Office Ladies - The Meeting

Episode Date: January 19, 2022

Today we’re breaking down “The Meeting”. Jim attempts to have a meeting with David Wallace to push for a promotion without Michael knowing, but of course, it backfires. Meanwhile, Dwight and Toby team up to try to see if Daryl is faking a work injury, and Pam struggles to get RSVPs to her and Jim’s wedding. Jenna reminisces about the yellow pages, Angela discovers a unique wine inspired by a condiment and Andy has a lot to say about cheese. So can you RSVP to this episode? Ryan’s a maybe.

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

I just want to say I am so happy to be sitting across this recording booth table. Is it a... It's a table? Table? Yeah. From my best friend this morning. Thanks, lady. Yeah.

I am super peppy this morning. That's awesome. I'm really peppy and I got no sleep, which means I'm more loopy than peppy, so buckle in. What is in store for us today? I don't know. Would you like an update on my contrast showers before we begin today? Yeah.

I've taken them to a new level. I don't shower anymore. I'm sorry, what? Well, I mean, I shower for cleanliness, obviously. My way of doing the contrast hydrotherapy shower is now I sit in the hot tub and it's super hot and then I do a cold dip in our freezing cold swimming pool. Why, Jenna? It is so cold.

I am on fire about it. You know what? This is unlocking something in me. I am like, I'm starting to read books about it. Wait, does this mean Office Ladies is going to go somewhere like really icy and do a polar bear plunge? Are we going to Finland? Are we going to have a shot of like some kind of alcohol and then jump in an icy lake?

I don't know if I'm at icy lake yet. I mean, I'm at pretty cold. Would you do it though? No. I don't think. Lee is really into it. Lee wants to talk to Josh about it because Josh, you know, is a super healthy guy. I think he's going to get Josh to start doing it.

Lee and I think maybe 2022 we might get you to do it, Ange. No way. I hate being cold. I want it to be something that you do. No. I don't know why. I don't want to do it. All right, fine.

I would do it on a vacation. I am vacation adventurous. I am not day-to-day adventurous. All right. Take me, you know, somewhere Nordic, maybe I'll jump in and holler after I've had a shot of something. Okay. It's probably not the health routine you want.

Well, today we are going to talk about the meeting, which is season six, episode two. It is written by one of our favorite people, Aaron Schur. Love him. And directed by one of our other favorite people, Randall Einhorn. Yeah. So here's a summary. Jim meets with David Wallace about a possible promotion, Dwight and Toby joined forces to investigate whether Daryl submitted a fraudulent medical claim, and Pam works to lock down

her RSVPs for her and Jim's wedding. I found that storyline so relatable. Well, you just RSVP people, just RSVP. When Meredith says, I'll just text you the day of the wedding, I mean, did you get texts on the day of your wedding because I did? Yeah. I was like, you may not be my friend anymore, person who texted me on my wedding morning to ask me about, like, parking instructions.

I got to text the morning of my wedding about, would this outfit be appropriate? What's the attire again? Is it real fancy or could I wear something casual? See, now listen, Angie, if you text me the morning of my wedding to ask me a question, that's fine. But you know what? I wouldn't. That's the difference.

BFFs get a pass. BFFs do get a pass, but they also know better. Yeah, text another wedding guest. You know someone who's going? Text your most reliable friend who saved the invitation. Text the friend you know in the wedding party. Yeah. That's their job.

Leave. The bride and groom alone. Okay. We could really go off on that. I mean, listen, clearly, it meant so much to us. We moved it up to the top of the show. Yeah. We didn't even wait to get to that scene.

I know. All right, let's do some fast facts. Fast fact number one, this episode is going to kick off a major story arc for Jim in which he becomes the co-manager of the Scranton Branch. Now this is also going to signal a wardrobe change for Jim. Did you notice? Boo, boo, boo, boo, wardrobe change. Jim wears a jacket instead of his usual shirt and tie.

Not just any jacket, a suit. Yeah. This is going to continue while he is co-manager. I guess jacket means you take things seriously. Look at Pam when she become a salesperson. They're the jacket couple now. We are. We're so cute.

You know how Dwight wore his long sleeves for Charles Minor? Yeah. These are ways that our wardrobe department can really, you know, signal storytelling. I think it's very cool and I wanted to give them a shout out. Love it. Loved our wardrobe department. I loved that fast fact. Thank you, Ange.

Fast fact number two, this episode is a very interesting pairing as part of its B story. This feels like one of those assignments that we've heard about, the taking of the two people, Dwight and Toby. When have we had a Dwight-Toby huge storyline? I can't pick up one. I thought the same thing. They were on a card and they got sent off to the writer's pod. Now this B story was also ranked number seven on Screen Rant's Best B Plots.

Do you know what was number one? No. Dwight's Concussion. Oh, with Pam. Yeah. I did love that one. So incidentally, while Paul Lieberstein was starring in this very popular B story, he was also our sole showrunner for this season, season six.

In season five, he shared that title with Jen Salata, but at this point, Jen was starting to develop some other projects, so she took a step back in season six. She was the consulting producer. She worked three days a week. So Paul, our showrunner, was starring in this episode. I don't know. It just amazes me how he juggled it all. I mean, I feel like he was living there for a bit.

Do you think he ever slept there? I feel like maybe at least once. We should ask him. We should ask. Now, Fast Fact number three, Angela, I am handing over to you. What would you like to tell us? I would like to talk about the deleted scenes for this episode. I am titling this Fast Fact because I guess I titled my Fast Facts.

I'm titling my Fast Fact. Stay with me. Long, the long, long, long. Oh, long, the long, long, long. Should I be titling my Fast Facts? No. I think we're all fine, not to. You guys, this episode was a very long script.

Oh. And a lot of our scripts came in very long, but I just thought this one really highlights how much didn't make it in that was written on the page, and I wanted to share that with you. Okay. It's a little insight, you guys, into the deleted scenes of an episode of The Office. So I was training emails with Randy Cordray, and he said that there was so much material for our episodes that our editor's first cuts were usually about 45 minutes long.

And we had to narrow that down to 21 minutes and 30 seconds to broadcast the show. So they would cut more than half? Exactly. That brings me to this script. Jenna, I looked, the shooting draft was 41 pages. Okay. So it's usually a page equals a minute. We've talked about that before.

Right. So they were going to have to edit out more than half the script. I went to the shooting draft and I read the shooting draft as I watched the episode that was broadcast and there were six talking heads that never made it in, eight full scenes that never made it, and then five scenes were actually extended and longer than what made it onto the screen. And I was trading emails with Randy and he brought up a great, great note, which is the whole Dwight and Toby runner, as well as some of the Michael Andy runner really had to be

cut for this episode. And there are elements that didn't make it in that would have really kind of explained a little bit more what was happening. And I'm going to share some of those as we go. Wow. This episode was almost like two A stories to me. Yes. Exactly.

Exactly. But if you think about it, I mean, six talking heads, eight whole scenes, eight whole scenes. Wow. Right? Yeah. But you're going to give us the dish. I'm going to give you the dish. You're going to spill the tea.

Is that what it is? Spill the tea? Do you spill the tea? I think you spill the tea and you serve the dish and you give the scoop. What else? What's another one? I don't know. That's my fast fact.

That just shows you what we had to do every week to trim it to network broadcast. I enjoyed this top of show. And we go to a break and when we come back, we will spill the tea and give the dish and the tell the things. We'll tell all the things. All right. All right. This episode starts with a cold open between Michael and Oscar.

Michael has called Oscar into his office for advice on an upcoming medical procedure. And Oscar is concerned. He's like, Michael, are you okay? What's going on? Michael reveals it's a colonoscopy and wonders if in Oscar's experience, there's anything he can do to make it more pleasurable for himself or the doctor. And Oscar, of course, walks out of Michael's office. Yes.

Now I always love scenes between Steve and Oscar. They are so good together. They're a good comedy duo. This scene made me cringe. Yeah. Oscar's performance is so good. Oh my God. Oscar's amazing.

I caught an improv moment. Oh. Yeah. So it's not in the script. I went to the shooting draft. There's this moment where Oscar says, what's the procedure if you don't mind me asking? And he scooches his chair real close to Michael's desk. Oscar Nunez came up with that sort of physical improv in the moment to sort of, you know,

try to bond with Michael, right? What's happening, Michael? I thought that was just smart acting. Well, Steve and Oscar have a very similar improvisation style, and it's based on small details and slow timing, like patience, pace, all of it. Yeah. Well, I have another background catch in this scene. Okay.

I caught Meredith at front reception talking to Pam, and I couldn't help but wonder, is this a Kate Jenna Fakie spreadsheet conversation moment? You know what, lady? What? She's talking to Erin. Oh no. Yes. Oh my God.

Yeah. And you know what? I saw Kate at reception, and the first thing I thought was, oh my God, or me and Kate doing our bit, and then I realized it's not me. I thought it was me too. Oh my gosh. It's Erin. That just shows you, even though we know the show, we're rewatching it, we were there.

I will always think of Pam as at front reception. It's true. But Pam spends half of the series as not a receptionist, and yet I still think of her as the receptionist, and people regard me as the receptionist when they meet me. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I guess I did. I know.

I did too. Well, as the episode starts, there is a deleted scene, you guys, that would have set up how truly overwhelmed Michael was. And I thought it was kind of important. I want to share it with you. In the shooting draft, it says we're inside Michael's office. Michael is looking slightly more haggard than usual. He sits in his office with Erin.

She is just handing him post-it notes. We see the perimeter of Michael's desktop monitor is completely covered with multi-colored post-it notes. And then Erin says, Bill Seidman from Buffalo, and hands Michael a post-it note. He puts yet another one on his computer. Michael says, thank you. And then Erin hands him another post-it note. And then Erin says, Angela's still waiting for you to approve the new billing rates from

Buffalo. And in the script, it says, Michael lets out an exasperated yelp. He stares at all of the post-it notes. Lady, I have to tell you, at 12 minutes one second, there is a scene between David Wallace and Michael in his office. And in the foreground is half of Michael's computer monitor. And I was like, why are there all these sticky notes on Michael's computer monitor? I took a picture of it to show you.

And here you have answered the question for me. Well, here it is. This is what it looks like in the deleted scenes. I took a picture as well. I'll put it in stories. Oh, that's the full monitor. You have full monitor. I have full monitor.

And you guys, I took a picture of my own desktop computer. Also, is it very similar to Michael Scott's computer? I'm going to put it side by side. Mine is not as bad as Michael's, but clearly Michael and I have the same way of keeping track of things. I have post-its all around my computer, as you know, Jenna, so I couldn't help but crack up. But the scene goes on to sort of explain that Michael is really overwhelmed because of

Buffalo Closing. They've absorbed all the new clients, and it's part of the reason why David Wallace is there. Wow. Well, I feel like that scene would have been very helpful in terms of setup. Yeah. But instead, the episode opens with Michael walking out of his office with David Wallace. And it's just one line.

One line. David is like, can I get the rundown of the Buffalo Clients by Sunday night? Yeah. But you don't know that Michael is like being buried in a sea of post-it notes from all these other new clients. Well, Michael says he will get that rundown done by Sunday night. And David Wallace is like, great. And he's like, well, I mean, I'm going to put it in the mail on Sunday, so you should

get it by Wednesday. But I also thought this can't be an email. You have to physically mail this rundown? Have you seen Michael's computer? Michael's computer is just basically a shelf for post-it notes. True. It's not a working device unless you want to watch a YouTube video. That's all that happens.

Well, now Wallace is going to take Jim into the conference room for a meeting to which Michael is not invited. I have a question for Jim. What? Jim, why, why, why, why would you take this meeting with David? In Scranton. In Scranton. I thought the same thing.

Why not say, David, can I meet you after work? Like can I come to New York? Yeah. Can we have lunch and make up an excuse like clearly everyone else does at Dunderman Flynn, make up an excuse at lunch that you're going to see a client. Of course Michael's going to spiral. Come on, Jim. You know better.

I thought the same thing too, but it was clear that David came to Scranton because he had a lot of business to do. So he's consolidating, but I think Jim should have been more proactive. Well I have a background catch for this little scene. Angela. Give it to me. I love a background catch. At one minute 58 seconds, there is a book on Michael's credenza and it is very prominent

and it is titled First Break All the Rules What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently. Now I assumed this was a prop book that Phil Shea created. Is it a fakie book? It is a really book. Come on. This is a real book and here is the book's description. In this longtime management bestseller, Gallup presents the remarkable findings of its massive in-depth study of great managers.

Some were in leadership positions. Others were frontline supervisors. Some were in Fortune 500 companies. Others were key players in small entrepreneurial firms. They all excelled at turning each individual employee's talent into high performance. Now according to a review, this study, this analysis, consisted of interviews with 80,000 managers. 80,000?

Yeah. In order to write this book, they talked to 80,000 managers that were determined to be great managers. Wow. Here are three observations from the book, okay? There are many but here's three. Number one, people don't quit their companies, they quit their bosses. No.

True. True. All the jobs I've quit have been because I hated my boss. I mean, I did quit a job just because I hated the job. But your boss was great? Yeah, I liked my boss. Oh. But I hated the job.

Okay. Sorry, it happens guys. Well, number two, one of the signs of a great manager is the ability to describe in detail the unique talent of each employee, what drives them, how they think, and how each one builds relationships. This also sounds like what it is to be a good partner. I mean, that reminded me of what it is to be a great director. Lee is a director, my husband, and he's often said like, you have to have a different directing

style with each actor because some actors like a lot of notes and some don't and some need a lot of pep talk and others hate that. He's like, so like the first day on the job, your job is to figure out just like how to talk to each different person. Like learning everyone's strengths and quirks. Yeah, exactly. And finally, I thought this was very, very interesting. A great manager knows the difference between skills, knowledge, and weakness.

Meaning like just because someone doesn't know how to do something that's not a weakness, maybe that's just a lack of skill or lack of knowledge. But if they have knowledge and they're not doing it right, well, then that would be a weakness. Yeah. So I have to say, I kind of thought that Michael Scott was good at number two and three on the list. Like he really knows everybody really well in his company.

He knows how to motivate them. I thought maybe he had read this book on his credenza. He definitely has number two because the way he introduces a person when someone new is in the office. Yeah. He knows everyone very intimately. He does. It doesn't take Michael long to start spiraling about Jim and David in the conference room.

He says he's not worried, but he corners Pam pretty quickly. He does. He escorts her the three steps to her desk, but she's not telling him anything. She clearly knows why Jim is meeting with David. This scene was so hard to get through, Angela. As soon as Steve would kneel down next to my desk, I would start laughing. Just the sincerity with which he would kneel, but then when he would say that my lies would pass through my breast milk and make my unborn baby a liar, it was like really hard.

It was very, very funny. I really liked it when he said, well, why'd you say good luck? And you were like, that's not like me. I don't know. I'm not sure why I would say that. I'm not very superstitious. I was like, what is Pam doing? She's so bad at lying.

I would like to point out in this scene, I think I'm doing some really wonderful prop work. I am filling a binder with sheets of paper. That was my idea. I thought this would feel like more significant than just carrying some papers from the copier and sitting down. I was like, could you get me a binder and I could be like making a binder? Anything to not be answering his questions.

I liked my choice. I like it too. Well, this is going to start the Dwight Toby runner, aka, are they mom detectives? This whole storyline is 100% a case that mom detectives would take. 100%. Yeah. A fraudulent workers compensation claim. Possible fraudulent.

Possible fraudulent. Dwight is in the break room and he overhears Daryl telling Toby how he broke his ankle and he's got a doctor's note and, you know, Toby's fine with it. And Dwight is like, no, no, no, no, no, red flags, red flags. I'll tell you, the only thing I saw in this scene was a three minutes, 18 seconds. Is it a stuffed animal? The stuffed dog wearing a Toby shirt, wearing a maroon sweater. What the heck?

It totally took me out of the scene for a minute. I was like, where did this stuffed animal come from? Why does it say Toby? What is happening? But wait, just wait, I have a picture that I took, lady, to show you, even though you saw this dog, too. Did you zoom in on it? Just look at it next to Paul.

Just look at it. Come on. Look at Toby dog next to real Toby. Look at it. They are frowning the same, they're in the same color scheme. Look at it. Oh my God. Do you think this is like a writer's joke or Phil Shea joke?

I feel like someone saw this stuffed dog and they were like, oh my God, it's Toby. And they put a Toby shirt on it and then they put it on his desk. Ivy, what is that? I need the story of that. We need to dig deeper. You have to post this picture. It's not in the script. It's not in the script, this Toby dog.

It's all I could see. Well, I guess Dwight brings up enough suspicion that Toby's like, all right, maybe we should check this out, right? And he said, plus, he's always been a fan of these hard-boiled detective novels. Well, we got a fan question from Alice R in Italy who says, around four minutes, 30 seconds, Toby has a sheet behind him that lists all of the HR representatives from all the Dunder Mifflin branches. So besides Toby and Holly, who are these other people?

Are these made-up names? Alice also noted that Holly is wrongly associated with the Utica branch instead of the Nashua branch. She was really looking. I am impressed. I am too. Alice, here's the thing. I zoomed in on this and it was a little fuzzy.

I found it very hard to read and I really looked at it. I don't know if this is my sign that I need to go get a new pair of glasses. Here's what I could read on the piece of paper. Number one, yes, Holly is listed as Utica, good catch. Also her name is listed as Hollis, P-Flax, Jenny O'Keefe is one of the names on the list. Oh, Jenny. She was our second AD.

That's right. I could not tell what branch she was associated with. It was too blurry for me. But Nick Carbone, Nick our boom operator, was listed as the Buffalo branch HR representative and Debbie Pierce from Hair and Makeup, Debbie did hair. Debbie was listed as the Nashua branch HR representative. And then when there were three more names, I could not make out their last names or their branches, but they were Shelly, Kim and Chris.

We had several people with those names and I could not make out the last names. But good catch, Alice. That was really fun for me to see all those names on that sheet and that's who they were. I love that. I love how set dressing would put the names of our crew all over the set. I know. Well, Jenna, I had to know what a hardboiled detective was. Oh, okay.

I mean, especially if we're going to be mom detectives, I feel like I need to know the genre. Yeah. So this is what it says on the internet. It's a literary genre that shares some of its characters and settings with crime fiction, especially detective fiction, our noir fiction. And hardboiled means to be devoid of sentimentality, tough, being a detective, our story featuring a tough, unsynominal protagonist, a matter of fact attitudes towards violence, hardheaded

and practical. Oh, very un-Toby like. Yeah. To be a hardboiled detective, this is like Toby's version of being a superhero. That's right. Wow. I know. Well, now Michael is going to interrupt Jim's meeting with David Wallace.

He's just going to burst into the conference room while on the phone. I have his fake phone call conversations. Please. His first one as he walks in, he says, uh-huh, uh-huh. Well, if he doesn't like it, you can tell that SOB that he's fired. Sorry, I'm going into a meeting right now. I will. See you too.

Bye. Who's he talking to? Who's he talking to? And when he leaves, this is his other fake phone call. Oh, this, um, call waiting. Yeah. Uh-huh. Well, you tell the mayor he just lost six votes.

This tactic of bursting into the room, talking on the phone, reminded me a little bit of my strategy of walking up to famous people laughing. I have to say, I thought maybe. This is Michael's way into a meeting. Yeah. Meeting people. So now Creed and Michael are sort of peering into the conference room together from some file cabinets.

First of all, Creed just always makes me laugh. I love him. I love every time he is on screen. What I also love about the character Creed is that he is the last person you ever want to make you feel better about a situation. True. I know. The fact that they partnered him next to Michael while Michael is worried about what's happening

in the conference room is so perfect. During this, Steve is flipping through the yellow pages. Oh, no. What'd you see? Do you remember the yellow pages? Of course. You used to get a big one in the mail. Yeah.

Does this happen anymore? I think the yellow pages are online now, but I think in some places they still print them. Yeah. You still get a hard copy, I think. No, I don't get one. I feel like I got one a few years ago. I don't know.

Do youngins know what the yellow pages are? Let your fingers do the walking. Do they know? I doubt it. You know what? We should show our kids a yellow page. Here, guys, for any of you out there who are young and are like, what are the yellow pages?

So every year you would get a phone book. First of all, you would get white pages and that would list and name and address. Yeah. You would get like an alphabetical list of everyone in your city. And I remember getting it as a kid and like looking us up and being like, there we are. Ours always had like a little star or circle by someone we knew, like my mom would have gone through and like made little markings. Oh, yeah.

Or your market. Yeah. Well, the yellow pages was a directory of all of the businesses in your area and they were listed alphabetically by the type of business. Right. Like florist. Yes, if you needed an electrician, you looked in the electrician section and different businesses might take out ads so that their listing was bigger or flashier, like a half page.

Yeah. And that's why a lot of businesses would put the letter A somewhere in the name. Like awesome plumbers because then they would be at the top of the list. Yes. And then there were also the blue pages, which is a government directory. I never got a blue page. I never heard of the blue pages. Well, they could be at your library.

Oh. You could look in the blue pages if you needed to contact a government agency in your area. Like the water department for your city. Yes. But when I saw the yellow pages, I got really nostalgic and I was like, as a kid, I would flip through the yellow pages and look at the ads. Like, I would read the comics in the newspaper that we got every day at our house and the funnies.

The funnies. And like, I would read the back of the cereal box at breakfast because we didn't have smartphones or internet. Right. I would flip through the Sears catalog circling stuff. Oh, how great was it to get a catalog? I love a catalog. I still love a catalog.

I do still love a catalog. Anyway, well, there you go for you, young ins, all the fun you missed out on. Anytime you want a breakdown of some old tech, just hit up these two middle-aged ladies. We'll tell you. Oh. Now we have Pam's storyline. Yes. She's on the hunt for the RSVPs.

She starts with Kelly. Kelly wants to know if Ryan is going to the wedding. She doesn't want to RSVP unless Ryan is going. Because it would be a waste of time. I mean, wait, that came out wrong. Right. I mean, what she's trying to say is that she would really like it if Ryan went because then she would go and she'd really like to be there to support Jim.

Everything she said to you was like, it's a frenemy moment. We had a fan question from Heather Bee in Victoria, British Columbia. At five minutes, 48 seconds, when Pam goes to Kelly's desk, there is a sign that says Kelly's nook. And there is. And before, she had her little name plate that said Kelly that she got in the Yankee swap. But this is a new sign.

It says Kelly's nook. I love a nook. Heather Bee wondered if this was an addition from the scene when she told Dwight to get out of her nook. Well, this scene is going to take us to a Pam talking head. And Pam and Jim have clearly done that thing. The destination wedding, you guys, if your friend has a destination wedding, it's because they're trying to rule out some people.

I think that's true because you're allowed to have a smaller guest list if it's a destination wedding. That's right. I'm going to go with you to like a remote area or like a fancy vacation. I'm getting married on a boat. What? Well, it is revealed that Jim and Pam are getting married in Niagara Falls. Now, when we traded emails with Warren and Halstead about their episode Cafe Disco, Halstead

reminded me that in an earlier version of the script, Pam and Jim were going to get married in Paris. Oh my gosh. I forgot that. Isn't that crazy? And they changed it to Niagara because they felt like Paris, number one, they thought it was a little bit too kind of on the nose romantic, maybe too much of a stretch budget wise. And they thought Niagara Falls was perfect.

I agree. I think that Paris just seems a little too big and too far away for who Jim and Pam are. I agree. Now, also speaking of Niagara Falls, we are not that far from these wedding episodes. And Randy shared with us that they were already heavily prepping that episode, like heavily. It's a big episode. We'll get there, but it's a big one. At six minutes 32 seconds, we got a fan question from Emily B in Alabama who said, behind Pam

on the file cabinet by Kelly's desk, there is a greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce business card from someone named Mary. I looked up the current board of directors and apparently this person is no longer active, but I'm curious to know why were they represented on the show. Emily B, Mary at the Chamber of Commerce was like a huge help to our show. Yes, she's an unsung hero. Carrie Bennett shared all about her with us. Yeah.

If you remember in Carrie Bennett's interview, it was from a revisited episode. Carrie shared that she created a relationship with Mary and Mary would help us get local treasures for the show, props, signs, pizza boxes. That is a great interview, by the way. If you guys haven't listened to it, our interview with Carrie Bennett, who was the wardrobe designer for the office for the first four seasons, and she really was groundbreaking in what she brought to the show. And the relationship with Mary was one of those things.

But we put that business card in a nice, prominent spot. Yay. I love putting Mary on the show. Yay, Mary. So now we get to one of my favorite scenes. It's Michael sitting on Andy's desk while he's trying to spy on Jim and David's meeting in the conference room, and he's just like throwing out random questions. Oh, lady, I have so much for this.

Are you ready? Yes. I love the scene. I know you loved it. In the episode, it starts with these two lines. Andy says, what can I do for you, Haas? And Michael, staring into the conference room, says, how are your cells doing? But Jenna, the scene was so much bigger, and big chunks of it were edited out for time,

and I feel like we need to hear the full scene. I cannot believe there was more to one of my favorite scenes, and I cannot wait. So much more. All right. So Andy and Michael have this exchange, and then, right after that, this would have happened. Are my cells done? They're good. Super solid.

What do you mean? Your retention. How's that? How's your retention, Ben? Client retention? You're asking me about client retention? Yes. Why?

Angela, my sales numbers are not updated, so that's on you. Stop haranguing me. Stop haranging me, all right? So Angela's like, stop haranging me. And then here's the part that made it in. Andy's like, busted. My numbers are down a little bit. It's because of the economy.

You're not buying it. You're good. Okay, the truth is, I've been having trouble focusing lately. I'm in this weird, flirty, nebulous thing with his cousin of mine. It's a total mind effort, which leads to one of my favorite lines, Phyllis saying, again, with the cousin. It's so amazing, the idea that Andy will not shut up about this weird cousin thing, but then he reads the email.

Yes. He says, oh, I'm sorry, Phyllis. You explained this email. Okay. Hey, Andy, let's go visit grandma and they get drunk together. Ha-ha. I mean, that's amazing. Okay.

So what aired, it would have stopped there, but the scene keeps going. And this next part, I call Angela coming in hot. Oh. I'll tell you the problem. The problem is that I'm backlogged because Michael hasn't signed off on any of the billing rates for the Buffalo client. Please, I'm trying to figure out what's going on in there. Okay.

They're probably talking about what a terrible job you're doing. You know what? I bet they're worried about how you're managing this branch. I know. I emailed David about it. Whoa. I know. I know.

And then this moment leads to Michael and Andy hatching a plan. I need to find a way to get in there. I need to fix this branch, but first I need to get into that room. Check this out. I put together a cheese cart, hide you underneath, roll you in, all of a sudden, blammo, you can hear everything going on. I'm the branch manager. I'm not hiding underneath the cheese cart.

As the branch manager, I used to garner respect. No, I gotta think of something else. Think something with dignity, okay? Caviar cart. Caviar cart, something with dignity. I'll do the cart. I'll hide it in a cart. Yeah, no problem.

You can wheel me in, but make it classy. Please. Oh, wow. Now, I have to say I miss the stuff with Angela because I think that that would get in Michael's head in such a way that it's his motivation for doing something so extreme as the cheese cart. Well, it heightens everything. It does.

But at the same time, I like that they cut out the discussion of the cheese cart because that is such a funny reveal after the commercial. Yeah. Well, I think we should take a break. And then when we come back, it'll be all cheese cart. Oh, yeah. And we're going to learn something new about Andy in a deleted scene. We are back.

And you know what they say about a plan when it's just so crazy, it might work. Yeah. Operation cheese cart. It's happening. You know why? It's just elegant. We have his talking head in the kitchen and over Michael's shoulder. We can see Andy preparing a cheese cart.

He's taking cheese out of some sandwiches. We had a fan catch from Gabby M. in Phoenix who said, when Andy is making the cheese plate, he takes five pieces of cheese off of someone's sandwich. Who puts five pieces of cheese on a sandwich? And I was like, good catch, Gabby. I have an answer for you. What? Remember those eight deleted scenes?

Yes. Here's one of them. It would have happened later in the episode. Interior kitchen. Kevin takes a bite out of his sandwich and looks confused. Kevin opens the sandwich and discovers the cheese is missing. Kevin says, hey, and sadly walks to the fridge, takes out the blue cheese dressing and pours it onto his sandwich and starts to eat it.

It was Kevin's sandwich. He likes a lot of cheese. Gabby, Kevin likes five pieces of cheese. That's who. Now we realize that Michael is going to hide in the bottom of this cheese cart. Gabby wheels him into the conference room and gives a big old speech about cheese. I mean, it's a fantastic speech. We had a fan question from Christie R. in Greensboro, North Carolina.

And I'm just going to say, Christie R., you are reading my mind. What is it, Christie? Andy's cheese tray explanation is one of my favorite scenes. Was any part of this improvised? Were there any alts, him talking about how the cheddar-style spread has reacted nicely with the air makes me laugh out loud every time. Christie, me too. Same.

Can we hear it? We have to. We have to hear it. I need to hear him say challenging and delicious. Oui, oui, monsieur. From the Wisconsin region, a nice, firm cheddar. Also from the great state of Wisconsin, an aged parmesan. Here you will find a cheddar-style spread, which has reacted nicely with the air to form

a light rind, which I think you'll find both challenging and delicious. At that point, I would recommend you take a quick trip south of the border to the great state of Illinois, where you will find this fine blue cheese dressing. If I may be so bold, it's a lot of fun to let the goldfish take a little swim in the blue cheese. Bon appetit. Okay. I checked the script and the line, which has reacted nicely with the air to form a light

rind that I think you'll find both challenging and delicious, was not in there. Also the scripted version did not include the part about the goldfish going for a swim in the blue cheese. I do not know if Ed improvised these things, if they pitched him these lines on the fly, but I also think I can kind of almost hear Ed breaking at the beginning of this cheese speech because I just know his voice so well. And I have to imagine there are bloopers. I have to imagine.

I have not seen them. They are not on the blooper reel, but I don't know. You know there were bloopers. Come on. Him and John in the same room together and him saying all that stuff, forget it. Also we had a fan catch from Sessia Z in London, Ontario, Canada. If you look closely at eight minutes, 55 seconds, you can see Michael peeking out of the sheet from the cheese platter cart.

And you can. It is amazing. It's as Andy is leaving. Michael just like peeks out the corner because I thought to myself, did they make Steve really sit in that cheese cart for all of that? I think he was in there. I think he was because what if he did something and they wanted it on camera? You never know with Steve, right?

Well, you know what it reminded me of? It reminded me of the time that I was on busy Phillips talk show and it was my birthday and busy was giving me all these presents one by one from cast members of the office. What did I give you? You gave me a t-shirt with a picture of bread on it. I believe Ellie sent me a jar of rosemary crackers. Yes, she did. We'll tell you all about that in the finale episode.

You're going to have to wait for it. But there was this giant box on the stage and that was the final gift. What was it? What was this box going to be? Can I point out it was on the stage for like 20 minutes. A long time. Yeah. A very long time.

And I was like going on and on about sourdough starter all the while this big box is sitting there and after 20, 30 minutes of this taping, Steve Carell popped out of the box. Yeah. And I was like, there's one more gift and poor Steve had been sitting in a box for half an hour. But who knows how long he'd been there because he probably had to crawl in it before you came out on stage. Well, busy did this whole crazy thing during the break where she was like, Jenna, come

here. I want to take a picture with you inside of our photo booth. And I was like, okay. And then we went in there and she was like, oh, it's not working. It's not what you stay in here. Stay in the photo booth while I put it. She was like, guys, you've got to fix the booth and she would not let me out of this photo booth.

It was so, I remember thinking like, this is odd. She really wants the photo booth picture. I mean, this is very Angela Kinsey of her, but I think that was when Steve was loading into the box. Oh yeah. They were trying to keep you tucked away so you wouldn't see, but I was so surprised and then I think the first thing I said was, how long have you been in there? But anyway, when he was hiding in the cheese cart, I was like, oh my God, that reminds me

of when he hid in that box. I must have watched that scene, Jenna, probably five times. I just loved it so much. Same. And I had this moment where I was like, has Ed been a waiter because that was so good. Yeah. Has he served cheese? Has he served cheese or some kind of food?

But we did find some really great new information about Andy in a deleted scene. Jenna, it would have come earlier in the kitchen, but this is why Andy knows so much about cheese. You got to hear it. No, no, no. No. What? You don't put a soft cheese next to a hard cheese. I was making a smiley face.

Mm-hmm. Okay. Let me ask you something. Did you also spend a summer in Toulouse apprenticing for a firmagier? Hmm? What? Yeah. I didn't think so.

All right. I'm all right. You know a lot about cheeses. I just, I've already started. I'll just, all right. Oh, hey. What do you think I should say if I get caught? First of all, it's a foolproof plan.

I know. But, uh, something were to happen. What should I say? Cart, cart. I got it. Paul's and me. Do you have any grape poop, Paul? Yes.

I will use the grape poop, Paul. Now I sort of want to get caught. Oh my gosh. Okay. First of all, Andy was a firmagier apprentice. Yeah. Second of all, the grape poop, Paul. Don't you wish that had happened?

I kind of need it to happen. I totally remember those commercials. I did too. Which sent me down a rabbit hole. Last night, you remember guys, they were a long time ago, but there would be sort of a very elegant refined gentleman in a Rolls-Royce eating an elaborate sandwich with grape poop on in the back seat.

In the back of his car. Yeah. Like on a little mini tray. Yes. Like as if he was on an airplane and like an English countryside and another Rolls-Royce with another older distinguished gentleman would pull up and they would say this. Pardon me.

Would you have any grape poop on? But of course. So, of course that wasn't where I stopped Jenna with my grape poop on research. Of course not. I would hope not. I had to go to the grape poop on website and there's a lot of fascinating things about grape poop on.

Did you know it was made with wine? No. Yes. And not only that. Did you know that grape poop on made a wine? Wait. What? Yes.

They're a winemaker and a fancy mustard maker? They make fancy mustard but they decided to feature a white wine. It was called La Moutarde Vin. Probably saying it wrong. And it was inspired by their grape poop on mustard. Here is how the wine is described Jenna. Are you ready?

Yes. Bright hints of spice, pronounced citrus, floral characteristics balanced by vibrant acidity with the typical texture and roundness on the palate you'd expect from a vignere. Probably saying that wrong. So guess what? What?

I thought we both needed a bottle. What? What? And I tried to buy the grape poop on white wine and it sold out. Oh my God. I am going to tell you right now that I have never in my life craved more a sandwich with grape poop on mustard and a glass

of their mustard wine. What? I need it now. Well, I'm going to keep trying to buy it. You had me so excited and now I am so sad. I'm going to keep trying to buy it because even as I read the description of the white wine inspired by grape poop on mustard.

Yes. It sounded like Andy describing the cheese cart. I mean with a typical texture and roundness on the palate. Wow. And that wraps up the cheese cart, deleted scene runner. I'd like to share with everyone for you, Angela, that you love cheese. I love cheese.

When we went out to dinner in New York where we were celebrating our billboard in Times Square. 200 million downloads. So amazing. We went to dinner and on the menu one of the options is a cheese plate with fancy cheeses. Yes. Several different kinds you can pick.

And this is Angela reading the menu. I'm going to be Angela reading the menu. Well, I definitely want cheese. I don't know what else I want, but I'm going to need to get cheese. What do you want to start? Do you want some cheeses? I want some cheeses.

I don't know. Then you were like, should we have cheeses after? I said, how about cheeses like a dessert course? Yeah. Because we were hungry and we wanted a bunch of food. Yeah. And I said, why don't we see how we feel at the end? And maybe we get cheese as dessert and wine.

They do it in Europe, right? Right. You end with cheese. Right. Well, we ate and the restaurant was so kind to us. They brought us an extra appetizer on the house. They were Office Ladies fans. Yeah.

And then we had big hearty pasta. We were too full for cheese. And I watched Angela get real sad when she realized that she would not be ordering cheese. This woman loves cheese. I love cheese. I love all kinds of cheese. I once bought a super stinky cheese that my family asked me

to put in the garage because it had stunk up our fridge so bad. And when I would take it out to eat it, literally the kids were like, ugh. All right, guys, we got a little off topic. Who, us? No. But forgive us. It was cheese.

If anything's going to take us off topic, it's going to be cheese. Cheese. And then when you find out a fancy mustard made of wine, come on. I mean, it was inevitable. At the end of this scene, though, David Wallace is going to leave the conference room.

And Michael is going to wheel himself out of the office. With one foot. Steve really did that. It's amazing. And then Wallace is going to say, can we have a chat in your office? That's going to pay off in a little bit. But first, Toby and Dwight are on a stake out at Darrell's

house. Yeah. And I have a question for my train aficionados out there. Yeah. Does this train lingo track? See what I did there? Does the train lingo track? Hey, that is, that's like dad level pun right there.

I know. Dad pun. Dad pun. Yeah. Because I'll tell you why. Toby says, sounds like an EMD P40. Dwight says, now that's a GE. A P40 is much higher pitched.

So I looked all that up. I couldn't find anything called an EMD P40. I did find a six axle passenger diesel electric locomotive built by General Motors Electromotive Division called an EMD SD P40. Okay. But we saw a picture of the train and it was not a passenger train. That's right. And GE does make locomotives for freight trains.

They're a leading manufacturer. So maybe Dwight was right. I don't know guys. My train people is this accurate. I just love that Dwight is able to differentiate trains by the sound of the train horn. By the pitch. Yeah.

That's kind of amazing. Train people, let us know. Is this accurate? Well, here's what's going to happen on their stakeout. Oh my gosh. They see Daryl not on crutches walking with a giant bag of dog food on his shoulder. Right.

Same jersey walking from behind. Can't see his face. They're positive it's him. Guess what? That's not him. It's his sister. It is. But they've already shouted and revealed themselves to be like on the

stakeout and then they peel away and they run into some trash cans. Oh no. They make total asses of themselves and they're completely busted. Well, location alert. We shot this scene on Emelida Street in Van Nuys, California. Phil Shea created that enormous dog food bag using a fictional label created by our graphics designer, Ryan Cosgrove. And it was our stunt coordinator, Sean Crowder, who was doubled for Dwight

driving into the trash cans. They also had a stunt double for Toby in that scene. And I looked at it. It's amazing. Like, could you tell? No. I didn't catch it. I could not tell, but the stunt person who was playing Toby does this

like really hardcore like jerk forward. And so later when Toby is like icing his forehead, like clearly that was like Ryan that was tracked. But it's good. It was a good stunt. I think we should title this next scene too cool for school in the break room. Yeah.

Oh boy. Ryan. Pam is trying to find out if Ryan is coming to the wedding. He's like, yeah, I might stop by. And Pam's like, I might stop by. This is a wedding, Ryan. I know. There's no might stop by.

Pam is like, it's $75 a plate. So I kind of need a solid answer. And Ryan's like, oh, I once drank a 77 glass of cognac. And, you know, yeah, I'll come to the wedding. Probably. I'll probably come. I have a fun fact. Okay.

The most expensive bottle of cognac in the world is a bottle of Gaultier cognac from 1962. It's sold at auction for $144,525 in May of 2020. Whose cognac was it? Was it like Da Vinci's cognac? Who had that cognac? Why is it so special? I don't know.

But because there are only three bottles of this quote exceedingly rare spirit that still exists today and all of them still have their original labels. So people check your liquor cabinets because if you have one of the other two bottles, you are swimming in $144,525. If your grandfather has an old bottle of cognac wedged in the back that his grandfather gave him, it might be your lottery ticket. Yeah. Well, David and Michael are going to have a scene now where David is basically like,

Michael, can you handle all these new responsibilities? And also, what do you think about Jim in a leadership role? Yeah. And Michael thinks that Jim would be kind of replacing him or maybe leaving the branch. And so he talks bad about Jim. He calls him the big bird of the office. He shows David Toby's report on Jim, which you know is going to be so petty because Toby's in love with Pam.

Yeah. And this is clearly an old report because it says Jim spends a lot of time at reception, which we know Pam is no longer at. Well, there was a Jim talking head in the shooting draft that didn't make it in. Yet another one of those deleted scenes, right? This is what Jim would have said. So it turns out Pam's dowry was a bit disappointing. It was mostly just stuffed animals and scrunchies.

And a kid can't live on scrunchies. The stuffed animals may come in handy. Anyway, yeah, I need a promotion. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Pam's dowry was stuffed animals and scrunchies. You know, what's funny to me about that is that it was Jim who brought the debt into

their marriage with the purchase of his parents' home. I knew, I knew I was going to stir the pot. I'm just saying. I knew. I'm just saying. I knew when I read it, I would stir the Jim and Pam pot. Well, it was in this scene with David Wallace that I saw all the sticky notes on the computer. And also there's a fan catch from Kane H from California who said in the meeting, Michael

says he has to talk to his guy from H&R Block. But in job fair, Michael says, what does H&R Block do? So has Michael learned what H&R Block does? Or does he just say it to try to be relatable? Well, I like that catch, Kane. And I'm pretty sure that he is using it wrong because he tells David Wallace, he has to talk to his mother and his H&R Block guy about being promoted to all Northeast sales. I'm not sure why you need your guy at H&R Block to weigh in.

I think he should weigh in on everything. I think that's what Michael thinks. Relationship advice. Well, Jim does have a talking head, Angela, where he says that the reason he didn't tell Michael about all of this promotion stuff was that he was afraid Michael would try to help and that it would be a debacle, and he notes that Michael once handed out Jell-O shots at the 23rd mile of the Steamtown Marathon. We got some mail from Greg Zee in Pocono Pines, Pennsylvania.

What's up, Greg? I found this a delightful letter. Greg Zee says, as you two plan your epic road trip to Scranton, Pennsylvania, I propose that you add the Steamtown Marathon to your list of must-dos. In fact, how fun would it be for you two to make an appearance at the 23rd mile of the race, the exact spot where Michael handed out his Jell-O shots? P.S., I am currently training for my 13th Steamtown Marathon myself, and I listen to your podcast every Wednesday or sometimes I save it for my long runs on Sundays.

A lot of people are surprised that I listen to podcasts instead of music while running, but I think a podcast about a show set in Scranton is the perfect listening choice while preparing for a race that ends in Scranton. Oh, Greg, I love that. Greg, I hope you're running right now. Hello. Hello. How's it going? I hope you're hydrated and have really comfortable running shoes.

Keep going. Keep going. You can do it. Pep Talks by Jen and Angela. Yeah. David's going to ask Jim to walk him to his car. I think this is never a good thing, guys. I think if someone says, hey, can you walk me to my car? They're going to tell you something. Yeah.

Some shiitake is going to go down. Yeah. And when Jim comes back in the office, he's clearly bummed by whatever it is David said to him. Yeah, Michael tries to bring him some jelly beans, and I want you to know he's definitely bummed because at 13 minutes, 50 seconds, he's taken off his jacket, his ambition jacket, as I like to call it. I think his ambition has been deflated. Oh, yeah.

Ambition jacket. Yeah. So they're going to go into Michael's office. Jim is like, I need to find out what you told David Wallace. I'd also like to point out that as they walk into Michael's office, I still have my binder on my desk that I've been working on. I've been working on that binder all day. And you know what, guys?

She really did. By the end of this episode, Pam would have had a stellar binder thanks to Jenna. Yeah, I don't know what the binder is about, but it's going to be great. Toby's not looking so good. Dwight is checking his pupils to see if they're dilated. He's got a big red mark on his forehead. Yeah. And Daryl busts in.

And it's like, hey, you called my sister an A-hole. You drove into my trash cans. Yeah. He's checked off. Yeah, Daryl wants to call corporate and file a complaint. Guys, guest star alert, Daryl's sister Gwyneth was played by Jamila Jackson. She is so good. She is so good in this scene.

Perfect. She's going to appear in another episode as well. And Randy Cordray told us that after they cast her, she agreed to let Debbie Pierce cut her hair to match Craig for this role. Well, it really sold it. I mean, that's commitment. That's actor commitment. It is.

And sometimes you get asked to do that stuff. Yeah. I remember they would put that in the breakdowns for roles if there was like something you needed to do. Like, I don't know, shave your head or grow a beard or dye your hair. Yes. Ducked up brown like I did for haters back off. Yes. I was a full brunette for two years.

Yep. Freaked my family out. Well, Jamila, thanks for doing that because we loved you as Daryl's sister. Dwight and Toby are going to have to go down to the warehouse. They're going to apologize. But then Dwight notices that some of the other warehouse workers are using the lift to get down from the top of the stairs. Instead of the stairs, they're like crawling through the banister on top of the lift and then going and going down. And Dwight's like, hold on.

I think you hurt your leg using the lift instead of the stairs. And here's my evidence. There's this new piece of wood up there. Right. Dwight is right. Daryl's like, uh, yeah. So Dwight is like, I'm going to file a complaint because Daryl lied. Daryl is like, I'm going to file a complaint because you harassed my sister.

Toby is like, no paperwork. We're all just going to move on. There's an epic stare down between Daryl, his sister and Dwight. And it ends with Toby at his desk being like, so. Dwight and Daryl decided to file complaints on one another. So now Toby is in a mountain of paperwork with his red like forehead from running into trash cans and his little stuffed doggy. Toby. All right.

Well, we have one more storyline to wrap up here. Michael is going to call David Wallace in front of Jim and try to both save his own ass and tell David Wallace that he thinks that Jim is a good person for this promotion. Jim makes him put David on speakerphone and he lies at first and says Jim is not there. And then David is like, I want Jim to be there. So he does like this funny little like, oh, he's walking in. Here he is. Oh, hey. Sitting down.

Well, I had to look it up in the script. I wanted to know, did Steve improvise that in the moment? That was in the script. It was so funny. Steve did it so well. But also in the scene, Angela, David says, hey, I talked to Alan and we had this idea that you guys would become like co managers. Michael, you're going to handle like the sort of big picture stuff. Jim, you handle the day to day.

What do you think? And Michael's like, I don't know. And David's like, listen, this is the only way I could sell it to Alan. Who's Alan? Who is Alan? Who is this guy? Who the hell is Alan? I don't know who Alan is. But Alan's in charge.

Clearly. We never meet Alan. I've never heard of Alan before. Well, Alan, whoever you are, this isn't going to go well. It's not going to go well, Alan. It's a terrible idea. Terrible idea. We'll see how it goes next week at least.

It is not going to go well, Alan. Sorry to say. Well, I love this next moment. Dwight is going to burst in to make an announcement, right? Mm-hmm. What he's discovered in the warehouse. But Michael was already making an announcement that he and Jim will now co-manage the Scranton branch. Dwight?

Dwight looks like someone hit him in the face with a frying pan. He's like, what the F? And then he has a talking head that's just a scream. Like a primal scream. We had a fan question from Winter P from Fort Wayne, Indiana, my birthplace. That's where I was born. How about that? After Jim gets promoted, Dwight has a talking head where he just screams and you can see

Creed like jump out of his seat in the background. Was Creed actually startled by the noise? I mean, I have to say it looked like he was. They might have used the very first take. Yeah. I mean, Creed maybe didn't realize how loud rain was going to be. Well, you know, in the shooting draft, that's the last scene. Oh, yeah.

But in what made it to air, there was this lovely little ending scene between Meredith and Pam and Angela. I loved it. Pam is still trying to get her RSVP list finalized and she asked Meredith. Is she coming? Meredith says Niagara Falls in October. But then, you know, this scene plays out. We discussed it at the top of the show where Meredith doesn't want to return her RSVP card. She'll just text Pam if she wants ribs or not.

And as Meredith leaves, Pam is clearly like frustrated and Angela says rude about Meredith. Pam is so excited. She's like, yes. And she's going to sit down and have a moment with Angela in the break room and maybe vent a little bit. But first she has to move Angela's purse onto the table. Pam, my bag was there. Yeah. There goes their moment.

Over. It's done. They're never going to be friends. Well, there you have it, guys. That was the meeting. This week we have a very special episode of Office Ladies with a very special person who we love. Who we love so much that Jenna is talking like this. We have a special person.

Well, he's fascinating. I can't wait for you guys to hear this interview. Have a fantastic week. Thanks for listening to Office Ladies. We're sending you a big, big hug through the microphone thingy. I like it. We'll see you next week. Use code, Office.