Office Ladies - Second Drink: Cafe Disco

Episode Date: September 14, 2026

This week we’re breaking down “Cafe Disco”. Michael still has that seven year lease on the Michael Scott Paper Company office so he turns it into a cafe disco! Meanwhile Jim and Pam plan to sneak away to Ohio to get married. The ladies reveal how the writers came up with the idea of a cafe disco, Angela shares what she calls the “Kevin Bacon” deleted scenes and Jenna breaks down some of the cast’s dancing moves and the songs chosen for cafe disco. So don’t be that person who hates the general spirit of music and groove to this episode!  Vote for “Office Ladies” for the iHeart Podcast of the Year! Go to Twitter and use hashtags #PodcastOfTheYear + #iHeartPodcastAwards + #OfficeLadiesCheck out David Giffels’ book, “All the Way Home”: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/all-the-way-home-david-giffels?variant=32206503706658 Office Ladies Website - Submit a fan question: https://officeladies.com/submitaquestion Follow Us on Instagram: OfficeLadiesPodFollow Us on YouTubeFollow Us on TikTok

Hello and welcome to your second drink of Cafe Disco. Everyone, before you give this one a re-listen, I feel the need to address a fan mail flurry we got about this episode, specifically about how I am pronouncing something in the episode. Oh, yeah. I saw that in the mail. Yeah, you couldn't miss it. No. There was so much of it. So in this episode, there's a storyline that Jim and Pam are going to secretly elope in Ohio.

And I guess I said the name of the town wrong. It happens. repeatedly, though, like so many times. We've both done it. I guess I'm saying Youngstown, Ohio, and it really bugged people. One person said it was like, quote, nails on a chalkboard. So I guess everyone, brace yourself, and I apologize. Well, Jenna, you weren't the only person mispronouncing things. We got a letter from Matthew G. in Vermont, who said throughout the episode Cafe Disco,

Michael says espresso twice and espresso twice. Was espresso scripted as something Michael would say or was that accidental? Well, Matthew, I looked in the script and it was scripted as espresso, which means the times he said expresso were probably improvised. Which tracks, though. Tracks. It does. And then, lady, in rewatching the episode, I have a coffee mug catch that I didn't notice the first time at one minute and 47 seconds, Dwight is holding a mug, and I don't think I've ever seen this mug before.

What is it? It's not his usual mug? No, it's a Yankees mug. A Yankees mug. I know. A New York Yankees mug. I know. Why would he have that? I don't know.

That is odd. Good catch. I wonder if it's like something rain grabbed. I know, right? I know. Well, something else we didn't check on the first time we broke down this episode is if there were any real cafe discos out there in the world. And we've uncovered several shul-l-l-l-las and cereal shacks. But what about cafe discos? What did you find? Please tell me there are some. There are, but sort of. The closest match is a place literally called Cafe Disco. It's in Brisbane, Australia. It has coffee

and brunch from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. with a Bangladesh-inspired menu. And they play music. but there is no dancing. Ah. So I also found a few places and they were doing more like disco cafes, which if you remember in the episode, Michael says this a no. Right. Kevin says like a disco cafe and Michael's like no, no, no, no. But I could not find anywhere where you drink coffee and dance.

That I could not find. So that is still open. And the thing I'm realizing with this rewatch is that Michael does not have the worst ideas for businesses. I mean, Michael Scott Paper Company wasn't great, but his others are pretty good. Cafe Disco sounds like a fun place. I know. Right?

And you know what? At our age, there is nothing I would love more than to go dancing at 1 p.m. You know what I mean? Yeah. That seems fun. With a latte. With a latte. All right, everyone.

Well, that's all we've got. Please enjoy your second drink of Cafe Disco. 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.

Hello, everybody. And Angela, can I get a good morning? Yeah, you can. Good morning, Jenna. Good morning, Sam. Good morning, Cassie. Good morning to you out there who's just starting your day and you're listening to us in your car. Or good evening to my night owls who are listening, Maybe by the fire. Maybe with a glass of line. I don't know. That was a beautiful picture that you just painted. Lady, guess what I did this morning?

What? Something new. I've never done it before. Exercise. No. But I'm so tickled by that. I took a contrast shower. I don't know what that is.

I didn't know what it was either. Is it a cold shower? It is an alternating hot and cold shower. Why would you do that? Okay, because it's supposed to have a bunch of health benefits, and you know me. I'll try anything. You could have gotten that shower at my grandparents' house in their guest bathroom. Does it just automatically alternate for you?

It used to. It was like, oh, wait, wait, who just started the dishwasher? Don't shower. Oh, that's true at our house. Don't do a load of laundry before you get in the shower. Or you could have a contrast shower. Well, here's what it's supposed to do. It's supposed to improve blood flow.

reduce systemic inflammation. It supports a connection between the brain and digestive system, but it's also just supposed to, like, energize you and kind of boost your immune system. I don't know. It's supposed to be beneficial, and it's sort of based on a thing that athletes do, you know, where they do a cold plunge and a hot shower and things. Right. Oh, my gosh, I wonder if Tom Brady does contrast showers.

Tom Brady does it all. That's what I mean. I'm telling you. He does it all. I should Google that. Do you think that's on the internet? How his water drinking is on the internet? Okay.

I bet it is. Okay. Well, listen, I did it this morning. You know what? Google Tom Brady's shower. Oh, no. Don't Google that. And see what you get.

Oh. Okay. Well, my husband's going to be like, why are you Googling? What is this search? They've given up on our search history. This is true. Wait, wait. Do you feel energized?

I kind of do. Okay. I do. I definitely felt energized when the freezing cold water hit my body after being in warm water. This would just be called grumpy shower in my house. I had to sort of sing it out during the cold part. Like when the cold water hit me, I was like, And it's cold. Yes, it's cold. You turned into like a ye oldy musical act. I did. And my kids were like, what is mom doing today? Anyway, there you go. That's what I did today this morning. Did you do any? Anything special or new or different, Ange? I did like 15 push-ups.

This morning? Yeah. Before we got here. Yeah. Do you remember John Krasinski used to do that? What? Yes, in the mornings. He would get to work, and before hair and makeup, he would do a bunch of push-ups and a bunch of sit-ups.

Oh, my God. To energize itself for the morning. You don't remember that? I was always so impressed, and I was inspired, and I thought, oh, I should do that. I tried it one morning, and I was like, I'm not doing that again. Well, I didn't do it either. I was lying. I was doing a joke, but geez, John. Wow.

I know. Should we get into this episode? Let's do it. This episode today is Cafe Disco. It is Season 5, Episode 27, written by Warren Lieberstein and Hallstead Sullivan, and directed by Randall Eynhorn. Would you like a summary? Yes. Concerned about the serious mood of his employees and just the general drab work environment at Dunder Miflin,

since Charles Minor left, Michael has decided to transform the former Michael Scott Paper Company into a cafe disco for socializing dancing and sipping espresso. Now, initially, nobody is interested, but it does slowly take off and ends up exceeding Michael's expectations. Meanwhile, Pam and Jim planned to secretly elope to Youngstown, Ohio, and Dwight tries to help Phyllis with an injury. It's a lot. That's a lot happening. That's a lot. And yet it's a pretty simple episode, really. Fast fact number one was a fan question from Becca D. What was the inspiration for this episode? We reached out to writers, Warren Lieberstein, and Halstead Sullivan. Yes, Warren and Halstead were a fantastic writing team. I knew them for a long time from our days at the groundlings. And some of you

guys listening to this no, and some don't, but Warren and I used to be married and we're good friends, and it was really fun to reminisce with both of them about this episode. Well, here's what he said about the inspiration for this episode, which I thought was amazing. He said that he and Halstead were pretty new writers at the time. They joined in this season, and they were tasked with coming up with an episode idea for what Michael Scott could do with this space that was formerly the Michael Scott Paper Company. He said that they were working in the writer's trailer with Brent Forrester, and the three of them were kind of pitching ideas like, oh, what if it's a cafe? What if it's a disco?

And they couldn't really decide. He said, for some reason, that day, Paul Lieberstein was also working in the writer's trailer. He was working out of B.J. Novak's office that was sort of off of this, like, communal area where... So he could hear them going back and forth. Yes, exactly. And Warren said that Paul just suddenly came out of the office and said, it's a cafe and disco. Michael Scott loves two things more than anything. Coffee and dancing. It's a cafe disco. And then he turned around, went back into BJ's office, and shut the door. And Warren said he

remembers Brent turning to them and saying, well, you heard him. And then the three of them just started outlining what is a cafe disco to Michael Scott. It feels very much like something your dad would do. You know, like he'd come out as you're arguing, be like, it's both. Just do it. Yes, exactly. Well, it is more interesting being both, isn't it? And it's more Michael Scott that it would be a strange hybrid of two things. Yes. Halsett had some really great stuff to share as well. And he told us that they want an NAACP Image Award for Best Writing for a Comedy Series for this episode. This episode is really popular. When I told people that we were breaking down Cafe Disco and when we were trading emails with Randy Cordray about this one, he was like, I I love this episode. I love the simplicity of it. It's just so beautiful. Yeah. Well, Halstead also said, Ang, guess what? There is a bakery in Oklahoma named Cafe Disco because they loved this episode so much. You can find them at cafe dash disco.com. He said, have you ever heard of that? Have any of the other episodes had a bakery named after them? No, we've just heard of shul-l-l-l-laws, but I think they existed before Michael's Shoe-L-L-L-Law.

That's true. Fast fact number two, we shot this episode in four days instead of five. How did we do that? Randy shared that because all the work was so contained in that one tiny location of the cafe disco, there weren't like a ton of different ways to cover it with the camera. So we were able to kind of get it pretty quickly. So they would basically, rather than having some giant master shot and all these close-ups, They just covered it.

He said it was kind of important that we do this in four days because this episode filmed the week right before Easter. And we were already meant to have Good Friday off for Easter weekend. And if we hadn't finished, we would have had to come back the Monday after Easter and pick up our fifth day. But that would have really thrown off our 100th episode Company Picnic, which was happening the next week. Which was a huge company move. That would have been... Yeah, that would have been really hard. Yeah.

That's what she said. So that leads me into Fast fact number three. While there were no locations for this episode, no expensive stunts or props, there was a lot of music. And to get the rights to all the music that was in this episode was a very complicated thing to pull off. Randy shared that there are two kinds of music rights. There are sync rights, which is where you're going to... going to play a song by the original artist, and that's all. You're just going to hear their song. Okay. But then there are master rights, and that's what you need if a character is going to sing or

hum a song. Sort of do their interpretation of the artist. And Randy said that they wanted us to be able to sing along or hum along as we were dancing, and so we had to get both sync and master rights to every single song. There was only one song. that appeared in the script. If you read the script, different scenes will say music is playing. Right. Aaron presses play, but it doesn't say what song comes out except for one time in the script. What did it say?

The one song that appears in the script is everybody dance now. And it's the song where Michael is playing it through the vents to get everybody to come down. And that song cost $40,000. Wow. And so Randy had our post-production supervisor, Jake Oest, reach out to Universal music, you know, because our show was made by NBC Universal. Right. And see if they could get a list of songs that we could license for either free or for not that much money. And then he gave that list to Warren and Hallstead.

And he said, what do you think? So Warren and Hallstead made a list of like their dream music list. Right. And then next to it, they would put a free alternative. And Randy sent this list over. It was really fascinating to look at. I'll just give one example. You know that opening scene when Michael's kind of dancing alone?

Yeah. Their first choice was Disturbia by Rihanna. Okay. Their free alternative, which appears in the show, is Car Wash. All right. For the most part, we had to go with their free alternative. I was going to say, I was going to say, I'm sure. The ultimate music budget for this episode was eight.

$85,200. Wow. Most of that money paid for everybody Dance Now and YMCA. But Randy said that another perk of not having that fifth shoot day was that they were able to allocate some of that shoot day's budget to music. That makes sense. And that's how we were able to pull it off.

But, I mean, that is all Randy's job. He's just like a spreadsheet and he has to move things around. Numbers, numbers, numbers. Yeah. And make it all happen. Well, my lady, those are. were some great fast facts. Thank you. Did you feel like they came from a person who had improved blood flow or maybe had a connection between their brain and digestive system? A hundred percent,

I did. Thank you. I felt like that too. That's why I gave you the my lady and not just lady. Oh, yeah. Now we know. You got a special one. Well, I think we should take a break and when we get back, someone has won an art contest and it's not Pam. I know. Snark! G'day, I'm Justin Wolfers, host of the Platypus Economics podcast. If there's one thing I've learned from a career teaching economics, it's that your life is shaped by economic currents you'll never see.

A single price tag can explain things a thousand experts can't. People who understand economics, they make better decisions in their careers, their finances, their relationships and their communities, and I want that for you. Listen to and follow Platterpuss Economics. Available now wherever you get your podcasts. We are back. Should we get into this episode?

Let's do it. How does it start? Well, we are in the Dundermifflin bullpen when Aaron, the new receptionist, squeals that she's won an art contest. Mm-hmm. Pam is not amused. Jenna was not amused. I had totally forgotten this cold open and I was like, oh my God. Dwight is.

Such an ass in this cold open. He really is. And he's so tickled. He's so pleased with themselves. I do want to point out, while Pam is exchanging looks with Dwight in their desk pod, Pam's plant is on her desk as well as the little candy dispenser with jelly beans. Lady, we got an email from Audrey L who also noticed Pam's little candy dish. Audrey also mentioned that she really liked my hair in this scene.

She thought it was super cute. Did you notice my hair? Yes. It's one of those ponytails where you do ponytail. And then you, how do you explain it? Then you flip it through itself. Like a French. Oh my gosh. I 100% did my hair that way for one of my school dances. Like back in the day. Do people still do that hairstyle? I don't know if they still do the hairstyle, Jenna, but it's clear to me we were meant to be best friends because I once went to a high school dance with a side ponytail. And that was my choice. I styled. I started. it like that on purpose. Well, we often did ponytails when there was a standalone cold open. It was a way to differentiate Pam's look and hair from the actual episode. So something, if you feel like it, you could track it and see when Pam has ponytail. It's usually the cold open. We did a lot of that with Angela Martin, too. Just something different. It wasn't always a ponytail, but just something a little different for a cold open. I remember Angela, early in the series, you did a lot of buns.

And then they started to give you headaches. Horrible headaches, guys. But then I remember you were like, you know what, I'll do a bun for the cold open. Yeah. You didn't want to like get rid of this hairstyle for Angela completely because it had been so established. But if you did a bun for a cold open, you only had to wear it for like four hours. Exactly. Our one full day, maybe.

Yes, but not five days. Not five days for 12 hours. I guess I just have one more question about this, which is, did you ever wear a bun to a school dance? No, no, but I did wear an updo the year we won the SAG award and I was super pregnant. I had an updo. I liked that on you. That looked nice. Thank you. Yeah. I was just so pregnant. I just was like, do I have to get in an evening gown? But no, no buns at high school dances. I don't think I did either. It's a bold choice. It is. In high school. True. Yeah. Well, this episode starts with my. Michael dancing by himself to car wash in what was Michael Scott Paper Company. All I could think about when I was watching him in there dancing was look at all the stuff Phil Shea had to get. Mm-hmm. He had to get an espresso maker.

Then the little espresso coffee cups and saucers, napkins, espresso coffee, the boombox, a lava lamp, a little desk lamp, a lay, all kinds of coffee accessories, an empty cheese puff container. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. A couple of chairs, and then eventually he'd have to get a tiny disco ball and some kind of the, I don't know, were they red chili pepper lights? Oh, yeah. Yeah. So Phil Shea, once again, simple episode, but he had all these little things he had to get. A lot of details.

Yeah. Michael comes up to the office now, and he would like to have lunch with someone. Yeah, he really loved lunches at Michael Scott Paper Company. You know, I have to say, why did the camaraderie between Pam, Michael and Ryan have to end? I was loving it. Now it seems like, you know, their relationship is just kind of back where it started. I think that happens sometimes. I guess it does. They've sort of returned to their old roles, their routines. Well, then Michael has this kind of depressing talking head where he says,

at Dundra Mifflin, there is a very strict no lunch with the boss policy, and I don't know who instituted it. That broke my heart. I know. You know, Ryan says he can't have lunch with Michael. because he's doing five small meals a day. That was a really popular thing. Have you ever done that? I think that's just how I naturally eat.

I thought of you when he said that. That is not how I naturally eat. I just sort of snack all day. Here's what I need to get through a day. I need three full meals. I also need a snack and I'm going to need a dessert. I forget to eat until about noon and then I'm crazy hungry. And then...

I don't understand forgetting to eat. I wake up and the first thing I think of is when am I eating? It's like constantly on my mind. I'm already thinking about the yogurt that I brought for our snack the next time we take a break on the podcast. I'm like so food centered. Well, no one wants to have lunch with Michael. They say they have a lot of work to do. Michael starts doing his robot. Pam has to take the battery out or he'll just keep going, I guess. During this scene at three minutes, three seconds, there is a shot of my outfit. I have to point it out. I noticed it. I'm wearing a gray cardigan, a gray blouse, gray skirt, and Jenna, I'm wearing gray tights. I am wearing something on my legs. I never wore anything on my legs. I don't know why in this episode, but I do. I wonder if it was really cold because we were

shooting this in what sounds like March, early April, if it was around Easter. And that is, cold in L.A. Mm-hmm. That's like our cold stretch. I know. I just got excited, guys, because I would never wear the panty hose they put in my trailer. I was anti-pani hose.

Also, maybe did you notice my shoes? I'm going to bring them up later. I didn't. Okay. But you're going to make me wait. Yeah. Okay. At three minutes, 10 seconds,

Aaron finds a map of Youngstown, Ohio in the printer. And she brings it to Dwight. and he says this is a map to the Superior Court, and the only reason to go there is if you've been charged with a crime or if you want to try to get a learner's permit at 14.5. But this scene starts with Aaron saying, Hi, guys, how you doing? And then Dwight is like,

Aaron, how many times I have to tell you, it's not necessary for you to ask us how we are every time you interact with us. We got a fan question from Lloyd C. in Australia. Who said? I recall in a previous podcast, it was mentioned that Rain Wilson made a big announcement about not needing to ask how his weekend was at the start of each week. He said, just assume it was good. Is this bit at Rain's desk between Dwight and Aaron may be based on Rain's weekend question rule? I don't know, but I will tell you the minute I saw that,

it was the first thing I thought of. Same. Same here. I was like, that just feels like, rain. Yes. Yes. We also had a fan catch from Samantha R who said that Dwight mentions one of the reasons you would go to the courthouse is to obtain a learner's permit at age 14 and a half instead of 15. However, you have to be 16 to obtain a learner's permit. This has always stood out to me. And then Hannah W. said, I'm from Ohio and the minimum age for a learner's permit is 15 and a half. Well, I had to know. Okay. Here's the deal. You must be 15 and a half to obtain a learner's permit to drive a car. However, you can get a learner's permit for a motorized bicycle at the age of 14. All right, that's next year for Isabelle and Jack. And I cannot imagine those two, my kids, with anything motorized. I don't want them on anything that moves faster than a bicycle. If you were in Youngstown, Ohio, they could get a learner's permit. my gosh. Dwight had a really funny deleted talking head here. Oh, I can't wait. I'm going to read it to you. It cracked me up. Very sarcastically, Dwight says,

oh no, I love Ohio. Next time you're there, say hi to my cousin Amil, and then kick him in the groin area because he's a cheat and a ball hog. And if he's still married to Clarissa, kick her in the groin area too, because she's a heartbreaking tart and a ball hog. Oh my gosh. What were they playing? Do they play, like, basketball and Clarissa and Emile, like hog the ball? What is happening in Ohio? Dwight's family is a mystery and very complex. Who knew he had relatives in Ohio? And also, apparently from this talking head, if Dwight were in Ohio and saw Clarissa and

Amel, he would kick him in the groin area, both of them. Incidentally, I am currently reading a book about Akron, Ohio. Okay. It's by this amazing writer, this guy, David Giffles. He lives in Ohio, and he and his wife decided to put a lowball offer on this like broken down house mansion. Like literally when he describes it, there's like sunshine coming through this thing. It's like the money pit. A hundred percent the money pit. And the book is just a memoir of them fixing it up absolutely by themselves while they lived in it. I don't know. It's just this amazing book, and I'm loving it. I had thought of it for my dad, who's a big, like, DIY fixer person. Yeah. I gave it to him for his birthday, and he loved it.

So I like Ohio, at least through the eyes of this book, for sure. Are you and I going to get a fixer up or in Ohio? No, I bought a fixer up in L.A. and spent a year. And so maybe that's also why I am relating to it. But, yeah. Same. You and I love a home project, man. I got a fixer up or two.

and I'm still fixing it up. Pam and Jim are going to have this talking head where they say there are other reasons to go to Ohio. And the reason they're going is because they're getting married and it's the closest place that they can get a marriage license without the three-day waiting period. This talking head is so cute. I mean, my gosh, we are so cutie pie in this. Jim and Pam at peak cuteness. Yes. They just feel like, you know, the wedding planning, it's getting really complicated.

It's getting really expensive. And Jim said, at breakfast, I want to marry you today. So they're going to go for it. It's so sweet. It's very much young love to me. Yeah. Yeah. But I also remember in wedding planning, having that moment where you get overwhelmed.

And you're like, why are we doing this? I know. So I could relate as well. I mean, Josh and I, we went to the courthouse in Santa Barbara a month before our wedding and we're like, just get married. Let's just take that off the plate, you know? Then I guess the wedding is more of a celebration. Exactly. You can separate those two moments.

Yeah, we did that. I loved it. We had a fan catch about this bit of info about Youngston, Ohio as well. Carrie C. wrote in and said, I've lived in Youngston, Ohio all my life. I got married in Youngston, and you cannot get a marriage license the same day here. It takes 10 to 14 working days, but I do love the Youngston reference. You can get a same-day marriage license in Las Vegas.

Well, Mary L wrote in to say that there is no waiting period, that it's true. And then Andrea V said, I did a little deep dive and there is no superior court in Youngston, Ohio. So a lot of mail about these Youngston Ohio details. Yes. So here I'm going to clear it up for everybody. Andrea is right. There is no superior court. Okay.

But there is the Youngston Municipal Court. Okay. And as far as marriage licenses go, I went to the city applications, frequently asked questions, and it says that while there is a Youngston Municipal Court, that's not where you go for your marriage license anyway. No. You need to apply for a marriage license at the Mahoning County Probate Court. And even if you're out of state, you can get a marriage license there as long as you have your wedding ceremony in Mahoning County. You need to be 18 years old. You're going to need your Social Security card, two forms of identification. You're going to have to state your place of birth, your parents' names, no blood test, and it costs $43 cash. $43. Cash? Cash.

No, Venmo. Not PayPal. Nope. No. Cash only. Not in Mahoning. Nope. How long is your marriage license valid in Youngstown, Ohio? Are you asking me? The website asked. Oh. And answered. It is valid for 60 days. And here it is. There is no waiting period before you can use your marriage license in Mahoning County.

There it is. There it is. Everything you ever needed to know about getting a marriage license in Ohio, specifically Mahoning County. Correct. During all of this Ohio conversation, Michael is on a dance break, guys. And Aaron is going to be a marriage. to bring him some messages. And he's like, no, no, no, no work here. They have espresso. They come upstairs.

And Michael decides to tell the group about the downstairs room. Yeah, he and Aaron entered. They both have their little espresso cups. And by the way, I just noticed that you say it the way I used to say it. Oh, I put an X in it. You say espresso. I know. It's espresso. But a lot of people say expresso. I know. And I think it's okay. I think we should let it go. It's espresso. Espresso. Espresso. We had a fan catch from Hannah C. Who says in this episode, Aaron drinks an espresso. But in season 9, episode 11, the office gets an espresso machine and Aaron says she's never had one before.

Oh, good catch. I thought that was good. Yeah. Michael's going to give a big speech now. He is. And I absolutely love this runner. To me, this is classic The Office bullpen back and forth where everyone is chiming in. where it really gets funny to me

is when Dwight does his Jack Nicholson impression which I thought Rain did a really good job I thought so too and this takes us down this road where Meredith is like wait it's a haunted coffee house Michael's like no no Dwight's confusing you it's more of a disco and then Andy says a haunted disco

Michael's like with coffee but without the haunted and then Phyllis is like it's a combo dance house coffee bar and Michael says it's a daytime disco on the ground floor of an industrial office building. And Aaron goes, it's a cafe disco. Michael's like, exactly. And then Kevin says, so like a disco cafe? And Michael's like, no, not even close.

These were my favorite kind of scenes to shoot. And immediately after this scene, there would have been a Stanley talking head, where he says this. How did I end up back in crazy town? And then immediately after that would have been, an Oscar talking head and Oscar said this, it still seems really confusing as a concept. That would be Oscar's like take on it. He's very practical and literal. Right. Like what is your business plan? This seems confusing. Then Michael tries to entice everyone to come. He offers them all

the espresso you can eat. Ooh, well done, Angela. Thank you. And this is when this awesome runner would have started that I'm calling Kevin's Bacon Runner. A Kevin Bacon. Bacon Runner. Kevin Bacon Runner. It's in deleted scenes. Kevin sees Lynn at the elevators and they have this exchange. Hi, Kevin. Hey, Lynn. Did you have bacon for breakfast? No. Because you smell like bacon. I didn't think I did. How's everything going? Tight. I'm going down the hall to this office to see Michael. There's three espressoes. I would invite you, but I remember that you just want to be friends.

We can still... Are you sure that you didn't eat bacon? Yes. Whatever it is, I like it. Okay. So then he walks away and Lynn has a talking head. Did she eat bacon? You gotta hear it.

Yes, I had some bacon this morning. I just didn't think it was anyone. I didn't think it was anyone's business. But wait, it gets better. Kevin just can't get Lynn and the bacon smell off his mind. And he asks her out. I love the smell of bacon on a woman. Hey, Lynn, it's Kevin.

I was thinking about going and getting a coffee at the cafe disco. I'm wondering if you want to go with. Wow. Yes. So later when you see them slow dancing and then when they have a on makeout, it all started with this bacon scene by the elevators. That was amazing. What a find. I know. I so enjoyed it. Well, when Michael is kind of describing his inspiration for this disco and how it's going to bring people together and it's going to make people happy and kind of break them out of their funk, I have to say that he is right on about disco in general. I was reading a bunch of. about disco and listening to disco music when I was prepping this episode.

This is very you. I know. I like a theme. It is your sounds of Scranton. It really is. And here is what I found out. And I pulled a couple of quotes because I loved them. So disco in general is just a very inclusive and accepting culture.

It was very communal. It was more than just music. It really was a cultural movement. And there's this book called Turn the Beat Around by author Peter Shapiro, and he called disco, quote, the embodiment of the vision of peace that the 60s yearned for. An article in Timeline.com went on to say, Disco was created by black and Latino musicians in the early 70s and popularized by mostly gay DJs for a mostly gay crowd celebrating new freedoms earned by the gay rights movement. And finally, now Rogers, the guitarist for the hit disco band Sheik, said,

This was the world I wanted to live in where everybody was cool with everyone. That was because of the music. That was disco. I mean, I'm a kid of the 70s, you know. My mom and her friends were so excited because they got to go see Donna Summer in concert. The queen of disco. My mom said it was a phenomenal show. How cool that your mom got to see her perform live.

I know. I would have loved to go on with you. my mom. I was too little because I love disco. But Angela Martin, of course, is not a fan of Michael pulling everyone off of work and taking them down to his disco cafe cafe disco. And you'll see that Kevin is there very messily making his espresso. And it's because he's waiting for Lynn. Had you seen all of that deleted runner, you would know he's hoping Lynn will show up. In fact, in the shooting draft, the scene is more extended. And Kevin tells Michael he's waiting for Lynn. Wow.

Before Angela enters. And this scene when I enter, I could barely get through, Jenna. I think you can tell I'm breaking if you watch it, because whenever Steve is Michael offers Kevin the fake cookie in his hand, I literally, I start smiling when I talk because I'm having such a hard time not laughing. It's so absurd and wonderful. And a lot of that is Brian Baumgartner's performance. Yes.

His like immediate belief that there's a cookie in a hand that clearly didn't have. have a cookie one second ago. Yes. Well, the three of us improvised the whole last couplet of dialogue. No way. Yes. So in the script, I mean, the script was phenomenal. But as we started doing it, Steve, as Michael just kept messing with Kevin. He kept showing him the cookie, but then pulling it a little out of reach. So Kevin had to walk further into the room. And that was just stuff we were making up on the day. Well, in the script, it was just a little cleaner of an ending, right? It was a little simpler. It was like Michael said Kevin stay. Angela said Kevin come.

And then Michael's like Kevin cookie. And then Kevin's like, what? There's a cookie. And then I drag them away. We just had so much fun with this fake cookie. We just improvised this little couplet at the end where Kevin's like, wait, is there a cookie? And I'm like, no, for goodness sakes, Kevin, there's no cookie. There's no cookie.

Come on. And I kind of like show him. I'm trying to pry Michael's hand. And Kevin's like, I wanted a cookie. And then I look back at Michael and I'm like, completely unacceptable. It was so fun. We had a blast. And somewhere out there, there's just footage of me laughing every time Kevin looks at Michael's hand and is like, what is there a cookie? It's so good. Well, now Michael is alone. He really wants people to come. So he is going to blast music through the vent. Yes. And people up in the bullpen can hear it. And everyone kind of starts, you know, moving and grooving a little bit. So much so that Phyllis decides, she, She's going to go. Yeah, she says to heck with it.

But first she's going to stop by Vance Refrigeration to invite Bob, where she runs into Bob's younger yet sort of look-alike secretary. This is how this character was described in the script. As Phyllis walks in, Bob's busty secretary, Jessica, is coming out of Bob's office and closing the door behind her. She wears a low-cut top. Phyllis looks her up and down. Oh, wow. So it doesn't mention that she's meant to sort of be this younger version of Phyllis. Because they dressed her just like Phyllis dresses.

I know. I know. And I felt like even like their little noses were similar and everything. Their hair styles. Yes. She's clearly like what Phyllis would think Bob would want a younger woman. Yes. Which I thought was such a great casting choice. The women who played Jessica was Alyssa Preston.

And according to her IMDB, This job was her first television credit. Oh, she did so great. Do you remember your first television job? Oh, God, I do. What was it? What was it? Oh, my very first line on a television show was a TV show called Step by Step.

The big stars were Suzanne Summers and Patrick Duffy. Was it a three-camera show? It was a multi-camera show. In the episode, they think their daughter has run off to elope. And I was cast because I was the same height and same hair color as the young girl playing their daughter. Mm-hmm. And they burst in to this wedding chapel, like in Vegas or somewhere.

They burst in, and I'm up there saying my vows. So Suzanne Summers whips me around at the altar. And she goes, you're not Dana. And I say, no, I'm Simone. And thanks for ruining the best day of my life. Wow. It's like crazy that I remember that. And I auditioned for it.

And it wasn't for like two months later that I shot it. And I said to the director that day, I said, how do you want me to do it? And he said, just like you did in the audition. I couldn't remember how I did it in the audition. Oh, no. And then when I did it, they were like, can you tone it down? Because I guess I was like, but thanks for ruining the best day of my life. Well, that's the worst.

When you have one or two lines on a show and there's no like entrance ramp to your performance. You just have to deliver this one line exactly right. And you're on this new set with new people and there's all this just adrenaline running through you. And Suzanne Summers, hi. I've watched her my whole childhood whips me around. And while I was waiting to do my scene after the director gave me that note in rehearsals, I literally was in the wings going, thanks for ruining the best day of my life. Thanks for ruining the best day of my life. Thank you for ruining the best day.

That's the other problem when you have one line. You way over-analyze it. Oh, so much. I was horrible. Well, Alyssa Preston was amazing. She was. Her first TV job. She has gone on to work steadily in television and film.

She was in Grey's Anatomy, Modern Family, Jane the Virgin, the movie Horrible Bosses 2. No Monk, no Law & Order. Comedy. Comedy gal. Back to the story at hand. Phyllis has decided to go down and start dancing with Michael while she waits for Bob to join her. Yeah, and she's really getting into it so much so she does kind of this pony move and throws out her back. That gasping sort of bleeped mother effort that she says is not in the shooting draft.

Really? Yeah, it says that she lets out a yell, you know, but I think that they had fun with that on the day. Can I just say that Phyllis is very good at fake injury? I so believed it. I was worried for her. I know. I mean, she gets her, like, whole face to turn red and stuff. And, like, everything she does as a person with a back injury was so right on for me.

She's great at physical comedy. I've got a side story. What? I know we just had one. Uh-oh. I threw out my back once, just like Phyllis. And it was while I was talking to Christy Brinkley. What?

Yeah. Christy Brinkley. How do you throw out your back while talking? Phyllis was dancing. Well, I was backstage. I was doing this game show. And Christy Brinkley was in the waiting room. She was going to be a guest on the next version of the game show, you know, the next episode. Sure, sure. I was just so excited. I mean, to maybe meet Christy Brinkley. Did you run up or something? I threw my arms out in a gesture where I was like, hi, Christy Brinkley. And in throwing, just, Just gesturing my arms open, I threw out my back. It was like a pop. It felt like something popped in my back. But I was trying to hold it together because she smiled and she was talking with me. And I don't know if she could see the pain like washing over my eyes and my whole body. And like I said, you know, Phyllis gets all red. I felt hot. Like I felt that. And then it just seized up. Like I couldn't even move. They brought the men. in. On the game show. Yes. They gave me some ice and some Advil. And from there, I had to get loaded in a car to go to this movie in Canada with Ben Stiller and Mike White. It was my dream job. My dream job. I'm playing Ben Stiller's wife in a Mike White movie. And you couldn't move. I couldn't move. All because you wanted to show Christy Brinkley a big gesture.

Hey! Yes. When I got to the airport, They had to have a wheelchair load me onto the plane. I mean, I really couldn't walk. When I got to Canada, they had a doctor meet me at my hotel. This is crazy. And the next day, it was a driving scene. My character was supposed to drive, and I couldn't do it. And I was mortified.

I was mortified. Because, of course, when everybody was like, how did you throw out your back? And you were like, I just made a hugging gesture. Yeah. I just went, hey. And then I seemed like a loony tune. But anyway. You can throw out your back very easily.

You can. Just ask you. A lot of stories for me today. Okay. Is this what the shower has done to me? Yes. It has opened up my vault of stories. It has.

Well, I want you guys to notice while Phyllis is being lowered to the ground by Michael, that black pipe on the wall by the shower does not have any lights on it, but that will change. Oh, it's not lighted now, but it will be. That's right. Michael calls Dwight down to help him get Phyllis back up into the office. Or is it Philip? Is it? He gets a text.

He goes, you said, you said something happened to Philip? And then he looks at Phyllis and goes, did Philip do this to you? They are hilarious, the two of them. Well, this is going to start a whole runner where Dwight is going to be tasked with taking care of Phyllis in the conference room. They're going to wheel her in there. He's going to shut all the curtains. Yeah. And then there's a huge commotion.

He comes out in just his tank top. I love moments like that because we don't know what happened in there clearly something. Halstead shared that in addition to being tasked with creating a storyline that used the old Michael Scott Paper Company set, they also needed a storyline that they could cut away to. They needed somewhere to go. But that story also had to take place at Dunder Mifilin, because we did not have the budget to go anywhere. Right, and we only had four days. So this story of Phyllis throwing out her back and Dwight helping her was the solution.

And I love how scripts and stories sometimes evolve out of that just necessity. Everyone is concerned about Phyllis. There's like moaning sounds coming from the conference room. And Angela has a line to Michael where she says, Can you please go back to work instead of mastermining these situations wherein we hurt ourselves? this line was so hard for me to say. Why? Because I don't speak like that.

I don't say stop mastermining situations wherein we hurt ourselves. Yeah. But Angela had a very formal way of speaking. She did. And it was something that was really important to the writers. They carry it through the whole entire series where she has sort of this clipped formality in her voice. I'm just pointing it out because I had a hard time saying it. To me, a sentence like that is very similar to being a doctor on like a show, but you're not really a doctor.

doctor and you have to say medical jargon. I'd never make it. Gray's Anatomy, I'd never be able to do it. No, no, I can't do it. Can't do it. Well, somehow, Aaron and Kelly are going to wind up down in Cafe Disco. Aaron presses play on some music and the ladies start dancing. Yeah. Do you know what this song was? Was it boyfriend hangover? Yeah, it's called Boy Hangover. Boy Hangover. Do you know who wrote it? No. Our writer, Lester Lewis. You are kidding me. No.

I thought it was so catchy. It's sung by this woman named Bonnie McKee. She's a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter. She has written number one hits for Britney Spears, Katie Perry, and Tau Cruz. I thought we should listen to it. Here's Boy Hangover. It is it that Lester wrote the lyrics to that song. It's so good.

I loved the song. I thought it was catchy. I downloaded it, and now I have it. have it. This was one of the songs I was listening to, you know, because I like to stay on theme while working on an episode. Yeah. Well, maybe we should take a break. I want to go eat my yogurt. It's been on my mind. Honey, I know it. If you are okay with that. I saw you eyeing your snack bag. I know. It's time. It's time. We'll be back after I eat my yogurt. Okay, we are back. My yogurt was great. Yay. And speaking of eating, Michael is eating his lunch alone.

Might as well be dinner. That broke my heart. I know. So sad. Michael. Meanwhile, Phyllis is in the conference room. Dwight has started working on her back and Jim is outside collecting flowers. Yeah, it's very sweet. He's making a little bouquet for Pam. Jenna, this is on the side of the writer's building where the warehouse was. So automatically, I was like, is this 3.30 p.m.? Yes. Because we learned last week, we filmed there at 3.30. 30. Also, you know those flowers weren't there. No. They had planted them just for the scene so that he could then cut them. There have never been flowers there. Just some weeds, kind of. Yeah. And a giant bug. But that's it. Yeah. And then the big bunch of parrots that we had for a small period of time. And that one rooster across the way. But not flowers. But not flowers. So they would plant and then replant these flowers so that Jim could collect them. So those were some faky real flowers. Meanwhile, Cafe Disco is a poppin.

Aaron has invited a friend, Ashley. I loved the exchange between Oscar and Aaron when he's like, wait, you invited someone? And Aaron's like, yeah, is that not okay? And Oscar's like, I mean, I've worked here eight years and I never. And then they just run off and he goes rude. I just loved it. Ashley doesn't have any lines, but she was played by Alexis Teague.

And now begins what looks like a dance-off between Kelly and Andy. We had a fan question from Gianna W. The dance-off runner between Andy and Kelly is so great. I personally think they would have made a good couple. Did the writers ever think of doing that? So I asked Warren about this and he said the writer's room pretty much discussed every possible dating scenario for Kelly. But Andy and Kelly never made it on one of those note cards. And he said, you know what, that would have been great.

I wish we would have gone there. I thought they had great chemistry. I did too. They seemed great for each other. And I would like you to note at 13 minutes 54 seconds at the beginning of the dance off, red chili pepper lights on the black pipe by the shower. Where did those come from? I don't know.

Did Aaron and Kelly start decorating when they went down there? Did Ashley bring them? No. Oh, Ashley didn't bring them. Were they there? They were there. Oh, yeah, Ashley just got there. They weren't there when Phyllis was dancing, but now they're there for the dance off.

And Michael is missing all of it. He's up in the kitchen being a sad sack. But he can hear it. He says, I can still hear the music in my head. Well, Creed is going to exit the bathroom. The men's room. While eating chicken. I really love that detail.

Halstead mentioned it was one of the little jokes that he loved as well. He's full on eating. eating a chicken leg. Yeah. Coming out of the restroom. And Creed's like, I hear it too, Michael. Creed says, I hear it too, boss. Oh, yeah.

I hear it too, boss. So Michael's like, oh my gosh, something's happening. And sure enough, he gets down to the cafe disco and it's like happening. It's a party. There's a limbo pole. Yeah. And I have questions. Okay.

Because it's so great. You see two people walk in and they have to like, you know, limbo under. Meredith does a shimmy. Your character walks in and just walks under it. Just straight under it. No problem. Didn't have to bend at all. Who wrote that joke?

Well, I asked Warren and Halstead, and they both were like, it was Warren. Warren was like, yeah, that was me. Well, it's hilarious to me that this is my ex-husband's joke because he clearly knows I'm a short stack. Well, how did you do it? Did they bring you down and measure you to set the pole? Oh, yeah. They duct tape that pole. to the wall, right, that everyone walked under. It's like a broom. It's meant to look like a broom handle.

Right. And I had to practice walking under it. I, on purpose this episode, I wear flats. My character never wears flats. My character is always in three inch heels. This entire episode, I had on little tiny flats. Wow. This is the shoe thing you were mentioning earlier. Yes, I'll put it in stories. I took a screen grab of them. And I did ever so slightly, guys, have to tilt my head, just very tiny. But I could walk right under that pole. It was so funny. I'm the person, guys, when your plane lands and everyone stands up and they're waiting and everyone has to duck because the overhead compartments, you know, when you're still at your seat, you haven't been able to get in the aisle because there's so many people getting their stuff. Yep. I can stand fully upright under the overhead.

That must feel so good. Yeah. I just look at all these people, over while they're waiting to get off a plane, I got no problem. But don't ask you to get something off the top shelf. No. Why would I put anything on the top shelf? You don't. The only reason Angela is there is to get some signatures on a piece of paper, and Michael says he's only going to give her one signature per song. And Angela, you have this line where you say, I don't like the general spirit of music. My character says, look, I hate to be that person.

But I just don't like the general spirit of music. Renee from Fargo, North Dakota would like to know who wrote that line. She loves it. So we asked Warren and Halstead this question, and Warren said it's probably his favorite question because he loves that line too. He shared that he and Halstead were writing together on a short-lived show for the WB called Modern Men, starring Jane Seymour and Max Greenfield. And in one of the episodes, one of the guys is trying to break up with his drab girlfriend

played by guest actor Arden Mirren. Oh, I love her. She's hilarious. She's so funny. Warren said she was amazingly funny. And Halstead and Warren had pitched a line that she hates music. And what Arden's character said was not a fan, like about music. And they said that Arden killed it and it was really funny.

And when they went to write this episode, they really could see Angela identifying with that. and they borrowed their own line and added a little tweak. I think it is such an amazing character trait for a person to just be like, I don't get music. Yeah, I'm not a fan. I'm not a big music person myself. I know this about you, Jenna, because when we went on our writer's retreat, you were very concentrated on our meal plan. What were we going to be eating? And I said something like, what about a playlist for the car ride?

And you're like, yeah, I don't care. I don't know if this is why. but the car that I drove out to L.A., it had no air conditioning and no working radio. Oh, my gosh. You were driving in a car with no music on a road trip? Yeah, and I also had this car in college, and my college was three hours from my hometown. And so I would often drive very, very, very long distances in silence. Jenna. Or I sometimes did bring like an old-fashioned cassette player.

And hit play, I hope. Yeah, I could play off of that. But I got really conditioned to driving without sound. And now I listen to news or podcasts, but I just never kind of got into playlists or music. I find it like, I don't know. I do like music. Like I have whole albums. I have sounds of scrans.

You know, like I use music a lot when I'm formulating a character, which is so interesting. Because if you had to formulate the character of Jenna Fisher, you would have no music. You'd have no music but good food. Yeah, I mean, I love a combo. I love a love a playlist for a road trip. But then I like to turn it off and talk, you know, because I'm chatty. My mom always says the best place to talk is in the car. That's why I love to do school pickup and drop off.

I feel like my kids are super chatty. Yeah, talking about their day. Right after school. Yeah. But my husband loves a playlist and he makes a playlist for every road trip we take. And it's really cute because the kids now are so connected to it. So we were listening a lot to the red hot chili peppers when we went up to the mountains in Big Bear. And Jack will say, whenever they come on now, he's like, that's Big Bear. You know, my kids and Lee are very connected to music and they do the same thing. And we have those same things. Well, like Vampire Weekend for us was like the summer of 2019. That's Vampire Weekend. White Stripes, Seven Nation Army. Love it. We would listen to that song as we were driving up to go skiing in Santa Fe. Oh, yeah. So whenever I hear that song, I just feel the snowy mountain.

I'm going to Wichita. Yeah. It's so good. So good. Oh, can I take us into the conference room with Dwight and Phyllis? Where he's treating her like livestock? And he's rubbing otter oil into her back. Yeah, and giving her a carrot.

I thought for sure this otter oil thing was made up. Is it real? Lady, otter glands can be purchased. Oh, how do they get them? Well, from dead otters. Okay. They take their anal glands. Oh, Lord.

And they grind them up and they age them and then they preserve them. Who thought of that? Who thought of it was like, save that otter's ass? I don't know. There's some stuff in there I need to grind them. up. You can get one ounce for about eight bucks. On another website, I saw you could get it for six. So if you're in the market, shop around. What do people use it for? That's what I wanted to know. I guess you use it to lure an otter. You lure an otter with their own anal glands crushed up?

Yeah, with the scent of their own anal glands. Why? Exactly. Why am I luring an otter? I guess. hunting, but it's just for sport because you don't really use them for anything. You don't use their fur or you don't eat them. You just, I guess, sprinkle their anal glands and then kill them. Why? This is horrible. Well, there's a whole market for this sort of like... Surely there's something we don't know. I don't know, but there's like a lot of gland. You can buy a lot of glands of different animals for this purpose of luring them. So basically these animals smell their own. And I guess they think it's another otter and they come out to say hi.

Terrible. This is like Bambi all over again for me. I know. And no references to rubbing it into someone's back for an injury. I just want to say if Phyllis went out to the woods, she would be very popular. It would like a snow white moment for her. She would have a lot of otters coming to say hi. So Dwight and the Shruths could kill them.

I guess so. But that is some information I found. I'm confused by all of that information, but thank you for sharing it. You're welcome. Okay. There is a full-on dance competition happening now. There sure is, and we got mail from Alexis W in Australia who said, I have to know if the dance competition between Andy and Kelly was freestyle or scrapery.

or scripted. Lady, I went to the script. And guess what? It is fully scripted. I'm going to read you the descriptions. Here is Andy's dance-off description of the script. Andy takes a chair and hops over the back of it, turns around, does a fret astaire walk over it

so that the chair's back falls to the ground. He picks it up, sits on it, and spins on it in a Bob Fossy fashion, flashing jazz hand. He then throws one leg over the back of the chair, gets up, picks up the chair, and pretends that the chair is attacking him and then pretends to be killed by the chair. He gets up and eyes Kelly like, try to top that. Kelly's description is this. Kelly walks over to the shower area. She pretends to turn on the shower and mimes getting wet and lathering herself with soap.

Oh, my. She then walks to the chair, which is next to where Andy stands. She stops at the chair, turns like a runway model, winks at Andy, picks up the chair, and walks back to the shower area with it. She sits down, arches her back, a la flash dance, and pretends to be drenched by the shower. She whips her hair around her head in a frenzy. Then Kelly starts crunking. Okay, that's a dance move. She's putting all her best stuff out there.

She is. Well, you might notice that the way it is described is not exactly. how you end up seeing it in the show. And that is because Randy did hire a choreographer. And the choreographer's job was to interpret the script and then work with the actors to come up with their moves. Randy said our choreographer's name was Mary Ann Kellogg. And she came to us via recommendation from our first AD, Kelly Cantley. Randy said she was absolutely superb and really got this scene. And Warren said they had to use a good choreographer because if the actress had just freestyled the whole time, it would have been impossible to edit. So although Mindy and Ed

brought a lot of ideas for what they would do, this was a planned out dance off. Yeah, sort of based loosely on the script, it seems, but it morphed. It evolved in this rehearsal process. And Halstead said he definitely remembers them pitching that flash dance moment. Mm-hmm. And that made it in. You know, something else that Randy shared with us was that we were not listening to music during this. They were using what's called a thump track. Again, for editing purposes, they would just have this speaker that would play like the sort of baseline beat of the song so that the actors would be on tempo. But for editing purposes, they put the song on later. I know.

So these guys are doing this whole thing. You were there. Was it so crazy? It was so crazy. And also, this is not about the dance off, but I could always really tell when there was no music when Ellie was dancing. Because Ellie just kind of does these jabs and kind of runs in place. Like, not at all to what the beat of the song was that's playing. But there was one little moment. In the background, I start to tidy up. Yes. And Michael tells Angela to stop. And this cracked me up, Jenna, because I do this in real life. I often at a party at a total strong. stranger's house. We'll start stacking plates, busing dirty cups, putting napkins in the trash bin, you know. Well, this is where we're similar because I do the same thing. Yeah. You know,

someone did that to me once. Like I had thrown a party and one of the moms went around and was like tidying kind of near the end. Yeah. And I was like, oh my gosh, that just took up like 25% of the cleaning. And it was such a nice gesture. So now I like to do it too. When I leave a party, I'll first do a sweep. Yes. And get rid of all the empty cans and glasses and stack the plastic cups. Yes. Put stuffed by the sink.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I know. I related to Angela in that moment. But I love how she's like, am I not supposed to have any fun? Yes, because tidying is fun for her. We should probably check back in on Phyllis. Yeah.

Dwight is still trying to work out this kink in her back. And then Phyllis just blurts out. I think Bob's going to cheat on me with his new secretary. And then she starts laughing. And then her back is better. Yeah. And Dwight's like, why are you laughing? And she said, just saying it out loud, it just sounds so ridiculous.

And she was able to let all that tension and stress go. We had a fan question from Liz Bee in Columbus, Ohio. She said, in this episode, Phyllis mentions that Bob might be having an affair, but then no one mentions it again. Was there more to this storyline that got deleted, either from this episode or future episodes? No, no, we asked Warren and Halstead about this, and they told us that their idea here was just that the cause of her back pain was the stress. And they thought it was a funny way to end this storyline of Dwight trying to heal her. Like, Dwight's treatments weren't the cure, and the dancing wasn't even the problem. Right.

She was going to throw her back out anyway from just holding on to this little stress, and then she cured herself. And then Dwight had to staple her blouse back together. He did. So now we're about to see Jim and Pam. And Pam's going to come out of the bathroom. So cute. You looked so sweet, Jenna, and your pink dress and your hair up. I have to say something, though. What? Did you notice throughout the whole beginning of this episode that I had this pink dress on underneath my sweater? Well, it looked like a pink sweater with a pink skirt. So I thought it was a good faky sale. But then that tells me you wore the dress the whole day. Why? Yeah. Yeah. She went and did her hair all different and put flowers in her hair. Why couldn't she just bring her dress to work? I know. But also, why did she drive to New York to start art school in a pencil skirt? I don't know.

Pam's a mystery when she comes to some of her wardrobe choices. She really is. She really, really is. I feel like people in the office would have clocked this strange, poofy bubble skirt coming out of her bottom half. I clocked it in the very first scene. Like, I was sitting in my chair. I was like, what is that? You know what I thought it was? I thought I had a blanket. Because you were cold. Yes. And I was like, oh my gosh, they caught my blanket.

And I was going to do a blanket catch. Proof of cold. I was like, oh, no, that's my wardrobe. Well, as they're walking out of the office, they hear the music playing and they're like, I think we should pop in. We should go just for a minute before we head to the courthouse. I think Jim says it would mean so much to him. Mm-hmm. Michael is thrilled. Oh, my gosh, she's so happy. The whole gang is there.

And now everyone is dancing. I mean, except Angela. And Kevin and Lynn, who are making out. Full-on makeout, which is the end of the Kevin Bacon's runner. We got some mail about the dancing here. We're dancing to YMCA. Mm-hmm. Monica A and Jennifer P said,

were Jim's dorky dance moves choreographed, or is that John Krasinski's own true style? I don't think you're doing. dance moves were choreographed in the background. Sarah Lassen, 89, said, please address the fact that John Krasinski seems to only have one dance move jumping up and down. He does the same thing in the lip-dub cold open of nepotism. Oh my gosh. I will tell you, John and I met with the choreographer. Did you really? We did. Because we had this discussion, like, what is Jim and Pam's dancing going to be when they get there. And also they say they like cheesy. So what does that mean?

Well, we had all these conversations and one of them was, is there any reason why Jim and Pam might be slow dancing to YMCA where they're making kind of a wedding moment out of it? We discussed, we were like, I don't think so. I think we need to lean into the kind of like they like cheesy, you know. It's part of the reason they want a big wedding so they can be dorky with their friends on the dance floor. Yes. And so the choreographer just was like, well, let's see how you two would do it. I just remember, I feel like you could hear a pin drop. We're like, okay. I mean, that's really pretty much just us. That's just what I thought. Me and John just. I was shocked when you said you met with a choreographer. But they liked it. And so the choreographer was like, yeah, just do that. That's good.

Perfect. That's good. Maybe she was like, I don't even know where to begin. So just do what you're doing. Well, I'll say I loved shooting these dance scenes. I was so happy to finally be down in the disco. But lady, I love a dance party. I know you do. And I will stay on the dance floor the whole time at your wedding. I want to be out on that dance floor. You know, for my 30th birthday, I had a dance party, and I danced the whole time.

And my 50th is going to be coming up in a few years, and I want a dance party again. You should have a dance party. And I maybe should put on the invitation. Wear comfy shoes. And I may not talk to you because I'm going to be dancing the whole time and that's what I want for my party. But for my 40th, I was seven months pregnant with my daughter. And so Lee and I just went and had a little baby moon slash birthday. So it'll be like 20 years since I had a dance party.

Well, I can't wait because I want me, you and Oscar. Oh! To recreate what we did for a year. years, which was we did all the single ladies by Beyonce, the three of us. I want all the single ladies. I want sexy back. I want gold digger. I want some lady Gaga.

Oh, yeah. I want them all. I just rewatched my wedding video because for my anniversary this year, my husband finally edited together all the footage from our wedding. Really? Yes. He said it took him a year because he just had to work on it a little bit at a time. It's almost 30 minutes.

And we sat down with the kids and watched it. And it was so fun to see all of us dancing, Jenna. I mean, there were so many elements that were great. But it just warmed my heart. Like, there you are on the dance floor. We're like dancing our hearts out. It's just so great. Well, I want it.

You're going to have it. You're going to have a dance party. Okay, good. We painted hummingbirds for my 50th. And by God, we're going to dance on your 50th. Good. Yay. I'm going to make sure it happens.

Well, there's one person who refuses to dance in Cafe Disco, and that is Angela. But, but she's going to sway her foot a little bit to the music. She's going to tap her finger. Yeah. And Hallstead shared that this whole storyline of Michael starting a Cafe Disco was always going to end with this moment. I did not know that. He said that their litmus test for whether or not Michael could pull. off his cafe disco dream was Angela because she thought that hanging out at a disco all day was

completely unacceptable. She was the lone holdout through most of the show. And Michael, if you notice, keeps checking in with her, checking in with her, trying to engage her. So in the end, that little tap and that little foot sway, that is Michael's victory. That's his big win. And Warren shared, by the way, that in his mind, he thought that this moment actually is the beginning of an evolution for the character of Angela, that this moment that shows how severe and closed off her character can be, but it's a baby step toward her maybe opening up to new possibilities. Oh, I like that. So this moment was very rich in their outline and their writing of this episode. And very thought out. Well, I went to the script. I wanted to see what was in the

shooting draft for this moment. There was a Michael voiceover. Here's what it says in the script. Michael sits with Angela. He looks around the room and takes in all of the dancing couples, Jim and Pam, Phyllis and Bob, Kelly and Andy, and Kevin and Lynn, who are furiously making out. Michael notices Angela is tapping her foot to the music and he smiles to himself. And this is the voiceover that would then play. They needed me. I left. I will never let them down again. I will always be there for them. I will be at every important moment of their lives. Their births, their deaths, their babies, other hospital stuff, no matter where or whether they want me there or not for them. That actually made me get a little choked up. I know, isn't that so

sweet? I really wish that had been in. I know. I thought that was really sweet. One other thing I want to share is that when we were filming in cafe disco and trying to figure out this moment of how Michael would see my foot swaying, my finger tapping, we shot just a quick little tag that didn't make it in. And everyone has left cafe disco and only Angela Martin is in their cleaning. And Michael walks by and she is dancing as she cleans. Why do I remember this? We just shot it really quickly. And just as an alt, just in case. Yeah. Like, you actually respond to the music when everybody's left.

Everyone's left. But it's still that victory. He still got you. Yeah. But that didn't make it in. It's not in the shooting draft. It's not in deleted scenes. But that was an alt that they shot.

I wonder if we were all like waiting in the hallway while you did that or something because I have such a memory of it. It was really quick. We just sort of grabbed it in the moment. But of course, the actual tag that made it in, which is so great, is Kelly piercing Andy's ear in the restroom. This really lends itself to that idea that they could be a couple. I know. Because this is a very cute, coupling thing. It is. And Halstead said that they actually did a take where Mindy, as Kelly, fully pierces Andy's ear, and it was painful and bloody

and a mess, but they cut it for time. Well, that's it, guys. That's Cafe Disco. It is, and it was so fun. I loved rewatching this. Thank you so much. Warren Lieberstein and Halstead Sullivan, Randy Cordray, for giving us all kinds of fun behind the scenes details. And lady, before we go, you know how at the beginning of the episodes, we always say, like, when do you listen? Where do you listen? You always say good morning and then you remember that people might not listen in the morning.

Yes. Well, we got a letter from Katie C., who is 14 years old, lives in the UK, and she said, I listen to office ladies whilst delivering newspapers every day, and it makes it so much more fun. When it's raining or way too warm for my ginger jeans, I know I have the podcast to keep me going and I never give up. I love that. Well, hi, Katie. Hi, Katie. Good luck today on your paper route. Be safe. And Jen and I are sending you big hugs. Thanks for listening to Office Ladies. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies' second drink. This episode was initially created in collaboration with Earwolf. Office Ladies is a presentation of Odyssey and is produced

by Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey. Our senior producer is Matt Beagle. Our second drinks episodes are produced by Molly Nugent. Our audio engineer is Sam Kiefer. Odyssey's executive producer is Leah Reese Dennis. Office Ladies was mixed and mastered by Bill Schultz. Our theme song is Ruppertree by Creed Bratton.