Office Ladies - New Guys

Episode Date: January 3, 2024

This week we’re breaking down the first ep of Season 9, “New Guys”! Two new employees join the office, Clark (Clark Duke) and Pete (Jake Lacy). These new additions unsettle Jim and Dwight as the new guys are considered to be younger versions of them. Meanwhile Angela tries to rehome one of her cats. Jenna shares how Greg Daniels returned as showrunner and she and John Krasinski became producers to help with the Jim and Pam storyline. Angela kicks off a new segment where we get to know “The Office” cast and crew through call sheets, and the ladies break down that Dwight-on-a-bike stunt. So enjoy this episode because it’s “not bad for a day in the life of a dog food company.” Check out Office Ladies Merch at Podswag: https://www.podswag.com/collections/office-ladiesOffice Ladies Website - Submit a fan question: https://officeladies.com/submitaquestionFollow Us on Instagram: OfficeLadiesPod

I'm Jennifer Fisher and I'm Angela Kinsey. We were on the office together and we're best friends. And now we're doing the ultimate office rewatch podcast just for you. Each week we will break down an episode of the office and give exclusive behind the scene stories that only two people who are there can tell you. We're the office ladies. Hello! Hey there! Happy New Year! Happy New Year! Happy New Guy! Offs ladies. Hello!

Hey there! Happy new year! Happy new year! Happy new guys! Happy new season! All of the new stuff! This is exciting! It is!

Also, happy new projects to us. Yeah! We both have some exciting new projects. I have the Mean Girls movie. It's coming out on January 12th. I cannot wait to see it. I cannot wait to see it. I have not seen it yet. So I'm going to be seeing it in the theaters with everybody else. Angela, I had such a fun time making this movie. I have a small role. I play Ms. Heron. You know, the lead girl is Katie Heron. She was originally played by Lindsay Lowen in the first movie and this movie she's played by and Gowri Rice. When I got the email about this movie, Tina Fey wrote me an email.

If Tina Fey emailed me, I would print it out and probably, I don't know, I definitely put it in my journal. I about pooped my pants. First of all, I didn't know Tina had my email. Yeah, she has her ways, I guess. So I get this email from Tina Fey and it's like, Jenna, we're doing a Mean Girls movie for a new generation and I would love for you to play the role of Ms. Heron. And I'm thinking to myself, I've been a little bit out of the acting game for a while. We've been happily podcasting. I thought why in the world would she even think of me for this part? I was so flattered. And then she said in her email, the person playing your daughter is Ann Gowry Rice. And she's a fantastic actress. So I Google her lady.

It immediately became clear to me why they thought of me to play her mother. She looks like it's Erie. It's Erie. We look the same. Literally, you could be related. She looks like my daughter, if my daughter grew up. Yes. I so believe it.

I see it. I know. I was like, oh, well, now I know why they thought of me. Anyway, Tina sent me the script. And from the first five pages, I was like, I'm in. It was so funny, it was so good, it has musical numbers. My daughter and her friends cannot wait to see it. Well, my daughter and her friends are so excited

because the trailer for this first ran before the Taylor Swift movie. Oh, get out. And I guess they all say, you're cool now. I am. I am. This is what happened to me when I did Tall Girl. My daughter was like, oh, my friends saw you in a movie.

Well, anyway, everybody please check it out. Mean Girls movie, January 12th. And, Angela, you have some big deal news, too. I do. I'm really excited. This is such a passion project for my husband and I for those of you that have been listening to the podcast you know, my husband's an amazing baker and a cook. We have done a little YouTube series called Baking with Josh and Ange, but let's

be honest, he bakes and I just taste everything. I'm a little bit of a hot mess in the kitchen, but I've learned so much with him and the kitchen is really where our family came together. We're a blended family and it's the heart of our home and we're gonna do a cookbook. It's so cool. It's all of our favorite family recipes plus ones from our moms and our grandmothers and little stories and photos and I can't wait. I told Lee and he said, oh, that is just perfect. That is so perfect. And then he said, does she realize she's writing another book? Well, listen, Josh is doing all the recipes. And then I'm doing just like the little pops of stories, you know? Okay, I know. It's going to take two years who are we kidding? I'll be talking about this for a long time, but it is official.

We're doing a cookbook. Yay! And then office ladies has really big news that we're not allowed to share it yet. I was gonna say, wait, we can't share that yet. But I'm so excited at the end of the month. At the end of this month of January, something very, very big is happening. Yes, and it's awesome and we can't wait for you to be a part of it. But we, very big is happening. Yes, and it's awesome, and we can't wait for you to be a part of it, but we can't say anything yet.

We can't say anything yet. Okay. All right, well, let's jump into this episode. It is new guys. It is season nine, episode one. Season nine, let that sit in. I know. We're here.

Sink in? Are you gonna sit it in? I'm gonna sit it in. Okay. I am not gonna sink in to any, I'm sitting in. Sit it into it Are you going to sit it in? I'm going to sit it in. Okay. I am not going to sink into any I'm sitting in. Sit in. Let's sit into it. Let that. Anyway, you know what I'm saying. Okay. This was written by Greg Daniels, directed by Greg Daniels, and here is your summary. This Grant and Branch underwent many changes over the summer. We're going to get updates. We have said goodbye to a few employees and we're welcoming some new ones. Also

in this episode, Andy returns from Outward Bound as a terrible person who bullies Nelly. He went to Outward Bound to become like a dickhead. I don't understand what happened. It's the worst advertising for Outward Bound and Outward Bound. I'm sorry, Outward Bound. It's true of advertising for Outward Bound. I'm sorry, Outward Bound. It's true of advertising. Oh my gosh. Also, Angela needs to re-home her cat. Yes, Comstock.

Mm-hmm. Jim is going to do some soul searching. And Dwight has found himself a new rival in Dwight Jr. Dwight Jr. who apparently is a slackline, aficionado. Yeah, who knew? Who knew? Fast- Fast fact number one, Greg Daniels is back. He's come home. That's right. Like I said before, this episode was both written by and directed by Greg. It is the first episode of the office that he has written since goodbye Michael in season 7.

since goodbye Michael in season seven. Hmm. Yeah, so it's been a while. And he is also back as our showrunner for the whole season. We were so excited. Greg gave an interview to Variety where he talked a little bit about his vision for this season. First of all, he said,

we will not be telling the story of who is in the manager's chair. Who is manager is no longer a story. Thank the Lord. You know what? I was done with that. Me too. Not that anyone asked. I think we were all done with it. Yeah. Greg said instead he hoped to focus on big arcs in relationships.

He also wanted to write stories where different characters were the lead of each episode. And you're gonna really see that in season nine. Each of our characters is gonna have a real nice A story. Yeah. Greg also announced that all of the questions about who was behind the documentary would be answered this year.

Ta-da-da. So something I think everyone should know is that when we started shooting this episode, we did not know that season 9 would be the last season of the office. They did not tell us that until we were shooting work bus. We talked about this on our book, The Office BFFs.

That would be the first book I've written. It's right second book. Yeah, we didn't know yet. Yeah, but by the time this episode aired, we did know. So when it premiered, there was a lot of press about this being our last season. But at this point, what we knew was that rain had only signed up to do 13 episodes of season nine

because he and Paul Lieberstein were branching out and developing a spin-off of the office called the Farm, featuring Dwight. Yes, and this is why Paul stepped down a showrunner and Greg stepped back in. The idea was that Rain Wilson would do a half season of the office, and then the Farm would come out in January, and then Rain would leave the office, do the Farm, and the the farm would come out in January, and then rain would leave the office, do the farm, and the two shows would overlap. Another thing that we knew was that Ed Helms only signed up to do a half a year, because he was going to leave in the middle to shoot the hangover three.

So we knew we would have Ed for a few episodes at the beginning, and then a few at the end. So the only sort of two like quote unquote lead characters that were left were me and John. And John wanted to do one more full year, but it kind of seemed like after that, we weren't sure if he was gonna be up for a season 10. And I wasn't really sure how Pam was gonna stay on the office without Jim.

I was open to hearing options, but it did kind of seem like this was going to be Jim and Pam's last year altogether. Yes, it's under Mifflin. Yes. So as a result, they asked John and I to come on this season as producers so that we could help direct the Jim and Pam's storyline since it was going to be our last full year together on the show. And I have to applaud my BFF because all of a sudden, this meant that you were gonna have information that you couldn't share right away with me

because you were now our producer. You were very professional. You never spilled the beans on anything, even though I'm sure you wanted to. So, professional BFF. Thank you very much. It was actually very difficult. I know it was. And I tried not to bug you very much. It was actually very difficult. I know it was.

And I tried not to bug you because I knew it was hard and I appreciate that Angela. Well like I said by the time the season was ready to premiere we all knew it would be our last season and we did tons of press and interviews about it. You can see all of them on officetelly.com. Angela we are all so emotional. I know I watched a few. We're all very weepy. Phyllis is like choking back tears. The entire time she's being interviewed. And I feel like if you want to truly understand how emotional we all were, you just have to listen

to Creed's interview because he does not make a single joke in the interview. Yeah. He's totally serious. I have the audio clip. But hear it. Yeah. I think we want to go out with a bang and raise our game and walk out of here feeling like we've, well, we already feel like we've been on a winning show

and we've left a mark. But obviously you want to take it up, take up the, take the bar, raise the bar a little bit higher. So I think we're all pulling together as a team and nothing we always haven't. But yeah, it's kind of, I wouldn't say I'm not modeling about it, but it's been, it's this family, you know, it's gonna be sad leaving these people.

Right. Oh yeah. Right. Because Creed normally cuts stuff with a joke, you know? But that was just so honest. And yeah. Yeah. Right. Because Creed normally cuts stuff with a joke, you know? But that was just so honest and yeah. Yeah. And I felt like it kind of summed up perfectly how we felt about it. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Are you ready for FastFact number two? I am. I'm just like, oh my gosh, am I going to be weeping this whole last season nine? Maybe. Maybe. Okay. Well, FastFact number two is all about finding our new guys. Clark and Pete. Yes, our plop in Drake Jr. who could have been called fart. But no,

went another way. Went another way. Well, we got a lot of fan mail. Cory Kay from Illinois said, please tell us everything about the actors who played Clark and Plop, love these two additions to the office, and Jamie D. from Atlanta, Georgia said, I love the addition of Clark and Plop, especially Clark, who is in my top three favorite office characters, and I want to know everything about how he came to be, give me the deets, please, and thank you. Well, I reached out to our casting director, Alison Jones, to find out what exactly happened. How did we find these guys? Alison said this was an extensive search.

She said not since she had to cast the role of Karen. Has she auditioned so many people for a role in the office? I bet two new people coming in at this stage in the show. She said she auditioned stage in the show. She said she auditioned people in New York. She auditioned people in Los Angeles. One of the reasons that they searched so intensely to cast these two actors was because at this point, there was an idea that the office would continue

into season 10. Even if some of the regular cast members moved on, the idea was that these two new people were going to move us in to the next generation of the office. Clark Duke did an interview where he said, when Jake and I joined the show, the idea was that this was going to be a show like ER, where new leads could move in and out and it might run for like 20 years.

So that was the vision. Allison wasn't just casting like guest stars or recurring characters. She was casting the next phase of the office. The comedy ER. Yes, it's 20 years. And Dundermifflin. Just rotating people through this paper company.

That's right. The most successful small paper company with a documentary that never ends. Well, Alison knew Clark Duke, who was cast as Clark. He was cast first. He had done a show called Clark and Michael starring himself and Michael Sarah. He was also in hot tub time machine with Craig Robinson

and kickass. He was sort of in that Judd Apto comedy circle. Alice in thinks that he did not even audition that they offered him the role. So they got that done first. And I found an audio clip of Clark talking about joining the show. Would you like to hear it? Yes. I was really flattered when they when they approached me about it. I'm a big fan of the show and have been since it started, I guess, nine years ago, and the British one before that. So I was very excited, thrilled to be a part of it. My character is also named Clark, which is convenient, because it's easy to remember, you know, on the call sheet too. You know, without giving it too much away, but there's really not like any big secrets.

My guy is just sort of a new guy that works at the office. He's not like a secret agent or anything. It's infiltrated the office. So there you go. Well, I have two things to share about Clark and Jake. Mm-hmm. So since you're talking about Clark, we got into this conversation one day on set because

His last name is Duke and my mom's maiden name is Duke and I was like Clark. What if we're related? And so then we started trying to figure it out and he talked to his mom and I talked to my mom and we're like my mom I was like well, we did have some family that moved around and so we sort of joked that we were maybe distant cousins. But you never found out for sure. We never found out for sure. But I did start sending his family my Christmas card. Just in case. Just in case.

And his mom would send me their Christmas card. That is the sweetest thing. I just love that. Well, let's move on to Jake Lacey now, who got the role of Pete. Alison said that they read a couple hundred people for the role of Pete. And eventually they settled on a handful of people. They flew Jake in from New York to meet with Greg. And Jake did not have a lot of TV credits when he got the role in the office.

He basically just killed it in his audition. That is how he got the role. By the way, not having a lot of TV credits with Greg doesn't mean anything. No. That was the wonderful thing about all of us getting cast on the office. He was like, I don't care about your experience. Are you great? Yeah.

Done. You get the job. Jake did an interview at the start of the season where he said he had started watching the office when he was in college and he was a huge fan of the show. And I remember this, Angela. I remember talking about this and made me feel very old on set, but here's the audio clip. Yeah, this was definitely my dream job.

I think, you know, three months ago, if you had said, there's any show you pick it, you can be on it. I would have said the office. And I was just blown away when this opportunity came up and then to get out here and test for it and think like, wow, it's getting close, you know? And then to find out that I got it was thrilling, absolutely thrilling. I mean, yeah, they were so young.

We were dinosaurs. I remember feeling very old around them. Me too. I loved them. I young. We were dinosaurs. I remember feeling very old around them. Me too. I loved them. I know. They were wonderful. And you know what? They were this really fun new energy. They were the new guys. They were. It was great having them around. Here's my little thing about Jake Lacey. I was walking down the hallway to the set. We had this sort of area behind the set. We've talked about where hair and makeup was. And you would walk down this little corridor and then all of a sudden you were in the bullpen of Dundrumifland. And I'm walking down this

corridor and I hear this voice behind me talking to someone and I thought, oh, Jenna's husband Lee is on set today. And I turned I literally I think I said Lee as I turned around. I think I was like Lee and it was Jake. I thought he sounded so similar to your husband. His voice is the cadence, something about it is so similar that it would just throw me off. The first big conference room scenes we would have, I feel like I keep thinking Lee is here. That's so funny.

I remember you telling me that and I hear it. I can hear it. Well, we will have more stories about these guys and obviously we're going to ask them to come on office. Yes. Jake and Clark, you have to come on. Now fast fact number three is a fan question from Elsa S. In Minnesota, who asked, this episode is the first time we see a big shift in Andy's personality that continues for the rest of season nine. Elsa. Oh my gosh. Elsa, I have so many thoughts on this. I'm so glad you wrote

in. Sorry, Jenna. I interrupted you. Go on. No, no. Elsa went on to say he has always had flaws, but generally been a likable guy until now. Do you have any insights into why the writers chose to make this change. Well, clearly from what you shared, he was going to be leaving the show, but my thought is, like, I imagine this writer's remeting, which I know didn't happen where they're like, how do we just burn Andy to the ground? How do we make him so horrible? Well, I traded emails with Greg Daniels about this episode.

And he said, yes, they knew that Ed was going to be missing for a big chunk of episodes in the middle of the season, and they had to write toward that. They had to come up with a reason why he was going to disappear. So that kind of started from there, and they worked backwards. But in the writer's room, they talked about who is Andy. And Greg said he was originally a guy with anger management issues, who put his fist through a wall.

And over in Stanford, he had been introduced as kind of like an antagonistic, Dwight-like annoying deskmate for Jim. And they wanted to bring back some of the old qualities of the character. They said they actually feel like the Andy we're seeing in season nine is a truer extension of where Andy started than the softer character that we've been seeing

for the last season. He said, you know, Andy wasn't designed to be the lead of a show. He was designed to be a flavor. And they wanted to bring that flavor back to the show. Greg also said that this version of Andy was more capable of foolishness. F foolishness,ness foolishness foolishness foolishness foolishness.

I don't know that's ultimate foolishness. If you're foolishness,ness ultimate, it's ultimate. Finally, Greg said that this change in Andy's character was also going to help kind of serve his vision, which was to center the season around Jim and Pam and Dwight and Angela as our core characters and follow their relationships through. Well, Angela, that's all I got. That was a long top of show today. Yeah, you had a lot of stuff. I loved it all. A new season. It's a new year. Yes. Well, I have quite a new season. It's a new year. Yes

Well, I have quite a bit for this episode from my digital clutter. I have call sheets Ooh, but why don't we take a break because when we come back we'll get into this episode I have a lot of questions about Aaron's new hairdo. Oh to kick things off. Okay. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ Well, we are back. Erin is at work. She's very excited because Andy's coming back today. Andy's coming back today. Mm-hmm. Nelly's not so excited.

Why is she nervous? I mean, I'm gonna have to say that as we go through the very top of this episode, I have some continuity things that don't quite line up. Yeah. I'm gonna bring them up and the first one is, why is Nelly nervous about Andy's return if we don't know that he's a total jerk yet?

Right. Did something happen? We didn't see before he left. I might have a few things from the shooting draft that might help, but not really. There's just some continuity holes. Yeah. Well, you know, I said I had a lot for my digital clutter, and I found a call sheet for this episode. It was originally called Workplace Bulley.

Yes. Yep. And I was trying to mom detect if something. So I reached out to Steve Burgess and I said, can I have all of the call sheets for this episode? Here's what I was trying to mom detective, which then also just opened up a whole bunch of great stuff on the call sheets. But this is what it started with. I found an email that I sent to you this week titled Earthquake. And then when you opened the email, it said, in my trailer, did you feel that earthquake? And you wrote back, when? Question mark.

And then I never responded to you. Oh, okay. This is a true mom detective already, right? It's like we have a thing and we don't know the answer. So I thought, maybe it might have been somewhere in the call sheets. They would do that. They would put the answer. So I thought maybe it might have been somewhere in the call sheets. They would do that. They would put the weather. They might say there was a earthquake. So I looked through all the week's call sheets. There is no mention of an earthquake. For all

I know there was a big truck driving by my trailer. But I found some fun things to share. First of all, this scene where Aaron saying, Andy's coming back, Andy's coming back, that was day one of filming. It was Monday, July 30, 2012. The high was going to be 95. Wow. The whole week it was actually in the 90s. And there was a special note on the call sheet for this day that said, slackline rehearsals with Dwight, Clark, and Nelly will take place in the swing set area of the warehouse after lunch today. No. So this was their first day to practice slacklining. Their first day back to work after the summer break and that's gonna kick off with some slackline practice. And it's in the 90s. Wow. And then Jenna, as I was looking over the call sheet, I saw this little thing that just made me smile.

You'll remember it as soon as I say it. On the back of the call sheets, they would do a little blurb called Get to Know Your Casting Crew. And basically, they would share fun little tidbits and feature one person a day. I loved them so much. I would look forward to them. So I thought I'd sprinkle a few of those in. but let's get to this episode. Well, I love that. We'll have little news breaks. We'll help you help us get to know our cast and crew. We'll have call sheet news breaks. Oh, this is I hope going to be a new element here for season nine. Oh, let's do it. Get all the call sheets. Yes. Well, next step Aaron is going to have a talking head where she explains that David Wallace sent Andy on an outward bound wilderness adventure.

It's supposed to help with his confidence and his decisiveness. David Wallace's son also went. And I guess the counselor reported back that both David Wallace's son and Andy, quote, grew up big time big time. Andy, quote, grew up big time, big time. You know, we got a fan question from Chloe S in Baltimore, Maryland, who said, I am a full time lead instructor. They're not called counselors and trainer at the Outward Bound School in Baltimore. Chloe said this episode makes me laugh out loud every time.

But Chloe would like you all to know that outward bound would never allow a grown man to join a team course as a student, so this concept tickles me greatly. However, when Andy brings his instructors to work and calls them by their trail names, does the slackline and mentions his, I thought about this place a lot while on solo. Just brings me to tears laughing. Chloe said there is so much I could say or add to this episode. Thank you all. Chloe, trail name, bundles. Thank you bundles. Thank you bundles. I wonder what your trail name would be. Oh, I don't know what's your trail name. Snacks. Snacks.

Mine's snacks. Do you get to pick your own name or just someone give it to you? No, I'm sure someone gives it to you. We don't know. We don't know. We don't know. Chloe, I was at work. What are our trail names, Chloe?

Well, Dwight is now going to arrive to work. This is so interesting to me that everyone is talking about their summer. Jenna, you and I had a sidebar conversation where we're like, I guess the documentary crew takes off for the summer. Every year, they take off for the summer. It just happened to coincide with our hiatus as well.

Yeah. So Dwight says, you know what? During his summer, he created a new energy drink made from beet runoff. It's so good. It's bright blue. It looks like the blue raspberry gatorade to me. And he said he also got some disappointing medical news.

Yeah. Before we get to that, I just want you to know, I thought about making some kind of beet runoff drink for us today because I did make beat vodka, but you didn't. I didn't because I looked it up and I don't think you can drink it. And in fact the only thing I found that you can do with beat runoff, someone can correct me if I'm wrong, is I found that they're using it as an alternative to road salt. It's true. We can bad weather. I guess for years, engineers have been trying to find alternatives to road salt, which

can cause less damage to the environment and to our infrastructure. It's very bad for concrete. So they've started using this type of beet juice runoff. Yeah. It doesn't sound like you should put it in your body then, right? Well, it says that it's capable of causing a disruption in ice crystals much like salt. You know, the article was very interesting. I'll put a link to it, but there was a comment section. Okay. There was a comment that made me laugh out loud. Cindy wrote in to say, one other downside to using beet juice is the odor.

In my town of Lexington, Massachusetts, it smells like dead fish after it's applied. Oh, so you know, I guess there are some uses for beet juice runoff. Okay, yeah. I don't think you should be drinking it. Well, if the next scene is any indication if you should be drinking it. Well, if the next scene is any indication if you should be drinking it,

I think it's gonna be another no. We flash back to the hospital waiting room. Dwight and Angela are there. They're waiting for news from the doctor. Angela's put her hair in a ponytail. Oh, fan catch from Jenna S in Los Angeles, California. Wait, I know a Jenna S in Los Angeles. Well, Jenna had some questions

about how Angela's hair is suddenly in a ponytail. And how long have they been there? And why do we have a blanket? I don't know, but the doctor's gonna come out and break the news that Dwight is not the father. Yeah. And then Dwight is gonna vomit his beat energy drink all over Angela.

All over. Fan catch from Jenna F in Los Angeles, California. Jenna wrote in a lot for this episode. Yes, she did. Dwight says he started making his beat runoff juice over the summer. So how did he vomit it all over Angela at the hospital, which was before the summer?

Yes, this was not explained in the shooting draft. And now Angela, fan question from Valeria in Italy. Obviously, I need to know how Angela and Rain shot the vomit scene. I can clearly see that some of the stuff went into Angela's mouth. Okay. I have all the details. First of all, the reason I have a ponytail is because they were worried this stuff was going to get in my hair and we wouldn't be able to reset as quickly. Okay, right? So that would mean washing my hair, blow-drying my hair, flat ironing my hair.

You can't do that in between takes. So that's why the ponytail. Secondly, they made this... It looked like, you know, when people go hiking and they drink out of those like pouches of water and they have the little bendy straw, they suck on. Yeah, like camelback, right? Yes, that's it. They made one of these and they sort of strapped it to rain under his blazer jacket.

Really? So he turned to me when it was time to vomit and just kind of squirted this blue stuff all over me. So it didn't really come out of his mouth? No! I would have never guessed that! You really thought that rain? I had rain spit blue like hurl blue stuff at me? Out of his own mouth? Yes! No! That's what it looked like to me. I would have never guessed that this was rigged. It looked so real. No, it's, look at it. It looks so projectile.

I know, I couldn't figure out how he did it. It was a little like camel-back thing that he squirted with the hose. He had like a little hose thing. That's why he turned so much to the wall. But yeah, it got all over me. Did you get in your mouth? Some of it went in my mouth.

How did it taste like? I do think it was like some kind of blue gatorade. I do. I can't remember. It didn't taste horrible. I remember that. And I have a photo backstage after our first take of this where I am doused with all this blue stuff.

They had a second set of the wardrobe and a robe for me to change, but I'm just standing in the hallway with my arms out and I'm just covered in this blue liquid. So yeah, I have this great picture in my digital clutter that I'll put in stories of me just covered in the blue beat runoff drink. How many takes did you do? Do you remember? I don't remember, but I think we had to, I know we did too, for sure. And I think we might have gotten it into.

Mm-hmm. But it was a lot to clean up. Well, before we move on, I would like to give a guest our shout out to the doctor who was played by Oliver Vacour. He's done a mix of comedy and drama. He was most recently in the Barbie movie. And he co-created and wrote a fictional true crime podcast called The Angel of Vine,

which stars Alfred Molina in Constant Simmer. Oh, your friend Constant. I love Constant. And Monk crossover. My character kills Alfred Molina in Monk. There you go. There you go. Well, we're going to continue finding out what people did over the summer.

Kevin shares that his summer was an emotional roller coaster. I guess he was pulling into the parking lot and he ran over a turtle and then he tried to save him by gluing his shell back together, but he's really not good at puzzles. So he just kind of found random things on his desk to help make the shell. And then as he was trying to rebuild the shell, he just crushed it again with his knee, and then he had to rebuild it even better. But then he thinks maybe the turtle was dead the whole time. We got a fan question from Jenna F in Los Angeles, California, who would like to know if the documentary crew was on a break over the summer,

how did they get all the footage of Kevin running over the turtle and going it back together? Jenna F has caught a lot of continuity errors in this episode. Well, she has questions. I found some fun stuff online about this episode. First of all, there was a great fan catch about the moment where Kevin runs over the turtle. They did a side-by-side of when Michael Scott hits Meredith. The moments are framed exactly the same and both characters go from this moment of like being really happy

to these looks of like, oh shit. It's funny. And they did a side by side. I'm gonna share it in story. I love that. There was also some online chatter about Kevin's Turtle. Here's something I found on a Reddit thread. A user said season nine, episode one,

new guys, is Kevin's Turtle an allegory for the show? Was Greg Daniels acknowledging the state of the show through Kevin? Is the turtle the show? Is Greg Kevin? Oh my gosh. I mean, was the show like run over and then he was trying to piece it back together? Only to discover that it was dead? Oh no! I mean, I hope not. I know. So now we're going to hear about Jim and Pam's summer.

They have a talking head together and Pam sort of says nothing new happened, but then Jim says, what are you talking about? You did that mural in the kids' room. Yeah. Lady, I want you to know that was my pitch as producer. Hey! For season nine, one of the things we talked about was Pam's art.

And how could this come back into her life? And how could she be expressed creatively? And my son had a mural in his nursery, so did my daughter. We both loved this little detail of our nurseries. And so I said, what if Pam starts painting murals? If this becomes kind of a side gig for her, because we know she's not gonna do graphic design.

She didn't like it, she didn't take to it. I said, she is a paint on canvas kind of person. Let's follow that thread. So we're starting with this mural in Phillips room. I love that. And now Pam is going to gush on Jim a little bit. She says, you know what? Jim's friend is starting a sports marketing company and it was based on an idea that Jim had back in college. Yeah, and he says he wanted Jim to be part of the company, but you know, it's happening in Philly

and that didn't really work for their family, but still how cool, right? Yeah, and Jim says, I mean, he'll probably make a billion dollars off my idea. Ha, ha, ha. Hmm, hmm, hmm, planting the seeds. Yes. Well, this was John's pitch.

When we were sitting down with Greg talking about season 9, we wanted to talk about what is going to come between Jim and Pam that is not another person. Right. What is going to test their relationship? And John pitched, what if Jim finally has an opportunity outside of Dunder Mifflin, but taking that opportunity is going to cause tension between him and Pam and that is how we got that storyline. I mean I thought it was a really great storyline. Yeah it already made me mad in this episode. We'll get to it. Next up Toby's gonna share

some things that happened over the summer. Kelly is gone. Her fiance, Robby. Fiancé. Yo, yeah, fiance. That's big info. Her fiance, Robby, got a job as a pediatric professor at Miami University. I looked it up. It is a real university in Ohio. It's a public research university was founded in 1809, making it the second oldest university

in Ohio and the 10th oldest public university in the United States. Well, we got a fan question from Kay Elizabeth in Oxford, Ohio, who is a graduate of Miami University and was also very familiar with the confusion between Miami University and University of Miami. Kelly is of Miami. Yeah. Kelly is also confused. Yes, she believes she's going to Florida. She walks through the office throwing coats at everyone.

I remember this. I do too. I remember after she threw me the coat, I thought, oh, I'm gonna use it to cover my legs in the next scene, because it was freezing. You're like, I'm gonna keep this. Well, it was, you know, in the 90s outside, so they crank the air on the inside. K Elizabeth went on to say, quote, my fellow Redhawks are all too familiar with the fact that

Miami University was an established school before Florida was even a state. Yeah. And often get Florida-related questions from non-ohioans. Mm-hmm. Toby is then going to share that Ryan quit shortly after Kelly left and moved to Ohio for, quote, unrelated reasons. Then we see Ryan at a bus stop with his luggage, trash bags full of clothes.

He says, based on market research, Southern Western Ohio is the Silicon Prairie, aka the next Silicon Valley. Fan deep dive from Elliott Kay in Southwest Ohio, who says, I cannot wait for you to address the opening when Ryan leaves the office suddenly to follow Kelly. Of course, Ryan needs an excuse to not just be following a girl, so he claims that he's leaving for Southwest Ohio because it is the next Silicon Valley, which he calls the Silicon Prairie. But, this opening grates on me like nails on a chalkboard every time for two reasons. Do you want to hear why Elliott is so annoyed? Elliott, I would love nothing more.

Elliott is annoyed because Southwest Ohio is hundreds of miles away from the nearest prairie. But more importantly, Elliot is annoyed because Southwest Ohio was the original Silicon Valley. Oh, so the stings, Elliot, it does. Elliot says, have you ever flown on a plane, started a car, bought something requiring a cash register, opened a can of pop, used an ice tray, eaten a cheese it, because all of these things and many more were invented in Dayton, Ohio. Daytonians are a proud people,

so you please do what you can to set the record straight. P.S., don't let North Carolina fool you. Ohio invented flight. Wow, Elliot! Yeah. Hot to try. Sure is. That's a lot of impressive things that were created in Dayton.

Should we go to Dayton? I bet there's a museum about it. I bet there's a factory. Oh, there's got to be a factory or two. For the cheese it, maybe? The cheese it factory is in Ohio. Come on, Elliot. to be a factory or two. For the cheese it, maybe the cheese it factory. Is it in Ohio? Come on, Elliott, tell us which factory to go to in Dayton.

Thank you for sending in that deep dive. We're happy to set the record straight. Yes. Next up, Jim and Pam are going to say, well, that's our summer. And they're going to start to take off their mic packs. This was huge. This is part of Greg's plan to start really showing the documentary crew, right? And we're going to hear the voice of the documentarian.

Dave Rogers. Yes, our editor and sometimes director. Pam says something we've all been thinking. She says, don't you guys have all the footage you need? It's just a paper company. Yes, and the documentarian says, well, we're actually kind of following you guys. I think meaning all of you guys, right, in your lives. And Pam sort of says, well, listen, you can follow us, but I don't think anything interesting

is going to happen to us for a long, long time. We're in a routine, a life routine called work and kids. Oh, pushing on Jim's face, right? Oh, Lord. This was another one of the pitches that we came up with over the summer, which was that Pam is happy and content and Jim starts to get a little restless, which I think is a very relatable, very rough thing in a merit. I think it is. The show's going to start. Aaron is still very excited telling everyone, Andy's coming back. And we got a fan mail flurry about her new curly hair.

She's standing at the window and the sunlight is coming in and you can very clearly see that her hair has bumped up to a much brighter red color. Yeah. It's curly. And M from Florida said, holy moly, Erin's wavy hair is awesome. Tally M from Canada said,

this new-cred style looks amazing. And Jasmine B from Southern Manitoba said, Erin's hair evolution is similar to Pam's. Was this intentional? The color change from Brunette to red is similar to Pam's. Her hairstyle is mirroring that of Pam's when she started styling it with heat. Were they trying to keep the comfort and familiarity of Pam reception via Erin's hair? Hmm. Guess what?

What? I have no answers. I don't know. Wait a moment, Mom, Detective. Well, you know what? I think she had some time away from Andy. Maybe she's trying to find herself a little. You know, that's what we said when Pam changed her hair. Usually when women change their hair, they're going through something. Just word to the wise. Well, our two new employees enter the bullpen. They

ask where they can throw away coffee filters. They get a lot of Stanley and Phyllis sass. They really do. Just right away. Toby has a talking head where he says the new guys back in the annex are in their 20s and he gets long really great with them. They all play video games and their computers. Although it looks like Toby is really bad at it.

Yeah. They're just three single guys getting into trouble. Well, there are two delicious candy bag alts for this Toby talking head. They were in the shooting draft. I want to share them with you. Here's one. Toby would have said, there's two new guys back here with me going through Kelly's old complaints.

They're in their 20s and we really get along. Maybe that's been my problem. I was born in the wrong generation. Well, that's one of my problems. Hmm. Why, why? And here's the other one. There are two new guys in the annex with me now.

Young guys in their 20s. I don't have a lot of friends. So it's nice to finally have two best friends. Oh, two. Oh, two. Stop breaking my heart, bud. Oh, Tobi! Oh, Tobi! Stop breaking my heart, bud. Oh, come on. Ugh.

Well, Stanley is gonna say that the new guys are like the new Jim and Dwight. Nelly agrees, Phyllis agrees. Jim and Dwight don't quite see it. Meredith invites new Jim to sit on her face. He says, no, thank you. And also says his name is Pete. Jim is going to have a talking head where he says Pete is not the new Jim. The only thing they

have in common is that they both don't want to sit on Meredith's face. And if that makes him the new Jim, then every human in the world is new Jim. I thought that was really funny. I did do. Greg said that from a story telling standpoint, the theme of the year was kind of a realization from both Dwight and Jim that they had been at Dunder Mifflin for a very long time. By having these new guys come in, who everybody was calling the new Dwight and the new Jim was a way to have Dwight and Jim think about just how long they've been in the same job and maybe to prod them into getting their lives moving into the next stage.

Well now it's time for a Get to Know Your Cast and Crew moment from our call sheet. Yay! This one is about Anna Coats, who was our key assistant location manager. Three things you didn't know about Anna Coats. Anna's favorite book is The Poison Wood Bible. It's about four sisters from Africa. She enjoyed rolling down hills as a child and now looks forward to long runs. If time traveling were an option, she would go to the 1960s, then the 40s, then shopping. Oh, there you go.

You just got to know, our key assistant location manager, I am going to tell you right now that I'm going to need this to become a regular thing. I should have been doing it all along. Nothing like picking something up in the last couple of days. I am going to tell you right now that I'm going to need this to become a regular thing. I should have been doing it all along. Nothing like picking something up in the last stretch, Ann.

Guess what, everyone? Andy finally walks in the door. Apparently, when you come back to work for the first time, you're allowed to be late. He missed everyone, and he is immediately a jerk. Immediately. Immediately. He wants to know why Nelly's still working there. He said he had a dream she died and then says, meet me in my office later.

Well, I'm going to call a bullsh**t card here. What is it? Because at the end of Free Family Portrait, Andy calls Nelly a sly bastard and hires her back as special project manager. This was my question earlier. Yes, they even shake on it. Right! So I'm like, what happened? How did outward bound make Andy a colossal ass?

I found this in the shooting draft. It doesn't help much, but it might have tipped off why Nelly was nervous. Okay. Andy calls Toby into his office and says, hey, why is Nelly still here? Didn't you get my postcard? Toby has a talking head where he's holding up a postcard.

He shows the postcard to the camera and says, on the front is a pretty waterfall. On the back it says, fire Nelly. Then he smells it and says, I don't think this is ink. Oh, well. What did he write it in says, I don't think this is ink. Oh, well. Why did he write it in? We don't know. But it does tell us that Toby might have known that Andy wanted Nelly gone.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Now Andy's going to greet the new guys and he's going to give them nicknames. Yeah. He said because outward bound is all about nicknames. His was Iceman. He decides, he will be plop because outward bound is all about nicknames. His was Iceman. He decides, P will be Plop because he dumps all the time

and he was gonna call Clark Fart, because they both do these things constantly. Even though he doesn't know them at all, doesn't know any of their BMs. You know what? We got a fan question from Jenna F in Los Angeles, California. Oh, Jenna wrote in again? Who would like to know?

Who hired the new guys if Andy was away? Oh, Janna wrote in again, who would like to know who hired the new guys if Andy was away? Oh, good call. And was there a postcard to Toby saying hire two new guys? Yeah, I want to make fun of them and call them plop and fart. Exactly. Darryl says they've been calling Clark Dwight Jr. Clark says I prefer fart. I know. But Dwight is very excited about this idea. He's like in a way, he has a son. Maybe someday, though, hire someone who looks like a younger clerk, and then he'll have a grand son. So ridiculous. It's so incredibly ridiculous. Well, next up starts a storyline for Angela, but I think we should take a break, and then we'll come back and

discuss the re-homing of Comstock. Yes. It also has a line that I get quoted a lot. I know it. Well, we're back and we're over in accounting. Angela's sharing that she has to put up one of her cats for adoption. Kevin wonders which one and starts listing them. This is how it read in the shooting draft. Kevin, the one who uses the doorbell or the one with the Mexican hat or the one with the rain glosses or the one you let go around naked. Angela says, no, the one with the long hair and the denim pants, Comstock. She shows Kevin and Oscar photos of Comstock and this is what the shooting draft said.

There's a video of a long haired cat in little jeans sitting on a motorcycle and sitting on a pillow being hugged by the senator as the song, nobody Does It Better, plays. The videos of Comstock were some of the first scenes that we filmed on day two of filming this episode, which was July 31st, and there were some additional notes on the call sheet for this day. Here's one, there will be a large working crane in the main parking lot. Please see attached memo regarding where to park across the street. Second announcement. A slackline rehearsal will take place for Dwight and Clark in the swing set area of the warehouse. More slackline rehearsal. Second slackline rehearsal for those guys. Kevin is now going to offer to take Comstock but Angela quickly rejects this because of, hello, the turtle. Okay.

Hey, Kevin is enormously proud of what he did for that turtle. She says, Oscar, will you take him? And he says, no, I'm a dog person. And here, for those of you who know all of Angela Martin's famous lines is one of my famous lines. If you pray enough, you can change yourself into a cat person.

Mm-hmm. And Oscar says those guys always turn back Angela. I know. So funny. And we got a fan question from Ellen C. In Scotland who said, I have a theory that Angela got her cat comp stock when she was dating Andy. And that maybe it was Andy who named the cat. Because I noticed that in season five, episode six, when Andy is getting annoyed with Dwight for applying to Cornell, Dwight references Comstock Hall,

which is a building at Cornell. Could that be the story behind Comstock, the cat's name? Ellen, I saw a few comments like this. I think it's really a great catch. I mean, I like to think that Andy got her this cat, but I think she is also worried about Phillips allergies. Yep. I like to think that everyone Angela ever dated got her a cat.

She has livestock, she has garbage. Yeah. We are now in Andy's office. He's getting off the phone with David Wallace. Toby enters and Andy is going to ask him why Nelly is still there. And Toby says you know what? He can only fire her for cause. So Andy has decided that he's going to try to make something up to get her fired.

Yeah, but Toby says, well, now we can't fire her because you told me that it's going to be made up. And now I know. Yeah. And Andy's like, well, forget I said that. And Toby says, I can't forget because I went to the wine-trop memory academy. Yes. Not real, I looked.

Not real, I looked it up. Toby says I sat next to Beverly Brook who ate a Greek salad for lunch. And Andy goes, I now understand why Michael hated you so much. Dwight is now going to approach Clark in the break room. This line made me laugh so hard. Which one? He? There's so many. But when Dwight invites him to a slayer concert that's ten months away, it's like who does that? It made me very curious, though. I was like, what is invitation etiquette? I went to EmilyPost.com.

Here's what they say for a few different types of gatherings. Anniversary party, three to six weeks. Notice, notice, okay. Holiday dinner, two weeks to two months. Okay, formal dinner, three to six weeks. Graduation party, three weeks, notice, lunch or tea a few days to two weeks. They did not have any tips for how long in advance you invite someone to a concert, but I did find a Reddit thread inspired by this episode that said around three months.

Well listen, if you want to go see a Taylor Swift concert, you might need to talk about it 10 months in advance. Oh, yeah. Okay. Okay, in advance. Yes. So sometimes I think it depends on who's playing. Yeah.

Well, Clark is going to tell Dwight he'll be busy in 10 months. Yeah, he's pretty sure he's busy that night. Yeah. So Dwight's going to pivot. He's like, dude, what's up with you? Like, let's talk farming. Yeah, are you a fruit guy or a root guy? And Clark said, is this some sort of code for gay stuff?

Because I mean, I'm totally fine with it, but I'm into the ladies. Spoken like a true root man. And then Clark says, hey, if you're ever swapped, maybe I could take some of your sales calls. Oh no. Now do I just don't, You're not my son anymore. I know. Over you. It's done. It's a quick turn. Oh yeah. Dwight is going to go warn Jim. I think

the new guys are trying to take our jobs. Yeah. And so Jim immediately decides to mess with him and says, Oh yeah, that must be what Pete was talking about at the sales meeting yesterday. Dwight's like, what sales meeting? What are you talking about? Yeah, I guess Clark ended the meeting with Karate. Apparently he's above a black belt. Oh, lady. The scene was longer, it was. And Dwight keeps coming back and reporting to Jim about it. And I need to play a clip because there's a Star Wars reference. Psst. Clark just told me that he never studied Karate. Why would he lie to me? play a clip because there. What Star Wars are you watching? Luke is trying to destroy Darth Vader.

Well, Angela, as you know, I understood that entire scene. I understood why it is funny. I chuckled along with it because we revealed on our Monday mailbag episode that ran back in December that I watched Star Wars. She watched Star Wars and didn't tell me. So if you wanna hear it and you wanna hear Angela's reaction, go back and listen. My reaction and Sam's, we couldn't believe it.

Angela now addresses the bull pin. She has a flyer for Comstock and she shares that he needs a home and she'll be conducting 20 minute interviews for anyone interested. Phil Shee made those flyers. I even kept one in my trailer for a long time. Oh, yeah, I had it hanging in my trailer for so long. I'm gonna try to find it. It's probably in one of my bins. Why did I keep these things? I'm like such a little rat packer. I'm like, I'll put it in my scrapbook. But anyway, Angela goes over her criteria for her candidates in true Angela fashion. And she tells Pam she really needs to hour, but she's still in the running. Yeah. Pam is like, I never entered this contest. Well, time to turn on the

charm. Next up, Andy is called Nellie into his office. And this scene is really going to make the original title of this episode make sense, because there's going to be a lot of workplace bullying. Yeah, he says he doesn't like to throw The original title of this episode makes sense because there's going to be a lot of workplace bullying. Yeah. He says he doesn't like to throw around the beward, but he's going to be a huge bitch to her.

Yeah. God, Andy. I know. He doesn't stop there. He's now set up in the parking lot, a slackline to teach focus and discipline, and in some cases humiliation. Yeah. and discipline and in some cases humiliation. Yeah, he's gathered everyone down in the parking lot and he says, we're going to walk across it.

And if you make it, you're going to feel awesome, but if you Toby out, you're going to feel like a real nelly. Yeah. He's also brought along a couple of the instructors from his outward bound trip, rave and feather. Yeah. So this scene would have continued. I was in the script looking up some descriptions of the stunts, and I came across this little nugget.

You know, Andy is referring to these guys by their outward bound names, and they are going to refer to Andy as Iceman, right? And then Rave is going to explain to camera, we call him Iceman because he always complained about his canteen water being warm. That's how Andy got his nickname. Not because he was like really tough and we could be out there freezing and be fine.

While Rafe and Feather are helping set up, Gem is gonna find out that he has nothing in common with Plop. Yeah, he really tries to bond with him, but there's nothing. He lists a bunch of things and there's nothing. No. We had a fan question from David H. and Preston England who wanted to know who plays Feather, the tightrope guy. He's not listed on IMDB.

Well, David, it was Cody Gilbert and he is a professional stunt person. The character of Rafe was played by Jeff B. First up on the slackline, Andy's gonna make Nelly go. He says, take off your heels, get up there. She says, no, I'd rather keep them on. I'm very insecure about my feet. So she gets up on the slackline in high heels.

Yeah. And we don't even know if she can do it because Andy immediately pushes her off face down. Yes. So we had a stunt person for Catherine Tate. Catherine stunt person was Jennifer Cobb, but Catherine still had to try and get up on that slackline with the high heels. Before we cut to the fall, that was really her in high heels getting up on that slackline. It was bonkers. I can't believe that you can just shove someone to the ground at work and not have any

repercussions. I mean, don't get me started. Don't get me started. There's a little something in the shooting draft I'm going to share here in a minute where they would have tried to address it. Clark is now going to volunteer. He gives it a try. Any crush is it. Yep. This is going to inspire Dwight to try. I mean, Dwight Jr. did it. Let's see Dwight Sr. do it.

Yeah, it doesn't go well. How many times could one person fall off a slackline? There was one time when he falls on his shoulder and I could barely watch it because it reminded me of breaking my own shoulder. We had fan questions from Ashley O. in Utah and Heather F. in California who wanted to know did Reign perform his own stunts? Was it choreographed

or planned how he would fall? Did Reign make any of the creative decisions on how he would fall? Well, I'll tell you guys, it was Reign and it was also his stunt double Kevin Foster who is also the person who doubles for him later on the bicycle, will get to it. But the descriptions for how he falls were meticulously scripted, and I have them here to read to you. First up, Dwight tries to step onto the slackline and is immediately pitched forward into a summer salt and onto the mat. We saw that move. Next up, Dwight leaps onto the slackline again and is flung off even more violently. He crawls around looking

for his glasses and one of his shoes. Next, Dwight keeps trying and gets flung off each time. Add lib trash talking from Clark. It was a note in the script. Finally, it says Dwight has a bloody lip. Nobody understands what he's saying. Dwight becomes frustrated and runs off saying, Buck, you brother-buckers. I did love that he tried the door and it wouldn't open. Me too. I feel like that's so classic when you want to quickly get away from a situation and you can't. Yes. Well, immediately after this slackline scene, Toby would have called a conference room meeting about workplace bullying. It was in the shooting draft.

It's a really long conference room scene. Everyone attends, and they all share when they felt bullied by Andy. I remember shooting this, Jenna. They are some really hilarious moments. I'm telling you right now you and I broke a few times. It's in the DVD extras. I want to just share a few beats of it. Okay. Okay. Toby starts off the meeting and says, I felt bullied when Andy said he knew why Michael hated me. Pete says, I felt bullied by Andy when he gave me a nickname, I'm not comfortable with. And then Andy says, hey, Andy's a nickname, maybe you're bullying me right now.

And Toby says, Toby's a nickname too. It's short for Tobert. Wow. You're changing the subject. Then Kevin says, Angela bullies me. She won't let me have her cat because I killed my turtle so many times. Everyone starts turning on everyone. Then somehow everyone ends up ganging up on Creed and he leaves the room and the camera

follows him to that hallway where we all go to have private conversations and Creed starts crying. Oh no! Yeah! Then it comes back to the conference room scene and things get really heated between Phyllis and Angela. You have to hear it. And how can I be a bully?

I'm a sweetie pie. You're a bitch. Oh, God. Oh, my gosh. Angela calls Phyllis a bitch and then Stanley goes, oh no. And Stanley has brought an extra crossword and passes it to Jim. And then Jim leans over to Pam and goes, well, I guess I'm not even the new Jim,

now I'm the new Stanley. And then Pam goes, well, if you become the new creed, I'll divorce you. Right, his creed is coming back in. And then he starts tearing up again. Oh my gosh, I am remembering this now as you describe it. It was a huge epic conference room scene. Well, instead this episode goes to the warehouse where Dwight is deconstructing a bicycle. I'll have you know that this

was also meticulously described in the script. There was a whole paragraph describing how he takes this bicycle apart. And it just delighted me because it's very Greg Daniels. I bet Greg literally met with so many people and they had to have precise like drawings and sketches and the physics of it and how it worked. Angela, he made sketches. I'm sure he did. He sent them to me.

When we get up on the roof like the whole thing He sketched it out and this is like this is the mad scientist part of Greg's brain and I think Greg would think he could really do this stunt He just needs a counterweight. That's all sure just grab a printer and duct tape it to the bottom of the bicycle No problem. Yeah, but first, I do believe that Greg would ask someone to sit on the bar. I do. We got ahead of ourselves. As you know, Dwight is going to call Pam up onto the roof and reveal what he's doing in the warehouse, and he explains that he is going to ride a bicycle.

I guess from the top of the building to a phone pole, and he wants Pam to be his counterweight, and she refuses. It's a whole thing. Well, I'll have you know on the call sheet for this day. We filmed on August 1st, which is a Wednesday, and the comments on the call sheet were that temperatures were going to exceed 85 degrees. Please stay hydrated.

Avoid the sun whenever possible. See the safety bulletin posted by the medic for more information, and that stunt rehearsals and tests for Thursday's aerial work would begin when the company moves to the alley mid afternoon. I see. Yeah. stunt rehearsals.

This was a huge stunt. Well, meanwhile, Angela is interviewing Pete, who doesn't want Comstock yet is going through an extensive interview about his goals in life. Yeah, she says, why do you want this cat? He says, I don't want it. He says, how would you support the cat? What are your ambitions? Pete says, I want to start my own business. I want to be a millionaire. Lots of things. Travel. Make the world a better place. Aren't an NBA at night. Angela says, have you taken any concrete steps Lots of things, travel, make the world a better place. Aren't an NBA at night.

Angela says, have you taken any concrete steps? He says, well, I'm still just fitting in here, you know, getting used to the new job. But definitely on the agenda. It's a good idea, Angela. I should make a list. Jim is listening to all of this. It is hitting him hard.

He has a talking head immediately after where he says, you know what, if he's not careful, he'll get stuck there for years doing nothing. Wow, maybe Pete is the new gym after all. Angela is now gonna explain to Pete that the reason she's getting rid of Comstock is because the baby is allergic. And that Comstock is the Senator's favorite cat.

And he's heartbroken. Heartbroken over this. Oh, do Oscars ears perk up? He says, you know what? I will take the cat. Angela is overjoyed. She's like, thank you, Oscar. Yeah, Oscar says I'll come pick him up this evening.

And Angela says, oh boy, well, Robert won't get to say goodbye, I guess, because he told me he has plans tonight. Yeah. And Oscar says, say, love you. And Angela says, please don't teach French to my cat. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Well then, Oscar's going to sneak away. He's on the phone and guess who he's talking to. His date for the evening, Robert. Yep. phone and guess who he's talking to. His date for the evening, Robert! Yep, he says, you're gonna be able to play with Comp Stock tonight at dinner. Mm-hmm. I have a question. How do we think Gerald is gonna like Comp Stock?

I know. There's a whole dog cat introduction that needs to happen here. Yeah, Oscar must really like the senator. A lot. Mm-hmm, because he said he's a dog person. Yeah. Now it's the end of the day and everyone's leaving.

Jim is gonna linger. He says, I'll meet you down there, Pam. I can barely talk about it. It makes me so upset. Well, I know, I know. I have to say, though, I thought John's performance of Jim in this moment was so great. So good.

You can see how torn up inside he is about it. He goes to call his friend, then he bails. He's like, no, no, and he gets up and then he goes back and he does it. And when he finally commits and says, I'm all in and hangs up, he's like, yes, it felt so good for him. It's hard. It's hard. I feel obviously like a someone in a relationship.

I'm like, hey, what are you doing? You got to include your partner in this moment. What are you doing? And then at the same time, I see how much he's struggling with making this decision. I thought it was played out really well. Well, the whole point of this storyline is to create tension in this relationship. Yeah.

And this is going to do it. I wrote in all caps, this is not right. Talk to your wife first. This is a major life decision that affects the entire family. Yes. And when we were talking about this over the summer, I said, this would devastate me. It would devastate me. If my husband and I sat down, we talked about a life decision, we made an agreement. And then without talking to me first, he changed that agreement and took some action. It would devastate me not because he took

the action, but because he felt like he couldn't trust me enough to talk about it a second time. Well, that's the big thing. That's it right there, which is when you're in a partnership, a partnership is sharing. And the fact that Jim didn't feel like he could share this with his partner, that's the real thing when you pill back the layers. Why couldn't he share this with Pam? Yes, and that would eat away at me as his partner. It would eat away at me to think about,

well then your mind jumps to, well what else do you not feel comfortable sharing with me? Exactly, because I truly believe as Pam, that if Jim came to me and said, I've been thinking about this. And I have to say, I want to do it. And I know it's going to be crazy. And I know it means Philadelphia. Can we make this work for me? The Pam would have said, yes. But he didn't give her the opportunity to support him. He went off on his own and he made a decision. And as we're going to find out in the next episode, keep that decision from her for a long

time. He does not go home tonight and say anything to her for weeks. That's another layer to it. That's the betrayal to me. Yeah. And you know, he sort of alludes to the fact that he didn't want to tell her until it was real. But the minute he said I'm all in, it was real. Yes. And it has the potential to uproot their life in a major way. Yeah. It just, I see the foreshadowing of what is to come. I thought it was brilliantly acted and written because it's doing everything it was supposed to do. Yes. Well, we're now in the parking lot. Dwight has found a counterweight for his bicycle. He calls down to his co-workers. He says,

he's going to show the cool new guys what a real salesman looks like. You only live once and he's going to prove it. Lady, I want you to know in the call sheet for the shoot day, there were an additional five pages of safety bulletins, five pages. I believe it. Of all the different precautions they were taking. Well, Dwight is going to ride the bike along the wire, but when he gets midway, it tips over. He is dangling from the handlebars and has to be rescued by the fire department. We got a fan question from Juan R and Duluth, Georgia, who said, tell us everything about rain cycling stunt

in this episode. Well, of course, I reached out to Steve Peress. He's the best. And he said, oh, there's a lot to say about this stunt. He said they started with the rough concept drawings that Greg did. Greg drew it all out, how he imagined it in his head. They brought in Al and Brent Jones, the stunt coordinators, and started discussing how to make it a reality. They brought in Pat Romano to do all the rigging. Steve said we had to put in our own telephone pole.

We could not use the real one for safety and legal reasons. Well, yes. So we had to put a second telephone pole up. Let's not tie this to something that has electricity. That's right. We also had to put the giant crane that you mentioned in the parking lot in order to get the wire across the roof. He said that the ends of the wire were attached to huge grade walls, which are like

bulldozers because that would really keep it strong, right? He said it took over a week just to do all the rigging and for the stunt they had a giant airbag in the parking lot, and I remember it. I remember it too. It's also in the call sheet. There were multiple pages just describing this airbag. Steve sent us pictures. We'll put it in stories. Steve also mentioned that it was really windy that day. Oh, Lord. And it was actually hard to ride the bike on the wire because of the wind. And so he said we did three takes of the stunt, but it worked. I remember standing

in the parking lot looking up at the stunt guy. All of us there. I was terrified. I was going to see a death that day. I'm going to be honest with you. I was terrified. It was the most stressful thing. I don't know how anyone works on action movies where they do all of these crazy stunts. It was so terrifying so terrifying Steve Burgess says the shot of rain hanging from the bike is actually rain However, what they did was they built a scaffold rain, however what they did was they built a scaffold under the bike, so rain was actually just about eight or 10 inches above the scaffold. I remember that

too and that was still scary. I have photos of that as well. We also had to hire a stunt fireman to carry rain stunt double down the fire truck ladder. It is not easy to carry someone down a ladder like that. It was described in the shooting draft that the fireman carried white down like a bride. I like that description. And Steve Burgess said there were many, many, many safety meetings about this and even had to include the NBC safety guy. There were a lot of people who had to sign off on this stunt before we did it. Well, this episode is going to end with Nelly at her desk. She is surrounded by big recycling bins and people are tossing their trash

towards her. She's getting hit by the trash. I hated this. I didn't buy it. I didn't think that other people would participate. Same! I didn't think that Phyllis or Stanley would do this. Agree. We get that Andy has a beef with her.

I don't think anyone else cares. I'm with you. Andy says he's passionate about two things, recycling and revenge. Now, Nellie's in the conference room doing a talking head, but there's still trash coming at her. She's trying to be positive. She goes, that's a fluke. Well, I don't think we should end on that note.

Let's end on an upbeat note, which is, one last, get to know your cast and crew. From a new favorite segment. This one is about Joseph, who was part of our security team. Oh, I remember Joseph. Yes, things you did not know about Joseph Wang. Joseph knows Chinese, Taiwanese, and English. His favorite books are the Harry Potter books.

The prettiest place he has ever been is Paris. His favorite superhero is Speedy Gunsallis. His first encounter with the TV film business was Security, of course. And he was once a sports agent and has three tattoos. I love this. And we ran into Joseph because he now does Security for the Kelly Clarkson show. We were so excited. We took pictures. We hugged. Office family forever. Aw, well guys, that was new guys. A big thank you to Greg Daniels and to Steve Burgess for their contributions to this episode.

Mm-hmm. I think we're off to a good start. I'm excited for this season. Next up is Roy's wedding. Chorwheel. Chorwheel. And I'm sorry, Roy plays the piano now. Oh excuse me! It's so delicious! See you next week! See you then!

Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is produced by Earwolf, Jennifer Fisher and Angela Kinsey. Our senior producer is Cassie Jerkins. Our in-studio engineer and Angela Kinsey. Our senior producer is Cassie Jirkins. Our in-studio engineer is Sam Keifer. Our editing and mixing engineer is Jordan Duffy, and our associate producer is Ainsley Bubbaco. Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton. you