Office Ladies - Second Drink: Moroccan Christmas

Episode Date: May 25, 2026

This week we're breaking down Moroccan Christmas! When Meredith gets too drunk at Phyllis’ Moroccan themed Christmas party and lights her own hair on fire, Michael forces an intervention. Phyllis also reveals to the entire office that Angela is having an affair with Dwight. Well, everyone in the office except Andy… The ladies talk about how this was a big prop week for prop master, Phil Shea, Jenna finds something special while cleaning out her desk and Angela shares one of the best Michael Scott alts that didn’t make it into the show. We also hear clips from Stephen Saux on what it was like to test out the fakey Dwight desk used in the cold open, and Jen Celotta shares a very funny Paul Liberstein story. So get ready for a big shot of Michael Scott and enjoy this episode!  See Office Ladies Animated on Comedy Central’s Cartuna: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD7nPL1U-R5rmvJo2L49IK-vKu2qB-fvx 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

Welcome to your second drink of Moroccan Christmas. This episode has a little bit of everything. It has an intervention, a scandalous affair, and Princess Unicorn Dolls. And we have a lot of fun details. We reached out to folks from the cast and crew for behind-the-scenes trivia. Listen to this list. Justin Spitzer, Aaron Scher, Halstead Sullivan, Jen Salada, Randy Cordray, James Cary, Stephen Sox and Kate Flannery all shared amazing stuff with us for this episode.

I mean, we left no rock unturned for this one. This is true. So let's dig into the second drink. A lot of you wrote in about the Princess Unicorn storyline. And like Jenna said, we have great details about how it all came together. And Jenna, when we broke down the episode originally, you mentioned there was a commercial for the doll, but we never played it on the podcast. We'll shout out to Office Ladies' listener, Sharr T.

who said, oh, M.G, I found the Princess Unicorn commercial. And she shared the link with us. So I guess Peacock put it on their official YouTube a few years ago. You got to hear it. It's Princess Unicorn. Wow. She's Princess Unicorn for tea. Regal. I love her horn. You're nice Princess Unicorn. I love you. On Princess Unicorn, you can depend. My horn can pierce the sky. Wow.

It's amazing. Royalty with a horn. Well, Angela, when we first broke down this episode, you mentioned two things that you could make out on the dry erase board over in accounting. But we had a listener that was able to decipher almost the entire board. It is an amazing list of stuff. Izzy T from Illinois wrote in,

with this list. And I thought you would enjoy this lady because you love a background catch. I do. I really do. Izzy said, I looked very intensely at the whiteboard calendar. That comes up around one minute, 47 seconds. And I think I have found out most of the month's schedule for December. On the 10th, there is copier machine maintenance at 10 a.m. and an Oxford rep due at 9 a.m. On the 15th, there is a Christmas party planning committee meeting at 4 p.m. in the conference room. On the 17th, there is the Scranton C.F.C. annual holiday luncheon at Coopers at 12 a.m. And Izzy wrote, yes, it really says AM. On the 18th, there's an accounting staff meeting at 9 a.m.

On the 23rd of December, the warehouse is closed, and it says no shipping until 1226. Also, on the 24th, it says Christmas Eve office closed at noon. office Christmas party 1 p.m. On the 25th, it says Merry Christmas. On December 30th, it says warehouse closed, no shipping until January 2nd. And then on December 31st, it says office closed. And then for the 31st and the first, it says, happy new year. So much detail. That is amazing background catchwork, because I remember I tried to zoom in. And I pretty much the thing that stood out to me was that the Christmas party was on Christmas Eve, which I thought was hilarious. Also, a lot of people wrote in about the Angel and Phyllis Party Planning Committee power

struggle. Elise M. from Pennsylvania says, I absolutely love the scenes between Angela and Phyllis. They are hilarious. They make me laugh every time I watch this episode. How did you all stop from completely cracking up? Well, Elise, it was really difficult not to laugh, and we did laugh a ton. But just for fun, I wanted to see if there were any extra bits between me and Phyllis, and I found in the Candybag alts all of these Phyllis talking head alts, they are so hilarious and I wanted to read you one, okay? Yes, yes. It's an alt about how she's kind of flexing that she's planning this Christmas party herself.

Okay, ready? Yes. Phyllis. The Christmas party I organized this year is going to be our best one yet. I'm really good at this. I'm considering starting a party planning business on the side. I'd call it a touch of Phyllis because everything's a little sweeter with a touch of Phyllis. And then she takes out a notepad and says, ooh, that's good.

I can see that on a bench somewhere. I love it, a touch of Phyllis. Well, lastly, we got a fan mail flurry. Samantha H, Debbie R, Nathan S, Michaela N, Allison D, McKenzie P., and Tamara L. all rode in because of a little bit of banter you and I had. Angela, I asked you why the character of Angela Martin was always so angry at Christmas. And Angie you said that there are levels to Angela Martin's anger, but that the, quote, Christmas bitch is a whole other level of bitch.

Well, we got several messages, like I said, a fan mail flurry of people saying, please make Christmas bitch into a sweater. Another one said, quote, I really feel like Christmas bitch needs to be on some seasonal merch. Just really cracked me up. Oh, Christmas bitch is really fun. I totally forgot about that.

Now you guys all have my wheels turn in. All right, well, that was really fun. Thanks to everyone who wrote in. And please go to OfficeLadies.com to submit your favorite second drink moments, and we'll share them on the podcast. And now here's our second drink of Moroccan Christmas. 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. I hope you're in a festive mood today because we're talking about Moroccan Christmas.

So get out your Christmas plaid, but put away that nativity scene because Phyllis is going to throw you the party of a lifetime. She sure is. It's Season 5, Episode 11, written by Justin Spitzer, and directed. by Paul Figue. Here is your summary. As you said, Phyllis throws a Moroccan-themed Christmas party, which receives compliments from the majority of the group, but some serious contempt from Angela. Oh, she is not happy. Dwight runs a black market doll trade out of the office, and Meredith gets wasted and sets herself on fire. That's a doozy of a sentence.

It's quite a work party. Michael decides to hold an intervention demanding Meredith get help for her alcoholism, and then talk about a doozy of a work party. Phyllis spills the beans about Angela and Dwight in front of everyone. Everyone. She announces it to the whole bullpen. Except Andy. Oh, Andy. Yeah.

Andy and his sitar. His goodbye as he's leaving broke my heart. We're getting ahead. We're getting ahead. We're getting ahead. All right. Fast fact number one, this was the third Christmas-themed episode of The Office. Yes, it was.

Season five, but only three Christmas episodes. Why? Well, the first season, we didn't have one. Mm-hmm. And then in season four, it was the writer's strike. I know. We missed a Christmas party. It has been two years since we had a Christmas party on the office. They were always some of my favorite episodes, so I was excited.

Me too. I liked him because they were majority group scenes. Yes. We were all together all the time. It was like a whole episode of conference room. So lots of bits, lots of laughing. We would just have the best time. We would get loopy.

We would. But in the best way. Fast fact number two, the inspiration for this episode, I was able to get in touch with writer Justin Spitzer. What Justin have to say? He told me that they had had these two ideas rolling around. for a really long time. The first one was the idea of a Moroccan Christmas. They just loved the idea that Phyllis had thrown that amazing goodbye party for Toby and that maybe the success had gone to her head a little bit. And she's going to go big. Big theme. Yes. They loved that this would piss Angela off.

Mm-hmm. So this was like one card, right? You know what the card probably said? What? Phyllis happy, Angela pissed. Christmas, question mark. Why is your character always so angry on Christmas? She's angry all the time. But it really comes out at the holidays. I tell you, she has levels of anger. Sometimes she's like, suspicious bitch.

Sometimes she's happy bitch. Sometimes she's sad bitch. Hmm. And then Christmas bitch is a whole different bitch. Oh boy. Buckle in for Christmas bitch. Okay, so the other card that they had on the wall for a really long time said Meredith Intervention. Oh, okay.

So they decided to marry these two ideas. Remember when they did like, Michael has to fire someone on Halloween while we're all dressed up? Yeah, it's the same thing. Yes, exactly. Justin said that a holiday party also seemed like a really good place for Meredith to drink too much and set her hair on fire. Like there could be this sort of rock bottomy moment. Right. And it's an event. It's like a big event and everyone's there to witness it. Yes. Fast fact number three, I have a talking hair. head observation for this episode. Oh, I'm so curious. So as you re-watch this episode, take a note of the talking heads. Almost all of them are filmed from different angles than we normally would. I believe there's only one where someone's seated in the traditional chair with the kind of party through the blind. Right. Right. We're all over the office. All over the

office. So this was not just because there was a party happening behind us. Justin said this was because they wanted to wait until they were in the editing room to place the talking heads throughout the episode. And they didn't want anything in the background to like in some way mess up their ability to move these talking heads around. Well, they had probably learned their lesson from that episode, weight loss. Yeah. Where they had to digitally, it's hard word to say. They had to digitally change Ed's tie and shirt because they kept moving the talking heads and what was happening behind him didn't match. Yeah, so you'll notice even Michael's talking heads, he is not seated at his desk.

He's standing in front of his desk and they purposely framed out the window behind him because timing-wise, they didn't know if it would be like still daytime or if it would be evening. So they really tried to make all the talking heads as totally neutral as possible. Smart. Yeah, and it was kind of fun. After Justin told me that, I went back and rewatch the episode, and it was totally true. Yeah. I read the shooting draft, and definitely things are moved all around. So it's good they did it. Yeah. That's all I got. Well, before we get into this episode, I went digging in my digital clutter. Okay. And I found an email from Paul Feig that on December 11, 2008, he emailed the group, Jenna, and invited us all. to a Christmas taco party to watch the Moroccan Christmas episode at his house.

Oh. And he said, I know, I know, Morocco and tacos make no sense, except they do kind of rhyme, and we have a really great taco cart that we want to use. And we all went over to his house December 11, 2008, and watched Moroccan Christmas together. Aw, I love that you brought that up because Paul and Lori Figg used to host so many viewing parties at their house, and they were just the most wonderful hosts. And I'll never forget, he had that screen that could come down from the ceiling. So he had like a very normal-looking living room. Yeah. Cozy, like a place you'd read books. I believe there was like a green leather chair.

Oh yeah, there was like cozy chairs with like a blanket draped over it. So cozy. And then all of a sudden when it was time to watch the show, the screen would come down out of the ceiling and it would turn into this amazing viewing experience. I thought these guys are doing it right. They know what they're doing. Yeah. And they have a great taco cart. Oh, that's so cool. Well, there you go. Just a little something from my digital clutter. And now we should break down this episode. Well, I think we should take a break first. And now we should take a break. Let's do it. And we'll be back to talk all things, Moroccan Christmas. The Second World War is the largest event in human history. A 20-part series. with Tom Hanks.

No part of the globe was untouched. No life unchanged. Experience the ultimate account of World War II. Every single person had a story. These are the stories that make us who we are. Listen to World War II with Tom Hanks on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Well, we are back, and, um, wow, is Dwight's desk festive or what? Oh my.

an epic prank by Jim. Every single thing on Dwight's desk is wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper. Including his chair. Yeah. When did Jim do this? How long did it take? What the heck? I have so much to share about this. Oh, go. All right. First of all, Justin Spitzer told me this was his idea. This was his pitch. He said that he was always talking to his friends who worked in the corporate world and he would ask them what sort of pranks go on in your office? Because I think at a certain point, started to stress out the writers that they had to come up with these Jim Dwight pranks. Mm-hmm. So they were always fishing.

Tell me a prank. I need an office prank. He said that the single most-mentioned prank was this idea of wrapping someone's desk in paper or aluminum foil. Mm-hmm. So Justin pitched this idea. We got so much mail from people asking, how did we pull this off? I reached out to Randy Cordray. Oh, Randy.

He shared all the details. Of course he did. he probably did a deep dive for you on something random. He did. All those things. Okay. So, first of all, he said there was a note in the script that did not make it into the episode, and it was a Jim talking head, and here's how it went.

Jim says, actually, it took me about a week to recreate the desk and chair in chicken wire. I had to come in about four hours early and set it all up, and I think I pulled something in my back dragging Dwight's real desk all. the way up to the roof, all for a three-second payoff. Totally worth it. I read that too, and I was like, why do you have to take the desk up to the roof? Why couldn't you just stash it in the warehouse? I swear I remember us filming a tag of Dwight working up on the roof. Oh my gosh. I swear we did. I can't confirm it, but I feel like I remember what, you know, you're walking from your trailer to hair and makeup and you're like, why are they putting a desk on the roof?

I have a hazy memory of this. What else did Randy say? All right. So Randy also said that Greg Daniels was pretty insistent that the gag desk be made out of chicken wire because that's what it said in the script. Oh, and he wanted it exactly like that. Yeah, because we'd sort of, Jim has this whole speech. He's like, it needs to reflect with Jim said. But chicken wire is stronger than you think.

Oh, yes, it is. Right? It wouldn't have collapsed. Nope. It wouldn't have, Ange. Did they make one with chicken wire and it didn't work? Yes. Oh, my gosh.

So Randy said that he and Paul Figue and our set designer Michael Gallenberg and our first AD Kelly Cantley all tried to talk Greg out of this. They were very skeptical it would work. But Greg really needed to see it for himself. Okay. So here's what they did. They built four different desks out of four different materials. Oh, my gosh. What were the materials?

One of them was chicken wire. Okay. One was styrofoam. Ooh. One was balsa wood. What? And one was corrugated cardboard. And then they meticulously gift-wrapped all of them.

Oh, oh. Can I guess which one worked the best? Yeah. What do you guys think? I wish we could hear what you think out there. I think the cardboard. The corrugated cardboard. That's what I would bet on.

All right. At the end, I'll tell you which one it was. Okay. Okay. Okay. So they set up one of the desks. Yeah. And then they asked our stand-in, Stephen Sox, to come in and do Dwight's motion of walking in, setting the briefcase down and sitting down to see what would happen. Now, there's four different types of desks and four different types of chairs. Yes. Wow. And Stephen is going to try each one while all these people watch him. Oh my gosh. Would you do at work today, hon? Well, I sat on a faky desk made out of course. Christmas wrapping. I have to say, I was fascinated by the backstory of this, because as actors, we just showed up, there was a wrapped desk, we did the scene. Wow. Wow. Yeah. This was like,

look at all the prep that went into this one little bit. Oh, my gosh. Also, I was so fascinated by this idea of being a tester that I reached out to Stephen Sox to ask him, what was this day like for you? And lady, he sent in an audio clip. Oh my God, amazing. We have to hear it. Okay, play it. I've vividly remembered this test. I didn't do a lot of tests like this, so it really stands out. I think we were all excited to see this cold open come to be because it read so funny in the script, but I think we have to remember the pressure that you have

trying to make something like this a reality. You know, the whole idea probably seemed kind of easy on paper, but it was really up to the set designer Michael Gallenberg and his team to make it a reality. Like I said, I would do tests. but they were mainly hair and makeup tests or, you know, a lot of camera tests, but I don't remember one quite like this. So I walk into the bullpen and there's a lot of people there. Greg Daniels was there, the director Paul Feig, Randy Cordray, our first assistant director,

Kelly Cantley, of course, Michael Gallenberg, and then Phil Shea and the prop department as well. And what I saw was just like what you see in the episode, it just looked like a desk wrapped in wrapping paper. But as soon as I walked in, It was made clear to me that I should not touch the desk. Like, don't really go near the desk until we're going to do the test. I mean, specific instructions. And it was told to everybody that to just keep clear the desk, don't touch this thing. It was their only prototype.

And so I kind of imagined underneath the wrapping paper, like it was some kind of house of cards or something, just ready to fall. So I didn't even want to, like, breathe on it. Because I just was thinking in my mind, what if I knocked this thing over? in front of everybody before we even do the test. I mean, that would be like a total nightmare. But then they were ready to do it, and the props department gave me the briefcase, which had something inside of it, you know, to give it some weight.

And so they said, go. So I threw the briefcase on the desk, sat in the chair, and I totally expected that I would fall like right to the ground. But to be honest, the chair felt kind of like a regular office chair, maybe like an old office chair that kind of semi reclined and collapsed a little, but it still was fully supporting me. And the desk just kind of bent a little bit. It looked like a saggy, like rope bridge or something with the briefcase on top of it. But obviously there was major disappointment in the room. I mean, just everyone looked at it with just such disappointment. And the air just kind of like left

the room. And being the only one there that didn't really know it was everything that was going on, I kind of felt like I had messed up or something. So it was very awkward moment. So I got up off the chair and I remember standing next to Michael Gallenberg and kind of put in my hand to my chin and looking at the props that didn't work and just kind of, oh, that didn't work. Oh, that's too bad. You know, like kind of try to fit in. And so it was very memorable moment.

But then they brought another desk out, like a few minutes later, they had everyone leave so they could reset. And this one is the one that worked. It's the prototype that ended up making it as the final one. And it just collapsed. I mean, I hit the ground pretty hard. And it kind of surprised me because of the first one and how it was made. But it was pretty memorable.

Isn't that such a fascinating, like, look into behind the scenes of making a show? Yeah. I mean, we obviously weren't. weren't there that day, right? Right. So we had no idea all of these desks being made and all of these like test runs and Stephen, oh my gosh. So Randy said that the desk that worked was made out of styrofoam. Oh, dang it.

But here's the thing. It sounds like they only did two tests. They did chicken wire didn't work. They did styrofoam. It worked. So they stopped. Yeah. So lady, maybe the corrugated cardboard.

would have worked. We don't know. Okay. Okay. You could be right. It could be right. But boy, the styrofoam, man, it went down. And then finally, Randy told me when it was time to shoot, they made three desks out of the styrofoam that they had ready to go, but that rain nailed it on the first take, so we didn't even need any of the other backups. It was a one taker. It's amazing. Well, Phil Shea was really busy this episode. He had to make so many props. The desk obviously was the biggest one. Oh, yeah. But we have more to share. Princess Unicorn. Princess Unicorn, but there's more. Oh, what else? Oh, you've got a whole thing. I've got some stuff. Oh, good stuff. All right, let's get into the episode. All that was just the cold open. I know. Well, the episode starts with you really are getting a view of the bullpen and how it's decorated.

Phyllis is going around and sort of doing last touches, right? Yes. Where did the budget for this come from? I say she dug into some Bob Vance Cash, because this is an over-the-top party. Oh, that is such a good point, Angela. Well, she has a talking head that she says the theme for her Christmas party is called Nights in Morocco. I love a party with a theme. I know. I get really excited.

I mean, my 50th birthday, my theme was hummingbirds, and we all painted hummingbirds, and I had little pink hummingbirds like garland hanging in the bushes. It was amazing. I love a theme. Well, Phyllis does too. And did you notice that Phyllis has on brand new glasses for this episode? No. Yes.

And we talked about it in the DVD commentary. And Kate said, Ange, do you remember they were called her power glasses? What? I know. And because Phyllis is like the head of the PPC, she's like a boss lady, they wanted her look to reflect that.

Oh, I love this detail. Yes. And Phil Shea brought a bunch of glasses to Phyllis. They picked out this particular. pair, and they even put her prescription in them. So Phyllis and her power glasses are going to take Angela to task. Well, her standoff with Angela starts right away. She marches over to Angela's desk, and she just zeroes right in on that nativity scene. Yeah. And she, like, just sweeps half of it into the drawer. Baby Jesus went into the drawer. Sure did. Angela's not happy. I have a background catch

at one minute, 50 seconds. Did you see what was on the dry erase board? It was fuzzy. Okay, well, I zoomed in on it, and this was so fascinating to me. On the calendar, it says December 10th, copier maintenance. Which just made me laugh so hard because the office got new chairs, but that same old copier still there. And then it said on December 23rd, the warehouse is closed, and at noon on December 24th, Dunder Mifflin closes, and the party starts at 1. So we're having a party on Christmas Eve at 1 o'clock? That's what it said on the dry erase board.

So I was like, what the heck? Everyone's there on Christmas Eve. So later in the episode, when Michael is dragging Meredith into a rehab center, it's Christmas Eve. According to the dry erase board. I don't know if that's what the writers intended, but that really got me tickled. And I have a bone to pick with Phyllis. Oh.

Because Phyllis says that. Angela's nativity scene is not on theme. It's not Knights of Morocco. Right? Well, what about the fact that Michael has on his Christmas tie that he has worn every single Christmas, right? Pam has on a pin on her sweater of Santa. Oh. Phyllis has a little wreath on her jacket. So I feel like Phyllis is singling Angela out. I think all that evidence is really good. I also think it's really obvious that she's singling Angela out. I think the entire party was thrown to piss off Angela. I know. I know. And then these little details, I guess, are just little jabs. Little digs. I mean, she makes Angela get rid of the Christmas tree. Oh, lady. All right. I have to share about this because in the episode, it's like three seconds, right? Yeah. This was a huge. huge scene. This was like multiple location scenes, you guys. It took like a half of a day. What? Yes. In the script, and we actually did film this, and it's in deleted scenes, Angela Martin goes over to the tree. It's double her size, and she has to drag it through the bullpen.

Lady, I tripped over those pillows on the floor. Uh-huh. And the tree fell on my head. What? I fell to the ground. The tree fell on top of me. Then I had to drag it down the stairwell. this Christmas tree, out the building, through the parking lot, all the way to the street. We filmed all of that. It legitimately was a physical workout. I actually, like, messed up my hair. I had, like, scratches on, like, my hands from the tree trying to grip it. None of it's in the episode.

It's in the deleted scenes. And what was great is over all of this action were two talking heads, one Angela and one Phyllis. Can you play those? I do not mind doing hard labor. Ronald Reagan got his start as a stock boy lugging heavy boxes 10 hours a day. Don't miss the pillow. And he went on to become the president of a party planning committee. I like to call the United States of America.

Most people call it that. Did you know that an ant can carry five times its own weight? All it needs is a strong queen to tell it what to do. And there's nothing that little creature can't accomplish. Phyllis. I know. Phyllis and her power glasses and some serious sass. Yes, that muffled sound in between was me like falling down the staircase with the Christmas tree.

Were you so bummed when you watched the episode and it was cut out? I was so bummed because I thought it was hilarious. And that talking head I do about Ronald Reagan, my hair is all messed up. All right. So Phil Shea has tackled a styrofey. desk, chair, all objects wrapped in Christmas wrapping. He's also found Phyllis a pair of power glasses. Phil Shea's next project would have been Princess Unicorn. Yes. Dwight enters with a stack of boxes. And he explains that each year he researches the most popular toy of the holiday season.

He buys as much of it as he can. And then as parents become more desperate, he sells them at a profit. It's a little bit genius. We got a lot of mail asking about this princess unicorn storyline. Okay. Where to begin? First of all, this was a collaboration of several writers. Justin said that they had originally written a different story for Dwight and at the last minute they wanted to change it.

And they had a new writer who had just started on the show that week named Halstead Sullivan. This was his pitch. Hallstead. Amazing. Crushing it in his first week on the job. We were able to get in touch with Halstead. He confirmed, yes, that he pitched this idea of Dwight having a side hustle of buying up these holiday toys and selling them at a profit. Halstead said that he and writer Aaron Scher were sent into a room to figure out what this toy should be. Aaron said, well, kids love princesses and unicorns.

How about a princess unicorn doll? I love this kind of collaboration. So you have Halstead saying, we need the story of the toy and he sells the toys. And then Aaron is like, what about if a unicorn and a doll collide? Yes. Then Halstead came up with the catchphrase, my horn can pierce the sky. Hallstead, are you kidding me? Right.

That was you? That stuck in our heads forever. Forever. Do you remember that, Jenna? Like we sing it all week. We have to hear Michael sing it. My horn can pierce the sky. And then Jenna, when I listen to the DVD commentary, immediately Kate and I sang it.

What? My horn can pierce the sky. Thank you, Halstead. Well, you know, they made a whole commercial for this doll. I know. With a little girl and a jingle at the end. It was crazy. What else did they say about it?

They said, actually, before settling on this idea, there was an all. alternate idea called Hank Grenade. And this was a doll that when you threw it, his arms blew off. That was Hank Grenade. But they settled on Princess Unicorn. So once that was settled, there was a lot of discussion over what she should look like. Was she a human princess with unicorn features? Was she more of a horse with a human face?

I guess they went around and around. And in the end, Phil Shea had to make this princess unicorn doll. Randy told me that Phil actually used a team of designers and toy makers. Oh, my gosh. And they had to come up with a design that would not infringe on anyone else's design because I guess toys in general and dolls specifically are very tightly controlled by the manufacturers. Right. Their intellectual property rights. Yeah, it can't look like anything else.

Yes. And they actually had to go through the NBC Universal Legal Team to make sure that they had met all the requirements of a specifically unique doll toy. That is how we came to have a princess unicorn. Amazing. Yeah. Wow. Phil Shea was so busy this episode. So busy.

Oh, my gosh. When we would see him running through the parking lot, this is why. I don't know how he did it. I know. Well, the party's underway now. It's getting going. There's cocktails. Jim and Pam have this flirty moment with like he's rubbing the lamp for wishes.

Well, this scene made me curious. And I had also been watching the bloopers. And there is this moment between Ed and John and the bloopers that never made it into the episode. That's kind of weird where Jim is looking at this coffee mug that Andy made. Okay. I was like, what is the thing? What are they, what are Jim and Pam doing? So I was very curious about these scenes.

And I went to the script. And in the shooting draft, there is a Jim and Pam side. by side talking head where they share that they are in a real financial bind. Oh. Yeah. And they have agreed not to buy each other anything for Christmas, but instead we'll be taking items from the Dunder Mifflin office to give to each other. Whoa. So yeah, there were all these little scenes of you guys like showing each other different items around the office. And then there was a whole scene where you ultimately decided on something and gave each other gifts. What did I get? I don't remember any of this. Wait, before I tell you, you got. Can I just tell you some of the moments in the side-by-side talking head that I couldn't believe.

All right. Jim shares that money's tight because of the closing fees on the house that he bought. Okay. Pam shares. Get ready. Pam says, my credit's so bad, I'm hoping someone steals my identity. They couldn't handle my finances worse than me. Oh, no. Okay. Oops. Yeah. And Jim says, it's okay. We've decided not to spend any money on presents this year. The rule is the gift has to be something from inside the office. Okay. And Pam says, so in addition to the party, we're going to spend the day shopping.

And if anyone's interested, my social security number is 793-47-6882. Isn't that hilarious? Yes. What is Pam running up her credit on? I don't know. I know. What is Pam buying? Maybe she charged all of art school.

Just put it all on her card. Maybe she did. Well, do you want to hear what they gave each other? Yeah. What did I get? After a whole party of them looking at items in the office. Okay. To, I guess, steal?

I don't know. What is their life of crime together? All right. At the end of the day, Pam hands Jim a gift wrapped in copier paper, and he opens it up, and it's a pair of sunglasses that she has made out of paper clips and brown plastic from a folder. Wow. So wait, Phil Shea had to make that, too. Yes.

He had to make sunglasses made out of paper clips. And brown plastic. And Jim's like sunglasses. And they even have little pads for my nose. They had little erasers where the nose would go. I have to stop you. Is this in the deleted scenes? Can you screen grab these sunglasses and put them on the pod?

No, it's not. Oh, that's a tragedy. I know, I know. Because you know they exist somewhere. Pam says it took me hours to make them. Wow. But don't use them outside. because there's no UV protection.

Okay. And then Jim hands her a box and she opens it to reveal a beautiful dainty watch. And she's like, wait, you didn't make this. You bought it. No fair. And Jim says, okay, here's the thing. Technically, I had this in the office. I bought it for you three years ago, but it was way too big and I chickened out.

And Pam says, yeah, it kind of screams, I love you. And Jim's like, do you like it? And she says, I love it. Wait, was that the year you gave me rocks? Jim says, wishing rocks, also romantic. Oh my gosh, I love this. So you and John had this whole storyline that was playing out in the background that ended in the scene and it didn't make it in. Do you want to hear something crazy?

While I was prepping Moroccan Christmas, I was cleaning out my desk. At home? At home. And I found... The teapot note. Oh, good Lord. Are you kidding? I found it.

The actual note. The note that John gave me at the end. Oh, my gosh. And the envelope says Pam, and it's a little Christmas card. It was in with, like, all of my, like, stationary and stuff, right? I'm, like, going through my stationary, and I'm like, what's this? What's this card that says Pam? I opened it up, and I was like, it's the teapot note.

I love that that's what you found. Isn't that crazy? Yeah, it is crazy, but you know what's so perfect is when I cleaned out my desk, if you remember Jenna, I found, this was like years ago, I found Dwight and Angela's like sex contract punch card. Oh boy, our characters had different stories, didn't they? Okay, all right. So I had to share that because I thought that was a wonderful Jim Pam thing that didn't get to be in the episode. But now we really need to talk about these drinks that Michael is making for Meredith. The first drink Michael makes Meredith, he calls it a one of everything. It's equal parts, scotch, absent, rum, gin, vermouth, triple sec, and two packs of Splenda.

Now, isn't some of this drink a Long Island iced tea minus the Splenda? I don't know. Am I wrong? I don't know what's in Long Island iced tea. I just know it's like seven liquors. Yeah. Well, yeah. Well, Meredith thinks this is the best thing she's ever had in her life.

Oh, yeah. Then Michael makes Jim a drink with vodka and orange juice. Not a screwdriver, guys. It's called a orange vodka juice. Yeah. It rolls off the tongue. It does. There was an alt in the script.

Okay. In the script, Michael makes Jim a drink with Jack Daniels and just regular Coca-Cola. And he calls it a Coke Daniels. Kate shared that in one scene with Steve, they were improvising. Okay, Steve was making up all these drinks. And Steve improvised sangria with peppermint schnops. And Kate improvised, let's call it sex on the couch. And Steve as Michael was like, ew.

But that didn't make it in. And then Kate also shared, are you ready for this? He hands her a drink in one take. She takes a big swig and goes, oh, my God, you guys, there's real booze in that. They had forgotten to empty out one of the bottles because they would empty out the liquor bottles and put just water or iced tea. Yeah. And they had missed one. And they gave Kate a drink with actual booze in it. She was like, guys, that's booze. Oh, no. I mean, she only took one swig. You know what I mean? But still. What a shocker. I know. Also during this setup of the party,

I want to point out, this episode had a lot of shots that were just like little moments, right? It really reminded me of some of our early episodes where we had these, what did we used to call those? Just these little vignettes in the background. Yeah. These little moments that the B camera would get that really filled in the whole picture. It really reminds me of the first two seasons. Same. Well, during this kind of montage of filling out the party and what's going on, you know, Ed, as Andy is playing the sitar. Yes. We got a lot of mail about it. Izzy T, Liam D, and Grant S all wrote in to ask, Does Ed Helms really play the sitar?

No. Not before this episode, he didn't. But he's such a badass that he just picked it right up. Yeah. So you guys probably know that Ed plays guitar, he plays banjo. Randy told me that previously in his career, he had produced a different show where they needed an actor to play a song on the sitar. And this actor was also a guitar player, but he was told that the sitar,

is a very difficult instrument to play. It's very difficult to tune properly. And that in that instance, on that other show, he had to hire a tutor and allow about four weeks of practice so that this actor could credibly pull off the bit. So, because the script had Ed playing all these different songs with only a couple weeks notice, he asked Phil Shea to rent a sitar. He went to Ed. He said, I'll get you a tutor.

Yeah. But Ed said, I'll figure it out. And Randy was like, okay. Ed's like, I play the banjo. I'm going to flex a little bit. A little bit. I got this. And Ed totally, totally did it.

He just picked it up and played it. Yes. I have a little catch where Ed slipped up. What? So you guys listening, my family and my close friends, they call me Ange. It's my nickname and my family. And it's like what my husband calls me and my husband calls me. My mom, you know, everyone calls me Ange.

Well, Ed called me Ange, right? In real life. Yeah. He never called me Angela. And right when he starts playing the sitar at four minutes, 21 seconds, tell me what you hear. Hey, hey, Hans, check it out. There's a place in France where the naked ladies dance. Oh, wow.

He called me Ange. Not Angela. And Angela Martin would have never let Andy call her ang. Anyone call her ang. No. She's using the formal version of her name only. Only. For sure.

Only Dwight can call her monkey. Everyone else calls her Angela. In that moment, to me, Ed just sort of slipped and just was like, hey, Angie. He was probably like concentrating on his playing. Yeah. Right? He was in musician mode. Yeah.

That just warmed my heart when I heard it. I just had to share. Well, next up is quite a scene. Meredith is dancing up a storm in the conference room, and she sets her hair on fire. Yes. Dwight has to rush in and put it out with a fire extinguisher. Oh, lady. Talk about mail.

People need to know. How did they pull off this stunt where her hair catches on fire? Was it Kate? Was it a stunt double? We have a lot to share with you, because this is one of the biggest stunts I think we ever did in the bullpen. For sure. A person was on fire. Yeah. All right. Well, I got some of the info from Randy.

And I got info from Kate. So let's break it down. First of all, we did use a stunt double for Kate. Her name was Marie Fink. Mm-hmm. Our stunt coordinator that day was Scott Aleva, and he had to, like, do a bunch of prep for this. He had to, like, send a whole plan into NBC Universal Safety Department explaining how exactly we would do this safely. We had safety officers on set. We had a special effects crew on set. And we had the LA Fire Department on set.

Kate said there were so many people from the fire department there. They like took up a whole wall. I believe it. Yeah. What a crazy day of work for them. I know. Now, Paul Fieg specifically staged this scene so that Meredith was dancing alone in the conference room. And this was done to make it safer.

Yes. And they dressed the stunt double Marie in this full fireproof body suit. It's called like a Nomex. And she wore like a headstocking that was flameproof. And then she put on Kate's wardrobe. I guess these Nomex suits are what race car drivers wear when they're racing, you know, in case their car burst into flames. Then Kim Ferry had to create a bunch of wigs. Yes.

And Kate shared about these wigs, you guys. Kate said, Angie, they were natural hair. Mm-hmm. And then they actually burned the wigs with fire. Mm-hmm. And she said, I had to wear the stinkiest wig the whole rest of the week because, you know, when you burn hair, you know the smell. Oh, I know it well. I mean, once you've smelled that, it's like burned into your brain.

Yes. So Kate had to wear the stinky wig the rest of the week. Oh. Well, I guess to pull off this stunt, they put this flam. amiable gel all over Marie's body and her hair. And then she used one of the actual real candles in the conference room to set her hair on fire. I guess they did have a stunt double dressed as Dwight. His name was Sean Crowder.

But in the end, it was actually Rain. Rain ran in and put out the stunt double with an actual fire extinguisher. I know. No pressure, Rain. Right? But Kate said he did it. And then Kate said for continuity, they had to take Marie out. And Kate stepped back in with the burnt wig, right?

The smelly burnt wig. The smelly burnt wig kind of assumed the same position Marie was in. And then Rain had to spray Kate with the real fire extinguisher. So Kate got hosed as well. Justin told me that we did it all in one take. I'm so glad for everyone's sake. Yeah. I'm so glad.

Also, look at Kate's dancing. This is like lunging forward and back and forward and back. And I'm like, Kate, were you sore? My gosh, that's like a physical day. Randy told me that Kate and Marie got together and planned out the dance moves. So that Marie could look exactly like Kate and her movements, yes. Which is amazing to me because it looks like completely spontaneous dancing, but they really planned it so that it would coordinate.

So they were doing the same thing. Yes. And if you watch the episode, it's very, rare that only one person is in the conference room at a party, but that was for everyone's safety, like you said. Yeah. So Kate said it was kind of, you know, odd to be in there alone for all those takes, like a fishbowl. But I really related because there's a whole scene coming up where you guys are all together

on the floor and I'm in the kitchen. I know. For the whole episode. I know. Lady, I think we should take a little break and then we'll come back and make you go to the kitchen. Make me go to the kitchen. And Michael is going to share with us about a responsibilitini. Oh, I can't wait.

It's a deleted scene. I can't wait to share. So we are back. Oscar? You have a little bit of granola on your boob. Oh, thanks for telling me. We ate a granola bar during the break. You're eating it off your shirt?

What else would I do? If I pick it off, I have to, what, throw it on the floor? No, put it in the trash. Well, you would fit in. I was still hungry. You'd fit in very well with my boys. Listen, we're friends here. I've seen them eat things off their clothing, too.

Oh, my God. Listen, every once in a while. You're going to lick a piece of granola bar off your shirt. You know what else I'm going to do sometimes? Sometimes the salad dressing is so good. I lick the plate. Okay, I'm here for licking the plate, but you just ate a piece of granola off your t-shirt.

You lifted your shirt up towards you so you could eat that tiny piece of granola. Because I'm a classy lady. You are classy. And you know what? You do not waste. And that I respect. Thank you. Okay. As I was saying, Oscar, Jim, Michael and Stanley try to set a date for something. We don't know what they're talking about. They're trying to agree on a time to do something. Nothing's working. We do learn that Michael goes to the dentist every month. Well, because of his soft teeth. Every month. We established that in dinner party. I feel like he talks their ear off. I feel like there's like a dental hygienist that he just talks their ear off.

What do you do for soft teeth? You know what? I'm going to ask my dentist the next time I'm there. He's a fan of the show. He's also a breadmaker. And he gave me his sourdough discard. And it is fantastic sourdough discard. Wow.

Great dentist. Okay. Great baker. I'm going to ask him about soft teeth. Stay tuned. Baker and a dentist. Listen, they also can't do it on a. Groundhog Day because Michael, he celebrates privately. Some fans asked Justin in an interview once,

what is it that Michael's doing? And he said, I imagine he just watches Groundhog Day all day, the movie. He watches the movie. And I also think he watches to see if Punksitone, is it Punksitone? Phil? Phil. Yeah. I think he watches to see if Phil sees his shadow. I think he watches the whole broadcast. It's a big event. Maybe he goes. He's busy. That's what we know. Yeah. In the end, they decide today is the day and what they're planning is an intervention. Christmas Eve, office party, intervention. Listen, if I had to explain what an intervention is, it's like a surprise party for people who have addictions. And what you do is you make them feel badly about themselves so they stop.

Michael Scott, right there, guys. Her Michael Scott. That was the talking head that made it into the show. here is an alt that got deleted and it cracked me up. We're going to call this Responsibilitini, guys. It takes a lot of courage to admit you are right. And talking about my strengths has always been one of my strengths. And I am right.

Meredith needs help. She needs help like an alcoholic needs a drink. And she's about to get a big shot of Michael Scott, straight up on the rock. with ice, no chaser. I call it a responsibilityini, shaken with lemon, twist a lime. Okay, okay. We've played a lot of talking heads that didn't make it.

Uh-huh. A lot of scenes that didn't make it in the show. Uh-huh. This is the biggest tragedy. A responsibility. Everything about that was gold. I could listen to it five times. I know.

I was like, I have to play it. is gold. That was like on the level of Dwight's whole speech about stealing the ball from Tiffany's and going to all the countries and all that. Oh my God. It was so good. You're going to get a big shot of Michael Scott. Oh. Shaken, not stirred. Responsibilitini. That's incredible. Well, we're all going to circle up on the floor now. Not Angela, though. Phyllis has other plans for you. It involves a hairnet. Mm-hmm. Lots of fanning. Got to fan some pitas, got to toast them on both sides, got to fan napkins.

Yeah. And off to the kitchen I go. Meanwhile, the rest of us sit on the floor and engage in a real uncomfortable intervention of Meredith. I don't know how you guys got through the scene without laughing. I remember two things happening during this week. One, I was bummed because I was in the kitchen by myself. And I had to enter in during the scene. So it's not like I had to be there. Do you remember this? Because Justin reminded me of this, and I had forgotten it, which was that Paul Feig insisted on shooting the entire intervention scene from top to bottom without cutting and every take was about eight minutes long. Yes. So I would be in the kitchen with a magazine. I actually, on the DVD commentary, I said I brought a magazine back there eventually because I was back there so long. And then they would cue me and then I would walk in. then I'd have to go back. So crazy. So crazy. I remember my legs fell asleep. It's very hard to sit on the floor in a pencil skirt and panty hose.

Well, you had to do an odd cross. You had to do that one foot under the other. And at nine minutes, 46 seconds, there's a real good Pam panty hose catch. Oh, yeah. I can see your panty hose. I don't doubt it. You have panty hose toes. I remember trying to figure out because, you know, once you pick the way you're

sitting, you have to sit like that. You can't shift and move or change your position. Because it has to match you guys. So however you sit, that's it. So Mindy laying on her stomach like that, which I was so jealous. Which I took a picture of. I was jealous at first, but then you know her back started to ache. It had to because that's like doing a, what is that, the cow? No, it's not a cow. It's a yoga thing. Oh yeah. What's that yoga pose called? Were you, we are, the cobra, cobra. I knew it. Not the cat. I don't know why. That was so exciting, but I just recalling any information at my age just gets me real amped up. So she had to do a mini cobra all day. You had to sit with the one foot under your butt, but one foot extended.

Yep, I know. And I do remember that we went around. And, you know, I was mostly reactions. I don't think I had any lines in this scene. It was very hard not to laugh. It was very hard not to laugh when Creed says that he can get a fire permit in a couple hours. It was, pretty amazing. We talked on the DVD commentary about Creed's outfit and what he's wearing in this scene. He actually wore something similar to an award show. Do you remember? He wore the long, white. I don't remember this. This is very much sort of his outfit as something Creed would actually wear. And he looks fantastic. There is a delicious Andy talking head. I feel like we all knew this guy in college, the guy that would chug a fifth of Soco. Uh-huh. Boot, rally. How many nicknames does he have,

by the way. He's puke. He's ace and he's buzz. Did he get straight A's or straight B's? We're not sure. He got straight B's. Yeah, but he aced everything. Yeah. Well, surprise, surprise, this intervention does not result in Meredith deciding to go to rehab. Michael's clearly not qualified to do this, and Toby's going to call it. He's like, you know what, we're going to stop this. I do have to point out one of my favorite moments when Kevin offers his way that her drinking affected him. He got to go to the movies. By the way, thank you, he says. Yeah.

Michael's like, you're not getting it. But you're right. Michael is not trained to do this, you know, a trained interventionist. This is a job in real life. People train for this. Yeah. Kate had a whole speech that was in the script as Meredith where she just addresses the group. And she's like, listen, I'm bored.

you're boring she said to Michael and he goes hey and she was like you know what I drink because I'm bored try to be more interesting and she's like who else is bored here and like everyone raises their hands she like hijacks the meeting from Michael right and then she's like we all do things to cope so I drink when I'm bored and then she goes around the room she goes you all have coping mechanisms you eat you eat you shop you confuse Dwight and then she's like who confuses Dwight She's me. No, me. Oh, okay. And then she like points at Stanley and she's like, you eat. And then Stanley has a talking head where he's like, I do eat when I'm bored. But I also drink. And I drink a lot more than Meredith. I just don't do it at work. And I keep my clothes on. Oh my goodness. Yes. This scene was way bigger. Oh, wow.

Michael is going to take Meredith into his office where they're going to talk for 45 minutes. 45 minutes. And in the meantime, Angela is going to plead with Phyllis. Please, can I stop cutting the pita? Do I really have to wear the hairnet? Have mercy. It's the season of mercy. Phyllis is no. No. I have a thing I want to point out at 13 minutes, 35 seconds. Phyllis is telling Stanley about the Moroccan food they're eating and Angel's eating this cookie. She spits it out. Yeah. We did a lot of takes of this. I'm not sure why. Okay. But the cookie started to turn on me because I took a big bite. Okay.

Mistake. Okay. Take a small bite, guys. Always. Always. Because by the eighth take, the thought of that cookie makes you want to barf. Right. It doesn't matter what it is.

It doesn't matter if it's your favorite dessert. Mm-mm. And it started to turn on me. And so I took some peanuts and I stuck them in my hand. And when they would cut to me eating, I would like just put a bunch of the peanuts in my mouth and hold the cookie. I was trying to do a faky eat. Mm, faky eat. Finky eat.

And then I would spit out peanuts instead of the cookie. Okay. So what we see on camera, that is chewed up peanuts? We don't know. We don't know which take they used. We don't know which take they used. Was it early? Was it late?

I don't know. These are the things you try to do at work. How do I not eat that cookie? Well, when Michael leaves his office with Meredith, they're going somewhere. He says, I'll meet you in the parking lot. And then he asks Toby for the number of that rehabilitation center. And everyone's like, wow, he did it. And then, you know, he finishes writing the number down and he throws the pen at Toby's head. And hits him in the forehead. We got a fan question about that. Well, we have stories about it, too. Kelsey B would like to know, was the pen throwing scripted or improvised? It was scripted. And Justin said that Steve had a special rubber pen.

And I remember it because it was in the pen cup on Pam's desk. There were real pens and then one faky pen. And I was sitting there and I kept positioning the pen so that Steve could pick up. up the faky pen. This would have been another thing Phil Shea would have had to have gotten for the episode. Faky rubber pen so that he could throw it at Toby's head. They inserted that little thump sound later. We did about four or five takes of it, I guess. You guys, if you rewatch this, you will notice behind Michael, there are no people. We're all standing way off to the right. Yep. You want to know why? Because we couldn't stop laughing. So when they would cut to Michael,

after throwing it, we'd be behind him giggling. So they pushed us all to the right. And they had to get our reaction take like a whole beat later when we had gotten our composure. Paul also couldn't stop laughing. I know. Every time that little rubber pen thumped him in the forehead, he would break.

I know. And there is such a fun blooper where Paul decided to prank Steve during this scene. We have to listen to it. You know, could you write down the name of their... Rehabilitation clinic you mentioned. Wow.

Impressed. That's pretty. What does I even say? You go, you? What did he do? Instead of writing down a fake phone number, he wrote,

you. And so Steve, in the scene, glances down and it says, fuck you. And he started laughing and he couldn't even throw the pen because he was laughing too hard. That is so funny. Well, have you know, Faky Pen lived in the pen cup

for weeks after we shot the scene and people were always coming over trying to grab a pen to use and they would get faky rubber pen. And I never got rid of it because it just was funny to me. It was funny to me that people would grab faky pen. So now Meredith and Michael are in the car.

This is going to start such a fantastic sequence between Meredith and Michael. Both Steve and Kate just knock it out of the park. They're driving. Meredith thinks they're going to a bar. She's listing off all these bars. And Kate Flannery said in real life, she kept trying to slip her family's bar in there. Because you know, her family owned a bar in Philadelphia called Flannery's. Yep.

But it didn't make it in. But all the other bars, she says, are local scrant. in bars. They're real places. Yeah, well, that was part of the reasons why Flanneries wouldn't have checked out, right? But she also wanted you guys to know that Steve did his own driving. They're not being pulled. Yeah, you can kind of tell. Yeah, he's driving and doing all the dialogue because there were those little lipstick cameras. And then they had, I think, a truck in front of them with a camera rigged on the back to get them through the windshield. Well, when they finally arrive at their destination, it is revealed that they are at Sunrise Rehab. Meredith gets super pissed.

So pissed. So pissed. Now, Kate told me they had stunt people there for her and Steve. Should it get too physical that they could have this choreograph thing with the stunt people? And her and Steve were like, no, we're going to go for it. Kate was like, Steve, let's do it. And they did not use the stunt people. Everything you see is actually Kate and Steve, just freaking going for it. I think I notice one moment. We cut out of it really quickly. When Meredith throws the trash can down and it looks like Michael trips and falls, I feel like I see Kate start to check on Steve. Oh, yeah? Like maybe like, oh, are you okay? Like just the littlest moment and we cut out of it and then they, you know, they have a bigger chase around the parking lot. Well, Kate said that's faky trash. Faky trash. That was faky trash. So whatever Steve fell on wasn't real trash. So Phil Shea also had to make faky trash. Yes. Oh my gosh.

This man's week was insane. Yes. This scene was scripted at the top where she doesn't want to get out of the car, but they immediately then just went off. Yeah. You know, because Paul Feig just wanted them to really go for it, not worry about the lines. And that whole sequence where Meredith is saying, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, that's not in the script.

I loved it. It was so real. It was so real. I thought Kate did such a great job. Well, this whole thing ends with Michael dragging Meredith into the rehab center. And we should tell you, the intake nurse was played by our very own first assistant director, Kelly Cantley. Yes. She also helps escort them out. Yeah, at the end, when Michael discovers that you can't force people to go to rehab.

Yep. And now, awkward car ride back. But you know what Michael's going to do? Michael's had a realization. He realizes that, you know, in order to get help, a person has to hit their rock bottom. So he's going to make it his mission to help Meredith reach her rock bottom. Oh, my gosh. And he thinks he can do it because he did it with Jan. Oh, my gosh. Like an amazing line. There's still going to be quite a bit of drama back at the office. Oh, yes. We start with Toby. Oh, Toby, man. He thinks he's going to get to be the hero. to his little girl. He is going to score one of the princess unicorn dolls from Dwight for his daughter.

But Dwight has sold them all out. He just sold his last one to Daryl. Yes. All right. I just unsolicited get this email from Jen Salada. About this scene? About this scene and this episode. I guess the writers like Justin and Halstead and Aaron, they were all texting each other about this

storyline. And somehow Jen got involved. This email pops in my inbox yesterday. She's like, Jenna, we've all been texting about the princess unicorn. Because you asked Justin about it. Yeah. Okay. And she was like, I have a story and I asked Paul if I could share it.

Okay. And I was like, oh, I'm so intrigued. She made an audio clip. Here it is. Oh, my gosh. There was a moment that happened behind the scenes of Moroccan Christmas where Paul and I were working on a script together. I'm not sure if it was the fifth season finale or.

what, but we were kind of under the gun, I remember, when we were writing, and he had to go down on set and shoot a scene as Toby. And then when he came back up, we needed to push forward on the script. And I remember that he was sitting on the couch and he was like, oh, I think I just screwed up that scene that I shot. And I was like, I probably didn't. I'm sure you didn't. You're being hard on yourself. He's like, no, no, I really think I screwed it up. And he's kind of stuck on it and wasn't very typical of him. So I was like, tell me what happened. And he said, well, I was supposed to be upset and sad because I wanted this princess unicorn doll for my daughter and Daryl wanted the doll for his daughter. And I needed to be really sad. And so I thought of what, you know, Steve might do or what

I thought Jenna might do, which is think of something sad that happened in, in real life to them and something that like triggered these sad feelings and sad emotions and kind of be in that place and use it for the scene. And I said, well, it sounds smart. Like how to go? And he said, well, I didn't do that. And I asked him why. And he said, well, I thought about getting sad, but it didn't seem worth it. And I remember laughing at that, being like, I'm pretty sure you just made the decision not to act. I think that's what just happened in that moment. But I remember watching that scene later and thinking it was such a perfectly Toby choice. It was a great scene.

And I feel like when you're Toby and you're going about the world and Michael's always making you feel put upon and all of this stuff, you can't constantly keep getting sad. So it ended up being a very, very wonderful choice that I think he made. But in the moment, I think he pretty much decided he wasn't. going to act because he didn't want to be sad that day. And I'll never forget that. I loved it. Jen was so excited to tell me this story. She was like, I have to give him grief. And I guess they talked together and they were laughing about it. And Paul was like, yeah, you can share. You can share that it's true. I don't want to be sad. I don't want to dig too deep and actually cry in this scene because then I'm going to be sad all day. I'm going to be thinking about whatever precipitated it.

I love that Jen just wanted to give Paul shit on our podcast. I know. She was just like, email hits my inbox. Oh, so funny. I agree, though, when I watched the scene, like, I didn't think anything of it. I was like, oh, that's perfect. Yeah. Oh, so funny.

And I guess she would, like, give him Shataki about that for years to come. Gosh, speaking of sad. Should we talk about the saddest scene ever? Saddest scene ever. it all starts because Angela is done. She is done with Phyllis. Well, Phyllis tells her to go get the tree and bring it back. I know. Phyllis and I absolutely loved this episode. We got to do so much together, even more than you even see in the actual episode. I can't tell you how amazing it felt as Angela Martin to turn to her and say, shut up. It felt so good. And I was really proud. proud of this scene. I thought Phyllis and I really had this perfect chemistry in this moment. And then she tells everyone and she shames Angela Martin in front of the whole bullpen.

And when she did, I was so in the moment with her, I felt the heat of my skin. Like my face started to flush. Yeah. You can see it. Everyone is looking at you. Everyone. You know, and we've talked about whenever you had a scene where the whole bullpen focused on you, you were already heightened a little bit, like your nerves. And I really just, oh, man, I was, as the character, I felt like I couldn't get out of there fast enough. And then Andy walks in. I know. And the way Ed, just, you know, Ed Helms, the person, his inherent goodness and sweetheart just carries. through the character of Andy.

I know. Well, here's the thing. Is Andy, like, completely annoying? Sure. Mm-hmm. But he's also got this boyish charm. Yeah. A boyish enthusiasm, right? Yes.

For singing this song to you. Yes. And in the script, the song he sings is Silent Night. Oh, yes. Mm-hmm. Randy said, the morning of the shoot, they told Ed, he was so scared to say it. He said they've changed their mind. Can you do deck the halls? Ed had to learn a whole new song to play on the sitar. He had just learned Silent Night.

Yes, he'd had that thing for a couple weeks and he'd been fiddling around on it. And then they were like, can you do deck the halls? Randy told me it took him about a minute and a half to figure it out because he's amazing. He's a musical genius. They thought it would be funny, the juxtaposition of this sort of very cringy moment for a Andy to be playing this upbeat song. And you know, he improvised the Ridded It to Do at the end. I know. So good. We're all just staring at him.

And Ed played the moment so perfectly. My heart completely broke for Andy. I felt so bad for him. And I started to cry. Like actually crying? Yeah. I actually cry. If you look at this, it pushes in on my face.

And I'm completely tearing up. Those are those moments as an actor where you have so inhabited your character's story and the story of the people around you where your body, like you didn't even have to make yourself cry or think of something sad. You were just so in the moment that the emotions just flood. No, really, really. And everyone was playing it so real. Paul Fieg told us to. Like he said when we come around with that B camera and this was similar to his director. in Office Olympics. He said, I don't want you to comment on it with, you know, no kind of funny looks or anything. Like, this is like truly a human moment. And just stand there. Just be in it. Mm-hmm. It was great direction. And you felt it. Yeah. You felt heavy. It felt really heavy. And I felt horrible. And I started to cry. You know, in rewatching it all, I just thought this

episode was written and directed and acted so, so well. I was really proud of us as a show. You know what, Angela, this was what Paul Figue could do for us, you know, like he was really good at directing us to allow these moments to breathe. And you're so good in this. Oh, thanks, lady. You're so good in this whole episode and this moment at the end. It is more powerful because it's real. Yeah. You really nailed it. Thanks so much, lady. Thank you.

And I thought Kate Flannery crushed this episode, too. Same. And you know, guys, the supporting cast, these moments were fewer and far between for us. And so when they happened, we just treasured it. And it was so fun to rewatch it. And you guys would get these scripts with no notice, and you'd have to just step up to the plate and suddenly carry an episode. And you always did it because we had a really great. bench on our show. We got a deep bench, y'all. We did. Well, that is Moroccan Christmas. We did it. We did it. We all hope

you'll have a little responsibility in your life. Yeah, and just want to give a few thank yous to Justin Spitzer, Aaron Schor, Halstead Sullivan, Jen Salada, Randy Cordray, and Stephen Sox. Remember, you can find Stephen and his wife, Lori, on their podcast if we knew then. And I know you traded a bunch of messages with Kate as Yes, Kate Flannery and James Carey, because the script having the shooting draft was just amazing for this one. And before we go, one little tidbit, we're so excited to finally get to share with you. Yes. We're so excited to tell you guys that we have partnered with Comedy Central and Cartooner Radio to bring you animated clips of our podcast. Yes.

You know, we're constantly getting mail from people saying they wish they could watch us on video. And for many reasons we won't get into now, we do not videotape our podcasts, but Cartooner Radio has taken some of the audio and they have animated it, which in my opinion is even better than watching a video. It is, you guys. They are so creative. Jenna and I are now a cartoon. I love it. I love it. And they have picked these funny moments to animate. It's going to debut on Comedy Central's YouTube. We'll put it in our social so you can find it. We can't wait for you to see it. It starts tomorrow. Woo-hoo! All right, guys, we will see you next week.

Your horn can pierce the sky. 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 Peel. Kiefer, Odyssey's executive producer is Leah Reese Dennis.

Office Ladies was mixed and mastered by Bill Schultz. Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.