Office Ladies - Second Drink: Lecture Circuit, Pt 1

Episode Date: June 29, 2026

This week we’re breaking down the first part of Lecture Circuit! To help improve sales across all Dunder Mifflin branches, Michael and Pam travel to different branches and attempt to give lectures. Meanwhile, Jim and Dwight have taken over the Party Planning Committee and do their best to make Kelly happy after forgetting her birthday. The ladies talk precision driving vs fakey driving, Jenna points out suitcase acting and Angela does a deep dive on the candy, Mounds Bars. This ep is so good, you’re going to half-heartedly throw candy in the air and drone, “It is your birthday.”  Office Ladies Website - Submit a fan question: https://officeladies.com/submitaquestion  Follow Us on Instagram: OfficeLadiesPod Follow Us on YouTube Follow Us on TikTok 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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I'm going to start with this fan question from Melinda D in Austin, Texas. Hi, ladies. I love the opening scene where Michael is on the intercom saying ridiculous things. Were there any candy bag alts for this? Thanks. Love the podcast. Okay. So, Melinda, I love this cold open too. And Jim has that great line that sets it up where he says, this morning the phone guy comes in and he shows Michael that the phones have a PA function. And then he just left. Yes. And then Michael does all these silly bits over the PA, and it's so annoying to everyone who's trying to get their work done. And Angela, I remember we got a question in our original breakdown asking if any of it was improvised, but I don't think we dug into the candy bag alts

for this. No, lady, we did not. We had read the shooting draft script, so we referenced that. But Melinda, thanks for writing in because it sent me into the candy bag. There was so much. much fun stuff there. Are you ready? Here are extra bits they wrote for Michael. Oh my gosh. They must have had so much fun with this. Right. Okay. So this is all over the intercom thingy, right? Yes. So it's all voiceover. Michael would have said. Attention Dunder Mifflin shoppers sale on female secretaries, aisle one. Or Stanley, Toby, Kevin. Those are good fart sounds late. Thank you. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Get out! The call is coming from the inside of the house. And then for the part where Michael is talking on a cell phone and he doesn't realize that the PA is still on, here was an alt for that. No, the mole hasn't changed in size or shape, but it's moved from my front to my back. I circled the mole with the marker, but now I can't tell what's marker and what's mole. That is ridiculous. I know. Well, lady, we also got a fan mail flurry for this episode.

Was it about how much everyone loves the, it is your birthday party decorating skills? Close. It's in that scene. It actually has to do with our breakdown of the episode. I guess I thought that Dwight hung up the sad balloons and streamers with clear tape. and you very passionately said, no, it was masking tape. And then you pulled out your laptop and you showed me. And you were correct.

It's masking tape. But the flurry was because I guess you kept saying mask and tape instead of masking tape. And Ashley R. Emily L. Christie C. Lindsay P., Steven C. and Stacey R. all pointed it out and asked, how in the world did I not catch that in the moment? I say mask and tape. According to all of these people. And it's masking. Masking.

I think it's somewhere in the middle. All right, all right, you guys, I'll try to say it correctly. You say it how you want, lady. Well, lady, you got a letter about this particular episode. It was inspired by the line that Pam says as her and Michael begin their lecture circuit. Pam says, yeah, I love being on the road, but I especially love the time and a half pay 24 hours a day for three days because I have a mortgage now. Gotta bring home the bucks. Okay.

Ready for your letter? Yeah. It's from Jessica G from Bethel-Mane. Jessica said, Jenna, and then in parentheses, and of course, Angela, but this question was more for Jenna. I have listened to your podcast multiple times and listened to your audiobook at least twice now. crazy to me that when you started your podcast, I was pregnant, and now my baby boy is about to turn six. Anyways, I was dying to know if Jenna ever watched the show Mad About You. And if so, do you remember the episode of Season 7, Episode 13, where Paul puts down a deposit on a house for a Valentine's Day gift and Jamie clearly is not impressed?

Made me think of your opinion about Jim buying a house for Pam. And when I rewatch the episode of Matt About You, all I could think about was, ooh, Jenna would not like this episode. Love you, gals. And thank you for getting me through my pregnancy, COVID, re-listing when my anxiety took over. You guys were a wonderful thing to calm my brain. Take care. And thank you for all you do. Oh, my gosh, Jessica.

I would probably have the same reaction if I was watching that episode of Matt About You. I did not remember. I mean, I used to watch Mad About You, but that is so similar. Like he bought a house for Valentine's Day? Yeah. Like, I just think that you shouldn't surprise someone with such a large purchase. It's really a simple sort of like code of like relationship. Maybe, just maybe. If that's how big the price tag is, include me in the conversation. I'm going to throw something else at you. Do you ever see like all the super richy rich people, they'll like buy their loved one a car as a gift? like a $200,000 Bentley or something. That's crazy. Don't do that either. What if I don't like how it drives?

If I haven't test driven something, if I haven't looked at the house and considered the financial impact on our family, don't buy me shit like that. I don't want that. I'm very short, so I have to sit in it. Can I reach the buttons? You know what I'm saying? Listen to me. I mean, I'm like, don't buy me a Bentley. Don't buy me a Jaguar. But all. Also don't. I mean it. Like, I don't want it. I don't want that item. I don't want to be saddled with it. I don't want to drive it. Do I want to park a $200,000 car? You know what? There's probably special parking for that. There's probably a richy, rich world I don't know about. I'm going to stop you right there. You're talking like yacht people talk and that's not us. You know, bless you if you want all that stuff. That's your business. It's none of my business. But I want you to know this. Look at me right now. Are you looking at me? Yeah. No one is ever going to buy you a Bentley. No one's ever going to buy me belly. I don't have to worry. You don't have to worry about it. Okay. What if I get like a superhero movie? It's a huge franchise. No. I'm kicking ass and it makes so much money at the box office that the studio wants to send me a gift. I'm going to tell him to call me. Tell him to call me. Okay. Don't send her a Bentley. You'll tell them.

Yeah. Thank you. All right, thanks to everyone who wrote in. And because I love a deep dive, I want to give a shout out to a very fun one in this episode. Angela, you had a great deep dive on the Mounds Candy Bar and its role in World War II. I still think about it sometimes. It's awesome. It's so cool. Anyway, all right, everyone. Enjoy your day. And here's our second drink of Lecture Circuit Part 1. I'm Jenna Fisher. And I'm Angela Kinsey. We were on the office together. And we're best friends. 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. Angela just turned out the lights in the studio. Okay, here's the thing. There's a lot of buttons. This is what I want from a light switch. I want one button. There's four buttons over there, Jenna. There's more than four.

You guys, it is a complicated light switch. Thank you. But we like to listen to our theme song to get in the mood. So we're listening to it with you. All during our theme song, Angela is pressing the buttons. The lights are going up. They're going down. They're fading.

There's track lighting. Then there's these other kind of lights and ceiling lights. Then there's four lamps. We should turn some of the lamps on. That might help me. We need the light because our eyes are fading. Because I can't see, guys. That's what's happening.

But all right, we're here. The lights are on, and we are ready. We are ready for lecture circuit part one. Season 5, Episode 16, written by Mindy Kaling and directed by Ken Kwapis. It's an official two-parter. It is, and I've got a whole fast fact about it. Oh, look how your face just lit up. You're so excited.

I am. Here is your summary. Michael, accompanied by Pam, is embarking on a three-day lecture tour of the nearby Dundermifflin branches. I need to stop you one second. Yeah. Three days. Yeah. Three days, Pam is going to be on the road with Michael.

And she's so cheery about it. At the beginning. Well, you know, Michael's branch is outselling all the other branches. David Wallace is perplexed. What's that secret sauce? Please go to the other branches and tell them all about it. Yeah. Well, they're going to start in Utica.

This is where they're going to run into Karen, and they are met with a surprise. Yeah. But back in Scranton, we reveal that Jim and Dwight are now the co-heads of the party planning committee. And they forgot Kelly's birthday. And she is ticked off. Oh, that is an understatement. Meanwhile, Andy has a crush on one of Stanley's clients. Fast fact number one.

Mm-hmm. Lecture Circuit is a two-part episode. It aired two different weeks, and this is our first episode to ever feature a to be continued message, you know, at the end of the episode. But lecture circuit was not written as two episodes. It was one script, like your regular 41 pages long. We shot it in five days. So why did they make it a two-parter, Jenna? I will tell you.

I thought you might. I was trading emails with director Ken Kwapis. He told me that when they went to assemble it in the... editing room, there was so much good stuff. His director's cut was 35 minutes long. He showed it to Greg, and he said, Greg, I can't cut anymore. That's it. It's got to be 35 minutes, Greg. Yeah, make it supersized. Yeah. Or something. Something. Greg said, I agree. We can't lose any of this. Let's turn it into two episodes. And Ken said he was thrilled. That's amazing. That's how good it was. Yeah. Mindy and Ken turned in, that good.

of an episode. Well, fastback number two, when they broke up the episode into two episodes, they did actually need more storylines to fill out each half. So they knew that the lecture circuit story and the birthday party story would remain in both episodes, but it actually wasn't enough for two complete episodes. So they had to write two more stories. And what were those? I will tell you, for this episode, they added the storyline of eight. Andy wanting to date Stanley's client, Julia. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

That makes sense because in the original script, it's not in there at all. No. And then for the second half, which we will get to next week, they wrote a very interesting storyline for you and your cats. Oh, yeah. I have stories, guys. So let's talk about this storyline with Stanley and his client, Julia, that they added. The reason that he doesn't meet with his client in the conference.

room is because the conference room was busy being a birthday party. Sure. It was being decorated. So they did all of that in the break room. And also, that way, they could insert it into the episode wherever they wanted and it wouldn't affect any of the continuity of the other story. And they could shoot it later because that's what we did. Yes.

We shot these two additional storylines a full month later. Mm-hmm. That was the crazy thing. For me, they were like, okay, you have a whole storyline. It's going to be in lecture circuit. We're shooting it in three weeks. Yeah. What?

Because they had to write it. Yeah. Should we move on to Fast fact number three? Well, you sound eager, I think we should. Well, it's a location breakdown. You love a location breakdown. I really do. I know.

I love knowing where we made the stuff happen. Yeah. You want to be in the room where it happens. Hamilton. Hey. Room where it happens. I love that. I really love that song.

I do too. We had a fan question from Joe S. Jenna, did you and Steve film your scenes in the car in a single day or multiple days? And where did you drive around to film the car scenes? I'll tell you. We shot all of the driving scenes for both lecture circuit one and lecture circuit part two on the same one day. Oh, wow. So you had a full day in the car.

Yep, just driving around. Just driving around. It was Wednesday, November 5th. Look at you. Mm-hmm. Someone got the call sheet and looked at it. And that someone is Jenna Fisher. Yes, thanks to James Carey.

So here's where we went. We made a loop of three streets in North Hollywood, Nordoff, Satakoi, and Plummer. I recognize Satakoy. Yeah. That's also the street that our sound stages were on. That's the street we drove on every single day. To get to work. Yeah.

I will tell you, I was not actually driving in these scenes. You weren't? No. You did some good faky driving. Thank you so much. I was going to ask you if you drove at all. I did not. Oh.

They had the car loaded onto a rig, and it was being pulled by a precision driver. Okay. I'm not much of a precision driver. I wouldn't describe myself that way at all. Precision is not the word I would think of to describe my driving. Jenna, I've ridden with you in a car. I know. You know, you're a very safe driver.

Mm-hmm. But you, what are you going to say? You, I don't know, it's like you grip the wheel with both hands. I do. I'm a 10 and 2. You're a 10 and 2. And then you just kind of, you look straight ahead. And sometimes I'm like, you know, you can go around them, Jenna.

There's a whole lane that's empty right next to you. We've been behind Pokey Pokerson for like half an hour. 10 and 2, turn a little bit and go around them. Can I say something right now? Mm-hmm. This driving does actually sound very precise. Okay. Well, maybe I am a precision driver and I don't know it.

You're a slow precision driver. You're not going to be taking any courses where you're like zipping around any cones. You'll get around those. Oh, I'm sorry. Are you doing cone courses in your free time? Yeah. Is that your hobby? Do you not know this about me?

I'm a freaking badass. Like, I do, I actually, by the way, I did pull off the road. Like, we did all that driving sequence. I was driving when Dwight runs me off the road. That was me. Oh, yeah. What do you want? What do you want?

I want my precision driving trophy. It's a little gold, like, street cone. All right. I'll find one for you and I will get it for you. Okay. So anyway, you were not driving, but you shot all in one day. We shot it all in one day. And then the next day, we shot everything at the Utica branch. And we started with all of the interior scenes. And we shot at this building in Chatsworth, California. It was on Hordoff Street. And we started very early that day. We started at 5.30 in the morning. That was your call time? Yeah. And the crew call was 630 and the shooting call was 645. What that means is that we had the goal of arriving at 530, rehearsing at 3rd.

6.30, and we had to start shooting by 6.45 a.m. That's the early day. And we did it. All right. So, before we go to break, lady, I think we should give a little book update. Book update. Office BFFs is the name of our book that we have been working on for... Oh, good Lord, three years. Longer than I can imagine. Oh, my goodness. We've been sharing on our Instagram, like our journey as we're writing this together. And guess what? Well, you might know if you follow us. We finished our manuscript. We turned in our manuscript. Someone throw some confetti. Please. Your husband, Josh, did throw confetti when you told him that we had finished it. It was so sweet. But now we are in this really fun part where we are going through all of our photos. So many photos. And they're so good.

Because you guys, the reason we wanted to write this book in the first place was because we did this clean out of our garages and your shed and my basement. Basically, it's everywhere we stash stuff. Yeah. And you know what we found out? What did we find? We're big stashers. We did not need to find that out, lady. I think we knew that. Oh my gosh. But it's true. And we saved everything. Every scrap of paper, every ticket stub. Here's the other thing, too. Not only do we save everything, but like our family does. I have a whole envelope from my cousin Carol of all of these clippings. Thank you, Carol.

Well, all of this stuff is going in the book. I don't know that we can put all of it in the book. The book would be like 800 pages. That's true. Some of this stuff is going in the book, but it's all really fun. And you guys, I just am so excited for you to get it and to hold it in your hands and to have it. Me too. I'm excited to go on our book tour.

What? Lady, you know when your book comes out, you go on a tour and you like sign it and you meet people. We're going to get to go on like a ladies. A road trip. A road trip. I hadn't even thought that far ahead. I'm sorry I'm yelling. I'm so excited.

Okay, you know this has been something I've wanted for a long time, which is a BFF road trip. I know. It's going to happen. Like a real deal road trip where we go to multiple cities. Well, it's happening. Get ready for it. Office BFFs with all our hoarded stuff and all of our great stories. It's coming your way soon.

Oh my God, I didn't even think about going on tour. Well, there you go. There's our book update. Life update. Hit the road update. Look, I'm already excited. The book is not even done, and I'm like planning our road trip. Oh, I have my places I like to stop and snack at.

What are they? Where will I be snacking? I love a good, like, just greasy burger joint. For sure. Right? Mm-hmm. Also, I love. love the Frito chili chips, you know? Oh, really? You're going to eat Frito chili chips around me? Everyone says they stink up the room. It's so stinky lady. I know. I love them. Okay. They're one of my go-to road trip snacks. Okay. Okay. All right. We're going to go to break now and I'm going to just try to convince Angela to eat regular Frito. I love a regular Frito. Oh, especially with some queso. Oh, you know what I love a regular frito with? What? A Frito chili pie. I'm so hungry now. Like in the bag. I know.

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Michael, you guys. Oh my gosh. A phone guide came in to fix his phone and showed him the PA system. You can't show Michael Scott the office PA system. You definitely cannot. He is really goofing about now. Yeah, he pretends to be a plane captain, a ghost. He forgets the intercom is on while he's talking to his doctor about his mole.

He calls Toby into the principal's office for waiting his bed. I think we should hear it. Can you play the clip? Yeah. This is your captain speaking. The office will be flying at an altitude of two stories. Look out your left hand window and you will see vance refrigeration. Boop about my mole again.

Now, I was looking online about sebaceous sips. I had not been squeezing it. Because I stick it with a pin. Ugh. Don't be blunderson to the principal's office. No, you have to get home to wash your seat because they're yellow and they're wet with your urine. My personal favorite part of that is the coughing. Yes.

I loved listening to him. cough. It reminded me of the tiramisu coughing fit that he had on the phone with David Wall. Steve Krill is a master at fake laughing and fake coughing. Yeah. You believe it. We had a fan question from Virginia S. When Michael is on the PA system, were any of his announcements improvised or were they all in the script? For example, the announcement that Toby has wet his bed is hilarious. All right. They had several alts. And the one that was actually in the script, script for Toby, read like this. Toby Flanderson to the principal's office, you are in trouble for sucking. That's pretty good. That's what was in the script. Well, I read the script while I watched this portion, and I would say that a lot of it was scripted, but Steve definitely did do improvisations off of what was

written. And I'm sure Mindy was pitching things to him too on the day. Yes. But I noticed that the line about Ghost of Christmas Pass. That was scripted, but the coughing bit was not in the script. Really quickly. I feel like we need to point out something at 27 seconds. What's that? What's up with Angela's outfit? What is it? It is a poofy, floofy sweater. Oh, yeah. But it's like poofy, like at the shoulder. That was really in, and I feel like that's coming back. What? Like the poofy arms. Oh. We went through a real shakes. Spear Renaissance Fair thing back then. I'm not here for it.

It's coming back, lady. Great. You know what I found in my closet? How do I describe this? I found a ribbon on a hanger. Okay. And then clipped to the ribbon were various flowers that I could put in my hair or on my lapel. You could adorn your outfit.

Like one of the flowers was like a fabric flower that you would clip on your blue. laser. Oh, yeah. Was that in for a while? Why do I have seven flowers to clip to myself? I don't know. It feels very much like a pretty and pink, kind of like a Molly Ringwald, put the flower on her hat. Yeah, it brought back no memories when I looked at it. Two of the flowers were like Hawaiian flowers. I clearly bought them to clip in my hair while on a trip to Hawaii. But the rest were more casual, more every day. But I'm going to clip one on my blazer lapel when we do our book tour. All right? I'm planting that seed now. I can't wait. It's going to make me real happy. What I won't have on our book tour is a poofy sleeve sweater because at my age, I don't need any extra poofs.

You know what? I'm going to say you will wear that on our book tour. No. Don't say that. Poofy sweater thing and flower lapel. Who are we on this book tour? I don't know. We're interesting people. Well, we'll see. Not trust well, but interesting. All right. Let's get started. This episode opens with Michael exiting a motel room. He knocks on the neighboring door and out comes Pam.

Yes. And in the shooting draft of our script, it says Michael knocks on Pam's door. They say good morning. That's it. They don't even have dialogue written out for you guys. you just sort of greet each other. This is not in the script. When Michael Knox says, hello, good morning. Pam says, good morning. And then Michael says, you ready?

And we're off like a herd of turtles. That is not in the script. I think Steve improvised that. I will tell you, I absolutely loved doing this episode because I got Steve all to myself. I bet. Just scene after scene of me and Steve. And I loved it. Some of my favorite times in the office were when I just got to have days with Steve,

me and Steve. I know. They were brief and few and far between because, you know, Angela Martin hated him, but those were always such a delight.

Well, I love this scene of me putting the luggage into the back of the car. I did too. I'm sorry. I thought I did. I'm going to toot my own horn. I thought my heavy luggage

acting was superb. It was so great that I wrote a question for you. Here's my fan question. Okay. What was in the bag? It looked really heavy. There was almost nothing

in that bag. That was, All me. Thank you. I mean, I couldn't be prouder of that. You know what? I want a Cone Award for my precision driving. I'm going to get you a little tiny suitcase.

Thank you. That says great prop work. Prop work award. I don't know if you noticed, but we got a lot of mail about this car. Adele M wrote in and said, whose Maroon Ford is Pam driving? I thought she had a Yaris and Michael had a PT cruiser. What is this car? Exactly. Is it a rental car? Listen to this. What? This is a gem from Randy Cordray. He said in an early

concept meeting for this episode, it was discussed that Michael would need extra trunk space for all of his props and his trunk and all that stuff and that it just wouldn't fit in his PT Cruiser. So they said that they thought it would be funny if Michael had to ask the company to provide him with a Lincoln Town car. that Pam would drive him around in. But corporate would only approve a cheaper Crown Victoria. So this was always intended to be like a scripted moment where we would explain this. But in the end, it never made the shooting draft. So it comes off a bit confusing, but this was like a whole joke.

I love it because Michael thinks he's carrot top, right? So he's got to have all of his props and his trunks of crazy gadgets and things. I mean, I'm surprised you didn't dress in a costume. I was, too. But yet he gives Pam, like, some sass about her outfit and says, don't you know what a magician's assistant looks like? I googled magician's assistant costume. There's a lot of fishnet. There's some short shorts.

There's a boostier. There's a top hat. Yeah. Sometimes a skirt. It's a very sexy-looking outfit. Yeah. Well, Pam wore her tan cardigan. It's new.

I had such a hard time getting through that line because, of course, we knew that line was going to be in the script. So when we picked my outfit for this episode, we thought it was very funny that her new cardigan was like beige. Was beige. I have another amazing tidbit about this car before we get on the road. The toboggan? Yeah. That's on top of the car? All right.

The reason that's there is because there was a scene. that was written as a tag for this episode. And the scene was going to be Michael and Pam going down a snowy hill on that toboggan. Why didn't that happen? I need to see that. Yes. Well, we'd have to go somewhere with snow. Randy said they went out to scout a snowy mountain.

And the photos that they came back with, it just didn't look great. There just wasn't a lot of snow happening at the time. that we were shooting this episode, we couldn't go all the way to mammoth, which is five hours away, right? We had to find some place that was relatively close, and there just was no snow, so we never shot it. But there were two options. One was that Michael was going to be going down the hill on the toboggan, and Pam was just going to be kind of like standing there. Right. And the other version is that Pam and Michael are sledding down together, but midway down the Pamp falls off and rolls to the bottom.

And Michael says, again! Well, maybe I'm glad you didn't have to do that, Jenna Fisher. No, I so wish I could have gone sledding with Steve. I so wish. That would have been a blast. Back at Dundra Mifflin, Kelly arrives to work, and she is really upset. Yeah. I would like to note at four minutes, 10 seconds, there is a big door slam.

Guys, that front door did not slam. No. It did not. In fact, it had that little suspension thing, you know, that suspension bracket. So it just would shut like, he. So that was added in post. They had to make it a silent door because a lot of times people would have to enter, and we'd be in the middle of a scene, and then you would have heard kachunk.

Right. So it was a he does not slam. Right. But they needed to really sell how Mad Kelly was. So they put it in. Finky slam. Well, Mindy says screw you to Jim and Dwight. She storms off and then Phyllis explains that Kelly is upset because they forgot her birthday yesterday.

Yeah. We got a piece of mail. Okay. From Zoe S. Here's what Zoe has to say. In this episode, it's the day after Kelly's birthday. Jim and Dwight forgot. Phyllis knew it was Kelly's birthday yesterday.

But Kelly says nobody wished her. a happy birthday. Zoe would like to know, why didn't Phyllis wish Kelly a happy birthday if she knew? I mean, it's one thing that Phyllis wants to make Jim and Dwight look bad, but Phyllis showed some real sass to Kelly on her birthday. Thank you, Zoe. This is what Angela Martin had to deal with, day in and day out, the secret Phyllis sass that people don't see. They just see, oh, nice, Phyllis, but there's a deep current of deep dark secret Phyllis sound. Mm-hmm. Passive-aggressive, Phyllis Sass.

This leads us into a talking head that I know these two boys loved filming. Well, they couldn't get through it. Mm-hmm. They couldn't get through this whole episode. I'm going to be bringing up some bloopers in a minute. It started with the side-by-side talking head. And if you read this talking head in the shooting draft, what made it to screen, you can see they were having some fun. Yeah.

They had some improv around what was written. The very top, when Jim says, ahead and Dwight goes, no, you go ahead, you do it. And Jim goes, okay. And Dwight goes, I insist. That was all improvised. Then they get into the part, you know, where they're telling that Angela was blackmailed by Phyllis, that's all scripted. But then Dwight goes, what he said was, and he puts a finger towards Jim's face, and Jim pushes it away and goes, just easy. That's all improv guys. That's just these two fellas having some fun. I think I could have told you all that because I know these two so well. Uh-huh. And I know the bits that they would do.

do off camera. What about the one at the end? That was all improv too. That whole like, that's on my side. And then Jim's like, so this was fun. Yes. That's just them playing around. Yeah, that's their chemistry. Well, after that talking head, we have a Kelly talking head where she explains that yesterday was her birthday. Everybody forgot. We see that she got all dressed up. There wasn't a party. This one minute is full of some amazing background. Oh, let's hear them. The first one is a fan catch from Ryan W. When they show Kelly all dressed up for her birthday during her talking head, in the background on Dwight's desk, you can see his bobblehead from Angela. It's back on the desk. I looked at it. Yes, at five minutes, 10 seconds,

bobblehead. But also, this is the one I noticed. Creed is milling around in Michael's office. What? Yeah. He's just milling around in there. What the heck? What's he doing in there? I don't know. I don't either. Those are my background catches. Those are good catches. Jenna, we all know that Ryan had his list. Remember when he came back? He was mad at everyone. He kept writing down names. Mm-hmm. Did you know that Angela Martin also has her list? No. She calls it her enemy list. She's not subtle. And it all comes up in a scene that was deleted between Jim Dwight and Angela. She's turning over her party planning committee box of items. Okay.

Here it is. I reprinted my vendor's list for parties. It's a list of birthdays, half birthdays, minutes from past parties, and an enemy's list. You're going to need it. If there's some cat stuff mixed in here, I'd appreciate you returning it to me. Of course. I wish you two the best of luck. Thank you.

Angela, Dwight and I would like to say that we'd be honored if you would stay on as a member of the committee. And we think you could even run it and take care of everything and we would not get in your way. Well, that is a great idea. Nice try. It's your problem now. I want to say I spit out my coffee

when you explained that you had minutes for the parties. She's documenting everything that happens at these parties. And she has an enemies list. Wow. Oh. I mean, those are scenes I would have loved to see. Toboggan scene? Yeah.

I would love someone to read the minutes of a party. Yeah. I agree. Well, back in the car, Pam wants to turn on the radio, but Michael needs silence. Or Sam Kinnison in order to prepare, one of those two. Sam Kinnison, comedian that yelled. His whole stand-up routine was yelling. Yes.

He needs one of those two things. But that's okay. Pam's just going to sing to herself. But then Michael asked Pam if she's nervous about seeing Karen today. He says, is that why you wore makeup today? And Pam's like, what? What? No. I loved that line. I don't know why. Oh, because it's just one of those statements that completely rattles you. And also because I have so done that. I have so juzzed up a little extra. And if someone points it out, then you get embarrassed. Yes. Yeah. Oh, that was such good writing. So now we start that storyline that Jenna mentioned, that we added to fill out the script, Stanley is going to escort in Julia, his client. And I want you to notice. They did not use the front door.

No, whoever comes in this way, no one. And the reason they did that was so that they would not have to pass by the conference room because they didn't know where they were going to put this entrance. And they just didn't want it to mess up whatever Dwight and Jim might have done or not done into the conference room yet. Yes. So they strategically positioned the camera. So you see them coming in by that door, by the file cabinet.

Yeah. The only other time we've seen that door was during the fire drill. Yeah. Basically. And I have to tell you, in my mind, I have no idea where that goes. Where does that go? We don't know. We don't know.

I know where the front door goes. Yeah. There's also that door by the break room. Right. Where does that go? Well, we think it goes to the parking lot because Michael and Dwight chased each other, remember? Oh, yeah.

Like in Prince Family Paper? I can't put it together in my head. I can't. Because obviously those doors went literally nowhere. They went to snacks backstage is where they went. But yes, they enter that way so we could place this new storyline anywhere we wanted. Yes. Andy notices Julia.

He is immediately smitten. Does anybody fall in love at first sight more than Andy? No, Andy is so... Maybe Michael. Maybe Michael. This might be what they have in common. They fall in love instantly. I mean, Michael fell in love with a chair model.

Do you know what I'm saying? You're right. I'm sorry. It's definitely Michael, yes. And Phyllis immediately is like, she's out of your league. Well, Andy doesn't care that she's out of his league. He is going to go for it. He has such a great talking head.

It was like so well written when he's like, I'm single now and there's an epic showdown between the nard dog and crippling despair. My gosh. I know. Well, Jim and Dwight are also going to try an apology. They want to make it up to her. And she does this great passive-aggressive thing that we know she doesn't mean where she says, you know what, all I want is for this to never happen to another person.

Oh, I know. That's what I want. Oh, I know. Well, they barely got through this scene. I don't know how they have a usable take. And then they continue breaking throughout the whole rest of this script. We got to hear some of these bloopers. We just wanted to say we're very sorry.

Screw you guys. You're dead to me. If you say screw you one more time... Screw you, Beat Farmer. Whoa. Okay, guys. I did the face you like. If you say screw you one more time... Oh, guys. Stop doing that.

It makes no sense. If you say screw you one more time... Hey, guys, just cool it. You knew. You knew that one was dead. Basically... The dynamics of... All right.

Within the workplace. There's always a theme, idiot. Okay, here's what I have to say. I can tell from listening to John Laugh that he's crying and he is bent over. Yes. He's like in full flop. Yeah, he has lost it. One of the hardest times I ever laughed was doing a scene with Mindy and Rain,

because when you put Mindy and Rain together, nobody is in control. There's no, the two of them are a mess. They're the hardest people to do scenes with. They laugh the most. And when we get to this episode, I'll show you. I hope they have a blooper of it, but it reminded me of that. Well, at the end of the scene, she does say that she would like an ice cream cake. Were you burping, as you said, ice cream?

Or did you have a gurgle? No. What just happened? I don't know. You did this. It's cream cake. I don't know. I didn't burp.

I know. Listen, listen, you already outed me for, like, eating off my shirt. But I don't also like belch, okay? It wasn't a burb. People are like, Jenna doesn't wash her hands, she eats off her shirt. I don't need belching as part of my reputation now. You are the one who shared about the hand washing. Only at home.

I know. But I only don't wash my hands after a tinkle at home. I always wash my hands after a poop. I always wash my hands after I tinkle or poop in public. But somehow I've become the poster child for just never washing hands. hands. And I don't want that on me, okay? That is not who I am. That's what she said. Oh. You said I don't want that on me. I couldn't help it. All right, I think people had forgotten about your hygiene and now you've reminded them all. That's what you think. That's what you

think that they remember everything. All I was going to say is, I didn't think it was a belt. It sounded like a gurgle. You know how you get a gurgle in your throat? Yeah, sometimes maybe I needed to take a breath, but I pushed through it. Okay. I pushed through to finish. my sentence. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. You know what. Okay, okay. All right. We're going to take a break. Yeah, I'll get plenty of breaths. You should take some water. I'm going to go wash my hands just to prove that I wash them. Okay. And then when we come back, we've got to get into this conference room. Oh, it's so good. And these balloons and streamers. We'll be back. We'll be back. Are you ready for a birthday party? I am. Is it your birthday? It is your birthday. It is your birthday.

your birthday. Period. Period. All right. We're in the conference room. Dwight has decorated for Kelly's birthday. It is so pitiful. It is pitiful. John is so funny when he enters the conference room. The way he holds the half-inflated balloon. Do we need to describe this room, by the way? Okay. For those of you who haven't seen the episode, I hope you watched it this week with us. Picture a conference table. It is full of half, not even half. No. There's like just maybe three breaths into a balloon that are brown. Gray. Silver?

I feel like a little silver is in there. Some sad, like brown beigey streamers. Dwight has just sort of clipped off and taped to the ceiling. With like beige masking tape. No, it was regular clear tape. No. Yeah. There's mask and tape all over the conference room.

It is hilarious to me. No, it's clear tape. No! It's not. Oh, no. This is one of my favorite things about it because have you ever had, like, that guy that you were friends with in college, wrap a gift for you? And you're like, what did you use? Electrical tape?

What is this? Painter's tape? Right. You had no clear tape? Oh, Jenna. Okay. I got to bring it up. Do we have – oh, I need a break – do I have my laptop.

Ha-ha! She got her laptop back. I got my laptop. Back. Oscar Nunez is Jimmy Stewart. Long running, long running inside joke on the office. Long running inside joke now on office ladies. Oh, I can't wait to show you this shi-looking tape. Thank you. To only make it sadder. Okay, where are you? And I have a time code because you know I'm like that. This whole conference room scene with the sad balloons and the sad streamers, it starts at eight minutes, 30 seconds. Oh, I love it so much. A hawk and tape! Oh my gosh! Not clear tape.

Please look at the shi-maskin tape. They use to tape up everything. It is so sad-looking. I am delighted at this detail that I did not notice until doing this podcast. It's one of my favorite things. I also want to point out at 8 minutes 37 seconds, who do you see over John's shoulder? Oh, that's you, the whole accounting department. They had me come out to the copier for this scene and watch it.

I'm in the background every time it pans to the bullpen. Okay. Because they sort of thought that Angela Martin would be keeping tabs. What are they doing? How are they planning this party? What are they up to? So I watch these two grown men disintegrate into tears of laughter. I don't know how, again, we got any usable footage.

They laughed so hard, Jenna. We had to pause. And this is what Rain said about it. Ready? Yes. In his book, The Bassoon Keyes. this is what he wrote. The longest inappropriate laughter was during the episode lecture circuit when Dwight and Jim are put in charge of the party planning committee and Dwight Heng's tiny brown

and gray balloons and a banner that reads, it is your birthday. Rain goes on to say, John and I literally could not stop laughing. We laughed until we cried. Production needed to be shut down for a 20-minute break while we gathered ourselves and then we returned to film the scene. Just the way John picks up the sad balloon from the conference room table. I don't know how they spoke after that. I want to tell you the part I remember them laughing at is Dwight says, are you trying to hurt my feelings? And he throws the balloon, but it didn't have enough weight to travel in the air.

And so the balloon with the sad streamer attached just kind of went, you're like in the air, like, but he was trying to throw it at John and it just wouldn't travel. You can see, I'm going to show you right now, you can see Rain starting to break, because I think he broke every time. Watch. What is that? It is your birthday period. Is this a statement a fact? Not even an exclamation point? This is more professional. It's not like she discovered a cure for cancer. I can't believe how bad this looks. Are you trying to hurt my feelings? Because if so, you are succeeding.

Fortunately, my feelings regenerate at twice the speed of a normal lands. Did you see her? The sad balloon is so good. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. So Dwight is annoyed at Jim's reaction to his decorating. And so he's like, wait, have you collected the money? You know, for the cake?

Yeah, and Jim is like, I've only collected $6. And Dwight's like, damn it, Jim, that's what we put in. This got me thinking. Oh, no. We are always wondering, where did we get the money for these parties? There is no way we took a collection for casino night. Well, no, but for birthday parties, there is clearly a birthday party collection budget. It's very clear that everyone is supposed to give $3.

Right? Okay. So I counted. There are 13 people in the office, including Ryan, who's normally in the office, but minus the birthday person that would be 12 people who contribute for each birthday party, $3 per person. person is $36. The birthday party budget at Dunder Mifflin is $36. No, I had a gurgle. See? I had a gurgle. Angela just gurgled. I don't know if you heard it. I had a gurgle. Okay. I don't know what. No, but you just didn't speak for a second because you were gurgling, so you needed air.

Okay, I need to stop drinking fizzy water. This is what it is telling me. Here's the thing. You're saying how much is the party planning committee budget? The birthday party budget is $36. Okay. I think that's true, except there have been episodes where people go to Angela for petty cash. And I think Angela's not helping these guys at all. So maybe like Phyllis, she wants to see them fail. I feel like there's some petty cash for parties, but she's not going to let them in on that.

That's possible. I'm just saying. I was just following this thread, you know. Yeah. And here's where it got me. Did I take the wind out of your sales? No, I mean, take it or leave it. birthday party budget is $36 or another theory.

Whatever you want. I feel like I'm getting some sass. I'm not giving you any sass. I feel a little sass. I'm just saying I think there is some extra cash. Can I give you a fan question from Preston G? Yes. Preston would like to know who came up with the It Is Your Birthday Period slogan.

Oh, Preston, I want to know that too. Mindy. Mindy. I texted her. She said it was her. Genius. Genius. Genius lady. So, so good. Perfect, too. Perfect that that's what Dwight would write. Perfect. Should we head over to Utica for a second and check in? Because Pam and Michael have just arrived.

They're taking a photo outside of the branch. I guess we're documenting this trip. Oh, yeah. Are you kidding? I feel like Michael is a scrapbooker. Yeah. Pam's in charge of all of the bags and taking pictures. Mm-hmm. when they arrive, Rolando. Rolando is back. Adam Jamal Craig. So good.

Remember he was in season four in Branch Wars? Well, he's serving up a bit of sass because he says you're late. Yeah. A lot of people pointed out that Michael introduces Pam to Rolando, even though we know from Branch Wars that she knows him. And the thing that got cut out was that Rolando. and I were supposed to share like a little look. Right. But it didn't make it.

It's so played for me, though, that Michael would forget who Pam knows and doesn't know. And he just doesn't really pay attention to what other people do at his own company. Oh, totally. This is also when Michael decides to offer Pam a little trick for getting through any nerves she might be feeling about seeing Karen. Yeah. She should just picture her naked. Yeah. And then Karen enters.

a very pregnant, Karen. Yes. And then Michael, oh my gosh, Michael. He's like, is it Jim's? Yeah, and he said, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm just trying to calculate in my head, when's the last time you had sex with Jim? He said that out loud.

He said, was it 10 months ago? To two women that have dated him, are dating him, so awkward. We had a fan question from Mickey S. Was Rashida Jones actually pregnant in this episode? No, that was Faky Belly. Faky Belly. Well, they're going to move into the conference room.

Michael's going to start his show, but first he has a phone call. Yes. He has a dramatic phone call and then explains to the group that he just learned his father died. Yeah. But then he says, I'm just kidding. But you bought it, you bought it, and you can't return it, or can you? He got their attention. What does it have to do with cell?

paper. I don't know. But we had a huge fan catch from three people. Rebecca N., Evan H. and Lauren B. all noticed that when Michael takes this pretend phone call, in the background, I clocked it at 9 minutes, 39 seconds. You can see Utica's industrial printer is chained with a padlock. Oh, no way. And there is a sign requesting employees to report any suspicious behavior. And this is a callback to the time that Michael and Dwight tried to steal Utica's printer back in Branch Wars. That's amazing.

That is amazing. That is such a small detail. I know. And it's such a small thing. Oh, I'm delighted by that. I love that. It's amazing. Well, Karen, she has to say something.

Michael's being so ridiculous. And she's like, Michael, this whole sort of shenanigan at the top here. just makes us think you're a liar. Mm-hmm. And he's like, hold up. Would a liar bring mini mounds bars? And then you sadly throw them at everyone. Okay.

Jenna, there are a lot of bloopers of you doing this. I know, because every time I did it, I would burst out laughing. And I had many conversations with Ken Koppas and Mindy Kaling about this. I had to sit there for a long time with these mini mounds bars in my hands. Hiding them. Hiding them. And Mindy thought it would be especially funny if I just did it very matter-factly. And of course it was, and it made us laugh every time.

Sometimes I wouldn't even get to the throwing part. Just me standing up, we would start laughing. I mean, the mound's bars were getting very milty because I was holding them for so long. The way you threw them was so awkward. It was unnatural. It hit people. Yeah. It's so funny.

Well, Angela, this is also not the first time that Michael has thrown candy at people. He loves to throw candy during a presentation. If you remember in business school, he threw a bunch of candy at the students in Ryan's business school class. Yes, he loves to use candy to make a point about paper sales. Well, I couldn't resist, Jenna. When I heard mini mounds bars, I had to look up the origin of the mini mounds bar. Oh, I'm fascinated.

I love a mounds bar. I ate many of the Mounds bars that day, I should say. Are you Mounds Bar or Almond Joy? No, no, no, no. Okay. Don't throw any nuts in my dark chocolate and coconut treat. Can we play the jingle, please, that will live in your brain forever? Sometimes you feel like a nut.

Sometimes you don't. Almond Joy's got nuts. Mounds don't. Because sometimes you feel like a. Sometimes you. Yeah, I never feel like a nut. You never feel like a nut. No.

I am also a mini mounds bar person. I love the dark chocolate. I love it. But let's start our story, guys. How did we get the mini mounds bar? Our story starts with Peter Paul Halogen. He was a candy manufacturer in New Haven, Connecticut, in the early 20th century. He was born in Armenia, and he immigrated to the U.S. in 1890 and opened a candy shop.

He would sell candy bars to the U.S. Army, and they would sell candy bars to the U.S. Army, and they would would put them in the soldiers' monthly rations during World War I. And then they loved the candy bar so when they came home, they wanted more. So after the success of that, he teamed with five other Armenian investors to form the Peter Paul Candy Manufacturing Company. They then made a very smart purchase. They purchased a candy line from candy maker Vincent Natito, who created the original Mounds Bar. He was selling it for five cents. Oh, full-size. size. Five cents? They're not very big. But a full-size bar is two. He sold one. It was always a mini. It was always a mini. Okay. And then Peter Paul actually just starts selling it in a pack of two for

10 cents. I wish you could see Angela's hands right now. I'm showing. Here, you want to take my pictures? Yeah. I wanted to show Jenna what it would look like. Too many mounds bars. There it is. Okay. Well, Jenna, during World War II, the Peter Paul Candy Manufacturing Company was faced with a severe shortage of sugar and coconut, right? Oh. World War II, they had normally been shipped from the Philippines, then the war broke out. So the company began sourcing coconut from the Caribbean using its own fleet of small vessels to transport coconut supplies to the U.S.

They were nicknamed the Mounds Flea Fleet. There were about seven ships small enough to avoid detailed scrutiny by the German naval war vessels. My gosh, all of this just to get coconut for some candy. Wait, it gets better. I have to say, if you're a ship captain during World War II, are you risking your life to bring people coconut? Hold up. Okay, I guess you are.

Apparently, this flea fleet, as it was called... F-L-E-E-E-E-L-E-A, a little flea fleet. It's a little fleet. It's a flea fleet. Oh, it teeny tiny. It's a tiny fleet. Got it. It was so small in size, it posed no.

threat to the German U-boats that were patrolling the Atlantic waters. But what the German naval commanders did not know was that the crew of these vessels were also gathering more than coconuts. They were gathering valuable intelligence about the Germans' fleet movements and sharing it with the American armed forces. Wait one moment. What you're telling me is that while collecting supplies to make one of my favorite candies, Yeah. These folks were also providing important war intelligence to the United States government during World War II. Yeah.

The mini Mounds Bar, I'm telling you, I was fascinated by all of this. And they also dropped all of their other production of candies and just concentrated on the Mounds Bar because it was so popular. And the U.S. military purchased as much as 80% of their output by 1944. They would package 5 million candy bars monthly into combat. rations. Wow. Yeah. And now, as we know, over the years, Peter Paul, they added several more things to their line, including the Almond Joy, which they're often, you know, sold together. But that's the story of the mini Mounds Bar. They're now owned by the Hershey Company. You can still enjoy them today. Isn't that an amazing story? I would like to enjoy one today. So would I.

The Mounds Flea Fleet. Wow. You guys, you can learn more about it at Connecticut History. I have to say, I also love that it's an East Coast candy because it tracks with our show. It does. That Michael would be supporting something that originated in Connecticut. Wow. There you go. I mean, what's fascinating? The things you did not know you were going to learn today were that.

I know. I definitely was not expecting that. Amazing. This is another example of our offshoot podcast, Two Ladies Who Google. Yes. Two ladies who love to Google. Google and tell you things. Mm-hmm.

We're fun at a dinner party, guys. We actually are. We actually are. All right. Michael has a talking head. That is so good I texted it to Steve. I don't know how he did it. He explains he always wanted to become an actor, and he even has his own memorization

techniques. Mm-hmm. He explains that the way he learned the Pledge of Allegiance is by singing it to the tune of Old McDonald. Mm-hmm. Steve then as Michael sings the Pledge of Allegiance to the tune of Old McDonald, and I don't know how he did it. I don't know how he did it.

I texted to him and I said, this is an amazing performance. This is so badass. I mean, he does take a long pause. This was in the script, by the way. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God. With a woof, wolf here.

rid of a little bit there. I mean, that is not easy to do. Well, it is true, you guys. You put something to a song and you'll learn it. It's called a pneumonic device, and that's a real thing. It's a real thing. Michael says he uses it to learn people's names. So what does he got here? He looks around the room. He's got shirdy, mole, lazy eye, Mexico, baldy, sugar boobs, black woman. He said, I take a unique part of you, and I use that to memorize your name. Baldi, your head is bald. It is hairless. It is shiny.

It is a reflective like a mirror M. Your name is Mark. And he says, yes. Yes. And Karen said, you know what? This is all really offensive. Guestar Alert, Mark, aka Baldi, was played by Brian Patrick Mulligan.

He has an extensive career playing famous historical figures. Like who? Al Capone. Oh. Alfred Hitchcock. Teddy Roosevelt. He has played Ben Franklin in three different TV shows, including on Jimmy Kimmel Live. He just played W.C. Fields in a movie.

But his most frequently played person is former vice president Dick Cheney. Wow. He has played Dick Cheney in six episodes of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and 10 times on Jimmy Kimmel. Those guys love bringing Dick Cheney on. I guess so. They love bringing Dick Cheney on. Brian Patrick Mulligan on as Dick Cheney. I also want you to know that mole did not have a real mole.

Faky mole. Faky mole. I know this because I saw the call sheet and he had to come in 15 minutes earlier than everyone else to get that mole put on. There you go. Yeah. So listen, back at Dunder Mifflin, I think we need to check in on Andy. Yeah, he's fallen in love.

He has. And he needs an in, right? Before he goes and introduces himself to Julia, he's going to go down and he's going to buy on her car to see if he can learn anything about her. Got to get Intel. So he's peering in her car and he sees that she has a Feist CD. Oh, this is jackpot for him. Jackpot.

Then he sets off the car alarm. And then another car alarm. Yes. Well, lady, do you remember this Feist song that he's going to sing later? I do. Huge. It's called 1, 2, 3, 4. So it was written by Leslie Feist, who went professionally

as Feist. She's a Canadian pop singer. It came out in 2007. Anyway, I thought we should play the song for everybody. Okay. Here is Feist, 1, 2, 3, 4. One, two, three, four, tell me that you love me more. Sleepless, long nights as what my use was for. Old teenage hopes or I let your door left you with... It's so good. So, like Peppy. The song was nominated for two Grammy Awards and Feist was nominated for Best New Artist and Best Pop Vocal album. It was so huge, she did a spin on it for Sesame Street. Okay, I didn't want to say anything, but this is where I remember it.

This was your Feist moment. This was my Feist moment. I mean, I actually feel like I heard it here first on Sesame Street, and then I was like, oh, that's what people are talking about. Because Isabel loved Sesame Street. Well, I pulled a clip of it on Sesame Street. Oh, it's going to bring back all the feels for me. I remember, oh, we watched this over and over. We're going to learn to count, you guys, to the number four.

One, two, three, four monsters walking across the floor. I love counting, counting to the number four. Oh, you're counting. So one less. Okay. Why am I crying? Oh, my gosh. Because our kids were little.

and they love Sesame Street and they're older now. I didn't even have a kid then. I didn't even have a kid then. But just I could hear the monsters start to sing. I know. There they all are. And I don't know. I know.

You're right. We don't watch Sesame Street anymore. So maybe it just, I don't know. I know. Listen, I found a video where I, Isabel was little and I was doing Elmo. And I was doing, I was like, I was going la la la la. La La La La, La, Elmo's World. Oh, yes.

We sang that song all the time. I know. Yeah. Let's have a baby. No, I'm kidding. Oh, my God. I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

No. My daughter's been asking for a baby. Oh, my gosh. A little sister. Listen, whenever I want to make my... I didn't know how to explain periomenopause to her. But I was like, Mama doesn't make any eggs anymore, baby. Mama, let me, let's talk about cobwebs.

I want to describe you what a cobwebs. situation is. Well, Andy is going to interrupt Stanley's meeting. He's going to bring them both some coffees. He's put one, two, three, four splendas in Stanley's coffee. Yeah, he's like, one, two, three, four splendas in your coffee, Stanley. None in yours, Julia, because I don't know how you take it. I thought Julia was absolutely perfect. Oh, I did too. Guest our alert, Julia was played by Erica Tazel. I totally recognized her from the show Justified. She played Rachel Brooks.

Erica is a classically trained actress. She graduated with an MFA from the NYU acting program. Her professional acting debut was at the New York Shakespeare Festival. And since we've been tracking these things, I'll have you know she was not on Monk, but she has been on both Law and Order and Law & Order Special Victims Unit. I loved all of her reactions to Andy. They were so perfect.

And this whole thing has just completely ticked off Stanley. He's like, what are you doing? He pulls Andy aside. And Andy says he loves Julia with all his heart. Yeah. All his heart. Stanley is like, if you really love her, fine. Give me two of your clients.

You can have this client. Yeah. So Andy takes over the meeting in a very awkward way. Mm-hmm. He wonders, where should we send? Your invoices. To your boyfriend? Right.

Because we certainly could. And she's so matter-effectily, he's like, no, you can send it to my work address. This is for work. Yeah. But Andy does find out she does not have a boyfriend. And then he kind of panics. He's so excited. And then he gets advice from Creed.

Why, Creed? I don't know, but I'm... Why would you go to Creed for advice? Creed's like, say no more. Just go in for a kiss? That's how I got squeaky from. Yeah. I didn't know who that was.

I had to Google it. Oh, you didn't know who it was? No. Yeah. Now I do. Yeah. Well, Charles Manson. She was part of the Manson family.

Right. Yeah. She went to jail. She tried to assassinate Gerald Ford. Right. Right. Mm-hmm. She was not part of the Tate La Bianca murders, but she did try to assassinate Gerald Ford.

So I guess Creed kissed her. And he says, have I ever steered you wrong, Jim? Yeah, just go in and kiss her. just do it. That just, you know, that's what you should do. When he called Andy Jim, if you're Andy, wouldn't you think, hmm, there's many reasons to red flags. There's so many red flags.

So many red flags. Well, for whatever reason, Andy is going to take Creed's advice. He's going to walk Julia to the car. He forgot his coat. Could he run back in and get it real quick? Because he's very, very cold. Julia says my car's right here, I think. Thanks for walking me down.

But I'm good. and then when he gets her to the car, he goes in for a kiss, Andy. Come on. This woman has had to put up with so much in this meeting, and now this. Also, like, she could write him up. I know. He could lose his job, Andy. Don't listen to Creed, Andy.

They do lose the account. Yeah. He has a talking head. So he kind of lost in every way today. He lost three accounts. He lost two that he gave to Stanley. Oh, yeah. that Stanley gave to him, and he kind of showed his ass.

Yeah, yeah, he did. Well, speaking of showing your ass, Karen has asked Michael to leave the conference room and come to her office. It's like getting called to the principal's office. And he is trying very hard to explain that he had a whole bit with a chainsaw that he hasn't been able to do. And Karen's like, you know what? Why don't you just put it all in an email? And I'll send it to my team. And he's like, I can't put a chainsaw in an email, Karen.

I can't do it. This is when Pam and Karen are going to have a little bonding moment. Yeah. It's so sweet. Pam says, when are you due? And Karen says, I'm doing a month. Yeah. Michael says, who did this to you?

Who did this to you, Karen? She's like, my husband. He's a dermatologist. We met at a bar. And then they have all these cute photos. They have one where they're dressed like hot dogs. Yes, a hot dog and a hamburger. It's very cute.

We had a lot of fan questions about this. Everyone wants to know who is the man in the photo. Who is Dan, the dermatologist, who is married to Karen? Well, it was played by writer Dan Gore. Yeah. He was a writer on Parks and Recreation. Yes, and he had been working with Mike Scher and Greg Daniels as they developed that show.

and we had seen him a few times on set and in the writer's room meeting with those guys. And he came to set one day when we were shooting on the stages, and he and Rashida dressed up in all these different outfits, and they went around and took pictures. It was amazing. It was amazing. Well, you know, now Karen is going to ask about Jim. Yes.

It's a little bit of tension, but Pam says we're engaged. And Karen is just earnestly happy. for them. Yeah. Rashida really sold it. Because I think as an audience, you're like, oh, what's the? And she's like, she has so moved on. She has a whole life.

She's happy and it gives Pam closure. Yeah. I don't know about you, Ang, but I am happy if someone I have broken up with finds like a new relationship with someone else and they're in love. Because I'm like, yeah, that's why we broke. up because we weren't a match and then you found your match. I don't have a lot of hard feelings about stuff. And I've had some messy breakups, you know? And even still, I don't know. I just, I think I am more Karen on this one. I'm like, well, great. I'm glad that worked out because, you know, good. It wasn't meant to be for me and Jim, but it's for you and Jim. Right. No, I think

life is short. My grandmother used to always say every pot has its lid. And I want to everyone to find their lid. Yeah. I wasn't your lid. I fell in the water. Or I was too big. I was too big for your pot. Yeah. Or too small for your pot. I didn't fit your pot. Let's break it down some more. I'm trying to see if that's what she said in there, but I can't find it. My lid fit your pot perfect? No. I think it would be your pot fit my lid just right. That's what she said. I don't think either of them are real strong. That's She says. We should let it go. No, let's stick with it.

No, let's try it. Let's try a few more. Let's try a few more. We'll find it. We'll find it. Everyone, if you find it, will you email us? Oh, no. What are you asking for?

I don't know. All right. Some interesting mail to read. That's for sure. That's for sure. I don't know where we are. We've hopped around. Well, I'll tell you.

Okay. Michael and Pam are going to leave the Utica branch. All right. Michael gives his lecture a B. Plus, he says Karen is mean. Aw, Pam says I like her. And then Pam says she's glad she came along and that seeing Karen gave her closure.

Well, that's going to come back because as they're driving away, Michael tells Pam, you know what? I never got closure with Holly. She was the love of my life and I never got closure. So Pam says, I think we should blow off. this lecture in Rochester and go to Nashua instead. Michael says, let's do it. Pam's like, yeah, screw them. Let's do this. All of a sudden, Michael just got, what do the kids call it, a ride or die.

He's like, yeah. Yeah, and then we have to be continued. Yeah, screen goes to black. You think it's over, but there's a tag. There's a tag. Jim is asking Creed for $3 for Kelly's party. Crete says great. I'd like to contribute. And then he hands him a $3 bill. Mm-hmm. I had to know whose face was on that $3 bill. Okay. Because, you know, Phil Shea had to make that. Yeah. I paused. I looked at it. You know who I thought it was? Who? Brad Pitt. No. It looked like Brad Pitt to me. And I thought maybe it was a nod to BJ because he was doing the movie with Brad Pitt. Oh. I don't know. I remember we talked.

a lot about Brad Pitt when BJ was making that movie. We all thought we might become friends with him. We were positive. We were like, BJ, bring him to set. Maybe he's like to come have lunch. Yeah. We'll be totally cool, BJ. We will be normal. Exactly. Remember we went through- that with John and George Clooney, too. We're like, John, we're going to be so normal around George. We're not going to bring up, you know, his place in Lake Como and that we want to go. We've read about it. We won't say that. We won't say that we read about it in People magazine. We won't say any of those things. None of those things.

Well, it turns out Randy Cordray told me who's on the $3 bill. Who? George W. Bush. What? I don't know. That's who Phil picked. He said Phil made it, and that's who he put on it. You thought George W. Bush was Brad Pitt?

I guess I did. It's time for new glasses. Get Nana some glasses. You guys, that's lecture circuit part one. Yep. We'll be back next week with lecture circle. at part two and a lot of stories about licking cats. You said that so Midwest and a lot of stories about licking cats.

Yeah. Sometimes your Missouri really comes out and I live for it. Oh, here I'll give you some Missouri. One, two, three, far. Far! We're counting to far. We're counting to far. Oh, uh-oh.

We're counting. Too far. There you go. See you guys next week. 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 Schult. Our theme song is Ruppertree by Creed Bratton.