Office Ladies - Michael Scott Paper Company

Episode Date: November 10, 2021

This week we’re breaking down “Michael Scott Paper Company”. Michael throws a pancake luncheon to promote his new company, Jim struggles with making Charles a “rundown” and the new receptionist has newfound friends, Dwight and Andy, in yet another romantic competition. By the way, the new receptionist is Erin Hannon, played by Ellie Kemper! Angela points out that Jenna has been a Fun/Fast Fact Queen well before “Office Ladies”, Jenna reveals that while shooting this episode paparazzi snuck onto “The Office” set and both ladies have something to say about a couple pairs of sunglasses. So it’s Britney, bitch! … Umm no, it’s not, Michael, but let’s dance to some German translated songs and this fantastic episode!

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 re-watch 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. There is a new paper company in town. Michael Scott Paper Company.

Holy moly. We're going to talk about it today. However, I have to say this before we get started. What? We look gorgeous today. You all should know. I don't know what this podcast is going to be today, but we look hot. Well, Jenna has that like dark, smoky eyeliner.

I did a smoky eye today. How do you even do that? I need a tutorial. Oh, multiple YouTube tutorials is how we got this smoky eye today. I did super straight hair. You look amazing. You look like you're about to take over like multiple corporations. I am wearing a blazer.

I know. I guess we have to say that because people can't see us, but we look amazing. Angela, your nails look incredible. I mean, details. We have details. We look good, guys. We're feeling it today. We cannot wait to talk about this episode.

And then we have a photo shoot. Jenna, who are we? What is happening? We're a big deal. I don't know. Will you tell my kids that next time we're at Target? Hey, hey. Big deal over there in the seasonal aisle.

Yeah. And you can only pick one of those things. Pick one. You're not getting all three. Let's get to talking about what we're here for. It's season five, episode 23, written by the amazing Justin Spitzer and directed by Jean Stupnitsky. He's the credited director on this one, but he actually had a partner.

This episode was co-directed by Jean Stupnitsky and his longtime writing partner, Lee Eisenberg. That's right. They would go on to direct many more episodes together of The Office. They shared a little bit in the commentary that they would rotate who would take credit. It sort of went along some DGA rules at the time. So Jean got credit for this one, but they were both there together every day. So we want to give Leah a shout out. And the next time there's an episode up that says Lee directed, know that Jean was right

there by his side. And we reached out to both of them, and they shared a ton of great details for this episode. So I'm very, very excited. Here's your summary. Michael, Pam, and Ryan are in their new office. They're struggling to adjust. It's a very tiny, intimate work environment. Very tiny.

Can I tell you one thing? Justin said they even considered finding a smaller room. What? Can you imagine? I can't because I was there and I know how almost impossible it was to shoot in that room. With like the camera operators, the sound department, you guys? Smaller room. That's bonkers to me.

Well, upstairs in Dunder Mifflin, there is a new receptionist in town. A new lady named Kelly Erin Hannon. Dwight and Andy are both kind of crushing on her, but they also have this new friendship. So this crush is going to really challenge their new bond. In the meantime, Jim is trying to figure out what the heck is a rundown? What is a rundown? Poor guy. And let's not forget there's going to be some giant square pancakes.

Yeah. Lady, I forgot that they were big squares. I have details on that. You do? I can't wait. All right. I have some pancake details. I can't wait.

Let's get into some fast facts. All right. Here's a mini fast fact. This episode actually aired the same night as Dream Team. In between these two episodes, they ran the very first episode of Parks and Recreation. How about that? We were like a little sandwich. We were.

And we were the bread in Parks and Recreation was the... Bologna. The cheese. Cheese. Sounds like a dig. We don't mean it. No, I didn't mean it to be. I had a bologna sandwich every day in my lunch growing up.

No, but it's, you know, saying something is bologna or something is cheese. It seems like a dig, but... They were the meat. Well, now that seems like a dig on the bread. The bread isn't important. Well, the bread's the best part. That's just because I love bread. Okay.

We'll leave this analogy. There you have it. It was Office Parks and Rec Office. Yes. Fast fact number one, I thought we should talk a little bit about this teeny tiny space of Michael Scott Paper Company, this 165 square foot office with no windows on the bottom floor of Dundarmiflin. With a exposed shower in the corner?

Yes. Correct. Now that was a fakie shower. Oh. That was a design by our set designer, Michael Gallenberg. Because there was a real shower down there. I had to use it one time, not in that room, across the hallway. There was an office that had a tiny shower.

Really? Yes. Why did you have to use it? Okay. Well, do you remember the summer my hair turned green? Yep. You could really see it on camera. Guys, I spent the whole summer swimming with the kids in the pool and my hair turned green.

It happens to the blondies out there. And Kim put this thing on my hair to like kind of tint it, you know? To get the green out? To get the green out. And I had to wash it out of my hair. Like you put it on and then I had to rinse it out and then she had to blow dry my hair. Okay. Now why didn't they just use the little sink in the hair and makeup trailer or the shower

in your trailer? Because the sink in the hair and makeup trailer, first of all, it didn't get hot. And Kim was a little concerned because the water is like this sort of recycled water. Yeah. That it would strip the color off my hair that she was trying to put in. Now that you say that, I know that because there have been times when I've needed to shower off. Your trailers have a shower, but it is exactly that.

It's like a tank of weird sort of chemically treated water. Right. So that it can stay in the tank and then not be poisonous. Yeah. And it doesn't get very hot. And also I've had people tell me not to use it. I sort of was like, maybe just get rid of the showers in the trailers. Yeah, put in a closet.

They're taking up space. You'll need a closet. Always need more closet. I mean, it's part of my life mantra. Can I have more closets? Well, you need closets for your baskets, lady. Your basket collection. Give me all the baskets.

Well, listen, this little room, it was located in our writer's building. It was on the bottom floor and it was an actual storage closet. It was not a set. So the walls did not move. They talked about should we build Michael Scott paper company in the warehouse. That was my thought where we've built many a set. No, for whatever reason they crammed us into the post production storage room where previous to us shooting in there, they had stored thousands of hours of archive tape of our show.

This was back in the day and we just had walls and walls of five seasons of tape on our show. They had to relocate all the tapes. They had to redress the room. I said the shower is fake, but those pipes were real. There really were these giant pipes. Yes, the big black pipes that were coming out. Those were real. Yes.

Also the bathrooms that are outside in the hallway, the two doors on either side of the Michael Scott paper company door, those bathrooms were real. Those were the actual working bathrooms for anybody who worked on the bottom floor. Those were the bathrooms we would use in between scenes when we filmed in the warehouse. Yes, are in that hallway by the editing bay. Right across from us were our two editors, Claire and Dave. And above us were the writer's offices. So we were over in that building with the writers.

Also in this building is the lobby area that leads out into the parking lot. This room also gets repurposed for Cafe Disco. Yes, we went back down there for that. So those are all my details on that room. I'll have more to share as we break down the episode. More little quirks of working in there. Yeah, you spent a lot of time in there. We did.

Are you ready for fast fact number two? I am. Remember last week when I told you that Michael sent a letter to everybody through NBC.com. Yes. Announcing his new paper company. Well, this week he unveiled his website. And NBC created a Michael Scott paper company website and it had photos of the room. It was basically the same room taken from three different angles.

It had the downloadable coupon that is shown in this episode. You know, the one that promises unparalleled customer service. Yep. That Pam and Ryan refused to copy. And it also had the mission statement for Michael Scott paper company. Yes, it did. And we reached out to Joya. You know, we've talked about Joya before.

She was in charge of all the digital content for the office that was on NBC.com. She shared with us what the mission statement said. Here it is. It's the Michael Scott paper company's mission to provide you the highest quality paper. The best possible service at the lowest possible prices. Sounds good. Just wait. There's more.

This paper business is more than just paper. More than just a business. It's about establishing quality human relationships with our clients. While little Timmy wakes up in the middle of the night with whooping cough and you need someone to call, we'll be there. When sweet Christine gets stood up by her prom date, we'll be there. When the dam breaks in your backyard and the only thing that can stop the flow of water from flooding your house is a ream of paper, we'll be there. At the Michael Scott paper company, we'll always be there through thick and thin in sickness and health till death or retirement do us part. We'll be there.

For a while, it's just pretty standard. Kind of boilerplate. Yeah. Yeah. But I really like it when he says we're more than just a business. We're about quality human relationships with our clients. I'm like, oh. And then it goes off into some very specific examples of when you might be there for me.

But in the end, I liked it. I think I was a little curious about what kind of backyard you have that has a dam. Well, listen, we'll be there. Fast fact number three, Ellie Kemper is our new receptionist. Woohoo. We love Ellie. We are definitely going to have her on the show. You know, Ellie and I both grew up in St. Louis.

I know. Now I did not know her growing up. She is six years younger than me. I had actually graduated college and moved to Los Angeles while she was still in high school. I'm six years older than my husband. So you just described our relationship, I guess. Had we known each other back then. By the way, do you know who her high school drama teacher was?

Ellie's? No. John Hamm. Shut the front door. John Hamm also grew up in St. Louis. I also did not know John Hamm growing up, even though we were closer in age. I can't believe that was Ellie's drama teacher. Yeah. But of course, you know, Phyllis was also from St. Louis.

Yes. Our director Ken Quapas was from St. Louis. And our first lady, Rusty Mahmood was from St. Louis. So we were all very excited. Well, you know, on the DVD commentary, there was a little bit of chatter. On the DVD was Jenna, Jean, and Lee, and Justin. Nice group. Nice group.

There was a little bit of chatter about which city in America was most represented in the cast and crew of The Office. I think with the addition of Ellie, it became St. Louis. It was Boston. It became St. Louis. Yes. And Jenna, I want you to know, you have clearly been a... This is going to make me laugh, obsessed with facts for a long time. I want you to hear what you brought to the DVD commentary.

RAD is also from St. Louis. And so is Shannon, one of our PAs, and Ken Quapas, one of our directors. See, you said you were not going to have any fun facts. Now you're just pulling them out. So many people are having so much fun with my facts. Oh my God. And by the way, I forgot about Shannon, who was also from St. Louis. I know.

Well, you listed them all. I sort of just took a snippet out. You sort of talked for a while about St. Louis. But clearly you went into this DVD commentary saying, guys, I hope I have some fun facts. So much so that they were like, you do have great facts. It just cracked me up to hear you talking about your fun facts, and now you have your fast facts. I'll tell you what. When I would go into DVD commentaries, I was often worried that I wouldn't have anything to talk about.

So I would do kind of the equivalent of a mini deep dive on something. I wanted to come in with like an interesting tidbit that we could throw in there if there was ever a moment where we weren't covering something about the show. This is why I love you. It goes back so far. It does, but it just got me so tickled. We had a fan question from KJ Davy. Aaron is my favorite character of the office. How did the producers come up with her personality and her character as a whole? And how much creative liberty did Ellie have in creating her character's quirks and traits?

KJ, Jean told me something crazy about the development of the character of Kelly Aaron. He said that the writers had not fully fleshed out Aaron's personality by the time we started shooting. So when we started, they had Ellie perform all of her scenes and all of her talking heads two different ways as two different characters. I remember this. She had to do them in like that earnest quirky way that we know and love as Aaron. That's the one we eventually go with. But Jean said, believe it or not, there exists a bizarro Aaron where her lines are also delivered in a no nonsense way. And I asked him, how long did she have to do this before they decided?

And he said they definitely had like two totally different versions of her talking heads written. And then in her scenes with Dwight and Andy hitting on her, she had to then perform those with different characteristics. I mean, Jean said he gives her so much credit because this was her first big role on a TV show. And she basically did two versions of Aaron in every scene for the entire week. So until you shared about that sort of two versions of Aaron, I had forgotten about it. But now there's a deleted scene that makes sense to me. Aaron just looks at camera, you know, she's doing a talking head and she's just like, do I have to do one of these on all of my breaks? Yes, Angela.

James Carey had the candy bag for this episode and it included Aaron's two talking heads, neither of which end up in the episode. Well, one of them is on the DVD. Okay, this is the one that was in the candy bag as their first choice, which was, it's pretty cool. Like any other office, I guess, phones, computers, copiers, do I have to do this on all my breaks? Yeah. Is that the one that's included? Yeah, and I was a little confused because I thought it felt sort of off. Then they had this must shoot alternate, which went like this.

Most places you go, the chairs are really crappy and you're uncomfortable all day. My chair here is great. I really hope this works out. And that was like the one that quirky Aaron would say. Yeah, I guess that's our sign that the office got the new chairs because she's loving Pam's chair. That's it. I think Pam finally got her new chair and now she's working down in Michael Scott paper company. Pam talks about the chairs too later on.

I know. I just want to say that this doing two versions of your character happened to me on the film Blades of Glory. Really? Yeah. I had gone in with this idea for this version of the character that was based kind of on like Bernadette Peters' performance and the jerk. Yeah. I just really loved her wide-eyed, innocent, earnest approach to love and sex and just sort of all of it. Being with sort of an oddball guy and that is very similar to my character of Katie in Blades of Glory.

But I think there was a little bit of concern that that might feel like too big of a choice. And so they also had me do all the scenes just pretty straight. And I did that for a couple of days. Every scene. And eventually they went with my quirky version. I was so proud. But it was super intense because I remember one day. I was shooting the scene with Will Arnett and Amy Poehler.

They played a brother-sister ice skating duo and their little sister slash assistant. Oh my God. It was so much fun shooting with those guys. That whole movie looked like a blast. The cast looked like so much fun. We had a blast. But we had this scene and they were like, okay, we're going to lunch. Jenna, you get two takes.

One in one version and one in the other. And I had to just nail both versions. And I remember someone and I can't remember who came up to me early and they were like, just don't do a good job of the version you don't want to have them pick. Just do the version you like really well. Take one of them. Yeah. And then they'll be forced to go with, you know, your vision of the character.

I couldn't do it. My like actor integrity. No, just your whole little compass. You couldn't ever do that. Yeah, I couldn't do it. It is interesting to me how characters become like who they are on a show or in a movie. This is reminding me of a project that one of my friends wrote. It was based on a real life story from her life.

And she had this character of a guy named Ed and he was based on her friend in real life Ed. And Ed was also an actor. So Ed went into audition for Ed. So he's in front of the network and he's like, hi, I'm Ed. I'm reading for Ed. And he just was himself. She wrote him as himself. We were all like, Ed's going to get the part of Ed, right?

I mean, they wrote it for Ed. And he didn't get it. I was like, how can Ed not get Ed? It's based on Ed. Like what? Lady, I have a very similar story. Okay. I auditioned for this lead role in a pilot opposite Dan Finnerty.

He's from the Dan band. Yeah. Yeah. It was hilarious. And when I read the role, I thought to myself, oh, this is so Maryland right. And so I went in and I just did my best impression of Mary Lynn. I love Mary Lynn. I know.

I have worked with her many times. I super copied her. I get to the final audition. It's me and two other women. One of them is like a tall, gorgeous blonde. The other one is Mary Lynn rice. Then I find out that Dan knows Mary Lynn and he wrote the role for her. And he won.

Well, I was proud of myself because I was like, well, I guess I nailed it on what he was going for. He was going for Mary Lynn. Did Mary Lynn get it? No, neither of us did. They gave it to the blonde. Oh, no. I know.

And it was so funny because I thought to myself, well, obviously they're going to go with Mary Lynn. They're not going to go with me. I'm copying her. Right. They didn't give it to either of us. But the two of us. I don't know.

They were at least doing what he intended when he wrote it. Yeah. No, they went the other way. You never know. You never know. Well, why don't we take a break? And when we come back, we will really get into this episode. I have a lot of fun stuff this week, I think.

Me too. I have some sunglasses information. Hold up. I have sunglasses information. Oh my God. What if we have the same sunglasses information? What if we have the same sunglasses information? Whose sunglasses are you going to talk about?

Two different people's sunglasses. I have photo evidence of somebody's sunglasses. I have photo evidence of somebody's sunglasses. This is how you guys know that we don't talk to each other. We show up and try to surprise each other. And sometimes we find the same things. We'll be back. We are back.

And this episode opens with Michael driving up in his convertible. He's got the top down. He's blasting his music. Yeah. It's Britney, bitch. But it's Lady Gaga. Exactly. Yeah.

It's Lady Gaga singing Just Dance. But it's Britney, bitch. At 18 seconds, I caught the camera crew in Michael's sunglasses. You did? Yep. Go to 18 seconds. You can see our camera crew in his sunglasses. You guys, there was some debate about Michael's sunglasses.

We're already into the sunglasses info. I know. It's right out of the gate. They couldn't decide. Two things. One, should he leave the sunglasses on the whole time? Mm-hmm. Or should he take them off?

Okay. They decided it's better for comedy if your sunglasses are off because you use your face, you guys. Okay. Right? Number two, they were trying to debate between the pair of sunglasses they picked or a pair that were really popular at the time that P. Diddy was wearing. Oh.

Okay. And they picked not P. Diddy's glasses. That's right. So they picked not P. Diddy's glasses, but to also take them off for the sake of comedy. Well, at 32 seconds, Michael is going to try to parallel park. He's going to do this unsuccessfully. There's just not enough room. I love when he said not going to make this one.

There's like three car lengths of curb available. Randy Cordray told us that we did this in cuts. So first they padded the rear bumper of Michael's PT cruiser so that it wouldn't actually damage the car behind him. They shot it in a way so you can't see the padding. When Michael pulls away, they had removed the foam cushioning and that crunch you hear was a special effects sound that they added in post. Well, I thought it was a really relatable moment because I know I've bailed mid-parallel

park before, especially if you're trying to parallel park somewhere where people are like eating outside. And they're watching you. They're all watching you do that. Eat, eat, eat, eat. Like trying to back in and then you're just like, forget it. Bailing. When I went to take my driving test, I was about to fail.

The last task was parallel park. Same. And I nailed it and I passed my driving test. Gina, same here. I was doing horribly, but Coach Wolf, who taught me driver's ed, had really worked with me on parallel parking. My dad had really worked with me on parallel parking. Does this make us sound like bad drivers that parallel parking saved us?

Well, here's the thing. Ironically, I do not get in actual car accidents, but I am constantly hitting things when I'm trying to park. I know. I've seen you like get real close to hitting something when you were parking one time. I was like, Jenna, Jenna, Jenna. Yeah. Well, when I took my driver's ed test, the tester guy, he wrote a little note on my

test score. What did it say? Very distracted. Distracted? Because when he was giving me my driver's ed test, we drove down the little main street of the small town I'm from. And my friends were all hanging out at this car wash that had gone out of business. People would park their cars there and hang out.

Sure. Like teenagers. And a bunch of my friends were parked there and they all knew I was taking my test. And so as I drove by, I honked and waved. And my tester guy did not like that. But you still passed. I still passed because of parallel parking. Well, also arriving this morning to the Scranton Business Park is Ryan and Jim and Pam are

walking in. Pam and her blazer and her new plant alert. I know. People wrote in about the plant, Angela. It's the first thing I noticed. 42 seconds. Spotted a potted plant is what I wrote in my notes. And it's very cute.

And it's going to stay on the little desk in Michael Scott Paper Company. Well, for a long time, we've wondered who would bring in the potted plants at reception. I guess this solves it. It was Pam. It was Pam. While Pam and Jim are walking into the parking lot, Michael has wedged his car between two other cars. And he's trying to shimmy out.

Over the back, holding the Cheetos, by the way. Yes. Jenna, Steve ripped his pants in the scene. He did. Yeah. He was trying to scooch over the back of the PT Cruiser. And his pants got hung up on the back of the little convertible part. And he's scooching.

It's in the bloopers. And I was going to play it, but the majority of the bloopers is Steve scooching and grunting, trying to get over the back hump of the car. And he finally says, I'm going to need a new pair of pants. It just made me laugh. You know what? I'll put the blooper in our stories because it's really one you have to watch to appreciate. Now we go to our opening credits.

And they are all new this episode in honor of Michael Scott Paper Company. I was very excited for you. I was like, oh, I bet Jenna has a whole breakdown because you've done a whole thing about the opening credits. First of all, I did not remember this. So when this came on, I was so delighted. And then all the memories came flooding back of us filming these new opening credits. They were also not in the script.

This was Mindy Kaling's idea. Lee and Jean said they absolutely loved getting to shoot them. And they really tried to match the tone and style of the original main titles. So I did a whole breakdown of the Michael Scott Paper Company main titles and our usual main titles. And they match up almost shot for shot. It's pretty cool. That's awesome. I have some fun tidbits about some of the things we saw in those opening credits.

OK. First of all, the goldfish on Michael's desk. Oh, yeah. This all happens about one minute, 18 seconds, right? There's a great overview of the whole room. We got a fan mail flurry about this goldfish lady. Oh, yeah. Remember last week we talked about the Jerry Maguire goldfish and how Michael and Pam had their Jerry Maguire moment?

Well, Michael is going to have a goldfish on his desk now. But fan mail flurry points out that there is going to be a different goldfish every time we cut to a shot of Michael's desk. And there is a reason for that. Randy Cordray said this was an Easter egg that they planted in these episodes. It's never talked about. But the idea was that Michael could not keep this fish alive. Randy told me that every Friday they would give the goldfish to a crew member who wanted it. And then they would replace it with a new fish for the next episode.

So moving forward, folks, I will track the fish. It starts as your standard orange goldfish. OK. Goldfish tracker. Next up, I would really like to talk about the stapler that BJ is using in the opening credits. It is a paper pro stapler, and we were obsessed with it in Michael Scott Paper Company. Obsessed. Why?

It is the greatest stapler you will ever use ever. Phil Shea, let me keep one. I still have it. You do not have to push on it the way BJ is in the opening credits. He is operating the stapler incorrectly. You just give it a little squeeze, and the air pressure, some sort of mechanism, makes it staple perfectly. I looked it up. Here's how it is described.

OK. The paper pro is the first engineering breakthrough in staplers since, well, the stapler. Push it with one finger's worth of effort, and a spring-loaded mechanism drives the staple with 30 pounds of force through up to 20 sheets of paper. Wow. We loved that stapler. We loved it. Of all the things I thought we would talk about today, I did not think we'd talk about a super air pressure powered stapler. I recommend it.

I'm dying to use one. Finally, the copier that you see in the opening credits and throughout this episode is the broken copier from the surplus. I love that written on the side that says trash. I know. That copier is just haunting Pam. She's lost her comfortable chair, and now she's back with this horrible copier. What has she done to her life? You know that was sitting out by the dumpsters.

They wrote trash on it and set it out. So right at the beginning of their first day of the Michael Scott paper company, there would have been a series of talking heads. Ryan had one. Michael had one. Pam had one about her first day. I thought it was really sweet and also made me a little curious. I think we need to hear it. I'm embarking on a new adventure.

There was a fork in the road, and I took the road less traveled. Never traveled. Not even a road, really. More of a path with a sign that says those who pass shall die and a skull and crossbones. The other road was kind of like Putnam Road. That's a really boring road in Scranton. So these were the two paths that you were choosing between. But guys, in Scranton, I Google image Putnam Road.

It looks like a fine road. There's something crazy. I worked at Putnam Investments as an executive secretary for years. That was my last full-time job I had as an executive assistant before I was able to earn my living full-time as an actor. Woo! Yeah, that's a full circle life moment. Well, back upstairs, you know, there's such a funny scene. Kelly is sort of leaning up on Jim's desk and she's just sort of mumbling things. Like, you're where you're not really talking to me.

She is just waiting for Charles to say Kelly. And then she runs in and she's like, you wanted me? And he's like, no, no, no, I meant that Kelly. And this is when we meet Aaron. Yes. Jim has this fantastic talking head that he says that Kelly thinks if she says you wanted me enough that Charles will in fact want her. It's not the worst plan she's ever had. Hey, this made me think. Like, this is like self-fulfilling prophecy.

Like, Kelly is using self-fulfilling prophecy. My mom used to have this saying, and I think it's like paraphrasing scripture and proverbs, but speak of what is not as if it were so and it shall become. And I think I was like sort of in a very deep place when I was watching this episode. I had some things in my life that I had sort of written out like something I was meditating about, praying about, and it was coming to fruition and I was trying to plant these seeds of like positive good intention, right? To then have this great harvest of this good thing. And when you watch the office through that filter, you're like, Kelly, Kelly is practicing self-fulfilling prophecy.

It's great. I use that all the time. We talk about that. Yeah. And just in the formation of this podcast, we must have said what we wanted for two years. Yeah. Before we developed the show and signed a contract. Speak the positive. Speak it. I always say when you blow out your birthday candles, you should tell everyone your wish because the more people who know, there's more people invested in helping you make it come true.

Yeah. Share your wishes. Share it. I love that. I had to share that. Well, I have got a bit of a bombshell regarding this scene. What? A full bombshell. What? So, you know, Charles says, I wasn't talking about you, Kelly. I was talking about the other Kelly

and they eventually settle on the fact that they will call the second Kelly by her middle name, Aaron. Yeah. The original name for Ellie's character, the one that appears in the table draft. What? Was not Kelly. It was not Aaron. Her name was Mary. Mary? Yeah.

And this scene was not a thing where they have the same name. That was a late addition. Oh, wow. I love this scene. I know me too. Well, fan question from Kelly Ann M. Who says, we need to track Aaron's hair progression. When did she go red? She will eventually win Cutis Redhead in the office, but she's a brunette here.

We need to track it. Well, Lee Eisenberg filled me in on this. Well, I remember some of this. He said when Ellie showed up for her very first day of work, her hair color was almost identical to mine. Yep. And everyone freaked out. They were not trying to tell a story that Pam was being replaced by a sort of lookalike person. And they were really worried that if they put her on camera, having the same color hair,

that it was going to tell a story they weren't telling. Yeah. So they had to change the whole schedule for the day and color her hair. I was in the hair and makeup trailer when she was getting her hair colored by Kim Ferry. And I guess Kim just has a drawer of hair color. Sure. And they came up with this sort of brunette color, which will now evolve. The character of Aaron was also not originally meant to become a full-time regular character.

This was just going to be a few episodes. So we will track it. But I believe her hair is going to get to sort of change over to that red color as they make her a more permanent character on the show. Yeah. I remember that day and Ellie is such a team player, you know? My memory is correct. They dyed it one time and then dyed it again. Oh boy.

Yeah. Oh boy. Michael Scott Paper Company has kind of come already to a standstill. They don't know what to do. They're like, what do we do now? They're just sitting there looking at each other. Yeah. Michael's working on his evite for his pancake luncheon.

We had a fan catch from Rhea V and Abby M who noticed if you look closely, it says that the luncheon is going to take place on Saturday. I saw that too. Also during this scene, you can hear the sounds of toilets flushing through the pipes overhead. You're really getting a sense of this workspace. So we could actually hear toilets flushing if somebody used the real bathrooms outside. So while we were shooting, they would not allow anyone in there. But while we rehearsed or while we were waiting to shoot, people could use the bathrooms. And so we would really sit in that room and hear flushing toilets.

And I also don't know if you noticed the spots that BJ and I are sitting in when we first walked into that room. Our natural inclination was to sit across from one another at the table because it gave you maximum space for your elbows. Sure. You know, but you couldn't shoot us that way. We had to both sort of sit with our backs like scrunched up against that wall kind of next to each other facing Michael. Because it was literally the only way to get us on camera. Last week in Dream Team for the DVD commentary for that episode, Matt Zone actually talked about this episode and how hard it was to shoot in that room because of the angles.

Exactly what you were talking about. They kept catching each other. Our two camera operators kept catching each other in the shot. So they had to sort of position you guys so that they could get these single camera shots of you. Yeah, I think that's something you don't think about when you watch the scene is how there's all these extra people in the room. Yeah. But they're magically avoiding one another on camera. But at the same time, Steve is Michael can't walk from his desk to the poker table without bonking his leg into things.

You know, it's like that tight. Well, now Michael is going to ask Pam to make 800 copies of his unparalleled customer service coupon. But Pam has a talking head and I really relate to this. She says, if I make this one copy, then I'll become the girl who makes copies and then I'm basically a receptionist again. And I don't know if you noticed where the phone was on that table, but it is right in front of Pam. So she's already clearly closest to the phone. And even later when it rings, Michael says, answer it. I know.

Right? Yeah. She's really trying to break out of this role of receptionist and she refuses to make the copy. She doesn't want to go down Putnam Road, guys. She doesn't. She wants the other path, the more exciting path. Well, it's a pretty big day for a few other characters at Dunder Mifflin. Dwight is going to take Andy hunting.

They're like buddy buddy. There's so much more of this scene where they're sort of wrestling and like doing all this stuff. It goes on for so long. I have no doubt. You not ask the fellas to roughhouse or wrestle in a scene unless you want to have an hour of additional footage of it. Because anytime they had Rainn Wilson and John Krasinski have to do something like that, like last week's knock knock joke thing. Any scuffle. It's worth a watch in the deleted scenes because those two fellas go for so long and all their fake different ways of attacking each other.

And they get so into John's personal space and his face is hilarious. I don't know how he kept a straight face. Andy had a talking head that was deleted where he talks about this bromance. You know, we see Dwights in the episode, but Andy had a counterpart one and I think we need to hear it. No. Let me tell you something. When Angela and I split, I went through it big time, lost my high notes. Top of my range was like...

Then it took some time. I got my heel on. I got some perspective on. And I found a new friend in the most unlikely of places. The enemy bend. And now... Wow. He got his high notes back.

He did. He got his heel on. He got his perspective on. And he found it all on the enemy bend. I know. I also really love the storyline of Charles asking Jim for the rundown. Yes. And Jim has no idea.

What a rundown is. And he's not going to ask. He's too afraid. I know. So when we reached out to Jean and Lee, they said that this whole rundown story was a late addition. It was part of a rewrite session. And you know, we've talked about how some of the writers would break off into these little pods. So Paul Lieberstein, Jen Salata and BJ Novak broke away from the group.

And in about two hours, they came up with this whole rundown storyline. I love it. I know. And then Justin Spitzer said, they thought this was great. This sort of rundown was sort of this vague term. And no one in the writer's room really knew what it meant. So they thought, well, that's perfect. Maybe Jim wouldn't know either.

And they said after the episode aired that they got mail that people were like, yeah, a rundown. Yeah, rundown. Like people had heard of it. And they were like, no way. So I looked it up. I googled because we're ladies that Google. We are. I just wrote, what is a rundown?

And this is what the internet had to say. Okay. In businesses, a rundown is a status report or summary. Yeah. I mean, common sense would lead me in that direction. If I had to guess, I would think, oh, I should make a list of all my current clients and their status. Yeah. I think I could have been a little confused.

Like, is a rundown my sales? Is it like an item I sing of how much product I move? Or is it more just my client's names and how long they've been my clients? You know, I think there is a little bit of vagueness, like Justin said. But Jim just needs to ask, what do you want a rundown of? My clients, the inventory? What exactly? Sales.

Sales? Well, I'll tell you what. We got a lot of mail on this. And Hannah Q. had a strong opinion. Oh. Saying, forgive me for saying this, but I think I'm on Charles' side when it comes to the rundown. I've never had an office job, and even I have a pretty clear idea of what it could or should look like. Come on, Jim.

You're a smart guy. Look within and find the rundown. Hannah's not having it. She's not having it. Meanwhile, in the kitchen, we're going to kick off this storyline where Dwight and Andy are both kind of flirting with Aaron. Dwight does this weird thing where he teases her about the office being haunted. And then Andy comes in and they end up doing a little dance together. It's going to get awkward real fast.

It really is. What happened to their bromance? It's already being tested. I know. Jenna, you know, like when you make a personal call and you know you need to make a personal call, but, you know, other people can overhear you. So you try to practice some form of etiquette in that phone call or speak in code a little bit. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

That's going to be happening at the Michael Scott Paper Company. It sure is. And there is a joke right off the bat that was so funny to me where Ryan is making plans for the weekend. And then he says, yeah, she's like a New York six, but in Scranton, she's a seven. And then he says, and my boss is my old boss, which makes it very clear that the Scranton seven is Pam. Yeah. New York six. And they cut to you and your face as you realize it is so great.

Justin said he felt like this was one of those amazing moments where the joke came before the setup. Yes. And paid off in this amazing way. The whole thing is such a smart joke. It's so well crafted. It made me laugh. I absolutely loved it. So I think we should stay down here in Michael Scott Paper Company and discuss the next thing that's going to happen, which is Ryan watching a video online instead of making the copies that Michael has requested.

Yes. In 10 minutes, seven seconds, you can see the video that Ryan is watching. It was actually a local commercial in Alabama that became very popular on YouTube. And I want to tell you a little bit about it. So this went viral in 2006. A man named Sammy Stevens created and wrote and performed a jingle for his Montgomery, Alabama business. It was a flea market. Oh, yeah.

And he did his own commercial. And it went viral. Over 12 million people have watched this video. Of course, it went viral before YouTube was kind of YouTube, right? And it wasn't monetized. So he has said in interviews, he didn't make any money off that, but it really took off. And Ellen DeGeneres had him on as a guest. Really?

Uh-huh. The flea market is no longer in business, but Sammy is still writing commercial campaigns and performing. He has appearances on TV and a radio show. And I found Sammy on Instagram, he's at the real Sammy Stevens, S-T-E-P-H-E-N-S. Something I love about our show is that we were always working in these pop culture topical moments because that's what people do. That's what you would do is watch this YouTube video that was very popular while you were at work. It makes total sense to me.

Yeah. And you would show all your coworkers. It's actually something that would happen on our set. As we've shared, Oscar had the only working computer with sound and we would all huddle around his computer and watch videos. Well, at seven minutes and five seconds at the very top of the scene, you can see something sitting next to Ryan in the little poker chip. Catty? Yeah. Because we're sitting at a poker table, which is amazing.

It is an inhaler. Yes. This was a whole deleted runner. Yes. That Ryan uses an inhaler and he and Pam even get in a fight at one point and she steals his inhaler. Well, because Michael, he hands it to Michael for Michael to use and she's like, wait, that might be bad for him. Yeah. It's a whole thing.

It ended up getting cut, but that's why there is this inhaler and you can spot it throughout the episode sitting next to the laptop. There is also a fantastic shot at seven minutes, 36 seconds of all the clocks on the wall. I think we have to talk about them. There is a clock for Paris, London, Beijing and the USA. According to Jean and Lee and Justin, the USA clock was set to Scranton, but all the other clocks were set to the time interval between those cities and Los Angeles. And they caught this error halfway through the episode and they were just like, ah, we can't change it now. We have to just leave it. Oh, we got a lot of mail about those clocks, Angela.

I'm very glad that you brought it up. People will feel very satisfied because that has been spotted. You know, also in this scene, there is this very subtle thing that happens between Ryan and Pam that makes me laugh. They're discussing who should make the copies and Ryan says, you're just so good at it. You should do it, Pam. And she's like, you're saying that what I'm good at is pressing a big green button. And he's kind of like, listen, I don't judge what we're good at. Yeah, he's like, why is it insulting to say that you're good at something?

Yeah. So this reminded me of this very funny back and forth that my husband and I have had. Because I always say that Lee makes the best coffee in the morning and the best eggs. And I guess I'm very complimentary about it. I'm always like, these are the best eggs. This is the best coffee. So about like five years into our marriage, Lee says to me, do I really make the best eggs? Five years?

Yeah. He's been holding on to that. He says, do I really make the best coffee and the best eggs? Or is it just that you don't want to make them? And I was like, what? And he said, I mean, how hard is it to make good coffee and eggs really? Oh, no. I feel like maybe you're just complimenting my coffee and eggs so that I make you coffee

and eggs every day. And I was like, no, they really are superior. I swear it's better coffee than I make. I mean, that we could prove because there were some mornings when I made the coffee and Lee was like, oh yeah, that's not great. But Lee doesn't eat eggs. I eat eggs in the morning and he would always make me my eggs. But it's the truth, babe.

Lee, you make the best coffee and eggs. You just do. Lee, I've traveled only a handful of times with your wife. I know you have traveled with her many, many times. And I know that this woman does not lie about food or beverage. Thank you. She is completely earnest when she likes something and when she doesn't, you're going to know about it. That's the thing.

I'm not going to eat mediocre eggs for five years just because someone else made them for me. If I really believed I could make better eggs, I'd be making my own eggs. Well, once again, while people are talking in Michael Scott Paper Company, you hear someone in the bathroom. Yeah, you hear their voice through the ceiling. You hear them peeing. We had a fan question from Afrin R in the scene where Michael, Pam and Ryan are in their small new office and we hear a male voice talking on his phone in the bathroom.

Whose voice is it? It sounds like Toby, but the conversation made me doubt it. It was Toby. Paul did the voice. Now on the commentary, I think Jean and Lee joked that they made Paul sit up in the ceiling tiles to do his lines. But that is not true. He was actually just off camera. He was not in the ceiling.

They added all the effects and posts to make it sound like he was in the bathroom above us, including like all the peeing sounds. But it really sounds like he's above you. I mean, I was so sold on that. Yeah. No, he was not. He was just off camera. But incidentally, I would like to point out that our sound team was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series Half Hour for this episode.

Well, they deserve it. I know. They really sounded like he was up there. And all the flushing and everything. Well, Michael's going to call his mom and talk in code. Jenna, much in the way that you and I talk in code, he's really bad at it. It's so obvious. It's so obvious.

He says, Mom, they're getting on my nerves, R thinks he's too good to be here and P is not as much fun without Jim. And then he's like, Mom, I got to go. P's being a giant B. This is us, lady. Well, this whole thing is going to end with Pam and Ryan bickering over the computer. I mean, they get in a huge fight over who gets to use it. And at eight minutes and 20 seconds at the end of this scene, the camera pushes in on Michael. He's standing in front of the whiteboard and written on the whiteboard is a quote that says, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

Wayne Gretzky, Michael Scott. As if Wayne Gretzky is part of the quote. Yes. Right. He's quoting himself quoting Wayne Gretzky. Justin Spitzer wrote that joke. Gene and Lee both brought it up saying it was one of their favorite parts of the episode. Like, I see that meme all the time.

Oh, yeah. It's so brilliant. If you Google Wayne Gretzky's quote, a Michael Scott version with his picture comes up. It's crazy. Well, why don't we take a break? When we come back, we still have to discuss the pancake luncheon and Dwight and Andy's rivalry and Jim maybe finally figuring out what a rundown is. And also a scene where maybe Jim has disappeared. Where has he gone?

I might have the answer. Oh, wow. Oh, I also have a sunglasses thing. Oh, and I do too. There's so much to come back for. We're back. Dwight is going to approach Andy about his obvious attraction to Aaron in only a way that Dwight would about tingly feelings and blood flow to places. Yes.

But he also confesses that he has his own feelings for Aaron. And they sort of talk about like, no, no, no, I don't want to get in your way and vice versa. I want you to note at nine minutes, 28 seconds while Dwight and Andy are talking, Aaron is in the background directly in the middle of these two guys. Oh, I'm sure that was on purpose. Oh, it was. Ian and Lee said that was intentional. They said they did this as many times as they could in this episode because it is a story about a woman coming between two guys. I really loved Leslie's look in the background as well. There's a lot to see in the background of the scene.

That's pretty great. And there's also someone missing in the background of the scene. Where is Jim? I can tell you where he was. Where was he? They shared in the commentary that John had to leave early to be on The Tonight Show. Oh my gosh. Well, you know, we were rapidly approaching our 100th episode of The Office, which is going to be Company Picnic, the finale of season five.

And we were starting to do a lot of press and promotion for that. I saw on the call sheets that after work on Thursday of this week, me and John and Rain stayed after work and we shot some syndicated promos. Oh, yeah. I found some old emails that a few of us did a satellite media tour as well. I bet, yeah. I always got roped in for those and they started it four in the morning because you do east coast to west coast. We were very excited. We were happy to do it.

We were team players. I was always really proud of our group effort for the show. Well, Jim is going to reappear pretty quickly because he's asking Oscar what the rundown is, right? He's gone over to the accounting nook much the way that Michael used to do. He would go ask Oscar what something meant and now Jim is doing it. I mean, Oscar's kind of the smartest guy in the office. Jenna, I love that you said that because Justin Spitzer said this in the commentary. He joked that Oscar was the voice of the writers.

He's the smartest guy who's always judging everyone. Yeah, 100%. But Oscar says, why don't you just ask him? Just ask Charles what the rundown is. So there was a deleted scene where Jim actually took Oscar's advice. What? Yeah, you've got to hear it. You have a second?

What is it, Jim? It's about the rundown. Jim, God, this rundown is taking more of my time than if I did it myself. What? What is the question now? What's a rundown? Is this one of your pranks? Huh?

Yep. Boom. Jim, I don't have time. I know. All right, I'm going to get you that rundown. Just get it to me, Jim. Right now. I'm going to go out and find it.

Oh, my gosh. Isn't that amazing? And I love that Charles clearly knows that Jim's the prankster, which he probably just add that to the list of things he doesn't like about Jim. But Jim actually asked him and then bailed. I bet that was a really funny scene. I wish that had stayed in. It was great.

There was so much awkward. Just long pauses. Ugh. Well, back downstairs, Michael determines that there are office spaces too small. He says that the solution is for Pam and Ryan to each choose a corner. Pam suggests they work from home. Ryan suggests Michael fire whichever of them has less education.

There's a little bit of that passive aggressive. But Michael is like, no, my corner idea is what it is. I want you to know there was a talking head in the script where Michael says that he negotiated a seven year lease on this space. No. No. But it gets worse. He says originally Billy started at three years.

Michael countered with seven. Oh, Michael. And then Michael says I should have said 10. So this is going to be their space for seven years. Oh my gosh. Justin pointed out something really funny. He was like, you know, when Michael says there are four corners in this room and you guys kind of looked to camera like, yeah, idiot.

Actually, there were more than four. There were because there was some like weird. Yeah. Well, Pam is going to retreat to her corner. By the way, her corner is next to the sewage pipe and the shower facing a wall. You think it can't get worse. Ryan's corner is like behind a plant. It's actually kind of the nicest corner really.

But things are going to get worse for Pam because Michael says that's his corner because he can't work in the same corner that he relaxes in. Right. So she's like, which one's mine? And he says yours is the one over there by the copier. Oh, we had a fan catch at 12 minutes one second. And it's a great continuity catch. It's very subtle.

So hats off to Tatiana V who says when Pam goes to sit in her corner, she takes a small black object with her. You can see her holding it in her lap as the camera swings back and forth from her and Michael. But right before she gets up to leave, it has disappeared from her hands because Pam is now holding the arms of her chair. What is it? That's what she wanted to know. It was Pam's flip phone.

Pam grabs her flip phone off of the poker table, but clearly I didn't do it in every take because it does just vanish. I miss my flip phone. You do? I do. And I miss the little antenna it had and how I would close the antenna with my chin. I'd like shove it into my chin. It did feel fun.

I loved it. The flip phone. Yeah. Well, you know, Samsung has a new flip phone thing. You flip it open and it becomes like a big screen. Have you seen the commercials for it? I will never be able to figure it out. There's too many moving parts.

I know, but it looks cool in the commercials. It really does, Samsung. You know what I don't miss about my flip phone, lady? What? I don't miss the texting where you had to play A, A, B, B, C, C, A, D, E, E. Like you had to click, click, click. Yeah. Listen, all of this business with Ryan and the Corners, Pam's going to leave.

She goes upstairs and she asks Charles for her old job back. She doesn't consult her fiance. Not that she needs to consult him, but you know what I mean? You would think she'd loop him in. You'd think she'd like say, Jim, I'm going to ask for her. I'm going to ask for my job back. No. But she didn't consult him when she quit and she's not going to consult him now.

She's desperate. She doesn't have time for that conversation. No. Well, Charles says the position has been filled. She says maybe a sales job, maybe a job as his personal assistant, personal shopper. Nope. No dice. So Justin talked about several different alts in the scene where they had Charles be really

sort of abrupt with Pam and they dialed it back because it seemed too harsh. So he's just more indifferent. He's just more business. Yeah. Well, this was my only real one-on-one scene with Idris, except for when he sort of came in the first day, but that wasn't much of an exchange. I was so nervous. I was such a fan.

And to be standing there with this actor that I admired so much because I was a huge fan of the wire. And he has such a patient, quiet power in his scenes. And he's such a pro. I mean, I was just, I think some of my nervousness as Pam was just my nervousness as Jenna performing with this person that I admired. Yeah. Word has clearly gotten out about the Michael Scott paper company being downstairs because

Phyllis and Stanley decided to go pop by and say, hi, we really know what it was. They were just snooping. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I would do the same thing. Are you kidding? Well, at the top of the scene, when Phyllis and Stanley poke their head in, I want you to notice that Michael is playing with the stapler, the stapler that we loved that none

of us could keep our hands off of. We would seriously staple papers on her desk. So do you think Steve was just like playing with the stapler he thought was cool? Because I don't know how to explain this air pressure mechanism of the stapler. Okay. Next time I'm over at your house, will you just show me the stapler? I seriously should have brought it in because you can hear it. It's like, wow.

It's like having all the power of an industrial stapler with the palm of your hand. You should do commercials for them. I really should. They should sponsor us. It's just the push of your finger. And when you do it, it's such an engineering marvel that you just want to staple everything on your site. Well, good Lord.

I need to see the stapler. Maybe I should do a video of myself stapling things and you can put it in the office. I will. Give it to me. We all need to see it. Okay. I'll do it. I need to hold it in my hand.

I need to touch it. Wait a second. Wait a second. That is what she said. The minute I started going down that road, I was like, no back up. Wow. Moving us along, lady, it is time to kick off this pancake luncheon. Michael is outside.

He is making square pancakes for nobody yet. Ryan is texting. I love that Michael's like, stop with the texting machine. So here we are, Jenna, at our second pair of sunglasses at 14 minutes 59 seconds. Oh, yes. I have the same time code. What do you want to say about these sunglasses? Wait, can we say it right at the same time?

It'll be jarbled, but let's see if it sounds the same. Okay. These sunglasses were inspired by Joaquin Phoenix's appearance on the David Letterman show. In 2009, when he was promoting, I'm still here. It was a very odd appearance. I watched that in real time, but it was all part of like a marketing ploy or something. He did this film and I guess he was trying to make us believe that he had actually switched

careers and it was sort of like an Andy Kaufman-esque thing. I took a screen grab. I did a side-by-side for you, lady, Joaquin Phoenix and Ryan, same sunglasses. Putting that in stories. They retail for about $400. What? For sunglasses? Yeah.

Are they crazy? Are they prescription? No. They're just fancy. That's nuts. I mean, if I bought that pair of sunglasses, I might as well just flush $400 down the toilet because I'm going to lose them in less than a year. I know some people like fancy sunglasses and listen, you do you, but I don't know.

Three kids, sunglasses, soccer games, mine just get wrecked. I splurged on a pair of $200 prescription sunglasses. I had to have prescription sunglasses. Because I was doing the double glasses for so long, where you buy a giant pair of regular sunglasses that you put over your real glasses. I saw it, Jenna. You look like you need to live in like a Florida retirement community. I know.

And you know what? I managed to keep those prescription sunglasses for almost two years. I lost them somewhere and now I'm back to double glasses. You know what we need? What? Josh says I need the chain on my glasses. Oh, I have a story about my mom. What happens?

That's it, right? That's it. Your sexy days are over. If you put your glasses on a chain, I don't know. Well, my mom, we affectionately call her Lucy because when you go into a store with her, it's like you're shopping with Lucille Ball from I Love Lucy because she will manage to get tangled in or knock over any store display. I was going to say, does she knock things over or try to put too many chocolates in

her mouth? So we were shopping with her and she had on her glasses around one of those chains, but it was winter. So she also had a scarf and she also had, I don't know, long necklaces, a purse, you know, cross-bodied. She goes to take off her cross-body purse. It yanks on her sunglasses chain. Elbows are flying.

She takes down a whole display of earrings. Oh, no. My sister and I are like rushing in to like help her. She's tangled. She looks like a cat tangled in string and just displays are falling down. So whenever I think about putting my glasses on a chain, that memory comes back to me and I think that could be me. I could be that.

I could easily have done that. I could take down a display. You could take down a display. I saw you almost take out a few people on an airplane with a guitar. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so I can't, I can't chain my glasses is the bottom line. Oh, well.

I'm sorry. Okay. But we spent $400 on these glasses for the character of Ryan for this very subtle inside joke that clearly Ryan is a Joaquin Phoenix fan and probably saw that it's in character. He is the kind of guy who has to have the thing, the latest thing. Even though his mom is driving him to work. Yes. Exactly.

He's really not employed. Like he's not earning a paycheck. He isn't. He's going to get $400 sunglasses at 15 minutes, 10 seconds. Right as Pam is walking up, there's a great shot of some fake grocery bags. Oh, we got some fake bags. We got some fake bags and Jenna, you shared on the commentary something that jogged my memory, it took me back immediately to this day, you shared while you were filming this

parking lot scene, the paparazzi snuck on to our set. Oh my gosh, I remember that. Yes. We had a guy. So guys, we weren't on a big lot. We've shared that before. We didn't have security, you just drove in. You did.

And after this day, we got a security guard and a little hut. Yeah. Yeah. He clearly staked us out, realized you could just drive right on the set, came right on and just started clicking pictures of the set, the parking lot, actors coming out of their trailers. They got one of Steve coming out of his trailer and it took us all a while to be like, oh, who's that guy?

Oh my God. Oh, wait, wait, wait. No one knows that guy. Did I mention in the commentary why we think this happened finally after five seasons? No. John had started dating Emily Blunt. Oh no. Yeah.

So that was sort of tabloid-y interesting until now, none of us did anything of tabloid interest basically. No. No. So I remember this because I was dating Lee at the time. He and I were starting to get serious and John started dating Emily and we became couple friends. You did.

You guys would like go and do things. We did. And the news finally broke that the two of them were dating one another. And I think that's why the paparazzi showed up. Maybe so. Because it was just sort of what five years in out of nowhere, oh, this guy wants pictures. Yes, exactly. But one other time we had paparazzi show up was when we were shooting on location for

Jim and Pam's wedding. Oh yeah. Well, that would have been a big- That was like a big show of us within the show. But for the most part, we didn't have any of that stuff. We didn't. Thankfully. Because there are just our little tucked away little studio.

I agree. I do think at one point the paparazzi got a shot of me leaving my trailer with like my empty lunch plate. And it is the most short laugh, it is just like the most unflattering photo of a person who has finished their lunch. This was years later, you guys, like the show had ended and I was vacationing and I was at a beach that I guess Maria Sharapova was at. And the paparazzi clearly showed up for her, but I was like, side dish.

So they got the photos of her and then they snapped a few of me and it ended up in a tabloid magazine and I saw the picture of me and I was like, how do I send them a thank you? Was it a really good picture of you on vacation? In my bathing suit, I was like, I should thank someone. I would say that we could put these photos in our stories, but it's going to be like me, with the lunching out of my empty food plate and you vacationing in Mexico. I had just like been working out and I just want to sell someone. Thank you.

Thanks for getting that for me. Well, since we're on the subject, I will just give this one more anecdote. I really, really did not get photographed by the paparazzi ever and I still don't. In fact, one time I got in a car accident. I was rear-ended by the paparazzi who were chasing Christina Ricci and I had to get out of my car and we had to exchange all of our information. The guy never took my picture in the whole exchange. And then another time I was out to dinner with Andy Roddick and Brooklyn Decker.

No one took your picture. They swarmed them and then everyone was taking their picture. Someone said, hey, can you hold my camera? Yeah, they were almost like, could you get out of the way of the picture of the beautiful people, please? You two are messing up our shot of the glamour couple. That was truly our story. Even when I was in the proximity of people being photographed by the paparazzi, no one

cared. This is so true. So true. I'm grateful. Yeah, me too. And then Jim has completed his rundown, everybody. Huge news. He presents it to Charles.

Charles doesn't even want to look at it. Charles is like just fax it to everyone on the distribution list. He is so annoyed with Jim that it took him all day to just compose a list. And Jim, once again, is like embarrassed and tries to make up this thing like, yeah, I was just going to see you and I had the same format. And also, now Jim is not even sure what the distribution list is. I know. Has Jim done his job before?

What is he doing all the time? I want you guys to know something. The shot of Jim faxing his dad, the distribution list, was the very first thing that Ellie shot on her very first day of work on the office. That was her first scene on the call sheet. And then the second scene that she shot that day was that scene from the very top of the show where her and Kelly go into Charles's office and they decide to name her Erin. Those are two good first scenes.

I would be so grateful if my first scene on a show was me just sitting at the desk in the background. Not speaking. Yes. Just getting a feel for the room. Yes. Yeah. Well, we are about to have a guest star alert.

We are because Pam is chatting up a potential client. One person has come to the pancake luncheon. He seems slightly interested, maybe not really interested, slightly interested in Michael Scott Paper Company. You can't really tell. Well, Pam doesn't have a business card on her. So she's going to tear off a scrap of paper. She finds that poetic because, you know, they sell paper.

She's putting a spin on it. That potential client that Pam is talking to is named Patrick Losasso and he was Jean and Lee's boxing trainer. Yeah. I remember them taking boxing classes. They were really into it. Yeah. Well, that was really popular at the time.

It's still kind of popular, but it had a huge flourish around this time. I mean, people were getting those, what are those bags? That they hit. Cylinder bags. Well, clearly Jenna and I did not take any boxing classes. We get to see Creed and Meredith in this scene as well. And Meredith wants to take a bunch of extra pancakes and did you guys catch this? She said, for my kid.

Yeah. One kid, for my kid. For one kid. We've received a lot of mail about that, Angela, apparently in one of the webisodes. Meredith explains the mystery of the second kid. We've got to rewatch the webisodes. We really do. We should break down the webisodes.

We should add it to our rewatch. The webisodes. Absolutely. We must do this. Okay. We will do this. We will do this. Obviously, Meredith says that when she got divorced, her ex-husband got the good kid.

And she got the other one. So there are two kids. Okay. We had a fan question from Alyssa, Ryan, and Madeline. They wanted to know, were those real pancakes at the brunch? They were real pancakes. No way. Phil Shea hired a food stylist who had a bunch of griddles set up in the warehouse and she

made all of those square pancakes. I thought they were like fakey foam pancakes. No. They were real edible pancakes. I would have eaten one. I love pancakes. Well, you know, it is very hard to make a square pancake. Yeah.

Do you have to have a special pan or something? It's really like what Michael did, where you have almost like a cookie cutter thing, but it is still incredibly difficult to do. Ainsley, our associate producer, who helps us prep our episodes, sent me a deep dive on why pancakes are round and why it is so difficult to make them any other shape. I will share with you. It is because gravity pulls on fluid uniformly. So when the dollop of batter hits the griddle at a right angle, it gets tugged down into

a round symmetrical shape due to what physicists call cylindrical symmetry. This means that its shape will not change if you rotate it around its axis. That is what cylindrical symmetry is. All directions except up and down are the same. Also, I guess, the scientific thing that is surface tension, whatever that is, is physics. That helps hold it in a perfect circle. We should do a science podcast. Clearly.

Clearly. You know that. I'm good at it. I think that's physics. Is that the centrifugal, there's a pulling, and then there's a, you know what, gravity. I'm going to go back to gravity. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

That is some reason why pancakes are round, thanks to some articles by Mental Floss and Quora.com. Truly, it is fascinating to me. I don't know how to retell that, and I don't even understand what you said, but I appreciate the science behind it. When you make a pancake, just know there's a lot of physics at work. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

I mean, listen, I think that if you memorized what I said, and you're making pancakes for your kids next time, and you just throw that out there, you're going to sound pretty smart. I'll get it wrong. They'll call me on it. You have to write it on your hand. I know. Or on a card. I need a cue card.

Which brings me to... Oh! Oh! Such a great scene. Andy and Dwight in the break room, Andy's playing banjo, and Dwight is playing guitar, and they are jamming to Take Me Home Country Road, as Erin looks on, impressed. Oh yeah, they're really trying to one-up each other in front of her. And she sings along.

Mm-hmm. It's amazing. We got so much fan mail about this. Abby Kay wanted to know, was any of this improvised because Erin looks genuinely shocked when they start singing, and then Jasper D wants to know, does Rain actually play the guitar in real life, or did he have to learn it just for this scene? Well, first of all, this was all planned. It was all scripted.

Mm-hmm. In fact, Randy Cordray told us that it cost $22,000 to license the song for this scene. Also, Rain does play guitar. He also plays the drums. And the recorder. And the recorder, which we know. And the bassoon. Oh my gosh, he plays a lot of instruments.

He can also juggle. He's a great juggler. He's like a Renaissance fear guy. He is. Didn't he go to clown school? I'm pretty sure he did. I'm pretty sure he did. I'm gonna say that sounds right.

Okay. Well, Ed really does play the banjo. In fact, Ed started a bluegrass band in college called The Lonesome Trio. And can play banjo guitar and piano, and these guys, they just practiced together at lunch on the day of the scene to get this right. Yeah. You know, when they were filming it, everything was going well. And then they got to the part where Rain had to sing, take me home country road in German.

Mm-hmm. And something about having to do it in German and keep the tune and play the guitar while Ed's playing. He was struggling a little bit. So Randy said they got him really big cue cards and they wrote out the German part of the lyrics phonetically. Mm-hmm. They had hired a translator to translate the song.

Oh, yeah. He's really singing the lyrics in German. Yeah. They put these huge cue cards right behind Ellie's shoulder, just off camera. And I want you to know if you go to 17 minutes, 47 seconds, Rain, right in that moment, I see you look at the cue card. You see him check it? Yeah.

Uh, I mean, that is hard. It's hard to sing a song, you know, in another language, but also it's a song you just learned on the guitar. Yeah. I remember one Christmas song I learned in Indonesian. Selamat Hari Natal, Selamat Hari Natal, Selamat Hari Natal, Dantah Un Baru. We wish you a merry Christmas. Nice.

You guys know I grew up in Jakarta, but there were times when you would learn a very sort of Westernized song in a different language. Well, did you notice that when Rain is singing in English, he actually gets the lyrics a little wrong? Yeah. Yeah, he flipped it. He did. So the real lyrics are, country roads take me home, but Rain sings, take me home country

road. Right. Well, I just thought we had to hear this. Can we hear Ed playing the banjo and Rain playing the guitar? Take me home country road to the place I belong, West Virginia, Mount Mama, take me home country road, take it in there, road, take it in there, road, take it in there, road, take it in there. You have to stop. How fun is it to hear those guys play?

Well, I know they must have had so much fun doing that. I loved listening to it, because it made me just think of them in real life. Yeah. The only thing missing for me was Creed, because you know Creed would have just been jamming on his mandolin. I just loved that moment. One of the things I also loved was Justin said that, you know, this really showed the bromance, because while the beginning, they're trying to one up each other and they're playing

and they're playing over each other, it ends up in just a bromance, mutual admiration. And Aaron's not even there. She walks away and now they're just looking at each other, harmonizing and jamming out and they're back. Well, while I was researching this episode, I found this really cool quote from Ed, where he talked about Andy's banjo playing on the show. It's from an e-magazine article and here's what he said. He said, I'm happy to play my banjo at any opportunity I can get, but there's no real

explanation why Andy plays the banjo. It's so fun and weird, but he's a Connecticut preppy guy. How did he pick up a banjo? It's one of Andy's many mysteries, not all of which I even understand. But I love that Andy plays the banjo, but Ed is so right. Like I never thought, how or why does Andy know how to play the banjo? Yeah, it doesn't clock at all. And also that he could just pick up a sitar and play it.

You know, it's like he's so musically talented. I get the acapella side, but this banjo is so specific. It is. Well, sad to say the pancake brunch was a little bit of a wash. Yeah. Other than the one dude. I don't think anyone came. Creed and Meredith.

That's it. Yeah. At 18 minutes, 22 seconds, we have a very sad shot of Michael and the wind is blowing the paper all over. Randy told me that we set up huge special effects fans to create this wind that it would make the whole thing feel even sadder if all these papers were blowing around and the table cloth was blowing in the wind. And then Jean told me that Randall, our cinematographer, spent almost an hour filming paper blowing

across the parking lot, like sad shots of paper blowing, he said, we never used any of it. It's an hour of paper blowing footage. Yes. That would have gone into the closet of tapes somewhere. Which is now Michael Scott Paper Company. Well, now they're all really down in the dumps. They go back into their tiny closet office and you kind of feel like they're giving

up. And then the phone rings and Pam answers it. And guess what? It's Russell from the guy luncheon. He wants paper. He does. He places an order and Pam guarantees his satisfaction. She guarantees it.

It is her guarantee. Pam has made her first sale. Not only the first sale of Michael Scott Paper Company, but her first sale, they're going to tack a dollar up to the wall. It's a huge celebration. Pam leaves with a spring in her step. Oh, yeah. She runs out, gives Jim a kiss in the parking lot.

This is an amazing day. Ryan's mom is there to pick him up. Sure. Ryan's mom was played by Cindy Drummond. And there was actually a scene that got cut from the very top of the show of her dropping him off at work and giving him a sack lunch. Cindy is an amazing actress. She's been in a ton of television comedy.

Her scenes just got cut for time. It's really unfortunate because we were really lucky to have her on the show. I love that detail. Every time I see her pull up in her station wagon, I just love it. Well, the episode's going to end with Andy and Dwight. They're just in such a great mood. They're walking through the kitchen. Oscar and Angela are sitting there.

Angela does a massive eye roll. And there was an Angela talking head that got deleted. Dwight and Andy? Friends. I mean, what do those two possibly have in common? She just takes a minute and she's like, what could they possibly have in common? And then looks at the camera like a little embarrassed. That was Michael Scott Paper Company.

And next week is heavy competition, which happens to be Office Lady's 100th episode. I can't believe it. Yeah. I can't believe it. Driving into Eer Wolf today, I always call my mom on my drive and she said, well, how many have you done? She was like, are you almost done? I said, mom, we're coming up on 100.

She said, is that it? I said, no, we're halfway. Halfway there. All right. So we will see you next week for Office Lady's 100th episode heavy competition. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you guys. I know we just heard Dwight and Andy playing together, but I want to hear as we leave the

episode Ed solo, as we say goodbye. I can always listen to Ed play that banjo. Wow. What? Oh my God. You heard that. I'm so embarrassed. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies.

Office Ladies is produced by Eer Wolf, 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 Bubaco. The 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.