Office Ladies - More Casual Friday

Episode Date: August 5, 2026

This week on Office Ladies 6.0, Jenna and Angela revisit "Casual Friday" with a fresh dive into one of Season five's funniest episodes. They uncover new candy bag alts, extended Superfan scenes, and behind-the-scenes discoveries, including the surprising cost of one cut prop, the original ending that almost changed Pam's future at Dunder Mifflin, and some memorable wardrobe details. Plus, Angela shares hilarious digital clutter from 2009, the ladies discuss whether they're too old to wear blazers with bras, and answer a fan question about becoming LEGO minifigures. So, skip the tie, throw on your most casual outfit... and enjoy!Office Ladies Website - Submit a fan question for Around the Town, Chit Chat, and Second Drink favorite moment: https://officeladies.com/submitaquestion Follow Us on Instagram: OfficeLadiesPodFollow Us on YouTubeFollow Us on TikTok

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 lovers podcast just for you. Each week we will dive deeper into the world of the office with exclusive interviews behind the scenes details and lots of BFF stories. We're the Office Lady 6.0. Hello, hello, everybody. Lady, we're sort of dressed the same. We're dressed the same and we're both recording from our home offices today. And black t-shirts. And black classes. Did you put any makeup on today? Do I look like it?

Did you do your hair? This is day two hair because I had like kind of a fun job yesterday. Yeah. So your hair looks good. Thank you. Thank you. So yeah, I didn't make any other effort. And then I have day two hair.

I mean, for me, I've always felt like if my hair looks good, that's more important than putting on makeup. for me. For sure, for sure. Which is why I'm so very excited to have hair again. I have a full bob now. You do, and it's so cute and sassy. I love it. I think I'm going to grow up two or three more inches,

just where it just brushes the shoulder. You know, I cut three inches off my hair. Sorry, guys, this is a lot of talk about haircuts and whatnot, but I mean, I like a summer trim. Same. I know we're talking a lot about hair right now, but it is 98 degrees out today. It is so hot.

And yet we are casual. We are casual today. Look at you, go. You're working in our episode. Did you like that? Did you like that? I did like it. So why don't we share with everyone what we're doing today?

Well, this episode was inspired by some mail we got in our second drink folder, specifically about the episode, Casual Friday from Season 5. and it kind of got us investigating this episode again, and there was so much we wanted to discuss. It was too much for a second drink, so today we're bringing it to 6.0, and we're going to dive in. We are, you guys, we went into the scripts, the candy bag alts, and we're also going to discuss the new scenes that were added to the superfan.

Here's the beautiful thing about the office, you guys. Each time I rewatch it, and I know you guys listening out there, do this too, I feel like I discover something new. And let me tell you, I loved our original breakdown of this episode. It's a really good one. If you want to listen to something on a road trip or a slow day at work. I mean, Brian Baumgartner comes on. He talks about that famous chilly cold open. We also talked with Randy Cordray, our producer, our costume designer, Alicia Raycraft. Kate Flannery, I mean, we really dug in. But also, we got info from Creed Bratton, from John Krasinski, and from director Brent Forrester.

It is a stacked episode. And yet, if you can believe it, we have even more to discuss today. But first, I think we should do our chit-chat question. It was sent in by Freya N in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. Hey, office ladies. My name is Freya. And I was wondering, because you guys talk a lot about food and snacking on the podcast. So I'm interested to know what is your perfect?

food day like breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert. You can eat anything. You can fly anywhere in the world. Unlimited amount of money. Calories don't count. No allergies. Yeah, so anything goes. But yeah, I'm just curious to know what would be your perfect food day. Like what would you be eating for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert. Again, I love your podcast, and I hope you continue to do this for many, many years to come. Thank you. Bye. Oh, Freya, I would need to start by saying I feel so seen by you. Particularly because you mentioned our love of snacks as well as all food. And lady, I have a new snack. What? You're coming in hot. I'm sorry. Okay, you know I love like cheddar, sort of things. You know, you know this. Oh, I know this. You know, I ate those Trader Joe's cheddar crackers by like the box load.

I've seen you eat like half a box. Yeah. And then after that, I got super obsessed with tanner bunnies. Yes. I have a new one. Okay. Okay. I discovered them when I was in Chicago and I can't stop. They are Simple Mills, almond flour, farmhouse cheddar crackers. And it's the texture. It's the way, like, when you eat it is so good. Okay. I'm sold. I'll try it. Well, Freya, my first answer to your question is my snack would be cheddar crackers. My snack is still and has been for decades, a cheese stick and some pretzels. And we all know I chomp, I don't pull the string. Okay, let's get over it. Okay. Well, what is our perfect food day? Where are we having breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert, no limitation.

Lee and I play this game sometimes. It's really fun. What are we going to do? Let's go back and forth. You say breakfast. I say breakfast. Go back and forth. Okay. I want to go to France for breakfast. Ooh, la, la. Oh, because that's right. Fray said we could go wherever. Yes. So I want to go to France and I want to have like a single awesome like French press coffee. I want to have some musli with some like fresh, fresh yogurt. And I want to have some delicious pastries. Okay. You know, I'm not. huge breakfast eater. You know this. But I love Josh's homemade granola. I do. And my favorite thing is to eat his granola and I take some bananas and I chop them up and I have peanut butter and honey and Josh's granola and I kind of mix it all together. That's one of my favorite breakfast. Okay. I like that answer. Okay. Lunch. I've shared about this before on the podcast. I want to go back to Tokyo and go to the Shibuya Food Show. and maybe just have some chicken ramen or a bento box.

But I'm going to Japan for lunch. Okay. Okay. I love lunch. It's like one of my favorite things if you get to splurge and go out for lunch, you know? Because I feel like I'm always just having a sandwich at home. So if I get to go out, oh, you know what I love? What?

I love just like a little mom and pop like Mexican food place. Like there's one in the valley here in Los Angeles called Tony's Mexican Grill. And I love their lunch combos like a cheese enchilada, a crispy shell taco, a tamale. That is like one of the best lunches. Okay. Okay. Dinner. Dinner.

I'm going far for dinner, lady. Where are you going? Where are you going? I want to take you guys to Singapore. You guys know I grew up in Indonesia. We'd go to Singapore a lot. Listen, you need to go to a hawker center. I've been to Laupasot. There's a bunch. But it is a culinary experience, Jenna. It is amazing. Like there's just about every type of food that you would want to try. I mean, there's a street called saute street. And you can get different types of saute. Wow. Lady. Lady. Lady. It is truly. such a cool experience and the food is so good. And by the way, it's open all day. So if you wanted to do breakfast and lunch there, you could. But I would take you there for dinner. We'd get some Nasi-Goring, some really good fried rice, some chicken saute. There's, oh my goodness, like you could be there for hours. That sounds amazing. Okay. I like that. Okay. What about you? What about you? For dinner? Mm-hmm. I don't know. I love Indian food. Oh, you really do.

I love Italian food. I love a smash burger. I love a smash. Burger. Can I leave dinner open for like, what am I feeling? Those would be my three things. I'm having one of those three things for dinner. Frea, we are clearly very passionate about this question. It's like our brains are breaking over it. A little bit. But I know my dessert, hardcore, I want a delicious strawberry and rhubarb pie with a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream. Well, one of my favorite all-time desserts is a chocolate meringue pie. My mom made them for me growing up. Now, Josh makes it for me. I get one every year on my birthday, and I will fight you if you come for my chocolate meringue pie, I'll be like, hey, like, I think I've told you this lady.

Josh's friend, Devin was over. And Josh was like, hey, Devin wants a piece of pie. And I'm like, not a big piece. I'm like, pulled him aside. I was like, just give him a little slice. That's very funny. Yeah. And, you know, for me, strawberry rhubarb pie is the one thing I will not bake myself because rhubarb is such a high maintenance thing. It's time consuming and I've never cooked it. I've never made it. But if I'm anywhere and I see rubarb on a menu, I'm ordering it. You're all about it. I love it. I get so excited. Well, there you go, Freya. Thank you so much for sending in that question. Yeah. I'm hungry now. I'm hungry. I'm realizing I don't have any of those crackers and I'm going to have to put them on the shopping list for later today. Send me a link.

I want to get some. All right. Oh, I'll bring him into the studio next time we're in studio. Okay. All right. Well, why don't we take a break? And then when we come back, we're going to dive into casual Friday. I have some fun digital clutter shares. And I also found something hilarious online I want to talk about. Oh, yay. I can't wait. Well, welcome back. Let's dive into some casual Friday. And why don't we start with? Wait for it. It's been a while, guys. But I'm going to going to my digital clutter. I'm very excited for this. I don't know what this is. I know you don't. I was looking through my old emails to see if you and I had exchanged any

while we were filming this episode, and I found something that really cracked me up. Okay. So here's what we were doing during this time in our lives. Okay. This email happened right after we filmed Casual Friday. I guess we were just starting company picnic, right? And there were lots of festivities going on for that 100th episode of the office, right? Yeah. Including a party. And we talked a little bit about this before, you know, when the 100th episode of the office came around and company picnic.

But I did not share this email that I found. And I'm going to read it to you. Okay. This is April 19, 2009, 231 a.m. What? From Jenna Fisher to Angela Kinsey. I can't believe I was awake at that time, any time in my life. subject title semicolon toilet what is this and then this is what the body of the email says

yep i'm on the toilet i figured this was easier than texting and it is keeping me occupied as i deal with whatever is wrong with me oh my god ugh i'm just praying it isn't the flu, but if it is, I am profoundly grateful that it didn't hit three days ago or something, because I think that's while we were filming. Okay. You go on to say, I wish I had good gossip from the party. My favorite conversation was with Jeff Blitz and Jen Salada. I told them the story of how you wrote, quote, water on your water bottle instead of

your name when you were sleep deprived after having the baby. Jen said one time when they passed the Starbucks order sheet, she wrote that she wanted and Andy talking head because she was so wiped. They also made a 100 moments montage. I really wish you could have been there. Okay, I'm heading to bed now. I'm not feeling so hot. Now I want to throw up.

Talk tomorrow. Hope this passes, Jenna. Oh my gosh. Okay, lady, my response. 7.44 a.m. Same day. Ug lady, so sorry. Definitely just take care of yourself.

I am bummed that I was. wasn't there to celebrate our 100 Epps, but honestly, my night here was great. I'm glad my sitter bailed. I was so happy to be with my little gal. Right now, Isabel and I are eating Cheerios and watching Dolphins jump. I get why people live by the beach. I hope you feel better. Sent via Blackberry by AT&T. And that is because I had rented a little place near where we were filming company picnic because I didn't want Isabel to be in a car seat for an hour. And I wanted her to be with me because I didn't work every day. I'm not in that episode a ton, you know? So I made it like a little mini vacay. And yeah, I guess I had a babysitter that bailed so I didn't get to go. You did have a

follow-up email lady that said, thank God I'm feeling better. Oh, and one other thing from the party, I watched a certain someone hit on a bunch of women and one other person dirty dance up on their boyfriend. I'm not going to mention names. I've got good digital clutter, lady. Lady, you know, it's like I want you to have less emails in your inbox, but I love your digital clutter share so much. Please never clean out your inbox, please. When I found this for everyone listening, I left Jonah a message and I was like, you will

not believe what I'm reading in my email right now. It's bringing me such joy. All right. Well, that was a great kickoff. I have some trivia that I found in my digital clutter. It's not nearly as good as that, but I did find out that the original title for Casual Friday was Office Reunited. Huh.

I mean, I think Casual Friday is such a more zippy title, don't you? It is. But I mean, you know, this episode is where Michael, Pam, and Ryan come back from working at Michael Scott Paper Company. So it is like, you know. That would describe what was happening. Yeah. Yeah. But Casual Friday.

a far superior title, yes. Okay, well, this episode opens with that famous Kevin Chilly scene, right? We talked about it a lot on the podcast. Like we said, in our original breakdown, Brian actually talks all about it. And we also discuss it with Aaron Scher, who wrote it. But I have some new trivia for you. Oh. Yeah.

It's about that scene, and it's thanks to a letter from Michael B in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Michael says, I just acquired some of Pam's items that NBC auctioned off from her death. Some of the papers were, quote, Dunder Mifflin accounting actuals, which I believe are actually just lists of some of Phil Shea's prop purchases, but printed on Dunder Mifflin letterhead. For this episode, it lists that three, quote, aged chili pots were purchased from a company named Studio Art and Technology for $163.88. Oh my gosh. Isn't that wild?

Wow. Wow, that is a really cool keepsake. I know, and you know, Phil would do that, right? He would take just like, I mean, office papers, even from our own production office, and use them as props on the set. Yeah. Oh, that's neat. Yeah, I thought so, too. Thanks for writing in, Michael.

Well, I've got a little background catch, a new one. Okay. It's at two minutes and 16 seconds. It's in that conference room scene that opens the episode. I did not notice this before. but Creed has his eyes closed. And I wondered, was this a forgotten storyline? Like, why are his eyes closed?

Yeah, I saw that too. And some folks had commented on that. And I couldn't find anything in the scripts about that. But I took a screen grab of that moment. And I texted it to Creed and I said, Creed, are you pretending to meditate in this moment? I mean, it is casual Friday. He looks like he's dressed in some type of yoga slash spa retreat outfit.

Creed wrote back, well, I don't know, but that sounds as good a reason as any. I think meditation sounds right. And then I wrote back, ha, well, I'm convinced that was your acting choice. And he wrote back and said, meth it all the way, pumpkin. Yeah. It wasn't in the script. I checked the script to see if there was something that says, like, Creed is going to spend the day meditating or something. I think that was his added little layer. Yeah, Creed thinks so too. Well, also got this letter from a listener in Santa Clarita, California. Evelyn R. said, Hey, ladies, I'm a long-time listener, and now I have my husband hooked on your podcast. I love this episode and was curious what the script said about everyone's casual

Friday outfits. How were they described? And you know what, Jenna, I realized I didn't do a costume breakdown for Casual Friday. What? I know. You're right. I always do those. You always do them. I know. Well, Evelyn, I went to our shooting draft. I was. I went to our shooting draft. and I found some amazing tidbits. In answer to your question, here's what it said in the script about what people were wearing in that first conference room scene.

It said, Interior conference room. Everyone is there. People are dressed in casual attire. Stanley in a T-shirt. Oscar in a windbreaker in jeans. Kelly in a jumpsuit. Dwight wears the same outfit as usual

but with no tie. Andy is wearing a shirt that says Ben, Dover, you. and on the back, apply within, with an arrow pointing to his butt. Okay. So it's very interesting that the script said that about Andy's shirt because I noticed Andy's shirt on this rewatch,

and I got curious about it. Because what he's actually wearing is a blue t-shirt that says, ask me about my butt, written in white letters. But the word ask is spelled A-S-S-S-K. The ass part is. in red, it's in like big letters. So it's like capital A, S, and then little K. And it's such an odd shirt. And I have to imagine it was made for this episode. What do you think Ed thought when he like showed up to his like costume fitting? And they're like, you're wearing a shirt that just

says like ass on it. Like I'd be like what the hell? And I just can't believe we didn't talk about it in our original breakdown. I did take a screen grab of it and you can plainly see at 18 minutes and six seconds, his shirt. I also want to point out that in that same scene, you can see that Toby is wearing a sweatshirt that says Costa Rica. I loved that detail. I did too. And Oscar does have on a windbreaker all day long, even though he's inside. And then I also found this gym about Kelly's outfit in the candy bag alts. And Jenna, I think we should both read it. Okay. I want you to read Kelly's lines and I'm going to read errands. Okay. Okay. And I'll do the stage direction. Ready?

Yes. Kelly costume interior annex. Kelly wearing hip overalls and a fancy bra. Erin is walking through. Kelly says, do I look okay? Toby said I'm dressed inappropriately. Oh, no. I think you look great.

Very cool. Are those condom earrings? Yeah, I designed them myself. People really went all out. I feel a little underdressed. You could use a little work. What kind of bra do you have going on under there? Hmm. Condom earrings she made herself? Yeah. Oh, man. Lady, I have a question. Oh, okay. Are we too old to do the trend where you wear a suit, but you're not wearing a shirt? You just have a bra underneath. So you're wearing a blazer with just a bra. Right. Do you see any of the bra? Or is it just like the hint that it, does it, like, what's going on here? Do I see the bra?

No, it's obvious I don't have a shirt on. It's very obvious. Okay. Now, I do a thing all the time. It's my favorite look where I wear a boostier underneath my suit. It looks like a strapless boostier. Right. Under my suit.

But it's like it goes into my pants and everything. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about like a lace bra. So what I've seen is skin to the pant. But you're not seeing the bra. It just looks like you have no clothes in a jewell. jacket. Am I understanding? You see the bra. Oh. You see the lace bra peeking out underneath the jacket. I mean, I, you know what? Why not? Why not? Just let me live, you know? Yeah. If you want to do it,

do it. If that's your look, go for it. I don't know. I just think just own your style. If that's your style. I think I would be just, I don't know. I think I'd be futzing. with all of it all night because I'd be like, I'm not sure where the fabric's supposed to be. But, you know, recently a friend of mine who's 60 did the black bra under a white kind of crochet top. And she was like, this is like a trend now and I like it. And I was like, do it. And yeah.

And I thought she looked great. So. Yeah, I think now in my 50s, since I've moved into the zero F's portion of my. my life. Yeah. I sort of feel like it. I think you should do it. Like not even about sexiness or whatever. It's just like I didn't feel like finding a shirt. It was too much effort. That's funnier. That's funny to me. Wait, let's just peel back the onion. Is that this isn't about fashion. This is just you don't feel like finding a shirt. So you have a jacket you have a bra, call it a day. Well, I found this great suit, and I love the pants, and I love the jacket. And I tried on probably, I don't know, eight shirts.

None of them looked good. And at a certain point, I just put the jacket on. And I was like, you know what? Maybe this is what it is. I'm done. Yeah. No shirt. Just fuck it. I mean, all your bits and bobs are covered. Who cares? I mean, they're more than covered. Yeah. Lady, I have a pair of shorts that are just old and they're my favorite and they're getting a little ratty. They're like cutoffs, you know? And I put them on the other day and they're short. And I thought, oh gosh, I'm 55. I probably shouldn't be wearing short gene cutoffs, right? And I came downstairs in them and Josh like immediately was like, hey. And so I was like, well, you know what, I guess I still can rock them.

I say wear them. Yeah. You know who would wear them? How's this transition? What? Meredith. Meredith is the queen of zero Fs. Well, wait a second.

Wait a second. Now I don't know. I don't know if I want to be like using Meredith as my style inspiration. Incidentally, I was curious how the shooting draft described. Maritith's casual Friday look. And here's what it said. You know, after Toby reprimands her, it says Meredith becomes defensive and stands up. She's wearing a tube dress that's riding a little too high.

But you know what happened? Yeah. She was a woman in her 50s. She was standing in her closet. And she was like, I'm tired. I'm not going to put anything else with this. This is it. Yeah.

That's all Meredith had for that day. She was done. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, I was curious if, quote, casual Friday was still a thing in offices, right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So I went online. I did my Googling. And lady, first of all, can you guess which department? Matt, feel free to weigh in on this as well. Guess which department in corporate offices has been labeled as the most casually dressed by folks online? IT? Yes. Yes. IT, you got it right away. Matt, you didn't even get a chance. to chime in. I didn't get a chance. It was too high. I had to familiarize myself with the various different departments. You were going through your head, like human resources, accounting. Yeah,

IT is notoriously the most casual of any corporate office. And then I found a Reddit thread that had some fun shares about this whole casual Friday office tradition. So basically, you guys, it really has become a thing of the past, not to be a womp womp. But a lot of people in the 2000s, said they would have to dress up Monday through Thursday, you know, suit and tie. But on Friday, they were allowed to wear khakis with no tie. That was sort of like the standard, like, corporate office thing. Yeah. What's interesting about that is that casual Friday was not even, like, fully casual. It didn't even mean jeans. It just meant, like, less corporate, but you were still sort of business casual, I think. Yeah. Casual Friday was basically Dwight in this episode.

Yes, exactly. Yeah. And then another. person wrote in and said, my offices actually got every other Friday off, and we used to call our working Friday Aloha Friday, and many people wore Hawaiian shirts. That was early 2000s, and over time, many of the Hawaiian shirt wearers retired. I recently brought back a few Aloha shirts and started wearing them on Fridays, and one of the old timers said, damn, I forgot all about Aloha Friday. A much younger co-worker asked what that was. So we explained that in the old days, many people would wear Hawaiian slash Aloha shirts on Fridays. She asked if we could do that again, and we both said, of course, just wear an Aloha shirt. And lady, this made me think of our crew.

Remember our crew on Fridays would often wear a Hawaiian shirt? They would. Yeah. But now we're the old timers. We are. That's like an old-fashioned tradition. I know. And then this fellow from Germany wrote in with this curveball, he said in the thread, does your office have a non-casual Fridays? This really got people chatting, okay? He said he works in IT, and since his department usually just wears jeans and t-shirts, a group of them thought it would be fun to introduce a non-casual Friday as a bit of a joke, where people actually dress up and often kind of formally.

And folks love this. Lady, people shared that they do fancy Fridays or, quote, formal Fridays or they'll have like tie Thursdays. Isn't that so funny? Yeah. It's so crazy because the pandemic really changed office fashion when everybody was working from home and then it was time to go back into a shared workspace. I think people were like, I'll come back to the office, but I'm not wearing that shit anymore. Like I want my comfy clothes all the time. I've noticed. Yeah. So now it's like flipped. It's like you're casual all week, and then if you want for fun, some people dress up on Fridays. Yeah.

I wonder how long that's going to last. I feel like as newer generations who didn't experience the pandemic start going into the workplace, I wonder if it will become the way it was, if it will become like you'll have like this like fancier business attire again. Yeah. I don't know. Okay. And then two more things that I thought were interesting is one person, they worked at an engineering firm in Texas, and they did a completely optional, but it was really

fun, Western Wednesday, and you could wear cowboy shirts, boots, cowboy hats. And I thought that was kind of fun. Like, I wonder if they're a regional dress-up days at different offices, you know? And lastly, a bunch of folks shared that Friday is a work-from-home day. And most of their colleagues aren't even in the office. And I thought, oh, man, Michael would have hated that. That's the most casual version of a Friday. It is. So there you go. Those are some casual Friday trends happening now.

Thank you, Angela. Well, I want to share a new scene that was added back to the super fan version. It happens at the Jim Pam Dwight Desclump. And Jim has a gift for Pam. He's welcoming her back. And she opens it and it looks homemade. It's this little island. and there are little dolls.

There's a doll representing her, one representing Jim, one representing Dwight. Why don't we listen? All right, you're ready to wait? Ready for what? What's this? It's a little gift. On behalf of desk area clump number one,

we welcome you to our little island. Love, Jim, and Dwight. Okay, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I had nothing to do with that, okay? I missed the storage containers that used to occupy that spot. Thank you, Dwight. And you obscure my view of the shredder.

Okay, let's get back to the ceremony. Here we go. Oh, I love it. That is so cute. It's us and Dwight. I'm supposed to be fishing? Barbaric. You're a train conductor? Yeah, it's my job on the island. And I'm a giant Amazon woman.

We need an attraction to raise money to get the train to the island. That island is completely implausible. I love it. So there you have it. I guess Jim made her... When did he make? it? How did he make it without her seeing it? Where does Jim do any of it? Like, where do his pranks happen? All of it. I do love, though, that Dwight finds the size of the island disproportionate.

Like, this is a guy that loves bobbleheads. You know what I mean? Yeah. Well, don't you wish you still had that prop? Oh, I would love to have that on my desk right now. I know. Well, thanks to Michael B, again, from Lebanon, Pennsylvania. We have this little piece of information about that gift from Jim. Michael says, according to the Dunder Mifflin accounting actuals that he has from the Phil Shea prop papers, that island and figurines cost $2,840 and 50 cents and was made by movie art. What? Did you see it? Wait, are you saying you don't think the little island looks like it costs $2,800? I mean, in no way does it look like it cost $2,800. I feel like it costs $2,800. I feel like

I could make that in an afternoon with stuff I found in my house. I mean, that's the point of it. It's supposed to look like that. Right. It is. It is. But yeah, that was an expensive prop. And then it got cut out.

I know. Dang it. I wonder who has it. I don't know. Well, next up is the scene in the kitchen where Pam and Phyllis are going to discover that they are wearing the same outfit. Before we dive into that scene, I needed to address something. Okay. So in our original breakdown of this episode, I did a mini deep dive on the local department store that Pam says she went to in the Steamedown Mall to get her outfit.

I pronounced it Bosscoves. And guess what lady? That is not how you say it. Oh. We got a little fan mail flurry about it. And by the way, everyone that wrote in, you guys were really kind with me. So thank you. But I did feel the need to say it properly for you all.

So I'm just going to let the CEO of the company do it so I don't mess it up. Here's a little snippet of him talking about his store. So what the heck is a Boscoves anyway? Well, we're the largest family-owned department store with 50 stores in this part of the country. In Monroe County, you're going to be number 51. I can't wait to meet you. Come on in. Let me show you what a Boscoves is all about.

Oh. Boscoves. That was Jim Boscov. Jim, I'm really sorry. I got your store name wrong. And the store looks awesome. I mean, that video, I was like, wow, the store has everything. Well, lady, you know what I found out?

It almost wasn't Boscoves. In the table draft of this episode, Pam says they got their outfits at, quote, Express for Women at the Steamedown Mall. Oh, well, I'm glad they went with the local store, aren't you? Yeah, that was a good rewrite. All right. So now Phyllis has her famous line, close your mouth, sweetie, you look like a trout. Mm-hmm. I remember Phyllis told us that that is one of the lines people were.

quote to her most often from the show. Yes, and I've said that it was very hard not to laugh in this moment because just any time that sweet, sweet Phyllis has to say something like really biting, it is so funny. I also wanted to point out that in the superfan episode, there is a new top and bottom to the scene that has an extra little joke. At the top of the scene, Pam is alone in the kitchen. She's making her tea, and Creed walks in the door just as the microwave is beeping. And he opens it, he takes out a burrito, and then he walks into the annex. And then there's the scene with Pam and Phyllis, noticing that they have the same outfit on. After the scene is over, and Phyllis has said her famous line, Aaron walks into the kitchen,

checks the microwave, and she's really confused, and she turns to Pam, and she says, Did you see me put a burrito in there? Because her burrito is missing. And I just think it's such a great example of the kind of things that we had to lose in order to make the broadcast version of these episodes fit for time. These superfan episodes, like, you're able to fill out the world with, like, mundane office life like this, like getting your burrito stolen out of the microwave. And for the most part, the extra stuff in the super fan of Casual Friday are just those little scene extensions. And they're really fun.

I just love it. I love that burrito moment, made it back in. And Dave Rogers, thank you. Well, listen, next up, Dwight is going to gather everyone down in the warehouse to make his case. Remember, he's written a memo to the sales staff in Invisible Inc. That is actually urine. And they are mad because Michael has come back and he has made Pam and Ryan salespeople. And they're not giving back the clients that they stole when they left to make Michael Scott paper company. So everyone's really mad.

So Dwight calls this meeting. and he is down there with Phyllis Stanley and Andy, and this is extended in the superfan version. Dwight is explaining that failure is not an option. Have a listen. If we do nothing, we fail and failure is not an option. Well, to be clear, it is an option. Not in my book.

My book, the cover is failure is not an option. It is an option. Not in my book. Literally. What book? What are you? Did you write it? Yeah.

failure is not an option. Very serious. I got curious about the phrase, failure is not an option. I was like, where did that come from? What did you find? I was completely surprised by the answer. Where do you guys think it came from? Matt, Angela, if you had to guess the phrase,

failure is not an option, unless you know, maybe you know. It sounds like a military term. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. I was like, oh, this is Winston Churchill. No, it came from that. the movie Apollo 13. Not the actual mission by the astronauts. Correct.

So sort of. I mean, influenced by. So according to Wikipedia, in preparation for the movie, the script writers, Al Reinhert and Bill Broils, they interviewed flight controller Jerry Bostic. They wanted to get some intel on like what is mission control really like? And one of the questions they asked him was, weren't there times? when everybody or even just a few people were completely panicked. And Jerry said, no, when bad things happened, we just calmly laid out all the options and failure was not one of them. That was what he said

to them. And then this guy, Jerry, said months later, he learned that when the writers got in their car to leave, the writers said, that's it. That's the tagline for this whole movie. Failure is not an option. And then they gave that line to Ed Harris, who played mission control officer Gene Krantz. And then later, Gene Krantz wrote a memoir titled, Failure is Not an Option. This is Life, imitating art, art imitating life. Before 1995, were people not really saying failure is not an option? I mean, I really deep dived it. I don't recall saying it before then, but isn't that crazy? That's what surprised me, because I felt like that's as a lot. I was, old as it is. That's as far back in history as that phrase goes. But what was also crazy is that

Gene Krantz never said it. He never actually said that phrase. But his character in the movie said it. But that was like the overall vibe of mission control. I mean, it's good. It's concise. You get it. Failure's not an option, period. Yeah. It's very direct. What a star-studded cast, by the way. Oh, if you haven't watched Apollo 13 in a while, I'd like to say that the movie holds up. I watched it recently. Yeah, it's been a while. It's great. All right.

Well, listen, back to this scene. I do want to bring up one other thing. Jim is going to tell Pam, Michael, and Ryan that, quote, there may or may not be, but definitely is a mutiny forming in the warehouse right now. And I have some candy bag alts for you, lady. Okay. Michael is ticked off, and he has this talking head. I want to play what made it in the episode, and then I'm going to read some alts. Okay, great.

The old Michael Scott might have taken this, but not the new Michael Scott. They are in for a bitter surprise. I am not to be truffled with. He's not to be truffled with. He's not. No, don't truffle with him. Don't truffle with him. Don't even go near his trials and tribunis.

That's right. But here were some candy bag alts for that particular talking head. Michael would have said, in my house, in my house, in my house, in my house? You just would have said that over and over. Here's another one. When you owe me an apology and instead give me a mutiny, you are asking for a smackdown. What's that? Smackdown truck backing up. We've got a shipment of Smackdown. Where would you like it? Right here, you need to sign for it. Gladly. Oh, those are some of my friends. favorite Michael talking heads, and they're my favorite ones that Steve does, because he nails

that timing so great. Also, this is bringing up an aspect of this episode that I really, really liked, which is the whole thing for Michael in this episode is he's waiting all day for people to apologize to him. Like, his come from is that he is owed an apology, and I love it so much. It's one of my favorite, like, mini storylines within this episode. I really wish we could have heard Steve say we've got a shipment of Smackdown. I know. All right. Here's another one.

Michael would have said, Mutiny? Not on my ship. Not while I'm captain. The only way they could get away with mutiny is if they took over or something. And that's not going to happen. So good. I love it.

Well, Michael eventually brings Dwight, Andy, Phyllis, and Stanley down to the warehouse, and he's going to apologize. He is going to say that he has realized that he was the process. problem. He has this talking head where he says that he has looked at the situation 100 different ways and in every one of them he is in the wrong. It's so funny. There was a different talking head in the table draft. He is still going to realize that he needs to apologize, but instead, it would have gone like this. He was going to say, when I was four, a girl in my nursery school was crying and crying, and I was irritated because she had the best block, the block with

wheels. So that's all I could focus on. And then later, when we were eating cookies, I realized she was crying because I bit her. Today, I realized that I bit Stanley and I bit Phyllis and I bit Andy and I spit on Dwight. It's so ridiculous. So ridiculous. But listen, finally, in our revisiting of Casual Friday, there's another storyline in this episode, and it is that Michael has to decide between Ryan and Pam for a single sales job. He's going to have to make one of them a salesperson,

and then one of them, I don't know what they're going to be, right? And the episode ends with one of Michael's famous fake firing scenes. I love these scenes. And he ultimately gives the sales job to Pam. Well, there was an alternate ending to this episode. episode that was in the table draft. And it hints at something. This got cut out, but they clearly liked this idea and they saved it because in the table draft, he gives the sales job to Ryan. Ooh. So in the actual episode, he gives it to Pam, right? But in the alternate ending, he gave

the sales job to Ryan, and he makes Pam the office manager. Oh. Which, by the way, when you get into like what this job is. It's basically office administrator, which is the job that Pam is later going to make up for herself when she leaves sales. But he makes her, quote unquote, office manager and tells her that her first responsibility is to enforce the dress code. So basically, her job is going to be every job Michael doesn't want to do. Oh my gosh. That's perfect. And she has to start with Meredith. And there's this whole scene that was a tag at the end of the episode of Pam trying to explain to Meredith why her outfit is inappropriate. And is Meredith just like go F yourself? Pretty much.

Yeah. That's kind of evil genius of Michael, though, is to make Pam always the fall guy, like always taking the heat. Mm-hmm. I just loved this. Lady, I loved revisiting this episode. I loved re-watching it. I've been re-watching episodes now more and more. and they make me happy.

Mm-hmm. Me too. So thank you so much for writing in with your suggestions and questions about specific episodes and superfan versions. They're making us dig back in and it's really fun.

Well, listen, why don't we take a break? And then we'll be back with our Around the Town and our office question of the week. Well, we are back, and it's time for Around the Town. I'm going to start us off with some snail mill from Danny G.

We got a lovely car from Danny, and she shared that the front of it was painted by her grandma. Look at that, Jenna. Isn't that gorgeous? Oh, it's a turkey. Yeah. It's really detailed. It's a very detailed, beautiful painting of a turkey. I'm to put that in our stories, Danny. And Danny went on to say many wonderful things about her love of the podcast, but I had to share this fun, The Office crossover. Danny said, my aunt is a prolific stunt woman, a regular double on Charmed, tons of hit movies, etc. So you can imagine my utter shock when I was nonchalantly listening to episode 189, Free Family Portrait and heard you throw out her name, Nancy Thurston.

She is very humble about her work, so I didn't know, and I called her immediately. Wow. Isn't that so great? Yes. So Danny's aunt was on our show as a stunt woman, and I just thought that was so fun that she learned that. tidbit from listening to office ladies. Danny went on to say that if we want to go to a train museum, we shouldn't miss the one in San Diego that does the Polar Express in the winter. She also

added PS, I've started saying chunk it and PPS. Toby is totally the Scranton Strangler. Thank you, Danny. Amazing. Well, we also got a letter from Samantha S in St. Charles, Missouri. Hello, St. Charles, Missouri. I've been there many times. Samantha said, Evelyn Clark, known as the I-70 fence lady, has delighted highway drivers for years with the messages she would put on her fence using colorful cups. From happy birthdays to congrats, grads, and happy holidays, Evelyn has shouted out to so many people over the years. And although Evelyn has now moved from that home, every St. Charles resident knows exactly which patch of fence would be wishing them well on their travels. Aw. I freaking love people who bring joy to their communities like this.

Me too. It is a treasure. You are a treasure. And you just don't even realize how many people's lives you impact. All those people, it becomes part of like their travel lore, you know, they drive by, they want to see what the sign is. It's just special. It is. There was this house that was like in the section of Manchester, Missouri, where I lived, which is a suburb of St. Louis. And these folks painted their house bright purple. And I swear, I think I've even talked about this on the podcast before. But it was the purple house. And we loved their purple house. Everyone knew the purple house. You could give directions. You could be like, oh, you know the Dairy Queen by the Purple House. Yes, of course. I know exactly where I am right now.

Yeah. And I like it when people get a little quirky in their communities. I do too. There was this house that went all out for Easter. They decorated their yard with all of these giant bunnies. I don't even know where they got them because they were like made out of wood and hand-painted. It looked like they made them. And then they had some kind of oversized Easter eggs. And we as kids would get so excited to drive by the bunny house at Easter and see the big bunny.

We've got a guy in our neighborhood now who does blowups at the holidays. Oh, I know it. I know the house. You know it. Yeah. Every year they add a new one. Every year you're like, what have we added this year? They have some that are taller than their house, but I don't even know where they're going

to put more. They are out of room. It is stacked. But it's so fun to drive by. It's so fun to drive by. And, you know, my kids will always remember that. Yeah. That's going to be a core memory for them.

Absolutely. And when they have kids, they're going to be excited to bring them over here for Christmas because they're going to get to drive by the house with all the blowups. Well, listen, folks, we've got one last around the town for you. It's from Page R and Bethany Z. They both wrote in with this important update from Richmond, Virginia. Ooh. Quote, there's an update on the big deal dog.

Remember we talked about that big deal dog, lady? I remember. Well, the Richmond flying squirrels were so psyched about the shoutings. out on the podcast that they put out a poll to the community asking if they should bring back the big deal dog. Richmond voted and the squirrels just announced the return of the big deal dog to their menu. Thank you both for helping us bring back one of Richmond's iconic ballpark snacks. Hey, how about that? Well, now I feel like we have to go. We have to go. And we have to eat this big deal dog. I know. And we might tell Frey, it's one of our new favorite lunches. We might.

All right. Well, finally, our office question of the week is from Meeha W in Poland, who said, there is an official Lego set depicting the office. Do you own one? And what is it like to be a mini figure? I have one. I have one as well. Jenna, you got it first, so you should share. I asked for it for Christmas. Mm-hmm. Like, I got it for Christmas from Lee, because I was so excited. What is it like to be a mini-figure? I mean, my gosh, we've gone to Lego land multiple times. We love Lego. So this was thrilling.

I mean, how many Lego have I put together? How many organizational systems have I created in my home for stray Lego? How many? Hours have I stepped on. So many. So many. I mean, right? You have kids.

You have Legos, period. I mean, how many ships have we put together? Oh, my goodness. So many, like, boats and planes and, you know, You know what? Cade and Josh did the Lego that's the whole entire globe, you know? Oh, yeah. That is like tons of pieces. And we have little tiny, organized drawers of different parts. And anyway, Legos are a huge part of our lives. We were all thrilled as castmates from the office.

We all talked about it. I think it was on our little text thread. I mean, this was a super cool moment. I loved putting it together. The detail is really great. and it just took me back. I mean, there's a Michael's office, and then there's the whole bullpen. And it was so fun because you don't like put all the mini figures together. They're in different bags. So you'll open a new bag, and there's two new little people in there, which is very fun. I loved it.

It was great. Well, I didn't have one lady, but I was at the office fan convention, and I got to meet J.J. Lewis. And you guys at the convention and our office fans, you will know that he was a fan creator who originally pitched and designed this office Lego set. Yes, this is a thing. They have a thing called like Lego ideas and you can submit this is how the Friends Lego set came about as well. Yeah, there's an interview on the actual Lego website. I will put a link to it and it talks about where he's from. and there's a picture of him, and he sort of talks about his journey designing this.

And I got to meet him, and he gave me a box, and he signed it. So I didn't open it because I was so thrilled to have this from him. And it says that the official set was brought to life by Lego designers Chris Perrin and Laura Perrin and senior graphic designer Diego Sancho. So I want to give them a shout out as well. But what a wonderful collaboration that started with J.J. Lewis's vision. Oh, that's super cool. Yeah.

Well, listen, everyone. We hope you enjoyed this episode. Thank you for joining us. We love this community. It means so much that you show up each week to listen to us chit-chat and share our office memories. Yeah, thank you guys so much. We love chatting with you. Please write us.

I'll put links in our stories to everything. And we hope you have a great day. Bye. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is a presentation of Odyssey and is produced by Jenna Fisher. and Angela Kinsey. Our senior producer is Matt Beagle, and our audio engineer is Sam Keefer.

Odyssey's executive producer is Leah Reese Dennis. Office Ladies was mixed and mastered by Bill Shultz. Our theme song is Ruppertry by Creed Bratton. Music