Office Ladies - Gay Witch Hunt w/ Oscar Nuñez

Episode Date: May 20, 2020

This week we're breaking down Gay Witch Hunt. This is the Season 3 premiere of The Office and there is a lot to talk about. Jim is no longer in Scranton and we meet two new characters, Andy Bernard and Karen Filippelli! Of course the ladies reach out to Ed Helms and Rashida Jones to get some behind the scenes tidbits from them. Then the ladies out Toby for outing Oscar, Angela shares a silly nickname from college, and Jenna discovers the amazing all female acapella group, Nothing But Treble. Finally, we call up the incredible Oscar Nuñez, to discuss his memories from this episode and that hilarious kiss from Michael. You can listen to Nothing But Treble on Spotify, or follow them on instagram @nbt_cornell

I'm Jenna Fisher and I'm Angela Kinsey. We were on The Office together and we're best friends. And now we're doing the Ultimate Office Rewatch Podcast just for you. Each week, we will break down an episode of The Office and give exclusive behind-the-scenes stories that only two people who were there can tell you. We're The Office Ladies. Angela Kinsey. Hi, Jenna Fisher. We are on season three of The Office. Can you believe it? Can you believe we've broken down two full seasons and here we are about to start breaking down season three? I can't believe it. I feel like maybe it's because we're having such

a good time that it just went by so fast. This is season three, episode one, Gay Witch Hunt. This is a pretty big episode because we had some very juicy season two cliffhangers. This episode was written by Greg Daniels and directed by Ken Kwapis. And this is kind of significant because Ken Kwapis directed the season finale, Casino Night. So it was really great that we had the same director directing all those cliffhangers and then directing all of the answers here in our season three opener, I think. Yeah, I think that's really important, you guys, because, you know, Ken so knew the world and we felt so protected by him as actors.

And I felt like you and John really had to put yourself out there. So then I think it's great that Ken was there with you to sort of get you to the other side of that story. Yeah, there were certain directors that always made me feel particularly safe and protected and free to play around. And that one of those was Ken, for sure. Yeah. All right. I have a summary for this episode. Here we go. Gay witch hunt. Michael, you didn't ask me if I wanted a summary. I didn't. You told me to point it out. You gave me such grief in that other podcast about asking if I

should give a summary or asking if I should give fast facts. And I got all my head about it. So now I'm just doing it. I'm just plowing forward. Okay. As your BFF now, it just tickles me and delights me when you say, Angela, would you like to hear a summary? All right. Angela, would you like to hear a summary? I really would. Well, in Gay Witch Hunt, Michael gets in trouble for using homosexual slurs at work. This results in an HR nightmare. Toby has to deal with him, and Oscar is reluctantly forced out of the closet. Meanwhile, we watch Jim adjust to his new life and new job in Stanford. That was a fantastic summary. All right, let's, Angela, can I do fast facts?

Yeah. Oh, yay. Okay, fast fact number one, we've got two big new characters on the show. We have Andy Bernard played by Ed Helms and Karen Filippelli played by Rashida Jones. Yes, this is a big deal. You guys big deal. They're going to be with us for a while, as you know, fans of the show. And we were really excited. Oh, this was so cool. So I had a chance to talk to Ed Helms. Yeah. And I love him. I know. We got on the phone and we chitty chatted about his debut on The Office and he told me a bunch of really cool stuff. And I texted with Rashida. So I've got some really great Karen behind the scenes stuff to share with you guys. I love it. All right. So here's what Ed told me.

Ed told me that he was a huge fan of the original BBC office. And he said not very many people know this. He originally auditioned in New York for the role of Jim. Oh, I didn't know that. I mean, it makes sense, right? It makes sense that he was sort of of that group of actors at the time, but I didn't know that. He said he didn't get the role, obviously, but he heard that Steve got the lead role of Michael Scott, and he was so excited because he had worked with Steve on The Daily Show. Yes. So they were kind of friends. They knew one another. He said this made him so excited

for our American version of the show. And he watched it and he loved it. And then somewhere near the end of season two, he got a phone call to meet with Greg Daniels and Paul Lieberstein about a new character that they wanted to introduce in season three. He said the meeting went great. He absolutely loved the character of Andy.

He also told me that he was originally only asked to do a total of eight episodes on the show because they thought that the Stanford storyline would not necessarily end in a merger and that his character would be finished after Jim returned back to Dunder Mifflin. That was the plan, that Jim would eventually return. But this idea that the other Stanford characters would return wasn't quite in the works yet. But he also told me that they weren't totally sure about leaving Jim separated

for so long. So they would only hire him in two episode chunks. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. So they said, like, OK, we're going to probably keep you for eight, but we'll only hire you for two episodes at a time. And he was living in New York at the time. Yeah. So he came out to L.A. He said he stayed at the Sportsman's Lodge in North Hollywood. You know, the Sportsman's Lodge. I do. I do know the Sportsman's Lodge. I mean, how would you describe the Sportsman's Lodge? I would describe the Sportsman's Lodge as sort of like a retro, could maybe be cool motel. It reminds me of the place where they stay in the movie Vacation when Christie Brinkley jumps in the swimming pool with Chris Wald. Good talk, Russ.

Good talk. It's a famous old hotel in California. It does have some folklore, though, because like when I got here, I drove past it and I was with like a friend I met in like an acting class. And they're like, you know, every day when John Wayne was done on the set, he would go to the bar at Sportsman's Lodge and have a whiskey. I was like, no way. Well, it was originally built so that people could hunt like ducks and stuff. Like there was a whole pond that was part of the sportsman's lodge and they had a diner, a breakfast diner. And Angela, there are pictures of John Wayne all over this diner.

Didn't we once meet there and have breakfast together? I'm sure we did. Anyway, so that's where Ed was living. That's where Ed was living. He said he rented a convertible, a Sebring. He's pretty sure he basically rented Michael Scott's car because he was like, I'm in California. I'm going to rent a convertible. I just found that so charming. But he said that by about the sixth episode, they came and offered him a deal to stay for the whole rest of the season. And he was really excited and he moved to California. I love that.

And then, Angela, I have a few little more things to share about Ed, but I will sprinkle that into the episode. You sprinkle those in. I'm going to sprinkle in my Rashida tidbits. I will say that I love Rashida. Jenna, we were so excited to have her on set. We would hang out in your trailer. Like when the guys were playing their Madden football or on set. We would hang out in your trailer,

like when the guys were playing their Madden football or whatever, we would all hang out in your trailer. And she's just like such an amazing, genuine, smart, like woman. I just adore her. Oh, Angela, I feel like we had a huge girl crush on her. We did. We a little bit followed her around because I remember at first we didn't have any scenes with her and we didn't even see her, but we would see her at the table reads. And then we, I have a picture of us holding our scripts, the three of us and taking our lunch to my trailer. And that's what we did for the first six weeks.

We would just see her at the table read, but then we would bring her to my trailer and we would just pepper her at the table read but then we would bring her to my trailer and we would just pepper her with questions because she is like gosh she is such a force right she's just cool she's really cool and nice and you and i you and i let's face it we were kind of dorks growing up and so we got to hang out with like someone really cool. She upped our game for sure. She upped our game. Let's move on to fast fact number two. We filmed this episode in late July and over the summer break in early July, we were nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Comedy Series for season two of The Office. Yes. This was such a whirlwind time.

We were suddenly like on the map and nominated for this award. And it was crazy. Remember how surreal that was? Yeah. Yeah. Well, do you also remember that while we were shooting this episode, we also had to film a promo for the Emmy Awards. They were being hosted by Conan O'Brien. And he came to our set one day. Do you remember that? I do. And you know, Conan and Greg were good friends. So we were, you know, excited to have him there. And I have a photo. I don't know why it's in black and white. But I sort of went through this phase where I would buy black and white film for my camera, old school camera guys, where you had to buy film. And I have a black and white photo of us all standing around Conan on our set. Well, I looked up this Emmy promo on YouTube and it's there. If you guys want to look at it, it's actually really funny. So also at this time, the TV show Lost was a really big deal. And so the beginning of this promo is Conan on an airplane that crashes into the water.

And then he gets out onto a beach and he runs into cast members from Lost. And he's like, I'm hosting the Emmys. I have to get to the Emmys. And then he goes over to the hatch and he opens up the hatch and he gets in. But when he comes out of the hatch, he comes out of our ceiling, right down onto the desks in the office. And then we have this whole scene. And I had this really cool moment where he and I trade looks the way Jim and Pam trade looks. And then he does a talking head about the receptionist and how he wishes he could stay, but he's got to get to the Emmys. Oh my gosh. It like, it was so cool. It was so cool. I love it. But it's really funny because then he just keeps going through like all the sets of all

the different shows that were nominated that year. And that was like a that felt big to be part of some Emmy montage and to be nominated. I just remember there was a big buzz all across the set when we came back to work from the summer. All right, Jenna, hit me with a fastback. Number three. All right. Fastback number three. All right, fast fact number three. So in this episode, you guys know it opens with Jim no longer working in

Scranton. He still works for Dunder Mifflin, but he's working at the Stanford branch now in Connecticut. We got a lot of questions about the Stanford branch. Where were the Stanford branch scenes actually filmed? And then can you describe how things were filmed with these two different offices and the fact that John wasn't working with you guys for a bunch of episodes? Did he film in the same location? Did he miss you guys?

Did you miss him? Give us all the details, please. Thank you. That's a good question. Yes. Well, I'll say the Stanford branch was over on our warehouse set. It was just in that other building. We had two big sound stages and one sound stage was completely dedicated to the Scranton branch.

And the other sound stage was our warehouse set and also what we called our swing set. So anytime we had to build, for example, the New York offices, they had a section of the warehouse that they could put up the New York offices and then they would take them down. And then like when Pam goes to the hospital and has her baby or when Angela and Oscar move in together, that's where they put Oscar's apartment. That's where they put the hospital. Right. It was the little swing set area. And so that's where Stanford was built. And I remember when they built the Stanford set, I remember us being like, holy crap,

look how fancy it is. It looked more modern, a little bit more sleek. I was like, is Dunder Mifflin like the old branch? Like Stanford looks a little fancy, fancy Stanford. I know. I looked at, you know, I love to look at the backdrops that are out our fake windows. Yeah. Jim talks about the view in Stanford and it's great. Like they're clearly up in like this big high rise building. Yeah. It's really quite nice out that window. And all their desks are new and the desk chairs

are new and the lamps. It's like Stanford's nicer. Well, I did trade some emails with Kent Zabornak, Kentopedia. And he said that when we got this order for season three, we got a little more money in our budget. Oh, did we? Yes. And Aaron Carrington Smith wrote in to say, it really seems like starting in season three, the show branches out. We go to Stanford, but you guys also film a lot more outside of the actual office. Was that a conscious decision? Kent told me we were able to do that because we got this bump in our budget. We're going to see a lot more episodes where we go on location and they were

able to build a really nice Stanford branch all because we had a little bit more money to work with now that we were Emmy nominated and all. Emmy nominated and had a big movie star on set. That's right. We got a little bit more coin, guys, so we could travel. And then as far as John, I remember it was super weird that we didn't have him with us for like six or eight weeks. Yeah, it was super weird that we didn't have him with us for like six or eight weeks. Yeah, it was weird. And I remember like if we would run into him for whatever reason,

maybe he came for a wardrobe fitting and we were at lunch or something. We'd be like, what's it like over there? How is everybody? Is everyone nice? Like, what's it like? Like as if he truly had moved away. I remember that too. And he was so super gushy about Ed and Rashida

and working over on the Stanford set. He was, he seemed like he was having the best time. And again, I think I had a little FOMO. I was like, well, what's happening over in Stanford? Yeah. Why is it so great over there? And then when we had table reads and they were all there, they had like inside jokes. And I'm like, what the heck? What's that inside joke? Dang it. Exactly. Big brother, kid, sister. Yeah. Don't do that with anyone else, buddy. I totally remember all of that. And so they would shoot the Stanford branch like one or two days a week and we would have off and then we would shoot over in the Scranton side for the rest of the week. And we really did not see each other except for those table reads or those little run ins.

Yeah, so crazy. It was crazy. But it built the tension. I think it was good, especially for Jim and Pam, because, you know, you guys, I think, then brought that time apart back on screen together. Does that make sense? part back on screen together. Does that make sense? Oh, Angela, I completely used all of my feelings with John being over on that other set to the character of Pam, because you really became closest with the people who you had the most scenes with because you had to spend so much downtime with them. And for those whole first two years of the show, I was paired with John so often.

this whole first two years of the show, I was paired with John so often. He really was my buddy, you know? And I spent a lot of time with him. And now he was just gone. And again, I can't stress it enough. This was before smartphones. So it wasn't like after this summer break,

we had been tech, we weren't texting. You didn't text anyone, you guys. There was no texting. You weren't like really in touch touch and so here we were back from summer break but i didn't have my work buddy he was like off on some other set and so i did have like all that like fomo and all that like what's up what's up over there yeah what's up over there so when they came back i just used it for my character well those are good fast facts lady those are real good i'm excited to get into this episode because i feel like we both have some behind the scenes stuff i know you're holding out on me lady i know you probably

have some kentopedia and i have some stuff too i talked to some folks so should we take a break and then dive in let's take a break and then dive in? Let's take a break and then we'll dive into Gay Witch Hunt. Okay, we are back. It starts off with Dwight being so pleasant, trimming his fingernails at work. Why, Dwight? Why? We reveal, guess who's sitting next to him? Not Jim.

And no longer the temp. It's Ryan. And can we talk about that Ryan got a whole new look? A bunch of people look a little different. A little better. He like cut his hair short and it's not floppy anymore. And it looks like there's some gel. Anyway, this is the new improved Ryan.

He's no longer the temp and he's got a whole new look. Well, then we move to Pam typing at her desk and she looks longingly over at Jim's old desk at Ryan. And this is when we flash back to casino night. Oh, my God. And we get an extension of the scene. We see that a whole thing happened after the kiss. Yes. They both admit to each other that they've wanted to do that for a long time. And Pam is like, I think we're drunk. And Jim's like, I'm not drunk. Are you drunk?

And she's like, no, no, I'm not drunk. And then Jim goes in for another kiss. Yeah. And she's like, I can't. And he's like, you're going to marry him. And you're like, yes. Oh, I know. We had a lot of fan questions about this. Jenna Adams, Matt Grasso, Brett Hedges, Alyssa Dunn and many others wanted to know, did we film the continuation of the kiss scene at the same time as Casino Night? the continuation of the kiss scene at the same time as Casino Night?

Or did we have to recreate the moment for Gay Witch Hunt? Guys, we had to recreate it. We had to recreate it. And this is like, thank God for Ken Kwapis. Thank God we had the same director. So we had to redo everything. Kim Ferry had taken photos of every side of my head head and she painstakingly redid my hairdo. Thank God my dress still fit. We added a new camera angle. I don't know if you noticed that. They set up the spy shot from the kitchen and then they put an extra camera inside

the conference room shooting through the blinds so that you could finally now see Pam's face and Pam's reaction. I don't know if this is true, Jenna. And I don't know if it's just because I had this information in my brain that I knew you had to recreate this moment. This is ridiculous, but I do feel like you're at a different position on Jim's desk. I feel like you're a little further down. I feel like you're not right by the phone, which is where you were because you had hung up the phone. Right? So this is just a little catch. No, Angela, your catch is good. I think in order to get that camera angle through the blinds in the conference room, we had to scoochie scooch just a few inches down the desk.

Wow. Wow. I'm impressed that you caught that. I mean, we tried to we we tried our best to fool people but we had to re-kiss again because you'll notice that and that was like by the way they brought out like a still frame image to me and john of us kissing and they were like okay so now jenna your arm is here your hand is here john this is how you had your hand around her so we had to like painstakingly recreate the pose and everything so that it would look seamless but

if you watch we kiss and we pull away and start talking immediately so that was it was all recreation how awkward just think about this here's job. You go to work one day and someone's like, here's your job today. You need to find a photo of Jenna and John kissing as Jim and Pam. You need to print it out. I need multiple copies. A lot of people are going to be studying this photo. Then we're going to take it to Jenna and John. We're going to recreate the moment. I want it high res. I want it in color. Print me a bunch of photos of them kissing. Okay, thanks. Yeah, that was pretty much it, Ange. That was pretty much it. That was someone's job. That's so crazy. All right. Well, I love that little

behind the scenes moment, Jenna. I love that you acknowledge that you weren't kissing by the phone where you hung up with your mom. I love it. But I want to get into the episode a little bit here. Now, Toby is in Michael's office. We're at two minutes, 13 seconds. He's talking to Toby because apparently Michael was inappropriate again. You know, he basically gives Oscar a hard time for liking Shakespeare in Love instead of Die Hard. Yeah. And maybe doesn't word it very well. You guys doesn't word it the best. But when you watch this scene, watch Steve's performance as Michael realizes that Oscar is actually gay. Yes. His transformation of going from like, yeah, yeah,

whatever. Yeah, no, I know. And then it's such a great acting moment, in my opinion. Steve, once again, just blew me away. And here's my other thing I need to point out in this scene, you guys, and I don't know, maybe it's controversial, but you know who I think outed Oscar? Toby! Toby! Yes! This is going to come up later, Angela, because Jan is going to come into the office and reprimand Michael for outing Oscar to the rest of the office. And she goes on this whole speech where she's like, it is a big moment in a person's life and they should be able to choose how and when they come out to people. And the whole time I just kept thinking, Toby, Toby, Oscar, Oscar told that to Toby in confidence. Yes. And Toby told the one person who would not be able to contain that information. Here's two people Toby could have

told if he wanted everyone to know Michael and Kelly. Correct. There you go. There you go. So now, I mean, Michael decides he's got to apologize to Oscar. Of course, it's not in private. He just walks over to the accounting desk pod. You have Kevin and Angela exchanging some glances. And then Michael's like, well, maybe, you know, we could go out to dinner and you could explain to me how it works. And Oscar's like, yeah, that would be wonderful. Yeah, we should do that. Oh, Angela. Angela, I have the script for Gay Witch Hunt. You know, Oscar did Oscar improvise. That would be be wonderful Steve and Oscar improvised that whole couplet that is not in the script this I wondered yeah when Steve now listen I say improvised sometimes

the writers were on set and they would pitch lines to the actors but I know that in this particular episode Steve and Oscar took a lot of liberties they are both masterful improvisers. Yes. And they improvised a lot on these scenes. And I believe that Steve improvised that line about maybe we could go have a beer and you could just tell me how you do that to other dudes. And that Oscar was like that. Yes, Michael. That sounds wonderful. That's wonderful. What a wonderful.

I can't wait. It's like the tone in his voice but they everything about those two together in this episode completely delighted me i was so tickled they're so good they're so they're so good and you know then we have kevin and angela they're they're they know now right here we go here we go Here we go. We're off to the races. We're off to the races. And now, two random pieces of trivia, okay? In my journal, I wrote that I really like this sweater that I'm wearing, and that I asked the wardrobe department where they got it, and they got it at Urban Outfitters. Did you buy one for yourself in your personal life?

I didn't. I think I was considering it, and then maybe thought it'd be too weird. But to walk around in the sweater my character wears. But yeah, so that sweater was from Urban Outfitters. So look at that. Angela Martin. That's kind of a hip store, but maybe we had a bigger budget. Yeah.

Wardrobe stopped going to like the NBC and getting old the older clothes and went to urban outfitters for angela martin and then the other thing is at three minutes 58 seconds that whatever photocopy picture of the dog the rescue dog is no longer on my partition on your partition it's not there it's gone removed for season three removed for season. It's gone. Removed for season three. Removed for season three. It's gone. If you're a regular listener to this podcast, you know we've been tracking this picture of a dog on Angela's partition. Yeah, it's gone. It's gone. Oh, everyone's so relieved by that.

Everyone is so thrilled by that information. It's going to be the big takeaway from today's episode. Yeah, exactly. That's what everyone's going to talk about. takeaway from today's episode. Yeah, exactly. That's what I was going to talk about. And then I just want to point out, I thought Oscar's talking head where at first he's denying being gay. And then he just says, like, you know what? Yeah, I am. Okay. Like, I thought he did such a great job. I mean, he's fantastic in this whole episode, but it's just a really small, quick talking head. But I thought he just really found some layers to it.

And I thought it was perfect. Well, you know, there's another talking head that Oscar has in the script that I thought was really, really interesting. That didn't get in? It didn't get in. He says, when I applied for my job at Dunder Mifflin, I told Michael in my interview that I was gay. Oh, I saw this. And he couldn't stop laughing. Yes. He just kept laughing and laughing and laughing. And then he hired me and said, I'm hilarious. And that's why I've never come out at the office. I just decided to keep it

to myself after that. Yes, that's right. If you guys have the DVD set that is in the deleted scenes, it's really funny. It was very funny when I was reading through the script and I came across that. Oh, good. So they actually filmed it. That's cool. Yeah, it's in the deleted scenes. Well, guys, now we're going to go over to Stanford. Jim is on the phone in his new fancy office. He is assuring a customer that while he cannot say that Dunder Mifflin paper is less flammable, he will promise that is definitely not more flammable than other paper. That's his sales pitch for the paper.

And we had a fan question slash fan catch from Catherine Langridge. At four minutes, 53 seconds. Angela, did you notice that there is a Post-it note on John's computer that just says the word smile? No. It says smile. And she wrote in to say, is that a note from Jim to Jim or a note from a co-worker to Jim? Either way, Jim is a sad dude right now. It would have to be.

I feel like it's Jim to Jim because I mean, I don't know that he has a pal that's going to write smile and stick it on his desk. I don't know. I agree. I think it's an indication that Jim's role only. Yeah. So then Andy is going to tell Jim to sort of stay away from this blonde that they can see off in the distance. I sort of felt like probably that was someone Andy liked. He just didn't want Jim to like hit on her.

Oh, that's a good, yeah. That's what, because he was like, yeah, she's crazy. Steer clear, head for open waters. And it cracked me up. And it kind of goes back to the thing you were saying is that already with Andy, we have the nautical references. Yes, yes. yes yes he i'm sure that andy with that whole east coast privileged life he's a he's sailing oh yeah we we learned that he's he's gonna he sails he wears all his little like outfits that

he's ready for like the boat party that's right his little dockers shoes and then we find out people wear i don't know yeah boating people we're gonna what boating people wear? I don't know. Yeah, boating people. We're going to have boating people right in. Not when I wear. And then we find out why Jim is called Big Tuna. Yes. Now, I have to ask you about this.

I have to ask you about this. Because Andy doesn't know Jim. He really doesn't know anything about him. But he's already given him a nickname. I have someone in my life that is like this, that will give people nicknames right out of the gate. It's always really weird to me. And Jim, on his first day of work, ate a tuna sandwich and now is referred to as Big Tuna by Andy. I think somebody wrote in, and I liked this comment. I'm sorry I forgot to write down their name, but they mentioned they felt like that the

piece of information that Jim ate a tuna sandwich instead of his usual ham and cheese sandwich on his first day at Stanford was another way that Jim is trying to branch out, maybe that it was a subtle indication of that. I thought about that. I thought about that. But, you know, he could have had his ham sandwich and I guess Andy could have called him Hambone or something. That might have been my nickname in high school. Just going to share that with you. What? Your nickname in high school was Hambone? Well, for one year. What does that mean? What does that mean? So there was a guy named Mark and he had a party after like a football game and we all went over to his house and his parents were out of town.

And I was like, I'm dying. I'm just trying to figure out how ham or bone is going to come into the story. So anyway, Mark is having this party after a football game. We're all over there. His parents are out of town. I'm sure they wouldn't want us there. And I was super hungry. And I'm in like my cheerleading outfit. I'm super hungry.

And I go into the kitchen and in the dark, I don't turn on any lights. And I open the fridge door. Everyone else is out on like the patio drinking beer or whatever. And I open the fridge door and there's a huge ham. Now there's a huge ham in there. And I just started eating ham standing in the fridge door with just the light of the fridge hitting me. And Mark walked in and flipped on the light and was like, Kinsey, what are you doing? I was like, I'm just eating some ham.

And that was it. They were like, ham bone, ham bone, ham bone. And then everyone started calling me ham bone. This is, I'm speechless. Well, all I'm saying is Andy could have called Jim ham bone, but it doesn't quite work with the whole nautical thing. So I like that this person is like, oh, Jim is starting new. He's having tuna fish sandwiches. He's working in fancy Stanford. But it also might just be that Big Tuna is funnier, given Andy's character. I've got a couple of comments about Jim's talking heads here, not to belabor, but in his one talking head, we had a fan catch from Asha Harnhart,

who said, at four minutes, 46 seconds, Jim is explaining why he transferred to Stanford and he says that he's been promoted. But from what I can tell, it doesn't seem like his job has changed anymore. It's just the location. So was he really promoted? Yes, in the script, that talking head is extended. They cut it out for the location. So was he really promoted? Yes. In the script, that talking head is extended.

They cut it out for the episode. He explains that he is the assistant regional manager of Stanford. Yes. He is basically Dwight of Stanford. And there was a great deleted scene on the DVD box set. It's my favorite from this whole episode. Karen is Jim. Karen pranks Jim. She sets his dial out number to go to Hong Kong. So every time he dials out, he calls Hong Kong and he's like, what the heck? And then you see sort of like Karen's smirk and he's being pranked. And he says, I'm the assistant regional manager. And she's like, yeah, okay. So to me, in my mind, I was like, oh, my God, Jim is Dwight. Karen is Jim in this office. Angela, I think there's like a gazillion deleted scenes from this episode.

There are a bunch. And it sort of like fleshes out the world of Stanford. And so I would recommend watching them. But yeah, you guys, Karen is Jim. Karen looks at Jim the way Jim used to look at Dwight and pranks him. And he's like, but I have this title. And she's like, OK. Yeah.

And then later in the conference room, she's going to say he's kind of a kiss ass. Yes. Yeah. And he is kind of kissing up to his boss the way Dwight kisses up to Michael. Yeah. I have another Jenna catch about the Jim talking head. Okay. I refuse to leave this talking head.

Let's keep talking about it. I noticed, we talked before about how in the Scranton branch, Jim's talking heads were always against an exterior window, whereas everybody else's talking heads faced into the office,

and you could see, like, Stanley and Creed working in the background, and that the intention behind this was just for anyone who didn't hear the previous episode of this podcast that the intention was that Jim had a future outside of Scranton and so his talking heads were against a window that faced out into the world right yep Stanford, his talking heads face into the office. Come on! They face an interior window, not an exterior one.

He does not have a future in Stanford, everyone. Oh, girl. That is some good stuff, lady. Since we're talking about talking heads, let's talk about Andy's for a second. He says he went to Cornell. He graduated in four years. He never studied. He was drunk the whole time.

And he was in an acapella group called Here Comes Trouble. Well, I have a fun fact, Angela. Is it Cornell? Is it about his acapella group? Yeah. Let's hear it. Cornell does not have an acapella group called Here Comes Trouble. They don't?

No, it does not exist. That is up however oh my god they do have an all-female acapella group called nothing but treble nothing but treble come on and lady you know i had to investigate. Nothing But Treble was founded in 1976. You have to audition to be in the group, and they have three two-hour rehearsals per week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. What, did you go to their website? You looked up their rehearsal schedule? Lady, not only did I spend about 45 minutes on their website, I reached out to them.

Aka what? Yeah, and they sent me a clip of themselves singing Britney Spears' Hit Me Baby One More Time. Sam, roll it. was I supposed to know? That something wasn't right yet. Oh, baby, baby, I shouldn't let go. It's seriously so good. It is aka awesome. It's aka awesome. Guys, this badass group of women can be found on Instagram at nbt-cornell, or you can download

their music at Nothing But Treble on Spotify. That's awesome. I might have done that. I might have done that. You might have done it. I think you did. You know when their rehearsal schedule is.

I might have their whole album now. What are you going to do? Join their Zoom rehearsal schedule this week? You know, I just might. I just might. Okay. Well, while we're talking talking heads, I want to talk about Karen's talking head.

Karen's talking head. You guys go to six minutes, 17 seconds for a fantastic impression of Jim's look to camera. Rashida Jones crushes it. She looks to camera and goes, and he's always doing this. And she does his face and she goes, what's that about? Like, what is that? It's so good. So I texted Rashida and I was like, Rashida, I am watching you right now.

Do your impression of Jim's look to camera. And it is cracking me up. You crushed it. And she was like, oh, my gosh, Ange, that's so nice. She said, I was so damn nervous. She told me she was convinced that she was going to get fired. She also said originally the character was written to be more ornery, sour and mean. Those were her exact words. And she said, she said, that's why my bangs are sort of like

pinned to my forehead and I'm not wearing hardly any makeup. They just thought that Karen was going to be maybe a little bit more gruff and kind of a meanie. And then she said that Greg decided to soften her. And so in the next episode, she's a little softer. She's not quite so sour. That is so interesting. You know, Angela, I was brought in over the summer to screen test with a bunch of different Karens. And Rashida was one of them. So they had whittled it down to three Karens. And I had to come in and I had to read scenes with them as Pam. They wrote this scene that was never shot. It was a Karen Pam scene that you never see, but they just wrote it for the purposes of the audition. And I had to come in and read. And at the end of it all, they said, who did you like best?

And I said, my favorite was Rashida Jones. She just made me feel, it was that same thing that I've said about John. When I met John, there was this instant chemistry because he made it the easiest to be Pam. And that's how I described it to them. I said, I just didn't even feel like I had to work hard in my scenes with her. I effortlessly felt this chemistry between Pam and Karen. I knew who Pam and Karen were and who they were going to be. I also think from that

first moment in that audition, Angela, I immediately saw her as a little bit of like this shiny object that I admired. She was such a cool woman that I was like, oh, that's a good dynamic for Pam and Karen too. Because I think Pam does look at Karen as a woman she would aspire to be. Karen has an inner confidence. She has ambition that she's not afraid of. And so I felt all of that at play, even from our very first time meeting. And I was just so excited because I didn't think they would necessarily care who I thought was the person I responded the most to, but it made me so excited when she was cast. So it's funny to me that she thought she was going to get fired because I remember all the conversations about her audition and how everyone was like, she is it. She is Karen.

She is the one. Well, she texted me that she did not sleep probably the whole week before her first day of filming. And she said she had just like major panic that the viewers were going to hate her because Karen gets in the middle between Pam and Jim. And she was like, oh, my God, they're all going to hate me. Well, you know, Rashida and I used to talk about that. And eventually there's like a whole thing where it was team Pam, team Karen. And I told her, I don't know. I have to be honest with you.

If I was watching this, I might actually be team Karen. I might. Yeah. Even though I am Pam. So I told her, don't worry about it. There's going to be plenty of people who know you're just a great lady. So yeah, I told Rashida, I thought she did a great job. I mean, Karen is a really tough role because she treads on the sacred ground that is Jim

and Pam. But I thought she was a fantastic foil. And Rashida said that she would love to come on the show. She said maybe Benihana Christmas would be fun. Yes. So we're going to get Rashida on here too. And Rashida, thankana Christmas would be fun. Yes. So we're going to get Rashida on here too. And Rashida, thank you so much. I love her. I know. All right. Should we go back to the Scranton branch and talk about Michael and Dwight spying on everyone from

inside of Michael's office? Oh, do you mean what I titled getting cocky? Oh, explain. At six minutes, 56 seconds, you know, Michael's suggesting who he thinks might be gay in the office. He says maybe Angela. And Dwight looks very smugly to camera and says, I really don't think so. And look like that Angela isn't gay and he knows why.

But he gives a total look straight to camera, really smug and cocky. I'm like, Dwight, what are you doing? Yeah. Dwight, we are in a secret relationship. You don't get to give a little wink wink to the cameraman. What is he doing? Yeah. He's getting cocky.

He's getting cocky. We know that the camera people know because they found you in that playhouse. But you guys don't know that they know. Dwight doesn't know. So why is he giving the little smug wink look to camera? He couldn't help himself. He couldn't help himself. He couldn't do it. He's delighted to be in this relationship with you, Angela. I know. I know. Well, they also talk about gaydar, that Jim told Dwight that you can buy a device that tells you whether or not someone is gay. They decide they need to get it, so they call Jim.

someone is gay. They decide they need to get it. So they call Jim. And this was a thing that they did so that they could keep up this little pranky relationship and keep Jim part of our world so that you could see and you'll see this going forward in season three. There are going to be ways, especially even in the next episode, there's going to be a convention and Jim is going to go on this convention and be reunited with Michael. And so anyway, they did they did want to find even in this episode ways that Jim was connected back to Scranton and back to Michael and Dwight. Yeah, they did it with Gaydar. They did it with Gaydar and they also did it with Mr. Brown having to come in and talk about, you know, sort of like a type of diversity training.

Right. And it's because the Scranton branch is acting up again. Yeah. and talk about, you know, sort of like a type of diversity training, right? And it's because the Scranton branch is acting up again. Yeah. So there's a lot of moments where you get to see Jim thinking about Scranton, Jim thinking about Pam, Jim even missing Dwight and Michael. And this is one of those moments. And I wrote that at seven minutes, 29 seconds, I think it's the first time Jim truly looks happy in this whole episode because he gets to talk to Dwight and Michael and like sort

of laugh at what idiots they are once again. So now we know that Pam said she was going to marry Roy. We know that Jim has moved to Stanford, but now we're going to learn more about Pam's relationship. Pam is at her desk. Roy enters with two plates of food. He asks her if she wants chicken or fish. They have a little awkward small talk

and then the camera pushes in to Pam's left hand. No ring. This whole time she didn't have a ring on. I didn't even notice, right? Yeah. So when that happened, I really did. Even though I knew it because you and I know the show, I was like, oh, no ring. Oh, my God. Ring. No ring. And also really tan Roy, very tan and in shape Roy. Roy's looking amazing. He's

looking really good. David Denman is a tall drink of water when he walks the man that pam didn't marry is now suddenly super hot he's tan and in really good shape and the beard i'm i'm living for that beard it's all working david it was all working well pam explains that she did not go through with the wedding she got cold feet and just like the weeks before. Right. And she just knew she had to get out of the relationship. She explains that they still had to pay for all the food. So they froze it. And now I guess she has to eat chicken or fish every day for the next five weeks. I thought that was really funny detail. It's very funny. five weeks. I thought that was really funny detail. It's very funny. And, you know, then Roy has a talking head and he broke my heart. He gets emotional. He says he's got to get her back,

you know, and he's not going to take her for granted. And I was like, oh, my gosh, super hot tan in shape. Roy is now getting emotional. What the heck is happening? I know he explains that he got arrested for a DUI. I remember that DUI photo because I remember them like deciding which one to pick. And I remember that one made us laugh and Mindy was like cackling.

I remember the same thing. I remember the same thing. We had a fan question from Rihanna Sheriff who said, how did they make the mugshot of Roy? Well, listen, here's the thing. David shot a movie over the summer and he got into that like super amazing shape for that movie. Right. And he came back for season three of The Office and he, as we have discussed, looked amazing. And Greg was like, oh, no, we had written you as having sort of fallen apart as a result of your broken engagement to Pam.

So they had to kind of rewrite it a little bit. They wanted to keep in that whole bit about how he had been arrested. So they took a picture of him. And then with Photoshop, they like swelled up his face. They blew out his neck. It was so weird. It was so crazy. And they brought around like six different options for all of us to vote on which one we liked.

I totally remember that too, Angela. Yeah, we were cracking up. Oh my God. It was amazing. Roy is hot. Okay. He's trying to turn a corner here for Pam. But there is someone who has a gripe with them.

And it is Stanley. Yeah. Because Stanley bought them a toaster for their wedding. Then they call off their wedding, and he tried to return the toaster, and the store won't take it back. And you know what I think? What? I think Stanley, because he's cheap, we sort of have established that he's kind of cheap, right? Yeah.

I think that Stanley bought them a discontinued toaster, like the toaster that was on sale, like clearance. He bought them the crap toaster in his bum that he couldn't return it. Well, then he deserves to be stuck with two toasters, doesn't he? That's what you get. Oh, hey, we don't have a sting for this, but I would like to put in a sting at nine minutes, 34 seconds that goes something like a full Mindy. We need a full Mindy sting. We need to get on that immediately, actually, because at nine minutes, 34 seconds, we see some real long extensions. Oh, yeah. And a bright green blouse and a floral skirt. It is full, full Mandy. There's no going back. There's no going back. full band-aid there's no going back there's no going back also she like skips up to oscar's desk and she just wants to tell him how cool it is that he's gay and how she has totally underestimated

him and then oscar has that amazing talking to head that is so that tickles me where he says he yes he's very very cool because he's an accountant at a failing paper supply company in Scranton, much like Sir Ian McKellen. Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, we cut to my character who's just glaring at him and being just not nice, you guys. And I'm applying hand sanitizer. And we do find out in this episode that I think Will and Grace is very loud and that I like Harry Connick Jr. Yeah, you're not a fan of Will and Grace, but you do like Harry Connick Jr. Send me some Harry Connick.

Well, then at 10 minutes, eight seconds, Meredith pumps some of Angela's hand sanitizer into her hand and then licks it off. All right, fan question from Natasha Rahaman. What did Meredith actually eat when she is shown eating the hand sanitizer? Oh, good question, Natasha. Natasha, I am so glad you asked this question because I actually wondered the same thing when I was watching the scene.

Here's the thing. I think Meredith thinks she can get a buzz off of it because she's, you know, she thinks there's alcohol in it, right? So yeah, she's like, I'm gonna have some hand sanitizer. Well, I was texting with Kate Flannery yesterday. And I said, Kate, you've got to give us the lowdown. What was in the hand sanitizer? Tell us all the details. Did she tell you? Well, guess what she did? She was like, Ange, I will leave you a message about it. And I was like, oh, okay, even better. So she left me a message and she said we can play it here. So Sam, play Kate's answer.

Hey, everybody. It's Kate Flannery. And I'm here to answer a fantastic question from one of the fans of the Office Ladies podcast. And I have a feeling I know who this is from. Is this from Big Tool 9 at AOL? I think he asked me the same question a long time ago. Okay. Anyway, what did Meredith actually eat when she's shown eating the hand sanitizer? So they actually changed what was in the bottle. They put gelatin with club soda. So it had the bubbles. So it was just clear gelatin, but they put it back in the same bottle that the original hand sanitizer came in, which

is very perfumey. So when I went to lick it off my hand, it tasted like perfume. So it was kind of gross. And I think we did maybe four or five takes. So there was no cheap high involved. I mean, I'm a big Jell-O fan, but I like a little flavor and I don't particularly like perfumey flavor. Anyway, that's just my taste. Thank you for asking. Are you sure this wasn't big tool nine at AOL? Yeah, I get a lot of questions online

from whoever that is. Okay, all the best. Love you guys. Woo-hoo. Wish we were physically together. Kate, thank you. It just made me laugh that that here's kate kate always has a bit you know and so like i love that even in answering this she had her bit about the guy that big tool whatever who kept like writing into her tool nine big tool nine

guys come on why couldn't they have put it in a bottle that had been rinsed out or something? I don't know. I just want to say that this is like a two second joke. Like this is it. This is not a runner. She doesn't go around the office looking at this was just like a little moment. It is in the script. And when I think of moments like this, I just think of all the planning that went in to making something for her to eat.

And I actually texted Phil Shea. And I was like, Phil, what is it like when you get a script and there's this little tiny joke and it sends you down this road? And he said these are his favorite moments because it's a challenge and that he read this and he was like, all right, time to find edible hand sanitizer. and that he read this and he was like, all right, time to find edible hand sanitizer. And I sort of found it interesting that they had to put like a sparkly, like water, like seltzer in it, because I bet once they added the gelatin, there were no bubbles and hand sanitizer has bubbles. So that is like such a small, tiny amount of detail that they were like,

nope, we didn't get it right. Let's add the seltzer. Well, I'll have you know, I noticed the bubbles and it really threw me because it made me think that Kate was really eating hand sanitizer, which I knew she couldn't possibly. They would never make her do that. And I asked Phil Shea about that. And he said at first they tried just clear agave syrup. Just like a clear agave, you know, because it's thick and sweet but no bubbles you say syrup very midwesty how do you say it syrup no no no i think what you mean is i say syrup correctly

and you say syrup okay all right like like a southerner. And excuse me. I'm not saying it's good or bad. I'm just saying you are saying it incorrectly. Really quickly, before we get off on a huge tangent of our syrup and syrup and syrup like debate. Kate told me that she's really proud of the fact that she did her stunts. She did a lot of her own stunts. The majority of all the things that you see that happens to Meredith, Kate did a pass at that. And so she was like, this was just another one of those. When I got the script, I was like, okay, what am I going to be licking? What is it? I don't think anyone in the cast was subjected to more stunts than Kate, actually.

No, no one was. Maybe Steve. Maybe Steve. But Kate, I think, is actually number one. I think she's number one. And she was a really good sport about it. And Kate, thank you so much for sending in that message. Thank you, Kate.

And thank you again, Natasha. All right, so now we're back. We're at 10 minutes, 37 seconds. And we get a real bird's eye view of Andy's temper because someone has put his calculator in Jell-O and he kind of freaks out. He does freak out. He kicks the trash can. I'll have you know that was not in the script.

And when I was texting with Ed, he told me that they came up with that on the set. He remembered Mike Schur being on set and throwing out a bunch of funny ideas. And in this moment, this was one of those moments where they were able to say like, okay, how much, how big of a reaction can Andy have to this jello thing? And he was like, how about I kick the trash can? They were like, try it. And it made it in. And he was super excited because it was kind of like his first improv moment that made it in an episode. Yeah, I love it. I thought it was perfect. And it really was like, oh, this guy is unhinged. Yeah, he's not OK. Well, I noticed a really random thing over his shoulder when he starts talking about the calculator on his computer it says table of

contents i saw that too i'm like is andy writing a book is he reading what is he looking at is it a manual what is it and i watched the deleted scenes i thought maybe there might be some reference to it but there wasn't so i thought that was kind of interesting i'm like what is that about remains a mystery mystery so now we're going to go back again to the Scranton branch. Jan has arrived. Yeah. They had to call in the big guns because things are going off the rails here. So Jan is not happy.

No. Toby explains that now Oscar is basically feeling discriminated against by everyone in the office, particularly Angela. Yeah. And Michael needs to do something about it. Yeah. So Michael calls Oscar into his office. Oh, man. And Oscar says to Michael, am I the first gay man that you've ever known? Yeah. Is this is this what is happening right now? Yeah. And they're they seem like they might be about to have this very productive heart-to-heart when Pam comes in to announce that Dwight is looking at gay porn on his computer. Because that's what Michael asked him to do.

This is how Michael thinks he's going to problem solve? Yeah. First of all, he shouldn't be looking at pornography at work. Any pornography. Any pornography. Why would he ever think this is acceptable to try to remedy a situation? Oh my gosh. Michael, Michael, Michael. Because Michael says, hey, there is nothing wrong with it. Gay porn, straight porn. It's all good. Yeah. It's all good. And at work at work,

what is happening? So they're all gathered around Dwight's desk. And anyway, Oscar walks up and he's like, what are you guys doing? And then Angela has a really snarky line where she's like, oh, watching some of your friends. Oh, yeah. So snarky. And he kind of shoves past her. Oh, lady, we had a fan question about that. Anthony Giratano said, how much choreography was involved in Oscar pushing you, Angela? Was this planned? Here's the thing. It really does

look like he kind of shoves me aside. But the direction we were given is that my character is really playing up the drama of this moment. Almost like when you watch like a soccer match and someone barely gets nudged and they have the big ball like, ah, that's how Ken directed me, that Oscar would just really barely brush by me. And I'd be like, oh, don't touch me, you know? Yes. Well, this is what I was talking about in the cliffhanger little moment

I left in the last episode where I was like, okay, this is what I was talking about in the cliffhanger little moment I left in the last episode where I was like, okay, this is when I went to Greg. There was another line and I can't remember what it was, but it was something like sort of like, well, I think Jesus would be disappointed in you or something like that. I just went to Greg and I was like, Greg, you know, I grew up going to church and I go to church and I, that's just not the message I received, grew up going to church and I go to church and I, that's just not the message I received, you know, about Jesus. And I just, I just don't think that's how Angela Martin would think. I mean, she can be judgy all she wants, but I don't think that's how she thinks. Her way that she is, how she's kind of uptight and judgy and all of that is separate from her

religion. And I think that's what you were wanting to do. You were wanting to separate it. Yeah. And Greg was so gracious. Greg was like, Angela, oh my God, thank you so much for sharing that with me. It's totally not what I intended. We just wanted a heightened moment so that Oscar shoves past you so that we can sort of have this crescendo that makes Michael come out and say everyone to the conference room.

So he was like, yeah, we'll come up with a different line. And thank you so much for sharing that with me. So I felt like relief. And I also felt like my mom could watch the episode without getting upset, too upset. I was like, oh, no. All right, mom. Yes. She's still snarky.

She's still really mean and snarky. But yeah, I was really appreciative to Greg for hearing me out. So Michael has now had it. Like he's like, okay, everyone, I don't care who you are or what's going on with you. Get in the conference room. We're going to talk this out. Yes. And I think this is a good place for a break.

As everyone walks into the conference room, we will take a break and we will come back with everything that happens in the conference room, which is a lot. All right, so we're back. We're in the conference room. Michael is leading a discussion about what it means to be gay. This includes one of my favorite lines from this episode, which is yours, Angela, when Michael asks, who should be the judges and juries of our society? The judges and the juries. And he says, you're making a good point. I mean, I love that. This conference room scene has some great cutaways as well.

And it is Creed's, one of his favorite talking heads happens. Yes. He's done it for us live in studio. In the 60s, I made love to many, many women, often outdoors in the rain and the mud. It's possible a man slipped in. There'd be no way of knowing. Yes. No way of knowing. No way of knowing. So this is one of Creed's favorite talking heads. I love it. We also learned, oh my gosh, we learned that Phyllis is engaged. Yes. Phyllis, this is when it's revealed that Phyllis is engaged because Dwight says Phyllis might be a lesbian.

And she's like, actually, I'm getting married to Bob Vance. And we're all like, we're all very excited. She didn't announce it or tell us. This is how we all find out. Then she shows her ring off. Right. And we're looking over. Jenna, is Phyllis's ring a cluster ring? Angela,

I think it's a cluster. What? And Bob Vance. Bob Vance should get her a big rock. I don't believe it. I don't believe it. And I think you're going to see in later episodes, it gets switched. I think it does. I remember her having a big honking ring and we're like, oh, Bob Vance. Huh? And like we did, we did bits about it. But in this shot, it looked like a cluster ring. It's a cluster. I mean, Bob Vance is a very showy guy.

He's going to give his lady a big old solitaire. Yes, he is. Yes, he is. OK, we need to track that. And Phyllis has, you know, a line in here that I love because I love every single time Phyllis reminds us all that she and Michael went to high school together. I live for it. I live for it.

You know, Angela, that one got me curious because I was like, I don't think that Phyllis and Steve are the same age. I actually went to Wikipedia and I looked it up and there is a 10 year age difference between Steve Carell and Phyllis Smith in real life. But nonetheless, I love this runner. It's a very funny runner and Michael hates it. But we also learned that Michael in high school wore suits and ties and matching fancy socks and fancy socks. I love that backstory. Yeah. There's also a moment in the conference room where Michael says, we're all homos, homo sapiens. And Pam, this is, this makes Pam laugh and she giggles and turns to the person next to her, but it's Ryan. And Ryan gives you nothing. No, nothing. And you'll notice in this episode, when we cut

back to Jim in the conference room at Stanford, he is having memories of conference rooms with Pam, just like Pam is having her memories of conference rooms with Jim. And they have no one to look at to sort of share the experience with. I know. Their person is gone. Yeah, their person is gone. So then Michael goes on this tangent. He just says, you know, gay marriage isn't legal. And how many straight men wished that applied to them? He's like, you're so lucky, Oscar, that gay marriage isn't legal. I feel like I've seen this like in sort of a stand up routine. I feel like this concept.

Yeah, I feel like Michael has like pulled some of his comedians that he's seen sort of do this bit that I bet husbands out there wish that. I feel like Michael is doing his bit. I think you're so right on that. Here's the thing. When I heard that, I actually thought to myself, oh my God, gay marriage wasn't legal. Like it is legal now, right? But yes, we shot this back in 2007. And gay marriage was not legal.

Angela, this sent me on a tangent. Where did you go? Where did you go? Angela, I went on a deep dive. Uh-oh. Sam, can I get a deep dive, please? Did you hear that, Angela? I did.

It sounded like a toilet being flushed. Oh, dear. Okay. No, that's me doing a deep dive into the history of gay marriage. Wait one second.

Do you and Sam trade emails about sound effects? Because I feel like you have some shorthand with Sam that I don't have where I'm not like,

Sam, hit the full Mindy. Sam, give me a bird going, caw, caw. Sam, give me a beer, like sound. Maybe we do, and maybe we do. Maybe Sam and I trade sound effects emails from time to time. If you want to know, I also recorded this. You got a deep, you got a dive. You put them together, get a deep dive. Are those your children? That's my son. He made me a deep dive sting.

I like that. I might like that better than your toilet flush. Well, listen, the point is I did a deep dive on the history of gay marriage, and I'm going to throw it at you. Are you ready? Okay, I guess throw it at me. All right. So in the year 2000, 20 years ago, Vermont was the first place in the country of the United States to allow civil unions for gay couples. The first state to legalize gay marriage was Massachusetts in 2003.

Look at you. Look at you, mess. Look at you go. Look at them go. Did I do a good one? Was that good? Look at them go. I don't know, honey.

I don't know what that was. They were so smart in Massachusetts. They're so super smart. All right. So go on. Wicked smart. They're wicked smart. Wicked smart. Way to go.

All right. All right. So Massachusetts was the first state smart. Wicked smart. Way to go. All right. All right. So Massachusetts was the first state to legalize gay marriage. Pennsylvania was the last state in the northeastern region to recognize same sex marriage. It did not become legal there until a state Supreme Court ruling in May of 2014. And it did not become legal in all 50 United States until June 26th, 2015. There was a Supreme Court ruling. That decision struck down bans on same-sex marriage, legalized it in all 50 states, and

said that all states had to honor out-of-state marriage licenses. Lady, that was only five years ago? That is astonishing to me. Anyway, that was my deep dive, guys. I got super curious when I heard him say that. Yeah. Because now it is the law, but there was a time when it was not, and I wanted to learn more about it. So there you have it. There you have it. She's here for the deep dives on your alpha womb. And yes, here are the things i've deep dived so far can you get yams at a gas station in carbondale you really deep dived on that what is an alpha womb yeah you

gay marriage and now well don't forget you did stock a college acapella group and you know their rehearsal schedule so let's let's try oh my. I did two deep dives in this episode. I'm really contributing. I'm contributing. Okay. So guys, this conference room meeting is not going well. Oscar says to Toby, I don't even think I can work here anymore. This is the worst day of my life. He gets up to leave and Michael stops him. And now we are going to have the most glorious interaction. So we could not talk about the awkwardly cringy awesomeness of this scene without Oscar Nunez. So y'all, we called him. Yeah, we did.

We recorded it. And here it is. Hi, Oscar. Hi, Jenna. Hi, Oscar. Woo-hoo! Hi, Jenna. Hi, Angela. Oh, this is so fun, Oscar. You know what this is, Jenna?

What? It's un-be-lie-vable! Yes! It is unbelievable. That's what I do all, when I want to get a laugh i watch the office but i watch the bloopers i go through all the seasons and that's one of the takes that makes me laugh so much i love that you know isabel loves the bloopers i mean too i love the bloopers i just remember we could not get through that scene no fisher you were the instigator you couldn't get it together

I know I'm sorry I'm sorry you guys are funny it happens and also we never ever got to do talking heads together so it was just like the novelty of that too yeah it was funny it was so good Oscar you never break you never break you know I I was watching, I think it's season four, Ed Helms made me crack up. Because he just, he mugs so much, his funny faces. And it's still grounded. And Ed Helms made me crack up in one of the bloopers. But truly, I feel like we could count on one hand the number of times you broke in the whole nine seasons. In nine years.

My nickname for Oscar was the statue. Because you broke in the whole nine years in nine years my nickname for oscar was the statue because you never broke yeah well oscar it's a good thing that you were steve's scene partner in gay witch hunt everybody else in the room broke you did not and thank goodness because then they had usable takes because j Jenna, I stifled it. I know your tells because I sat back with you in accounting. So Brian did the tea kettle. We've talked about that, how he, as he would start to laugh, he would like try to hide it by blowing out the corner of his mouth. I called it the tea kettle.

He'd be like, yes, yes, like that. That's right. But you did this tiny, minuscule, like a grunt. But no one knew you would, like a grunt. But no one knew. You would go like a, like that. So now I need to go back and watch that scene. We'll get to it, but I want to see if I can hear it.

Okay, but before we get into the scene, Oscar, we start, whenever we have a guest on the show, we ask them a little bit about how you came to be on The Office. Like, what was your audition process? Like, what's your story? Well, okay, I'll just start with the audition, because I don't want to, because you and I knew each other from before, and I don't even know when, The Groundlings or something, where we met. The Groundlings, Oscar. Okay, Oscar and I had known each other forever, but Jenna, like how you were talking about with John, like this was before you texted people or knew information about what was going on in their lives. There was no social media. So I had no idea that Oscar auditioned and he didn't know that I auditioned. And I didn't know that he got it until the day I walked on set the first day. And I walk over to accounting where they told me I was sitting and there's Oscar. And I'm like, oh my God, it's like, it's like a, like a movie, like a Harry met Sally or

something. We did not know this, not through gossip, not through reading paperwork. We both walked on the set and there we were in wardrobe. And I'm like, what are you doing here? And she's like, what are you doing here? I'm like, oh no, we're on the same show. We were so excited because we had done a sketch comedy show we had met god oscar what like 15 years earlier it's such a great feeling to see a friend and you're like we're on the same show that really happens but it does happen but not just on the same show You guys were like teammates. We were in the same department, you know? So even better. And speaking of that, Oscar, did you audition for the role of an accountant? Yes, they needed extra people. They gave me copy to read and it was a general office stuff. Okay. And my manager, Bruce is like, it's for the office. And I'm like, well, that sounds good.

And my manager, Bruce, is like, it's for the office. And I'm like, well, that sounds good. And I love the British office. But I thought, we'll do the pilot and it won't get picked up. That was my feeling. I was so skeptical. I think we all felt that way. I was so over it. But I love the show.

I love the Ricky Gervais. And I'm like, oh, it's great, but we're not going to do it justice. That's what I was like. We're not going to do justice. Don't get excited, Oscar. Don't get excited. And I think that's why I did well, because I didn't care. And then they're like, well, let's come in for a callback. And then the callback, I think it must have been

scripted, but I went in, I think three times or maybe four, three for sure. And then the last one was improv. And I was like, okay, I really like this because I can improv. Because I was literally in the groundlings of it. So I improvised the live long day. And I had a really good time and tried to keep it close to the vest and not go too crazy. And then my manager called and said, you got it. And I got a little bit more excited, but still did not quit my day job. I was catering and babysitting.

And did not quit until we got picked up for the season. And then Flannery and I quit at the same time. We looked at each other. We're like, now, she's like, now, yeah, let's do it now. I'm like, all right, let's do it. And we both quit. We're like, you quit catering, catering and babysitting and Kate quit being a waitress. That's right. And her lovely manager said, everyone wished her well. And her manager said, you'll be back. She's like, oh, thank you for that. All right. Let's talk about this scene. All right, Oscar.

This is the scene where Michael starts by offering to hug you. You know, you're upset. You're like, I'm out of here. And Michael's like, come on, I'm going to give you a hug in an attempt to show that he's totally OK with Oscar being gay. But this ended up with Steve kissing you on the lips, which was not scripted. Well, it's crazy because Michael like completely offends you and you're like, you feel insulted. You want to leave.

Then, then you realize you've broken Michael's heart. And so you're like, okay, buddy, come here. Now you're, you're comforting Michael and he's like tearing up. It's just like, none of this should be happening in a workplace. Becoming his parent in the moment. None of this should be happening in a workplace. No. Well, Oscar, I have the script from Gay Witch Hunt, and I looked it up, and here is what was originally scripted. Because I was curious, because I knew that what ended up airing was an improv. So originally, he hugs you, and then he was supposed to go in for a kiss, but he chickens out and is supposed to like kiss you on the forehead or something.

But I remember sitting in that room and when Steve said the line, I want you to burn this into your brains. That was the moment. We knew that was improv. Yeah, that was an improv line. What does Steve have in his head right now? And Oscar, to me as an audience member, and I'm saying audience member, like, because I was, I was just sitting in the conference room as an audience member. That line was the moment when I knew we had taken a turn on to a totally new road. What was it for you?

Do you remember, like, when you were like, wait, what's going on? Well, I've had time to process it. But at the moment, I think we did three or four takes. Not a lot with hugging, with the way you're saying, with the hugging. And then this particular take, he's coming in and I'm like, oh, he's going to, he really caught me off guard. He's coming in closer and closer and his nose is getting closer to my nose. And I'm thinking, I'm thinking, well, I don't know what's happening. So I'm just going to stand here because he's going to hug me.

And I'm thinking, pick a side. You know, when you hug someone, Jenna, you have to go left or right. Yeah. And I'm like, pick a side, pick a side, pick a side. And I to go left or right yeah i'm like pick a side pick a side pick a side and i'm like oh no he's not picking a side he's because i'm like i'm like he's not picking a side and then he came in for a sweet sweet kiss and our lips touched and then that's when like this laugh came from my stomach and i stopped it and i also heard a lot of giggling and snickering from the peanut gallery and i I'm like, oh, I hope the cameras.

Well, it doesn't matter because that's the reaction. Whatever's happening is happening. And they stopped kissing me. And I'm like, okay, stay in character. And I'm like, I said, thank you. I think. I don't know why. Well, he has this great line.

He has this great line where, well, first of all, you improvised a great line oscar where you're like we don't have to do this and he's like yes we do yes we do and then after he improvised this line where he was like there i get it like it's he's the hero and we're still here we're still here i know he's the hero he did it he did it he dragged me out of the closet where i was perfectly happy well the thing that amazes me is that when you see all of our reactions we were just reacting in real time i know and yet we also are seem to be reacting in character except for bj i'll tell you bj turns away in that moment when he's sitting next to me because he started laughing. The reason he turned away was because he lost it. He lost it.

And then the camera cut so you can't see it. Carell's insane. I covered my face because I was laughing. And I thought, okay, hopefully this tracks that Angela Martin wouldn't want to see it because I'm laughing and I don't want to ruin this moment. Oh my God. The closest to us or one of the closest. She was like right there.

Well, Oscar, I don't know if you remember, but you and I were doing an interview together. Oh my gosh. I don't know where we were. We were doing a press junket for NBC and someone asked you about the moment and I'll never forget because I remember, I remember it because you cursed and I was like, I know we're on camera, but you said something like, then all of a sudden Steve keeps coming closer. And I'm like, son of a bitch, he's going to kiss me. You had this moment where you knew it was past the point of no return. It's happening. Well, Steve was amazing because when he would come up with those improvs on set, I feel like I have a lot of memories and this is the one that is like most prevalent, but just the memory of him, you see him get an idea, but then he is a master at slow playing the idea.

I saw him, as soon as he said, I want you to burn this into your brains, I knew, oh my gosh, he has an idea. But he made me wait for it. And he made all of us wait for it. And that is the genius of his comic timing. All of us wait for it. And that is the genius of his comic timing. For Michael Scott, even though it's ass backwards, it was a very brave thing of him to, in his mind,

Michael Scott, he's like, he was the hero, right? He's like, look what I did. Look what I did. No one else could have done this. That's why I have the mug. World's best boss. Look what I did. And then Jenna, I have the mug. World's best boss. Look what I did. And then Jenna, I have a,

I have a question because I am pretty sure I remember this correctly, but you have the script when rain as Dwight then chimes in to kiss him. Rain improvised that. Oh yeah. That was totally improvised. And I just love that. That's the button that's like, I'm going to get in there. That's his MO. That's apropos. He did that aight's like, I'm going to get in here. That's his M.O. That's apropos.

He did that a lot. He just didn't do it in that scene. Michael would do something and then he would get inspired and go, I'm going to do what my boss is doing. Yeah. But Michael said, no, no, Dwight, Dwight, don't. Yeah. Because he needed it. It was just for him.

You can see Rain break a little bit there. After he tries to kiss you you see yeah a little bit of a smile i tip my hat to all you guys because that was a ridiculous moment and for him to pull back and say we did it we're still here we're still we did it everyone dragging everyone in with him to this thing i wrote it 18 minutes uh 56 seconds i wrote, I think Oscar's about to break right here. That's the moment I caught. So I'm going to go back and see if it's your weird stomach grunt moment. That was probably the most documentary moment of our fake documentary.

That and when we sang goodbye to Steve. Oh my gosh. Because remember, Steve didn't know. No. Okay, Oscar, before you go, I want to ask you this fan question. So as a result of Michael's behavior, Oscar ends up accepting a settlement with corporate and it includes this three month paid leave. And he says he and Gil are going to go to Europe. So Melinda Magerkirth and Mike McCarthy wrote in to ask this.

Niagara Kurth and Mike McCarthy wrote in to ask this. When the character of Oscar goes on his three-month sabbatical, what was the real Oscar up to in real life during those three months? This comes under the umbrella of having two wonderful mentions as your bosses. I, when it rains, it pours, you guys. And while I was on The Office, I pitched a show at Comedy Central, and they said yes. It was an improvised show, which the aforementioned Damon Jones, Damon Jones, who was in the running for being the lead, is my buddy,

and he was executive producer of the show. We created it together, and this other fellow, Kevin Ruff, we sold the show to Comedy Central, and they said we wanted to do a season of it. And I'm like, oh, well, okay, but I'm on the office, but whatever, we'll figure it out. One day I was walking across, just to give you a little more glimpse into Steve and his thinking, he was walking across the, where our outside on the asphalt, where all the cars are parked, the parking lot, it's called Oscar, the parking lot. And all our trailers are there. And I caught up to him like, Steve, hey, what's up?

I said, Steve, I was just offered to do a show at Comedy Central, but I love it here. What should I do? And he goes, Oscar, say yes to everything. Let your people figure it out. Let your manager and agent figure it out. That's not your job. You say yes to everything that they offer you. Don't worry about anything else. Say yes, people will figure it out. So I said yes. And I told Greg Daniels,

and he's like, we'll figure it out. And they did. And this was my out. They gave me a beautiful, organic, seamless way out. So I was shooting a show. I was shooting 10 episodes of a show called Halfway Home. It was all improvised on Comedy Central. It was so good, Oscar. Thank you. It was so good. And so many of the people that we knew from the Groundlings and ImprovOlympic were part of it. And you know who else? Octavia Spencer.

How did she go on to do it? I think she did okay for herself. So Octavia was with us on that show. Many people went there. And Steve Pierce. Oh, so many people. Anyway, that's what I was doing. I went to do a show, uh, shot 10 episodes and then came back and,

and folded right back into the office because of Greg Daniels, because of, uh, Steve Carell and Silverman and all those people. But, you know, I think what people should know is that, that, that is very unique. I feel like to Greg, Greg was such a collaborator with us. And I know I had things throughout the nine-year run, and I know, Jenna, you did too, where we had to go to them and say, hey, we got this opportunity. Will we be able to make it work? And he was always pro making it work and figuring it out.

So how amazingly gracious that he made this window for you to go shoot that show. It's not like, oh, I'll have that opportunity later. This is important. And he knows that. It's important to get a pitch meeting. It's important to just sell a show. This isn't happening every day. We're all, you know, we're all mature.

Am I younger than Angela and Jenna by 15, 20 years? Yes. But that's not the point. We're all mature people. We're all mature people. Oh. Well, you had pitched it and created it. It was your baby.

That's right. You got to go do it. And then you got to come back to the offices. You guys, if I had to choose, I don't know what I would have done because I burned in the hand. Yeah. So I would have had to say no to a show. I might have said no to a comedy. I probably would have said no to that.

And that would have been horrible. Yeah. So I got to do both. I got to do both. You got to do both. And as Michael would say, it was a win, win, win. Very nicely done, Angela. Thank you so much. My pleasure. You're awesome. This was so nice. My pleasure. Love you, Angela. Love you, Jenna. Love you, Nice. My pleasure. Love you, Angela.

Love you, Jenna. Love you, Oscar. Bye. Bye. All right. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Wasn't that amazing?

He's hilarious. That was amazing. I love him so much. I love him so much. Now there's not that much more to talk about, but there are a couple little things before we wrap things up. I want to talk about Jim in the conference room. Fancy Stanford conference room.

Yes. And he's conference room. Yes. And he's having his diversity training. And guys, Larry Wilmore. Larry Wilmore. Back again as Mr. Brown. Yes. Hero, acronym hero. It's all there.

You might notice that Jim has an empty chair next to him and he kind of looks wistfully at the chair. This is a nod to that moment in the previous diversity day where Pam fell asleep on his shoulder. It was kind of their first moment of connection, their first moment of physical connection. And he's remembering that. Yeah. They're both missing each other. They're missing each other.

They are. And now back at Dunder Mifflin, Dwight gets a package. He gets a package from Jim. It's a gaydar detector. It looks like a little mini vacuum, but it's probably just a metal detector, right? It literally is a metal detector. I texted Phil Shea about it, and it is a repurposed metal detector, which makes total sense because it beeps when it goes across Oscar's belt. His belt. They all wore belts, guys. And so then, of course, it beeps when it goes across Dwight's belt.

Oh, and then who has a little smile, a little wistful smile? Mm-hmm. Pam. That gem, she's thinking. She's thinking, aw, that Jim. He did a prank all the way from fancy Stanford. Yeah. Aw.

I know. And he doesn't know that I have an apartment now, and I'm eating frozen food because I canceled my wedding. And I'm going, I have art classes. I enrolled in art classes. I know. Like he said I should going I have art classes. I enrolled in art classes like he said I should. I know. I'm actually glad that Jim went to Stanford and that he doesn't know this about Pam, because I think it's really important that Pam has her own journey. Well, I think one of the reasons why Pam and Jim were able to get together in the end was because she had this time between relationships. Yes.

She had this time alone. She's been with Roy for over a decade, I think, when we talk about it. Yeah. Maybe not that long, but since high school. Pam. I mean, they live together. She needs this alone time. I think it's good. It's good for them. We know it's all going to work out in the end. They don't know that yet, but this is the right thing. Kids, kids, take this time for yourself. Kids, don't go from one relationship to the next, okay? Figure out who you are. Have some time in between, okay? What are these accents we're doing?

I don't know. Who are these women? I don't know. They're your bossy aunt. That's bossy aunt accent. All right, you guys, That was Gay Witch Hunt. Thanks so much for listening in. If we missed anything, write us because you know we like it.

You know we like it. We like it. And next week, we're going to talk about the convention. Yes. All right. We'll see you next week. See you then. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies.

Office Ladies is produced by Earwolf, Jenna Fisher, and Angela Kinsey. Our show is executive produced by Cody Fisher. Our producer is Cassie Jerkins. Our sound engineer is Sam Kiefer. And our associate producer is Ainsley Bubico. Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton. For ad-free versions of Office Ladies, go to stitcherpremium.com. For a free one-month trial of Stitcher Premium, use code OFFICE.