Office Ladies - The Office’s Most Expensive Moments

Episode Date: October 21, 2026

This week on Office Ladies 6.0, Jenna and Angela are looking through the books to examine some of the most expensive moments, props, and episodes in The Office history. The ladies dive into exclusive budget info, breaking down the price tags behind iconic moments including the Booze Cruise production, the breakaway desk in Moroccan Christmas, and Jim’s surprisingly expensive red wire prank on Dwight, before revealing the most expensive Office episode of all time. Plus, the ladies discuss airport exhibits and share their most challenging scenes to film. So put on your most comfortable (and fire-safe) outfit, double check your budget... and enjoy! Office Ladies Website - Submit a fan question for Around the Town, Chit Chat, and Second Drink favorite moment: https://officeladies.com/submitaquestion Follow Us on Instagram: OfficeLadiesPodFollow Us on YouTubeFollow Us on TikTok 

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 Lovers podcast just for you. Each week we will dive deeper into the world of the office with exclusive interviews behind the scenes details and lots of BFF stories. We're the Office Lady 6.0. Hello, hello. Hello, hello.

Let me tell you something. Folks that love the office and love a little behind the scenes tidbit are going to love this episode. That's right. Today, we are going to examine some of the most expensive moments on the office. Yes, a lot of you have written in over the years with questions about how we made some of the most memorable moments on the office happen. So we reached out to our three amazing line producers that worked on the office over the years. We exchanged emails with Kent Zabornack, known to our office ladies' folks as Kentapedia. Randy Cordray and Steve Burgess, They have been so wonderful to us over these many years of doing the rewatch.

And we ask each of them to recall some of the most memorably expensive office moments from their ten years. That's a time twister. It was. I got through it. And listen, they had great stuff to share. But first, let's start with a chit chat. And you guys, it's actually from me. This is from Angela K in Los Angeles. It is.

Angela K in Los Angeles. Wrote in with this, Dear Office Ladies. She's so formal. Long time listener. Love you ladies so much. Wow. I love her. I know.

I have observed over the years the two of you love to make a random online purchase that you often think is going to be fantastic and turns out to be a wamp-womp. Oh, lady. Just pause one second. I got that weird neck massager thing. I know. It looks like a vagina. I got it. I know.

It hurts. It hurts so bad. It's such a liar. It's so painful. Also, you know, Josh said it didn't hurt his neck and shoulders. Lee loves it. It's bigger. It's made for a man.

I think so. It just squeezed my, like, top of my shoulder. What do you call that? I don't know. That thing. That thing. I know what you're talking about. By your collarbone.

Yeah. I thought it was going to, like, fracture or something. It's very intense. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Anyway. We both bought that.

And we, yeah. But that's not what we're here. That's how we're talking about. That's not what Angela Kaye was writing in about. Angela Kaye was writing in because she recently made an online purchase that she thought would be a great gift for her and her BFF. Okay. Jenna F in Los Angeles. And guess what?

What else? It's an absolute mess. But I want to share with you guys how I got here. Okay. I'm going to read something to you. And you tell me if this doesn't get you excited. Let's say you're at home, you're having some social media time, you're scrolling, you know, your Instagram, and this ad pops up. Here's the header. Okay.

Look put together, period. Feel like you're still in bed, period. I mean, this is a fantastic idea. I'm already hooked. It goes on to say, you know that moment when you catch your reflection and actually like what you see, even though you haven't really, quote, gotten dressed, that's what this set does. The voluna looks like your favorite denim, the buttons, the pockets. Wait. Have you bought this?

No, but when you hit the word denim, I started to get worried. No, no, no. Let me finish. Okay. It looks like your favorite denim, the buttons, the pockets, the classic wash. But the second you put it on, you feel the difference. Soft, stretchy, light as a whisper against your skin. Okay.

I'm intrigued. It goes on to say, throw it on for coffee, answer the door without changing, sit through a video call looking polished. This is loungeware that works as hard as you do without ever feeling like work. And then in bold, with a check mark, it says, looks like jeans, feels like a hug. Lady. Then it says another checkmark in bold. Throw it on and you're done. No more changing out of pajamas to answer the door or hop on a video call. This set looks international from the moment you wake up. It's a set? It's a set. It's a top and a bottom. I feel the need to show you the picture of what it looks like. This is reminding me of when I bought the entire hair and makeup department on the office, those juggings. Yes. Yes, very much. I got so excited.

Yes. Okay. This is what it looks like. Remember, no more changing out of your pajamas. You can sleep in these and you wake up looking international. I'm sleeping in my denim set? There it says. Okay. Look, put together. Feel like you're still in bed. This is the picture. It is beyond cute. Beyond cute. Like it's very, very cute. Jordan is here today.

Yeah, Sam's on vacation. Jordan, isn't this cute? That's actually really adorable. Okay. Wouldn't you want to buy your BFF who shares the same goal of just being able to walk around all day in pajamas with you this outfit? It looks like a long sleeve, button down, denim top, and then jeans. Yes. And she looks super slouchy, but also she looks sort of effortlessly cool. Yeah. Remember, light is a whisper against your skin and you're ready for the day. No need to change out of your pajamas. Well, Jenna, you got a pair. Are you ready? Yeah. And I want us to put them on. What? Yeah, we're going to take a picture in them. You guys, why did I buy these? Why? Wait till you see them. Oh, my God. And I realize this is an audio podcast,

but I'll put it in stories. I just had to read what sucked me in. Okay? Okay. You did. I need to see them. Look, put together, feel like you're still in bed. Wouldn't you? you buy that? You bought us each a set? Yes. Okay. Happy holidays. Let me see. Oh my God. Are you kidding me right now? Are you kidding? There's no way this is what was in that picture. I know. It looks so bad. Lady. You guys, it looks, I don't even know. It looks like a Halloween costume. It looks like a denim shirt and jeans. There's buttons, but there's no stitches. It's just like it's like a print. It's like a print on white like tablecloth. It feels maybe. This is not fire safe. No, it feels like you can't get close to anything. No open flame. It's 95% polyester and 5% elastane.

Whatever that is, don't stand near an open flame. It says low iron if needed, but I wouldn't bring an iron anywhere near this thing. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Well, they're yours now. Can I see the photo? photo again, please? Yes. We're doing a side-by-side today. With this lady. Hold on. Oh, God.

You know what? My kids say I can't tell AI. I'm that generation. Is she AI? There is no way that this person, first of all, she's not wearing what I'm holding. I'm looking at the cuff. Here's the cuff. I'm looking at the cuff by her hand.

And the cuff has stitching on it. Mom, detective, that's shit. And this has no. either stitching or the fakey stitching. Yeah, she's not wearing this. She's not wearing this. And the jeans aren't the same. I mean, I'm calling them jeans. Also, she's putting her hand in her pocket. There's no pocket. There's no pocket. It's a faky pocket. This is made up. Is this like... This is the ad that you get. You should get... What am I doing? Am I writing Voluna? You want your money back. All right. I'll put it.

it on. I'm putting it on. I'll put it on. Lady, thank you. I appreciate you thinking of me. Your heart was in the right place. Look, put together, feel like you're still in bed. Come on. It's all we've ever wanted. I know. I think we should take a break and we're going to put on our outfits and we're going to podcast in them today. We're going to talk about the most expensive moments on the office while sitting in our highly flammable, non-pajama looking, non-comfy, denim set. We don't know they're not comfy yet. That's true. That's true.

All right, we'll be back. We are back, and I have to apologize a little bit to Voluna, because I am very comfortable right now. I am, too. And in a photograph, I think I'm looking good. In person, I look like a cray craye, because I'm wearing what looks like a Halloween costume. It looks like a Halloween costume. It does photograph well. Also, the pants do have pockets.

Yeah. We thought they didn't. Yeah. Yeah. And you know what? We're ready for a video call. We, because it does look good on camera. It does.

All right, everyone. Let's go ahead and get into some of the most expensive props, episodes, and moments from our nine years on the office. But before we dive into those, we thought it might be a good idea to get an idea of exactly how our show budgets worked. Yes. you need something to compare these expensive moments to. Like, what's the scale here? I need to change out of this outfit. Oh. I'm starting to sweat. Oh. And the heat. It holds in heat. This is not for me. It is 95% polyester. I'm going to need a moment. Everyone. I lasted. How long did this last? Not five minutes. Since I put it on my body. I think it was like two minutes.

It looked like in the picture like that soft, soft denim. I was very excited. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Oh, Jenna's coming back. You're in your cotton shirt. Yes. Your breathable pants. Let's get into budgets.

A big thanks to Steve Burgess, who answered our question about budgets. He said, we had both a per episode and a per-season budget. But he said the per-season budget was basically just totaling up the episode budgets. But you could steal. So like if you went over on one, you could go under on another, and you could balance the books at the end of the season. And if they were going to go over budget, the universal executives had to approve it. He said they really, really, really wanted them to stay in budget. Yeah.

It was stressful. And if they were going to go over, that overage had to be approved before we started shooting an episode, which Steve Burgess says you might remember. Greg was often rewriting over the weekend into Monday. I was going to say, how can you pre-approve a budget that might change because scenes change? Yeah. He said, sometimes we had already been shooting for a day or two, and NBC would get really mad. Oh. Yeah, they don't like it.

He actually wrote, they hated it. He actually said, I'm surprised that Pam Pooch, who was their NBC executive, didn't pull all our hair out because we were a very difficult. group for NBC to control. But he did say that they always did their best to be as responsible as possible about the money they spent. I did love that he said NBC didn't yell too much. Winky face. We also heard from Kintzeborna, like Jenna said, our beloved Kintapedia. He was our line producer and executive producer for seasons one through four. And we asked him what the most expensive episodes were from his time on the office. You might have. You He might remember he shared with us how very small our budget was in the beginning, like crazy small.

Yeah. I mean, we were barely picked up. Yeah. So they weren't sinking a lot of money into our show. And since Kent was with us in the beginning, I was really trying to think of when the show might have gotten expensive. Because I know we were shoestring budget for a long time. Right. And we both decided to make a list and guess.

So what do you think were the most expensive from the early years? So my guesses were goodbye Toby or beach games. Yeah, beach games seems like an expensive one. Yeah, and I thought goodbye Toby because of the whole outdoor carnival. Oh, right. Well, I guessed Booz Cruise, and I only had one on my list. I just went with Boos Cruz. Kent Zabornack did confirm that, and here's what he had to say.

He said in his four seasons on The Office, the most costly episode was Booz Cruise he put in all caps. In addition to being on location in Long Beach on the water for three days, they had to pay for an entire additional crew, which consisted of a water coordinator and his crew of 20 sailors and lifeguards. Add that to the cost of all the boat rentals, there were a total of 15. I didn't even see any of this stuff. I know. I mean, I remember— This was not on my radar.

Right. I remember the big boat, and of course the little dingy boats that I got stranded in. let's not forget that part. He said there was also the cost of the fuel, plus all the film permits from the city of Long Beach, and then the cast and crew had hotels per diem because they didn't want people driving long distances at night. And then we had all the guests cast, David Dinman, Amy Adams, Rob Riggle, Brenda Withers, all the day players, the band, the scrantones. And then all of the crew hit premium golden hours pay because they were working such late shifts. Oh, yeah. That's when you get like double-triple time.

Yeah, they did that three days on this shoot. Wow. And then, of course, don't forget all the little extras, like the warm heaters that we had, the jackets, all of those things. Yeah, I think about that all the time. Whenever we were doing something where we were cold, like especially Booze Cruz was kind of the first one. The wardrobe department had like warm boots.

They had hand warmers. They had a big coat for each one of us that had our character name in it. Yeah, they were huge, like they look like sleeping bags, but they were a coat. And if you've ever had to buy those like hand warmers and toe warmers, those are expensive. And they would buy those for the whole cast. And crew. Yes. Everyone had them.

Yeah. Yes. Well, something else I remember from Boos Cruz is that boat was really bare bones. Like Kent sent me photos of it. And my memory is that it was just like a shell. I don't even think there were those booths. don't quote me, but I feel like we had to add all those elements for our shoot. I had no idea. I thought that boat came with all those seats and stuff.

I don't think so. We had to create a dance floor. I remember that. We had to do the faky wheel that Dwight uses on the front of the boat. Yeah. And, you know, when we originally broke down this episode for the podcast, Greg Daniels joined us in the studio, and we talked about all kinds of amazing elements. But I did ask him about one particular shot. It's from out. outside the boat, looking back, you know, onto the ship. And it brought him to this great little share about Kent's ability to stretch a budget. Let's hear it. I have a question for you, Greg. Yeah. I've been waiting to ask you this. At 11 minutes, 34 seconds, there's this beautiful shot that goes outside of the boat and goes around the boat. You pass Dwight, right? Like steering,

and it goes around the boat. How did we do that? That is Kent Zabornack. So Kent was our line producer, and he was also in the DGA. And he managed to launch us on the budget that we had, which was tiny, into Long Beach Harbor on a boat for days and get hotel rooms for everybody. And he realized that we really needed a shot like that. And he shot that himself with his own equipment while we were shooting the rest of it because he just had an instinct that there was no way the production could get that and stop everything. So that was kind of a guerrilla move and super valuable.

And Kent was, you know, fantastic at doing those kind of things. Like he was always stitching together amazing stuff on our little budget. I remember that story. Yeah. So the tiny budget of those early years, Kent had to get really creative with. Well, I know something that was not expensive for Boos Cruz. What? The cans of soup that y'all had to use.

Oh. To throw up. That was not an expensive line item. No. And then it didn't even make it in. It didn't even make it in. We had a fake puke minestronee soup. Ugh.

Anyway, sorry. Well, Kent also shared what he called the, quote, most expensive element of an episode. And he said the most surprisingly costly gag was in the business school episode. And it was the bat gag. He said CGI was kind of an. its infancy. Prices were really costly back then. So animating that bat cost a lot of money. You know, we talk about this in our breakdown of business school, and it really was an elaborate undertaking because we had a live bat, two bat rangers, a mechanical bat, and then all the CGI.

Crazy. Yeah. It looks phenomenal when you watch it. Still to the stay. And then, Jenna, you know, your list that you talked about at the beginning that you thought was most expensive, Kent actually laid it out for us. Goodbye Toby came in at number two. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Beach Games was number three. And for a show on location, he said Beach Games was surprisingly inexpensive.

The lake that we used is part of the LA parks and permit and location fees were not costly at all. The most expensive gag from that was probably the fire pit. Oh, yeah. I mean, are there any other big gags from that episode? Because you're right. We're all just kind of like out there in the sand. I mean, I guess Ed floating in the water. But honestly, that was just like a boat and some rope. It was a tiny rowboat and one guy in it and they tethered Ed. They had a long rope and they would just kind of push him out. Yeah. I was just talking to Oscar. Nunez about this, he had just rewatch beach games. He goes, you can't even tell it's Ed. I know. It's like dark out there. He was floating in that water for so long. Like a really long time. Oh, Ed. Yeah. I mean, there's only like one or two moments where you can clearly see his face.

There's so many things like that. So many practical things that I feel like actors today just don't have to do. I mean, when we were talking to those guys about the paper, they're like, oh, no, we don't drive cars on real roads. it's all like studio green screen. We're like, oh, really? Okay. For the four hours we were filming, they might have had a double for it. Exactly. Maybe it wasn't in our budget.

All right, everyone. Let's move on to seasons five through seven. This is when Randy Cordray was our producer and Steve Burgess was our unit production manager. Well, you know, without even having to ask, I immediately thought the most expensive episode would have been Jim and Pam, the proposal from weight loss part two, because, you know, we, built that whole thing. Yes, same. And we are correct. Randy said that the two-parter of weight loss was not only the first episode of his tenure, but it was almost a half a million dollars over budget. Can you imagine how stressed you are? This is your first time working on the show. You know NBC's

going to be breathing down your neck to stay in budget and you get the one that's over like half a million dollars past your budget. I can't even imagine how stressed he was. Yeah. He said it was mostly due to to the Jim and Pam engagement scene where we had to build the gas station in the rain on a faky highway in the middle of a Home Depot parking lot. And have a gazillion cars and stunt drivers whizzing by. Yes, that cost $175,000 for that,

just how many minutes of footage? Not a lot. Randy also mentioned three more episodes from season five that went way over budget. Let's see if you guys listening can guess. First off, stress relief. Of course. Right?

It was a two-parter, but it was $540,000 over budget. And you know what? It's not because of what you think. I was trying to think of all the different things we did in that episode that might have been expensive. And it was partly because of our big name guest star actors, Cloris Leachman, Jack Black, Jessica Alba. And you know the movie they all star in, you know, the one that Jim and Pam and Andy are watching and they're so invested in. We shot that on 35 millimeter film.

Whoa. Mm-hmm. Which is very expensive. I don't think I knew that. I didn't either. And we never did that on our show. No, I want to say, unnecessary? I mean, they watch it on a laptop.

I don't know. I mean, if I'm Pam Pitchett, NBC Universal, when I see that episode come out, am I thinking it was the right thing to shoot that on 35 millimeter? You might have called BS. I might have. Well, I guess the biggest expense from those episodes,

though, was the fire drill cold open? specifically the save bandit moment. That does not surprise me. Randy said that gag where you throw bandit up into the drop ceiling and then it subsequently falls back down, that was a little over $24,000 all in. That the animal trainer budget was $12,000 just in and of itself. There was set construction to build a platform up in the ceiling so that the person could safely sit up there with the cat.

They had stunts to safeguard. Oscar, the cat trainers, they had to make the faky cat, and then they had the airbag that the cat fell on to. It was a lot. It was a lot. And we had a rehearsal. That was extra time for everyone. Yeah. Little shout out to when we broke down stress relief. We really get into that moment, and we hear from the director, we hear from writers, producers. It's a really fun listen. So just want to shout out that episode. All right. Another over-budget episode was lecture circuit. Now, this episode was a two-parter, but it began as a single episode. And as a single episode, it went about $400,000 over budget. But when they decided to make it into two episodes,

it helped to balance the books. Uh-huh. Mm-hmm. Take a little here, add a little there. But lady, that's seen at Angela's house with all her cats, they had a cat budget for that. Almost $9,000 of cats. That's a lot of kitty cat. I mean, this gets into Angela, and how does she afford all her cats? They're not inexpensive, especially with all of their, clearly, a lot of medical bills. Listen, I don't know if you remember what her apartment looked like. It didn't look like she put a lot into home furnishings.

I think all of her money went into cats. You saw her wardrobe. Yeah, true. Finally, the last big expensive episode from season five was, drum roll, company picnic. That one came in at $496,000 over their half-hour pattern budget. So, you guys, we were on location for four days out in the Malibu Hills in Kalamigos Ranch. It was a huge cast.

You know, they brought back so many characters for that. Plus, they had all the background cast. They brought back Idris Elba. They brought back Amy Ryan. And I guess we had around 200 background performers for all four days. Yeah. Yeah. And finally, we used the school.

Scrubs Hospital set for the ER scene with Jim and Pam. I remember that. It was super weird. Was it weird? Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Well, there were also a number of very expensive moments in season five. So these did not put our episodes over budget, but they did stand out.

For example, season five, episode 10, Moroccan Christmas, the cold open, that's when Dwight shows up and his desk has been wrapped in gift wrap, but then he puts his briefcase on it and it all collapses. Okay, the cost to build that using breakaway chicken wire and gift wrap was $14,200 in labor and materials. Makes you wonder how Jim did it. Yeah. Really, really does. Yeah. Oh, we have more.

We have more Jim pranks to discuss. The gag to have Meredith's hair catch fire. The total cost for stunts, wigs, fireproof costumes, special effects, and safety advisors was $15,500. and the Princess Unicorn doll for manufacturing and packaging $9,500. Plus, they had to record, My Horn Can Pierce the Sky. They did. And yet, this episode still managed to come in pretty close to budget. That's impressive with all those elements.

I know. Randy pointed out two more big ticket expenses in the duel, the cost to restore Andy's Prius, remember how it gets all, you know, banged up? Mm-hmm. at a local body shop with $6,500. That's a cost I feel like you don't think about. Right. Like when we dented the car with the watermelon,

you have to get the car fixed. Yes. You have to repair it. That's a rental. You have to return, right? And also, do you remember the cold open from Prince Family Paper? Lady, I had forgotten about this cold open. I always remember that episode because it's like, oh, it breaks my heart.

That's my Scots Tots. Right? That's my cringed one that I can. can't watch. It just breaks your heart. But I forgot about the prank at the beginning. Jim sets up this elaborate prank. You know what? I pulled a clip to refresh your memory. What's this? Looks like a red wire. Oh, I wasn't here before. It was a computer, do I mean, computers have wires. Yours doesn't. Doesn't it? Doesn't it? No. It's going in a different direction than the other wires. Dwight, I'm really busy. I can't talk about this anymore.

White. Just, shut up. I got 500 feet of red wire at a flea market, not by Dunmore High School. 20 bucks for the whole spool. Crazy. What a deal. Oh. He'll be fine. I made it up there. All right, Jim. You got $20 worth of red wire. Right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. He still had to run it through the entire office under Phyllis's death. around the corner, down the hall, out of the building, up a telephone pole?

Yeah, how'd he get up there? Yeah. I mean, here's what it really cost. First of all, they had to put all the stunt throughout the office, right? They had to do that. Then they had to build a safe pole in the parking lot. They had to build a whole pole. Oh, yeah, he couldn't climb up a real utility pole.

No, of course not. And then Rain had to climb it, so then they had to get a green screen, do all the Compositing, all in it was $16,500. Not $20, Jim. Yeah. Jim's pranks did not cost Jim a lot, but they cost us a lot. You know what I'm saying? They cost the office production a lot.

They did. I wonder if NBC execs would see like a gym prank in a cold open and be like, shit. Yeah. Damn it. Ham Putsch would be like, ah. Exactly. Well, you know, do you remember when we did our Office Ladies Live fan mailbag episode, there was a fan, Joe V from Oregon. And he broke down every single one of Jim's

pranks on Dwight. Yes, that's right. With like real numbers. Let me look. Hold on. I'm going to go. Pull it up, lady. I'm going to pull this up. That was amazing, like, detail on accounting by Joe. Yes. So he estimated that Jim spent $1,809 and 11 cents on pranking Dwight over the nine seasons. And he estimated that the most expensive prank was the tearaway suit. That would have cost him the most. And we go into it in this episode. He has a whole breakdown of exactly how much everything cost. In his estimation, if Jim was real crafty, you know. Yeah. He didn't pay a set construction team to make a desk and wrap it and wrapping paper. He didn't build a faky pole. He didn't. Yeah.

build a utility pole. Yeah, like he takes Jim at his word and says, okay, sure, Jim, that prank with the red wire costs you $20 and a lot of effort. Yeah. Oh, that's the other thing that I loved. Joe said, I'm not counting like his sweat equity. Like, I'm not counting the cost of his time, yeah, which is clearly a lot. Yeah. He got that for free. Think about what Jim could have done with that money. Like, maybe, oh, maybe they didn't have to buy. his parents' place. Mm-hmm. Yeah, maybe he didn't have to invest

their savings in his company. Oh, yeah, because... They would have had some extra money. Yeah. Yeah. Just a thought, Jim, about how you spend your family's money. All right, I think that brings us to season six.

It does. And season six had a lot of episodes that went over our usual budget. This is not confirmed, but in looking at all of this accounting, dare I say, season six might have been our most expensive. For example, the delivery parts one and two, they had to build the whole hospital set, as well as Jim and Pam's kitchen that Dwight then demolishes.

We have Andy's play. This had major music and licensing fees, a live orchestra, lots of additional cast, and just to fill the theater with background performers for Andy's play, that cost over $75,000. Wow. And then, who can forget, threat level midnight? You guys, when Randy emailed us about it, he literally wrote, whoa, this one was a doozy, exclamation point. It sure was. We had guest cast extras, locations, transportation, and ice rink, minor skaters.

Anytime someone is a kid, it's more expensive because you have to add the cost of the child advocate and the tutor. there was also music, choreography, special effects, visual effects. That episode put us almost a half a million dollars over budget. But Randy said, quote, this one had it all. I sure believe it was all worth it. This episode consistently ranks as a fan favorite. It does, Randy. It does.

God bless you for having to make that call to NBC. This brings us, though, to the most expensive episode from season six. Randy actually said it was the single most expensive episode that took place in his tenure. Should we say it together? Niagara. Yeah. When we posed this question to all three of the fellas, Steve Burgess said the first thing that jumps to mind is the Niagara episode. Randy was producing, but I was the UPM and I was working with the budget.

If you remember, he said, we first thought Dwight was going to ride a horse over the falls. Oh, yeah. We talked quite a bit about that when we broke down this episode. It was a whole storyline that Greg had. It didn't end up happening. But they did have to do all of this prep towards that story. Oh, lady, we talk about it in the episode. They trained a horse to jump into water.

Yes. Over on the Paramount lot. That huge giant parking lot that they can fill with water to make it look like an ocean. Yes. I think they used it in that Jim Carrey movie. Yes. What's that one? Bruce Almighty? No. Lyer, liar? No. What's the one where he doesn't know he's in a reality show?

The Truman Show? Truman Show. Don't quote me on that, but I think that's the place they did that. Anyway, back on topic here. Side note, I don't know if you've watched the Truman Show lately. It really holds up. It is really moving and still really funny. It's super, super good. No, how's it that you've seen it? I haven't seen it in years. We showed it to our son. Oh. We're looking for, like, good movies that we could watch together. Also, I thought Forrest Gump held up really well.

Yeah, we watched that one, too. It did. Mm-hmm. There's a couple that didn't. But I won't call them out. I'm not going to say if you didn't hold up, but I am going to shout you out if you do. Okay, good. Yeah, we watched one recently that did not hold up.

And there were so many boobs. And I forgot there were boobs. Oh, my God. The amount of gratuitous boobs in movies. There was just a whole decade of boobs just everywhere. Yes. I know. We grew up with that. We grew up with gratuitous boobs in movies. Yeah. I know. And I forgot. I was like, oh, my God.

I know. Okay. Even my beloved diehard has a gratuitous boob in the beginning. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's too bad. Okay. Anyway, back to Niagara where there were no boobs, but there was maybe going to be a horse go over a fall. So Steve said when we had the table read for the episode, our NBC execs asked me if we were a million over budget. And I was happy to say, no. Only 975,000 over. They laughed and said, yep, a million over. That said, I guess Randy Cordray still had to really fight

to have that skeleton crew go to the actual Niagara Falls because NBC wanted you to shoot it on a blue screen. And Steve said we all agreed that would have looked like crap and ultimately Randy won the fight to shoot on location. Yeah, Randy told me that the New York Niagara Falls unit cost, oh, right around $122,000. There were also several episodes this season that I would not have guessed would have come with such a big ticket price. For example, Randy also said surprisingly, Coy Pond was a very expensive episode. Think about the set construction, the decoration for the Coy Pond.

all of that was around $80,000. The coy fish provided by the animal trainers were about $17,000. Costumes for that Halloween cold open were around $32,000, and then it aired but then was ultimately cut. Yeah, that's right. So that rounds out to an expensive episode. Well, Randy also mentioned shareholder meeting. He said that the scenes on location downtown were expensive. Also, they had to factor in transportation costs, the large.

number of background performers. And I did not know this. We needed an extra day of filming to finish that episode. While we would normally have five days to finish an episode, this one took six. But guess what? I also didn't know this. Another episode from season six helped to balance the books, and it was none other than Scott's Tots.

That one was originally budgeted pretty high because of the choreographer, dancer's, extras, locations. But director B.J. Novak was so efficient that they finished his episode in only four days. He finished a whole day early. So that helped balance the books for that extra day that they needed for shareholder meeting. I'm so curious if B.J. is the only director in the history of the office that got his episode in in four days. Oh, that's a great question. Right. I mean, that seems so difficult to do. I feel like I remember a couple of times when we would. come back to work after like a holiday weekend, like an MLK Day weekend or a president's weekend, and we were forced to shoot an episode in only four days. But they would plan it so that it was one

of those, what did they call them bottle episodes where they just took place in the office? Yeah. No big stunts. Like a conference room episode where we're just in there. Right. Yeah. And we could bang those out in four days. Yeah. Randy also shares a bunch of other tidbits from this season, I just want to shout out just one or two randos. Ready? Okay. The swans for Secret Santa were $9,600. In case you're wondering what it costs to put some swans in an episode. Also, you remember Joe Bennett's Great Danes from Manager and Salesman? For the week, those Great Danes were $21,000. My God. Dogs and swans cost a lot, y'all. Finally, both Randy and Steve Burr just talked about what all went into the episode, Garage Sale.

Randy said the Michael Holly proposal scene cost about $74,000. They had to strike the annex over a weekend, build a waterproof collecting pan underneath, then rebuild and redress the annex. Once that was accomplished, special effects had to rig overhead sprinklers. They brought in this large warm water system so Steve and Amy wouldn't be completely doused in freezing cold water. And Steve also went on to say, you guys, they had a second and third floor ready to go to replace if the sprinklers did ruin the floor in that first take. But we didn't need it. They did it in one.

Yeah, thankfully. All right, let's move into seasons eight and nine. There was a very clear winner for most expensive episode in season eight. I wasn't there, but you were there, Angela, and it was season eight pool party. Oh, my gosh. For those of us that's been a week in that house and many days in the swimming pool, ugh, that's what I want to say. I mean, we will never forget pool party.

It's kind of like a riot of passage. Like we still like, oh, remember being in the pool? And I was in the pool with that prosthetic belly. Let's not forget that. Steve said it was another very expensive episode. He said, if you remember when we first broke down this episode, Steve shared with us that they couldn't find a house with a pool that worked. So they shot the interior of the house and a day. different location from the house that had the pool because Charles McDougal, the director,

wanted an indoor pool, which apparently did not exist. Well, very hard to find in Southern California. I know. Who wants an indoor pool in Southern California? No one. Exactly. So they did find this house that had an indoor outdoor pool, but they had to have construction crews work around the clock to enclose the outdoor part of it to make it look like it was a completely indoor pool. Steve shared pictures with us on how they stitched together, the two different houses and all the work they did. It was really wild. Incidentally, I did ask Steve Burgess what my prosthetic belly cost that I had to swim and pretend to be fake pregnant in. He said, Angela, I'm so sorry, I don't know the specifics about your pregnancy pad.

But I remember having an intricate timeline because we had to keep making your belly bigger. Oh, wow. Yeah, to advance your pregnancy. some of them we built, some of them we might have rented. I do remember that the costume department had a $20,000 budget for this episode in particular. There you go. Wow. It's crazy to me that pool party was so darned expensive. I had guessed that the finale would have cost a fortune, and Steve said yes, the series finale was crazy expensive, but it was planned. It was planned as a double episode, which meant a larger budget. It didn't cover all the costs. He didn't. He didn't,

He said just the fact that we shot so many days in a row, all the locations, the huge cast, the music, all of it, it was a big episode. But ultimately, besides the finale, Steve said season nine did not have that much crazy expensive stuff. But there was one thing, one very odd thing that was expensive. And Angela, this made me laugh so much. Yeah, we got really tickled about this, you guys. Steve said the most sneaky, expensive thing in season nine was making the fake turtle that Kevin runs over in the premiere of new guys.

You guys remember that, his little turtle that he has to patch up. Steve said Phil got a quote to make a bunch of turtles in different stages of being run over and patched up. And Steve Burgess said, I don't remember the exact number, but it was astronomical. When I asked Greg, if it was worth the cost, his answer was, of course, it will be really funny. Steve said we spent the money and Greg was right. It was hilarious. And then from then on, between the two of them, every time Greg had an expensive idea, Steve would say, is this turtle funny? If not, then we wouldn't spend the money. Sometimes it was funnier than the turtle and then we would spend the money. Wow. I love that their shorthand became, Is this turtle funny? Yeah. Also in that episode, Dwight rides a bike on a high wire and falls.

Oh my gosh. That was nuts. I was so stressed about that. I wasn't comfortable. I was worried. Yeah. It was really... That was rain.

That was rain. They did have a lot of stunt rigging, obviously. But still, between rain and the stunt guy and all that, it was the roof of our building. It was high. Yeah. It was, oh, yeah, it made me so stressed. But Steve said we had to have a crane to anchor the wire on one end. We had to put in our own telephone pole on the other.

in, they had airbags, cardboard boxes under the wire, just in case the stuntman fell. They had to bring in a fire engine to rescue Dwight. That cost money. They had to build a scaffold up to the wire. So Rain, I guess, was only about two feet off the deck of the scaffold and not in any danger. It still looked terrifying, though. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, the wide shot of Dwight hanging, that was a stunt person. Yeah. All in all, a very expensive stunt and a very expensive way to start season nine. Well, everyone, there you go. That was an overview of some of the most expensive moments on the office.

Yes, and if you listen to our rewatch breakdowns, you know we often also break down the cost of music and extra props and gags. That's not even including all those as we discussed this episode. Yes, no, we get into this in every episode. Mm-hmm. But I think my final thought here is that comedy is not cheap. It's not cheap. goes into making an episode, but also every time we spent this money, we were employing people.

We were employing people in their craft. Yes. You know, the people who had to make the fake turtles. Yes. That's a livelihood. Yes. You know, the construction crews. The animal wranglers.

Yes. All of these different amazing professions that go into TV and movie making, it was exciting. It was exciting to have their input and always so rewarding. to see it pay off. And I'd like to give a final thought to why it makes me so sad to think about elements like this being done with AI. And not people. Yeah. Not people that we're employing to have jobs and livelihoods. Yeah. You know? I think of all the things that we just listed could in the future just be AI background performers instead of the $75,000 that we paid out in salary to fill that theater for Andy's play. Oh, we'll just paint that in with AI. And then all those

people don't have a day of work. All the food services and the extra PAs that we hire. All the trickle-down jobs. Yeah. Yeah. You know, all of that, that's our industry. That's the entertainment industry. So listen, let's try and keep making movies and TV with real people. 100%, lady. Well, anyway, a big thank you. to Kent and Randy and Steve for all of those amazing details. You guys never disappoint. We're so, so grateful to you. Love you guys so much. And of course, Steve Burgess ends every email with a picture from his garden. Makes me so happy. There are three wonderful, wonderful people we were so fortunate to work with. All right, everyone, we're going to take a break. We're going to be back

with a little around the town and a little office question of the week. All right, we are back. And we haven't done around the town in a little while. Angela, I've really I missed it. I love around the town. Me too, and you're going to really like this one from Julia H in Longmont, Colorado. Julia said, since I know that you ladies love a good airport exhibition, I thought you would particularly want to hear about the one happening at the Denver airport in Concourse C right now. What, Julia? She says it's something I think Jenna would love in particular. It is an exhibit about dresses with pockets. Get out. Yeah. I fly to that airport all the time to see. Josh's family. I've got to go find Concourse C. I was recently in San Francisco, lady, and I saw all the

telephones. I know. You texted me and made me so happy. Wasn't that a cool exhibit? It was a very, very cool exhibit. Thank you. Wait, Julia sent us a link to this exhibit about dresses with pockets. Lady, this is so cool. Yeah, it says this exhibition invites viewers to slow down within a space of movement and transition. In an environment defined by travel and passage, this work offers moments of pause and reflection. It celebrates the power of personal narrative and shared humanity through the language of wearable form. I like it. I like it too. I'll put a link in stories to it, everybody. Oh my gosh, did you hear it in other airport news? One of my text threads was just blowing up the other day because of this new TSA rule. Have you heard this? No, what is it? If you have a

have or have ever had TSA pre-check. You don't need to have a ticket in order to go through security and go to the gate anymore. Jordan is nodding. You read this too? I don't understand. I was informed last night. You can be like a guest. And if you have the TSA pre-check, you don't need a ticket. And you literally can walk your... Loved one to their gate? Yes. Like old school in the 70s where you could sit at the gate and hang out and say goodbye before they got on the plane. this is amazing especially, you guys, where I'm at in my season of life with my teenagers who are going to be going off to college. This means I don't have to say goodbye at the curb. I can walk in if their college is in a different state and I can sit there with them until they get on the plane. Yes. I have a picture of me with my grandparents and my mom and dad.

We had flown to see them one summer. And there's a picture of us all sitting by the gate. My grandparents sat there with us the whole time, and I treasure it, you know, but that's like a thing I didn't think my kids would ever experience. Like, we could sit with their grandparents. Yes. And wait to get on the plane. Now, you do have to apply for gate access one to three days in advance with this program. Do you go online and do it or something?

I don't know. I didn't get into it. You're like, I don't know everything, Angela. I just found out. I don't know everything about the whole. process, but anyway, yeah, it feels like it's going to get real crowded. It feels like it might get crowded, but I'm also going to be happy to sit at the gate. Well, listen, if it's crowded, you can take a moment, at least if you're in Denver,

and you can go to Concourse C, and you can see this exhibit on dresses with pockets. Mm-hmm. All right. Okay. Well, there you go. We do have one more around the town. Erica M. from Ithaca, New York, wrote in to say, I'm writing to show. about Ithaca's annual Porch Fest. Tell me more. I know, right? Which takes place on a Sunday afternoon.

I'm already in heaven. In late September, come on, Erica. Check in all my boxes. It's in some of the residential neighborhoods in downtown Ithaca. Residents volunteer their porches, front yards, and driveways as stages and local musicians play one-hour concerts throughout the afternoon. Concert-goers walk or bike around the neighborhood and watch whatever bands they like. Kids come with scooters and tricycles. They have lemonade stands and bake sales. Ithaca started its first Porch Fest in 2007, and since then, the concept has grown to more than 250 other towns in the country, also some in Australia and Canada. It is definitely a grassroots community event, and she put a link to it. How charming! So, so charming. This is what around the town.

was made for everyone. Exactly. Well, unfortunately, everyone, we have missed the Ithaca, New York Porch Fest for this year, but, and putting on our radar for next year, and also there might be other porch fests at other times of the year. Yeah, I'll put a link. There's a whole website about it, where you can find out where they're happening. Well, finally, let's do our office question of the week. This comes from Ross M. and Wexford, Ireland, who says, Hi, ladies, loving the podcast, as I work through the years to catch up, it is perflectenshlog. My question for you both is, what was the toughest scene for you to film throughout the series run? Not technically, but for you as an actor.

I mean, such a good question, Ross. Well, I have one that comes to mine because it truly was really difficult, but not in a bad way, but also I got reprimanded by a director. Oh. So did you, Jenna. We were in it together. It's when I come over the partition. And I ask you if Roy has ever mercy killed one of your pets. And I'm dressed in all black and I'm teary because Dwight has put sprinkles in the freezer.

And I have this whole speech to Pam. And we could not get through it. And I had to stay in this emotional place. You know, that whole episode, I was teary. I actually had a headache by the end of it because I was just in different stages of crying throughout the day and sadness. Plus I had a tight French braid pulling on my scalp.

But then to have you make me laugh so hard, but then I had to then try to stay sad. And then we kept laughing and we couldn't stop laughing because it's that thing where then you know you're not allowed to laugh. Yeah. Forget it.

Yeah. And then the director was like, do we need to give you guys a break? because we're going into grace. It's lunchtime. And we were like, oh, shit, we got to pull it together. That was really tough. That was tough. That's a good one. Pretend to be sad. Super, super sad. The worst thing that can imagine has happened to you, your cat has been killed by your lover and don't laugh. Yeah. Don't laugh because your BFF is making you laugh. Well, not on purpose. I know. All right. Well, I had two things come to mind. One of them,

sort of similar, Angela, where I had to work against, like, my true feelings about something. Yes. Yeah. So, like, you were having to be serious when you wanted to be laughing. And mine was kind of the opposite. I think of that scene where Roy and Pam have been in a fight and then in order to, like, sort of turn her around, he has to tickle her. Yeah. And she has to, like, like, like, charm by it.

And I, like, deeply hate tickling. But I also, like, find it just like, it, like, I don't know. I don't like that kind of tomfoolery. Like, you know what I don't need a dude to do is throw me in a pool? Ha, ha, ha, ha, it's so funny. I picked you up and now you are in a pool. I'm going to pants you. Ha, ha, ha.

Yeah. Here's a wedgy. I know. Yeah. And also just like, oh, are you in a bad mood? Tickle, tickle. I'm like, no, I'm like in a bad mood. I once dated a guy who, when I was legitimately upset, like, oh, you were supposed to pick me up and you forgot.

Like, as Pam was in that episode. Yes. And then he would say this to me. He'd go, oh, anger. Oh. Oh, no. And I was like, I am going to. You want to see anger?

Yeah. Oh. Yeah. So that was hard for me. Yeah. Because I had to sort of just put aside. all my feelings about tickling and let Pam, let Pam be won over, not by Roy apologizing or hearing her feelings, but simply by tickling her.

That's the cure. That's it. That's all you got to do. You know, she was so serious. Smile more, Pam. Okay, so then the other scene that was really, really hard for me in the series run was in season nine, and it's when I had to break down on the phone crying. You know, it's right before the boom operator comes over and comforts Pam. And what was so hard about that was John and I were separated. So the only thing I had was just his voice on a phone. You know, I couldn't see his face. We couldn't look at each other.

Right. So you couldn't play off the motion in his face. It was harder. Yeah. And we did that scene. And he was actually on the phone. I was really grateful for that. That was Kelly Cantley's episode. and she insisted that we be able to hear one another.

She was like, I think he needs to be coming through the phone. Yeah. But I was having a hard time, and I shared this when we broke down this episode, that they actually had John Krasinski go off script, still as Jim, but he got really kind of like mean Jim in order to help me cry. Right. Kind of like shock you, like take you back. Yeah.

Yeah. And the thing is, like, like, like, mean Jim. Like, you hear about that sometimes when actors do that. And I think if it's agreed upon, it's okay. Like, I disagree. There's, like, this famous story from Kramer versus Kramer where Dustin Hoffman decides to throw a glass, not a breakaway glass, an actual glass in a middle of a scene with Meryl Streep. And it rightfully pissed her off.

Yeah. Like, that kind of, like, unsafe kind of, like, to get a reaction, it's kind of like, hey, dude, I'll take care of my acting. Like, I don't need you to shock me into a reaction. Yeah. to cut my face. Right. Yeah. But this was like, hey, John, would you be willing to do this? And he was like, yeah, I'll do it, but you can never use this side of it because it's not what Jim would really say. And we were like, agree. But like, can you help me? I think if we were in person, it would have been

easier, but he really helped me with that performance. It was really hard for me. Yeah. So that was a hard scene. I think, though, it's great to have like seen partners you trust that can help you just make that moment, whatever it is, happen, whether it's sad or happy or whatever, you know? Yeah. You know, it was always an interesting dance that Phyllis and my character had to do because they were true frenemies. And they would be downright mean to each other. And it was always hard for me to be mean to Phyllis as Angela Kinsey, but very easy

for me to be mean to her as Angela Martin. So it's kind of an interesting dynamic. Oh, well, thanks for your question. Ross. And thank you to everyone for listening. We hope you enjoyed this episode. Yeah. We hope you have a great one. We'll see you next week. See you then. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is a presentation of Odyssey and is produced by Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey. Our senior producer is Matt Beagle and our audio engineer is Sam Kiefer. Odyssey's executive producer is Leah Reese Dennis. Office Ladies was mixed and mastered by Bill Sholes.

Our theme song is Ruppertree by Creed Bratton.