02:41 The point of this storyline was really Angela. Angela was the point. This was Dwight was performing for her. And he's winding Andy up because he is jealous. That's right. Well, there was a whole runner. There were scenes between Angela and Andy where Andy's all worked up
Starting point is 01:03:00 and Angela's trying to calm him down. And then Angela goes to Dwight and is like, what the heck? Here's one of those deleted scenes. Why are you doing this to Andy? You once told me that Andy and I had different strengths. Well, he can't do what I can do. I can get into Cornell, but he doesn't know how to make food and shelter
Starting point is 01:03:21 from a golden retriever. Even if you do somehow get in, that's not gonna make me leave Andy. No, but it'll make you respect him less. Yes, that's true. Oh, I said it stayed in. I know because Dwight does get what he wants, right? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:03:45 I think Andy unravels in front of Angela. And whether Dwight gets into Cornell or not, she didn't care for it. No, not at all. And now we have this tag. Yeah. Where Andy's gonna pay back Dwight. But of course, it's just so embarrassing.
Starting point is 01:04:00 In fact, at 20 minutes, 51 seconds is one of my most popular memes. What, when you're rolling your eyes? Yes, Andy walks in dressed as a farmer with no shirt on and beats, and my character rolls her eyes and then puts her head into her hand. Oh, we had a fan question.
Starting point is 01:04:15 People wanted to know, did Rain actually take a bite out of a beat at the end of the episode? Yes, he did, and that was improvised. Yes, and Veda said he did it in the last take. Very smart Rain, if you're going to do it. Yeah, it was scripted that Andy tries to bite the beat and that line about, oh, you're supposed to cook it first.
Starting point is 01:04:36 That was in the script, but the button of Dwight being able to bite a beat, that was all Rain. All Rain, Wilson. You guys, that was employee transfer. Yes, and we wanna give a huge thanks to all the people who helped gather information on this episode.
Starting point is 01:04:54 It was a bunch of people. Thank you, thank you to James Carey, Dave Rogers, Alicia Raycraft, Phil Shea, Anthony Farrell, and Tug Corker for sharing your memories. One final shout out for Tug. He and his wife own a wine bar. What? It's Santa Monica, Angela. It's called Esther's.
Starting point is 01:05:12 He's invited us to come down. Oh, what? Have some wine and cheese with them. Tug, we are there. Right? Well, he and his wife also do a podcast together called The Long Finish. You can find them on Instagram at the long finish. Here's what they do.
Starting point is 01:05:29 They open a bottle of wine and they discuss their life as they work together and raise three kids. He has a three week old baby. Tug, right? Bless your heart. Right? You're in the weeds. They are in the weeds,
Starting point is 01:05:43 but they still do this podcast about their life together. And Tug, we're coming to have wine with you guys. We sure are. And you guys, if you haven't watched the bloopers for this one, they're a must watch. Go to the DVD box set. They're so good. I'm so jealous I don't have this one.
Starting point is 01:06:00 We got to get it for you. I know. Well, you guys, sometimes life is a highway. And you got to ride it all night long. We'll see you next week. See you next week. And this song will be in your head forever now. You know it.
Starting point is 01:06:18 If you're going my way. Woo! All night long. Oh, yeah. 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.
Starting point is 01:06:43 Our producer is Cassie Jerkins. 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 Stitcher Premium, use code, OFFICE.

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