Office Ladies - Second Drink: Basketball

Episode Date: December 9, 2024

This week we have a really special episode. Not only do we head down to the warehouse for a 'friendly' basketball game and meet Daryl, but this is the episode of The Office Jenna and Angela became real life BFF's! Then the ladies talk about real life injuries and Kevin (Brian Baumgartner) sinking all those baskets. Finally, Jenna reveals the story behind why Pam and Roy have been engaged for so long. Please don't throw garbage at this episode. Check out Office Ladies Merch at Podswag: https://www.podswag.com/collections/office-ladies  Office Ladies Website - Submit a fan question: https://officeladies.com/submitaquestion  Follow Us on Instagram: OfficeLadiesPod Episode Transcript To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Uber Reserve. See Uber app for details. days in advance. Uber Reserve. See Uber app for details. Hello everyone. Welcome to our second drink for basketball. Angela, you told me that you found a fun scene in our shooting draft for this episode that we never talked about before. I did.

It's a Pam and Jim scene. So here's the deal. In the episode when Michael goes up to reception and says, Pam, Pam, thank you, ma'am. Yes. And then Dwight quickly approaches to ask him if he can be on the basketball team. Well, this whole moment at front reception was longer and it had one of those cute little

flirty Jim and Pam moments. There's a lot of those in the early seasons. There are. Here's how it was written. So this would have happened before Michael gets to work. Okay. Okay. Interior. Okay. Interior office reception.

Pam and Jim are listening to the same phone headset, their heads touching. They are smiling, clearly enjoying what they're hearing. Jim, to camera, says, I'm listening to my boss try on pants. Pam says, Michael must have bumped his cell phone last night, so now we have a half an hour message of him at the mall. Jim says, it's fantastic. He glances to make sure Michael's door is closed, then he pokes a button to put it on speaker.

Everyone hears loud scratching sounds. Jim says, we've heard it four times. It's mostly silence, but every now and then Pam goes shh. And then you hear Michael saying, ugh, do these run small? And the sales lady says, no. And Pam and Jim react smiling. There's some more fussing sounds from the speaker. And then Pam goes, okay, wait, here it comes.

Michael starts to softly sing to himself. I love uh, uh, uh, uh, abacrumi and fish. Yeah, if I could have one wish, abacrumby and fish. Pam and Jim look at each other with glee. The voicemail system kicks on and says, "'End of message, press one to replay,' and they both lunge to press one." Aw, early Jim and Pam flirty.

And if you go to the Superfan episode, there is a much smaller version of this that made it in. Pam just says to Michael, nice pants, did you get those at Opera Crumby? Oh. Mm-hmm. And if you watch it, I totally see John trying not to laugh in the background.

Well, I love any time Michael goes shopping or buys jeans or whatever. Any Michael fashion moment. Yes. Last thing I wanted to share is when we break down this episode, you and I get into a discussion about whether Dwight and Angela's relationship had started already.

Yeah. But lady, we didn't include the deleted scenes in this discussion and there are a few extra ones that might prove they actually have not hooked up yet. Okay. For example, Angela had a candy dish on her desk with Tootsie Rolls in it, and Dwight comes over to get some.

Oh, and also if you watch this, the candy dish, if you zoom in, is the blue cat paperclip holder that I had for the entire series. Oh, but in this instance, you had candy in it, not paper clips. Exactly. I had Tootsie Rolls in it, to be specific. Let's hear the scene.

Mm. It's good. Mm. They're one per person. Would you like to have a vacation this year? Would you like to have a vacation this year? But I thought. Mm, delicious. That does not sound like someone who is dating someone.

No, definitely not. And Angela had even made a sign that says one per person and had stuck it in the dish and he's just ignoring it. The way he was eating that gave me the ick. Ugh, I know, it's pretty gross. And it's Tootsie Rolls too. He was just putting as many as he could in his mouth. And Tootsie Rolls really make you produce a lot of saliva.

Yeah. Yeah. So my second scene to prove that Angela and Dwight aren't dating yet comes during the basketball game. Dwight sits next to her during a time out and he's wearing that protective mask and this is what Angela says to him. Is that really necessary? I've almost had my nose broken a dozen times. I mean she's repulsed by him. I mean yes. Now I need to know when did she find her attraction to him? When did it turn?

I guess it's good we cut those out. Well, those are some good extra tidbits, Ange. Cassie's got an extra tidbit for us as well. Cassie, since this is the basketball episode and you are our resident basketball expert. Will you please share with us your Office professional basketball player mashup that you did? Yeah, so I was watching this episode, and I was just thinking, like, which Office character is which, like, NBA, WNBA star? And some of them work really well.

Oh, yeah? Yeah, so for Dwight, he was the most easy. I have to say he's Nikola Jokic, AKA the Joker. Basically, he's from Serbia. He comes over here. He works really hard. He's been MVP three times in a row. And then he goes home and works on his farm.

And he raises horses. Oh, my gosh. That's great, Dwight. He doesn't wear a face mask, though. I don't think he's had to wear a face mask yet. Okay. But yeah, he definitely though on the court can do anything and Dwight kind of forces himself

to do anything when they're playing basketball. So, you know, pretty similar. For Michael Scott, I can't say he plays like any basketball player. I hope you can't say that. I wouldn't want anyone to be the Michael Scott of their team. He's not good. Exactly.

But I think in terms of personality, he's very close to LeBron James. Oh. Yeah. He's kind of like a goofy guy. And I've been watching Starting Five. And he talks about how like he loves to dress up for Halloween and he loves his family and right now this season Bronnie is playing on

the Lakers with him. I know it's father's son. Yeah, I think Michael Scott would have his son or sons play basketball with him. Oh he'd be so excited. I like that. I really hope that goes viral. I hope this podcast is quoted. Cassie Jerkin says, Michael Scott.

The bond trains. It's Michael Scott. Hopefully he'll like that. And then for Jim, I think he's also another Laker, Austin Reeves. And I'm saying this because last year, there was a game where he was playing against the Pistons. And he accidentally landed on some beautiful women

sitting courtside, and it made him blush. And then the rest of the game, any time he played really well, he would check in with them to see if they were checking him out. And that's exactly how Jim was playing. Yes, very Jim to Pam, right? Yeah, exactly.

So Stanley's dribble is iconic, super memorable. So for him, I think he has very similar handles to James Harden. And I say this with love because I'm a Clippers fan. But James, his handles are kind of all over the place. You don't know what's going to happen, but it ends up most of the time being successful. So I think with Stanley's Dribble,

everybody's like, what's happening? Cassie, we're gonna get mail. I would love if James Harden comes after me, because I'm a fan. And then notable mentions is, in this episode, two characters are like, Michael disregards as being like, you can't play basketball.

And then it turns out they're probably the best at basketball. Yes. So Phyllis, I have to give a nod to being Caitlin Clark, because in college, Yukon didn't recruit her. So she ended up going to Iowa, and now she's the greatest of all time. And then same thing happened with Kevin or Steph Curry,

where he also was overlooked in college, and now he's the greatest shooter of all time. Also, I mean, Brian's three-point shot. That's incredible. That's like Curry, he can just throw anything up from way out there, and it goes in. And that long take where he keeps hitting it, and it's like nothing but net, there's no cuts.

Yeah. That's incredible. I was so glad they got that on film, and there's even more of it in deleted scenes. Amazing. Well, that was so fun, Cassie. Thank you. I loved that.

Okay. Well, here is our breakdown of basketball and we have a fantastic Office Lady 6.0 out on Wednesday. Kathy Bates shares with us about her time on the show. What a fun interview. And my Hallmark Christmas movie, Confessions of a Christmas Letter, is now streaming on Hallmark Plus. They even have a free trial so you can watch it over the holidays. Love you guys. We hope you have a great one.

See you then. I'm Jenna Fisher. And I'm Angela Kinsey. We were on The Office together. And we're best friends. And now we're doing the Ultimate office rewatch podcast just for you. Each week we will break down an episode of The Office and give exclusive behind the scenes stories that only two people who were there can tell you.

We're The Office ladies. Oh my god. I'm here with my BFF. We're gonna do this. This is so cool. We are hanging out talking about The Office. Oh my God, I'm here with my BFF. We're going to do this. This is so cool. We are hanging out talking about The Office. Oh my gosh. Is it weird that we're super fans of a show that we were on?

I don't think so because I think it's really good. It is really good. It really makes me laugh. For real, out loud still it holds up. I know and it's hard to make me laugh. But you know what? We were surrounded. I feel like we were on like the comedy all-star team. We were so lucky. So basically, here's what our podcast is about,

you guys. We are going to watch an episode of The Office each week. We would love it if you watch them too. And then we're going to talk about things that happened, behind-the-scenes moments, our memories of it. We're going to have guests come on, maybe some fun directors, and maybe some of our writers and our cast members, people that worked in the crew. Now listen, we are probably not the expert be all experts on The Office. We like to think we are, but you guys have watched it like 17 times all the way through. I would lose a trivia contest to any fan.

I mean, I just met someone who said they'd watched The Office 18 times all the way through. I mean, that's pretty amazing. So if you're listening to this and you're like, hey, they didn't bring up the moment that Daryl said this, you can send in questions and anything we don't talk about today, we'd be happy to make a little special side podcast. What do you call that? Let's call it the special sauce. This is the entree, but if you want to send in a question, we'll put it in our special sauce. I like that. Well, available on Stitcher Premium. Jenna, who is the person you want to send in a question, we'll put it in our special sauce, Anna. I like that. Available on Stitcher Premium. Jenna, who is the person you want to sit next to in any high school, chemistry class, college class,

she is the note taker. You don't watch Game of Thrones, so you will miss this reference, but I feel like you would be like, Jenna Fischer, first of her name, keeper of the notes of the records. I don't watch Game of Thrones, but I appreciate that. I know, I know, okay. Well, you would be keeper of the notes of the records. I don't watch Game of Thrones, but I appreciate that. I know, I know.

Okay, well you would be keeper of the notes. And she has made some really great notes and we both went back and rewatched. Which episode, Jenna? Today we are discussing the basketball episode. This is season one, episode five. Baboo, baboo! It was written and directed by Greg Daniels. That's right.

Jenna, do you know what time it is? It's time for Fast Facts. Woohoo! Yeah, we've got some Fast Facts on the basketball episode. It's your favorite part. This was Greg Daniels' directorial debut of The Office. Not just any debut of directing. Of all directing.

So not just of The Office, but his debut debut. Now he told me he had directed actors before for voices on The Simpsons and King of the Hill. He created King of the Hill for anyone who doesn't know that. But this was his first time doing on-camera directing. He would go on to direct 12 more episodes of The Office, but this was the first. Yes, and I remember him showing up

in his new balanced sneakers, his gray new balanced sneakers, his like khaki pants. Greg always wears anything he got for free. So like his shirt might have said King of the Hill, his baseball hat might have said the Simpsons. Mindy Kaling used to joke that he just wore all his swag all the time. But he showed up so giddy and excited. His enthusiasm and love for this show and this world and characters, it was just so contagious. I just loved it so much. It made me excited. Here's now a little BFF side note for you guys. So Jenna and I, up until this point in the office, we had that partition between us.

We've been speaking over the partition. But now as we film basketball, we were now sitting next to each other on that bench. It was Jenna, me and Phyllis sitting on that bench all day next to each other. For two solid days. And a day of filming is about 12 hours. So 24 solid hours on that bench. And you say, I just kept talking your ear off. You would not stop talking to me. Yes. The reason we are best friends is because Angela would not stop speaking to me. Jenna just finally gave up. You wore me down. I wore you down.

No, but we told each other our life stories on that bench. We did. 24 hours. It was like the bench of truth. It was the bench of truth. Everything you could possibly want to share. I will never forget. We were leaving one night. We had taped till really late at night. We'd had a long day and it was our day two. So you and I have now talked for... The full 24. Yeah, 24 hours. And it's late at night and we had to walk

from where the warehouse set was back to our trailers. And it was a little bit of a walk and we linked arms, arm and arm. And we started doing the Laverne and Shirley song. Shamil, Shamazal. I remember this. And we were going up and down and we were like, we're gonna do it.

Give us a chance. I don't know why we were doing this. Yeah, and I don't know why we were, cause we were goody, we had lost our minds cause we'd been in that warehouse for 24 hours. But unbeknownst to us quietly walking behind us was Steve Carell. And we turned around and realized he'd watched us do

this whole Laverne and Shirley song and dance. And we started laughing because we were embarrassed. And he looked at us and smiled and he said, you guys, no matter what happens with this show, because we were on the chopping block. Always on the chopping block. Always on the chopping block that first season for sure. And he was like, no matter what happens with the show, this is what you guys will have from it. And he pointed at the two of us, this friendship.

And I'll never forget it because he was right. And you say, this is the episode, you have a photo, this is the moment we became best friends. I have a photo of us sitting on that bench from this episode framed in my office. Aw, lady. I know. That's so sweet.

And I have a sense memory of my butt falling asleep. Oh, my butt fell asleep. So many times. My butt fell asleep and the shoes I was wearing were called SAS, S-A-S, and they're like what, nuns wear? Yeah, but there's an interesting thing I noticed in rewatching this. What? In the very early moments of this episode, you see the boom microphone dip down into frame.

Oh, look at you catching a little boom. I did. Now, normally you would never allow this on television. But on our show, this was considered gold. We kept this stuff in. Like you never not used a take that was funny. Just because you saw the boom microphone or anything, any quote unquote mistake that would normally get cut out of another show, we used it.

Because you want it to feel like the documentary. Like an authentic documentary. This was really important. So I thought that was kind of a cool little thing. That is cool. Our boom operator was named Nick Carbone. Yeah. And one of my favorite things is when sometimes he would get the boom in the shot, we would yell, you got car boned. Car boned. You got car boned. And then we also started making up a song called, boom, shadow, boom, shadow. Listen, young kids, Google it. That is an old song. Angela, I have to share something else about Nick Carbone, our sound guy. So

Nick Carbone put a microphone on me every day for nine years. Yes, he did. It's a very intimate thing to Mike, an actor. Oftentimes, you know, I was in that pencil skirt. And if I was standing up, we would sometimes have to put a leg wrap around my upper thigh to hide the microphone pack and then very delicately weave a microphone wire through underneath my bra, up my blouse. And Nick Carbone was the person who did this every day. For me too, for me too, every day. So a very intimate relationship you form with the person who mics you every day. Here's something that would happen though.

Those leg wraps, they closed via Velcro. Yes. They were a Velcro leg wrap and Pam wore pantyhose and I would get a run in my pantyhose. And I would have to change my pantyhose four to five times a day. The wardrobe people, they would put four or five packs of pantyhose in my trailer because they knew that inevitably I would get a run from this

Velcro, which was also itchy and uncomfortable. It was uncomfortable. Do you know what Nick did for me? I do know what he did for you, but you tell them. Okay, here's what he did. He came up with a special leg wrap invention. Yes. Where he created a leg wrap that used bra hooks. It was like a bra. It was like a bra hook. A bra strap.

Yeah, like a bra strap closure so that when he hooked it onto my leg, my pantyhose wouldn't run and I wouldn't have to change my pantyhose so often. And it worked. It was brilliant. Here's the other thing he did. He knew that I like to really go for it at the holidays. I mean, I like to eat the pies and the many turkeys and all of the stuffing. You love some holiday eating. I love the holiday eating. And I would often come back from the holidays, a good full size larger than when I left. So Nick Carbone put like a bra, there were three different settings. For if it was post holidays, pre holidays,

maybe I was working out real hard for a movie role so that it always fit me. Cause that was the purpose of the Velcro was that you could kind of Velcro it anywhere. So he made this adjustable leg wrap for me. And we called it the Jenna. And he kept it in my kit. It was so cool.

And then you know what? What? After the office was over a couple years later, I got a job on an ABC show called splitting up together. And when I walked on the set for the first day, they introduced me to the sound team, and it was Nick. And I am tearing up just thinking about it. There he was again.

So the only person who has really ever mic'd me for television is Nick Carbone, and he had saved my special leg wrap. That is so sweet. I just love them so much. I love them too. We've totally become family and I just loved our crew. I just loved our crew so much.

We should have our crew. We need to have guests on. We need to have our crew come visit. Yeah, we need to have them come in. We need to do like a crew episode. I would love that. Yeah. This is completely not related to Nick Carbone,

but I have to share it. Jenna wore pantyhose every day. They were in her trailer. The same pantyhose were in my trailer. They were put in my trailer every day starting day one. I never put them on. I, I never, I refuse to wear my mind. I refuse to wear pantyhose and Jenna one day. I mean, it was years. I remember the day it was years into into filming. Seasons upon seasons. And she looked over at me one day,

and she was like, you don't have on pantyhose. I was like, oh yeah, they put them in my trailer. I don't wear those things. I'm not wearing pantyhose. And she was like, what the hell? I've been wearing pantyhose for years. I am such a rule follower that it never occurred to me that I could go rogue and just not wear the pantyhose.

No one said anything. I didn't put them on. No one said anything. I mean, listen, there were times when I didn't dress the bottom half of my body. Well, you need to explain that because it sounds... Oh, yeah. I should let me expand on that. You are like, you know, commando. So sometimes if I was only seated behind the reception desk, I only dressed the top half of Pam and the bottom half was

Uggs and sweatpants. So I did get a break from the pantyhose, but I never wore them ever. I can't believe that. I just kept shoving them aside. I shoved them aside for like two years and then they just gave up and stopped putting them in my trailer. I used to look so forward to our quote unquote winter episodes because they would give me tights, which were way more comfortable than pantyhose. And then after a while I had to say, stop putting control top pantyhose in my trailer. I don't want to wear control top pantyhose for 12 hours a day. You and my grandmother, especially after the holidays. This is a sentence that could like set up so many conversations for me with Jenna. But Jenna, you and my grandmother

were the only two people I knew for a period of time that wore pantyhose every day. My grandmother wore pantyhose every day of her life. She was like, she always had on pantyhose. I can't wait to be 75 because I think I'll finally make sense. You're already there. I've been a 75 year old woman since I was born. Should we give a synopsis of the episode? I know you want to Jenna. I wrote it down. Do it lady. I wrote down a synopsis.

She did y'all. She typed it out. It is. I'm going to read it. Okay. In this episode, Michael challenges the guys in the warehouse to a basketball game against the upstairs sales staff. The warehouse workers led by Darryl want to make it a friendly game, but Michael insists there be a prize for the winner or more accurately

a punishment for the losers. Michael suggests the losers have to work on Saturday and then he taunts Darryl with chicken sounds until Darryl agrees. Correct. But things will get more interesting in this episode. That's not where it ends, Angela. I know. The drama does not end there. There's another dun dun dun Angela. I know you drama does not end there another done done done paragraph We got here more interesting because Pam's fiance Roy works in the warehouse. Oh snap Yes, so we find out that she is caught between her office crushed gym. Mm-hmm and her actual fiance Roy, who's she gonna root for upstairs or downstairs? I don't know. Let's start at the beginning Michael enters the office and starts asking if people are ready for the big game.

Oh, this is early days of the office. Michael was super cringy. He was. Oh my God. He was so, like, first of all, he like just accosts you. He just walks up and swats you with a newspaper. He's like, bam, whack. He does.

Yeah. He would come up to my desk and I would flinch. Yeah. With Uber Reserve, good things come to those who plan ahead. Family vacay? Reserve your ride as soon as you book your flights. To all the planners, now you can reserve your Uber ride up to 90 days in advance. See Uber app for details. Okay. Let's talk about the game down in the warehouse.

I'm going to say- Oh, you have to talk about the Todd Packer moment. Okay. One of my absolute favorite moments. First, I want to say that I went back and watched the entire first season of The Office, and it is my personal opinion that basketball is one of the best episodes we ever did. Really? I absolutely love it.

I think it is so good. One of my favorite scenes in this episode is the one where Dwight follows Michael into his office and tries to convince him that he should be part of the basketball team. And they get in this exchange that is so wonderful. Michael says, no, not after what happened at that pickup game. And then Dwight is like, I, I apologize for that. And he's like, I vouched for you. I vouched for you in front of Todd Packer. Now here's the amazing thing about this show is that we've never met Todd Packer. He's only been mentioned one other time, which is in the pilot, when he calls in on speakerphone while Michael's having a meeting with Jan.

He says a bunch of inappropriate stuff, and Michael just shuts him off the speakerphone. But you can tell in that phone call, Michael covets this guy. Loves this man. He's the coolest guy. We are not going to meet Todd Packer. I looked it up.

Do you know when we finally meet him? Uh, season... Season two. Two? Sexual harassment episode. Oh, that's perfect. Which, yes, I know. I looked it up. Do you know when we finally meet him? Season. Season two. Sexual harassment episode. Oh, that's perfect. Which, yes, I know. But that's like far.

Yeah. Like that's a while. Well, I do love this. And I feel like Greg Daniels was so great about this. And with our writer's room is we just jumped in the middle of these people's lives. You know, we don't tell backstory and the audience just has to catch up.

And I love that. Yeah. I love all these little little nuggets and this episode in particular has a lot of little nuggets You see these dynamics that then play out years later I love and I don't want to jump too far ahead but like Dwight and Angela's power struggle It's the first time you see it in this episode. All right, so we'll play that clip. I think I should be on the team. No And that's not me being mean Dwight that is based on your past behavior Alright, so we'll play that clip. I think I should be on the team. No. And that's not me being mean, Dwight. That is based on your past behavior. Oh, please. When I let him come to my pickup game...

I apologize for that. I vouch for you. I vouch for you in front of Todd Packer, Dwight! Alright, here's what I'm gonna do. The hand strikes and gives a flower. You are not going to play basketball. No. But I need somebody to come in and take over the holiday and weekend work calendar. I can handle that.

Good. Excellent. It'll be fun. Because corporate wants somebody to be here on Saturday, and so we're gonna have to have a couple people come in on the weekends, and I know nobody's gonna want to do it, and everybody's gonna complain and bitch, and I don't want to have to deal with that. And that's why you have an assistant regional manager. Yes, it is. Assistant to the regional manager. Same thing.

No, it's not. It's lower. It's close. I love everything about Steve. I know so much. Steve, he's so brilliant. And everyone's going to bitch and complain. He just hates, he does not want to be the bad guy. No.

Desperately doesn't want to be the bad guy. He wants to be liked and that really is at the heart of this show for Michael is his, this office is his family. He wants them so badly to love him. I love in this little scene when Rain looks to the camera. He has a few looks to the camera that are just great. And I feel like this was really fun for all of us, this documentary kind of genre, because we did get to do that.

And even in years later, I have jobs and every once in a while a director would say, Angela, you just looked at camera. You can't look at camera. I do it still too. I'm like, oh crap, sorry, I for nine years, I would check in with the camera. It's so true. The camera was a character. Yeah, it was another person that we could relate to the documentarian quote unquote. Right. And so we were encouraged to make them a part of the conversation. Yeah, I know. And then it's weird to then take other jobs where you're like,

oh, right, right, you're not actually filming me. Or back to pretending like this is not, you're not in the room. Exactly, exactly. Another great scene is when Michael leads Ryan down into the warehouse. There's that great quote, he's managing by walking around. Oh, yes. That would be in his book, How I Manage, Michael Scott's book, How I Manage.

Here's a little trivia. Yeah, do it. The first time we go down into the warehouse. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I take that back. We go down into the warehouse in the episode before this called The Alliance, but this is the first time we go down and get introduced to the warehouse staff.

Yes, that's right. And Michael and Ryan go down these stairs. Now, in this episode, we were filming in Culver City. So those stairs actually were real. They actually existed. We filmed in an actual building that was an old company. Yeah. And so...

These offices were on the second floor of that building too. That's right. And so you go down the stairs to the warehouse, but in years later they recreated the whole office in a different location on a soundstage. And those stairs still existed, but they led nowhere. That was a tiny, tiny closet about three feet wide, and you would hide in the tiny closet, and then on cue you would open the door and walk out. So there were many times when you would either be up there by yourself in the tiny closet or you'd be up there, like one time I was up there with Oscar and Brian as Kevin, and there's not a lot of space up there.

No. And we just tucked in that little closet for about 20 minutes until our characters came in the scene. But this was where we were really using this real warehouse and this real space. And there are some shots outside where you can tell that it's not the same place as seasons later. I know, I know. There's some things they couldn't cover.

That's fun for the super nerd. Okay, well, I think we should play this clip of Michael introducing Ryan to Craig Robinson, who plays Daryl, the manager of the warehouse. This is one of my favorite introductions of a character on The Office because ever the the sort of journey that his name takes with Michael of how Michael comes up with this nickname for him is so ridiculous. And Craig Robinson does such a great job in the scene of just throwing it away. He's so amazing. All right, we should watch it. We'll discuss. And here we have Mita Rajah's neighborhood. Come on over here. Hey, this is Ryan. He's

temping upstairs. And this is the foreman, Mita Rajah's. It's not my real name. No, it's Daryl. Daryl is Mitha Rajaz. Daryl Rogers. Daryl Philbin. Then Regis. Then Reg, then Roger. Then Mitha Rogers. What is the amazing history?

How many years has Michael been calling him by not his name of Daryl? I know. It's so good. It's so good. And you so see in It's so good. And you so see in Michael's brain how he got there. Oh, makes total sense.

Darryl Philbin. Philbin. Oh, Regis Philbin. Reg. Raj. Raj. Mr. Rajas. Mr. Rajas.

So ridiculous. It totally works. And I have to wonder, this is like when I would love to do a dial-in phone call, but to call Mike Schur, because Mike Schur was one of our writers on the show and he is married to J.J. Philbin. J.J. Philbin's dad is Regis. And I know Greg had told me that some of the people's names were formations of different people who had family and stuff on the show. Well you know Jim Halpert is Greg's friend, Jim Halpert. His name is yes. His name is, it's his first and last name and Greg asked him permission to use his name

and the guy was like, oh yeah, sure, it's no big deal. He came to set one day. He was like, yeah, it's no big deal. Nine years later, it was kind of a big deal. Yeah. When he would go all places and be like, it's Jim Helpert. And he'd be like, oh, yeah, okay. Yeah, right.

I know, and Phyllis Lapin, Phyllis's last name Lapin, Lapin is the last name of a friend of Greg's as well. And so I have to think that Daryl Philbin was maybe Mike Schur's nod to his father-in-law, his wife's side of the family, but then became this great runner for Michael Scott, which is so great. It's so good. And I have to say, this is a funny thing, David Denman and I really hit it off. Yeah, you did. We are good friends in real life.

We especially hit it off in this episode. And it was weird because I think I had spent a lot of time talking to John Krasinski between scenes, and now I was talking to David Denman. And John was like, hey, where's my chat buddy? Where'd my friend go? So it was really weird. And yeah, David and I, we became couple friends.

He had a girlfriend at the time, and I was with someone at the time. And so we would all hang out and play poker together. But he became a really, really good friend of mine outside of the office. And I think it's probably a weird thing for people to imagine that one my, one of my best connections on the show was with David Dunman, my jerk boyfriend, Roy.

Your jerk boyfriend. I'm sure right now if you guys went out for lunch and you and him walked in, people would be like, why are you with Roy? It's so true. Where's Jim? I know. I had lunch with Rainn Wilson and people lost their minds. We were like, oh my God, Dwayne Angela. All right, here we go. We're moving on, Jenna. We're moving on. What happens next? Well, they go back up in the office, right?

Yes. They go back to work. That's when he says, okay, who's starting? Stanley, of course. Yeah. And he's like, why of course? Yeah, Leslie David Baker's like, excuse me, like kind of look he gives him is so perfect.

Now, if I remember correctly, Leslie was truly a horrible basketball player. Yes, Leslie was like, oh, I don't play sports. Yeah. Not a sports guy. That was really perfect. And Phyllis was so excited. She wanted to be on the team in real life.

I'm talking Phyllis in real life. Was like so excited to be part of the basketball team. Phyllis in her youth was a burlesque dancer. This is true. And she has quite the moves. And there is a tiny clip as they warm up before the game where she's moving her arms and stuff, but her warmup seemed very like dance.

Burlesque? Yeah, dance-like. But she was, there's a few times throughout the game when she finally gets to participate and you see her smile and that's genuine. Like Phyllis was like, I'm in the game, I'm so excited. I do have to say before we get into the game part, one thing is that you see my character

looking through the supply kind of closet and I'm looking for the first aid kit. And so, and I'm like, where's the first aid kit? And then Dwight doesn't even look around, he just holds it up, right? And I have this line that to me is kind of like that Todd Packer line in the first part of the episode that is so loaded with information.

Yes. Because I say, how many times do I have to tell you? I'm the safety officer, not you. Yes. It's like, how many times has Dwight tried to usurp Angela's power? How many times has he taken that first aid kit and tried to be safety officer?

What is their backstory there? I would love to know. I love that we don't know. We just know that they are adversarial in this moment and that they both love power and control. Later in season two, in the episode email surveillance, we will learn that Dwight and Angela are in a relationship. So my question to you is, looking back, do you think they were already in a relationship. Yes. So my question to you is, looking back, do you think they were already in a relationship now?

Or do you think that this is maybe the beginning of that sexual tension? I don't think they're in a relationship yet. I think it's the beginning. I think it's the beginning. I think they both kind of, they like each other, but they also are annoyed by each other. So they have this weird yin, yin and yang pool.

And I think it's the beginning. I feel like the more they gave that bit to you guys to play, then it gave them the idea to write this as some weird, twisted romance. Yes. And when we found out we were a couple, was at the table read. And that happened a lot for us on this show, is that the writers would come up with things. And that happened a lot for us on this show,

is that the writers would come up with things and we would sit down at lunch all together around a table. Once a week. Once a week and read a new script, usually on Wednesday, we would read a new script and we would, they would be handing them to us as we walked in the room. Sometimes the paper was hot. Yes, I remember.

And we would cold read these out loud and a lot of times we discovered information as we read them. And that was definitely one of them when we see the Birkenstocks moving in the dollhouse in the backyard, we were like, oh my god. I remember I found out Pam was pregnant during a table read. And being like a fan of the show, I would want information like anyone else. Yeah. And I would get it early, but I would still have to wait for that table read moment to find out. Yeah.

Like we weren't, they wouldn't say, OK, this season, here are the five things that are going to happen to your character. No. No, you had to wait for each week to see how the drama unfolded. Yeah, it was really fun. Oh, I have to tell the story.

So OK, so as Michael picks his team, we then see a montage of all of us throwing things into the trash can. It starts with Dwight, he tries to make a shot, he misses, I thought his face was so cute when he like did his fingers like, I missed it by this. So close. And he got to be on the team and he was so happy.

And then of course, Stanley misses, Oscar gets it in no problem, you know, and people go around making these baskets. Well, we did B-roll. We had always had A camera and we had B camera on the show. And the B camera would pick up all these little moments happening in the background. And so they had all of us toss things kind of nonchalantly into our our desk trash can. And I made mine on the first try. And I made like three in a row and

they didn't even include it because they're like it just doesn't track that you would that Angela would like be like a ringer or anything and of course Brian made his yeah and and that is something you guys should know is that where our trailers were our trailers are where you hang out between scenes right where our trailers were they put up a basketball hoop. And we would play horse in between scenes if we had a break, we would all go out there and play horse. And I have a photo of us.

And Brian was an amazing shooter. Brian's an amazing athlete. He's a great athlete. Great golfer. So the cast knew this. And so when this episode came about, we all knew what a great shooter he was. But the writers and Greg didn't know. They did not know.

And so in between scenes, he would grab a basketball and just start shooting. And he was just sinking them left and right. And it became a thing at the end of the episode. So you'll see him, they just let the camera roll. He makes one shot, gets it in from kind of close to the free point line. But then he keeps taking a step back, step back. So by the end, he's well at like three point range. And he made, I think it was 13 or 14 in a row. Yes. And they got it. We show three or four, I think. Yeah. But he actually made, I think it was

14. And we all were there with pins and needles. And when he missed the 15th one, we all cheered. It was so cool. There's another moment in the basketball game that's coming to mind. There's a moment where Michael is supposed to, as a joke, it was in the script. He's supposed to throw the ball from really far.

Right. And it doesn't go in. Yeah. And then he's supposed to be all upset, like, I usually make those or whatever. The first time, do you remember what happened the first time? Steve made it. He made it.

He made the most ridiculous alley-oop from the other side of the warehouse and we all cheered. We cheered. And they were like, no, you guys can't cheer. He doesn't make that. And Steve, I'm sure Steve was like, oh man, I wish that could go in. I know that should be a deleted scene for sure.

That was crazy. Okay. Oh, should we also talk about a little bit about the Jim Pam part of this episode? Yes. Yes. Because they have such an awkward flirty scene. That is so funny to me. First of all, I love that the subject of their flirt is the mall or wave runners.

This is so relatable to me because I have family that live in like Northern Texas and on the weekend you go to the lake and you go to the mall. Yes, exactly. These are the choices. Jim is going to go to the mall for the weekend if he doesn't have to work. The outlets, right? The outlets, the outlet malls. And then Pam said that if Roy wins, and they don't have to work on Saturday since that was the bet, if Roy wins, they're going to take the wave runners up to the lake. And Jim says, well, I think Roy is going to be working. So I think you're going to be coming to the mall with me, you know, just if you want to

save big on brand names. Super cute. But I have to say that whole wave runner backstory, that was based on a backstory that I wrote about Pam and Roy that ended up making it into the show in this very subtle way. So I remember trying to justify just as myself, why is Pam still engaged to Roy after three years? Because in this episode, you find out, they've been engaged for three years.

Her little toaster oven is broken. Her toaster oven, she's sad. It's a reminder. She got her engagement party is broken. They're still not married. So I asked myself, why? Why are they not married yet? It's been three years.

What is the reason? So in my head, I came up with the reason that they had been saving money for the wedding. Wait, wait, wait, wait. I have to pause. Yes. I love this about Jenna so much, you guys. This is her actor prep.

This is my actor prep. She did this solely for herself. No one asked me to do it. No one asked her to do it. I wrote it in essay form. Again, Jenna, first of her name, keeper of the notes. I would love to find this document. It was my PAM document. Oh my God. And I have all these little things I made up. Oh my God. You love to find this document. It was my Pam document. Oh my God. All these little things

I made up. Oh my God. You have to find it. Okay. So go. So what was your backstory for yourself? My backstory was that they had been saving money for the wedding and about a year into their engagement without telling Pam Roy spent the money on a pair of wave runners with his brother. This is perfect, Jenna. Yeah. This is perfect. And he, you know, soners with his brother. This is perfect, Jenna. This is perfect. So he and his brother bought these pair of Waverunners with their wedding money. But Roy was like, we're going to have so much fun with these. So it broke Pam's heart.

What an ass. These Waverunners. Yeah. And I told Greg this story, just bantering with him. And he was like, oh my gosh, I love that. We got to put that in. We got to put that in the Waverunners. We got to put that in the Waverunners., oh my gosh, I love that. We gotta put that in. We gotta put that in the Waverunners. Yeah.

We gotta put that in the Waverunners. That is so good. I love that. I feel like as I talk to some of our cast members about our time on the show, we all had moments where we gave ourselves a little backstory like that. And obviously we won't get into it here.

Mine was sprinkles. You invented sprinkles. I did, but that's pilot. That's pilot's talk. But I did not know you did that about the Waverunners. And that is absolutely what Roy would have done. He would have been like, listen, that money, we were going to spend on the wedding,

I got a really good deal on Waverunners. Yeah, he surprised her with some Waverunners. Oh my God, that's amazing. What Pam's always wanted. I feel like we should say from a production standpoint, we spent two days down in the warehouse playing basketball. That's right. And there was a lot of the guys just playing basketball

and they filmed them to get like random shots. But then there were all of these scripted moments that they had to get. Right, to make the game make sense. Yes, yes. Exactly. Can we speak about some highlights from the basketball game? Let's do it, let's do it. Rain's crazy nose guard.

Oh my God, you know, I knew a guy in high school, Ken. He had to wear one. And they're special. I guess this was Greg's idea. He wanted him to wear this nose guard. But you know what I love? We never mention it. Nope.

We don't know why he's wearing it. Nope. Was he injured once, or is he just afraid of injury? We don't know. We don't know. But of course, he would wear it. When Rain takes his shirt off to be skins. By the way, Rain, I think loves taking his shirt off.

He loves the shock value of his white pasty body. And he liked to stick his belly out and like pat it, like look at it. Can we also just for a minute, none of us knew what it was gonna look like when Stanley dribbled the basketball. It was in the script that he is not good at dribbling. That's all.

That's all. And that Michael would look and just have this moment of like, ah, crap. Are you kidding me? And that dribble that Leslie David Baker did. With his hand behind him. Ridiculous. Ridiculous.

It was so perfect. It was literal perfection. Yeah. Oh, oh, you have to tell Jim, you have to tell about when John actually got hurt. Yes. We actually had a real injury and they just kept the camera rolling.

They did, this was not scripted. The part where Roy knocks Jim in the nose and his nose is bleeding. That was just David Denman blocking, like getting a ball and blocking out. There was some real basketball competition when they were playing. So the dudes got a little testosterone. They got a little duty.

Yeah, they got a little duty. But he did. He threw his elbow back, not knowing that John was there and clocked John. And his nose started gushing blood. I think that sound you hear is his nose. I asked Dave Rogers. Our editor. Yes, because I remember the debate when they were editing this episode.

Well, we heard it in real time. You can hear it in real life. We were like, dang. Yes, we knew, we were like, is his nose broken? Yeah. And we had to pause and like ice pack him. First of all, they didn't stop rolling. They kept documenting it.

They kept documenting it. And so we see that John is, John ran off cause he was in pain and his nose starts bleeding. And I didn't know what to do. So I picked up that fricking first aid kit and I walked over to him and then I was like, wait, what am I doing? There's nothing in to do. So I picked up that fricking first aid kit and I walked over to him and then I was like, wait, what am I doing? There's nothing in that kit.

It's like empty. Was that sound really? Apparently the live audio was not strong enough to use. So they pumped it up. They added a popping sound so that it would more sound like what we heard in real life. Cause I did ask Dave, because I remember. I was worried John broke his nose. We all were. Yeah. We all were. And then they also told me at a certain point,

they had to stop it where they stopped it because blood was dripping on the floor. And it looked a little gruesome. Yeah. They had actually a few injuries. I remember Leslie got hurt. And then who else? There was someone else.

Did someone else get hurt? I feel like a few guys got some bumps. Anyway, the guys gave it their all on the court. They really went for it. Also, we have to talk about Michael's free throw moment. Oh my God. That made me laugh so hard. That is an example of Steve Carell's impeccable comedic timing.

He does not rush. He makes you wait for it. You know when he's setting up this ridiculous free throw that it's not going to go in. We all know it's not going to go in. And yet somehow he makes us wait so long that it's even funnier. And he just throws it completely over. He throws it over the whole hoop. And it's great too, because you know someone has to run and get that ball. You don't see it happen, but you know that moment

when you're playing basketball. Yeah, we didn't even talk about his ridiculous warm up stretches before the game, where he made his arms like noodles. And then there's little moments within the game where you see he just wants so desperately to be like, have a friend and to be cool. Like when Darryl and Lon be cool. Like when, when, um, Darryl and Lonnie do their like high fives and he's just watching it so like giddy, like, Oh,

that's cool. Yes. And then Dwight wants to do that with him, but he rejects Dwight. Dwight will be Michael's friend that Michael's always wanted, but Michael's like, you're not good enough. Not cool enough. No, he wants to do it with like Jim. He wants to have a high five with Jim who he's decided is the coolest in the office. I know. Or Ryan. Or Todd Packer.

Or Todd Packer. Anyone but Dwight, basically. Anyone but Dwight. So the basketball episode, I think has some of like the best quotes of the whole first season. So many good ones. So many good ones. You have one of the best ones that really

I've seen on t-shirts and coffee mugs. So, go. I used to sign headshots with this line when people would ask me for my autograph. Do it. Please don't throw garbage at me. I love it. I feel like it sums up Pam's entire relationship

with Michael. The fact that she has to say the words, please don't throw garbage at me to her boss, just it says it all. It says it all. And also, you know, it's not the first time she said it. No, no. Or something like it. That's right. Yeah. And he throws that at your head and goes, off the backboard.

Yeah. So ridiculous. Just please don't throw garbage at me, Michael. Everything she's had to endure is all in that one line. Yeah. She's been working there for probably three, four years now. Yeah. Three or four years of garbage thrown at her head. In a relationship that's going nowhere.

Gosh, it's so sad. Poor Pam. ["The Last Supper"] All right. I don't know. What else can we talk about about basketball, you guys? You got to send in some of your questions for sure. I do love that this episode ended, of course, with Kevin syncing all of those shots. It was like so great. And yet nothing in the office is resolved. And are they all going to have to work Saturday? He says no one has to come in. Oh, that's right. That's right. That's right. He says

he's like, like, we're going to be downsized if we skip one Saturday. Exactly. But he's like, wait, what? So you do end on this sense of like, nothing, nothing's okay. Nothing's okay. Nothing's okay. Nothing's really different. And nothing is different. Nothing has been solved. Okay, so that was basketball. That's the basketball episode. That's the basketball episode. Yeah. Hopefully it wasn't a hot mess and you had a good time.

I had a good time. I had a good time. I loved watching it again. I have loved watching the show again in general. People come up to us all the time, especially now that the show has been out on Netflix and there's a whole new generation of fans. People really wig out. After so many years, it can become a little bit like I think I had lost some perspective on how good the show was. I knew it was good, but I hadn't watched it in years. I'm not sitting down watching myself on television.

So because of this podcast, I was forced to sit down and watch these episodes. And now when people come up to me and tell me the show is good, I'm like, I know, oh my gosh, it's so good, right? I mean, can you even believe it? Can you believe I was on it? That was me, I was on it. That was cool.

That's so cool. It's amazing, let's chat about it. Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. And I get why it's comfort for people. You know, I really do. You can put it on in the background, and it's there. And we've talked about this before, but Dwight's always going to be Dwight,

and accounting is accounting. And you've got Pam and Jim there. And they become your little family in the background as you wind down from your day. I'm so thrilled that the show still keeps finding an audience. It's just so wonderful for me and for you and everyone involved. But I have a tiny gripe.

What? After rewatching this show. What? Do you know that not a single actor on our television show ever won an Emmy for their performance on the office. Oh, we're going there. Including Steve Carell. Wait, I was trying to wrap it up. I was trying to wrap it up with a bow.

No, I have a gripe. Jenna's like, wait, let me bitch for one second. I'm ending with a gripe. Oh, god, here we go. I think it is an absolute crime that Steve Carell was never awarded the top prize in his industry for the role of Michael Scott. For the role of Michael Scott.

I agree. Because I kind of dare you to name another comedic male performance sort of as revolutionary and heartbreaking and funny and real. Yes. As his performance on that show. No, it was brilliant. He won the Golden Globe.

The show won Best Comedy Ensemble. We won an Emmy. We won some SAG awards. But Steve never won an Emmy. And the final year, he was nominated because his character was ending. His time in the office was ending. It was his final nomination. They had, it was me, you and John Krasinski in a row on the aisle and Steve I think was right in front of us or he was down a row and they had a camera on us as they announced the nominees

and then they announced the winner and the camera was right on us and when they didn't say Steve's name, I said, Mother Effer, out loud. And I am not, I don't curse guys, I'm not a big cursor. And it just flew out of my mouth because I couldn't believe it. And then I was instantly horrified because I thought, oh no, was I just on national television saying Mother Effer?

I'm about to get a call from my mom, I know it. And her ladies in her Bible study are gonna to be like, Angela said mother effer. But they cut away very fast. So I don't think you saw it. But that's how we felt. We couldn't believe it. We couldn't believe it. Because his work in this show is brilliant.

And our cast and our writers and everyone, they just did such an amazing job. There you go. Not ending with a nice bow, but there you go. There you go. All right with a nice bow, but there you go. There you go. All right. The end. The end. Thanks for tuning in and we're gonna keep watching

episodes of The Office and we hope you join us for the re-watch and send in your questions. We'd love to go over to the mailbag slash special sauce. Yeah, next week is Hot Girl. Hot Girl. Amy Adams. Amy Adams. Yeah.

Thank you for listening to Office Ladies' Second Drink. This episode was initially created in collaboration with Earwulf. Office Ladies is a presentation of Odyssey and is produced by Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. Our executive producer is Cassie Jerkins and our audio engineer and associate producer is Daniella Silva. Odyssey's executive producers are Jenna Wise-Berman and Leah Reese-Dennis. Office Ladies is mixed and mastered by Chris Basil. Our theme song is Rubber

Tree by Creed Bratton.