Office Ladies - Finale, Pt 1

Episode Date: October 23, 2024

This week we’re breaking down “Finale, Pt 1”. A year has passed since the release of the documentary and the Dunder Mifflin employees reunite for a panel discussion and throw bachelor and bachel...orette parties for Dwight and Angela Martin. The ladies talk about how fun it was to film Angela Martin’s bachelorette party, point out cameos and fun callbacks, and also Office Ladies fans send in a song. So let’s all meet at Kevin’s bar to enjoy this episode!    Check out Office Ladies Merch at Podswag: https://www.podswag.com/collections/office-ladies  Office Ladies Website - Submit a fan question: https://officeladies.com/submitaquestion  Follow Us on Instagram: OfficeLadiesPod To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:01:05 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 everyone. Hi.
Starting point is 00:01:27 It's the finale part one. Five years. I'm already emotional. Five years we've been doing this. Yeah, and here we are. The second to last episode of the rewatch. Season nine, episode 26, written by Greg Daniels, directed by Ken Quapis.
Starting point is 00:01:48 Before I give a summary and get into these fast facts, we have to share what we walked into today, courtesy of our party planning committee, Sam and Cassie. Sam and Cassie. I love you guys so much. We got here. There is a streamer entrance as you come into the studio that we had to walk through. There are balloons that spell out congrats.
Starting point is 00:02:11 There's beautiful roses in a package. Something's wrapped up here. There is a sign on the table that says, it is your milestone. And there's some scotch and Splenda. Well played. We love you guys, it's so great. What is this package, Sam?
Starting point is 00:02:28 This is from you? That is from me, Cassie, you have one too. Aw, wait, should we open it at the same time? Yes, okay, wait, ready? I love you guys. Oh, Sam, I haven't even opened it yet. Already just making me teary. What is it?
Starting point is 00:02:44 Wait, wait, wait, wait. It's amazing. This is amazing. It's us with Keanu. It's the four of us with Keanu. It's a sketch though. It's like how did you have this made? It was drawn by a guy who does some of my tattoos.
Starting point is 00:03:03 Oh my gosh, it's so cool! It is so cool. This might make me cool with my kids. Sam, what is the name of your friend who drew this? Christopher is his name. Well, we will be sharing because this is amazing. This is epic. Epic!
Starting point is 00:03:20 Congrats on five years, guys. Thank you, Sam! Thank you, guys. And thank you for the flowers and for everything and just who you are to us. And, oh, man. Yeah, yeah. Get the tissue box out, lady. Get the tissue box.
Starting point is 00:03:36 Is it, where is it? It needs to be on the table. It's not even in here. Oh, wait, here it is. Good. I did bring a little something, but it has to be refrigerated. Okay. And I'll bring it out during our break and then we can share about it.
Starting point is 00:03:50 Okay, I love it. Well, listen, I brought a summary. Do you want to hear it? I love your summaries. Five years and I love your summaries. Never stop giving me a summary, lady. Here it is. A year has passed since the documentary aired
Starting point is 00:04:06 and Dwight is catching us up on the many changes that have occurred. Dwight and Angela will have their respective bachelor and bachelorette parties in anticipation of their upcoming wedding. And some old friends return for a documentary reunion panel. Pam takes a lot of heat from the public and Erin is
Starting point is 00:04:26 reunited with someone she's been waiting a long time to meet. Alright, fast fact number one. This episode aired on May 16th 2013. I looked it up. The pilot episode aired on March 24th, 2005. So nine seasons of The Office aired over an eight year time period. The script for the finale was 75 pages long with a 40 page candy bag. We were only supposed to spend nine days filming this episode, but we ran over and we actually filmed 10 days. We were supposed to finish filming on a Friday, but we had to add a day and film on a Saturday.
Starting point is 00:05:12 There was this huge wrap party. I'm sure you remember this, Angela, planned for Saturday night at this fancy location. And we were like, it'll be fine. We'll shoot till about three o'clock. Then we'll go get ready for this rap party There was a red carpet. It was like going to a big fancy movie premiere, but it was a rap party for our show We ended up shooting until 10 p.m. Yeah, the rap party was on the other side of town It was like 45 minutes away. It started without us
Starting point is 00:05:47 town. It was like 45 minutes away. It started without us. Yep. The wrap party started without the cast and crew in the office. It's kind of perfect. I remember when I arrived, they were packing up the red carpet. Me, John and Rain were the last people to walk the red carpet. And I wore a blouse that Pam had worn in the episode on the red carpet because I didn't have clothes. I thought I was going home first. To change. So I borrowed clothes from the costume trailer. The few things they hadn't packed up yet.
Starting point is 00:06:15 Yeah, I think I got there right before you because the photographers had packed up and so me and Ellie and Brian, I remember we took selfies on the red carpet. Yeah. So we could have a picture. Just so you know, we're going to be breaking down the episode that originally aired. There's kind of two versions out there now. Yes, the one that aired originally in 2013 is on the DVD. It also plays on Netflix. But there is an iTunes versions that's a two-parter that is different.
Starting point is 00:06:45 It's a more trimmed version. In fact, it's missing about seven minutes and 76 seconds of footage. It's also in a slightly different order. Yes. Some of the scenes. So, if you are watching with us, know that we are going to be breaking down today and next week the episode as it originally aired. Yeah, that was important to us because it's the finale.
Starting point is 00:07:08 Mm hmm. Well, are we ready for fast fact number two? We are. We kind of talked about this last week in AARM part two. We talked about how we did our table read for the finale altogether and they filmed it. And before we read the episode, Greg Daniels gave a speech to the cast and crew. And I rewatched that, and I thought it would be really fun to listen to that speech. Yes, it is so good.
Starting point is 00:07:32 We mentioned it in our book even, because it's just really special. Mm-hmm. So here you go. All right, guys, I think everybody's here. So we'll get started. I want to make some last remarks, is what this says. Tell you just little personal remarks on my part. Ten years ago my agent gave me a tape to watch, VHS tape, the British office. I
Starting point is 00:08:00 showed it to my wife. I said, do you think I should adapt this for the US? She said, absolutely not. But lucky for me, I didn't listen. I've done not much else for 10 years. The show has been my passion and my family, literally, in many cases. And it's been a privilege to be a part of it. Sad to see it end. The best part of it all was that it brought me together with the most passionate, talented, funny, dedicated, wonderful group of people, people in this room, from Ben and Howard and Terry at the beginning and Allison and Phyllis and Ken and the pilot and the cast assembling and the cast assembling and the writers assembling and the crew assembling and everything just assembled into this fantastic community of
Starting point is 00:08:52 like-minded artists who loved combining comedy and poignancy and realism into what became the show. And you guys are the best. Thank you all. I'll say I love you all without falling apart. So let's start our last table reading. Right now the script is called Finale because we ran out of creativity when we got to the last word. It was written by me with the enormous contributions of your writing staff this season. And I'm going to read them. Paul Lieberstein. Brent Forrester. Dan Fogelman. contributions of your writing staff this season and I'm going to read them. David Miller, Jonathan Green, Dan Brainy, Graham Wagner,
Starting point is 00:09:50 Kerry Kemper, Nikki Schwartzright, Charlie Grandy, Steve Healy, Robert Padnick, Owen Alexin, Justin Spitzer. That's it, right? I have everyone. Justin Spitzer. That's it, right? Ably assisted by Jay Falk, Jared Ashton, Chris Wood, and Jeff Remsburg. This show, like this season, will be produced to the highest level of quality by Steve Burgess. And it will be put together by the Geniuses in Post, Dave Rogers, Claire Scanlon, Rob Burnett, and Eric Coljan, and others. I want to name all of our outstanding crew, but for now let's get one big round of applause and thanks as one championship team. I'm happy to welcome our NBC guests Bob Greenblatt, Jen Salky and everybody from the network. Thank you for coming. And finally I'm very happy and proud to have Ken Quapus back to direct our finale.
Starting point is 00:11:21 Ken was the country vet who birthed this puppy and now he's going to put it down. Really looking forward to spending the next eight or nine days on the set with you all. No one I'd rather have there than Ken. Okay, brace yourselves. It's going to get very sentimental in here. Well, I love listening to that again. Me too. Actually, I watched the whole table read.
Starting point is 00:11:47 You did? I did. Oh my goodness. I mean, I'm glad I did. It was really special. We were a mess. Well, one of the things I love in listening to that is hearing Greg acknowledge everybody. That was always very important to him to give everybody their moment of acknowledgement.
Starting point is 00:12:07 And he went on after that to then name every single cast member. That's right. And people applauded. He's a special person. Yeah. Well, Steve Burgess told me that after this table read, we did not have a locked script
Starting point is 00:12:24 until the fourth day of shooting. Mm-hmm. He said for the first three or four days, Greg would turn in pages late at night, the night before. We used both of our first ADs on this one. Kelly would figure out how to schedule the next day, and Rusty would run the set. It wasn't until about that fourth day that Greg finally turned over a whole script. I think he was, and he said he was having a hard time calling it finished. Yeah. You know? All right.
Starting point is 00:12:51 So now Angela, you have our Fast Fact Three. I do. Y'all, I've got some good digital clutter for this time while we were filming. I have a few things I want to share in this Fast Fact and some more for next week. Oh my goodness. Angela has a little smile on her face because I think I don't know what's coming. You know one thing but not the other. Okay. I'm going to start with the thing you don't know. I found an email that I wrote to Steve Carell during this time and I want to read it to
Starting point is 00:13:20 you. Okay. Hey Steve, how the heck are you? You have been on my mind a lot lately. We had our table read yesterday for our second to last episode ever. We are really feeling it. Kate started to cry the other day when a group of us were talking about our crew wrap gift. Then Jenna teared up at the table read. And then I was filming this emotional scene where I confide to Oscar that I love Dwight. I cried a little each take and then Jeff Blitz walks up to me and
Starting point is 00:13:46 whispers in my ear pretend to say goodbye to the whole show in this take. Holy crap, bring on the waterworks! Exclamation point. I cried and cried throughout the take. I could barely say my lines. We're just all feeling so raw right now. Also, switch gears very quickly, okay? Also, I've been working on a scrapbook for everyone and going through all of these old photos from the last nine years and getting so nostalgic. Today on set
Starting point is 00:14:13 John talked about his last scene with you when Jim walks into Michael's office. He said he just broke down. I mean we've all been so incredibly fortunate to be together and truly care about each other all these years. I think about you and how difficult those last few weeks must have been from your perspective. I comprehend it on a whole different level now. And of course, I cannot email you without including some family updates. So here are some pictures. The first one is of Isabel and Jenna's little boy.
Starting point is 00:14:41 We ran into each other at Target. Go figure. I love that our kids are growing up together. I told Jenna maybe they'll get married and then we'll be related. Ha ha. Oh, and Jenna booked a play in New York City. So she'll be there this spring and summer. I am so excited for her. The second picture is of Isabel in our dog, Biscuit. Isabel is such a big girl now, I can't believe she'll be five in May. She is my favorite person to be with always.
Starting point is 00:15:12 Her latest craze is hip hop class. She didn't like ballet, but she loves hip hop. And the last picture is of Oscar and Ursula's sweet little girl. She is five months old and came to visit on set. Being a dad really suits Oscar. He is exhausted but happy. Oh, and Rain's son came to our table read this week. He is such an amazing combination of Rain and Holly. And oh my god, so tall. He is almost my height. I know that's not saying much, but he's only nine. Okay, that's it
Starting point is 00:15:44 for now. I miss you and Nancy. I went through so many pictures of you guys in my scrapbook and I smiled a lot. At some point, we need to all get together for a dinner or get the kids together for a hangout. Love ya, Ange. So here's what I'm thinking as you're reading that. You are writing him this email and you have no idea
Starting point is 00:16:03 that he is going to come surprise you on set. I know. So you're like, I better bring him in. Like, this is so your personality. You're like, well, I don't want Steve to feel left out of this finale moment. I'm going to write him this great email. It's such a beautiful email. And he's reading that and he's thinking, and I'm going to see you in a few days.
Starting point is 00:16:23 I know. And of course he didn't give it away. He wrote me back a few days. I know, and of course he didn't give it away. He wrote me back a lovely response, you know, and said, oh, I bet it's really tough right now. I remember that. Yeah. But he was gonna see me in a few days. That's so funny.
Starting point is 00:16:35 You guys were so good at keeping that secret. Yeah. I'll tell more stories about that when we get to it in the breakdown. Okay. It was a whole thing. I bet that I didn't know about. It's okay.
Starting point is 00:16:49 It's all right. I'm kidding. Well, Lady, my second share, you know about this is something that was really important to us. We want to say thank you to our fans, because without the awesome fans of the office, there would be no The Office. We wouldn't be on the air. You guys were our biggest champions
Starting point is 00:17:08 from the very beginning, and Jenna and I are so very thankful for you all. So we could not start this finale breakdown without saying thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And preserved in real time on The Office, a look back is all of us talking about how grateful we are. One of the most special things about this show was when you would meet fans of the show
Starting point is 00:17:34 and they would tell you about a time of hardship and how the show lifted their spirits. And the fact that people allowed you in their homes and allowed you to be with them through all these moments. I mean, our fans are the greatest people because they had to fight for us. Our fans are incredible. They are so loyal and so loving of the show and they so understand these characters and get behind them. I just, I love you guys.
Starting point is 00:18:03 That's crazy. I was like I expected all the rest of them to get emotional. That was like obvious choices. Not me. I've been gone for years. But when you think about it in those big terms, it has affected my life forever, you know. I feel like everybody has had the idea that the show is more important than they are individually. I really think that that is very very rare. We journeyed through it together. Nine and a half years. It's a long time. It's just an overwhelming feeling that I think
Starting point is 00:18:33 is tied to just how much this has changed my life. And I'm so tremendously proud of it and that that will be ending. Let's say it never even aired on TV. We'd still have this epic, epic experience that we shared and that shaped our lives. The office is family, an incredible place to go to work to every day. I can't even think about saying goodbye to this show.
Starting point is 00:19:04 There's no way to begin to say goodbye or to say thank you, which is really what I think we all want to say is thank you to the fans. It was very meaningful to all of us that people watched the show and engaged with it and wrote stuff on the internet about it. That was very meaningful to all the writers early on. So thank you. Thanks for letting me come in here for the last year. This is the best thing I've been a part of.
Starting point is 00:19:35 To the office, I would like to say thank you for all the years as a viewer and the one year as a cast member. Thank you to the fans for loving the show as much as I do, because I think we all understand what a special show it is. So thank you for watching it for nine years. I want to thank Greg and all the writers and everyone, all my cast members for being so gracious. I know how lucky I have been.
Starting point is 00:19:58 Thank you all so much. I love each and every one of you. Bye. Thank you for a fantastic experience. I won't forget it. And I won't forget you. Thank you fans and thank you co-workers and crew and writers and everyone. It's just been such a great ride.
Starting point is 00:20:17 Wonderful nine years. Not enough words to describe how wonderful the crew is. So, love you. Goodbye. to describe how wonderful the crew is. So, love you. Goodbye. It has been 100% the best thing in my life working with you guys every day. Thank you to everybody out there that was part of this ride with us. But also a thank you to each other for being everything we were to each other, which was friends. I hope that all of you will, you know, keep a place in your heart for all of us. Bye!
Starting point is 00:20:57 Goodbye, office. Goodbye, cast. cast. I bid thee farewell and a final ridd-a-didd-a-doo. One of our directors, Dave Rogers, said it best, thank you for this. Thank you. And I thought that summed it up. Thank you. Oh my goodness. I know. You can hear the emotion in all our voices, but it's just because it's true. The office did change all of our lives. It created a community.
Starting point is 00:21:37 And I think I want to say thank you to our office ladies, yes, fans, because this podcast has afforded me the opportunity to live in the space again of the office and of the joy that it brings to people and the joy that it brings to me once again. We're all talking about how how do we say goodbye. This podcast has meant that I didn't really have to because we got to relive it again with all the great fans of the show. Here's what I'm going to say. OK.
Starting point is 00:22:11 I just can't thank everyone enough who have rewatched the show with us and shared their lives with us, not just about the office, but about all kinds of other things. They've been with us for five years. And to you all out there listening right now, this has just been such a gift for Jenna and I to get to know you all and talk to you every week
Starting point is 00:22:34 and hear from you. We just love you. We love this Office Ladies community. So here's what I'm gonna say. We don't have to say goodbye. We don't. We don't and we're not going to. We are not leaving.
Starting point is 00:22:47 We like it here. We love you guys and we want to stay here. So when our rewatch is done, we'll still be here plugging away at Office Ladies 6.0. 6.0. I mean, the way that The Office changed our lives, Angela, and changed our careers, so has Office Ladies in the sense that The Office, the show, took us so many places in the world. Office Ladies brought us home. It literally brought us back to our homes. We work from our homes.
Starting point is 00:23:19 We are with our families and our children. It has been such a beautiful season of my life. And I'm so grateful. Do you know what Office Ladies is? What? A podcast? What is it? It's hope in a frame. It's the hope.
Starting point is 00:23:40 It's joy. It's the promise of new things, but also familiar things. I love that. Well, thank you to our fans so much. Thank you so much, Office Ladies family. We love you. Well, maybe we should take a break. Okay. And when we come back, we'll break down finale part one. Oh, before we go to break, the fans have a gift for you.
Starting point is 00:24:03 Oh. Oh. Oh. Yeah. What? It's an original arrangement of the fans from all over singing Creed's All of the Faces. Oh. Aw.
Starting point is 00:24:14 What? Yeah, and the fans, they're singing, they're playing instruments, holding up signs, and you can see it in this video. The music too? Yeah, they're doing the music and everything. With a video? Yes.
Starting point is 00:24:26 What? Wait, how do we watch it? Can we watch that? We have a fancy studio. There's a television behind your head, Ange. You've got one behind your head too. Well, let's turn them on. Let's do it.
Starting point is 00:24:37 We've never turned them on. Oh, this is so cool. You have to see it. It's amazing. Oh, I can't wait. I saw a friend today, it happened a while And we forgot each other's names But it didn't matter cause deep inside The feelings still remain the same You don't have no one before you met In a heliopsis more than you see
Starting point is 00:25:37 And other worlds that lie in spaces in between And angels you can see All the faces that I know And all the faces That seem to have me there When I get home by at night You're the face that I need And let my mind absorb My kind of little scream And let my mind absorb and try to put a screen I want to follow the way to see the heart of man
Starting point is 00:26:30 I hear a voice from behind a field across the street What's over got no brains We don't have to say our word It's really better like I said Just like their eyes that recognize All the faces that I've seen All the faces that I've seen With all my strength, I'll be singing to you every day When you hear my name, you're the face I need
Starting point is 00:27:18 You're the light, you're the things I need Um, that was very visual and just wow. I'm really overwhelmed by how many people participated and took the time to make that for us. Um, it's very humbling to just watch it. It's just a beautiful, beautiful thing. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you so much. We will post that so that everyone can see what we just
Starting point is 00:28:14 saw. But what a community. I wish I could meet every single one of you and give every single one of you a hug. And thank you. Gosh, I can't wait to watch it again. I can't wait to show it to my family. Same.
Starting point is 00:28:29 Thank you so much. All right, we're gonna take a break and pull ourselves together. We'll be back to break down the finale. Part one. Part one. Maximize your return on life I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
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Starting point is 00:29:54 ["Dreams of a New World"] Mama, look at me. Vroom, vroom. I'm going really fast. I just got my license. Can I borrow the car, please, Mom? Kids go from 0 to 18 in no time. You'll be relieved they have 24-7 roadside assistance with Intact Insurance. Mom, can you go to Nana's house tomorrow? I want to go to Jack's place today. I'll just take the car. Don't wait up, okay?
Starting point is 00:30:20 Kids go from 0 to 18 in no time, don't they? At Intact Insurance, we insure your car so you can enjoy the ride. Visit Intact.ca or talk to your broker. Conditions apply. Now we're going to get into this episode, the finale. I thought you guys would like to know how our series finale ranked amongst critics and fans. Sure. Entertainment Weekly listed the 25 best TV series finales ever. They said quote the gold standard in TV farewells from Friends to Mary Tyler Moore by the Entertainment Weekly staff. It was actually published May 3rd 2024. Okay. Of
Starting point is 00:31:02 this year. Very recent. Guess where we ranked. Are we in the top 10? We did not make the list. What? Yeah. We're not even on it? We're not even on the damn list. Okay.
Starting point is 00:31:16 Next up, best TV finales ranked by IMDB from best to worst. Okay. The Office is number 34. Well, that's okay. Out of 124. Not too sh to worst. Okay. The office is number 34. Well that's okay. Out of 124. Not too shabby. Okay. I also looked at the 30 best TV finales ranked by TV line. Well how'd we do there? We're number 21. Okay. I stopped looking there because we didn't really make the top of any lists. I love our finale. I do too. I thought it was just wonderful. Guess who's not a fan? Entertainment Weekly. I guess not. Well, let's
Starting point is 00:31:54 get into it. We open on Dwight driving in his car. He's speaking to a documentary crew member and he's explaining that the documentary series finished airing about a year ago. And he's kind of like, why are you sending another crew? Why are you filming us? Yeah, why are you here? This is done. And the documentary person says we're getting bonus footage for the DVD. And then Dwight says, oh, nobody buys DVDs anymore. And of course, I'm like, this lady's watched it on a DVD. That's right. The voice you hear is our longtime camera operator
Starting point is 00:32:30 and sometimes director, Matt Sohn. He just did these lines temporarily because he was the person sitting in the car with Rain. And the plan was always that we were going to replace his voice with Dave Rogers, who has been the documentary person. But Greg really liked having Matt's voice on the show. So they kept it. Love it. Well let's just talk a second about the new car Dwight has.
Starting point is 00:32:53 He has traded in his 1987 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am to a 2012 header orange Dodge Challenger SRT8. header orange Dodge Challenger SRT-8. I guess this is his manager car. Yeah, spicy. As he's driving we notice a couple signs along the way. They're election signs. Yes, and one of them says Oscar Martinez is running for state senator. Dwight explains that they have regained a number of lost clients including the white pages. He says he's getting married tomorrow afternoon. They're doing a explains that they have regained a number of lost clients, including the White Pages. He says he's getting married tomorrow afternoon. They're doing a little mini reunion in the morning. And this is when we find out that he's fired Kevin.
Starting point is 00:33:36 Yeah, he hasn't seen Kevin since he let him go. This flashes back to the conference room and Dwight wheels in a trolley of three big cakes and some blue icing. And I guess the way you get fired now is you get your name on a cake or if you're Toby, you just get a squiggle. Yes, exactly. Oh, or also retired, you get a cake.
Starting point is 00:33:59 Yes, we find out that Stanley is leaving as well. He's been looking forward to this day since he was 18 years old. Is that how long he's been at Dunder Mifflin? No. No. I think he's just saying that he's been a working man since he was 18 years old. Yeah. I would like to point out something for my background catch, folks. When Dwight starts to fire Kevin, if you watch my face, I played it as if I knew this was coming that maybe Dwight had told me this was happening today. And there's a little bit of pleasure. There's a little bit of happiness on my face.
Starting point is 00:34:35 Well, it makes sense. I mean, I think you've been redoing Kevin's work for a long time. Years. Before we leave the conference room, I did wanna just revisit this painting that's behind Dwight. I was wondering if anyone out there knows how many paintings of Dwight there are in the series. I know there's one in Dwight K. Schrute, Acting Manager. It's a different
Starting point is 00:34:57 one. A portrait. A portrait by reception. Then there's the one of him and Moe's that hangs in his office. Then there's this one. And I think we should all note that Angela and Dwight both love giant portraits of themselves because she had one in her house with the senator. So I like to believe now in their home together, lady, that they have a massive painting of the two of them. Yes. As you walk in. With baby Philip, I'm sure. Oh, yeah. Will be in it. Yeah. Maybe some angels flying over. Have you ever gone to the mall and seen
Starting point is 00:35:31 where they'll do sort of like a portrait of your family? I think they do it as a picture, but then they make it look like a painting. They make it look like a painting. Yes. I mean, I have a very good friend of my mom's that if you go on her house, she's got a big one of her family, but they all look a little, it's like, it's like a Monet. Like the further away you are, the more they look like
Starting point is 00:35:58 themselves. And the closer you get, it's a bunch of dots. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I wonder if there would ever be a time in my life when I would feel comfortable having a giant portrait of myself hanging in my home. Is it something I should work toward? Or is it something to be avoided? Cassie is shaking her head. She's like, do not work toward this goal. Well, we are going to have a portrait of ourselves as John Wick, thanks to Sam.
Starting point is 00:36:29 This is true. So these are the portraits we want. This is what we want. We did it. Well, now we're going to cut to present day and Jim is biking into work and he's going to join the rest of us who are following Dwight in some form of Tai Chi. We got a fan mail flurry about this. Where do I begin? Connor H. from Fishers, Indiana, and many others. Also Angela Kasin in a bull**** card. Oh. So include that in your list. Well, Connor said in the finale, Jim says he now rides his bike to work.
Starting point is 00:37:05 First of all, did he get over his sweatiness from when he biked to work in Stamford? Second, he says that it saves on gas, but it appears that Pam drove to work before him. So does it really save on gas? And then Rebecca E. from Sugarland says, I guess Pam is entirely in charge of dropping their kids off at school or daycare. It really makes me question what Jim means by saving on gas. I had so many questions about this. I would have loved to see them riding together on a tandem bike.
Starting point is 00:37:36 What? That's ridiculous. No, because if they're going to commit to bike riding, they need to do it together. They really want to help save money on gas. Also, my bullsh** card is that Pam has to do all these like Tai Chi, yoga moves and high heels. Oh, I see. That's not cool.
Starting point is 00:37:56 Your bullsh** car was not about the bike riding, it was about the exercise. No, it's a combo. Oh, it's a combo. Combo bullsh** card. I see. It's a new bullsh** card. It like folds out. It's a combo. Oh it's a combo. Combo bulls**t card. I see. It's a new bulls**t card. It like folds out.
Starting point is 00:38:05 It's a combo. Okay. Well Jim has a talking head now. He says he and Pam are great. Mm-hmm. And she just recently finished her mural for the Irish Cultural Center. Yeah and then we flashed to that moment. There's a bunch of people gathered around. Her children are there. Let me tell you where we shot that. The far side of the Dunder Mifflin parking lot against the bushes, they put a big mural up, they put me on a scaffold, they put some background actors down in the parking lot looking up.
Starting point is 00:38:36 Like on the side where the warehouse door was? No, the other side. Like as if you're walking to our set from one building to another. Oh, that was true parking lot. Total parking lot. I'll never forget it because I was slightly terrified standing up there.
Starting point is 00:38:50 I don't know why. It was very wobbly. I would say the two characters that spent the most time up in the air are you and Dwight. And you know what? I don't care for it. Yeah. I just, makes me squeamish.
Starting point is 00:39:03 Yeah. I prefer being on the ground. Yeah, same. Now there's a scene between Pam and Angela. They're doing their movements together. And Pam is like, Angela, are you ready for the wedding? And you think for a minute that Angela has really turned a corner with her snarkiness.
Starting point is 00:39:19 She says, oh, my heart is so open. I'm so at peace. And then she goes, Ugh, look at Meredith. She's disgusting. Like just instant snark. But then we cut to Meredith and she looks completely different. Her hair is different. It's like longer.
Starting point is 00:39:36 It's brown. She is not wearing her usual kind of crazy jumper. Yeah. Yeah. And there's a talking head that explains why. That's right. It's in deleted scenes. Let's hear it. I was at a dog fight this summer and I thought we should not be eating these things. Animals. So I went vegan. One thing led to another. Now I'm in these yoga pants. If you watch it when she says now I'm in these yoga pants, Kate like kicks her leg up way
Starting point is 00:40:06 out like she's so bendy. But I love that Meredith is now a vegan. She's doing yoga. Yeah, she looks like she might go to a tanning bed. That sort of goes against her new healthy lifestyle. Maybe so. Yeah, maybe she's just spending more time outdoors. Vitamin D. Yeah, fitness. Fitness. Now there's a very sweet moment between Dwight and Angela. Yes. Angela is going to run up and give him a kiss and she's just so excited about their wedding
Starting point is 00:40:35 and he feels a little sad because some of the old gang aren't there and she's like, you know what, it's going to be perfect. Just me and you, that's all we need. And then he brings up this man that's been, I guess, growing cheese for him since the day of his birth and that he's going to feed them cheese? Growing cheese? Fermenting cheese? Yeah. What? What shrewd custom is this? Okay, I do have one little story though about this scene. Okay. For my background catch people, when we're doing the morning stretches.
Starting point is 00:41:08 Yep. Angela's wearing jeans. This is like, what, two times in the whole series she wore jeans? Shocking. Shocking. And you can't really see, but I have on three and a half inch platform shoes.
Starting point is 00:41:22 You do? Sandals, yes. Because Angela has to run up and kiss Dwight, but Dwight is six foot three and Angela is five one and I barely make it. Wow. I needed all the lift I could get, so that was our sneaky way to give me some height. Well now Dwight is gonna have a talking head and he is taking us into the bullpen now, finally, and he explains he's hired some new faces and one old one and the person he's talking about is Devon. Yeah we see Devon cross in the background.
Starting point is 00:41:54 I love that we brought Devon back for this moment. You guys remember Devon is the person that Michael fired in the first Halloween episode. Both Creed and Devin were our stand ins, starting with the pilot. And the plot of the Halloween episode required that someone be fired. And it was between Creed or Devin, these two people, neither of whom had ever had lines. And because Devin was leaving to do a play, Greg decided to fire Devin. But get this, when they called Devin to ask him if he would come back for the finale, he was in New York doing another play.
Starting point is 00:42:37 It was like so full circle. But he was able to come back for it. He was. And here's something you guys should know. This was Creed's request. We've talked about this before that Greg brought us all in to say what is something you would want for your character as the show wraps up. And Creed said that he would love to see Devon come back. Mm-hmm. I thought that was so sweet. So sweet. And you know what? This
Starting point is 00:43:02 is just one of the many little Easter eggs that's throughout the finale that are callbacks to the beginning of the show. I'm going to point out a few, and if you see any, let us know because I love finding them. Well this is also when Creed is going to become himself. Yes. It's going to be revealed that Creed is Creed Bratton from the band The Grassroots in the 60s, which is true. Which is true, although the rest of it is not true.
Starting point is 00:43:30 Correct. He is not trafficking endangered species meat or has weapon grade LSD. Correct. But he's on the run now. The police are looking for him, and so that's why he left Dunder Mifflin, we learn. Yeah. Big exodus from Dunder Mifflin we learn. Yeah, big exodus from Dunder Mifflin. Kevin's gone, now Toby, now Stanley, Creed, Darryl, yeah, Nellie. Mm-hmm. So big, big changes. Yeah. Well we're gonna see that Phyllis has a
Starting point is 00:43:59 new co-worker. It's Malcolm and he loves her homemade fudge. Yes, she has a great talking head where she says, after 16 years, it's strange sitting across from somebody who isn't Stanley, but he'll get there. One piece of fudge at a time. Well, Malcolm was played by Malcolm Barrett. I have known Malcolm for a long time because after The Office aired, I did a pilot with him called The 46 Percenters and we played husband and wife. That's amazing. He went to NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He's so talented. He's a playwright. He's an actor. He does it all.
Starting point is 00:44:35 Yes, he's very well known for playing Rufus Carlin in Timeless and he was also on Monk. Oh, Monk crossover. Well I just love that you see him sitting in the background of Phyllis's talking head and then you see him again in Jim's talking head sitting there just like Leslie David Baker did for nine years. Yep. He's taken over. We also reveal another new face in the bullpen during Dwight's talking head. Guest star alert, Dakota Johnson, who plays Dakota. We're gonna find out her name a little later on. You might know Dakota from the 50 Shades of Grey movies.
Starting point is 00:45:11 She's also the star of Madame Web. Now she originally had some scenes with the character of Clark, but they ended up being cut for time. So we don't see quite as much of her as was intended. You know, they do live on the deleted scenes on the DVD. And they're cute. Clark and Dakota have this little flirty thing going.
Starting point is 00:45:30 You can kind of see that they're like maybe the new next relationship if the show had kept going. I see. Well, now we're going to move to the conference room and we are going to find out some very big news. Jim is sitting at the conference room table with a bunch of the other guys from the office and Dwight's cousin Zeke, played by Matt Jones. Jim's gonna tell us he has been made bestest minch, best man. Yeah. Well, I guess his party planning committee skills are gonna come in handy.
Starting point is 00:45:59 Well, he doesn't have the best skills. He'll do better this time. He's planned a night full of pranks, but all good and pranks. Yes. He says after 12 years of tricking and pranking Dwight, tonight it's only going to be good surprises. Very sweet. The one person missing from this bachelor crew is Moe's. Jim says to Dwight, are you sure Moe's isn't going to come? And Dwight's like, no, he got weird ever since Angela moved in. He had to stop sleeping at the foot of my bed.
Starting point is 00:46:28 And I don't know how he's feeling about this whole wedding thing. Is this a callback to dinner party? Sleeping at the end of the bed. Is it a little Easter egg? I wonder. Yeah, could be. All right. Now we're going to go to the airport. That was not really an airport. What? Yeah. Was it something else? It was a bus terminal. Do you have a location, Brechtdorf? Yeah. We dressed a bus terminal to look like the Wilkes-Barre International Airport. When you see Daryl walking out and then you see Andy standing next to a taxi sign. We made all that signage. We used the real logo from the Wilkes-Barre International Airport. It's a little like green and white airplane.
Starting point is 00:47:12 Oh, I thought we did a really nice job. I do too. Andy has a talking head here where he's like, you know what? Sure. I'll talk about it. Why not? His audition for America's next acapella sensation went viral and they made it into one of those auto-tune songs. Yeah and he has a nickname now.
Starting point is 00:47:31 It's Baby Wawa. Baby Wawa. Even the late-night comedy guys had a field day with it. And then we see a clip from Weekend Update at Saturday Night Live. Bill Hader is playing Baby Wawa. We got a fan question from Karen T. in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, who said, I'm dying to know, did Seth Meyers write this bit? I know he usually wrote the bits when he was still there. No, Karen, Greg wrote this. It was in the script. And, you know, Greg had worked at SNL. He knew all those guys. Steve Burgess thinks he probably reached out to Lorne Michaels. And then Seth Meyers and Bill Hader recorded it from the set and they sent it on over to us.
Starting point is 00:48:11 So cool. So cool that Greg can just like pick up the phone and be like, Hey Lorne, can you just do me a quick little favor? Okay, thanks. Bye. You know, it's funny. One time when I was on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, after we finish doing our interviews, this is the thing they do, after the show is wrapped, you walk out with Jay and the other guests and you make promos for like that episode and you like wave and stuff like that. It's like part of the experience. But one time before we did the promos, Jay did a little bit. And I can't remember what it was for, but it was like one of these.
Starting point is 00:48:47 They were like, Jay, you have to do that funny fake thing and we're gonna put it in a movie. And like you're making a joke about some character and it's like it went viral. So I like watched one of these happen. I bet those guys do stuff like that all the time. You know what? I do have a lot of late-night talk show stories that I want to share on Office
Starting point is 00:49:09 Lady 6.0. I know some of them. Mm-hmm. Some of them might belong on Burn It to the Ground. I know. Hmm. Well save it. Save it. We're back in the bullpen now and we're gonna see Dakota, she's walking from accounting over to Oscar's new office, which appears to be Daryl's old office. And you can overhear this funny bit of dialogue. Oscar's on the phone and he's saying, years ago, the senator promised a left turn lane by the Arby's. So I want to know where in the name of horsie sauce is it?
Starting point is 00:49:43 I think he's doing some state senator election business. I think it's his campaign headquarters. Well there's tons of campaign signs in this office. There are. Here's a little breakdown of what you'll see inside. There is a nameplate that says Oscar Martinez head accountant. So he's gotten this little office and Angela's no longer head accountant. He also has a Yankees coffee mug with pins in it and some plants and some artwork. This makes you wonder who took over Darryl's job
Starting point is 00:50:14 as like head of the warehouse. Are they back down in the warehouse? We don't need them up in the bullpen anymore. We don't know. We also know that there's now probably two empty seats over at accounting. Two? Oh know. We also know that there's now probably two empty seats over in accounting. Two? Oh yeah. Hmm. Well, this is the scene that reveals why Kevin was fired. It's because he invented a number called Kalevin. And it was a magic number that would sort of
Starting point is 00:50:40 magically balance all accounts. Back at the airport, Nellie is arriving. She says she lives in Poland now. Then they flew her out for the weekend to do the reunion panel. Interestingly enough, though, she is not on the panel. She is not, although I did find in the shooting draft that she answers a question on the panel. Well, she's not there. I looked for her. Something happened. Yeah. Maybe this was part of Greg's writing of the finale as we went along. And maybe she was unavailable the day they actually did the panel. That's very likely. Well, she's not on that stage. Nope. Now, Toby is going to see her at the airport and he runs up. He's so excited.
Starting point is 00:51:26 He says hello. She is not thrilled. They have a very awkward exchange. He asks her if she's still dating Piotr. Yeah, she says no. And I thought I unfriended you. Toby then asks her if she would like to share a cab. She says no.
Starting point is 00:51:42 I would like to point out that Toby, Nellie and Andy all had to take a cab. Darryl had a limo. And in the shooting draft, it said that Darryl also had on a Rolex. So they really wanted to highlight the fact that he has made this big career successful move. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Toby has a talking head here where we're going to find out what he's been up to. He has moved to New York to write the great American novel. He has six roommates, which he says are better than friends because they have to give you one month's notice before they leave. Womp womp. Still sad Toby. This next scene was really fun because we got Ed Helms and Craig Robinson back into the bullpen. Andy arrives to the office and is greeted with, I guess, a lot of pity. I mean, Phyllis gives him the bear hug of all bear hugs. I want you guys to know in
Starting point is 00:52:40 the shooting draft, it said that Phyllis gives Andy a big hug and he is supposed to, and I quote, delicately work his way out of it. But Phyllis doesn't stop hugging him. This moment is in the bloopers. It is so funny. Ed really lost it. You got to hear it. How are you? I'm good. Very good. A little warm, actually. Thank you. You suck. Very good. A little warm, actually. Thank you. Oh, thanks. Thank you. Thank you, Phyllis. Kim, tell you not to like... I'm sorry.
Starting point is 00:53:19 It just dawned on me, like, I'm not getting out of this. It just spawned on me like, I'm not getting out of this. He could not get out of her hug. He was trying to delically weasel his way out of it. And she had him in that hug. He was like, I'm not going anywhere. That was so funny. Now Darryl arrives and Dwight comes out of his office. And he's so surprised to see these guys.
Starting point is 00:53:42 He thought they couldn't come to the wedding. Yeah, they clearly haven't factored them into their guest list. Lady, we got so much mail about this, about wedding etiquette. Yeah. It was like, people were saying, I do not understand this wedding guest list.
Starting point is 00:54:00 I do not understand how this wedding is gonna absorb these surprise guests. Angela must not be thrilled about this. is going to absorb these surprise guests. Angela must not be thrilled about this. Yeah, I thought about it too. I thought, okay, well, we know the wedding, everyone just sits on a hay bale. So maybe they're not worried about the actual ceremony. But what about the dinner at the reception?
Starting point is 00:54:17 The food, do we have enough food for all these surprise people? Yeah. Well, Dwight is thrilled and it is revealed that they're really there for the panel, that the documentary crew paid to fly them in, and it was just sort of kismet that it was the same weekend as the wedding. So now they can go to both. Jim is like kismet my ass. I came up with excuses to make sure that these two things happened on the same weekend so
Starting point is 00:54:41 that they could be here for the wedding. Guten prank number one. Exactly. So now Pam enters and she is so excited to see Darryl. She wants to hear all about Austin and the athlead merger. Darryl says it's athleap now. Still lame. Still lame. It didn't get better. Didn't get better. Athleap? I think athleap is harder to say.
Starting point is 00:55:04 I think it's worse. I think it's worse. It's the P. Afleap? I think Afleap is harder to say. I think it's worse. I think it's worse. It's the P. Afleap. Afleap. Aflead is better. Yeah. Anyway.
Starting point is 00:55:14 I need to point something out here. At five minutes and 37 seconds, when Pam is entering this scene, she's kind of entering from that mystery hallway, the one behind the conference room. The one where Dwight put firecrackers in the trash can. Yeah. What is this place? Okay, well, it was scripted that I'm entering from the kitchen, but for whatever reason, I don't.
Starting point is 00:55:35 It was probably a camera angle thing. And I'm watching this, and here we are. It's the finale episode. And I'm like, where does that hallway go? What is it? We're at the finale, and I was on the show, and I still don't know what that is for. Not for purposes of the show.
Starting point is 00:55:55 Now, in real life, we knew it was how you got to the stage from the hair and makeup tables. Right, but it had no purpose in the world of the show. I sent Dave Rogers an email about it. I was like, Dave Rogers will tell me where this hallway goes. Yes, he will. He sent me a massive email. I mean, it was like, I don't even know how many pages long with charts and
Starting point is 00:56:20 blueprints. It was all about all of the hallways of Dunder Mifflin. Honestly, it could be its own episode. Here's what he said, there is a deleted scene from Hot Girl that really explains a lot about these hallways. I'm gonna save it for Office Lady 6.0. Oh, fantastic. But let me just say this,
Starting point is 00:56:43 even with Dave's dissertation on hallways, we may never know where this one went. But I do want to do a full hallway breakdown on 6.0 because it's really amazing. I'm all in. I'm all in. Great. Well, why don't we take a break and when we come back, I have a little treat for all of us.
Starting point is 00:57:04 Oh, I've been waiting for this treat. ["Smart Water"] With Smart Water's pure, crisp taste, there's nothing to overthink. So while you may be spiraling over double texting your crush, whether your skincare routine is working because you look the same or is doing nothing because you look the same and whatever the heck red light therapy is.
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Starting point is 00:58:39 Well, we're back from break and we still haven't had our treat, Angela. Okay, you know how you have a hard time with the cereal bag? Yeah, this thing is in a box and I can't get it open. So I've kind of had to wreck the box. Here it is. I wanted it to look prettier. Isn't it the cutest thing ever? I love it so much.
Starting point is 00:59:01 And it's very on theme of the office, the ice cream cake. It is. It's an ice cream cake. It's a picture of Sam and Cassie and me and Jenna. And it simply says, we did it. That's one of our inside jokes here at Office Ladies. Is that if we make it through a big work week, there was one time we were super tired. And at the end of the day, Jenna just sort of like, kind of just in that super exhausted state goes, we did it. She was completely deflated. That became something we said to each other all the time when we would hit a big milestone.
Starting point is 00:59:37 You don't say it like joyously. You don't say we did it. You go, we did it. So happy five years, you guys. I love you so much. And we had to have a sweet treat to celebrate. Of course. It's perfect.
Starting point is 00:59:52 It's perfect. We're gonna let it thaw for about five, 10 minutes and then let's have a slice. For sure. I would like to point out something that I'm very charmed by is that we have also, all four of us, worn shades of plum today without talking about it. Without planning, we're dressing alike. All right, where were we in this breakdown? I think the limo is
Starting point is 01:00:17 arriving. Yes, it's party time. Oscar has a super funny talking head. It's a great callback and I think we need to hear, and then I'm gonna play the callback clip. Love it. They wanted me to go to the bachelorette party with the girls. Really? Such a cliché. I'm a man. So I'm going to the bachelorette party with the boys. I just have to remember how I acted before I came out. What's up? It cuts to the limo and Oscar does the what's up? And everyone just looks at him like, what are you doing?
Starting point is 01:00:55 Lady, what a perfect callback to the pilot episode. I know. To this moment. What's up? I still love that after seven years. Wazzup! Wazzup! Wazzup!
Starting point is 01:01:15 Wazzup! We got a wazzup in the finale! I love it. Well, listen, this limo is going to stop in the middle of nowhere. And Jim pushes Dwight out the door where he is greeted by a man in fatigues who then hands him a bazooka.
Starting point is 01:01:40 Dwight is so moved. He looks at Jim, they're smoking cigars, by the way. And he says, you remembered. And Jim goes, of course I did. And then Dwight says to the man in fatigues, get out of my way. He takes the bazooka. He blows up some oil drums. We had a question from Lena H. and many others who said, I know Rain got to work with a lot of real props, but surely he did not actually shoot off a real bazooka, right?
Starting point is 01:02:07 No, no, no, no. He did not. That was a real bazooka. He held it, but he did not fire it. There was nothing in it. It was an empty bazooka. Correct. Special effects triggered a very small explosion when he pointed at the oil drums, but most of that was added
Starting point is 01:02:27 in post. It was special effects. I think if you look closely at the fire, you can tell that it wasn't really there. But I texted with Rain about it, and Rain was very funny. He said, I have a notably horrible memory, but I think I would remember firing a real bazooka. He was like, it was all. He did not. Well Jim looks at Cameron says Gutenprank number two. Yeah. If you did notice the landscape behind them and how beautiful it is, this is where the wedding takes place as well and we'll get to that location breakdown, but it's truly a beautiful, beautiful place. Now it looks like the guys have arrived to a
Starting point is 01:03:05 good old-fashioned steakhouse. They have a private room. I want to point out that Oscar, still trying to fit in, says, yeah, Broseph. Mm-hmm. We got a question from Whitney T. in Atlanta, Georgia, who said, could you please discuss the location of this dinner? It is the Tam O'Shanter restaurant on Los Feliz Boulevard. It was a favorite of a lot of celebrities, but especially Walt Disney. Whitney said, I am a Disney history nerd, and when my husband and I were in LA in early 2023, we had to stop by and they got to eat at Walt's table, where there are actually etchings in the table from some lunches that he would have with his animators. Whitney said it's an adorable place with so much history and
Starting point is 01:03:50 charm. I've driven past it so many times. Same. It looks so cute, but I've never been inside. Well, it's a Scottish steakhouse. It's been there over a hundred years and has been owned by the same family ever since it opened. It was opened by Lawrence Frank and Walter van de Kamp, who incidentally are the founders of van de Kamp's Holland Dutch Bakeries.
Starting point is 01:04:13 Then they went on to found Lowry's Restaurant Chain and Seasoning Company. No way. Yes. We love Lowry's. Remember they sent us our own seasoning with our faces on it? Yes.
Starting point is 01:04:24 And if you look at the tables in the restaurant, We love Lowry's. Remember they sent us our own seasoning with our faces on it? Yes. And if you look at the tables in the restaurant, they have little Lowry's seasoning spices on the table. Well, this place sounds too cute. I want to finally go. We should. As the guys are walking into their private room, Andy has made fun of once again.
Starting point is 01:04:40 And you can tell Darryl is starting to really sympathize with how much Andy has had to put up with this. But Andy has such a great life outlook. He says, you know what? Things are actually going really well. I spoke at the Cornell commencement. And I guess the seniors invited me as a joke. But it was a huge success.
Starting point is 01:04:57 And now I've been hired there. I work in admissions. That is definitely Andy's dream job, to work at Cornell. It's perfect. Yes. And it seems like Oscar and Daryl still feel bad for him. And I'm like, stop feeling bad for him. He's happy. He's happy.
Starting point is 01:05:12 Well, now the ladies are going to arrive for Angela's bachelorette. They're doing something at Shroot Farms, and we are going to meet Angela's sister, Rachel. We sure are. There is a trend here that everyone just kept their same names, Malcolm, Dakota, and Rachel. Yes. Greg was too tired to name people at this point. Yes.
Starting point is 01:05:34 Well, Rachel was played by Rachel Harris. I have known her for a really long time. Warren and I knew her from our days at the Groundlings. She is hilarious, incredibly talented. I mean, she's been in everything, you name it. She was in suits and right now it's having a whole resurgence on Netflix. She was also in Lucifer and just a ton, a ton of movies and television shows. She's a really funny gal.
Starting point is 01:05:59 And you know, she was in the hangover movie with at homes. That's right. Mm hmm. Well, we got a fan mail flurry about this Angela and several bulls**t cards. Oh my gosh, okay. Here's what they said. In a previous episode, Angela said she hasn't spoken
Starting point is 01:06:15 to her sister in 16 years. But in this episode, she mentions how close they are. Is this the same sister or a different one? I think it's a different sister. Oh, so there's a sister who was not invited to the wedding and then there's this sister. Absolutely. That you have a special language with.
Starting point is 01:06:30 Exactly. Okay. Well, I'd like to say that this was one of my pitches to Greg as we were discussing wrapping up the show. I didn't pitch the idea for a bachelorette party or anything like that. All I said was, before the show is over, I would like a scene
Starting point is 01:06:46 of all the women together, just like we had in Boys and Girls or when we went to the mall with Michael. I just wanted one more moment of gals before the show ended. And so I absolutely loved this night of shooting. It was maybe one of my favorite of the finale. I'll get to the other one. But it felt like a slumber party. It was so fun.
Starting point is 01:07:14 When you watch this and you see us laughing, we're just laughing in real life. We were cracking up the whole night. I remember the snack table. There were these Trader Joe's rosemary crackers. You and Ellie were obsessed with them. We ate like three boxes of those crackers. And then later for my birthday,
Starting point is 01:07:34 she surprised me with a giant jar of them. I also had a sweater in this scene. You never see me wearing it, but it was part of my wardrobe. And it was a little chilly at this location You never see me wearing it, but it was part of my wardrobe. And it was a little chilly at this location, and I would put it on. I don't know why I didn't end up wearing it in the scene, but I had it, and I would put it on in between takes and I kept it. I still have it. It's the sweater that I keep on the back of my office chair at home.
Starting point is 01:08:03 Well, I kept those Uggs. Oh, Angela, we got a question about your Uggs. People wanted to know if those were the Uggs that you would wear at your desk when your feet were cold. Absolutely. This was my happiest scene because I was wearing my cozy warm Uggs. I kept my Uggs as well, and I don't know about you, but on the sole of my UGG in the very back written in teeny tiny black marker, it says P.M. Yes. Mine says my name.
Starting point is 01:08:31 I guess. There you go. I would like to point out a fantastic look to camera by Phyllis. It's at 12 minutes and 42 seconds. It is so funny. So Rachel and Angela are speaking their made up language. And in the shooting draft, it said this, Rachel glances at Phyllis. Angela starts cracking up. Phyllis looks to camera pissed. It's a pretty great look. It's a great look. One other thing I want to point out is Phyllis is
Starting point is 01:08:58 seriously maybe who you want to invite to a party because she shows up with a blender under her arm. Maybe who you want to invite to a party because she shows up with a blender under her arm Back at the bachelor party Guess who walks in the door? It's Elizabeth the stripper Yes, not the waitress which Dwight is hoping for he really wants to get his food I have another Easter egg here, another callback. Per the shooting draft, it says a stripper in a trashy waitress outfit that looks like the St. Polly girl comes in with a boombox. St. Polly girl from dinner party. Guys, this is the return of the very funny Jackie DeBotten.
Starting point is 01:09:40 She was in Ben Franklin. She was in Fun Run. Here she is in finale. I just love the idea that there's just one stripper in Scranton. And it's Elizabeth. That's right. She's cornered the market. You know, I ran into Jackie at the Office Convention in Miami. Yes. And she would love to talk to us about her time on the show. And I feel like she's got to come on for Office Lady 6.0. I would love it. Well, Elizabeth is not the only stripper in Scranton. There is a male stripper as well, and he's gonna show up to Angela's bachelorette party. Yeah, he does. And right away, Meredith goes, Jakey? He's like, Mom?
Starting point is 01:10:21 And Pam's like, wait, wait, wait, what, what? And then Meredith's like, no, no, no, just do your work. Pretend Mom's not here. This is craziness. Lady, I remember when we read this in the table read and it was revealed that Meredith's son was going to strip at Angela's bachelor party. It was so funny.
Starting point is 01:10:40 It was the funniest thing to me. People were cracking up. I remember in particular at your line when you go, woohoo, go Meredith stripper's son. It was like so ridiculous. So awkward. Meredith's son Jake was played by Spencer Daniels, the same person who played him in Take Your Daughter
Starting point is 01:11:01 to Work Day, which is when we met Meredith's son for the first time. Yes. He is much older now. And take your daughter to work day, which is when we met Meredith's son for the first time. Yes, he is much older now. And as Meredith says, is a little entrepreneur. He's going to do a strip tease to the song Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy by Big and Rich. It cost us $48,000 for this song. That's pricey.
Starting point is 01:11:20 It's so perfect though. This dance that he does is so perfectly funny. And when Meredith pushes him out of the way and then is like trying to show him a better way to kind of thrust his pelvis at you, it's just lady, how did you get through it? I covered my face. I saw. I covered my face for many reasons. One, it was so uncomfortable. Sure. It was so uncomfortable. I was like legitimately just like, oh no, I feel so like, ah, this is crazy. So I covered my face, but I also covered my face because I was laughing.
Starting point is 01:11:59 And also, you guys were laughing. Yeah. Ellie was laughing. Yeah. It was so absurd. You can see it in a few shots. You know to never get me a stripper for a party, right? You know I don't want that. I would never. Why would I do that? I don't know.
Starting point is 01:12:16 I'm just, I mean, we know this, right? I can't do it. This is not for me. I can't do it. I would never do it for you. I have too much backstory. I want to know like, okay, why did you pick this outfit? Why did you pick this song?
Starting point is 01:12:29 That's why you can't have a stripper is because... Where have you studied dance class? This is what keeps you from... What is your process? Okay. This is very different. Well, what is your thing? I don't want people dancing up on me who are a stranger.
Starting point is 01:12:43 Oh. I just don't want that. That doesn me who are a stranger. Oh. I just don't want that. That doesn't bother me as much. Oh, I mean, it's why I never went clubbing, because I don't want anyone to dance up on me. Right. I just want to dance with people I already know. I would say I don't mind dancing, you know, having fun on the dance floor, but I don't
Starting point is 01:13:01 want crotch in my face. No one needs that. Yeah, that's sort of what I'm saying. I don't want foreign crotch in my face. That's it. I'm all about let's have fun on the dance floor, but I don't need random shmingling in my face. Correct. Mm-hmm. Well, where does that take us? I think it's time for cake. It's sweating. All right, Angela, while you're slicing up this cake, I'll keep the podcast going here. Angela's going to hear a noise outside.
Starting point is 01:13:35 Yeah. She assumes that it's just the wind. She asked Phyllis specifically, will you lock the door? Phyllis doesn't. She just opens it wide open and says, it's just the wind, see? So Angela gets up to lock the door. 15 minutes, 26 seconds. Did anyone catch the enormous ring of keys?
Starting point is 01:13:54 It's like a huge metal ring of probably like 50 keys. I thought that was such an interesting background catch. But as Angela approaches the door, Mo's grabs her and runs off with her. Yeah. This was a very choreographed moment. I bet. Okay, Angela, let me take over the slicing here. I'm getting too distracted.
Starting point is 01:14:15 I can't slice cake and talk about this. Well, this is a big moment, and I was there, and I want you to tell everybody about it because a lot went into getting this shot. Yes, here's the thing. They wanted to make sure that Angela and the Bachelorette party did not see Moe's, but that camera saw Moe's for a few reasons.
Starting point is 01:14:35 One, so you weren't really worried about Angela. Correct. So they established Moe's in the window in the background of the stripping scene. Then when the door is open, they still don't want Angela to see Mo's because she wouldn't willingly go with him. So I had to do this thing where I go to the door
Starting point is 01:14:51 and then I turn around and put my back to the door and then he swoops his arm around me and slings me out. Yes, I remember this whole discussion. And if I remember correctly, I feel like I remember Ken telling you that the reason you would put your back to the door was because you so needed to shame Phyllis for being so stupid for opening the door. That's so funny. That you would be distracted in your, like, having to lay into her. Angela's very put out about it.
Starting point is 01:15:20 Yes. Oh, the other thing I remember is that they told Mike Schur that he had to be really quick about it. Yes. Oh, the other thing I remember is that they told Mike sure that he had to be really quick about it. It had to be a really fast moment. So he really runs in and like grabs me. And my reaction is real because it always sort of takes you off guard. Sure. I will point out that once again, Ellie is breaking. I don't think Ellie ever kept a straight face in this whole scene. The guys are now on the limo. They're going to their next destination. When Jim gets a call from Pam that Angela has been kidnapped, Phyllis left the door open, and some freak came and grabbed her.
Starting point is 01:15:53 Dwight starts to laugh. He's like, ugh, good old Moe's. Yeah, he's not concerned at all. Apparently, this is a special tradition. Yeah, it's a ceremonial bridal kidnapping. Dwight says he's going to take the bride and hide her at a local pub. And then when he finds the place,
Starting point is 01:16:11 he has to buy everyone drinks. And Dwight's happy. He's like, Mo's is finally getting into the spirit of it. So they're going to drive to a pub in search for Mo's. Yeah, Jim says to Dwight, what's the last pub you would ever set foot in in this town? That's where we'll go. Dwight says, you're right, pick that one. And Jim says, driver, take us to 3030 Adams.
Starting point is 01:16:32 I looked it up, there's nothing there. Faky address. Well, when they go inside, they spot a table. Sure enough, there is Moe's, Rolf, Gabor, and Nate. Everyone starts chanting, if you want your bride, buy us a drink. If you want your bride, buy us a drink. I love that we see some other familiar faces from our writing staff in this scene. Yes, there is Jen Solata who told Greg, I mean for years,
Starting point is 01:16:58 years, that it was her dream to somehow play a shrewt. Yes. And then there was also Graham Wagner. That's right. They're sitting in the bar in the booth. Now, Greg actually wrote a scene for Jen. And she told this story. She worked on her lines.
Starting point is 01:17:18 She was so nervous. And then they came to her and said, Jen, I'm so sorry. We don't have time to shoot it. We have to move on, we have to go get this shot. I think it was of Jim and Pam. And she was like, oh good, okay. And then they came back and said, Jen, we do have time.
Starting point is 01:17:34 And she was like, oh my gosh. And then they said, Jen, we don't have time. Oh no, it just kept going back and forth. Oh no. I know. But ultimately she was just happy that her dream finally came true. She is now officially a shrewd. And she does have lines.
Starting point is 01:17:47 She does, that's right. She gets to chant with everybody else. And after they're done chanting, if you want your bride, buy us a drink. Dwight says, very well, drinks on me. Bartender. And he turns and it's Kevin. That's right. It's Kevin's right. It's Kevin's bar. It's Kevin's bar. This bar. Dwight's like, Jim, why did you pick this place? You're pranking me again. Well, Jim intentionally picked this bar so that Dwight and Kevin would finally make amends.
Starting point is 01:18:20 Yeah. I'll have you know the location of this bar was the Black Boar Bar on Colorado Boulevard in Eagle Rock, and we got a fan mail flurry about this. First of all, I loved this note from Sarah F. in Portland, Oregon, who said, one of my absolute favorite moments of the office is when Kevin is at the bar, Dwight comes in and Kevin says, Well, well, well, well, well, that's six wells. Did I get that number right, Dwight? Sarah said, It took me several rewatches to realize that it's only five wells. Yes, Sarah, I want you to know that when Jenna and I read that we were actually having lunch together rewatching the finale together. And when we got to the that, we were actually having lunch together, rewatching the finale together.
Starting point is 01:19:06 And when we got to the scene, we counted on our hands. Well, well, well, well, well. And you are correct. It's only five. And then our fan mail flurry was lots of people wanting to know how was Kevin able to afford a bar? Was it embezzlement? Was it insider trading? Was it gambling? Is afford a bar? Was it embezzlement? Was it insider trading?
Starting point is 01:19:25 Was it gambling? Is he a genius? Exactly, what is it? We actually talked about this with Brian Baumgartner when he came in for his interview with us all the way back when we broke down the Casual Friday episode. Long time ago.
Starting point is 01:19:42 And we decided to save this clip until now because Brian tells us exactly how Kevin got this bar. Yeah, let's listen. So fans have conspiracy theories that Kevin is putting on a show at work that he is actually a genius and he is doing some like massive insider trading and is very wealthy outside of Dunder Mifflin that this is why these two things are true. That Kevin is so patient that he's doing the long con at Dunder Muffler.
Starting point is 01:20:25 I have heard this. Well, so the payoff on this, and I don't know if you guys remember this, I know that it'll be a while before you're to this episode in your story. But so there was a storyline that was cut. So right, so the payoff to that theory, as it's always explained to me as well, I've heard it a number of times, is that he ends up with
Starting point is 01:20:49 a bar, right? Like how did he, how did he win? How did he, how did he buy this bar? He has no money as an accountant. How does suddenly he have this bar? Well, there was a storyline that we shot and we shot a lot of scenes of this storyline in or around the finale, right? Which was here is my best recollection, but I have t-shirts from this is that if you remember Greg Daniels and the writers, they wanted to talk to us about how the characters were going to unfold and they wanted, you know, they heard some ideas from us or whatever. I don't know, at some point we started talking
Starting point is 01:21:28 and Greg was aware that, and Angela has been with me a number of times, so she knows all too well. Like I can't walk into a bar, there's something about Kevin and the personality. It shuts down. I can't walk into a bar and not be bought a number of drinks. They're literally like. It's nonstop.
Starting point is 01:21:51 It's crazy. It's like everyone wants to have a beer with Kevin Malone. It's Kevin Malone. It makes sense to me. Yes. So the idea for the finale, we shot this story, was that when the documentary aired, Kevin became the fan favorite. And there were t-shirts, I have some t-shirts here, like that they printed for the show that had like, my face, like Kevin.
Starting point is 01:22:20 It was like Kevin. We shot all these B-roll shots of me in bars and people buying Kevin Malone drinks. And so the story goes that there was a local bar that Kevin would go to. And he had been bought so many drinks, uh, and not cash them in that he used that as leverage to get the bar. Like basically they owed me too much money that they had to give me the bar. That's how Kevin Malone got the bar. Oh, wow. But the finale was what? Two and a half hours or whatever it was as it was. A lot of some of those
Starting point is 01:23:00 stories happened so that I got the bar, that was fired, all that stuff. But a lot of those stories happened so that I got the bar that was fired all that stuff but a lot of those those details about how that happened were cut. Well there you have it that's how Kevin got his bar and you know what it's so true in real life if you travel with Brian especially in Scranton everyone's buying you a beer I told him I was like Brian you need to go to Scranton. Everyone's buying you a beer." I told him, I was like, Brian, you need to go to Scranton and you need to open a bar called Malone's. Oh, that's brilliant. Right? Yes. Oh, and one other thing for you guys that have the DVDs. In Deleted Scenes, some of
Starting point is 01:23:35 the ones Brian talked about are there. There's the talking head where Kevin explains a lot of it. Wow. Well, Dwight is going to explain to Kevin that firing him was not personal. Yeah. It was truly the result of his ineptitude, his lack of personal hygiene, his filthy internet searches. Kevin's like, do you mean it? Really? And he's like, ah, buddy, they hug. All is forgiven. Gutenprank number three. That's right. Well, Dwight wants to see his bride.
Starting point is 01:24:11 He's like, yeah, where is she? Mo's leads him to the parking lot to the trunk of his car. Yeah. He opens it up. Angela, you burst out cursing, Cursing like a sailor. So this was not scripted. I didn't think it was. In the shooting draft, it only said this,
Starting point is 01:24:33 Mo's leads Dwight to a car in the parking lot and unlocks the trunk. Angela very stiffly puts her head out, blinking in the light. So we did a few takes of that. And it just wasn't popping. So we did a few takes of that. And it just wasn't popping. So I asked Ken Quapus if I could do one
Starting point is 01:24:49 where I'm super ticked off and I have that same kind of energy as when Dwight ran Angela off the road. And Ken said, just go for it. We'll just roll on this one and just go for it. So John playing Jim in the moment actually didn't know what I was gonna say, how many things I was gonna say, and I think it's really funny. The camera pushes to Jim and his reaction is like, oh dear lord. It's very funny. What was it like to be in that trunk? Well, if you zoom in when they
Starting point is 01:25:22 open it, they made a little bed for me. Oh, it was nice and soft. Well, it's a good thing I'm tiny. But I was laying on like a comforter with a pillow. They just kind of made it look like clothes and junk that Mo's had in there, but they did make a little cushy area for me. I wasn't in it very long, but it is dark. Okay. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:25:43 It's a small space. Well, now we are going to go to this panel. Yes, there is a sign that sort of sets up what we're seeing. It says Scranton Cultural Center. What happened to Andy Bernard? Still curious about the office and American workplace? Meet the real local subjects of last year's documentary produced by the Scranton Cultural Center. Well, the location of this was not the Scranton Cultural Center. It was the AT&T building on Olive Street in Burbank. And we were there a whole day. Now, Dwight says Angela is not attending the panel because it was her wedding day and her legs are still numb from the trunk. Yeah, he said, we can't see each other on our wedding day.
Starting point is 01:26:26 No, but who is going to arrive finally is Stanley. He's come in from Florida. He's Florida Stanley. He is. He shares that he's living full-time in Florida now in a little town called Florida City. He loves it. He sits on his porch all day carving birds
Starting point is 01:26:44 and he even brought one. It's so cute. It's really cute. So a few of the old group are on stage but there's no one in the audience. No one's come and Andy says, I'm sorry, it's probably on me. I got a lot of hate when that auto-tune went viral. He says, you know what, I'll go talk to the manager. Maybe we should just all go home. Just bail on this. Yeah. Well, he walks out and there is a huge crowd of people waiting to load into the auditorium. And they are so excited to see him.
Starting point is 01:27:14 They all start chanting, gnar dog, and then clapping and saying, riddidididoo. It was so sweet. The moment when Andy feels that love from them and he just can't wait and he says, redidididu back, Ed played it so well. I know, I loved it. The next scene is now a full auditorium.
Starting point is 01:27:37 Every seat is taken and all of the Dunder Mifflin employees are on stage and there's a moderator taking questions from the crowd. I'd like to start with a list of the people who Mifflin employees are on stage, and there's a moderator taking questions from the crowd. I'd like to start with a list of the people who were on the panel. Okay. Clark, Aaron, Toby, Oscar, Meredith, Jim Pam, Dwight, Darryl, Kevin, Andy, Phyllis, Pete,
Starting point is 01:28:02 Stanley, and David Wallace. Now I want to talk about who was not there. Creed. He was not on the panel, but he was there. He's in the audience. He's shown at the very end. Here's who else was not there. Michael. The documentary crew did not fly in. Michael. Surprising.
Starting point is 01:28:25 Well, Greg and Steve did talk about this because as we all know, Michael Scott is going to surprise everyone at the wedding. And it was discussed, why would Michael come to the wedding and not come back, you know, and be the center of attention? Wouldn't you think this is in Michael Scott's personality to want to be on this panel?
Starting point is 01:28:46 100%. And we've established that it's happening the same weekend. So he is there in Scranton. Yes. Well, it was really important to Steve that we see growth from Michael Scott. And he really believed in his heart that when Michael left and he married Holly and he started his new life,
Starting point is 01:29:07 that he really lost this need for this kind of like public adoration. You know, I can follow that because Michael, all he ever wanted was a family. Yes. That's all he wanted and he got his family. So he doesn't need this other thing anymore. Yes. And this is a departure from the British office. In the Christmas special for the British
Starting point is 01:29:30 office, their documentary has aired and David Brent has become kind of a celebrity. And so in that episode, he is just sort of reveling in his new fame. And I think there was also a desire to not repeat. Yeah, and I also think that spot was already filled in our story with Andy. Exactly. All right, here's who else was not on the panel. Kelly and Ryan. They do show up at the wedding.
Starting point is 01:30:00 They do. Now, I 100% think that Kelly would want to be the center of attention on a panel. Unfortunately, Mindy Kaling was not available this day, and neither was BJ Novak. So that's why they weren't on the panel. We talked about Nellie, who shows up at the wedding. We don't know why she wasn't there.
Starting point is 01:30:19 Something happened. We have not gotten to the bottom of it. I feel like it was a scheduling thing as well. But here are some other people who I thought if I'm tracking this as like the documentary bringing people back for fans to talk to, here's who I thought should have been there. Jan. For sure. Roy. Oh yeah. Todd Packer. He would have loved it. Gabe. Robert California. Oh, that would have been delicious. Karen.
Starting point is 01:30:48 Oh yeah. And there's one more person who's not there. Oh yeah? It's you, Angela. I know. Do you wanna share with everyone why you weren't there? I know Dwight says it's because you guys shouldn't see each other before the wedding,
Starting point is 01:31:00 but there's a real reason why you weren't there. There is. So here's the deal. As we started filming the wedding, but there's a real reason why you weren't there. There is. So here's the deal. As we started filming the finale, I was up for a really big role on a new sitcom. It was a big deal for me because it was a lead. The show was called The Gabriels and it would have been me and Rob Riggle playing husband and wife. Tim Meadows was in it. It was really great. The cast was phenomenal. And you know, it's just one of those things that happens in life when everything you wanna do
Starting point is 01:31:30 all happens at the same time. Yes. So they were both gonna overlap. The finale and this new pilot, I didn't know what to do. And I went to Greg and I said, Greg, what should I do? And you know, Jenna, he was so kind and he said, listen, I want this opportunity to happen for you, but I honestly don't know how to make it work.
Starting point is 01:31:47 He said, if Steve Burgess could work his scheduling magic and figure it out, I had his blessing. And creatively, he said he could take me out of this panel, that he could make it make sense for him, for the show, Why Angela Wouldn't Be There. It's the morning of her wedding. He could make that creatively make sense and that would give me an extra day.
Starting point is 01:32:07 But then Steve Burr just rolled up his sleeve and you know, he's always been such a champion for us and he knew Jenna, that me playing the lead in something would mean I would get considered for bigger roles after the office wrapped. And I just love this man so much. He got on the phone with the producers at Fox. They worked it all out.
Starting point is 01:32:29 It included some crazy scheduling. I had to film part of the Fox pilot on a Saturday. On one day I worked on both shows. Steve Burgess sent a van to pick me up on the Fox lot with the office hair and makeup team. And they transformed me into Angela Martin, driving down the freeway. Amazing.
Starting point is 01:32:48 I asked Steve what he remembered about all of this. And this is what he had to say. One of my favorite things was talking with Kim Ferry about how she had to redo your hair on the drive to the set. Kim and I still laugh and talk about that. But that was just part of it. I spoke with the pilot people all the time. We worked out a schedule that we thought would work but unfortunately might actually kill you. But you survived. Both schedules had to
Starting point is 01:33:12 change a lot during the shooting. We ran long. They had to reschedule stuff. But it all worked out. You were amazing shooting two shows, both demanding, and you came through looking great. Well I remember that day that you arrived to set and you had gotten ready in the van. It was so crazy. You know, when I watch these things, I do get a little emotional because, oh, obviously for so many reasons, but also because Greg and Steve did that for me because they knew it would help my career after the office and that was such a gift and I did find something really special to me in my digital clutter about it. Okay. I sent two people an email about my new look on
Starting point is 01:33:56 the Gabriel's, my fancy hair. I emailed you and my dad. I sent you both a picture and I said this is my new look for the Gabriels. You wrote back, lady you look amazing! Two exclamation points and my dad wrote, and I like it lol which he thought meant lots of love. Yes. Bill Kinsey. Hmm I love that. Well it was a little bittersweet for me, Angela, that you weren't there. This was my second favorite scene that we shot for the finale. You said it was really moving. It really was. It was special because Greg filled this scene with so much of our crew
Starting point is 01:34:42 and our office family. You know, Greg created a type of yearbook for us. And when I was rewatching the finale, and in particular, this scene, I saw all those familiar faces, and I was so grateful to him. Yeah. That we have these people on camera. So he made our writers and other crew members,
Starting point is 01:35:04 he gave them roles asking the questions, and he said it really worked because if someone was a little stiff or maybe not the best actor, it's like, well, that's what a real person in the audience would be like. Well, you know, I think we should do a breakdown as well of the special guests that are in this scene. Yes, let's talk about it.
Starting point is 01:35:24 The moderator is played by Suzanne Daniels, Greg's wife. I thought she did a fantastic job. The first question was asked by Brent Forrester. Amelie Gillette asked about Jim giving up athlete. Writer Allison Silverman said Jim could do anything, and I mean anything. She was so funny. So funny. But also I really loved his PAM saying, I'm sorry was there a question there? Also writer
Starting point is 01:35:50 Dan Sterling asked what was in the teapot letter. Steve Healy asked if our lives felt pointless and Jenny Tan from Office Tally, this fan site that supported us from the very beginning, asked the question about Jim and Pam. You know, I think that one was my favorite. Jenny had originally asked Greg if she could just come and watch us film the finale. And she wanted to do like a really nice farewell
Starting point is 01:36:18 to the show. And we'd given her kind of insight access before. Guys, she truly was just a fan who started a fan site, but it was so good that she became a member of our office family. Yes, and you know, her site, Office Tally, it really was the place to go for all the inside tidbits that was happening on the show.
Starting point is 01:36:41 Oh yeah. She did such a good job. Writers and directors would do like exclusive interviews with her after episodes aired. It's all still there, OfficeTele.com. I refer to it sometimes for the pod. Yeah. Well, Greg said, yes, come out while we're filming the finale.
Starting point is 01:36:57 And she said, Greg, could I just be in the background of something? I would just love to be in the background. In the world somehow. He said, no, you love to be in the background. In the world somehow. He said, no you can't be in the background. I'm gonna give you seven lines. She about pooped her pants. She said she was so nervous. She did so great. She did fantastic. But there is one other person who asked us a question but it got cut and it is our very own Steve Burgess. Yes.
Starting point is 01:37:25 And you know what, Steve? It might have been cut, but it's in deleted scenes on the DVD. And I think we need to hear Steve's voice on our podcast. Let's hear it. How did being in the documentary change your behavior? There you have it. That was our sweet Steve Burgess. Steve, you're on the pod.
Starting point is 01:37:44 Although we want to have Steve on for a sit down. For sure. There's so many people we still wanna talk to. All right, this panel is not over. No. It is gonna end in a very emotional way that gets me every time. The final person to ask a question
Starting point is 01:38:00 is a woman who stands up and asks Erin if she hates her mom. She says, you must really hate her. You must be so angry at her. And Erin says, well, I don't know if I would hate her. I mean, she has the sweet thing she says. Yeah, she says maybe sometimes, but not like hate, hate. More just like, mom, I hate you.
Starting point is 01:38:21 And then she would say, go to your room, young lady. And then I'd stop my foot and I'd run upstairs and, and I'd have a room, which is really cool. And then we just have dinner. But I don't know. I'd have to meet her. Thanks. And then there's this long pause and Joan Cusack. I know what as Erin is saying her lines, the emotion that comes over Joan's face is so moving. Yeah. I was tearing up watching it. I can't imagine what it was like being there. I saw Phyllis in the background sobbing in real life.
Starting point is 01:38:57 Those were real tears. Angela, Joan's performance, it took our breath away. Yeah. I mean, we were just all on this panel. And from the second she stepped up to the microphone, I got a lump in my throat. I was like, oh my gosh. Yeah. I knew what was going to happen.
Starting point is 01:39:15 It was truly emotional. Erin realizes this is her mom. And then, oh my gosh, you thought you couldn't cry anymore, Ed Begley Jr. Stands up and says, same question, but about cry anymore. Ed Begley Jr. stands up and says, same question, but about your dad. Erin has found her parents. Her parents.
Starting point is 01:39:32 We did get a fan mail flurry. Are Pete and Erin still together in the finale? They sat apart during the panel and they don't appear together at the wedding. Please discuss. Well, we asked Jake Lacey this question when we interviewed him, and he said he doesn't think they are. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:39:49 And I looked through the script. There is no real evidence in the script. However, it was scripted for them to be sitting next to each other on the panel, but they're not. Same for the wedding. They're not at the same table at the wedding, and there are no scenes with the two of them in deleted scenes.
Starting point is 01:40:07 That's correct. I think it was decided on the day with Ken Quapus, and I vaguely remember this as they were telling us where to sit on the panel. Erin's happy ending is finding her parents, not finding a man. So Ken sat them apart from one another. So that the focus could be on her reuniting with her mom and dad. That's right.
Starting point is 01:40:31 And there are scenes of the three of them talking in deleted scenes. I'm gonna bring it up for finale part two. This part ends with the camera panning the audience. Creed is in the way back. He's got a full beard. He is watching all of it and tearing up. Well, Angela, like I said, I was really happy for you because you were off this day.
Starting point is 01:40:55 You were getting to pursue this opportunity that was so special. But at the end of this scene, when we finished our last shot, I'm getting choked up thinking about it. And I wish you could have been there. But the whole auditorium of people stood up and gave us a standing ovation for like three
Starting point is 01:41:16 minutes. It was really moving. Like the cameras were off. The acting was over. And it took us by surprise. We have pictures of it. It was just, it was special. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:41:31 It was really special. Man, it's been great to rewatch these scenes. The ones I wasn't in, I got to sort of experience them. And I've really loved it. Me too. Well, listen, that is finale part one. Oh my goodness. This is a long episode, y'all. That was 50 pages. My document was 50 pages and we're only halfway through. Next week. It's all about the wedding and all about a very special surprise guest. Yes. And I
Starting point is 01:42:01 am bringing in some stuff. There's going to be some show and tell. I know it's a podcast, but I have found some real nuggets from way back when. I'll be bringing them in. I'll share them in stories as well. What a wonderful, amazing, fantastic ride this rewatch has been. And there'll be more to come of Office Ladies. But I mean, I am just sitting in some gratitude.
Starting point is 01:42:27 I just love y'all so much. And I love this team of these faces I'm looking at, Sam and Cassie and Jenna. I just wanna say thanks. We'll see y'all next week. See you next week. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is a presentation of Odyssey and is produced by Jenna Fisher and Angela
Starting point is 01:42:54 Kinsey. Our executive producer is Cassie Jerkins. Our audio engineer is Sam Kiefer and our associate producer is Ainsley Bubbico. Odyssey's executive producers are Jenna Weiss-Berman and Leah Reese-Dennis. Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton. you you

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