Office Ladies - Gettysburg

Episode Date: July 12, 2023

This week we’re breaking down “Gettysburg”. Andy tries to motivate the staff by taking them on a field trip to Gettysburg Park. Those who stayed behind end up having to present the company’s next big idea to Robert California. Jenna reveals something that unexpectedly happened to Meredith’s van during the shooting of this episode, Angela reads a letter from an actual soldier who fought in the Battle of Gettysburg, and the ladies learn what “DM Does GB” on the pink hats mean. So fake going into labor so you can enjoy this ep!  Letters Writer by Battle of Gettysburg Soldiers: https://www.nysl.nysed.gov/mssc/cwletters/index.html Office Ladies Website - Submit a fan question: https://officeladies.com/submitaquestionFollow Us on Instagram: OfficeLadiesPodCheck out Office Ladies Merch at Podswag: https://www.podswag.com/collections/office-ladies

I'm Jennifer 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 scene stories that only two people who are there can tell you. We're the office ladies. For score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. LITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLITLIT Andy is struggling to inspire his employees. He decides to take them on a corporate retreat to the Gettysburg Museum.

He even has custom hats made. The employees who choose to stay at the office are recruited by Robert California to brainstorm innovative game changers and guess who gets Robert's attention? Kevin! Kevin the Cookie Man. Yeah. Much to Ryan's family. of game changers and guess who gets Robert's attention? Kevin!

Kevin the cookie man. Yeah. Much to Ryan's dismay. I know, he's just going to have to be the hot guy now. Fast fact number one, this is a location breakdown. Fan question from Elise W. Ingette'sburg, Pennsylvania. I love that. Elise says, I have been waiting since the start of this podcast to write in about this episode

because I grew up in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and this little town was absolutely tickled that we were chosen to be featured in this amazing sitcom. I know I can speak for the town when I say we were honored. Elise goes on to say, it is obvious that the scenes located in Gettysburg were not actually filmed there. Oh Elise, I'm so sorry. I would love to hear a location breakdown. I would also love to know if anyone from the Castor crew came to Gettysburg or if you were able to get donations from local businesses or tour our historic town.

Please, ladies, add the Gettysburg National Battlefield to your list of tourists to take. It is a beautiful area with an amazing history and wonderful people that all, including myself, would love to show you around. I'm adding it to our list. Our list is getting really long. It's going to require a lot of travel. But I'm really looking forward to the season of my life where I am just kind of an older gal that gets to like go to fun places of my life where I am just kind of an older gal that gets

to like go to fun places with my best friend. You're literally describing my mom and dad. That is what they do. They travel around to different places in the United States and abroad. Little nuggets. Not the big hits. They go to the little charming places. Yeah, they're always finding some little nuggets somewhere.

Well, at least we shot the Gettysburg scenes at Woodley Park in Van Aes. The museum and archives were sets that we built on our warehouse stages. Our design team did a lot of research to try and make the park look like the real Gettysburg. For example, Pam Punch, who was our NBC executive grew up around Gettysburg and said, hey, Punch, who was our NBC executive grew up around Gettysburg

and said, hey, it looks pretty good. She gave some notes. Our art department brought in the cannons. They brought in the signage and other kind of decorations to look like Gettysburg. And Phil Shea got a bunch of stuff from the actual Gettysburg battlefield national park gift store. Well, I reached out to Michael Gallenberg. You guys have heard us talk about him before. He was our production designer. And I wanted to know if he had any stories about putting this episode together. He emailed me back right away.

And he said, you know, Angela Gettysburg was the end of my tenure on the office. Wow. He said, in fact, it might have been my last official episode. So Michael actually put me in touch with Matt Flynn from the design team, and he had such fun things to share about this episode. Ooh, like what?

OK, first of all, he says greetings to you both, Jen and Angela, and congratulations on your very popular podcast. Yay! So sweet. Yes. Great way to start an email this. And then he went on to say, yes,

indeed, this episode was my first stint as production designer at the office. However, he had been working with Michael Gallenberg as art director since season two. Okay. I remember him. Yeah. He knew the show very well. He shared one of the demands of the script was to provide a ready for this. Here was his call to action. We need you to provide for us a verdant setting which has a parking lot adjacent to a plaza-like area in front of an existing structure where we could then turn it into a Gettysburg Visitor Center. Wow! So Jenna, you mentioned there were cannons, right? Yeah. You said they did a lot of research. They wanted to place them the way they were in the actual park. And they had to rent these cannons from a prop house.

Crazy. Listen to this. He said when they went to rent them, some of the cannons were in a distressed state and they required cosmetic repair. Because the prop house said, you know, these were used and gone with the wind. What? Yes. He went on to say that the Prop. Rental House had a historic inventory. Now, you can't always 100% be accurate about where they were used and everything.

But apparently, the lore of these cannons were that they were the same ones used and the movie gone with the wind. Wow, they kept those a long time. He also said one of the things he remembers is the existing structure that they made to look like the Gettysburg Visitor Center was actually a public restroom. I wondered.

I have to be honest with you. It had restroom qualities. Did it really? Yes. When I saw it in the episode, I thought, is that a bathroom? He said that you know, covered it. And then right as you enter,

they built sort of like a fake wall, but if you went just around the corner, there was a row of toilets. That is so funny, because you know, Angela, you and I weren't there. We stay back at the office. Yeah. So I love all that detail.

I did find in an early draft that we were sent of the table read that my character went. You went? Yeah. What did you do the whole time? I don't know. I'm miserable. Yes, but I guess someone changed their mind

and I'm so glad. Because it meant, A, I got to be with you and I got to be in an air conditioned room for the whole week because it was hot. Well, I loved that. I'm so glad he got back with you. Thank you, Matt. I know. Well, fast back number two, I thought we could use a teeny tiny history lesson on the Battle of

Gettysburg. Okay. That was fought July 1st through 3rd, 1863. You know, just because we're there in the episode. All right, Professor Fisher. Continue. Here it is. The Battle of Gettysburg was led by Union Army General George Mead, and this is the battle that ended the Civil War. The Gettysburg National Cemetery and Gettysburg National Military Park are maintained by the U.S. National Park Service, and four months after this battle is when President Abraham Lincoln delivered the famous Gettysburg address. So you know the one that begins the four score and seven years ago. And that address also contains the famous line quote government of the people by the people for the people.

Gettysburg is located in Adams County, Pennsylvania and it's about two hours and 45 minutes away from Scranton. So they would have had time to watch limitless. Oh, well, I've got a whole lot to say about this time on the bus. I'm glad you're okay. But basically, yes, Andy made everyone spend six hours round trip on that bus that day. Angela, for when we go visit the Gettysburg National Military Park, it is open year round.

And you can tour the park by walking. You can drive your car. They have like audio tours, then you can download on an app. You can do it by bus or horse. Please tell me horse. Yes, yes, lady. We have to do it by horse.

A hundred percent. Oh my gosh. That just moved up higher on my list. Yeah, mm-hmm. If you contour it by horse. Yes, it gets priority billy Yeah, so there you go. That's a little bit about Gettysburg Fastback number three is a crazy Weird thing that Steve Burgess told me happened while we were shooting this episode and you wouldn't tell me you said I'm gonna surprise you on the podcast, so what? I have photos.

What? Meredith's van was struck by lightning. What? In our parking lot. And it caught on fire. No way. Yeah. Just Kate, know that?

I don't know. We have to tell her. Yeah, the photos like a burned out shell of a van. Holy crap. He said they repaired it. I thought it looks like a goner to me, but they repaired it. I mean, it was a pretty junky looking van. So maybe it having a little lightning, distressing, wasn't the worst thing? No, there's like a giant fire hole. Oh my god. And a whole top of the car. In fire holes. Fire holes.

They have a fire hole. I think that's what the, I think that's the technical term for. Come on. Getting it known out. But he said that our crew was actually at the technical Emmys. Remember the technical Emmys? Yeah.

So much fun we have. So the technical Emmys are the weekend before the Emmys. And it's where they give Emmys to all of the crew members, editing, sound design, sort of all of those things. And so our crew was attending the Emmys when they got a phone call that Maris Mann was on fire. That is so crazy. There was so much crap in that van, that they just left in there like set decorating,

but it was like merit as a mess. I mean, what did the fire department think when they came to put that thing out? Oh my gosh. Yep. That is amazing. I will be sharing those pictures. You have to send them to me. I absolutely will.

Well, that's all I got for fast facts. I loved your fast facts. And you know what? Let's take a break, and when we come back, Gabe is holding a real boring meeting in the conference room. We're back, and we're in the conference room. Gabe is leading a meeting. He is outlining Saber's code of conduct and it's super boring. If there's an award for fake yawn acting, I think I should receive it because at 11

seconds I do a real great fake yawn. Wow. Mm-hmm. But yeah, Kelly says, oh my God, kill me. And Andy's like, hey, all right, obviously we all want to die, but we have to get through this. So Gabe, go ahead. It's okay.

This is when Pam says, oh, I'm going into labor, which I guess she's been doing a lot. A lot! To get out of things. So no one believes her. No. They're like, you are not going into labor. But then, oh my gosh, her water breaks. She really is going into labor. And people are like, oh my gosh, okay. Well, I mean, good luck. We love you. And then a water bottle falls out from between her legs.

It's been duct tape to her thigh. Mm-hmm. Yeah, let me tell you about that. Why? Let me tell you how we did this. This was really tricky because I had to, and you can see me start to do it, I had that bottle duct taped to my thigh for real. It was just some leggings, right? And then I had to, like kinda undo the lid to let the water out. How did you do that?

I saw you see me start to do it. I kind of start to reach up and then the puddle. But then I had to also make the water bottle fall on the ground. So there's a cut because then as I'm shuffling out, we had to take the tape off. There was no way to make it fall off. So we kind of took the tape off and then I'm just shuffling with this bottle and like holding it with my thighs until I'm supposed to kind of

let it go onto the ground. Gosh. It was a whole like we spent, we're like, wait, how are we doing this? How is this tape suddenly falling off? I had this to my fake award show. Thank you. Fake yawning and then you get the award for stunt water bottle acting. I would love to see that on a plaque. stunt water bottle acting goes to

fake or the other nominees. Fake yarn goes to. But that was how we did it. You did a great job. I had a lot of questions for Pam. I looked up to do people fake labor to get out of things and turns out people do. I don't doubt it.

I think Pam just did it the most though. The episode is gonna start with Andy Onus phone. He's loudly saying that he cannot believe what he's hearing another client has been stolen. It's like war out there. No one's listening. Yes, he's trying to create a metaphor, such that everyone will go to Gettysburg with him basically.

He holds up a pamphlet, a two minutes and twenty seconds. Phil Sheh made that pamphlet. Well done, Phil Sheh. Yes. But yeah, Andy's trying to rally the troops. What's that saying? Nothing brings people together like a common enemy. Yes.

But Andy's trying to get a buzz going. He is. Dwight is gonna point out, he has a beef. Which is that everybody always talks about Gettysburg. Yeah. But nobody talks about the battle of shrewp farms. Which was actually home of the northernmost Battle of the Civil War. Askers like, no, it wasn't.

We had a fan catch from Melissa D who said, in drug testing in season two, Dwight says that his great grandfather's name was Dwight Shrewd. So considering the timeline, wouldn't this have been the Battle of Shrewd Farms? Yes! That is such a good catch. I love that. Oh, I wish you would have said that. There would have been such a cool callback. Yeah. We also had a fan question from Roar in Oxford, UK, who said, did you know there is a song that was released in 2018 called Battle of Shrewd Farms? It is by Lost in the City. There a banned from Kansas City, Missouri, led by songwriter and vocalist Shane Radford

with Cullen Wiley, Dustin Proctor and Kyle Constant. I found the song. There don't seem to be any lyrics that specifically say Battle of Shrute Farms. But that is the title of the song. I thought we could hear it. Okay let's do it! I'm It's a pretty good song. I have to say Dwight would have loved to rock out to that song. I think if you're making an office playlist, this would be a pretty cool addition. Rock and roll baby. Maybe kind of like super in the know. Well, here is a breakdown of who's going to go with Andy.

Oscar Dwight, Phyllis Aaron Stanley, and Jim. I was very surprised that Jim would be going. Well, so is Becca S from Rochester, Minnesota, who says why would Jim go to Gettysburg, a trip that is two and a half hours away, and leave Pam when she is nine months pregnant? Yeah, what's going on? I did find a deleted scene where Jim has a talking head about going to Gettysburg.

Okay. I wanted us to hear it because once again, it's a window into Jim's childhood and pranking. I'm excited. I've actually never been to Gettysburg. My family was going to go once, but then my brothers convinced me that it was full of dead soldiers zombies. So I freaked out and we turned the car around. But I'm older now. I can outrun a zombie. Okay.

But you know, I'm always like, why does Jim prank so much? Why does he prank so much? Look at his brothers. Yeah. Well, when we met his brothers, right? Yes. You're right. Jim's pranking origin story explained again. Once again. Yeah. Well, as the group is getting on to the bus, Andy's going to give all of them very

neon pink hats that read DM goes to G B. Yeah. And once they're on the bus, they have a big discussion about what they're going to do on the way there and they decide to watch Limitless. This is Darryl's suggestion, he brought it. Yeah. Guess what I did. What? I watched Limitless. Guess what I did. What? I watched every trailer I could find on Limitless,

so without watching the movie. But this was back in the day where a trailer basically says the whole movie and I watched like eight trailers. Jenna, I feel like I have a good handle on the movie. Well, I loved it. It's Bradley Cooper. Yeah, it's so good. You know, I have to ice my broken shoulder a lot in a day.

And so what I've started doing is putting on a movie and icing and then I watch it throughout a whole day. That's how I watched Limitless. It's great. I wrote a note here. I said, now I wish I'd seen the whole movie should this be on our office ladies movie list. I think it should.

Bradley Cooper plays it down and outwriter, and he gets this bootleg experimental drug from his ex brother-in-law or something. And then it makes it so that his brain is super clear, that idea that you only use 5% of your brain power. Now he has 100% 100% and then you see what he does with it. It got a 69% on run tomatoes, but it's only an hour and 45 minutes.

So they are still gonna have an hour to kill on this trip. So when they get to Gettysburg and they're all still watching the movie, eh eh. No, it doesn't track. Back in the office, it really feels like a vacation day. Meredith is napping with her, skirt open with her hand on it, I don't know.

Like, yes, at five minutes and 17 seconds, she has a neck pillow, all of that. I wanted to know if that was scripted. Was it? It was. All of the business that we open on was scripted, and here's what it says. Stanley is playing cards with Kathy. Ryan sits at reception and Kelly sits on his lap, surfing the net.

Meredith sleeps with a neck pillow that says Southwest Airlines. Her skirt fly is unbuttoned like a man's pants. Kevin is looking over Pam's shoulder at a William Sonoma catalog. They are both very excited about whatever it is they're looking at. Angela makes copies and shoots dirty looks at people. That tracks. Yes. So now Robert California is going to walk in on this scene.

Yeah. And he is surprised to see that number one, not everyone is there. And number two, it seems like no one is working. Yeah. That's when Kelly is gonna tell him that Andy took some of the employees on a corporate retreat to Gettysburg. And Robert California says, well, you know, he was hoping to discuss some ideas with Andy, but maybe it's even better to discuss them with this group because they're the free thinkers. They didn't go.

Yes, they're the people who stayed. So he says, I want you all to brainstorm innovative game changers. Yeah, don't be afraid to get a little weird with it. And then he yells to wake up Meredith before he leaves. However, I want to tell you something I caught. What? Meredith wakes up twice. However, I want to tell you something I caught. What? Meredith wakes up twice. Oh really? She wakes up at four minutes and 38 seconds when Robert California walks in and then she wakes up again at five minutes and 27 seconds when he yells her name.

Well, Robert's call to action is gonna really get Kevin's brain going. We see him, he has a marker duct tape to a stapler. Yes, it's his stapler marker. But it doesn't go well. He ends up crossing it off his list of ideas. Well, that list is real special. We had a fan question from Macie T. In Alberta, who said, Kevin's list cracks me up. Does number three say marker phone and how is that different from phone marker which is number four? And what on earth could human lady mean? Please tell me you have more information. Well I looked it up in the script and here's what it said. It said his ideas were stapler phone, marker phone, phone marker, stairs man, and human lady cheese.

Yeah, because you can see the sea, but you don't know what it stands for. Yes, Macy thought maybe it's chair, a human lady that's also a chair. Apparently it's a combination of a human lady and cheese is what he's thinking. And how does that help you sell paper? I don't know, but when I think of a human lady and cheese,

I do think of you, Ange. Really? Well, you love cheese and you're a human lady. I am. So yeah. That is a combo that works for you. And you know what? Josh is kind of a stairsman.

He loves a good watch house. He does, Cliff. I guess as a couple, we're a repersented on this list. Congratulations. Thank you. Human Lady cheese and stairsman should have been part of our wedding. If Kevin would have written our wedding vows, oh my gosh, because you imagine.

I cannot. Well, Andy is gosh, because you imagine I cannot. Well, Andy is super excited because the bus has arrived at Gettysburg. As you said, everyone's still watching the movie, which doesn't track. And Darryl wants them to know that he has source code for the ride back. I watched source code. I was going to say, did you watch source code? I did. I did not.

Guess what? What? That one's only 90 minutes long. Uh-oh. It's even shorter. It has? That one's only 90 minutes long. Uh-oh. It's even shorter. It has a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, and I'm gonna say, Darryl has great taste in movies.

I really liked this. This movie opens like in the middle of the movie, which is so fun. That's cool. Jake Gyllenhaal wakes up on a train. Okay. Doesn't know who he is. Eight minutes later, the train blows up.

Ah! And then all of a sudden, he is like in this little like military pod thing and that woman comes on the screen and she's like, focus, focus. What did you see on the train? What did you see? I'm sending you back in. You have to figure out who's the bomb or on the train. We need to know because he's gonna bomb something else next

Sending him back in what is he as he's toggling through time? He's like going into the body of one of the train passengers What and then he has eight minutes to figure out who the bomber is and that's the movie and you have a problem with game of thrones What do you mean? You're like, I don't want to learn dragon names in blah, blah. So different. These are two totally different kinds of movies. How do you go into a human body? And like, how do you, what are these rules of physics? I'm having to learn to make this movie. Listen, I guess I love fantasy physics. I guess you do. Sass from you. My gosh. Hello.

Speaking of Sass, Macy T and Alberta has maybe some mini Sass. Let's hear it, Macy. Macy says it has always bothered me that when they arrive at Gettysburg, it looks like it's evening. There are long shadows and the orange sunlight hitting the side of their faces and the bus. But then when they get off the bus, it looks like normal daytime.

Was the arrival filmed in the evening and how many days did it take to film all the Gettysburg parts? Macy is paying attention. That's for sure. Well, according to Steve Burgess, we shot two days at Woodley Park and Steve said, unfortunately, sometimes we had to shoot out of order. And so the shadows do not match. And he said that this made Matt's own crazy, but we didn't have any choice.

This is how we had to do it. May see Matt's own would have talked your ear off about this. That's right. I thought that was a really good catch. I do too. I do too. Well, as the group is approaching the visitor center, Andy blocks them because he's like, hey, we're not tourists.

We are going to do the Andy Bernard tour. Oh, no. Yeah. Yeah. Well, when Andy starts his tour, Dwight is in the background and he is kind of schooling Aaron on the Battle of Shrute Farms, which he again says the history books have ignored. Right. You should see some of these letters says the history books have ignored. Right. You should see some of these letters that the soldiers wrote about their time there.

And once again, it is the northernmost battle of the Civil War. Well, you know, when Dwight was telling Aaron, she should read some of the letters from the soldiers. This made me think about a time where I was in a museum and they would have letters from long ago displayed in glass cases And you could read like what people were doing at the time So I looked online and the New York State Library in Commemoration of the 150th anniversary of two major civil war battles including Gettysburg and Vicksburg

Digitized some of the letters from the soldiers and put them on their website. Oh wow! Yeah, so you don't have to go to a museum to see some of these. You can go on their website. I'll put it in stories. I found them very fascinating. I want to read one. Okay. This is from Calvin A. Haynes, who served as a sergeant in the 125th New York Infantry. He was raised in Troy, New York, and he has written a letter to his wife about the Battle of Gettysburg. July 19th, 1863. Dear wife.

Sorry. It's wait for the first line. Not having heard from you in a great while, I did not know, but what you would like to hear, whether I am dead or alive. Oh, no, something is happening in the smear. I know, very clear. Just the beginning, opening, beginning, made me think of that SNL sketch. Dear Lydia, where he's writing to. Oh my gosh, it's so good.

Okay. Anyway, Calvin goes on to say, I am enjoying good health at present. We have had an awful march in a terrible battle. A great many of our boys were killed or wounded, but I escaped without a scratch. It is a miracle that we were not all killed or wounded. We were in the thickest of the fight, making a charge on the ribs.

A half a mile through a fire of grape and canister. Our regiment lost a hundred men in ten minutes. Our company lost eight and fourteen were wounded. Stephen Hunt was wounded in the hip. I have not seen him since he fell. Stephen was a good soldier full of his fun and we miss him. This has been the hardest campaign the Army of the Potomac ever had. The second in the afternoon was the Army of the Potomac ever had. The second in the afternoon was the bloodiest part of the battle. At 2pm they opened on us with over a hundred cannon. We lay flat on our faces for two hours. The air was filled with shell bursting in every direction. The battery that lay in front of us had 55 horses

and 80 men killed. That night and the next day, the rebels retreated, leaving their dead and wounded on the field. I went over the field, such a sight I never wish to see again. Every conceivable wound that can be thought of was there. There were so many wounded that it was impossible to attend to all of them. Some of them lay 48 hours in drenching rain. It is beyond the power of me to describe a battlefield. Wow. Isn't that powerful? I mean, wow. Yeah.

There are more letters. And a common theme in all the letters is what a horrible, horrible battle. There were so many losses that on the Gettysburg field. Thank you for reading that letter, Angela. You now, I am reading the graphic novel of the Diary of Anne Frank. And these letters and diaries of people recounting their experiences during these times of war, I think it is so important for us to read and know these things. Thank you for reading that letter.

Yes, and I mean, you know, that was written July 19th of 1863. I really hope wife wrote back. I do too, because I mean, my gosh. I hope wife received the letter and they were able to find each other and all of that madness. Well, lady, on that note, I think we should take a break. And when we come back, we're going to hear from all of Robert California's free thinkers in the conference room. They are really bringing their A-game of ideas sort of. All right, we are back and Ryan is gonna go first. He's got a presentation for Robert and you know what it is? Raw fish. Lady, we laughed so hard at raw fish.

We could not pull it back. There was the way he said it. I wanted a solicitor to it. I saw Mindy break. I saw her break. She has the, like, she has the silliest smile in her face through his whole presentation. You know when we talked about Mike Tibbitts, is like a trigger? Raw fish. Raw fish. The disgusting food from Japan that Americans would never want to eat. Now, we can't get enough of it. From movie stars to construction workers, sushi is what's for dinner.

Ah, lady, I videotaped this speech and I sent it to BJ because I was like, do you remember this BJ, raw fish? Also, it's like Ryan thinks he's one of those voice actors that does the trailers for movies like in a world where there's raw fish. Yes. Well, Ryan's idea is that he wants to make origami the sushi of paper. Yeah. He thinks that it could sweep the nation in the same way that sushi did. I was so tickled by all of Robert California's responses. Yes.

The way he shoots someone's idea down is so hilarious. And this is what he said. I recorded them. This is what he says to Ryan. This idea hasn't gripped me. What else did you come up with? Well, I had to memorize the presentation, Robert, and it took a long time to build the swan, so that was bad.

That was very much to the point. So now Stanley's gonna present his idea. It's called paper, P-A-P-Y-R. It's pink, scented, and silky soft. It's paper for women. Yeah. Now you can watch the game and she can write a letter to her sister. This is what Robert said to that pitch.

The situation you described returning home to a wife complaining about her paper being too masculine is not one of it for a million. The situation you described. Oh my gosh. that cracked me up. Finally, Pam is going to get up. She starts speaking and then she says, you know what, I'm already not feeling it. Yeah. She wanted to put little coupons at the back of a test booklet, you know, like when you're

in school and then she's like, you know, unless you're responding to it, he goes, I am not. Yeah, exactly. The person who's gonna get Robert's attention is Kevin. Yeah. He starts talking about cookie placement in the vending machine. Yeah. Robert isn't intrigued.

He translates what Kevin has said into being, Oh, I have it. Oh, please. Yeah. So basically, Kevin's like, why put a cookie that you really want people to eat in A1? When your eyes naturally go to D4? Yeah.

And Robert's like, huh, cookie placement. Who else agrees with Kevin that we're wasting facilities, manpower, on our own, underselling products when we should be pushing our top performers? Hmm. Everyone raises their hand and they're all collectively like, what the hell just happened. Kevin continues. He says another thing about oatmeal cookies. Who even wants them? I mean, I've seen Toby eat like one once, but other than that, Robert says interesting. So what is Dunder Mifflin's oatmeal cookie? What is the product that no one wants? Stanley chimes in. How about that two-hole punch letter? Only the lawyers want that punch at

the top and they use legal. Robert goes, that's the oatmeal cookie. Fantastic, Kevin. Fantastic! This runner would have continued. There was one in deleted scenes, and I want you to hear it. The problem is the hedge fund is essentially a coward's game. You're hedging your bets. I suppose you see right through the numbers. Sometimes I wish I'd taken your road, Govin. Just taken a few years to just live in the numbers. Yeah. I do the numbers.

Oh boy. Oh boy. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, share some information with the group, but Dwight continues to go on about this battle of shrewt farms. And that is when a young girl is going to mistake Gabe for Lincoln. Lady, this was such a bigger runner in the deleted scenes. Multiple times kids are stopping him along the way. That's great. It finally culminates to this person asking for a photo, but people are like looking at him and pointing in whispering for the whole day.

I looked it up to see if Zach Woods had ever played Lincoln before. And according to his IMDB, I couldn't find anything. I thought, oh, maybe on drunk history. Yeah. Or I don't know some other parody somewhere. No, we were the ones who capitalized on his Lincoln look alike ability. I know we really wanted to ask Zach about this. Well, let's add that to the list of things we

want to ask Zach. We had a fan question from Eli E and Denver, Colorado, who said how much of Gabe's speech as Lincoln was scripted. Well, Eli, it was all scripted, but it was massively reordered. Originally, the bulk of his speech was the tag at the end of the episode, but we reordered a lot of this episode in editing. Scenes got moved around, and because of this, you're going to see, for example, at 13 minutes and 29 seconds, Gabe is standing by a tree with the rest of the group while he's simultaneously giving a speech as Lincoln.

So I guess in answer to your question, it was all scripted. At this point, Andy is going to try to get people to go on a very long walk to Spangler Spring, but people are hungry. You know, they're not really up for it. They're tired. I looked up Spangler Spring and it's a pretty cool part of the park. You know, they could do worse than to follow Andy there. He should have had food with him.

He locked all the food and everything back in the bus. Yeah. Oscar has located an archivist for the Gettysburg Museum. And it turns out this fella knows a little something about troop farms. Yes, he has heard of it. The archivist was played by Weston Nathanson. You might also recognize him from the Mindy Project, Law and Order, Boston Legal with James Bader, and most recently Superstore. He's going to put in a documentary video that explains what really happened at Shrute Farms. There was no battle.

No. It was a refuge for artists, for dandies and dreamers. Yeah. They put on plays and they sang tender ballads. They danced in the moonlight. It was basically an underground railroad for the fabulous. Oscar agrees there should have been a monument to this. We got a lot of mail about this documentary from Brandon R. and Illinois and Jessica N. and Rochester, New York.

Can you please tell us how all the wonderful photos were made for the Battle of Shrute Farms mini documentary? I must know who played all of the artistic and sensitive members of the group. Were they crew members? These little details make me so happy. Well, I spied Matt's own. Mm-hmm. And one of our writers, Steve Healy. Yes. So, Matt's own is in the center of that big photo.

And Steve Healy is on the right playing the flute. Mm-hmm. He's also in shirtless. Yeah, and I was going to say, pumping his muscles in that picture. He's the one shirtless. Yeah, I was gonna say pumping his muscles down that picture. He's the one on the left. But the rest of the people were background actors. We took all of these photos on a green screen

over on our warehouse set. And Steve Burgess said, this was a major production. You know, Jenny O'Keefe, who was our second ID, she wrote out a 10-page document breakdown that detailed every shot, every photo that had to be taken. There was a special wardrobe fitting and hair and makeup tests with all of the people in the photos. Her documents said, quote, LeVernin Kim will add or take away hair as needed. Add or take away hair as needed. Add or take away.

So, you know, if hair had to be added, that would be LeVern and makeup. But if it had to be taken away, like a shaver, a haircut, that would be Kim. But we also brought in two additional makeup artists in order to get everybody ready. The last photo they took was the one with Matt Sone, and this was noted in Jenny's document because he was directing in the other photos. So we were gonna try to take as many photos as possible and throw him in at the end. Matt had also grown a very extensive beard.

Yes, which probably made him perfect for Civil War error photography. Yes. Also, our writer Owen Ellison is the narrator of this film, and Dave Rogers is the voice of Melvin Fyfergeris. I heard him right away. Me too.

Listen, one of the things I wanted to point out earlier, and I just didn't get it in. That's what she said. This is a very ridiculous, probably background catch, but I could not unsee it once I had seen it. Back at the beginning of the episode, Dwight has a talking head, and I'm telling you, Rain had clearly just had a haircut. And talking about all of these haircuts, yeah, it made me think of it.

If you start the episode at two minutes, 53 seconds, he has the shortest little bangs in his little zipper part. They don't even make it like just a few little inches on his forehead. Wow. Yeah. Someone had a haircut. Well, someone wrote in and said that they thought rain looked really fit in this episode.

Oh. And moving forward, he continues to look very fit. I wonder if the haircut and the fitness were for a role. Oh, moving forward, he continues to look very fit. I wonder if the haircut and the fitness were for a role. Oh, yeah. Maybe so. I'm going to look it up for next week. Yeah. Robert and Kevin are spending more time together.

We're in the break room. And Kevin is telling Robert you can never trust a cookie with a woman's name. Lorna Dune, Madeline, Pacon Sandy, or Pican Sandy depending on where you live. They'll just break your heart. Ryan has had it, you guys. He has had it with Kevin being sort of like the genius of the office. He's going to set him up. He comes in the break room and he's like, hey, I want to pitch one of my ideas. It's called the Big Mac idea. And Kevin is instantly annoyed. He's like, no, no, no, that's my idea and you know it. The Big Mac idea is so disgusting.

It's so gross. Basically, here's the Big Mac idea, which Kevin proudly says to Robert and Robert starts to see the writing on the wall here. Kevin says you get a Big Mac and each day, you get one every day for like a week. And each day you take out one ingredient. You set it aside. Yeah. And by the end of the week, you have a bonus Big Mac that you can reassemble. Yeah.

I mean, is he scraping the cheese? I don't know. Off of these pickles. So I don't know. Disgusting. Also, what about the day where he eats the Big Mac with no bun? Well, people do that. Disgusting. Also, what about the day where he eats the big mac with no bun? Well, people do that.

Yeah. Yeah. But Kevin, but anyway, Robert just looks at him and goes, it was really just about the cookie all along, wasn't it? Yeah. Yeah. It turns out that Darryl and Jim did follow Andy. No one else came, though. everyone else is back at the bus.

I don't think they so much followed him as one of them to know that people are done, they're tired, they can't get in the bus, they can't get their food. Yeah. And, you know, Jim is being a little bit of a wiseass and Andy calls him out on it. Mm-hmm. I think in the biggest way that anyone has ever called him out on the show,

and I think we should hear it. Okay. Yeah, sorry everybody else didn't come. I think they're just tired with holes in their shoes and they have dysentery. Even without an audience, you're just still at it. What are you talking about? Our office has a disease, and it goes by many names. Sarc has them. Snark. Wise cracks. You take things that people care about

and you make them feel lame about it with your jokes. That's what you did with this trip. I mean, he called it out, didn't he? I have so many things I'm not saying. Oh no, Angela, I have thought for a long time that Jim has changed a little bit. And I don't like the Jim snark. He used to be an underdog that you were rooting for.

Yeah. And now he's too cool for school. A little bit, you know? And it's a little bit of like a superiority thing. And it's this subtle shift that I have not loved in the character I have to say. For season eight. It kind of starting in season seven into season eight. And it's almost like when he gets the girl. And then Pam participates in it sometimes too. And it's an aspect of them. And they're journey that I have not loved. Super love.

The two cool for school journey. Yeah. Well, I thought Andy really called him out and was so honest. Yes. You know? And Jim's response is, you know, he doesn't apologize. Yeah. But he does say, you know what?

You're parallel between war and business. It just doesn't really hold up. This is a simple paper company, and you're the manager, and people like you, and you don't need to prove yourself. So he's saying some nice things. Yeah. And he says, look, I'm even wearing a very pink hat that I think says something sexual on it, maybe.

And I'm doing that for you. I'm wearing this ridiculous hat. I went on this adventure for you. And that really means something to Andy. And Daryl's like, yeah, man, I hate myself for wearing this hat, but I'm here with you. So I feel like Jim tried to give him a pep talk. He didn't really own his Ysass. That's right. And I did, unfortunately, look up what DM does GB means. So I know now. What does it mean? Well, what? Jim was that wrong. What?

According to Urban Dictionary, it means dirty milk does gangbang. I'm telling you my story. I thought that that was just like Jim being like, I mean, it feels like it could be something dirty. I didn't know. Well, that's what I found in Urban Dictionary. So sorry for that guys, but that's what they were walking around the whole day with on their heads. Well, that makes a second viewing of that

episode. Have a new filter. We had a fan catch from Sabrina S and Queen's New York who said, you know, in this episode, they're outside and a number of times people talk about how really hot it is. But how can this be? This episode is two episodes before the Christmas episode, which means it's more like early to mid-December. Wouldn't it be freezing in Pennsylvania? Serena, this is such a good catch. I was very curious too. And remember how I said I found an early draft, like a table redraft, where Angela goes with them? Yeah. Also in that same script, it said, they toured the cemetery and it's getting extremely cold.

Well, Garden Party, which was a few episodes ago, they're all complaining about how cold it is. Yes. There's a heat wave in December, I guess. But there was a whole storyline that the weather would be an obstacle for this Gettysburg tour. I guess when we got there and it was hot, the sun was just right up in the sky. There you go.

This episode does end with Gabe finishing his performance as Abe Lincoln. We had a fan catch from Rachel G in Pennsylvania who says, I don't even know if anyone else has mentioned this, but there's a connection between Gabe's speech and Michael's talking head in season two, Casino Knight. Michael says that the Lincoln assassination recently became funny again, and he makes the joke, I need to see this play like I need a hole in the head. And in this episode, he says, I need her, meaning Mary, like I need a hole in the head. And in this episode, he says, I need her, meaning Mary, like I need a hole in the head. Was this an intentional call back to Michael Scott or coincidence that

the writers made the same joke twice? Rachel, I'm going with coincidence, but I love love when people find these connections to earlier episodes because people know the show so well. They know the show so well, but I do think there's something to group mind. Sometimes when there's shared information in a room, it comes back around. It sure does. Well, there you have it, everybody. Getty's Burke. Yeah. I really wish we knew more of Daryl's movie choices because he has very good taste in films. Geno's a big fan of Daryl's movie choices.

I'd like to say I also recently watched The Inside Man, which stars Clive Owen and Denzel Washington and Jody Foster, and it was excellent, and I think it would be on Daryl's list. I haven't seen any of these movies. Well, you're not icing your broken shoulder all the time. I have a list for the summer, I guess. Well, big thanks to Steve Burgess and Matt Flynn

for all of your great insider info. And Michael Gallenberg for helping me find information once again, he's always so sweet. And you guys, for sending in your questions and comments, you're just the best. We'll see you next week. Bye. See you next week! Bye! Thank you for listening to Office Ladies! Office Ladies is produced by Earwulf, Jennifer Fisher, and Angela Kinsey.

Our senior producer is Cassie Jerkins. Our in-studio engineer is Sam Keifer. Our editing and mixing engineer is Jordan Duffy, and our associate producer is Ainsley Bubbaco. Our theme song is rubber tree by Creed Bratton. For at free versions of Office Ladies, go to stitur premium dot com. For a free one month trial of stitur premium use code office. you