A Look Back on The Paper Pilot

Summary

Office Ladies – “A Look Back on The Paper Pilot”

Podcast: Office Ladies
Hosts: Jenna Fischer & Angela Kinsey
Episode Date: December 31, 2025
Episode Theme:
In this episode, Jenna and Angela break down the highly anticipated pilot of The Paper, Greg Daniels’ new series set in "The Office" universe. With exclusive behind-the-scenes stories, interviews with returning and new cast and crew, and an intricate “set tour,” this episode offers fans both nostalgia and fresh excitement.

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Episode Overview

Jenna and Angela revisit “The Paper” pilot, which follows a documentary crew (the same that filmed The Office) as they seek a new story, landing at the struggling Midwestern newspaper, the Truth Teller in Toledo, Ohio. They share detailed observations, personal anecdotes, and exclusive cast/crew interviews, connecting The Office legacy to this new chapter.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Stage: Transitioning from The Office to The Paper

• The documentary crew from The Office is now searching for a new subject, settling on the Truth Teller, a struggling small newspaper owned by Enervate, the conglomerate that now controls Dunder Mifflin.
• Jenna summarizes:

  "The show focuses on the paper’s newly hired publisher, Ned, whose goal is to revive the paper using volunteer reporters." (04:41)

2. Behind-the-Scenes Magic

• Returning Crew & Philosophy: The showrunners intentionally recreated The Office’s on-set “magic” by hiring back writers who also act and using the same crew.
  Angela:

  “We saw a lot of familiar faces… Greg brought back so much of the philosophy of The Office. And I think you see it on screen.” (09:15)

• Writer-Performers: There are four writer-performers in The Paper, echoing The Office’s ensemble spirit.

3. The Premise – Interviews with Greg Daniels & Michael Koman

• Greg Daniels (paraphrased): Enervate buys Dunder Mifflin for its paper products (toilet paper being more profitable than newspapers). Documentarians stumble into the story of reviving an old local paper. (05:56)
• Michael Koman (read by Angela):

  "They keep the newspapers around because they think it’s good for the community, but they’re not really servicing any new stories..." (07:03)

4. Cast & Characters – Office Cameos and New Faces

• Oscar’s Return: Oscar Nunez returns, now head accountant for Enervate, seeking purpose after his failed senatorial run.

  “Oscar’s new journey has a little bit of finer things club and a little bit of his heart for service.” (10:53)

• Bob Vance (Bobby Ray Shafer): Returns for a memorable cameo, shares delight in stepping back onto a perfect replica of Vance Refrigeration (22:28).
• New Lead Ned (Domhnall Gleeson): The idealistic publisher hoping to bring real journalism back (59:22).
• Esmeralda (Sabrina Impacciatore): Scene-stealer as the fiery digital editor—Angela and Jenna are both “obsessed” (45:17).

5. Nostalgic Connections and Set Easter Eggs

• Scranton Business Park Recreated: The old signs, open doors, and small details transport viewers back.

  “Greg told me they restored the Scranton business sign park for that opening establishing shot... some fans even snagged photos.” (27:53)

• On-Set Details:
  • Electric car chargers outside (18:21)
  • Vance Refrigeration's in-jokes, like a post-it note about fridge discounts (20:01)
  • The iconic Froggy 101 sticker is now at Enervate (63:45)
  • Michael Scott’s handmade scarecrow from “Goodbye, Michael” on Oscar’s desk (80:58)

6. Meaningful Cameos & Messages from Cast Members

• Oscar Nunez: Shares how he was gradually recruited by Greg Daniels, the challenge of “keeping the secret,” and his feelings about crossing over into The Paper. (11:40)
• Bobby Ray Shafer (Bob Vance): Reflects on being called “back to Hollywood,” the surreal feeling of “deja vu,” and the appreciation he has for the show’s dedicated fans.

  “As I told the producer, I’ve never said no to Greg Daniels and I’m not going to start now.” (22:28)

• Stephen Socks: (Office's stand-in and now cameo as “the man shaving”) describes the emotional experience of stepping into the elevator bay once again, calling it “closure” and “full of gratitude.” (30:49)

7. The Episode Breakdown - Plot & Notable Scenes

• Opening: Doc crew returns to Scranton, finds the Dunder Mifflin office is now a laser eye surgery/tattoo removal clinic.
  • Bob Vance offers the first talking head, with heartwarming references to Stanley, Phyllis, and… schnauzer-poodle “schnoodles.”
• Transition to Enervate HQ: Set in Toledo, a vast, half-empty office campus—showcasing corporate downsizing and newspaper decline.
• Introduction to the New Cast:
  • Mare (Chelsea Fry): Army vet, writes AP wire stories
  • Esmeralda: Digital-obsessed, chaotically creative
  • Nicole (Ramona Young): Circulation manager
  • Dedrick (Melvin Gregg): Ad sales, possible office romance
  • Barry (Duane Shepherd Sr.): The last real reporter
  • Adalola (Bim Iculomello) & Adam (Alex Edelman): Bumbling accountant pair
  • Travis (Eric Rahill): Softies Toilet Paper rep, office oddball
• Key Conference Scene:
  • Ned announces big plans—only original articles, volunteer reporters, cancellation of wire service, aiming to build “a real newspaper.” (74:29)
  • Esmeralda subverts his authority by sending staff-wide emails (“He’s not been MeToo’d!”), causing confusion and office drama (76:08).

8. Signature Office-Style Humor & Heart

• Esmeralda’s Antics: Flirts with the camera crew, roasts accountants as “boring, boring, and head boring” before Oscar is hilariously revealed—reluctant to be in the documentary again.

  “God, not again. I’m not agreeing to any of this. Don’t you guys have enough? After nine years, nobody wants this.” (56:39)

• Lunchroom Scene: Ned’s quirky method for eating salad—a running joke about “eat alone” piles. (65:34)
• Conference Room Moment: Ken quips about the budget (“I’m going to call 911 because our budget is having a coronary”). Ned’s speech about what a local paper should aspire to be elicits both skepticism and hope (83:38).

9. Set, Props, and Easter Eggs

• Desks and Offices:
  • Esmeralda’s workspace is a “lamp and star” explosion (49:24), Nicole brings her bird to work, Adam’s desk an explosion of toys and nods to Boston, Magic 8 Ball, etc.
  • Desks packed with prop and real-life memorabilia, in both homage and reinvention of The Office’s classic cubicle culture.
• Production Design:
  • Real newspaper offices and basements with historic presses inspired the set. Jenna and Angela praise the authenticity and detail, including giant columns, “1920s” woodwork, and massive antique printing presses (86:12).

10. Emotional Resonance

• Reflections from returning cast:

  “What I felt at that moment was just closure...Art shows us in amazing ways that life has changed...full of gratitude for all that The Office meant to me. And then I got to pivot to this brand new show.” – Stephen Socks (34:22)

• Thematic callback:
  • The finale centers on the truth-telling mission of newspapers, underscored by archival footage and a moving monologue about journalism’s sacred purpose (87:51).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Angela, on the “Office magic”:

  “Greg brought back so much of the philosophy of The Office. And I think you see it on screen.” (09:15)

• Oscar Nunez, on keeping the secret:

  “Angela, as you know…I’m not good at keeping secrets. It was very difficult…But I did it. I think I did it. And then…here we are.” (13:03)

• Esmeralda’s email shenanigans:

  “Did you send an email to everyone here saying I was not MeToo’d?” — “Yes, because I didn’t want you to start off on the wrong foot.” (77:02)

• Esmeralda’s masterful manipulation:

  “You are preaching to the choir. These are simple people. To them, a man leaves his job, moves to a new town, they think: I wonder what was his evil crime? … That’s why I wrote a mass email.” (77:28)

• Stephen Socks, on set nostalgia:

  “I was instantly taken back…the most vivid memory…was Steve Carell’s last day…It was just him and I in the lobby at that point. And I couldn’t help myself, and I just gave him a big hug.” (30:49)

• Tracy Letts’ monologue on the printing press:

  “When you push that button, all of the information they've gathered, the stories they’ve found, all of that gets fed into the machine along with the paper…What comes out this end is the truth. It's a Truth Teller.” (88:31)

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Important Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment | |---------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 03:53 | Announcement: Pilot episode breakdown begins for The Paper | | 05:56 | Alex Edelman shares the Enervate and Paper premise | | 09:41 | Behind the scenes: Bringing The Office philosophy back | | 11:40–13:48 | Oscar Nunez tells his story of joining The Paper | | 22:28 | Bobby Ray Shafer recounts his return as Bob Vance | | 30:49 | Stephen Socks’ emotional elevator memory | | 45:37 | Introduction to scene-stealing Esmeralda | | 56:39–57:19 | Oscar’s on-screen re-introduction and protest | | 65:34 | Ned and Mare’s “salad scene” chemistry | | 74:29+ | Conference room scene: Ned’s bold mission for the new Paper | | 77:02–78:03 | Esmeralda’s “not Me Too’d” email chaos | | 80:58 | Michael Scott’s scarecrow on Oscar’s desk — Office Easter egg! | | 83:38 | Ned’s rallying speech to the staff | | 87:51 | Tracy Letts’ moving “truth-teller” monologue | | 89:17 | Tag: Oscar at the copy machine, bleep-filled protest | | Throughout| Desk/cubicle deep-dives, production design, Easter eggs |

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Episode Tone & Final Thoughts

Jenna and Angela keep their trademark warm, banter-filled tone, openly gushing about the nostalgia, creative decisions, and new cast. There’s a contagious sense of hope—rooted in love for the world of The Office, but open to the new adventures of The Paper and its cast.

“I just hope that this show gets to give them what The Office gave us.” (35:04)

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For Listeners Who Missed the Episode

This episode is an in-depth, heartfelt, and often hilarious look at the pilot of The Paper — a worthy successor to The Office. Old fans will revel in callbacks, Easter eggs, and returning faces; new viewers will find plenty of reasons to get excited for this next chapter.

If you want a blend of nostalgia, industry insight, and pure behind-the-scenes delight, this breakdown is a must-listen—and The Paper seems a must-watch for any Office fan.

Transcript

[Angela Kinsey]

So I was driving from Manhattan to the airport, you know, to jfk. Yeah. And we were going through all the different boroughs of New York, you know that drive to get to the airport.

[Jenna Fischer]

Sure.

[Angela Kinsey]

And I saw a Bob's Discount Furniture.

[Jenna Fischer]

Did you get all excited?

[Angela Kinsey]

I did.

[Jenna Fischer]

Did you go in there and buy a recliner? They have great recliners.

[Angela Kinsey]

I couldn't fit that in my carry on.

[Jenna Fischer]

It wasn't convenient. Well, they truly have everything. They have beds, dressers, sofas, sofa sleepers, mattresses. They have extendable dining room sets.

[Angela Kinsey]

Also, if you have, like, a style slump and you want to give your home a whole zhuzh, Bob's has affordable styles that really can perk up your house but not break the bank.

[Jenna Fischer]

Get your picks in 26 at Bob's Discount Furniture. Angela, here is what I need.

[Angela Kinsey]

Okay.

[Jenna Fischer]

I need a variety of cameras in different parts of my house.

[Angela Kinsey]

Okay.

[Jenna Fischer]

I want some facing outside, but I also want one inside. The outdoor ones are for security.

[Angela Kinsey]

Sure.

[Jenna Fischer]

The indoor one is because Maggie keeps eating the cat's food. Could Simplisafe work for me?

[Angela Kinsey]

Angela, it absolutely could work for you. Here's the thing. They've got you covered externally. You don't need to worry about that. They have AI powered cameras that spot potential threats outside. They have live agents that can step in and talk to the person through the camera. They letting them know, hello, they're on video, and police will be dispatched if they don't leave. On the inside, you can customize, put little cameras wherever you want to track down Maggie and her thievery of the cat food.

[Jenna Fischer]

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[Angela Kinsey]

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[Jenna Fischer]

Hello, everyone. Happy New Year's Eve.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. Last day of 2025.

[Jenna Fischer]

Mm.

[Angela Kinsey]

We hope you have a safe and happy one, but we're here to keep you company.

[Jenna Fischer]

So we have announced that in the new year, we are gonna be rewatching the paper, the whole thing, because it is now on NBC on Monday nights. And to kick things off, we thought we'd rerun our breakdown of the pilot.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. That way you're all ready to go in the new year with episode two.

[Jenna Fischer]

Of the Paper, which will be coming out next Wednesday.

[Angela Kinsey]

Next Wednesday, 2026. Y' all.

[Jenna Fischer]

All right, everybody have a very happy new year. Here is the Paper pilot breakdown. I'm Jenna Fisher.

[Angela Kinsey]

And I'm Angela Kinsey.

[Jenna Fischer]

We were on the Office together and we're best friends. And now we're ultimate Office lovers podcast just for you.

[Angela Kinsey]

Each week we will dive deeper into the world of the Office with exclusive interviews, behind the scenes details, and lots of BFF stories.

[Jenna Fischer]

We're the Office Lady 6.0. Hello there.

[Angela Kinsey]

Hello, everyone. Holy moly, do we have a big episode today.

[Jenna Fischer]

We are going back to the Office universe.

[Angela Kinsey]

We sure are.

[Jenna Fischer]

With the paper.

[Angela Kinsey]

The paper, you guys.

[Jenna Fischer]

The first four episodes are out now on Peacock. Check em out. Today we're gonna talk about the pilot.

[Angela Kinsey]

And we got some behind the scenes scoop for ya.

[Jenna Fischer]

Behind the scenes Lady Lady. We had exclusive access to the set. We got to talk to the actors.

[Angela Kinsey]

We got to talk to the crew, the writers, the producers.

[Jenna Fischer]

And for those of you who have been following along with us these past four Fridays, we have been releasing some of those interviews with the cast members, some of the people we were able to talk to during our visit. So definitely check those out if you missed them.

[Angela Kinsey]

Well, we've got a lot to discuss. I think we just gotta get into it.

[Jenna Fischer]

Let's get into it. Today we are talking about the paper. This episode is titled Pilate. It was written by Greg Daniels and Michael Komen. Michael Komen, Ellie Kemper's husband. This was directed by Greg Daniels and. And this episode is 33 minutes and 18 seconds.

[Angela Kinsey]

Well, here's the thing. Right away, something new from the Office is they get to have more time.

[Jenna Fischer]

I know.

[Angela Kinsey]

And how much fun is that?

[Jenna Fischer]

I mean, as I was watching the episode, I was so wishing we could have had this extra 10 minutes per episode because, oh, my gosh, you see what that gives you?

[Angela Kinsey]

Mm. And I guess thankfully now Dave Rogers is giving us all of that in the Superfan episode.

[Jenna Fischer]

True. Well, here is your summary, folks. The documentary crew that filmed the Office is now looking for a new subject, and they find it in a historic, struggling Midwestern newspaper called the Truth Teller in Toledo, Ohio. The show focuses on the paper's newly hired publisher, Ned, whose goal is to revive the paper using volunteer reporters.

[Stephen Socks]

Mm.

[Jenna Fischer]

All right, we're gonna do fast facts and Angela, you're gonna kick us off.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. All right. Fast fact number one. So like we said, we got to interview some of the cast, and we also got to talk to Greg Daniels and Michael Komen. We asked them if they could share with us about the premise of the paper here's what Greg had to say. I do want to preface this with, if you guys haven't listened to the interviews, Jenna and I showed up with.

[Jenna Fischer]

Only one microphone, and our batteries died on the microphone when it was finally time to talk to Greg and Michael. So we had to plug it in. And then the only way to be close to them is if you and I sat on a conference room table. We have a picture of this, of you and I sitting on a conference.

[Angela Kinsey]

Room table leaning towards them with this microphone.

[Jenna Fischer]

With this one microphone.

[Angela Kinsey]

So if you hear a little clunkiness, it's because we're on a table.

[Alex Edelman]

Well, the premise of the show is that there is a company that bought Dunder Mifflin. They basically own anything that produces or uses paper. So they have Dunder Mifflin, which is office supplies, but their biggest product is toilet tissues and toilet seat protectors. And then they also have a few newspapers because they also use paper. But the newspapers are the least money makers, and they're low man on the totem pole. And so the documentary crew is just trying to follow up what happened to Dunder Mifflin and finds that it's part of this conglomerate. And they sort of stumble on an interesting story in the fact that this old newspaper is trying to be revived by an idealistic young publisher. And they think, oh, that'd be a good documentary, and they start following that.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, I actually think that sounded pretty good for two ladies on a table with one microphone.

[Angela Kinsey]

I know. And Greg, of course, always speaks so well.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes.

[Angela Kinsey]

Okay. Well, Michael also shared with us, and the sound quality wasn't great on this. So, Michael, I'm just going to read it. I'm sorry. The table microphone setup slowly fell apart on us anyway. So Michael shared with us why they thought this story is timely to what is happening right now in a lot of industries. He said that larger companies are acquiring newspapers, and often the newspapers will just function as a ghost paper. They're just sort of used for their name, and people recognize them as a source of news, but they mostly carry stories from the wire that you get on the Associated Press or any other big site, and they just milk them for ads until they disappear. And basically they keep the newspapers around because they think it's good for the community, but they're not really servicing any new stories, and that just fit in perfectly with the premise of the paper.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, Greg also shared about the comedy hook of this premise, which is that this dying newspaper only has one reporter, but the new publisher that we're going to Meet in this first episode, has a lot of ideas about wanting to do original local coverage, but he doesn't have the money to hire reporters.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. So we find out he gets volunteers from the people who already work there. Truck drivers, salesmen, accountants. Those are the people that become his news team. And of course, they're total amateurs. And, you know, hilarity ensues.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. Spoiler alert. There's a later episode where they invite a bunch of kids in the journalism.

[Angela Kinsey]

Department that's so funny.

[Jenna Fischer]

Of the local college to, like, shadow the newspaper. And you realize that these journalism students know way more, way more than this ragtag group of local reporters at this. And I really. That was really funny.

[Angela Kinsey]

I know. I love that. Whatever. When you see it, one character says, could we come and shadow you guys at school, like in your class? Because I'm learning a lot.

[Jenna Fischer]

Amazing. Well, fast fact number two, Greg shared with us that he really did try to recreate the magic that we had on the Office, and some of that was in hiring a lot of the same crew members.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes.

[Jenna Fischer]

So when we visited, we saw a lot of familiar faces.

[Angela Kinsey]

We sure did.

[Jenna Fischer]

And another thing that the Office was famous for was having writers who also appeared in recurring roles on the show. And we asked Greg if that was the same thing for the paper, and he said, yeah, pretty much everything that seemed like good luck from back then, we tried to recreate. So. So we have four writer performers, and when we get into the show and we're doing our breakdown, I'll tell you who they are as we meet their characters. I love that Greg brought back so much of the philosophy of the Office. And I think you see it on screen, we'll get to it. We're gonna talk about it. But the paper, it feels like the Office.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

It's in the universe. It's in the world.

[Angela Kinsey]

Absolutely.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. You feel it on screen.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. Well, Jenna, you've got fast Fact three and two words. Oscar Nunez.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. Oscar's character is the head accountant for Enervate.

[Angela Kinsey]

Head accountant? Excuse me.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

Uh huh.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah, there's three accountants again, but this time Oscar is the head accountant.

[Angela Kinsey]

Looky, lookie at Oscar. Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

The accountants cover all of the accounting for Enervate, which is the company that owns both the toilet paper side and the newspaper side. And. And, you know, last time we saw Oscar, he was running for state senator, and Greg said that didn't pan out. So now the fact that Oscar is working at this newspaper is sort of his way of serving the community. And you're gonna see that in his character. Again, I don't wanna give too many spoilers.

[Angela Kinsey]

I don't wanna give too much away, but I would say Oscar's new journey has a little bit of finer things club and a little bit of his heart for service.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. Well said.

[Angela Kinsey]

Mm. Well, we saw Oscar that day on the set.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

And it was so fun to see him in character again.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. We should say we were there for the taping of episode eight, but we were there on set while Oscar was doing a scene.

[Angela Kinsey]

And we got to sit back in Video Village with Greg and watch Oscar in a scene.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

And Dave Rogers was directing. It was so magical. It felt like a little travel back in time. But we reached out to Oscar for this episode and we asked him a few questions. First one was, how did you get your job on the paper?

[Jenna Fischer]

Ooh. Yes.

[Oscar Nunez]

So I have lunch once in a while with Greg Daniels, our showrunner from the Office. And months ago, we went out and he said something like, oscar, I'm thinking of an idea of something. I don't know, a startup with a newspaper or something like that. A paper in the world of journalism, like an old newspaper or something. And how would you feel if your character somehow bled over into that world or was part of that? And I said, yeah, that's fine. It was very. Just very shallow, you know, an idea that he had. And then time went by weeks, and maybe we had another lunch, and it was a little bit more fleshed out. And this happened a couple times until finally he's like, when did you come by? And they had an office down on Robertson. And I went by, and there was the writing team. And that's when I knew, oh, this thing is kind of happening. And so it was a writing team. And then he started to talk. Greg Daniels started to talk about possible people that he had in mind and fleshing out the idea more. And that's how I found out about it in increments. And I was sworn to secrecy from the beginning, of course.

[Angela Kinsey]

So then, of course, we had to ask him about keeping that secret. Yeah, that's a big secret. Here's what he said.

[Oscar Nunez]

Angela. As you know, Jenna might know, but Angela, definitely, I'm not good at keeping secrets. And it was very difficult. When we shot the pilot, Chris Haston was there, which is Kate Flannery's boyfriend and photographer. He's a professional photographer. And he was there, and he's like, oscar, oh, my God. And, you know, Greg Daniels told him, you have to keep it a secret. And he's like, oh, I've been doing this for a long time. And he found it very easy to keep the secret from Kate because he's been doing this photography for 40 years with all kinds of celebrities and whatnot. But it was fun to see him there. And we had that secret together. But I did it. I think I did it. And then, you know, the cat got let out of the bag before they were ready to announce it. Some reporter got wind of it and so here we are.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, I remember when we saw that article, Angela, but that was not news to us because, you know, a while back we ran into someone who.

[Angela Kinsey]

We won't say, we can't say, we'll.

[Jenna Fischer]

Never say, accidentally let it slip about Oscar to us.

[Angela Kinsey]

I know.

[Jenna Fischer]

And we said, we won't. We promise.

[Angela Kinsey]

We promise. And we locked it down.

[Jenna Fischer]

We did.

[Angela Kinsey]

No one knows until right now that we knew.

[Jenna Fischer]

That's right.

[Angela Kinsey]

Like, no one.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah, lady. And I would see Oscar at all of these, like, things that our daughters were doing together. And I pretended like I didn't know he was on the paper.

[Angela Kinsey]

He had no idea you knew. Me and Brian and him talked about doing a fan convention together. He had no idea.

[Jenna Fischer]

No.

[Angela Kinsey]

Brian didn't know. Nobody knew.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yep.

[Angela Kinsey]

You know why? Cause we lock it down.

[Jenna Fischer]

We locked it down.

[Angela Kinsey]

We locked it down. And I'm like so curious to ask Kate, like, Kate, your longtime partner, knew about this, was taking pictures on the set. When did you find out? I need a follow up question with Kate now.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

Cause we didn't know. We would never. I didn't tell anyone.

[Jenna Fischer]

I didn't tell anyone.

[Angela Kinsey]

Kate. Certainly Oscar. No one. Ellie.

[Jenna Fischer]

Ellie didn't tell anyone.

[Angela Kinsey]

We had dinner with Ellie. We're like, how's it going? She's like, oh, you know what? What?

[Jenna Fischer]

We.

[Angela Kinsey]

She didn't say a word.

[Jenna Fischer]

That's how tight this community is.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. Well, everyone in the.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, I guess except for the one person who told us about Oscar.

[Angela Kinsey]

I know. Well, everyone who knew was very protective of it.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes.

[Angela Kinsey]

And then ultimately, you know, a reporter found out. I am not surprised, though, because it's such a huge secret to keep for so long. And then they're filming at Universal Studios. We'll get to it and. But there's like tour buses of people that go through there. Yeah, yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

I mean, there's so many people who could have seen Oscar at Universal Studios.

[Angela Kinsey]

It's a huge place.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. Well, listen, why don't we take a break and then when we come back, we are going to talk all about the paper.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yep. This podcast is sponsored by Squarespace.

[Jenna Fischer]

We probably don't need to tell you that our officeladies.com website is active and wonderful. Thanks to Squarespace.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah, we have talked about Squarespace a lot because we love it and we use it every single week.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes, Ileana manages our website and she does it through Squarespace. And the reason that she does it through Squarespace is because it is so user friendly.

[Angela Kinsey]

It's so user friendly that only a handful of times when Ileana has taken a vacation or been out of town, she passes this torch along to Josh.

[Jenna Fischer]

Who then manages our website for the.

[Angela Kinsey]

Day and a half that he needs to. But it's that user friendly.

[Jenna Fischer]

It's amazing. It has cutting edge design, it will help you find a domain, it can help you fundraise, you can post videos. Head to squarespace.com officeladies for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use offer code officeladies to save 10% off to your first purchase of a website or domain. All right, we're back. And the paper opens with words on a screen.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah, it's a title card. And there's a message.

[Jenna Fischer]

The message says, In 2005, a documentary crew started filming at a paper company in Scranton, Pennsylvania. They followed the workers in an average office dealing with new rules of workplace behavior and the ups and downs of their personal lives. And then it says 20 years later, they returned.

[Angela Kinsey]

And the first thing the documentary crew, who's been gone for 20 years, shows us is the Scranton business Park.

[Jenna Fischer]

The exterior of our building.

[Angela Kinsey]

That's right, it's the parking lot. There are four business signs listed. Little bit of a foreshadowing here. The businesses listed are Vance Refrigeration one and done laser eye surgery and tattoo removal. Rubens and Kavala.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

And now the camera crew starts to push into those doors that we know, those glass doors. One background catch here as we scan the parking lot. Everything looks the same, except there are now electric car chargers.

[Jenna Fischer]

I didn't even notice that.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, I love that detail. Yeah. We are gonna go inside and guess where we start. This was such a surprise, and I loved it so much. We're at Vance Refrigeration, and we are warmly greeted by Bob Vance, Bobby Ray Shafer.

[Angela Kinsey]

Bobby Rae does such a great job. Bob Vance is gonna have a talking head. He says, hey, Dunder Mifflin's been gone for a while. Phyllis and Stanley keep in touch. They've both got the same kind of dog. A schnoodle.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. And he says, you Know, the one and done guys are less drama. And you're kind of like, who are the one and done guys?

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. What's one and done? Well, we go down the hall to where the Dunder Mifflin offices were.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. We go past the elevator and we open that door.

[Angela Kinsey]

And first of all, there's no carpeting. It's now hardwood floors.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, I didn't notice that.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. Reception desk is completely different. It's like metal and shiny.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. It has like LED lights on it.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

It's very modern.

[Angela Kinsey]

Very modern. Very slick looking.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes.

[Angela Kinsey]

And yeah, it's a laser eye company in laser tattoo removal.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. So the documentary crew clocks this and then they go back to talk to Bob.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

He's gonna get on his computer and he's gonna explain that Dunder Mifflin was purchased in 2019 by a company called Enervate in Ohio. They asked if Phyllis wanted to leave and move to Toledo, go with the company. And Phyllis was like, yeah, right, forget it.

[Angela Kinsey]

She's like, leave Scranton?

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

No, I have two background catches for my folks that love a background catch. Bob Vance has a post it note on his computer. It's on the top left corner. It's orange and it says in handwriting, 10% discount only on fridges, not labor. Oh, so you're not going to get a discount on labor. Also, the chamber of commerce website is on the screen if you go to it, Because I did. It is not an active website. Oh, they didn't set up fakie website.

[Jenna Fischer]

Got it. Here's something I thought of. If Dunder Mifflin was sold in 2019, that means it was sold before the pandemic. Oh, so Dwight never had to deal with, like, Covid rules.

[Angela Kinsey]

Here's my question.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes.

[Angela Kinsey]

Does Dwight still own the Scranton park, though?

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, does he still own the building?

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah, because he bought the whole building.

[Jenna Fischer]

You're right.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

We don't know the answer to that right now. We don't. Mm. Mm.

[Angela Kinsey]

I secretly hope he does.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, I just loved that the show opens with a familiar face. I love hearing that Stanley and Phyllis both have schnoodles. You know, I was just sort of on the edge of my seat when I saw Bobby.

[Angela Kinsey]

I know.

[Jenna Fischer]

We did not know he was part of the show. We knew about Oscar, but I did not know about Bobby.

[Angela Kinsey]

Also, did you have to Google schnoodles? Cause I did.

[Jenna Fischer]

No, I just assumed they were like a schnauzer and a poodle.

[Angela Kinsey]

That's exactly what they are.

[Jenna Fischer]

I mean, it's like a Labradoodle is like a Labrador and a poodle, I guess.

[Angela Kinsey]

It didn't click for me what a schnoodle was.

[Jenna Fischer]

I didn't know you could mix a schnauzer and a poodle.

[Angela Kinsey]

I didn't either. How's. I don't know and I don't want to think about it.

[Jenna Fischer]

Okay.

[Angela Kinsey]

But back to Bobby Rae for a second. So, you guys, we did an AT&T commercial. It's out in the world now. You will have seen some of it.

[Jenna Fischer]

It's so good. It's so funny, lady.

[Angela Kinsey]

They're so fun. You did them as well. They've really gotten almost the entire cast. Yeah, well, we were on set one day and we were just chatting. I was asking him how his life is. He has a very peaceful existence on this nice big property in West Virginia. And we exchanged phone numbers. And when I watched this, I was like, oh, my gosh. Bobby Ray was in it and didn't even tell me.

[Jenna Fischer]

There you go.

[Angela Kinsey]

There you go. So I texted him and I was like, can you please share with us what it was like to be on the paper? And he sent us in this lovely audio clip. Let's hear it.

[Bobby Ray Shafer]

Hello to the office ladies, Angela and Jenna, and your loyal listeners. This is Bobby Rae Schaefer, AKA Bob Vance, Vance Refrigeration. I'm pleased to join you today to talk about my experience filming the new TV show the Paper. There I was in my house on the hill in the woods in West Virginia, minding my own business. And I was working on my autobiography, which I'm sure the listeners will delight in the title, which is, what line of work are you in, Bob? Of course it's about my. All the jobs that I had in my career, including the most famous and loved of them all, the Office. Thanks to the greatest fans ever. So I receive an email in the. In my inbox one morning and I open it up and it's from Hollywood. Would I be interested. Would I be available for a new Greg Daniels project? Well, there's only one answer to that and it is, of course, yes. So I send back my, your availability is total. And then I had to wait for a while. You know how that goes, ladies. And at the time, I had thought when I left LA after 40 years of grinding, that I would never go back. But of course, as I told the producer who contacted me, I've never said no to Greg Daniels and I'm not going to start now. So after about a month of is it going to happen? Is it not going to happen. And I found myself right back in the old mindset of, it is, it isn't. It is, it isn't. And, you know, that's torture for an actor. But after not having to go through it for a while, it was kind of fun to be back in it, to tell you the truth. And the deal was closed, the arrangements were made, and I found myself on a big old jet plane to the coast. I went to the set the next morning, and I'd say that was the biggest difference in the Office and the Paper is that being on the Universal lot. When I would walk out of my trailer, the tour carts would come rolling by and all the people were waving and staring and yelling. And that was a new dimension to filming. But anyway, it was fantastic to be back in the Vance Refrigeration Office. As you know, details are key on the office, and they are too on the paper because it was a perfect replica, right down to a secretary and the whole office. You know, I really knew then what deja vu felt like. I mean, you know, I'd been there before, but it was delightful to see all the. There were many of the crew members, and the key guy, of course, other than Mr. Daniels, was Sergio, our caterer. And he was there, and it was a delight to see him. And Veda, the script supervisor, and Dave Rogers, the editor. And so it was like old home week. And it was really just a wonderful feeling to be back involved with those great people. So talented. And Greg was directing the pilot, and so I got to spend some quality time with him. And he had written a very smart, funny, open. I hope you'll all enjoy it. And the main reason I did it, of course, other than, you know, it was Greg, and is the historical link with the Office, as you know. As many of you know, I've been doing a lot of fan shows, and I have to say, I'll say it again, we do have the greatest fans in television show history. And I want to thank you all very much for making us feel so treasured and cherished. It's really, truly a great honor. And it's. It's been a blessing to be able to make people happy with just us. A photo and a signature, and you gave me that. So, Office ladies, you're kicking butt. Taking names. Keep it up. Love you very much. And I'll see you. Bye. Bye.

[Angela Kinsey]

Isn't that great?

[Jenna Fischer]

So great.

[Angela Kinsey]

I just loved all of that. And I texted him, thank you so much from the two of us. And he said, well, Ange, thank you and know that I forgive you for spitting on me. And I said. I said, wait, what are you talking about? When did I spit on you? I'm so sorry. I guess I'm a hot mess. I thought maybe I spit on him on the AT&T commercial.

[Jenna Fischer]

Okay.

[Angela Kinsey]

And he wrote back and he said, ha, ha. Fun Run. I made a remark about the dead cat. It was a deleted scene. Oh, my God. And I was just teasing. So now I want to go back to Fun Run deleted scenes and be like, I totally forgot that scene.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, Greg told me that they went back to our old lot and they restored the Scranton business sign park for that opening establishing shot. And he said that on that day, some fans were there and they came and took photos. He was like, they got really lucky because, you know, that sign is not usually there on the building. He said it was just kind of cool to see it there again. But like Bobby said, the Vance Refrigeration and the eye center and the elevator, all of that, they completely rebuilt on a soundstage at the Universal lot, because that's where they shot the paper was on a soundstage at the Universal lot.

[Angela Kinsey]

That's right. And we went and visited there. And, you know, we were walking to our cars at the end of the day, Greg was so sweet. He walked us out after our visit. We're standing by the cars and one of those buses went by.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. That Bobby talked about.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. It's like an open air bus with a bunch of visitors who are coming to Universal Studios. You pay for this pass, you get the tour of the whole back lot. And there we were standing there, and Greg literally was like, get down. Like, had us dive behind, like, a dumpster.

[Jenna Fischer]

We literally dove behind a dumpster because we did not want people to see us there. We were afraid with Greg. Yes. That it. Because there were the rumors that the paper was happening.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

And we. Yes.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. But I have to say, hearing now that people took pictures of that Scranton park sign at our old. Yeah, guys, zoom in. I bet you have laser one. And done.

[Jenna Fischer]

You probably do.

[Stephen Socks]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, now that our documentary crew has figured out that Dunder Mifflin was bought by Enervate, we're gonna go to Enervate to Toledo. Yes. To the Truth Teller Tower. And we go upstairs and we're gonna see a bunch of workers in these, like, glass walled cubicles.

[Angela Kinsey]

And one of them is shaving. He's got an electric shaver and he's reclining kind of shaving.

[Jenna Fischer]

He's getting the side eye from the person in the cubicle next to him.

[Angela Kinsey]

Shout out to Steven Socks, who played the man shaving his face. You might recognize that name because we have talked about him and his wife Lori for years. They were the stand in team on the Office. They both had cameos on the Office. And I was so tickled to see him on the paper.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes, lady. When we visited, we saw both Stephen and Laurie and it was so cool. But I had no idea that he had a cameo.

[Angela Kinsey]

Neither did I, because everybody locked it up. So when we watched this, I texted him about working on the paper. I asked him how him and Laurie came to work on the paper, what it was like working on the show, what it was like to do this cameo. And he sent us the most lovely message. Just like Bobby Ray. Everyone has just been so wonderful. You gotta hear it.

[Stephen Socks]

Lori and I both got to work on the paper and the pilot episode was really a thrill. I mean, somehow we were both able to work on the Office for all those years. And we made so many memories. And as soon as we found out about there even being a true Office spin off, we reached out to Greg Daniels, who is just so kind and just absolutely brilliant, and somehow we got to work on this brand new show. Well, one day I had a break from filming and I walked over to one of the other stages we were using and I saw the outside of a set that had just been built. And from the outside, a set just looks like wood and nails and a door here and there. And it's not until you open the door and step inside that the set is revealed. There was no one else, not a single person on stage. And so I was all alone. And I was curious about what we might shoot the next few days. You know, it could have been a restaurant or an apartment or whatever. So I opened one of the doors and it was the office's elevator lobby. I had entered that door. That was a stairwell door next to Bob Vance's glass door. And I was instantly taken back to the old Chandler Valley Studios in Van Nuys. It was shocking and emotional, actually. I walked up to the elevator and so many memories flooded my brain. And I thought of one of the most vivid memories on the show. It was Steve Carell's last day, and specifically Steve's last scene. The scene was when Michael says goodbye to the office and he walks to the elevator and exits the building. The day before, Greg had asked me to wear a suit. And so he put me in the scene. Me and a mail courier walk out of the elevator as Michael walks in On Steve's last take, I watched the character Michael Scott enter the elevator and the doors closed. And then after the scene ended, the doors opened and the actor, Steve Carell, stepped out. It really was just him and I in the lobby at that point. And I couldn't help myself, and I just gave him a big hug. Well, here I was back in that space, and I had goosebumps. I saw Bob Vance's office, and then I walked toward the Dunder Mifflin office, and it was a laser hair removal place. So it was. Dunder Mifflin was gone. And what I felt at that moment was just closure. Life moves on. And art shows us in amazing ways that life has changed. I got to stand there in that moment, full of gratitude for all that the office meant to me. And then in that same breath, I got to pivot to this brand new show. And then, like the next day, they asked me if I could come in and work with the talented Tim Key in one of the opening scenes, the pilot. Just an incredible experience that I will never forget.

[Angela Kinsey]

That is so powerful.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, I cried the first time I listened to that because he's right about what art can show us. And I just can't imagine what it was like. Like, it feels like time travel. If I could open a door and be standing in that elevator bay again.

[Angela Kinsey]

And I didn't know that story that he had that moment with Steve. And then now he is there again all these years later in that same elevator bay. And, yeah, I thought Stephen said it all so well. Yeah, I felt everything that he shared. You're a little teary, you know.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. It makes me so excited for this group of people. I just hope that this show gets to give them what the office gave us.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

All right, well, now we are gonna cut to a talking head of Ken. Ken is played by Tim Key. He is British. He is the head of strategy for the corporate offices at Enervate. And he's gonna explain to us what Enervate does. Let's listen.

[Oscar Nunez]

Ennov8 sells products made out of paper. So that might be office supplies. That might be janitorial paper, which is toilet tissue, toilet seat protectors, and local newspapers. And that is in order of quality.

[Angela Kinsey]

I loved at the very end when he says in order of quality. He thinks he's being funny, and he has this little smirk, look to camera. And it just cracked me up.

[Jenna Fischer]

Now he's gonna take us on the tour of the offices. He explains that the corporate offices are on the eighth floor. He's gonna take Us up to the ninth floor. This reminded me of our pilot where Michael Scott is taking you on a tour of Dunder Mifflin because he starts introducing everybody.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yep.

[Jenna Fischer]

We find out that the ninth floor is home to Softies Toilet paper. And when he opens the door, by the way, this is when we get our first glimpse of the set. And it is huge.

[Angela Kinsey]

It's so vast.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. It is this big open space, but there are very few people in it. Michael Komen told me that this scene was the very first scene they shot of the paper.

[Angela Kinsey]

Oh, really?

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes.

[Bobby Ray Shafer]

Aw.

[Angela Kinsey]

Well, you know, as Ken walks through, he's greeting his toilet kings and one queen, who I think has a little bit of an Angela Martin vibe. She's got that ponytail pulled back tight. And I love the throwaway snarky comment. Ken said as he walked past her. He says, scrunchie. No harm in it. She has her hair in a scrunchie. It was just a really funny throwaway line.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, Scrunchy Gal, AKA Toilet Queen is our first writer performer. She is a character that we're gonna see at Softies named Kimberly, and she is played by Mo Welch.

[Angela Kinsey]

Kim continues now to show us the rest of the Softies side of the office. There's a lot of old artwork and logos. And then he takes us to a gong that they hit whenever a sale is made. I have to imagine that's going to drive everyone crazy.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes, if you work there. Sure.

[Angela Kinsey]

And this is when he introduces us to what's on the other side of the office, which is the local newspaper, the Toledo Truth Teller.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. We find out that this entire building.

[Angela Kinsey]

Which is a big building.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. It used to house the newspaper with a staff of like a thousand. And now they're just like half of this floor. And there's like seven of them.

[Angela Kinsey]

Then we flash back to 1971.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah, we're gonna watch little black and white documentary.

[Angela Kinsey]

That's the year I was born, guys. We did have color TV in 1971. I am not that old. I am 54. You're so right, it made me laugh.

[Jenna Fischer]

Anyway, I think we just needed to differentiate between our current day story and this, like, documentary.

[Angela Kinsey]

You're so right. Anyway, I'm sure that's exactly why they did it, but it did crack me up. Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

So we're watching this old documentary and it's being hosted by John Stack, the publisher of the Toledo Truth Teller. And we're seeing our same set, but now it is just filled with like wall to wall people. John Stack is played By Tracy Letts. Lady. Lady.

[Angela Kinsey]

Oh, lady Theater nerd heart went into overdrive. You were like, angela.

[Jenna Fischer]

Ugh.

[Angela Kinsey]

Angela.

[Jenna Fischer]

Tracy Letts, multiple Tony award winner. He wrote August Osage County. He won a Tony for playing George in the revival of who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? I saw it. I saw all of it. I went to Chicago to see his play Superior Donuts at Steppenwolf and Lady. Afterwards, I got to go out and have drinks with him. Wow.

[Angela Kinsey]

Did you keep your cool? Did you say anything ridiculous or were you.

[Jenna Fischer]

I barely spoke.

[Angela Kinsey]

Okay, that's smart. That's smart.

[Jenna Fischer]

I was so in our office. Yes, yes. So I asked Michael Komen. I was like, how did you get Traci Lutts on the show? And Michael Komen was, like, as big of a nerd about him as I was. And he said he was my first choice. So they just reached out and he said yes. And Michael was like. I was genuinely thrilled.

[Angela Kinsey]

Well, now this scene that's gonna come at the end makes perfect sense to me. Uh huh. We'll get to that.

[Jenna Fischer]

We'll get to it.

[Angela Kinsey]

Because of Michael's love of him.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, he absolutely adore. He said they actually shot a ton of stuff with him and he really hopes that they're gonna be able to keep weaving this old quote unquote documentary from 1971. This old documentary, Exactly. But this was all just to show us, to give us a visual of, like, what this used to be and what it is now.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes. Just the juxtaposition of this lively hustle and bustle thriving newspaper. And now it's like in the same office space as a toilet paper and toilet seat cover company. And it's not even the major earner. Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

So we cut back to present day. We're gonna meet our first character from the Truth Teller. And it's Mare. She's a young woman. She's sitting at her desk.

[Angela Kinsey]

Ding, ding, ding. We have our first adorable coffee mug siding.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, what is it?

[Angela Kinsey]

Everyone else has had a paper coffee cup, and Mare's coffee mug is adorable. It's banana themed. It's a bunch of little bananas, and they're all wearing little black rimmed glasses. What?

[Jenna Fischer]

I missed it.

[Angela Kinsey]

I just loved it. And you guys, I'm going to give you a little sprinkle of what's on everyone's desk as we go through. Mare's desk is very simple. There is an article that she has had framed, probably that she wrote, we're guessing, and a personal photo and some hand sanitizer. Hmm.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, we are gonna learn that her job is compositor. And here's what she does. She just goes to the ap. She pulls stories that are in their subscription price point. Clearly, they haven't sprung for the best stories.

[Angela Kinsey]

No.

[Jenna Fischer]

And she just drags the articles into this, like, format. What would you call it? Yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

Plops them in there, and then it formats them, and then voila.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. Mare is played by actress Chelsea Fry. We got to meet her. We interviewed her. If you didn't hear her interview, go back and listen to it, because it's amazing. I was absolutely blown away by her performance. I'm a little obsessed. She's so good.

[Angela Kinsey]

She makes so many great choices, and you don't see her making them. Do you know what I mean?

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. It feels so effortless. Yes. I told Greg I'm obsessed with her.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

She's so good.

[Angela Kinsey]

She's so good. Well, now, coming up, you guys, we have the opening credits. Yes. I just loved them.

[Jenna Fischer]

I love the opening credits. We've seen the first four episodes, and I've watched the opening credits every time. I'm not skipping the opening credits.

[Angela Kinsey]

They're great. What they are, you guys, is sort of a montage of vintage scenes of people using newspaper for anything other than reading it.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. Then you do see some people reading.

[Angela Kinsey]

It, but we end on a shot of the newspaper, and it has been used to line a birdcage. It's the character Nicole's birdcage, and she is. And I guess the bird has peed and pooped on it because it's the liner of her birdcage, and she is scraping it into the trash.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, I love all of the images from this, but I also absolutely loved the theme song. It's very reminiscent of one we've grown to love. I think we should hear it, Lady. I hope that one day this cast is walking across the stage getting an award to that song.

[Angela Kinsey]

I know.

[Jenna Fischer]

I really do. I just hope they get it all.

[Angela Kinsey]

Can you please tell us about this song? Cause it's just so special. It gave me, like, the chills, like, when I hear the Office one. And then, of course, I love the little callback to the very end. Piano keys.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, Greg said that he did the same thing he'd done for the Office in Parks and Rec in that he took submissions from a variety of composers. He asked a of number write me a song. And ultimately, he loved this one. It's by Nick Thornburn and Patrick Ford. But get this, lady. After he picked the composition, he went to Bob Field and The Scrantones to record it live. They were the band from Booze Cruise and they were also the musicians who played our theme song.

[Angela Kinsey]

That is so amazing. That is so full circle. And I feel like that's why it has a similar feel.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. Yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

Love that. Okay, so the episode is going to start with a talking head from Mar. She's going to tell us about their one resident reporter, the real deal reporter. His name is Barry. When they need accurate local sports coverage, that's who they go to. They cut over to Barry. He is asleep.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes, yes.

[Angela Kinsey]

He's an older gentleman who's been there a long time.

[Jenna Fischer]

He is played by Duane Shepherd Sr. And he's our 1 reporter.

[Angela Kinsey]

That's it.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, now we are gonna meet. Oh my gosh. She's my fave.

[Angela Kinsey]

Talk about owning a scene.

[Jenna Fischer]

Ah, we're gonna meet Esmeralda, played by Sabrina Impecciatore. You might remember her from season two of White Lotus. She plays the woman at the front desk who's like running the stage. Yes. She is incredible. And I just. Literally everything she says, I love her.

[Angela Kinsey]

I know.

[Jenna Fischer]

I have this whole thing where I go between Chelsea and Sabrina and I'm obsessed with these two women on this show.

[Angela Kinsey]

Also, the moment we first met her, I felt like I was in a movie meeting someone.

[Jenna Fischer]

You mean when we met her in real life on the side? Yes, yes, yes.

[Angela Kinsey]

Cause she came in in this beautiful outfit, but she had just come from hair and makeup.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

And so she had all these curlers in her hair.

[Jenna Fischer]

She did. Which is so funny because when she does her talking ahead in the episode, she's got clips.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

So she's gonna explain that she is in charge of TTT online.

[Angela Kinsey]

I thought when I first heard this, I thought she said titty online.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, she does say that it's much more important, much more fun and much sexier than the printed version of the newspaper. Because the print version is for people who just wanna frame it if they're mentioned. But the online version, they can go on and on and on. There's no space issues. So she's going to show us one of her recent articles. It's called you won't believe how much Ben Affleck tipped his limo driver. And her description of it is so funny. I think we need to hear it.

[Angela Kinsey]

There's so many pop up ads.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes.

[Sabrina Impecciatore]

At TTT Online we have no space or length limitations. This is classic long form journalism. Here is one of my articles I'm particularly proud of. I don't know if you can see It. So you start reading it. Yes. And you get very curious. I'm scrolling. You go next. Oops, I hit an ad and I click here and I'm scrolling. And I'm learning a lot about the history of tipping. Like the first tip, what was that? Maybe a piece of cheese. And then you keep learning about colors of cars. There are so many colors. But it's not a waste of time because when you get to the end and you find out that the tips was $300.

[Angela Kinsey]

Wow.

[Sabrina Impecciatore]

I mean that's a lot.

[Jenna Fischer]

Lady. Her article, it a little bit reminds me of me and you breaking something down, right? Like because we're gonna take you on a deep dive of the history of tipping and the types of limos that existed in the world just to eventually tell you that Ben Affleck tipped $300 every time.

[Angela Kinsey]

We've watched this a few times now. And every time she gets to the part where she's like, what was the first tip? Maybe a piece of cheese. Makes me laugh. Every time.

[Jenna Fischer]

Every time.

[Angela Kinsey]

Well, while this talking head is going on, we get a real glimpse into Sabrina's office. It might be one of the most amazingly chaotic, crazy, vivid offices. Definitely on the set of the paper. There are so many great details. I'm going to list a few things I saw. First of all, there is a giant conch shell. Then a leopard printed swivel desk chair is what she sits on. There are gold little stars like cut out like construction paper looking gold stars.

[Jenna Fischer]

She's covered so many things in her office with gold stars.

[Angela Kinsey]

Multiple frames of just her covered with these little stars. Her laptop has stars on them. But lady, I thought of you. What did you clock how many lamps she has? No, she has a little tiny lamp with tripod legs with a little white square top. She has two big gold based lamps with white rounded tops. Then she's got another like ye olde lamp with like the pink shade with the tassels.

[Jenna Fischer]

God, I love a lamp.

[Angela Kinsey]

She's like you.

[Jenna Fischer]

I love a lamp.

[Angela Kinsey]

You. Sabrina and Steve Curl's character on Anchorman. She also has a makeup mirror with a little makeup caddy. I clocked some half burnt sage she's been saging in there. Stacks of papers, cups holding pens and scissors, a hairbrush, an open glass bottle of some type of soda and some very sad looking plants.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh my gosh, she is me. Sad plants and lots of lamps. That could be my autobiography.

[Angela Kinsey]

There it is done. I'm buying that book.

[Jenna Fischer]

It writes itself. Well, obviously this is the pilot episode, so we're learning about all these people. We've learned about Esmeralda, and now we're gonna learn a little more about mayor. Who says that before she worked here, she was in the army, and she did write for the military newspaper, Stars and Stripes.

[Angela Kinsey]

We got that paper when I lived overseas.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

That's the paper I remember my dad reading growing up.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, Esmeralda's gonna walk around the office and introduce us to people. She's gonna start with Nicole.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. Poor Nicole does not want to be on camera, and Esmeralda is gonna make sure of it. She kind of, like, squeezes her face, and then it cuts to Nicole. We have a new talking head location.

[Jenna Fischer]

It's like a storage room.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes. I loved it. I loved the visual of it. Behind her are all these old card catalog cabinets. You know, the tall ones that are made of wood and have the tiny little drawers, and then on either side of her are just shelves of files.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. And this is where we're gonna get our, like, talking head confessionals.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes.

[Jenna Fischer]

You know what I thought? I thought of Leslie David Baker.

[Bobby Ray Shafer]

Oh.

[Jenna Fischer]

And I thought of all the talking heads he sat in the background of.

[Angela Kinsey]

They made sure no one had to do that.

[Jenna Fischer]

Nobody had to do it. This time we're gonna put you in, like, a closet for these talking heads.

[Angela Kinsey]

That's right.

[Jenna Fischer]

No one in the background.

[Angela Kinsey]

Poor Leslie and Creed. Leslie the most. But those two were in so many.

[Jenna Fischer]

I know.

[Angela Kinsey]

The only talking heads we don't see in this card catalog file closet.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

Are the ones in some people's offices that have actual offices.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. Correct. Well, Nicole is gonna explain that she's in circulation, so she keeps track of subscribers. She also just talks about how maybe they generate revenue by maybe collecting and selling information on people who accept all the cookies on their website. She has a very funny line where she says, you could say we get more information from the readers than they get from us.

[Angela Kinsey]

Mm.

[Jenna Fischer]

Mm. Nicole is played by Ramona Young, and we got to interview her when we visited. It got cut short because they needed her back on set, but you can listen to that interview.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. Her and I found out we were both on the Real o' Neals together.

[Jenna Fischer]

I know you were on multiple things together, but you never really met, never worked together. That's like me and Rob Lowe. We were on three projects together, and we never were in a scene together.

[Angela Kinsey]

Is there gonna be a show where me and you and Rob Lowe and Ramona?

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, I think we need to make it. Yes.

[Angela Kinsey]

On Mom. Detective.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, my gosh.

[Angela Kinsey]

Case number one. Exactly.

[Jenna Fischer]

All right, now we are gonna meet Detric, played by Melvin Gregg.

[Angela Kinsey]

I'm sorry. Bummed we didn't get to interview Melvin.

[Jenna Fischer]

I know we got to meet him, but we didn't get to interview him.

[Angela Kinsey]

We got to chat with him on set. Then they started rolling. We had to whisk away. And then he was in scenes.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. He explains that he sells ads for the paper. And we also learn that he likes to cheer people up. Specifically Nicole.

[Angela Kinsey]

Nicole.

[Jenna Fischer]

He's gonna have a little crush on Nicole. Angela, we have seen Nicole's desk and Dedrick's desk. Do you have a desk breakdown for us?

[Angela Kinsey]

I do. Okay, so Nicole's desk. Now, you're gonna see this a little bit more later in the episode. Right now, we've only seen a quick glimpse of it. She has a framed picture of her dog. Some type of, like, Stanley cup, you know, like, water bottle. Some little twinkly lights that looks like she sort of strung around her partition. The thing I'm most curious about is the bird cage that's got the little, you know, cloth covering it. Cause the bird is clearly inside.

[Jenna Fischer]

It's sleeping.

[Angela Kinsey]

It's sleeping. But, yeah, she gets to bring her bird to work. And this made me think of a gal I worked with at 1-800-doistent who would bring her parakeet, Dash, to work.

[Jenna Fischer]

In a cage, obviously. Right. Not on her shoulder. I don't know why I said in a cage.

[Angela Kinsey]

Actually, she had this little travel. I don't even know if I'd call it a cage container. It looked like a caboodle. Remember the makeup caboodles?

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

It was like plastic, but the top was kind of open and grated, and she could pop the lid open, and they let Dash out. It was okay.

[Jenna Fischer]

At 1-800-Dentist.

[Angela Kinsey]

At 1-800-DENT dentist. And he had a ball that he loved so much. It had a little bell inside it. And if you called 1-800-DENTIST back in those days, you might have heard this in the background.

[Jenna Fischer]

Ding, ling, Ding.

[Bobby Ray Shafer]

Lingerie.

[Angela Kinsey]

And that was Dash kicking his ball.

[Jenna Fischer]

I had two parakeets growing up. Pretty was the name of the first parakeet, and Mango was the name of the second parakeet. And Mango used to fly around our house and would sit on my shoulder when I played piano.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. Dash would hang out at Paula was the lady's name in her little desk cubicle. Or he would kick his ball down. All of our desks were connected, so you might have Dash just traveling down.

[Jenna Fischer]

Wow.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. I want more bird is all I'm saying. Okay, I'm now intrigued. We've seen it in the opening credits. Now I see the cage on her desk.

[Jenna Fischer]

When will we meet this bird?

[Angela Kinsey]

When will we meet this bird?

[Jenna Fischer]

Okay.

[Angela Kinsey]

Melvin's desk, I will say, is a little bit more of a typical desk. You know, papers, post it notes, things like that.

[Jenna Fischer]

Not too personalized.

[Angela Kinsey]

Not super personalized, but. Oh, my goodness. Melvin, we need to discuss your computer screen. He had so many tabs open. Seriously, he has, like, 10 tabs open. So he's got some digital clutter, lady. There is one other desk that I think really rivals Esmeralda's for the amount of things. And we'll get to it.

[Jenna Fischer]

All right. Well, speaking of Esmeralda, she's kind of flirting with the camera.

[Angela Kinsey]

Mm. I loved this so much. Lady. This is my favorite moment of the episode. Her acting is so brilliant. Cassie and I were talking about it when I got here because this is her favorite moment.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, my gosh.

[Angela Kinsey]

We've got to hear it.

[Jenna Fischer]

Let's hear it.

[Sabrina Impecciatore]

You are going to get tired chasing my busy little buddy around with that camera. Also, I'm a single mom, so there's lots going on in my life. Anyway, here are two accountants and the head accountant. Boring. Boring. And head boring.

[Oscar Nunez]

God, not again. I'm not agreeing to any of this. Don't you guys have enough? After nine years, nobody wants this. You know what? You can't use my voice, my likeness, my face, nothing.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, my gosh. This was so fun. This is the reveal of Oscar.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes. But the turn that she takes leading there, where she's like, flirty, flirty. And then she's like, I'm a single mom. I got a lot going on. Yeah. And then she kicks it over to accounting. And then, yes, we discover Oscar.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. He runs away. He's like, you heard it. You cannot use my light. There's nothing. I'm not doing this again. And he runs in the bathroom and he slams the door.

[Angela Kinsey]

And then the next thing we see is a title card with a message on it that says, yes, we can. There's no end date to the release. Oscar signed in 2005.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. He's now a reluctant participant in this ongoing documentary.

[Angela Kinsey]

He's gotta be so pissed off.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, we're gonna see this play out. Like we said, we got to see the first four episodes of the show. And without giving too much away, it's kind of a soft launch because he's going to be avoiding the cameras. He's gonna get drawn in. But I really loved That I love that we got to see this familiar face. But he's not in the main storylines at first. He's gonna get slowly drawn in.

[Angela Kinsey]

Slowly pulled in.

[Jenna Fischer]

I feel like we should mention the other members of this three person, boring accounting team because they're played by two more of the paper's writer performers, Bimasola Icumello and Alex Edelman. And they play Adalola and Adam, the other two accountants.

[Angela Kinsey]

Mm. We're gonna see Barry. Now, Barry's desk area is sort of that classic desk of someone who has worked at the same company for a long, long time. It has clutter, but it is clutter that has earned its place. For example, his desk is situated by a big column that's part of the building, and he has covered that column with a whole bunch of little tiny newspaper clippings.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. Probably articles he wrote over the years, I would think.

[Angela Kinsey]

We would hope.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, mayor is at her desk and she's doing her business of pulling articles off the wire. And she just says, you know what? I need some air. And we're gonna now go outside and we're going to see someone approaching the building. But I think we should take a break and when we come back, we'll tell you who it is.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes. We're going to meet a young man with purpose.

[Jenna Fischer]

All right, we are back, and we are going to meet Ned Sampson. He's this nice looking young man. He's got a backpack on. He's played by Domhnall Gleason. Double crossover connection. He was in the miniseries the Patient with Steve Carell and the movie Fountain of Youth with John Krasinski.

[Angela Kinsey]

How about that? Well, we're gonna learn. You know, he's super excited to be there. It's his first day working at the Truth Teller, and he shares. Growing up, he didn't idolize Superman. He worshiped Clark Kent, who was saving the world by working at a newspaper. Yes.

[Jenna Fischer]

He's very idealistic.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes.

[Jenna Fischer]

And as he's talking, he kind of runs into Mare, who kind of runs in. Yeah. He knocks her whole salad.

[Angela Kinsey]

She's carrying this big salad. And he backs into her unknowingly with his enormous backpack, knocking her salad out of her hands, dumping it all over the ground. He never even sees her. All I could think about was Hugh Grant in this moment, why he hates backpacks.

[Jenna Fischer]

He does.

[Angela Kinsey]

Oh, my gosh. Have you not heard him go off?

[Jenna Fischer]

No, I. Okay, wait, this is so funny, because I know what you're talking about. Yes. Both him and also Cate Blanchett. Have you Seen these compilations of them going on and on about the things that they hate. She hates leaf blowers. She. She does like so much. She hates.

[Angela Kinsey]

I think you need to hear his hatred of backpacks, though, please. Here's a clip of him talking about it on Late Night with Seth Meyers. You are a man who you said.

[Jenna Fischer]

I believe you are a walking pet peeve in that you have a lot of pet peeves about human behavior.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah, I'm an angry little man.

[Bobby Ray Shafer]

Yeah.

[Alex Edelman]

Can I read off some of your.

[Jenna Fischer]

Pet peeves and have you tee off? You don't like people walking slowly.

[Oscar Nunez]

Unbearable.

[Jenna Fischer]

Backpacks. You don't care for backpacks.

[Angela Kinsey]

Why?

[Bobby Ray Shafer]

What's all that?

[Oscar Nunez]

Why has everyone got a backpack?

[Alex Edelman]

Take it off.

[Angela Kinsey]

Take it off.

[Jenna Fischer]

But what if they have their stuff in it?

[Oscar Nunez]

I don't care. Carry it here.

[Stephen Socks]

Okay.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, it's that the bag's not an issue. It's that it's on your back.

[Oscar Nunez]

Well, I use the subway, the tube.

[Angela Kinsey]

In London quite a lot because you.

[Alex Edelman]

Can'T get around any other way.

[Oscar Nunez]

And there's always someone's huge backpack in my face with their stupid water bottle.

[Jenna Fischer]

So you are.

[Oscar Nunez]

So why does everyone need a water bottle?

[Angela Kinsey]

So basically, I think Hugh Grant would really hate Ned's backpack.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, for sure.

[Angela Kinsey]

It took out a whole salad and.

[Jenna Fischer]

He doesn't even notice.

[Angela Kinsey]

I know.

[Jenna Fischer]

All right, well, he's gonna go upstairs to these offices, and he walks in and no one is expecting him. He's just a guy with a backpack who's walked in. He goes into the copy room. He's kind of wandering around.

[Angela Kinsey]

He's filming and taking pictures. He's so excited.

[Jenna Fischer]

He looks like a tourist.

[Angela Kinsey]

He looks out of place for sure.

[Jenna Fischer]

So Nicole clocks him and she goes over and she locks him inside the copy room, which is a glass room.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

And now employees start wandering over. And then Ned is gonna discover that he's been locked in the room. And this whole exchange, it made me laugh very hard. I think we need to hear it.

[Alex Edelman]

We do not have door money.

[Oscar Nunez]

This is just a misunderstanding, okay? I just.

[Jenna Fischer]

I start work at the paper.

[Bobby Ray Shafer]

Which paper?

[Jenna Fischer]

News or toilet news?

[Oscar Nunez]

Why would I say the paper about toilet paper?

[Jenna Fischer]

We don't know you, sir. How should we know why you say the things you say?

[Oscar Nunez]

I've got a meeting at 2 o'.

[Stephen Socks]

Clock.

[Jenna Fischer]

All right.

[Oscar Nunez]

I'm just early.

[Jenna Fischer]

That's all this is. Okay, who's the meeting with?

[Oscar Nunez]

Just briefly. I'm forgetting the names.

[Jenna Fischer]

No, no, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. It's something unique. Is there A Fantine that works here.

[Oscar Nunez]

You'll find her in Les Mis. All right.

[Angela Kinsey]

I really love Detric in that scene. Yes. He's so cute.

[Jenna Fischer]

We don't know why you say the things you say, sir.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, Ned finally remembers Esmeralda's name at the same time that Mair finally returns and says, oh, my gosh, I saw this guy downstairs.

[Angela Kinsey]

He was talking to the camera crew. He's legit.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes.

[Angela Kinsey]

They let him out. I want to point out, at 14 minutes and 49 seconds, we see behind Ned in the copy room, on the side of a filing cabinet, the same yellow Froggy 101 radio sticker that was on the set of the Office.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, my gosh.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes. Little Easter egg.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, I spotted an Easter egg on Oscar's desk that we're gonna talk about later.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes. And I have a clip.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, well, it's making me wonder if there are more of these. Like, if I watch it again, will I see more of them in the background?

[Angela Kinsey]

I think so. I think they're hidden all over.

[Jenna Fischer]

Do you think there's a Simpsons thing somewhere?

[Angela Kinsey]

I would think so.

[Jenna Fischer]

Right.

[Angela Kinsey]

I looked for it. If I missed it, let me know.

[Jenna Fischer]

Or a ducky. I don't know.

[Angela Kinsey]

I did see a stuffed animal on a filing cabinet. I couldn't really make out what it was.

[Jenna Fischer]

Okay. For future viewings. So when they let Ned out of the conference room, everyone's gonna kind of come up and introduce him. But my favorite is when Travis, the softy toilet paper guy, shakes his hand and then turns it into, like, a pat down.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes.

[Jenna Fischer]

Just to make sure.

[Angela Kinsey]

I love the character of Travis. We have watched a few upcoming episodes. There are a few scenes that he's in that crack me up. Eric, you are hilarious.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. He's played by Eric Rahill, and he is our final writer performer.

[Angela Kinsey]

Oh, he is so funny.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. So Ned explains he's a new employee. Mayor is immediately worried that she's fired because she knows we don't have room for new employees. They get to chatting, and he's like, I'm a little shaken up. I could use a bite to eat before my meeting. I owe you a salad. You want to get something to eat? She's like, sure.

[Angela Kinsey]

They now go down to a little cafe. It looks like it's maybe somewhere in the building, Right? Like, on the mezzanine level of the building.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes.

[Angela Kinsey]

It's called Eat Hus.

[Jenna Fischer]

Mm.

[Angela Kinsey]

Get it? Eat House.

[Jenna Fischer]

Eat House. Yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

And this is where the two of them start to get to know each other. It's Such a lovely scene.

[Jenna Fischer]

I love Chelsea in this scene.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

I love her. I have to imagine that when Greg was watching her in this scene, he was dazzled because she's incredible.

[Angela Kinsey]

She's so great in it. I did have questions. This is when I wish we had the script, because Ned does this thing where he's picking out all of the tomatoes out of his salad.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. He's, like, talking about his backstory, where he came from, but all the while, he's picking at his salad, like, separating.

[Angela Kinsey]

Things out of it.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes.

[Angela Kinsey]

She becomes very sort of fixated on that. She's like, what are you doing? And I was like, that had to have been in the script. Like, he didn't just do that, right?

[Jenna Fischer]

I don't think so. Because he has a very funny line where he says, oh, this is the pile of things I don't want to eat from the salad. This is the pile of eat alones. And then this is the salad.

[Angela Kinsey]

That's right. That's right. I just loved that writing.

[Jenna Fischer]

But what I do wonder is, is there someone in the writer's room who does that to their salad?

[Angela Kinsey]

I'm sure, you know, all these things make their way in.

[Jenna Fischer]

That's right. So we find out that Ned started by working at his father's cardboard company. Then through a connection that his dad had at Enervate, he ends up working at Softies in Chicago. And now, per his request, he's been moved to Toledo to work at the newspaper.

[Angela Kinsey]

We also learn that he's a very good salesman.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. And we learn a little bit about his vision for what he wants to do here.

[Angela Kinsey]

We're now going to cut back to the offices where some people are talking. There's a hilarious conversation between Oscar and Travis where Travis is sort of telling him how to behave if you ever hit a deer with your car, what to do with your car to avoid hitting the deer.

[Jenna Fischer]

This scene was so funny. And this is a scene that I think might have gotten cut if you only had 21 minutes.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes.

[Jenna Fischer]

Because there's no purpose for this other than to just be very, very funny. To just watch two funny people in a funny scene.

[Angela Kinsey]

It does have a moment, though, that furthers the storyline that Oscar doesn't want to be in it. Because when Oscar sees the camera, he kind of scooches behind his computer monitor.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes, that's true.

[Angela Kinsey]

So that does serve that purpose. But I couldn't help but think that Travis and Dwight would get along really well.

[Jenna Fischer]

Definitely based on this speech and the pat down. And the pat down. You're right.

[Angela Kinsey]

I do want to give a quick shout out to Scott McGinnis, who is the prop master for the paper. We chatted with him when we visited the set, and we exchanged emails. He shared with us that he knew Phil Shea well, and he did a lot of the same things for the paper, like reaching out to local businesses for menus, magnets, et cetera, that Phil did for the office with the local Scranton businesses. And I asked Scott what it was like to work on the paper, and he said, is it possible to work with Greg Daniels without a story? He's wonderful. And I did ask him if we ever get to see that bird. And he said yes.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, got some inside scoop.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, now we're gonna have a talking head by the character Adalola, and she's telling us about her deskmate Adam. He has four kids. His wife makes him the same lunch every day. He basically eats whatever the kids don't want to eat. And I guess you could say, I'm not sure she thinks very highly of.

[Angela Kinsey]

Him while she's saying all of this. It's so hilarious to me because they cut to Adam. He is drinking out of a dinosaur sippy cup. He's, like, literally eating a kid's lunch. It's really funny. We see a little bit of both of their desks in this montage, and I thought I'd share with you. First of all, at Alola's desk, she's got a lot on her desk. She's got a lot of papers, a lot of things. It's a little messy, but I think she's where people go to get little treats, because on the front of her desk, she has glass canisters of candy. Oh. Kind of reminded me of Pam's desk a little bit.

[Jenna Fischer]

Okay, okay.

[Angela Kinsey]

Adam's desk is the one I was talking about, like Esmeralda's. Holy moly. How many more things could you fit on this desk? It is wall to wall things. And when we visited the set, we actually talked to Alex while he was at his desk, and he described it a little bit for us.

[Alex Edelman]

I have various books that you can only see the spines of. This is a book by Ken Kwapas, who directed the second episode. And it's facing in, so you can't see the spine, but it says, but what I really want to do is direct, which is what Ken gave me, the book. This is a book about one of my mentors in my job before comedy, a guy named Larry Lucchino who used to run the Red Sox the book's called Masters of the Game. And so. And yeah, and because my character's a dad, he's got a bunch of, like, he can't play at home. So I've got a bunch of toys, like these Velcro ball catchers, like Rubik's Cubes, like this fart gun. Yeah, it does different farts.

[Angela Kinsey]

I have a question. Yeah, I have a question about this container of toothpick cleaners, floss picks. Is that props or is that you?

[Alex Edelman]

Oh, that's props. The only. The stuff that's made. But I love all of the props. This is a mini Bop it. I'm really dev. I'm really good at mini Bop it. But once like in an early episode at like a 6am call time, I was, like, doing the Bop it, like, in a bit of a trance state, and I looked up and everyone was, like, watching me. It was the wrong kind of attention.

[Jenna Fischer]

I have a question about this Boston snow globe. Is your characters. Does your character have a Boston backstory?

[Alex Edelman]

My character, like me, does have a Boston backstory. I'm from. I'm a proud Brookline, Massachusettsan, not a Newtonian like Novak and Krasinski. But it's a bit of a tribute to all of the Bostonians who have come through the show. And, yeah, my character is from Boston originally, although it's never come up.

[Jenna Fischer]

I see that you also have the Magic 8 ball on your desk, which was in Michael Scott's office, and a Magic 8 ball seamstress to find its way onto a desk in every iteration of the office.

[Alex Edelman]

So, you know, that wasn't my choice, but when I noticed it, I kept hoping that no one would call me on it because I really wanted to keep it because I was such a big fan of the original show. And so I thought, oh, man. Oscar has his little nod to Michael Scott. I love that I get to have a little Tony nod to Michael Scott, too. But there are so many. Yes, I have a bevy of chapsticks. I have lots of chapsticks. And this is a ball signed by a bunch of the crew, which is a really nice, nice thing to have. And, yeah, there are lots of little nods to the crew around the office. A lot of the employees of the month or the. Yeah, a lot of the plaques. And, like, it's a really fun set.

[Angela Kinsey]

Isn't that great?

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

He also went on to show us all the pictures that are, quote unquote, all of his mini kids, and they're just all of his friends, like, people that he holds dear to his heart. But his desk had so many toys. It had a marble racer, had all these things. But I loved hearing how there was a little bit of things from his life, plus things that are props, plus nods to the office. And I also just love how they continued the tradition like we had on the office of having crew featured in all these little places on plaques and things.

[Jenna Fischer]

I love that too. Well, now we're going back to lunch and now it's mayor's turn to open up and they're going to kind of agree together that this paper sucks, but maybe they can make it better. Maybe it can be a real paper.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

But in order to do that, Ned is going to have to meet Esmerelda and he's going to have to tell.

[Angela Kinsey]

Her that he is taking her job.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah, he's editor in chief now. She can still run the online part.

[Angela Kinsey]

But he's gonna basically replace her.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah, he's in charge of the print paper now.

[Angela Kinsey]

And he makes this apology to her. He's like, I'm sorry. I hope me coming in here and changing things up won't be too disruptive. And she says, oh, don't be so self defecating. Yes, she is just clearly has him in her bullseye. And now she is gonna just start taking jabs at him in all the tiniest and big ways.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah, there's gonna be some future storylines that play out that are just her really undermining him. But she pretends like she's in his corner. Oh, it's just lost in translation maybe. Like I. Oh, there's one coming up actually. Yes. Well, I also wanna say, I just love that she's holding her cell phone in this scene. It's just so true to character. This is totally a person who walks around with their cell phone in their hand all the time. And she, she does. And I love it.

[Angela Kinsey]

We are now going to have our first conference room scene.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. It's just between Ned and Ken, who is the guy we met at the beginning who works for Enervate and Esmeralda.

[Angela Kinsey]

And basically Ned is saying, listen, I'm going to need a few things to make the kind of newspaper I want to make. I'm going to need a full staff, dedicated reporters on multiple beats. And Ken is like, whoops, I'm going to call 911 because our budget is having a coronary.

[Jenna Fischer]

And he says, you know what else? I am going to cancel the wire service. We are only going to print original articles. From this point on, Esmeralda looks Right.

[Angela Kinsey]

At the camera, like, who the f is this? A hole.

[Jenna Fischer]

I know. Now, meanwhile, during this conference room scene, we see everyone out in the bullpen getting an email on their computers, and it's from Esmeralda.

[Angela Kinsey]

Well, she's been clicking away as soon as he started telling her the wire was going away and how he was going to change things. She is busy on her phone during.

[Jenna Fischer]

This meeting, and what she's been doing is writing a letter to the staff titled welcome Ned Sampson. And we're going to see people reading it. And one by one, people kind of start, like, coming over and looking in the room.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. One guy comes over to the conference room and is like, hey, I'm here for you, guy. You know, same thing happened to me here to show you my support. And he leaves, and everyone's kind of like, what was that about? And Ken goes, I didn't even think that guy worked here anymore. Everyone else starts to walk up to the conference room, and there are these glass windows, and they're looking through it pretty harshly at Ned. They are not happy. Ken is oblivious, but you can tell Esmeralda is delighted.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, Ned is going to excuse himself, and Mare is going to show him something on her phone. And it is the email. And here's what it is. Esmeralda has sent an email to everyone explaining that Ned has not been me too'd.

[Angela Kinsey]

Mm. That's not why he came here, why he had to get a new job. It was not because he was me too'd. Yes.

[Jenna Fischer]

So he has this conversation with Esmeralda where he's like, why would you send an email telling people that I was not something, that I was not me to? Her explanation is so funny. She's being so manipulative. It's amazing. I think we should hear it.

[Oscar Nunez]

Hey, can we talk? Of course.

[Jenna Fischer]

No, no.

[Bobby Ray Shafer]

Her.

[Oscar Nunez]

Did you send an email to everyone here saying that I was not me tooed?

[Sabrina Impecciatore]

Yes, because I didn't want you to start off on the wrong foot.

[Oscar Nunez]

But I wasn't.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes.

[Sabrina Impecciatore]

In fact, that's why I said he was not me tooed.

[Oscar Nunez]

I don't think I was not. I've never been me tooed. I've also never embezzled or slapped a waitress.

[Sabrina Impecciatore]

Oh, well, should I tell them no?

[Oscar Nunez]

That's what I'm saying.

[Stephen Socks]

You.

[Oscar Nunez]

You don't have to knot a thing that isn't.

[Sabrina Impecciatore]

You are preaching to the choir. These are simple people. To them, a man leaves his job, moves to a new town. They think, I wonder, what was his evil crime? Did he do it to a person. An animal.

[Jenna Fischer]

Animal.

[Sabrina Impecciatore]

I hope he doesn't do it to me. That's why I wrote a mass email to everyone. So instead they would think, wait a minute, hold on. Maybe I should. Should wait and see. What if my gut instinct against him is not completely, completely, completely right?

[Oscar Nunez]

Okay, this is bad.

[Jenna Fischer]

Esmeralda, you know what?

[Sabrina Impecciatore]

I'm going to tell everyone that everything that I wrote in that email was completely incorrect. Okay. Thank you.

[Jenna Fischer]

Okay.

[Sabrina Impecciatore]

You're welcome.

[Jenna Fischer]

You're welcome.

[Oscar Nunez]

No, wait, wait, wait. I think that's worse.

[Angela Kinsey]

Why?

[Jenna Fischer]

What?

[Oscar Nunez]

I think it's better if it comes from me.

[Sabrina Impecciatore]

I agree. Great idea. Everybody's going to appreciate your remarks.

[Oscar Nunez]

No, not now, not now.

[Sabrina Impecciatore]

Everyone, everyone, everyone.

[Angela Kinsey]

The way that scene is brilliant. She is just a master class in acting. And then her way, she yells at everyone to listen up.

[Jenna Fischer]

Everyone.

[Angela Kinsey]

It's so incredible, so good. Poor Ned is just deer in headlights.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. Well, he is in fact going to take the floor. He's gonna stand up on one of the desks in the middle of the bullpen. You know, this is the photo we've all been seeing. They released a photo of this moment when they were promoting the show. So this scene gives us this really great wide shot of the offices. You can see Ned standing on top of the desk. You can see the softy toilet paper side. You can see the Truth teller side. And I have to give a shout out to the production designer, Susie Mancini, who also worked with Greg on Space Force, and Adrian Garcia, who was the set decorator. Greg and Michael shared with us that in the same way that Greg visited, like, a small paper company when he was developing the office, he and Michael visited several small newspaper offices in Ohio when they were developing the paper. And he said that something they noticed was that these old offices, they have a lot of style because this was the big, like, Google type company of their era. And the set of the paper is modeled after some of the things that they observed touring these historic newspaper offices. They wanted to create a place that felt like it had history. And I think you can see that. You can see that with the big columns in the room.

[Angela Kinsey]

And those windows, to me, really sell it. The windows are sort of this half moon. They sort of arch up high and come around.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. And there's these other big windows that are, like, trimmed in hardwood.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes.

[Jenna Fischer]

There's also this divider that has, like, dark wood trim around it and all this iron work. It looks like it's from the 1920s. But they did an amazing job with set. They really did. And this is, I think, the first time you get to really see the scope of it.

[Angela Kinsey]

Mm. Well, we have a few background catches during this great big wide shot. Lady, you texted me and said, ange, what is that at 24 minutes and 4 seconds? Is it what I think it is?

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes, it's something on Oscar's desk. Alex mentioned it.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes, he referred to it.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes.

[Angela Kinsey]

Here's what it is. You guys, check it out. Oscar has on his desk that scarecrow doll made out of, like, burlap and twine that Michael Scott gave him in the Goodbye Michael episode. Do you remember the moment here? Let's hear it.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oscar, Oscar, Oscar, Oscar. You are very smart and you have a gigantic education.

[Stephen Socks]

And I think of you as my.

[Jenna Fischer]

Scarecrow because you gave me a brain.

[Angela Kinsey]

So that's why I made you this.

[Oscar Nunez]

Thank you, Michael.

[Jenna Fischer]

It's beautiful.

[Angela Kinsey]

It looks like. It looks like it was made by.

[Jenna Fischer]

A two year old monkey on a farm. And he just. He just accepted that I. That I put all this work into it.

[Angela Kinsey]

Oh, man, he. He has the lowest opinion of me of anybody.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh.

[Angela Kinsey]

No one fake laughs better than Steve Carell, by the way. I mean, I am like, laughing. Cause it's like that laugh sounds so real. But that's all performance. Yes, but, yeah, that's what Oscar has on his desk.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oscar brought that all the way from Scranton, and then he put it on his desk. Maybe he liked Michael after all.

[Angela Kinsey]

Aw.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, lady, I know you have another catch. Cause I caught it too.

[Angela Kinsey]

Mm. This is just what we're gonna call fantastic shoe catch. And Adalola has on some sparkly, bedazzled shimmering boots. They're like a hot pink. Yeah, they're amazing.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. Her legs are up on her desk. I spotted them as well. Well, now Ned is gonna continue his pitch for what he wants to do at the paper. And here's what he says. He says, quote, if you have ever wanted to be the first person to know what's going on in the place where you live, or if you want to make sure the people who are running your city are telling the truth and doing the things that they said they would do, or if you just root for the underdog and you want to give it to the loudmouths, you are more than welcome, all of you, to volunteer your time at this newspaper, because he says, I can't hire you. And he spots Marv across the room and he says, marv, is that okay? Can people spend a little bit of their time?

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. Top boss Marv has come in yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

And Marv says, okay.

[Angela Kinsey]

And you can kind of see in the room, some people are feeling inspired. Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

And then he ends his speech. He wants to address the me too thing.

[Angela Kinsey]

The not me too email.

[Jenna Fischer]

Correct. He says, by the way, me didn't. Me wouldn't me believe in respect in workplace? Me haven't.

[Angela Kinsey]

And Mare's, like, shaking him off. She's like, you're good. You're good.

[Jenna Fischer]

It's fine. Esmeralda is not happy.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes, she is ticked off. She throws a fit. And then we have this last parting shot of her. It's downstairs in the main huge lobby of the big building by the elevator banks. And she's in her coat, leaving for the day. And she says, in America, there is a saying about accepting things you cannot change. Well, we do not have that saying in Italy.

[Jenna Fischer]

I loved that quote so much. Well, you know, one of the reasons she's pissed is because Ned kicks her out of her office.

[Angela Kinsey]

Oh, yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

Was that necessary, Ned? You couldn't have just.

[Angela Kinsey]

This is such a big open space. You can't find another area, another nook.

[Jenna Fischer]

To call your own. You're gonna kick her out of the big.

[Angela Kinsey]

So much stuff in there. It's gonna take her a long time to move.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, we're gonna see in the next episode. She's trying to move her stuff into a smaller space, and it's not going well.

[Angela Kinsey]

It's not fitting well.

[Jenna Fischer]

Ned is sitting, he's on his laptop, and he is watching this black and white documentary from the oldie.

[Angela Kinsey]

Oldie 1971.

[Jenna Fischer]

And this is when we have our cameo alert. We're talking to the newspaper man played by Tracy Letts again. He's giving a tour of the printing press. And we see Michael Komen, who is playing sort of a newspaper printer man.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. And they're clearly having this great conversation. I was happy for Michael.

[Jenna Fischer]

Me too.

[Angela Kinsey]

Made me so happy.

[Jenna Fischer]

I mean, listen, I would definitely want to write myself into a scene with Tracy Letts. Are you kidding me?

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. Mara's gonna now knock on the door. She's heading home for the night. She sees what he's watching, and she's like, you know what? I have something to show you that's pretty cool. They head down to the basement, way in the bottom of the building, and Ned's trying to guess where they're going. And then she opens the door, and in front of them, and it's so huge, is an old printing press.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. She says, this is the original printing press. The thing you're seeing in this Documentary?

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

So Greg told me they filmed this scene at the Santa Anita racetrack. They have a printing room at the Santa Anita racetrack. And he said the bigger working machines that you see in the black and white documentary were actually filmed at a place called Southwest Offset Printing in Gardenia, California. But this whole thing was inspired by Greg and Michael touring the small newspaper offices. He said they went into the basement of one of the buildings and saw these newspaper presses that were left over from when you actually printed newspapers that way. Michael said that they learned that back in the olden days when they built these buildings and these presses that you actually had to embed the press into the foundation of the building and then build the building around it. He said this was because when they were operational, they caused so much friction that they would have, like, shook everything in the building so that that's why they had to be, like, literally embedded in the ground.

[Angela Kinsey]

They are so big. I wanted to do a deep dive, but it would have been a whole episode on the origins of the printing press. The Library of Congress website has really some great information, but they have old pictures and drawings and schematics of these printing presses. Some of them themselves were multiple stories.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, Greg says that the one they saw was, like, three stories deep. He said it was like he'd gone into, like, the bowels of a navy ship, and there's all these metal ladders that were going to the different levels.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes.

[Jenna Fischer]

He said they loved it so much they had to incorporate it into the show.

[Angela Kinsey]

I was so glad they did. And I love when Ned says, what happens if I press this button? It's a big red button. And Mara's like, I wouldn't do that. And he presses it and nothing happens because this printing press is old and no longer works. And then we cut to the documentary footage, and the character John Stack is talking about what that red button does. And I think we should hear it.

[Oscar Nunez]

So that button down at the end.

[Angela Kinsey]

Of the machine that's.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, it's a magic button.

[Angela Kinsey]

We push that button, and the machine.

[Jenna Fischer]

Starts to rubble, to life.

[Angela Kinsey]

And all of Those people, the 900 people in this building, all of the information they've gathered, the stories they've found.

[Jenna Fischer]

All of that gets fed into the.

[Angela Kinsey]

Machine along with the paper, and this process happens.

[Oscar Nunez]

It is a kind of alchemy.

[Jenna Fischer]

And what comes out this end is the truth. It's a truth teller. That's what we do.

[Angela Kinsey]

And I don't mean to be blasphemous, but I worship at the altar of this machine. Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

And that's how this episode ends. It's really touching.

[Angela Kinsey]

It really is. We go to credits and at the end there is a tag.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, we love our tag.

[Angela Kinsey]

We love our tags. Oscar is standing at the copy machine. The camera crew finds him and he's like, not having it. He's like, you know what? I'm gonna make this footage unusable. And he just begins to say the most off colored things. And they're having to bleep him like crazy.

[Jenna Fischer]

They're not doing a good job of bleeping him. You understand everything he's saying.

[Angela Kinsey]

By the way, they did not have the same standards and practices we had.

[Jenna Fischer]

No. And that is ultimately how the pilot ends. I have to say a big thank you to Greg and Michael and the cast and crew of the paper and the folks at Peacock for letting us visit and for talking to us about this great new show in the universe of the Office.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes. We just loved it so much. I am in. I can't wait to see what happens. Well done. Yay. Applause to everyone. And also a big thank you to Bobby Rae Schaeffer, Oscar Nunez, and Steven Socks for sending us those awesome audio clips. Oh, and we want to give a shout out to Stephen and Laurie's podcast, if we knew Then, which is the number one down syndrome advocacy podcast.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. It's great. They have created a beautiful community for parents of children with down syndrome. We'll share a link to it in our stories.

[Angela Kinsey]

Thanks so much for listening and we hope you have a good one.

[Jenna Fischer]

Thank you for listening to all Office Ladies.

[Angela Kinsey]

Office Ladies is a presentation of Odyssey and is produced by Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey.

[Jenna Fischer]

Our executive producer is Cassie Jerkins, our audio engineer is Sam Kieffer, and our associate producer is Ainslie Bubaco.

[Angela Kinsey]

Odyssey's executive producer is Leah Reese Dennis.

[Jenna Fischer]

Office Ladies was mixed and mastered by Bill Schultz.

[Angela Kinsey]

Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton SA.