Office Ladies - Happy Hour

Episode Date: June 20, 2022

This week we’re breaking down “Happy Hour.” Oscar wants to spend more time with Matt from the warehouse, so he puts together a Dunder Mifflin Happy Hour at Sid & Dexter’s. Pam tries to sneakily introduce Michael to her single friend but when he finds out, “Date Mike” appears. Meanwhile, Dwight attempts to break his childbearing contract with Angela when he reconnects with Isabel. “The Office” cinematographer, Matt Sohn, sends in clips on what it was like to direct this episode including shooting most of the episode outside of the typical office location, Jenna gives a deep dive on the origin of Happy Hour and Angela points out one of Angela Martin’s most famous memes. We know you’ll enjoy this episode because “Hi. I’m Happy Hour. Nice to meet me. How do you like your eggs in the morning?” 

I'm Jenna Fisher and I'm Angela Kinsey. We were on The Office together and we're best friends. And now we're doing the Ultimate Office rewatch podcast just for you. Each week we will break down an episode of The Office and give exclusive behind-the-scenes stories that only two people who were there can tell you. We're The Office, ladies. Hello, everybody, it's a Monday. We are slipping into your feed early this week because after this, we are going to go

on a vacay. Vacation. My birthday's coming up. It's summer. We're going to go spend some time with our families. That's right. We'll be back on July 13th with Secretary's Day with special guest Ellie Kemper. Oh, it's so fun.

But today, we're going to talk to you all about happy hour. It is Season 6, Episode 21, written by BJ Novak, directed by Matt Zone. Would you like a summery? Boy, would I. Oscar organizes a happy hour for everyone in The Office as an excuse to spend time with Matt from the warehouse. Pam invites a friend to the bar as a kind of setup for Michael because what is she thinking? Pam, Pam, Pam, Pam.

But the setup is foiled by Michael's alter ego, Date Mike. Meanwhile, Andy and Erin are trying to keep their dating life a secret to avoid any drama that might come from openly dating a fellow co-worker, but in the end, Andy has a pretty fantastic grand announcement. He does. And one thing to add to your summary, Angela's going to debut some bright red lipstick. I noticed that, and I was hoping you were going to talk about it. Oh, I will.

Fast fact number one, this episode was directed by our camera operator Matt Zone. This was the first episode of The Office that he directed. He's directed many more. We've talked about him a lot, yes, because he's an amazing, awesome person. We were so excited for him to direct. Yeah, well, he said we were very supportive, but he also said we gave him a little shit throughout the week. Well, it's because we had all become such close friends.

It's true. So we messed with him a little bit, but it was like the way you tease someone you love. Well, as you can tell, I reached out to Matt. He shared some of his memories of directing, but he also gave us some shit because we've not had him on the podcast. Oh, he threw us some shade. I want to point out my memory is that Rain gave him the most shit. On set?

Yeah. You might be right. Mm-hmm. I mean, that tracks. Right. I told Matt I was kind of shocked that he hasn't been on the podcast because I feel like we talk about him all the time. I mean, he's the one who gets all of the background glances and everything.

He's the reason half of accounting stuff makes it in. Well, here's what Matt had to say. He said that Randall Einhorn was the cinematographer for this episode, and that made everything a lot easier because he and Randall both operated the cameras for years. They had worked together a long, long time. He said he had the advantage of knowing the material very well, knowing the world very well. He felt like he had everyone's trust, so he didn't have to do a lot of catch up or make

any introductions. And then he also sent in this audio clip about what it meant to him to get to direct this episode. I was a camera operator on the show since season one, and was very fortunate that Greg Daniels gave me the opportunity to direct my first episode of television. You know, Randall Einhorn, Dave Rogers, Dean Holland, Claire Scanlon were all crew members who also got this opportunity, and all of us are full-time directors today because of Greg Daniels.

His kindness and generosity to let us get these opportunities, you know, led to my career plus many other careers. Well, that is so true, and we've talked about that many times, about how Greg was such a great creative collaborator and opened the doors for so many people. Yeah. All right, are you ready for Fastback number two? I guess so. All right.

Moving on really quickly. Well, I have a fan question from Charlie B. and Tacoma, Washington. Were the scenes at Sid and Dexter's, which is where we go for happy hour, actually filmed at a Dave and Buster's? The answer is, sort of. It was a former Dave and Buster's that is now called Gillian's. It was at Universal CityWalk. Do people know what Universal CityWalk is?

Well, you know, we have Universal Studios, and they actually have sound stages where people are filming regularly, different TV shows, movies, but then in the back of the studio, you have a whole theme park, like up on this hilltop above it, and there's all the rides and like everything. Yeah, and then the Universal CityWalk is kind of like this big outdoor mall that's filled with restaurants and a movie theater and Gillian's. At Gillian's, they had all those games, all the arcade games and pool tables, but there were two games that we had to bring in because they were specified in the script and they

were not actually at the location. Which ones? Wait, wait, wait. I'm going to guess. I'm going to guess the dance thing. Yes. Okay. The basketball hoop thing?

Nope, that was there. It figures prominently in a plot that you are involved in, Angela. Oh, whack-a-mole. Whack-a-mole. That's right. That was info thanks to Randy Cordray. And then I also asked Matt about shooting at this location because I was like, Matt, you finally get to direct an episode and it's not at Dunder Mifflin.

The majority of it happens at this location that we've never gone to ever and you know the wheels come off whenever we go on location. Oh, we don't travel well. Here is what Matt had to say about shooting on location. You know, one of the biggest challenges for this episode was that it was almost entirely shot on location. Charles McDougal, another one of the directors from the office, gave me a great piece of advice. He told me to go to the location and to just sit and watch, to understand where people

hang out, you know, where the waiters and waitresses travel and how people naturally work and play in that environment. So the weekend before we started shooting, I spent several hours at the Dave and Buster's at Universal City Walk, where we were shooting the episode. And you know, I just sat and watched. So I understood how to make the place feel as natural and real as possible when we were shooting the episode there. I thought it was super helpful and worked really great in the episode.

That's amazing advice. So smart. Incredible. Way to go, Charles McDougal. Yeah. Action! Action! I want to point out one thing.

There is a DVD commentary for this episode. It has Matt Stone, Brian, Oscar, BJ, and myself. And Matt talked about shooting at Universal Studios and that it was unique for us because we had never shot anything there on the actual Universal property, even though we were an NBC Universal show. Yeah. Yeah. You know, the names didn't dexters.

The reason we called it that. There's a special reason. Matt sent in an audio clip about that, too. On a fun side note, the Dave and Buster's was renamed Sid and Dexter's after my kids. It was a pitch that I had made to the writers that they seemed to like. I'm not sure the name actually made it into the show, but I have a Sid and Dexter's sign hanging up in my office from the episode. I enjoy getting to see that.

It makes me laugh. It definitely made it in the show. There are signs all throughout the bar. I took screen grabs that say Sid and Dexter's, which, you know, is his children, Sid and Dexter. Mm-hmm. But Matt, it's in. Oh, it's very in.

I don't think any characters say the name of the place. No, but it's just there in the background. It's all over. Yeah. It's on some of the games and it's on a little window as you walk in past the bouncer. Are you ready for fast fact number three? Yes. With that, I have something from my digital clutter.

Oh. So you're going to get to play your sting. I realized I need a sting for fast fact number three because I was a lady who Googled. Oh, we need a lady who Googles sting. We really do. It's new technology. Guess what I Googled. Wait, wait.

Let me think. The episode is called Happy Hour. There are games. You could have Googled all those games, who makes those games, bars. You're overthinking it. I Googled Happy Hour. I just, I get it simple. Guess what?

What? Happy Hour is a marketing term that refers to a time of day when a restaurant or bar offers reduced prices for alcoholic beverages. It is also common to find discounted appetizer and food items. However, according to Wikipedia, not everyone is happy about Happy Hour. Ooh. Did you know Happy Hour has been illegal in the Republic of Ireland since 2003 under the Intoxicating Liquor Act?

Oh. No Happy Hours in Ireland. Maybe people hit it too hard. For sure. In 2004, Glasgow banned Happy Hours to reduce binge drinking. Then in 2008, the province of Alberta created restrictions to Happy Hour, saying that all Happy Hour promotions had to end by 8 p.m. And then drink prices had to go back to, I guess there's something called the Alberta

Gaming and Liquor Commission's minimum price regulations. Put that on a label. Yeah. Like you have to charge a certain amount for alcohol. But then in 2016, they removed the restriction. So now everybody in the province of Alberta can have Happy Hour anytime. In the United States, Massachusetts was the first U.S. state to ban Happy Hour in 1984. In 2011, Utah passed a ban on Happy Hours.

In June 2012, Happy Hour became legal in Kansas after a 26-year ban. And in July 2015, Illinois lifted their 25-year ban on Happy Hours. But as of July 2015, Happy Hour is still banned in Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Utah, and Vermont. The laws were created to help stop over-serving and drunk driving. And a lot of places still have restrictions on Happy Hours. For example, in Illinois, you cannot offer a two-for-one drink special. You cannot give away drinks as a prize for a trivia night, and bars cannot host drinking

games. So you can have a Happy Hour, but there are rules. There are apparently no rules for Happy Hour in Pennsylvania, and so we could go to Happy Hour. So this tracks. It tracks. Yeah. Seeing as it's a Monday, and we're about to go on vacation, and we are allowed to have

a Happy Hour, and this is the Happy Hour episode, I thought we should have an adult beverage. What? I love these episodes. I brought a mini bottle of sparkling rosé. Happy vacation, lady. I have two glasses. I have to open this.

It's Happy Hour. How can we not have something? Oh my goodness. Well, thank you so much. You're welcome. I hope you had a hearty breakfast. I actually did. I had a gluten-free bagel from Trader Joe's, and eggs and berries.

Oh. I've had two bites of a banana, so this will get interesting. Okay. I'm opening the sparkling champagne. Cover your eyes. Oh gosh. Oh, that's really on there. Woo!

Oh. And Sam brought cups. Well, Happy, Happy Hour to us. Happy summer. And cheers. We'll be right back after this break. We are back, you guys. And before we break down this cold open, Jenna, would you like to know what you were doing

this week? The episode was filmed? Okay. I think it's time for Angela's Digital Clutton. I went digging into my emails. We filmed this in February, 2010. The shooting draft was dated February 22nd. On February 24th, you emailed me and said, Angela, we have next Friday off.

I looked ahead at the schedule. So like you. Did you go with me to look at wedding dresses? And you sent me a bunch of photos. You'd already been looking a little bit, but there was one other place you wanted to go. And we did go together. And I took a bunch of photos of you trying on dresses that I then emailed to you. And one of them is the one you picked and you wore on your wedding day.

Oh my gosh. I love that. You have to send me these pictures. Okay, I purposely got them all ready to show you, but I will send them to you as well. So I remember for a short time while trying on wedding dresses, and this is reminding me of my obsession with trying to put a flower on my lapel for a book tour. I really wanted to wear a fascinator. The things that, you know, the British royal family wear, the things that are like, they're

not really a hat. They just sort of pin to your head and they have like a big plume of a feather. And they're kind of like a floofy floofy, yes. Or maybe they have like a, you know, like a netting that goes over the eyes. Yes. You were really into that. And then you were also very into a sash. You decided you needed a dress with a sash.

Oh my gosh. You're bringing the sash back, lady. Look at this. I have so many more. Oh my gosh. Yes. Well, that is what I wore. I know.

That is my dress. There were lots of photos. We might have to post a few if you're okay with it. Yes, that's very fun. Okay. I like it. I love what was happening the week this episode was filmed. I love it.

Well, in this cold open, what is happening is, well, what's going to eventually happen is a push-up contest. Michael sets a new record, 25 push-ups and one girl push-up. And then he challenges everyone to do better than he can and the prizes you get to go home. So at first when he floats this idea out, people are ignoring him. But when he says the prizes you get to go home, people drop to the ground. Great question from Leah J and New Albany, Indiana. Angela, I have to know.

Did the script tell you to do your push-ups with your legs crossed? I almost spit out my drink when I caught it. It's exactly how I would think Angela Martin would think it is appropriate for a lady to do push-ups, but I didn't recognize that until I saw the scene. It was just a brilliant detail and I love it. Angela, was it a choice or is that just how you do push-ups? It was a choice. It was not in the script.

They didn't tell me how to do a push-up, just that my tush had to be a little higher so that Michael is like, you're disqualified, you know? So I was wearing a skirt. I'm Angela Martin. I was like, I bet Angela Martin would try to be dainty even if she did these push-ups. And so I just made the choice to cross my legs. Amazing. Thank you.

It's an example of how well we knew our characters. I love that. Well, thank you, Leah, for noticing. We got another fan question from KDG in Greenville, South Carolina. In the commentary for this episode, BJ teases that the cold open used some movie magic to help Stanley in the push-up scene, but he wouldn't spill the beans. What exactly did Leslie have to go through to film this scene? I was not there.

But my first thought was there is no way that they would make any of us do multiple takes of 25 push-ups. I mean, that would be insane. Yeah. And you notice John does like one half of a push-up and just says 19. Oh, we gave John so much crap for that because, you know, over in the accounting department, we do push-ups and we're in this wide shot. Yeah.

They couldn't hide us. Yeah. So we had to do a few push-ups every take and John only had to do one. And we were like, you suck. Oscar and I were actually sore and we weren't doing 25, but we had to do a few every time. And we shared on the commentary. We did 20 takes. Oh, my gosh.

How many push-ups would that be if Stanley had to do 20 takes of 25 push-ups? No. No, do that math. No, too many. I'm tired. Too many. Too many. A lot.

25, 50, 500? Too many. 500. Too many. It's very funny to me because of all of us, John was the one who actually did push-ups every morning. I know. And then he only had to do a half a push-up.

And then there, Oscar and I doing push-ups. Brian was laying face down. I don't know if you noticed that. I did not. On the ground. He shared on the commentary. And as soon as he shared it, I was like, oh, my gosh, I remember that. He had separated his shoulder.

Oh, that's right. Yeah. The day before we filmed this, he had had a steroid injection in his shoulder and was in quite a bit of pain. So there was no way he could do a push-up. So he got to lay face down. Good thing Kevin would probably do that. Well, I reached out to Dave Rogers, who was our editor for this episode, and also to Randy

Cordray. And they told me how Stanley did all of his push-ups. So first of all, I want to say there is a citation on Dunderpedia, which I love, that claims that we used a green screen in this scene. Oh, no, we didn't. I was there. Yeah, no. No.

Randy said, not true. Not true. Also, you were there. But what they did do was they built like a mini seesaw. And Leslie could lay on it, and then it was sort of covered up by his jacket that was hanging. And both Randy and Dave said, if you notice, you mostly only see the top half of him doing the push-up, and his body was supported by this plank.

I want to point out something. So yes, Leslie didn't have to do 25 push-ups each take. But the way he had to lay on the plank, and they were sort of helping him elevate his torso, he still was in a plank position, guys. Like, that was still strenuous. Oh, yeah. I mean, he was still doing a form of a push-up, even though they were giving him a little bit of support.

Yeah. So I feel like some of that sweat you see is real, because Leslie was getting a workout. Well, in the wide shot at 1 minute 42 seconds, you see him in a full push-up position, no plank. And then there are some really quick edits that are just masterful. You see him go down, and then they push in, and you only see feet around him when he comes up. That's because they played that footage in reverse.

Oh, so smart. Yeah. And then they quickly cut to a wide shot of him fully up and everyone cheering. That's how we did it. Well, Oscar has a great talking head that kind of wraps up the moment. He says, it's like those stories where a mother lifts the car to save her baby. Like, Stanley is so determined to go home. He does 25 push-ups.

Do you think you could do 25 push-ups right now? Heck no. Really? Why is that surprising to you? What about like, you know, on your knees, like the knee push-ups, not a full push-up? Could you do 25 of those? No. Hmm.

You sound like you think you can. I don't know if I can. I know I can do 10 to 12. I bet I could do 10. I don't want to do it, though. I'm sitting. I'm sitting, Rose, and like, I'm not moving. But here's the thing.

I'm very competitive. So if you were like, we're going to do 10, I would just because I'm like stubborn and I'm like, I will do it, but I'm not doing it. Now you're gearing me up. No, we're not doing it. I'm also very competitive. I know. This is why we're great business partners.

But we're going to agree right now to not do it. Here's what we're agreeing to. What? We can do 10, right, on our knees. We believe that we can do 10. So we've basically done them. I love it. This episode begins with Oscar arriving to work at 7 a.m., like he always does.

Sure. He always gets there super early while the door is still locked. He's trying to position himself so that he can see Matt from the warehouse. Well, coming super early works, he gets to see Matt, have a little chit chat, and then he shares that, you know, besides this morning, they also had talked at Christmas. So you know, a little bit of momentum. I have a continuity catch. I do.

Me, Jenna Fisher, has a continuity catch. Oh, well, let's hear it. Matt and Oscar were both at the bar on St. Patrick's Day, which is between this morning and Christmas. What do you think of that? I think that is fantastic background catch. Thank you. You're welcome.

Randy said that everyone actually came in extra early to shoot this. You know, we would usually start coming in to work around 5.30 a.m., and we would be shooting by 7. He said that on this day, Matt really wanted to get that very early morning light in the sky to sell that it was early morning. You son of a gun. You could have sold it. Well, we were rolling by 6.12 a.m.

Oh my goodness. That meant you and I maybe got to sleep in a little, though. Maybe so. Maybe so. Later that morning, Oscar is going to go into Daryl's office. This is one of my favorite scenes of the whole episode. I thought that Craig and Oscar just crushed it. It's so awkward.

There's like all of that dead air between them. And BJ shared on the commentary that he really loved how slowly the scene played out. Like they really wanted all of those awkward silences. This is one of those character combinations. We haven't really seen, and I love it. And they have moments throughout the episode that are so good. I have some questions about the stuff on Daryl's desk. You do?

Yeah. Let's hear it. I got a little distracted. What? Here is what I saw. There's a mailbox. It's like a little, fakey mailbox that might also be a bank. Like a piggy bank?

Yeah. Yeah. And then there's a baseball, not a real baseball, but like a baseball replica that might also be a bank. Maybe Daryl has a thing for piggy banks. This is my question because there is also a ceramic statue, kind of like the kind your kid would make at like a Color Me Mine, which is an amazing detail because he has a daughter. I think the statue is also a bank.

Does Daryl collect banks? That's adorable. I'm saying. I just think it's so cute if he collects piggy banks. I'm going to be on the lookout. I need to know. Including the awkward silences and all the piggy banks, Oscar's like, you know what? We should all go out like the warehouse and the office and he's like, when's the last

time? Yeah. We went to happy hour and Daryl's like, has that ever happened? So Oscar is on a mission. He's trying to have some time with Matt, but he's going to like set up this whole happy hour outing. And Daryl's like, all right. So now Oscar's going to go around the office and invite everyone.

Phyllis's response is hilarious. She says, you know what? I saw a new drink on TV. So yeah, I'd like to try that. I'm going to go. And her talking head, she says, I love going to bars with Bob. I tend to wear something low cut and get men to flirt with me and Bob beats them up. And then she looks at Cameron goes, what?

The what wasn't scripted. I went to the shooting draft because I was so curious. That's my favorite part. I know me too. It wasn't scripted. Phyllis improvised that. That's brilliant. What?

What? Jim says he'd love to join for happy hour, but Pam is like probably just going to want to have a night in. But Andy insists that Jim call Pam right now this minute and ask her. Oh yeah. Andy's like, no, no, no. I call BS on that. Pam's going to want to go.

And she does. She's so excited. We got a fan question from Maddie B and Akron, Ohio and many others who said at four minutes and 44 seconds, Jim has a talking head where Pam is over the phone talking to the camera crew. It kind of sounds like she says, Creed, Brian, Stanley. Did Jenna say Brian on mistake? Does she mean to be talking about Kevin?

Or did the script say Ryan and Brian just slipped out by accident? I want you guys to hear it. So some of the co-workers were thinking of going out tonight, but I told them. Yes. I would love to. Ha! Knew it. It's been so long since I've been with adults, but I am so excited to see everybody.

Creed, Brian. Oh my God, Stanley. Stanley's going to be there. Yes. Oh my God. I did not say the first time. I heard Ryan while I looked in the script because I at first also thought it sounded a little like Brian, but the script says Ryan.

And I think just now isolating it onto headphones where all I'm hearing is the audio, I think I hear Ryan. Yeah. I hear Ryan. But Maddie, the first time when I was watching the episode, I also heard Brian. And I would not put it past us to flip in someone's real name. This was like Laurel. Remember that?

No. What was that? Oh my gosh. You guys. Sam, Cassie. What's Laurel? The whole thing that went viral of like, do you hear Laurel or Yanni? Remember?

Oh, I do remember this. This was like one of the bluer, white dress moments. I remember this. Yes. Did you hear that for Jenna? Yes, please hold on. I'll hunt that down. Laurel, tell me what you hear.

Laurel. Laurel. Laurel. Laurel. Laurel. I hear Laurel. Laurel. So do I.

What do you guys hear? I hear Laurel. I hear Laurel. Laurel. Laurel. Laurel. Laurel. Do we hear Laurel because right before we played this clip, we were all thinking Laurel.

And because I said Laurel, but I'm telling you, is there another one that we can use? When I heard it, I heard Laurel the very first time years ago. So we all heard Laurel, but according to an article in 2018 on The Guardian, this short audio clip of a computer-generated voice became the most divisive subject on the internet since the gold-blue dress of 2015. The audio illusion which first appeared on Reddit seems to be saying one word, but whether that word is Yanni or Laurel is the source of furious disagreement. Is this a decibel thing?

According to this article, it says that the sound can be seen in two ways and often the mind flips back and forth between the two interpretations. This happens because the brain can't decide on a definitive interpretation. I don't understand what that means. Is it a decibel thing? I want it to be a decibel thing. Right. A scientist that contributed to this article said, the secret is frequency, but some of

it also is the mechanics of your ears and what you're expecting to hear. Most sounds, including an L and a Y, which are among the ones at issue here, are made up of several frequencies at once. Frequencies of the Y might have been made artificially higher and the frequencies that make the L sound might have dropped. So whether it's Brian or Ryan or Laurel or Yanni has something to do with frequency. Very interesting. Thank you, Angela.

You're welcome. That was an impromptu tangent. Before we move on from the scene, on the DVD commentary, I shared how incredibly relatable Pam's reaction to an adult outing was as a new mom. It brought me back. You know, my kids are teenagers now, but I was still a young mom at this point. I want you to hear it. The only problem is Pam's at home with the baby and I think she wants a night in.

Oh, baloney. Ring her up. Absolutely. I can totally relate to this moment. FYI. Oh, yeah. What do you mean? Just having a baby and like.

Oh, did you have a baby? Oh, I had the best baby ever who turned two just a day ago. Oh, my God. Already? Yeah. Oh, my gosh, I did this DVD commentary right after Isabelle's birthday. So sweet. I know.

It just brought me back. But yes, I so related to Pam. And now we're doing this rewatch very shortly after Isabelle's birthday again. 14. This episode is very significant for Isabelle's birthdays. I know. Well, I can really relate to this too because I remember the first time I went to the grocery store after my son was born, I ran into Amy Adams at the grocery store.

She had also just had a baby and we stood in the aisle for 30 minutes just talking about how we couldn't believe that we were at the grocery store and we were like, it was as if we had gone to like a huge party, but really we were just in a grocery store, but we were so tickled to be like out of the house doing something. For sure. New parents, you go to the grocery store, it's like an exotic vacation. Exactly. Andy and Aaron are continuing to do this thing where they act like they don't like each

other. Of course, Aaron always takes it to like the most random places. She's like, talk to me like that again and I'll cut your face off. I know. What? Also, they're pretending like they're not in a relationship, but clearly everyone knows. Definitely Kevin knows. They have a talking head where they're telling the camera crew that they're going to keep

their romance low key, but Kevin knocks on the window and he starts making a lot of gestures. Yes. If you go to five minutes, 25 seconds, the hand gesture that Kevin is doing had supposedly never been done on television before. Yeah. It's like the one for intercourse where you have like the finger and then the circle. Yeah. You know, Randy sent me the exact note from the NBC broadcast standards and practices.

What did they say? This was after they submitted the shooting draft, where in the shooting draft it says that Kevin is going to make sexual gestures in the background. The note said, page nine, scene 17, as discussed with Randy Cordray, please shoot some alternates for Kevin's quote sex gesture with his hands toward Andy and Aaron. So Randy said they did lots of different gestures. I guess BJ and Matt Stone told Brian, just go crazy. Do every gesture you can think of.

They sent a cut over to NBC with all of the gestures in one take and it was approved. I can't believe it. He couldn't believe it either. He was like, I don't understand. We were sure that was not going to make it in. Who knew? I guess after all of our boners, they just gave up on us. They were tired.

I mean, after Phyllis got flashed in the parking lot, they just let it go. Well, Andy is going to invite Michael out for drinks. This is Michael's best day of his life. He's so excited. He announces, ladies and gentlemen, it's quitting time. Andy's like, no, no, I'm sorry. I meant later, you know, like later. Well in the background of the scene, Angela is watching everything.

It's kind of clocking Dwight. Like I wonder if Dwight's going to be going and there would have been a talking head here. It's in deleted scenes. Angela shares about what she does outside of work. Oh, at the office, I am all business, very professional, but sometimes at night, I like to go out and let my hair down. Not literally, of course, but and then there was a candy bag alt. Oh my gosh.

There are a lot of good candy bag alts for talking heads in this. It didn't make it in the episode. It is in the bloopers and you'll see why. It's not like I'm meeting anyone on chat roulette. I was so southern. Did you hear it? Oh my goodness. It's not like I'm meeting anyone on chat roulette.

I mean, they were like, yeah, we can't use that. Just get another one. Well Pam and Jim are going to arrive. Pam's hair. Who? I'm on her hair. I was going to say, like, did she like go to a salon? She's all dolled up.

I mean, we talked about it. She's excited to be out. She has on multiple necklaces and very like foofy hair. Yeah. She's walking across the parking lot with Jim. That's when she tells him that she's invited a friend for Michael. I mean, that's how much she has forgotten. Like she's done her hair.

She's got her necklaces on. She's inviting people to set them up with Michael. Pam, Pam, she runs into Kevin, who starts fake crying like at her boobs. Jenna, I shared on the commentary that Rain did that to me as a joke. Did it work? No. But thanks Rain for fake crying at my boobs while I was breastfeeding. I wonder if that's where they got the idea.

Well, actually, Brian said that this joke was not in the table draft. And after the table read, Steve Carell pitched it to the writers. I love it. I don't know if you noticed in this scene, but the ground is all wet. Did you notice? I did notice. Randy told me it was a rainy day. Oh, we shot this on February 24th, 2010.

February is a very rainy month in Los Angeles. Also, in the background, you can see the parking structure for the Universal Studios Tour. Oh my gosh. Have you ever done it? Yes. Me too. So fun. Have they updated it?

Because when I did it, it was like Jaws and Back to the Future. Same. And the Psycho House. Right. Yeah. The old lady in the rocking chair up in the window. All of it. Yeah.

I don't know. Surely it's been updated. With movies that are more timely. Right. Right. I think Jaws still comes at you, though. Right, right. You got to love the Jaws.

You're going across what looks like a pond and then Jaws comes at you. It's so fun. Well as everyone is arriving, they walk past the bouncer into the bar. You can see the sit and dexter sign. Mm-hmm. And in the deleted scenes, there was a montage of people arriving. Kevin and Meredith walk in and they cannot believe that Oscar is there. They say he's a snob.

It's in the deleted scenes. Here's how Oscar defends himself. I'm not a snob. I hate the opera. Well, the Philadelphia opera. Yikes. He defends himself on being a snob by listing what opera he is not a fan of. Then there was a deleted scene as Angela Martin arrives.

She's very dolled up. This was one of my favorite scenes to shoot because it had really silly busy work. The bouncer has asked for her ID and here it is. Good evening. Hey, you're fine. No. I have my ID here somewhere. Oh, no, you're fine.

No. You need it. That's the rule. Do with it. No. You always know where it is and then when you need it, you don't, you know, that happens. Oh, come on. It is almost a minute of me going through my purse.

I'm pulling out to shoes, coupons, all kinds of things and the bouncer is like, you're fine. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. It was so much fun to shoot, but I get why it couldn't make it in the episodes already long. You don't need a minute of me going through my purse, but those are like my favorite moments. Well, I disagree.

I would love nothing more than to see one minute of Angela emptying her purse because I'd like to know what she keeps in her purse. I find those details fascinating. Well, a lot of tissues and coupons. Well now Pam and Jim are going to invite Michael to play pool with them. They need a fourth. That's because the third person in the group is the friend. Yeah.

And they want to make an introduction. Also, at this time, Oscar is noting that Matt is not there. No. Sort of a bummer. He keeps eyeing the door. The whole reason for this whole night. Yes. Michael is going to hit it off with Pam's friend, Julie.

Yeah, they're really getting along great. I mean, Julie laughs at everything. Yes. So Michael is happy. Guest star alert, Julie was played by Lori Notten-Oaken. She has been on Friends, Samantha Who. She's a big groundlings person and you knew her, right, Inge? Yes.

I did a sketch comedy show with her. She had written this show and I played a small part in it called Balls Out. Ooh. I know. And it was a really fun show. Well, there's going to be another guest star. It is Isabelle, played by Kellyn Coleman. She's back and she's come to the bar as well.

But you know what? She's going to say hi to Pam and then maybe mingle, which means go find Dwight. That's right. At seven minutes, 57 seconds, you might notice Angela's bright red lipstick. BJ shared on the commentary that he really wanted Angela to seem like she had tried to go all out for this evening to get Dwight's attention. He wanted her to wear the brightest lipstick that our makeup department had. And he said, he thought that this is what Angela would think you do.

Like maybe she's seen a soap opera, like how you get your guy, how you go to a bar, put on hot red lipstick. And he also shared that he was bummed because he wanted the lipstick to be even brighter red. But that was all the makeup department had. Wow. Even brighter. Yeah.

It really stands out already. I know. Well, Pam's friend Julie is going to have a talking head where it's clear she kind of likes Michael. Yeah. We had a fan catch from Corrin F in Columbus, Ohio, who says, starting at eight minutes, 52 seconds, when Pam's friend is doing her talking head about Michael, you can see Jim laughing at something Pam said.

Was this a genuine reaction to something Jenna said or was this planned? Are they acting? Either way, it's a very cute background moment. I think it's just you two in the background. Oh, no. This is 100% us in the background. Just chatting. Well, I'm very proud because I've clearly said something that has made John noodle.

Because the noodle laugh. I know he totally turns into like this like gelatinous thing that flops around when he's really tickled. Yes. I don't know what I said. Jim is there as well, but I'm very proud. I'm clearly hilarious. And there it is in the background.

Proof of funny. Thank you. We also got a fan question from both Kyle T and Houston, Texas, and Alana D from Ontario, Canada. They ask, why does Pam keep trying to set up Michael? It didn't work with her landlady and look how he treated her mom. Why? That's very valid.

Very valid. She has clearly forgotten something has happened to her while she's on maternity leave. She has mom brain. I guess so. You know, when you're tired and you're up all night and you're just like, oh, yeah, that sounds great. I don't know. I think mom brain also sometimes gives you just like an optimism.

Yes. That is, I don't know. You suddenly. You want to see the good in people. Yes, exactly. You have this newfound empathy and optimism. And compassion. Yeah.

But unfortunately, it's not going to go well. It might have if Jim hadn't spilled the beans. I know. If Jim would have just let Michael keep being himself, but Jim said, yeah, I guess Pam was right. You know, you guys are hitting it off. Light bulb. Michael's like, what?

What? I'm on a date. I'm on a date. Yeah. He's going to turn into date, Mike. Let's take a break because there's a lot to unpack here and we will discuss. We are back and date Mike is here. He has put on his kingle hat.

The script specifically called for Michael to put on a kingle hat. I got curious. So for the second time, I became a lady who Googled and I found out that the kingle hats, which I was familiar with has a long history. It goes way back. A gentleman named Jacques Henry Durgan, a World War One soldier returned from the war and he began designing berets. And in 1938, he started a company and his berets were worn by many British soldiers during

World War Two. He named his company Kangl and in the 1960s, they got the rights to create all the hats worn by the Beatles. What? Yeah. They distributed all headgear that bore the Beatles name or image. Wow. In 1981, the brand enlisted a world famous hat designer named Graham Smith to develop

a luxurious yet affordable collection called Graham Smith for Kangl and in 1983, Princess Diana appeared in Vogue wearing one of those hats. Also in 1983, they decided to create a logo and because Americans kept asking for the kangaroo hat, instead of the Kangl hat, they decided to make their logo a kangaroo. Also in the 1980s, MCs like Slick Rick and Run DMC started wearing Kangl in their videos and on stage and they really rocketed the fame thanks to LL Cool J who wore their Bermuda casual hat on his album cover for radio. LL Cool J wore their hats all the time and really pushed it to the forefront of hip hop

fashion and then you know, of course, Samuel Jackson. He loves them. Still known for loving his Kangl hat. In 2012, he teamed up with the brand and created a line called Kangl Golf by Samuel L. Jackson. It was geared toward golf enthusiasts. He loves these hats so much that in 2022, he was on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and he talked about all his hats. Here's an audio clip.

Two, is it true that you own over 800 Kangl hats? My wife got rid about 500 of them. Okay. Yeah. Down to 300. Down to 300. When did you start wearing those? Oh, geez.

When I stole my first one out of my grandfather's closet. Yeah. Long time ago. Do you remember? What color? Black? My grandfather's? Yeah.

No, it was like a, it was a plattie hat, you know. It's one of those patterns. It's stylish, too. Yeah. Yeah. How about that? He has 300. His grandfather had one.

I mean, I have to think he has more now. Is 2022, do you think his wife let him add to it? Maybe. Maybe it's like the thing where you add one, but take one away so you get new stuff. Right. There was quite a bit of debate in the writer's room about the difference in regular mic and date mic. Okay.

BJ talked about it on the DVD commentary. He said there were pitches to make date mic even bigger and his clothes more extravagant. Like in one pitch, they had him wearing a dragon t-shirt or some Ed Hardy clothes, but Steve said he thought it was less of a wardrobe change and more of a personality change. So they went with a kingle hat. Well, I loved it. When Michael returns, Jim and Pam are surprised. They noticed the shift right away.

I improvised the line, why are you wearing a hat now? So I looked at the table draft, like you said Angela, and originally he had changed his shirt and Pam had a line where she said, why are you wearing a different shirt now? But then by the shooting draft, that had been taken out and there was just nothing. Pam didn't have a line there, but I think I must have remembered that shirt line, which made me laugh. And so I added, why are you wearing a hat now? Well, I loved it.

I loved Pam and Jim's reaction. They know now everything's going to go south. Michael has this big swagger. He's spinning this pull stick around at nine minutes, 40 seconds when Michael shoots the pull ball and it goes flying at you guys. Yes. Matt Stone shared that Steve really did that and thankfully they got it in the first take. Oh my gosh.

Yeah. I didn't remember that. You guys ducked for real. Well meanwhile, Kelly and Ryan are about to finish an intense round of their dance game. This is Erin and Andy are approaching. We had a fan catch from Claire L in Toronto, Canada, who says when Ryan and Kelly say they lost at 10 minutes, 37 seconds, the screen shows that their dance round is actually still going on.

It's true. Randy told me that they turned off the sound for the machine, but they kept the graphics going. They added all the music and arcade sounds in post production. So it sounds like their game has wound down. But if you catch the screen, it's still going. I have two things to share about the actual games and what we were doing. Ryan said that he really was playing that racing game and that it was actually really

fun and he played it for hours because he had to be in the background. Oh my gosh. And then in the deleted scenes, I thought it was so fun. You find out that Meredith is really good at playing pool. She keeps sinking all of these shots. She's a total pool shark. Was Kate actually sinking the shots? I doubt it.

It looked really good. I don't know. Can I tell you something? Are you really good at pool? Yeah. Really? You're also good at poker. You're good at like bar sports.

My father-in-law recently on a trip to Texas, we rented a house together, Lee's whole side of the family, and there was a pool table. And he was kind of surprised that I was such a good pool player. And he said, I have to ask, like you went to an all girls high school, you have no brothers, you're not much of a drinker, how are you so good at poker and pool? I have the same question. When I was in high school, my friend Stacey and I, by the way, Stacey, the inventor of the tan baster, the two of us in high school, we got a little obsessed with pool after we

watched the movies, The Hustler and the Color of Money. Paul Newman. Yeah. Yeah. Those sweet blue eyes. So you watched these movies and then you were like, I'm going to learn pool? Yeah. We went to a pool hall in Kirkwood, Missouri, and we learned how to play pool.

And our plan was that we were going to go on the road and we were going to hustle people. This was our grand plan to become pool hustlers. So when you weren't playing field hockey, we were going to be professional pool hustlers. Professional hustlers. Okay. We got very good. I believe it. And I really enjoyed this episode because it was my chance to kind of show off some of

my skills. My husband's very good at pool and he wants a pool table. Oh. I'm like, what? So we're not going to have a dining table? So you're going to have a pool table? I'll be over all the time. Well, it might happen.

Oh, I want to say something about this arcade dance game. Would you be surprised to know that they are not playing dance dance revolution? I feel like this is like a leading question. I don't know the answer. That's the only game I know up with the feet. The thing. Me too. Yeah, that's it.

Okay. Okay. No, there's another one. It's called pump it up. It is the other music video game dance series. It's by a Korean arcade game producer. The original version of the game was released in South Korea in August of 1999. Here's the difference.

Dance dance revolution only has four squares that you can step on and they're in like a plus sign. Yeah. Pump it up has five things you can press on. You can press the middle square and then it makes like an X. Yeah. I took screen grabs. I mom detect of it and it's not dance dance revolution.

It's pump it up. That's what they're playing and they had to bring it in. I know this happens later in the episode, but when you see Creed dancing on that thing, he really was and we did a bunch of takes. And I remember we were like, wait, I think Creed's like getting lightheaded. We need to give him a break. He's been dancing for a long time. Yeah.

When I was trading messages with Matt, he was like, I think we almost killed Creed because he did so many takes of the dancing game. And he was going all out. Randy said that they also had a graphic made and you don't see it in the episode, but it shows that Creed has all of the top 10 high scores on the leaderboard. That's awesome. And I guess the reason they did all that was because originally the tag to this episode was going to be Creed on the dance machine and you see that he's like dance master.

With a crowd around him. But then they moved it to the middle of the episode. Coming up next is probably my most famous meme that I'm a part of. What? No. There are more famous memes. No. Not for me.

Come on. I am telling you, for real, this is the most famous meme I'm in. They will take this moment where Angela sneaks up on Dwight and they'll caption it. It's someone reacting to something that scares the crap out of them and they drop the F-bomb. And it's been recycled over and over. So like over you, they'll write spiders or they'll write something that is scary. Orphobia, basically. Yes.

I titled this scene Lurk Much. Should we set it up? Yes. Okay. Well Dwight and Isabel are walking through the arcade. They're flirting. Chatting. Angela and her bright red lipstick is just all up on their heels.

And then after Isabel walks away, Dwight is completely shocked that Angela was standing there and has a very large reaction. Lady we got mail. Good question from Desi C. in Stillwell, Oklahoma. In the scene with Dwight and Isabel walking and Angela falling close behind, Isabel seems to be of equal height to Dwight, making Angela look so small in comparison. Was this done intentionally or just a happy accident? I looked up actress Kellen Coleman and her height, according to IMDb, is five nine and

a half. But standing next to rain, she looks almost to be the same height. It was intentional. You know, rain is six three, Kellen is very tall. And I am five one, wardrobe purposely for this episode put me in flats to really accentuate the height difference. Normally I wore heels on the show. I'm in flats.

BJ also shared it was his idea that only the top of my head would be visible as I walked behind them. I went to the shooting draft and here's how it described the scene. Dwight and Isabel strolled the arcade area looking for a game to play. Angela trails behind only the top of her head in frame. Amazing. Well, I will add that I remember Kellen was in heels. They put her in some like three inch kind of not wedges, but like thick heeled shoes

so that she would be super tall compared to you. We got another fan question from Xenia W in British Columbia Dwight looks utterly shocked by the sudden appearance of Angela Martin behind him. His reaction was so genuine down to the bleeped swear word he dropped. Was Rainn Wilson not expecting Angela to show up or was this a scripted moment? So this moment was totally found on the day. It's not in the shooting draft. BJ shared in the commentary that they pitched it to rain and he was reluctant to do it because

he thought it might seem too broad. But then they were like, let's just give it a try. Just give it a try. And then I remember they told me to get as close to like Rainn's like arm, like just to sort of be way down there by his elbow. And so I was trailing him really closely. And when he turned around, I was right there and it just worked. And we all started laughing.

We knew we had to do it again. It's so lurky, lurk much. Well, well, back over at the pool tables, Michael's going to try to tie a cherry stem with his tongue. But instead he starts choking. Jenna, this scene was even bigger in the shooting draft. Not only does he choke, but then he starts dribbling cherry juice down his shirt. So gross.

And then he turns to Julie and says, you want to maybe hit a hot tub after this? Oh my gosh. So in this scene, he is kind of like spinning the pool cue around. We had a fan catch from Dandy Y in Canada who says, fakey pool cue at 12 minutes, 13 seconds. When Michael is spinning the pool cue, you can see it bending. What was it actually made of? Oh, good catch.

Such a good catch. You really can't see it. It is 100% a rubber pool cue. It is so bendy. It's almost ridiculous. I can't believe it made it in. Well, there was an alternate Michael talking head. It was in the shooting draft candy bag.

It made me laugh. Michael says, I've been dating for over 30 years. I think I know what I'm doing. Oh no. Well, Isabel and Dwight are playing whack-a-mole and Dwight is really good at it. And Isabel's like, oh my gosh, you're so good at it. And then Angela tries to join in, the lurker, and she says, this looks like a hoot. And you guys, it just made me think of my journal entry, Sam.

This looks like a hoot. I think I got tooted. You hit these balls with a large stick. Yes, exactly. I want to know how Angela Kinsey would write in her journal about her first whack-a-mole game. Please, can we have that? We need it.

It would go something like this. There was this really interesting machine. Our little tiny animals came out and they wanted me to hit them and I said, I will not. And then I had a cosmopolitan. XOXO. And then I would probably finish my journal entry with, I'll fill you in next time on what happened when I tried Ski Ball. XOXO, hugs.

I love how your journal entries, and this is true about your journal entries, they end with like a cliffhanger. Yes. Next time, I'm going to give you some details on this other thing. Yeah, they all end up like the gossip girl ones. I know. And then I also like write in my journal, like I'll say things like, oh, sorry to bore you, I've gone on and on.

Who's reading this? Who am I writing to? I can't believe I talked that long about whack-a-mole. My bad. Oh my gosh. Could you do a young adult book series that is just your journals? Please no. That would be so weird.

I really like this character. Well, Angela's whack-a-mole is not going to go well. And Dwight pulls her side and says, you know what? We had a good run, but I want a big family, like a big, big family, and she doesn't need to worry about their contract anymore, dissolved. He tries to break their contract. How many pieces of identification did they have on that table when they were making this contract?

So many signatures and stamps. How dare he? Truly. Mm-hmm. Oh, she's not going to take it well. Meanwhile, Michael is on top of a pool table. I don't know what he's doing. He's playing like air guitar on his pool stick.

I mean, it's going to get the attention of the manager. Yeah, she's like, do you want to pay 400 bucks to refelt this table? And Michael says, yeah, why don't you send the bill to 23? I don't care, Lane, Scranton, Pennsylvania. What is happening? He's going to get his ass kicked out. Yeah. I think the rosé is hitting us.

Maybe. Maybe. I just want to do the whole rest of the episode as your journal, frankly. It delights me so much. Guest Star Alert, our manager, Donna, was played by Amy Peetz. She was on the NBC sitcom, Caroline in the City, for which she was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series. She's also had recurring roles on Modern Family, Animal Kingdom, and she appears in five episodes

of The Office. She was also in a really good episode of Law and Order SVU, which I just watched the other day. Which one? It's the one where she plays Mama Zoe. She's really good in it. It's a good episode. During this scene, Pam and Jim are kind of trying to get Michael to calm down, and Pam

wants to continue the pool game. I have another improv brag. Do it. I improvised the line, you guys are stripes, I think. My scripted line was, I think she handled it pretty well, but instead I said, you guys are stripes, I think. And you know why you said that? Because I know about pool.

Because you're a pool shark. Yeah, I am. And I know that one person is stripes and one is solid. I know that. Sounds like one of my journal entries. You know what I want to find? What? I've got to have a journal entry about my plans to become a pool shark hustler.

Please. I must have one somewhere. Please. My journal. Surely. Surely. Michael is going to approach the manager and demand an apology. I loved their back and forth.

I loved it when he said the way he likes to be a manager has a dash of razzle-dazzle. I was so curious if that was scripted or if Steve like threw that out there. I went to the shooting draft. It's in the script. A dash of razzle-dazzle. I love it. Donna clearly has the thing that Jan had, which is that she's attracted to tragedy. Because she is sort of immediately smitten by Michael.

Just like, what is this thing in front of me? Yeah. It's like the first time you see a kitten or something or a puppy. You're like, what is this creature? I'm sort of drawn to it. They have a repartee. They do. In their repartee, we find out that Michael has written a whole book in his head.

It's called Somehow I Manage. The book cover is him with his sleeves rolled up shrugging. The manager says, have you read Lea Iacocca's classic book? And Michael says, read it. I own it. He hasn't read it. But no, I haven't read it. We had a fan question from Letty P. in Long Beach, California.

This is the second time Lea Iacocca's biography is mentioned on The Office. I've watched this show so many times, and it's made me curious to actually pick up the book. And it's so good. But why is it referred to so much when Michael hasn't even read it? Well, Letty, I'll tell you, it's because BJ Novak's dad co-authored that book. So this was a nod from BJ to his dad. This was a BJ Easter egg for his dad.

So cute. We really did that a lot on the show, like naming Pam and Jim's baby Cece and Sid and Dexter's and throwing the book in. We like to do that sort of thing. Andy and Aaron are still trying to hide their relationship because Andy does not want the drama. He doesn't. Don't want the drama.

So he's like, you know what, let's throw everyone off because a few people have made little comments that he thinks is about him and Aaron. He's like, I'm going to go talk to that girl. You go talk to that guy. Aaron is going to sit next to a man. She's going to rub her hand on his thigh and say, hey, big boy, do you like it when I do that? And Andy spits out his drink and is like, what are you doing?

Well, the guy that Aaron is talking to was played by our very own locations manager, Kyle Alexander. They shared in the commentary that Kyle just has such a friendly demeanor that he wouldn't seem threatening in any way. And probably nice for Ellie because he was someone that we all worked with. Totally. Andy kind of pulls Aaron aside, pulls her into this photo booth. And while they're in there, the camera is going off.

While they're arguing. Yes. Matt said that getting this photo strip right was really important to him. On the first day of this shoot week, Ed and Ellie got together with Michael Gallenberg, our production designer, and he took photos of them, which Matt went over and he created the photo strip that would be used in this scene. Yeah. And without this on the commentary, how important the story of the photo strip was to him?

Well, he also sent in an audio clip. Let's give it a listen. I also spent a lot of time working on the photos from the photo booth of Andy and Aaron. They tell a very sad story about their relationship. If you notice them, they each show a different stage of their relationship, ending with Aaron sad and by herself. You know, when Andy looks at these photos, he realizes this isn't the relationship that he wants.

And he goes to the microphone to announce to everyone that he and Aaron are a dating. They are a couple. And it's a nice ending to their story. Sometimes those little props, designing those just right, really are important. And after Matt said that, I went and I paused on the strip. Same. Really good. And it's something I missed the first time I watched it.

And it's just one of those things in this rewatch, it's so fun to discover. You know, I love a photo strip. I will go into any mall kiosk photo booth. Lady, it's the cover of our book is a photo strip that I saved for 18 years. Yeah. That you insisted that we do. I know. I tried to do the cough at our age thing.

It didn't work. You know, where you say like, like where you cough something that you, you kind of want people to hear. Mm-hmm. Like, like, you know what I mean? I do. Okay. Where are we?

Oh, Matt has not shown up. Oscar's been sitting with the warehouse guys forever. I know. And Daryl is like, listen, I know he's super cute, but the truth is he's kind of a dumb dumb. Oscar. Yeah. He's like, you guys aren't a good match.

No. Daryl's trying. He's trying to look out for Oscar in this moment. In college, I dated just this real dumb dumb. Hello, Rose. Oh, good looking. Settle in, Rose. What do you got for me?

Nothing. Just that, like, it was so clear to me. He was just super hot. I candy. Mm-hmm. And I don't know. It didn't last long. Was it fun?

Not really. Oh. Well, that's a bummer. But I loved looking at him. He's so beautiful. So I get it, Oscar. What's your journal entry? I looked at this guy for a while today.

But guess what? Just as maybe Oscar is considering that they aren't a match, Matt walks in. Oscar's delighted. He walks in. He wants to go play basketball. Oscar's like, yeah. The two of them shooting next to each other was so funny. It was actually a note in the shooting draft that Oscar tries to shoot and it, like, ricochets

off the, like, backboard and, like, he's chasing it on the ground. I want to say it is very hard to be bad at things like that when you have to as an actor. Like that was some really good, bad basketball acting on Oscar's part. Yeah. He actually can, like, shoot pretty well. Right. I remember that from the basketball episode when all those guys started shooting. Yeah.

I'm going to wrap up a couple of storylines here. We're getting near the end of the episode. Andy's going to get on a loud speaker, announces that he's been on a few successful dates with Erin. There'll probably be more. No one cares. No. No one even looks over.

Mm-mm. No. Andy and Erin are so happy, though. Erin especially. Dwight and Isabel are leaving together when Angela approaches them. Still lurking. I don't think she was lurking. This was, like, a, like, full frontal approach.

I know, but lurking in the sense that everywhere these people turn, you're on top of them. You're all over them. But you know what? Rightfully so. He should not have broken that contract. I like Angela in this moment. Well, she's going to serve him papers to appear in court. That's right.

For breach of contract. Mm-hmm. Isabel wax her on the forehead. We had a fan question from Stacey C. and Charlotte, North Carolina. Angela, did she really smack you on the head? She did. That was real. It was scripted.

I want you to know that when this episode aired, people took to the message boards sympathizing for Angela. This never happened for my character. I did not like that she hit you on the head. I didn't like it. You didn't like it. And guess who else didn't like it? Who?

Birdie Kinsey. My mom. She did not care for it. No. Well, Angela is not going to be deterred. She scurries off, but Dwight will be hearing from her in court. I mean, several people are brought together in this episode. Birdie Aaron, Isabel and Dwight, and Michael.

He's got a date. Date Mike actually came through. I mean, kind of. He wasn't being date Mike. He was just being like righteous Michael at the bar. Well, he thinks it worked once again. This episode ends with just an amazing tag, amazing. It's one of my favorite of the whole series.

Agree. It is Darryl and Hide from the warehouse, and Darryl encourages Hide to tell his story, his origin story. Yeah. Earlier in the episode, he sort of teases it to Oscar. He's like, have you heard Hide's story? I mean, it's fascinating. It's amazing.

Yeah. And here it is. He tells his story. He says in Japan, he was the top heart surgeon, but he made a mistake while operating on a Yakuza boss who died as a result, so Hide ran away to escape the wrath of the Yakuza, came to America on a fishing boat with no food, no money. Darryl gave him a job. Now he has an American car, a job, a woman.

Darryl saved his life, but he has a secret twist. He killed the Yakuza boss on purpose. He's a really good surgeon. The best. It's so good. It's so good. Let's look into Hide's DMs. Hide, if you hear this, check your DMs.

We would love to talk to you about your experience on the office and this talking head. You just crushed it. We just think you're awesome. Hide had been on the show for a long time as one of the warehouse workers. And BJ said in an interview that getting this tag into the show was a mission of his. He said that he loved the idea that this character, who we've only seen in the background, had a life story infinitely more dramatic than anyone else the documentary crew had been following, but they never thought to ask.

BJ also said that they shot six different versions of this in various places. They shot Hide by himself in the warehouse, Hide by himself in the bar. They shot Darryl and Hide in the warehouse, Darryl and Hide in the bar. And we also shot two totally different backstories. Well, I love that they chose the one with Darryl standing next to him. Me too. I thought it was really just perfect. I went to the candy bag in the shooting draft for this talking head and BJ is right, there

were many versions. I'm going to share with you two of my favorites. Okay. In one, Hide's brother had put a hit out on him and Hide was traveling the world hiding. That's the one that was in the shooting draft. I remember that one from the table read. Yes. In the other one, Hide was a sumo champion and he traveled to India and then drank some

kind of tea there that made him not hungry and not want to eat and he lost a bunch of weight and his wife left him and he was penniless and he came to America. Well I loved this one. I loved this one and BJ shared on the commentary when Hide says American car that Hide improvised that. Yes. And BJ loved that. Well that was happy hour guys, we're going to miss you while we're on our vacation.

We love you. But like I said, we will be back July 15th for secretary's day with Miss Ellie Kemper. We just want to say thank you to Matt Stone for his audio clips and of course Randy Cordray who always gives us the behind the scenes details and we hope this week you guys have a little bit of razzle dazzle and a great week. Love you. Bye. 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 Bubicoe. 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 at Stitcher Premium, use code, Office.