Office Ladies - Revisited with Carey Bennett

Episode Date: June 16, 2021

It’s time for a second drink! Today we are revisiting Season 4. We kick off this episode with an amazing interview with the original Office costume designer, Carey Bennett. Carey talks with Jenna and Angela about how she designed the look for The Office cast, including what Dwight’s mustard shirt means to her. And how she influenced the overall look of the show. Afterwards, Jenna breaks down the opening credits and theme song, the ladies get to the bottom of what Michael was eating inSurvivor Man and Angela uncovers even more for Dinner Party. Who doesn’t love a second drink?! Follow Carey Bennett on Instagram: @careybennettcostumes Follow OfficeLadiesStories on Instagram: @officeladiesstories Follow Bob Theiel on Instagram: @bobthielejr Check out Creed Bratton show dates: http://creedbratton.com Check out Kate Flannery and Jane Lynch’s Christmas album Check out Rainn Wilson’s podcast, Metaphysical Milkshake

I'm Jenna Fisher and I'm Angela Kinsey. We were on The Office together and we're best friends. And now we're doing the Ultimate Office rewatch podcast just for you. Each week we will break down an episode of The Office and give exclusive behind the scene stories that only two people who were there can tell you. We're The Office, ladies. Do not turn off this podcast. Keep listening to this.

This is a good one. I know we're not breaking down an episode this week, but oh my gosh, this is so good. It is a delicious second drink. We have uncovered some fun stuff. This is a season four revisited and we are going to kick things off with an interview. We got to talk with Carrie Bennett, our wardrobe designer for seasons one through four. She is a badass woman. She is one of the original visionaries for the show.

She helped create the show. You're going to hear all about it. She's amazing. Let's get to it. Let's get to it. Hey, hello, Carrie. Hi, Carrie. Welcome to Office, ladies.

Oh, I'm so happy to be here. This is so fun. Carrie, I have been so excited for you to come on the podcast because I know that you have like literally the most awesome stuff to share. I know your story and I can't wait for everyone to hear it. Oh, good. It's fantastic and for the true Office fan, Carrie really helped shape the look of the show.

In maybe the biggest way. Yeah. But let's start at the beginning. We always like to ask people, how did you get your job on the Office? I was designing the TV show Scrubs, so I was doing a lot of work with NBC at the time. It's all kind of foggy to me. Somehow I ended up on the pilot of the Office and it was in between, it was like on a hiatus from Scrubs.

I just squeezed it in. It was just a little pilot, 90% never go anywhere. That's right. You were like, it's a good summer job. Right. I'm on a break from my regular job, designing a whole TV show Scrubs, so I'll just do this as a little summer break gig. Right?

Well, you don't know. You don't like put too many eggs in that basket. It was actually a really long time before it went somewhere, I think, wasn't it? It was. A year maybe, I feel like. It was. Okay. So here's the story I'm dying for you to tell, Carrie, which is you agree to do the pilot

for the Office and now you have to create the wardrobe design. What do you wear at a paper company in Scranton? Right. Well, research is the king of the whole deal and I never assume that I know what I'm talking about. I always try to go to the source and see something in real life because real life is always way more nuanced and amazing than anything you can think up in your head. It just is.

I always find things that astound me and are the little seed that sets the fire off in me. Yeah. So how did you do that? How did you find the real life of this? Yeah. Well, so I was like, I've never worked in an office. I have no idea.

So I literally opened the phone book and I looked for paper companies and there happened to be one in Glendale, the next town over from me, and I just called them up. I talked to the owner and I invited myself over there. To a Glendale paper company. Yeah. And the owner was so darling and I just went in there and was very respectful and was like, this is what I'm doing. I'm just trying to get a vibe and see what goes on here and see if I can kind of glean

some details that maybe I wouldn't have normally known. But once I got in there, I was like, oh my God, I mean, having watched the English version of it, it couldn't have been more perfect. I mean, there was like inspirational posters that they had printed off their printer. So they were like super long and they went all the way down the hallway of like inspirational things. Just funny things posted, really personal things posted. There was a moose head in the, or maybe it was a deer.

A deer head in the warehouse, like just amazing details. So I took a million pictures and I took pictures of all the people. They were so kind to let me do that. Yeah. Literally all the characters were there in different iterations. Even Dwight was there, although he was this guy that wore like a wolf t-shirt. That is very Dwight. So did you take all those pictures and show them to Greg?

Yeah. So I made a little slideshow and I put the little music, Welcome to the Working Week. And I brought it in for my first meeting with everybody and I was like, it's like playing and it's showing all these guys. Greg was like, what is this? Where is this? And you will take us there. Who all did you take there?

So then we all went back and we took Greg. I think possibly Ken Quapas came with us, we took our production designer who was Donald Lee Harris at the time. I think our DP came and we just all trundled back over there. And this time we brought video cameras and we videotaped everything. What were these people thinking? They're like, I am selling paper in Glendale for years. And now all of a sudden, all of a sudden people want photos of my wolf shirt.

What's happening? I took pictures of them out like smoking outside the warehouse and just all that stuff. All the little details. I still have that. I still use it as a slideshow. Sometimes when I teach costume design, you can't just go on Wikipedia and do your research. You have to go and see real people doing this. But I just think that's so fantastic, Carrie, that you're like, no, I'm going to go see

what this looks like and then use that information to inform you about how to create Dunder Mifflin. Yeah. Yeah. So this trip to this Glendale paper company, it did not just inform the wardrobe of our show. It informed the entire look of our show. When you took those guys over to film, I know that they used that in the production design. They used it in so much of creating the world of Dunder Mifflin and that was all initiated

by you. We have you to thank. Yes. We have you to thank for Dwight's mustard shirt. Like, how did you do that? How did you come up with these looks for the different characters? Oh, my gosh. Well, I mean, really, literally, the jumping off point was that office and just that vibe.

Like, that's what I'm saying. I have to feel immersed in that world. Otherwise, I can't do it justice. It will always feel a little bit fake. And the thing about what I saw there was that, and I think maybe in a lot of offices, is that the looks are slightly dated. Like, everybody's a little dated. So like, I kind of was having this, we did this like in the early 2000s, right?

It was 2005, I think. So it was kind of like, I sort of, it was like early 90s was kind of where, or like almost even 80s. Like a little bit of that clunkiness, like just kind of, you know, not real polished was what I was after, which was actually the hardest line to hold with y'all. Keeping it not too polished, you know, like that's, I think that that gives it this vulnerability and sweetness is what makes the characters really, you know, attractive. Well, Carrie, I remember working in a real office and I didn't want to invest a whole

lot of money in my office wear because I didn't super love my office job. So I thought of that with Pam. I remember thinking, I know she has to dress for work and I had to dress for work, but I want to put my money into my cute non-work clothes more than I want to spend a bunch of money on like expensive pants for work. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You could choose, right?

And so that's, that's reality. That's real life and you were trying to create a real life office environment. And that was 100% my idea with Jim because obviously, I mean, he's like this super handsome Hollywood guy. And I always imagined that he was probably borrowing his dad's stuff. Like maybe he grabbed a couple of ties from his dad's closet and that's why he always had those kind of woolly ties, you know, which I had great ones for the pilot and then it was really hard to keep finding those.

We actually ended up making them. But that kind of clunkiness, the sort of softness of him really helped bring him down, you know, make him just really sort of a real guy. But I always imagined that that's maybe where he got his closet from. Like he didn't necessarily shop for it. You have shared with Jen and I that you had a tie story for all the fellas. So that would be Jim's, right? That he was borrowing his dad's old ties.

What were some of the other ones? Michael's was just that he, I think they were ties that he thought were cool, but they were just kind of staticky. They just kind of look like static. And of course, like Dwight's, his whole muddy story, his, the mustard and the olives. See that that mustard shirt is kind of like a good luck thing that I do on my projects. And that has a backstory. That was from Scrubs, the wonderful director that pulled me onto that project, Adam Bernstein.

He has a thing about mustard shirts and he was like, we just need a mustard shirt. It's just important. And now, and of course, then that show took off. And so now I try to put a mustard shirt, like it's just my thing. Mustard shirt. So wait, the mustard shirt is the good luck charm for you? Yes. That and, and I discovered like when I was shopping for this, I did a lot of shopping

at Mervyn's at JC Penney. And at the time in the men's section, you could buy a whole outfit, the suit, the shirt, the tie and the belt, all for like a hundred dollars. And they had all of his, all of Dwight's colors. They had there. And I just, it was just, I just blew my mind. I'm like, who's wearing these colors? You know, and I just thought it was so hilarious.

I'm like, that's what you would do. You would just buy the suit kit. Right. Especially Dwight, cause he's so efficient, right? He'd be like, well, there. Done. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, Carrie, I remember when I had to do an episode, it was the email surveillance episode where I had to wear casual clothes. Finally, I was going to get to wear jeans instead of a pencil skirt and hose. And when I came into my fitting, you had a whole bunch of jeans from old Navy, I think, and maybe the gap. And there was not one pair of designer jeans on the rack. And I noticed it because I had done other projects where I wore jeans and they would always put me in designer jeans.

And so I, I mentioned that, I said, I'm noticing you didn't buy any designer jeans. And you said, well, Jenna, Pam can't afford designer jeans. Pam has to only wear clothes that she can afford. And we picked out totally cute jeans, but I just was like, yes, I hate it when I watch TV and somebody is like a struggling pediatric nurse, $200 jeans, it drives me nuts. And so I just loved your integrity. Well, that, that episode in particular was Jim's barbecue, right? And we really got to see everybody as their true selves and, and really, and truly the

one that stood out to Jen and I was Meredith. Like that was a very revealing outfit into Meredith's life. So, so yes, we'd love to hear more about that. I mean, those are the kind of episodes that, that totally throw me for a loop because you get in this rhythm of making these sort of, you know, we have our iconic looks, like we know, we know all the characters, but then will we still know them when they're in their everyday clothes? Like that always takes a lot of brain power.

You know, that episode in particular, you guys were so invested in your characters by then. And I feel like that was, it's something kind of of an era. Like I don't always see that nowadays when I design stuff that the actors have thought through who they're being, but you guys were there and I always took my cue from anything. I mean, rain always would call me and be like, I have this idea, this hat, I've got this hat on my mind, you know, and, and it was the same with Meredith's outfit. Like she was like, I just feel like I should wear this biker jacket.

Like, I think it just, it's like this whole side of me that nobody knows. I was like, okay, let's figure that out, let's work that in. I always say that as the costumes, I'm sort of the filter, I'm reading the script, I'm hearing from producers, I'm hearing from the actors, and then I'm putting my own spin on it too, but it's just all that information gels together somehow. And that's the magic. Well, I have a question for you. Dwight and Angela bumped some Birkenstocks in that episode.

And I remember, Gary, we had several like Birkenstocks for me to try on. Like I feel like you sort of also shaped that moment, like those two Birkenstocks. Do you remember that? You know what? That's such a perfect example of like that kismet that just kind of all the magic that all happens. Like we had those Birkenstocks because that was a product placement thing that we had. But the people that were offering us product placement because it was like an office show,

it was all these really comfortable brands, like I think we had earth shoes and we had Birkenstocks, you know? But that free stuff was integral to costuming everybody because our budget was so tiny. I mean, just to give you an idea, I had, let's see, seven regulars on scrubs. I had 16 regulars on the office that I had to dress every show. I had $5,000 less a week to spend. Wow. So we were just always scraping, scraping, scraping.

So yeah, so we had a big box of Birkenstocks. But it fit. Like, you know, I thought it was a nice way to sort of like show that connection. And also like there's a foreshadowing of that moment in the episode. Like you show, you're like, I stepped in something with your Birkenstocks. So you see your Birkenstocks and then somehow he mentions his too and you see his. So I thought it was kind of great. It was like this moment where, oh, they both wear utilitarian shoes.

So anyways, it's just like one of those costume things like it just all like matched up into that beautiful moment. Well, I noticed in rewatching a few episodes that like my pants would be a little bit too long. Like mentioning seeing my feet in the Birkenstocks, like I, nothing was altered. Like very rarely did we alter anything. And I know that goes along with the budget you had, but I went on to do a show after the office and I have never been so altered in my life.

You know, the little seam on your shoulder. I realized all my shirts on the office, like the seam hit me like halfway down my arm. It was like all of a sudden every little thing was altered. And in rewatching like this episode in particular, I was like, oh, look how long my pants are. Right. But on purpose though, because I mean, that was the thing. It's, you know, it's so funny somewhere along the way Ricky Gervais came to our set and he's like, how's it going?

And I'm like, well, my biggest challenge is sort of holding the line and making everybody look really pedestrian because here they are these incredible Hollywood actors coming to work and they all look chic and they're cute little designer jeans. And I got to take them down a notch that like that's my job. And he was like, Oh my God, tell me about it. He was like, after the first season of the English office, like everybody came back. They were tan, they had their teeth were all fixed and white and I was like, Oh my God, thank you for feeling my pain.

I know, we had, we had outfits. I remember fittings and Carrie, I'm like, Oh no, I feel like I should apologize where you would put something on me and I would go to like the cuter thing and I'd be like, what about that? And you'd be like, Angela, no, no, you don't get to wear that on the show. I know. It was really hard. It was really hard, but that I think that that is what makes the character so endearing

like that's because that's how real people are. Like they don't have everything tailored. It's off the rack. Well, sometimes you had to create wardrobe from scratch. Like in the fire episode, you had to create the uniforms that the fire department wore. And I remember you wanted it to be authentic to Scranton. Will you tell us that story? Okay, so there was no way to see what the fire department in Scranton looked like on

the internet. So I figured out the Chamber of Commerce in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and I called them up and amazingly, the amazing Mari answered the phone and I was like, I just explained everything. I'm like, I'm working on this TV show. I'm trying to recreate your fire department. Is there anybody who could go over there and take a picture of the patch for me? And she did it.

She actually did it. And she sent me this picture. That's amazing. So this woman you'd never met, gotten her car, drove to the fire department, took a photo. That's so great. And then she subsequently became the liaison between our show and Scranton, Pennsylvania. And I called on her for everything that we ever needed. Then Phil Shea, our prop guy, also got in on the action and we would just, we would just

be like, Hey, is there a flower shop that would like to donate their, their aprons? Or how about the radio station? Could they send us some stickers? And then we started to get more savvy about it. Like Phil and I would coordinate and we'd be like, okay, we're going to need all these kind of things like delivery people, pizza guys, you know, and we just wanted it to be authentic. And she was willing to help us bless her soul.

Like she, she was, she made it, applause for Mari and Scranton, Pennsylvania. So she just, she just kept on with it. And over the years, we ended up doing a, a thing in the mall there. She hosted a thing, the radio station there and Phil went out there and businesses came and saw him. People were lined up out of the mall and they brought their stuff from their businesses. I remember this, Carrie, I remember it like walking into the kitchen after Phil had gone to the set kitchen and all of a sudden there were all of these Scranton menus from local

restaurants. Yeah. All the magnets on the fridge, like every little detail you could imagine. It was amazing. I mean, he said that, he said that he was there for like five hours and he left to the go to the bathroom once. People followed him into the bathroom. I mean, it was, people brought the sweetest, funniest, most ridiculous things like cupcakes

with your pictures on them. And I mean, it was amazing. I gave him the job to take pictures of every single person you see. If you can ask, ask their permission. Take pictures. I need people in uniform. I need kids. I need people on the street.

And he did that, which was amazing. I had another opportunity to do that too. One of the PAs on Scrubs was from there. And when he went back for Christmas vacation, I sent him with a camera and I was just like, if you could just take pictures of everybody you see, that would be awesome. He came back with a thousand pictures. Oh my gosh. And that just became my catalog.

I literally had a catalog of people and it was so amazing. So every time we had a new person on the show, it would be like, well, what kind of vibe do we want? Let's look at our people catalog. But that really also informed like how people wear things and how people combine outfits and just all of that. That is so fascinating to me and I just really respect it. I really respect the amount of research you did and how it just went on to continue over

the years and form the show. Yeah. I just have to say it again. Your trip to the Glendale Paper Company informed the look of our show and then your idea to call the Chamber of Commerce set off a chain of events that like further specified our show. You are the boss lady. You are.

Behind Dunder Mifflin. You are. You are the Dunder Mifflin like secret superpower. 100%. It just stems from like, I don't want to be audacious enough to think I know I'm the end all. I just think that real life is, what's that quote? If you can't see God in all, you can't see God at all.

I think of that. I think if you're not looking at real life and noticing what makes it weird and wonderful, then you're missing out. You're really missing on those beautiful details that make something really special and really resonate. I feel like there's so many TV shows that are kind of, you know. That all look the same, right? Well, they're all, I totally get it.

You're moving fast and furious. It's so hard to get through those production schedules. There's so much work and you're doing so much. And, you know, and also here in Hollywood, there's so many resources for us. There's prop shops. There's costume shops. There's all that stuff. But if there's no little spark, little like, I don't know, the glitter, the little like

whatever that is, that's the, I don't know, just the spark. Like, that's what I always, I need to find that for myself, otherwise I kind of can't do the work. I think the office was unique in the sense too that it was trying to present a real slice of life. It was trying to find the beauty in the ordinary things. I mean, that's, that's what the point of the show was. And a lot of television shows, they are presenting a heightened version of reality.

An idealized version of how a mom actually dresses, right? It takes super fashionable and put together at drop off as opposed to how I look at drop off. Right. So, you know, I think like our show was begging for the kind of work that you did on it. And it's what it needed. Yeah. All right.

Well, we, we are, we just love every single ounce of this information, like it's just so wonderful. But Carrie, do you have any memories that you would want to share about your time on the office, something maybe we haven't covered here? Oh my gosh. For me, it was like kind of this undoing of everything I knew, you know, in the sense that, um, and actually really this start, I have a great story that started really from the pilot, because as you do, you know, you do, when you're trying to get a show off the

ground, you do a lot of fittings. We have a lot of fitting pictures and you're kind of looking at what works. And then you're sort of, you know, each scene is like a painting really. And they get all the, all the players have to work together. And for me, it's kind of, I've just visually sort of putting the pictures together and making it all work color wise, um, if there's a pattern or anything. So on the pilot, we were all bustling around, you know, it was, we were trying to get that first shot and there was all this, you know, Hemen and Han about stuff and some costumes

got changed, um, kind of at the last minute, we were like, Oh no, that this would be better, this would be better. So when everybody appeared on set and we were doing the last looks, which, you know, the special thing about the office, and this was, this is a big part of my undoing was that there was no, you can't stand there and, and watch and, and fix. We weren't allowed on the set hair makeup wardrobe was not allowed. The set was closed. We would see you, put you in there and hope for the best.

And that was huge because we're usually standing when you see things on TV, we're usually standing right there, like getting fixing it. So everybody had got, come to the set and Ken Cuapas, our director was there and I'm standing next to him. I'm just kind of observing and I go, Oh my God, there are three people, three guys are wearing white shirts. Like I never in my career with that, you always kind of, you know, mix, mix up the colors. I'm like, Oh my God, wait, hold on, I got to just, I got, I need to fix something.

There's three people wearing white shirts. It's crazy. I've never do that. And Ken literally stopped me. He goes, because this bothers you, it's correct. And I was like, okay, but every, because it doesn't look right. It's perfect. It's perfect.

Right. And that was like, that was so huge for me that carried me through the whole thing because I would, from there on out, I would set the racks, you know, like say there was three days in the script. So I would set these huge racks, everybody's costumes. And I would sort of have like, as you do as a trained designer, you would kind of be like, well, this is sort of the blue show, the blue day, and this is kind of the green day. Just kind of the things like would work together and everybody would look harmonious.

And I would set those three racks. And then I would literally just take like Angela's costumes and just go and mix them. Just flip them, just mix it. And even though it still to this day makes me feel a little sweaty. So you would like, you would do your design and it would be perfect and it would have the color harmony. And then you would purposely just mess it up. Yes.

And you'd be like, and now we have the office. And here we are. So good. Well, you know, I think what our listeners, one of the things we would want to share with you guys is on normal shows, between scenes, everyone comes flooding in to the actor, hair and makeup. You have like five set of hands on you. Maybe there's someone adjusting your mic.

Maybe wardrobe is fixing the bow on your shirt. And then hair and makeup is getting rid of a weird little flyaway hair and powdering your nose. And this all happens instantly. It's like, it's like the pit car at a race. Yes. Right? Yeah.

You bring the car in and like all these people surround it. Yes. And then they hop out and then you're back on camera. And that never happened on the office. Right. Never. And so I remember one time we were like broken for lunch and I was leaving and I guess a few of my buttons, I had one of those shirts, oh my God, that had 32 buttons.

And I guess a few at the neck had come open and you're like, how long were those open? I was like, I don't know. And you're like, okay. I guess that's what that's going to look like. I wish I knew your process all those years ago. I think I wouldn't have bugged you for a cuter blouse. But it's just so wonderful to hear how you shape the show. You are so smart.

You're so good at your job. And the world of the office has a lot to thank you for. Yeah. You are one of the original visionaries of the show and it's pretty damn cool. Yeah. Well, I think so. I mean, I, you know, it's so funny because I was, I was so young back then that was just my process and thank you for, for honoring it and recognizing it.

All these, you know, all these years later, I just kind of did my, did my job. We all did. We were all just so into it. And now we're all old and jaded, but no, but we talked about that, Carrie. And I actually talked about it with Phil as well, because, you know, Phil Shea approached props the way you approached wardrobe, just detailed, detailed authenticity, authenticity. And we were saying, you know, back then we could all just like, you know, eat and breathe our work and our lives are more complicated now and they're filled out in other ways.

And, you know, it's hard to keep up a pace like that. So there was also like a perfect storm where we were all brought together at exactly the right time and exactly the right way in our lives, right? We were all sort of just starting out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Cool. Super cool. Well, thank you so much, Carrie. So amazing. Thank you, Carrie. Is there anything else we can share with people before you go? Where can we find you? Are you okay with people finding you?

Sure. Can we tell them anything you're working on? Sure. Yeah. You can find me. My Instagram is at Carrie Bennett costumes. And I tried to put some old pictures up there and keep people up to date on what I'm doing. I'm just about to start, um, head of the class, the reboot of head of the class.

So we'll see how that goes. What network is head of the class? Um, head of the class is going to be on HBO Max. Okay. So there you go. That's where you can find Carrie. You guys go follow and support her. We adore her.

And Carrie, thank you so much. Thanks, Carrie. Thank you, ladies. It's so nice to be with you again. Just being in your presence. So this brings back all the good memories. It's such good days back then. I know.

Jenna and I say we want to have a big office ladies lunch and like call in all the office ladies. Not that we don't want the fellas there, but maybe maybe we just want the cows. I know. I don't want them there. I know. I was like trying to be nice. Um, all right.

I'm not going to try. I'm going to say my truth. Ladies only. I'm going to say my truth. The ladies were, the ladies were really special on that for sure. For sure. They kept the whole world running. We sure did.

All right. We are back. We are back. That was awesome. I'm still loving Carrie Bennett. I know. Me too. So hard crushing on her.

Hardcore love for Carrie Bennett. Should we get in to some good season four revisited stuff? Jenna, I can't wait. I know you have something and I'll have a little something and we haven't shared so that we would both hear it for the first time with you guys. You go first. All right. All right.

I decided to do a title sequence breakdown because we haven't done it. We haven't talked about the credits. Oh, at the beginning of every show at the beginning of every show. And I want to say there's a reason why it's perfectly timed because the credits at the beginning of the show stayed the same all the way through season four. But as we move into season five, there are going to be changes. And now I'll be able to point them out because we will have done this breakdown. Okay.

I'm going to start with the theme song. Do it. The very famous office theme song, da, na, na, na, na, na, na. You know that one. That was created by composer James Ferguson. He has done music for tons of shows like NCIS Los Angeles. London's Murder Club, Melrose Place, Erie Indiana. He's done a lot.

He's also composed music for films like The Terminator, Charlie's Angels Full Throttle, and This Is Forty. He's the real deal. We got him. We got him for our theme song. But we almost didn't got him. What? There were three other options for songs.

Oh, I remember this. Is it coming back to you? Yeah. When Greg first thought, I'm going to use a song. Rather than use an original composition, he was going to use a song. And he whittled it down to three choices, and he created title sequences to all three songs, and he gave DVDs out to the whole cast, and we got to vote on these songs. We voted.

Let me tell you what the songs were. And we're going to play them so you can imagine the titles of Dunder Mifflin. Imagine Pam with her whiteout. Yeah. Pam with his adding machine, Dwight flipping his tie. Start with Better Things by The Kinks. Hmm. There's hope in all the days ahead, Hope be as bitter as the ones behind you, Be an

optimist instead, And somehow happiness will find you. Forget what happened yesterday. Okay. Okay. That's an option. All right. I'm filling it a little bit. Okay.

I mean, it's hard now to imagine anything but what we chose, but okay. I see it. All right. This is the second choice. I know a few people suggested this. John, Angela. Yes. Float on by Modest Mouth.

That's right. All right, there you go. Yes, I was a big fan of that one. Final choice was Mr. Blue Sky by E.L.O. I mean, I love that song. I love that one too. So here's what we decided, you guys. It was Mr. Blue Sky.

That one. It won. We did a viewing party at my house of the pilot, Greg brought over a DVD and our credit sequence was E.L.O.'s Mr. Blue Sky. That's right. I still have the DVD. Do you really? Yes.

Of the credits cut to Mr. Blue Sky. I want to see that. Well, we were waiting for our show to come out. We had to wait a while. While we were waiting, another show came out. It was called LAX. It starred Heather Locklear and Blair Underwood. It was also on NBC.

And it was about the LAX airport? Yes. Okay. They used Mr. Blue Sky as their theme song. But we had picked it. I know. Well. Didn't matter.

What happened? I know what happened. I'm kidding. We couldn't use it. So Greg had to change it and that is when Greg hired James Ferguson or as his friends call him Jay to write our theme song. Wow. So if Blue Sky was available, that would have been our thing.

Yeah. Our song. Isn't that crazy? Crazy. So we did not record the theme song, the famous office theme song until one week before our first episode aired. Oh my gosh. They must have been sweating it.

They were scrambling. So Greg kind of talked about this on Boos Crews. He had a musician friend, Bob Thiel, who went in with his friends and they recorded James's composition and after they recorded it, they formed a band. They called themselves the Scrantones and then that is the band that appears in Boos Crews. That's right. Lady, I don't want to give anything away, but I feel like sometimes we get same brain.

Why? No, no, you'll see. This is nothing related, but connected all the same. Oh. All right. My nugget is like, there's a thread. You'll see. I'll see.

Well, I want to tell you some more things about our opening credits. And this is specific to season four. It was during season four that we started playing the theme song at the end credits. You might notice that in the first three seasons, it's silent credits. Oh, lady, I didn't realize that. That's such a good catch. Yeah. And so starting in season four, we started playing the theme song at the end as well.

As you all know, there are no lyrics to our theme song. It was just musical, but Creed Bratton wrote some lyrics. He did. And you guys, they are so fun. I talked to him about it and he said that when he would go out and go on tour, he would always riff on the theme song. They would play it. And he started throwing out little lyrics here and there just for fun.

Right. He was like improvising. Yeah. Yeah. But this got him thinking, what if I sat down and I did write lyrics? What would they be? And so he ended up writing a whole song and it is so cool. He plays it at every show and we're going to play a little bit of it for you now.

Thank you. married to a fan said Stanley, with his eyes at half-mast. And BJ and Fendi thought all the time, but David Devlin and Blaine Roy, just that one time with Jim, if I recall, oh wait. We got Ed Helms with his banjo, and Holly Flax, the wearing sandals, and Tove and the, minor for a bad guy.

Ah, you guys, it goes on. Yeah. He ends up naming everybody in the office, and it is so cool. You guys, you have to go see Creed Live. He is an amazing musician. His shows are so fun. I've been fortunate to go to three, and I have to tell you guys, when he played the song, several of the cast members

that were attending, we all walked out on stage when he sang about us. And you know, he always texts me, and he's like, I'm sorry, I throw you under the bus because you're short. But we all walked out on stage, and we locked arms, and then the whole crowd is locking arms and swaying to the la, la, la, la, la part. Yeah.

It's so sweet. It's such a wonderful, fun show. Guess what? Yeah. He is going back on tour. Oh, awesome. And here's where you can find him. In September of 2021, he's going to be in Idaho, Washington,

Oregon, and California on a two-week tour. Then he goes to Australia in October of 2021. And in February of 2022, he's going to be in Ireland and England. You can find his whole tour schedule at creedbratton.com. That's right. And a bunch of us, you guys, whenever he does shows in California, if we can, we show up.

We do. We never know what the schedule is going to be or whatever, but I've managed to make a few, and I love it. I love that he wrote those lyrics. I do, too. He's not the only person who's written lyrics. What? John Krasinski hosted Saturday Night Live,

and he did a song version of our theme song as well. That's right. Oh, you did some digging. I forgot about that. All right, let's listen to that one. Finally, John Krasinski sings the long-lost lyrics to the original office theme song, which he wrote himself. Scranton, Scranton, Scranton, Scranton, Scranton, Scranton,

Scranton, Scranton, Scranton, Scranton. That's where we all live and work. That's a calculator. There's Dwight. He's the bad guy. And the hero's name is Jim Highlighting. That's his girlfriend. That guy's on the phone.

Ty's live. Then there's me again. Nick Harrell does the trophy thing, the office. Oh, my gosh. John hit in that low note, the office. I know, I know. I thought that was so fun. All right, that covers the theme song.

I feel like I've covered it. You've got the theme song. Now what? We have to talk about the actual credits on the screen. Oh, right, right. The visuals. I'm going to break it down for you. The five actors featured in the opening credits

with images are Steve, Rain, John, me, and BJ. And Brian's hand. And Brian's hand. And the reason that we were featured was because we were the actors who had regular contracts when the series started. For all of season one and part of season two, the rest of the supporting cast are listed as guest stars

in the end credits. But later, when you guys became series regulars, your name started to appear after the main titles as the show begins, where the writers and directors are also credited. That's right. It was a big deal. They call it top of show, guys.

Top of show. If your name gets in the top of show as an actor, that's party time. The shots of Scranton that you see in the opening credits, those were shot by John Krasinski. Yep. John was living in New York when he got the role of Jim Helpert.

And after he was cast on the show, but before we started shooting it, he and his friend decided to drive to Scranton and do a mini documentary on a local paper company there. They interviewed people. They interviewed a manager of a paper company in Scranton who was a woman. And while they were on this trip,

they also shot images of Scranton. And these are the ones that made it into the credits. That's right. It's like a driving shot. And I feel like they had like a handheld camera. They did. And his friend had a jeep. And John was just like hanging out the window.

So the shot of the pen, paper, and supply building, the Scranton Center on Mulberry in Washington, and the Scranton welcome sign were all shot by John. Here's a little fun fact about that Scranton welcomes you sign. It is no longer on the side of the road. Now, I've heard two stories about why this is. One is that they had to take it down because too many people were stopping to take pictures

with it, and it was unsafe. Oh, OK. Well, that makes sense. I mean, it's on the side of like a highway. Right. The other is that it blew over in a windstorm. That's sort of like the city official story. Right. I don't know.

Either way, you can still see it. It was relocated to the second floor of the Steamtown Mall. So you can take a picture with it. It's next to the K Jewelers. Yes. I love that they saved it, and it's in the mall. It's perfect. Yeah.

Also, while John was there when he was interviewing the woman who was the manager of the paper company, she had a little stuffed hamster on her desk. And so I don't know if you noticed, but on Michael's desk on the little credenza behind him, there are these little stuffed hamsters. And when Greg saw them in John's footage, he said, I want to put hamsters on our manager's desk too.

Hamsters and little outfits. I think one of them is like in a band? Is he going to play the drums? I don't know. I always feel like one of them had a vest on. Yeah. I guess I'm putting him in a marching band. But I don't know if that's what he's really doing,

but he does have on a vest. I just always thought he was a fancy guy. A little fancy hamster. Most of the shots of the actors in the title sequence are from the first season of The Office. Dwight's shot with the shredder is from Diversity Day. Jim on the phone is also from Diversity Day. The shot of me answering the phone

is a deleted scene from The Alliance. Ryan on the phone is from The Pilot. Dwight flipping his tie and Ryan with his bag of clothes are both from Basketball. And the shot of Jim and Pam is from Hot Girl. Michael adjusting his Dundee was B-roll footage. There is one shot that changed in our opening sequence in the first four seasons, and that is the shot of Steve.

The establishing shot of Steve in season one was from Diversity Day. But they changed it in season two to a shot from sexual harassment because they wanted to match his updated image, because we changed his look in the second season. Here's a fun fact. People always talk about that piece of paper that's

getting highlighted because it gets circled with a highlighter rather than highlighted with a highlighter. That piece of paper is from the Los Angeles Department of City Planning. Well, I think that's really cool because I didn't realize the opening credits was such a mix of so many different episodes.

You know, the supporting cast is in it just for a millisecond. We're like in the conference room. You know what I mean? Yes. You're in that shot when Ryan answers his phone. Right. We're behind him. And I guess that was from The Pilot.

That was from The Pilot. I did not realize that. And that would mean that Kate Flannery is not in that shot because she was not in our pilot. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's very quick. But that's so cool. That's kind of what I got going through the credits.

I think I broke it down. I'm excited as we move into season five because now I'll be able to tell you the changes. There's change happening. Day tuned. As we were looking back on season four, I really did some digging on the DVDs. And I found a commercial that NBC put together

to highlight the office to its viewers. So here is NBC's commercial of season four. It ran during this time. Every once in a while, a comedy comes along that critics love and audiences cheer for. I feel very blessed. Welcome to the office, where you're invited every Thursday night. Do I care that I wasn't invited to Michael's dinner party?

So grab someone you love and settle in. I have a friend who's single. Would an average rowboat support her without capsizing? It bothers me that you're not answering the question. The Office, Thursdays on NBC. Wait, they ran that at the beginning of season four? There's spoilers in that. No, no, no.

They ran it at the end. You know what I mean? It was summer reruns and I don't know, Jenna. They ran it at the end of season four. They ran it is what we know. What we can tell you with great authority is they ran that commercial. And I love that it is this guy that's like,

find someone you love. Get comfortable. Watch your favorite office folks. Like that guy's voice. I mean, what would be more accurate would be like, start making dinner, turn it on in the background, have it play while you clean the house, the office. We're here for you.

I feel like that's how people watch the office today. Right, or they should have just gotten rain as Dwight to be like, don't be an idiot, watch it, bye. Exactly. We should make the commercials for the office. Well, I just thought that was a fun thing to stumble across on the DVDs. And you guys go to season four, disc one,

and you'll see the commercial with Mr. Announcery Guy. Now, what else do you have, Angela, because you're smiling and you're shuffling papers. Okay, this is me shuffling papers. Here's a little something I did a deep dive on. All right, I know we talked a little bit about the very first office convention. Jenna, you weren't able to go.

We talked about that this year. Yeah. Well, I decided to deep dive the office convention because it took place during season four. And you guys, I uncovered something delicious. I am so glad you did this. Okay, so here's what I found. According to the University of Scranton's royal news,

the very first the office convention in Scranton was October 26th through 28th, 2007. Here's some quick facts. Oh, they have quick facts, Jenna. We have fast facts and the royal news has quick facts. All right. 3,000 people greeted Al Roker of the Today Show with members of the cast, including me,

for a live broadcast from campus. The Today Show Weekend Edition also broadcast from campus. 400 University of Scranton students volunteered for the convention. 10,000 attended the office convention over a three-day period. 3,400 attended a Q&A with the cast at the university's Long Center.

157 journalists attended the convention, including reporters from the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, USA Today, MTV, VH1, and the Associated Press. Wow. All those numbers mean this was a big event. I mean, if you go to Scranton and see the town itself and then realize 157 press outlets were there,

there was something happening on every street. There was a street festival, Dunder Mifflin Infinity's Office Olympics, food and local vendors selling Scranton-related merchandise, two open-air stages offering a wide assortment of live entertainment. There was also a Q&A panel with cast members a blogger's breakfast and a writer's block discussion. But lady, a lot of us from the cast that attended,

we had to fly in at different times. Guess who kicked off the whole the office convention weekend? Who? Creed Bratton and Kate Flannery performing with the Scranton. Yes. I saw footage of this. Yes. They were asked to perform the Pennsylvania polka.

And I had to call Kate. I had to call her about it. I saw a grainy YouTube video of it. I was like, Kate, please tell me about this. She said, Angela, this was amazing. We knew we wouldn't have time to rehearse once we got to Scranton. So Bob Thiel gathered the Scranton's band.

Bob played guitar. His friend Dylan played piano. Brian played drums. Hal was on bass. Dave was on bass. And Scott Schreiner from the band Weezer also played bass. What? Yes.

But ready for this? What? Weird Al Yankovic. Joined them in the studio to rehearse. What? Yes. He is friends with Bob. And he was going to be at the studio that day anyways.

So Bob said, hey, can you come over, play the accordion at our rehearsal? Wait, did Weird Al go to Scranton with them then? No, no, no. He was just there the day they rehearsed in the studio in Los Angeles. OK. But he totally helped them out.

And are you ready for this? Bob recorded the rehearsal. And Kate asked him if we could play it on the podcast. And he said yes. So here it is. Creed Bratton, Kate Flannery, The Scrantons, and Weird Al playing the Pennsylvania Pocah. ["The Pennsylvania Pocah"]

I'm very moved. I am emotional. Isn't that so fun? Let me tell you why. You guys, the cast was not paid to attend the convention. You guys were not paid for this. They paid your airfare. Yes.

And your hotel. They got our room and board. But everything else we did was for the love of the show and the love of the fans. And these guys went into a studio and they rehearsed on their time. And then they brought this show to the fans and to Scranton. And this is one of the things that I

love about Creed and Kate especially is that they are like those old school performers. The show must go on. We're going to make the best show possible. They are in it because they love it and they love performing and making people happy. And when I heard this rehearsal tape, it just gave me all the feels.

Yeah, it really was so amazing. And if you can find it on YouTube, I found one version of it. Not only are they singing their hearts out, they're dancing around, they are fully committed to doing the Pennsylvania Pocah for the Office fans in Scranton. And I just thought that was so cool

that they started off the whole convention. I love them. They're awesome. Awesome. And thank you to Bob Thiel and the Scrantons and Weird Al. Yeah. Well, that's some trivia that I found about the very first the Office convention in Scranton.

I thought it was really fun. I am loving this. I think we should take a break because now we have stuff that we discovered about specific episodes. All right. I mean, you thought we covered it, you guys. We found more stuff. I'm just going to say two words.

Dinner party. Ooh, yeah. We'll be right back. We are going to talk about some of the episodes from season four and some new stuff. But I thought I'd start with this. Office Tally, you know our website, our beloved website. We love Jenny Tan.

That's right. Every season, they would do rankings of the episodes fans would vote on their favorite episodes from a season. Oh, are you going to tell me the fan favorite for season four? Yes. So of the 14 episodes from season four, according to Office Tally fans, the number one ranked episode

was chair model. Really? Yes. That was followed by goodbye Toby in second place. And money in third place, dinner party, was ranked ninth out of 14 episodes. Remember, we talked about that. We said this was not a fan favorite when it first aired.

No. It is the type of episode that I think caught momentum after many rewatches. Yes. But on the first watch, number nine. Number nine. Number 14. Should we get started, Angela?

You've got something to tell me about Fun Run, I think. I do. So Whitney Croy and a few other people asked me, Angela, when you and Dwight are having that big argument about sprinkles, we're running and we're fighting, Michael jogs between us and says something kind of under his breath as he jogs between us while we're fighting. OK.

What does Michael say? People were like, please tell us what he says. I could not make it out. I went back. I rewatched with subtitles because I didn't know what he said either as he runs between Angela and Dwight as their relationship is basically ending. Michael under his breath says, take bat bite seriously.

Don't get bit. He's just spreading rabies awareness as he runs. Right. So Whitney, thank you for writing in. A few other people did as well. I've got a little nugget from Melissa Williams who wants to tell us something about launch party. OK.

Launch party is when Meredith comes back with her cast and she wants Jim to sign it. And we were very confused about how she goes to the bathroom in this cast. Right. We were questioning if you need a cast for a broken pelvis. Right, or if your cast looks like a giant pair of underwear. Yeah.

Well, Melissa Williams would like us to know that there is a cast that covers the whole pelvis and it's called a spica cast and it is for a broken femur. It covers your whole pelvis and all of one leg and some of the other leg. But there's like an opening in the crotch and there's a bar going across it. And that's how you pee in your full pelvic cast.

Oh my god, that sounds horrible. Yeah. Because what if you're not always tidy when you go to the bathroom? I mean. If it sprays. Sometimes things don't go according to plan. Yeah.

But well, that'd be hard to clean up. I guess if you're a man, it's easier. You could put your thing. We're looking at it from a woman's perspective. They might could aim it better. I would think so. Well, Melissa, thank you for sharing that. Ladies, don't break your femur because then you

might have to have a spica cast. With a hole in the crotch. And a bar and maybe some pee spray. Oh, well, let's hope that's the only spray. What would the other spray be? If it's a cast for your whole pelvis. Oh my god. You have to go poop, too.

I didn't even think of the pooping. I didn't even think about having to poop in the cast. Yes. I didn't think about it. That's the first thing I thought of. Oh, when you said things don't go as planned, you meant pooping. Yes.

Oh, wow, I hadn't. I mean, now I feel so horrible. I know you just turned bright red. It's like you just realized something. Oh my god, you're going to get poop on that cast. I know. It's unavoidable. I know.

Or on the bar. It's getting worse. Oh my god, we shouldn't be laughing about it. All right, we hope you guys are well and don't ever have to wear one of those. And Melissa, thank you for sharing. What do you got, lady? Well, where do we go?

OK, all right. In the deleted scenes, you guys, I found something I thought was very interesting for local ad. Remember local ad, everyone is pitching their ideas about what the Dunder Mifflin commercial should be? Yes. Toby pitches his idea, and we find out something about Toby that was not in the show Bible.

What is it? His previous job. All right, so anybody else, no bad ideas? Everybody? Let's keep them coming. OK, Toby. Well, you know how everyone fast-forward to ads these days? Well, what about an ad in slow motion?

You know, if they fast-forward through it, it'll just seem normal and it'll catch your eye. Plus, the slogan could be Dunder Mifflin. We adapt to the pace of your business. There are no bad ideas, but for an idea, that was really, really bad. I spent three years in advertising before I came here. And that is probably why most ads suck.

Oh, oh my god. Toby worked in advertising for three years. And that's a really good idea. I know, everybody really liked it. Oh my gosh, that's so good. Toby wasn't always the HR guy, he was the ad man. Toby could have been a madman. There's a crossover.

There's a crossover. Also, in local ad, a few of you pointed out, ladies, not only does Jim put Dwight Stapler in Jell-O in real life, but that in the deleted scenes for local ad, in second life, guitar Jim puts Dwight's Bazooka in Jell-O. Oh, yes. Well, I went back and looked. Seven minutes, 49 seconds.

You guys are correct. If you go to the DVDs, or maybe I'll put it in the pod, you'll see it. Interestingly enough, I have a little second life trivia as well, that I uncovered. What? So we told you that we set up a real second life for Dwight and Jim.

Well, Dwight's second life, Dwight K. Shelford, was his name. He made an announcement in second life to all of the second life players on Tuesday, May 6, 2008. And it was titled, Angela's Baby. Oh! And here's what it said. Attention, employees. Dunder Mifflin's second life branch

would like to welcome the newest addition to the Dunder Mifflin Infinity family, Ms. Isabel Ruby, born on Saturday, May 3 to her proud parents. Aw. Be forewarned, Ms. Isabel weighs 6 pounds, 14 ounces, sleeps on the job, and has no higher math skills. She also babbles and is capable of projectile vomit. Thanks, Dwight.

Oh my gosh, I didn't know they did that. Well, that was just like our crew, who was so proud of you, Ange, and so happy for you that they sent out this little announcement to our second life account that was still going. That is so moving to me. So we also had a lot of people asking about a comment that Jason Reitman made in one of his audio clips for local ad.

He said the phrase, cold is comedy, and people were asking if we could explain more of what that meant. I mean, our set was incredibly cold. Yes. Well, I think what it means is there is a tradition, and David Letterman's set was so cold. Oh, freezing.

So freezing. Freezing. This idea that when you're too hot physically, like if you're too warm, you're not on your toes comedically. So it's a very famous thing that a lot of comedians and comedic performers like it cold, because I don't know. It just keeps you. Keeps your brain awake.

Yes, that's right. Because you know what happens when you get hot? A hot day, you're sluggish. You start to fall asleep. You're like, bleh. Well, you definitely don't want a warm audience. You don't want your audience warm. That's right.

Yeah. So we kept our set very, very cold. And that was for two reasons. One, cold is comedy. And number two, Steve got really hot in his suits, like especially hot. And so in order to help him stay cold as comedy, we kept our sets really cold.

Yes, and I've also heard in theaters and studios that the lights they use to light the stage, to light the set, that equipment gets very, very hot. And so you're sort of combating that heat as well, keeping all of the instruments cool that help the show go on, so to speak. My personal feeling is that I can be very funny when I'm warm. I'm OK with it.

I'm OK being warm and funny. You know what? We've never been able to try. I've never been on a warm set. I've never walked onto a set and been like, ooh, I don't know, we're a tank top. No. I walk on a set in a parka.

Always. Always. I have on four layers right now. Is warm is drama? Is it that we haven't done enough dramas? Dramatic actors, are you warm all the time? Because maybe I need to switch gears here. Let's ask, who can we ask?

Kate Winslet? We don't know her, but let's write her an email. If we don't know her, how are we going to get her email? David Denman is doing that show with her. Oh my god, you're going to hit up David Denman for Kate's email. Kate, I'm calling you by your first name. And then our first question to Kate Winslet, who we've never spoken to, is, are sets warm for dramas?

When you do dramas, here's what I think we could do. You're right. That's ridiculous. We can't show our ass to Kate Winslet. The first time we talked to her. Let's ask David to just ask her. On set. Just be like, bring it up casually, David.

Be like, Kate, I'm curious. Are all of your sets warm because you're doing dramas? And she'll be like, that's a weird question, but it'll be on David. But we'll still get the answer. But also, David might just say, hey, you boholes, you can ask me. I am also on the dramatic set, standing next to Kate.

I know, but I need someone who's been on almost exclusively dramatic sets to really give me a real answer. OK, you need an overview. And David really straddles it. He does both. Well, maybe actually now that I think about it, he's the perfect person to ask because he could tell me if there's a temperature shift between comedy and drama.

There it is. And now we don't have to bug Kate Winslet. I was looking forward to getting to know her. I'm sure you guys would have really bonded via email about temperatures on sets. You never know. It's true, you never know. Why am I being such a snark?

Yeah, like Kate Winslet's going to be your fringe. Just you wait. You're going to feel real dumb one day when I show up somewhere with Kate Winslet. When you start podcasting with Kate Winslet, I'm going to be so bummed. And the name of our podcast is Drama Is Warm. Drama Ladies.

Yeah, there you go. Should we move on? What do we got next? I want to know if you got to the bottom of what Michael was eating in Survivor Man. Yes, I did. OK, good. You told me you were digging.

OK, this is actually a crossover catch between Money and Survivor Man. OK. We were dying to know what were the pellets in the bag. Yes. Tom Corey Lewis wrote in. He thinks, Michael is eating Dwight's bag of wild oats that he would have received from his parents

for courting a woman. I checked the show Bible. According to the show Bible, in the Money episode, Dwight says there is a shrewd family tradition for parents to leave a bag of wild oats on the doorstep after their male child has had sex. Oh my god. So Tom thinks maybe these are the oats.

These are the sex oats. And he had them. And he gave them to Michael. They're the sex oats. Oh my gosh. Naughty oats. Naughty oats. Naughty oats being eaten in the wilderness.

Oh, now that is a product right there. Naughty oats. Naughty oats. Sex oats. N-A-U-G-H-T-Y, Naughty Oaks. What are we making, cereal? Yeah. I kind of like the name Naughty Oaks.

Are you saying oaks or oats? Naughty oats. Naughty oats. Naughty oats. I want to eat that cereal. But do you want it to be called sex oats or naughty oats? That's tough. You can't have a cereal called sex oats.

It's got to be naughty oats. All right. I'll eat it. So your four-year-old could be like, Mom, I can't have naughty oats. I don't say that, that's terrible. I know. It's an adult cereal.

Why? For adults only. Why? Because it's naughty. It makes you have sex. No, you eat it after sex. What are the shapes? Are they naughty shapes?

A little penises and boobies. Oh, Lord. What has happened to us in this podcast today? I don't know. I don't know. All right. Dinner party, Angela? Oh, yeah.

Listen, I didn't think there was any way that we would uncover anything that we hadn't already covered in dinner party. I thought that was a pretty thorough episode. I thought so. I was very proud of that episode. Well, let me put my glasses on, because James Zepedia came through.

James shared with me the candy bag talking head alts. You guys remember what candy bags are, right? We shared this with you. Dinner party was 100% scripted. The script was amazing. Nothing was changing. But when we would go to do a talking head, the standard on our set was writers

would hand us a bunch of alts. Yeah. And we called these candy bags. You had your talking head that was the quote, must shoot. From the script. From the script. And then we had the candy bags.

I want to share two candy bag alt talking heads, one for Jim and one for Dwight. I cannot wait. This is a talking head for Jim that did not, obviously, make it in dinner party. But it really made me laugh. Here it is. If I had known that Michael would make everyone stay late,

just to trap me and Pam into a couple's only dinner at his condo with Jan, Andy, and Angela, I would have never asked Pam out in the first place. And I really like Pam. Isn't that funny? That's so good. OK, so that was a candy bag alt for dinner party. And then I was texting with Rain,

because we actually did a Q&A with University of Scranton. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, we had a great time over Zoom. Anyway, we were texting, and I was like, Rain, I just found an alt talking head for Dwight for dinner party. And Rain read it as Dwight and sent it in as an audio clip. And you guys remember, this talking head is in reference to Dwight and Angela's relationship.

A farmer and his plow horse have a strong bond, because they have a shared mission. But what mission do a man and a woman have? None, really. So they're left to just stare at each other blankly, waiting for the other one to flinch or die or say something cute. Horses never say anything cute, but if they did,

it would be a really big deal. There were several alts for Dwight, where he is just comparing Angela and Dwight to some kind of farming analogy. But that one made me laugh. Thank you, Rain. You know, and Rain is always so supportive of the Office Ladies podcast.

Really shows up for us. I love you, Rain. I know. He's a good friend. He's like a tall, sweet, crusty friend. Yes. And you guys, his podcast Metaphysical Milkshake is now available on all platforms

where you listen to podcasts. It's Rain and his friend, Reza Aslan. They talk about life's big questions. He's a good person to do that. I call him when I have big questions. And I mean it. I'm not joking. I know.

So guys, go give it a listen. I wish we could have Rain read all of Dwight's candy bag talking heads. I bet all the candy bag talking heads are so good. Because the thing about the candy bag talking heads was that they would push it. The writers could swing big, right? And sometimes they would make it in.

But I think more than anything, those candy bag talking heads were just for their amusement. They just wanted to hear us say the stuff that was the biggest swing. I'm going to move us on to Chair Model. You know, in Chair Model, Creed is collecting chairs? Yeah. We got a comment from Eve Elizabeth

who said that Creed's talking head about needing three chairs could have been a reference to Thoreau who said this, quote, Henry David Thoreau? Yeah. OK. He said, I had three chairs in my house. One for solitude. Two for company.

Three for society. I'm only laughing because of the way you said society. Society. Society. Yeah. Wow. Well, I mean, I sort of believe that Creed would like Henry David Thoreau.

Why not? All right. Goodbye, Toby. Remember, we did our show Bible goodbye to Toby. Yeah. We promised we would do one for Karen. Let's do it. Here it is.

Karen Philippelli speaks French and can also speak some Italian. She's very into Call of Duty, and her favorite chips are hers, Salt and Vinegar. After getting kicked out of the party planning committee, she creates the committee to plan parties with Pam. She likes Jim, but she does not love the film Bridget Jones' diary.

She gets a brawn panties when Michael offers to buy her something at the mall. She dates Jim for about six months, and in the end, she thinks Pam is kind of a bitch. She's even willing to move to New York if Jim gets a job at corporate. But in the end, when they break up, she takes a job as the regional manager of Utica.

And while this is not the end of Karen Philippelli, we will not be seeing her for a while. So there you go, Karen Philippelli. Show Bible goodbye. That's all I have for episodes. But we got a general question that made me chuckle. OK. Angela Madeline O wrote in to say,

when you guys say we got a letter or we got mail, did you actually get a physical letter, or is that your mom way of saying we got an email? I genuinely want to know. Oh, Madeline, we are such moms. That's an email. That's just an email. But I always think of it as like, well, we got mail.

We got mail. Because we're oldies. We are. But I do say we got a letter sometimes. Yeah, because it is a letter. An email letter. Yeah. Yeah, that's mom speak, Madeline.

Yeah. Lady, are you ready for some shout outs? I want shout outs. Several of you have shared with us that you would really like for our insta stories to stay in the highlights on Office Ladies Pod. Because by the time you get to listen to the episode, they're gone.

I was like trying to figure out how to do this, because I'm a dinosaur. And I was like, how do I do them every week? How do we do them, Jenna? How do we do them? And then as I was literally trying to figure this out, someone tagged me in a post. And it's from an account called Office Ladies Stories

on Instagram. So I reached out to Office Ladies Stories on Instagram. And I got in touch with who created it. And I want to give her a shout out. Her name is Azu Garcia. Azu, thank you so much for setting up Office Ladies Insta Story. It's a highlights account.

Azu shared with me that she recently graduated from the University of Houston with a degree in retailing and consumer science, and that the office got her through long nights of studying. She loves the podcast. And she started the Instagram page because she often listens to the podcast after the stories have left.

And she wanted to be able to share them with other people. So Azu, thank you so much. Thank you, because now Angela and I don't have to figure out how to do that. Exactly. We would have never figured it out. I'm pretty sure. I mean, I just didn't know how to maintain it either.

That too. Yeah. We're very grateful. Thank you. And lastly, I have wanted to mention this on a revisited a few times. I often quote scenes. I have the dialogue.

I like to read it back. I put it in my document, you know? And for episodes that we haven't had the scripts for, there is a website that is amazing. If you want to see the aired version of the office in written word, it's called officequotes.net. It is every word ever said on the show. Oh my gosh.

Yes. I find it a great website. And I have used it as we have prepped episode after episode. So thank you. One of my favorite websites is Dunderpedia. And they have a page that is like a Wikipedia page for every single episode of the office.

And I found something cool. As I was going back to do additional research for season four, they have started adding things to the pages that we have found. Oh, they're updating them. From doing office ladies. Well, that's great. From doing the podcast.

So extra little nuggets that we've gotten from cast members, things that weren't already out there, they are still updating those pages. And that's really cool, too, to look back at a specific episode and see all the fun facts. Yes. Well, there you go. Those are my shout outs.

I think we revisited it. I think we took a second drink. That was season four revisited. Thank you, Carrie Bennett, for being amazing. Thank you, Creed, for hopping on the phone with me. Thank you, Kate, and Rainn Wilson, and James Apedia. And Bob Thiel for giving us the Pennsylvania Polka rehearsal tape.

You can find Bob at Bob Thiel Jr. on Instagram, b-o-b-t-h-i-e-l-e-j-r. That was so cool. And you guys, Kate Flannery and Jane Lynch are going to start touring again. Oh, yes. So I'll put in stories where you can find their show dates. They do a fantastic show.

And you know they have that great Christmas album. I'll put all that in stories. And Carrie Bennett is at Carrie Bennett Costumes. And you can find Creed's tour schedule at creedbratton.com. There you have it, guys, season four. We'll be back next week to keep breaking down season five. Five. Five.

Season five. I'm going to go eat some naughty oats. I'm from St. Louis. Yeah, far too far. I got to use a spoon, not a fork, for my oats. For my naughty oats. My naughty oats. I think we've moved to Wisconsin now.

I don't know where we are. I don't know where we are either. We can't do accent. Well, you know what? I have like three I can do. And I don't think Missouri's one. I can't really do any. Oh, well.

We're going to end the podcast now. We'll see you later. Bye. Bye. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is produced by Earwolf, Jenna Fisher, and Angela Kinsey. Our show is executive produced by Cody Fisher.

Our producer is Cassie Jerkins. Our sound engineer is Sam Kiefer. And our associate producer is Ainsley Bubicoe. Our theme song is Rubber Tree by creedbratton. For ad-free versions of Office Ladies, go to StitcherPremium.com. For a free one-month trial of Stitcher Premium, use code Office.