Loading summary
Jenna Fischer
This episode is presented by Macy's shop now@macy's.com giftguide so if you're a renter.
Angela Kinsey
And you haven't heard of bilt, we're going to tell you about it.
Jenna Fischer
Here's what you can do. You use BILT to pay your rental bill every month, and then you get points. You can use those points toward flights, hotel stays, fitness class, classes. You can even apply the points to your next rent payment.
Angela Kinsey
There's no cost to join bild, and as a member, you'll earn valuable points on rent and on your everyday spending.
Jenna Fischer
There are over 500 airlines and 700,000 hotels and properties around the world where you can redeem your points.
Angela Kinsey
Points can also be redeemed towards a future rent payment and unique experiences that only BILT members can access.
Jenna Fischer
Start earning points on rent you're already paying by going to joinbuilt.com officeladies that's.
Angela Kinsey
J-O-I-N B I-L-T.com officeladies make sure to.
Jenna Fischer
Use our URL so they know we sent you. Joinbuilt.com officeladies to start earning points on your rent payments today. Hello, everyone, and welcome to your second drink of email surveillance.
Angela Kinsey
In our breakdown this week, we have a fantastic interview with Kim Jeong with.
Jenna Fischer
A pop in from Joel McHale.
Angela Kinsey
Yeah, these were the old days when a bunch of us were all recording at the same time.
Jenna Fischer
Yes. And then we'd see people. Going from one podcast to another was a lot of fun. Well, in this episode, email surveillance, we get to see Michael Scott go to his improv class.
Angela Kinsey
Oh, it's so delicious.
Jenna Fischer
So good. And you know, when he's in improv class, he turns every scene into a Michael Scarn moment. He pulls out his imaginary gun and he shoots them. Well, in his interview, Ken Zhang shared some really fun stuff about shooting all those scenes. But I found an interview that Steve did with Janelle Riley for the Screen Actors foundation where he explained the inspiration for Michael's character. Always pulling a gun in improv class. It was based on a real person.
Angela Kinsey
Yes.
Jenna Fischer
Let's listen. I know in the Office, Michael Scott was a big fan of improv and his improvs were angry, but he was always pulling a gun.
Ken Jeong
That's actually. That's based on a friend of mine.
Angela Kinsey
Oh, is it really not?
Ken Jeong
There was a guy at Second City who always used to pull a gun during scenes.
Jenna Fischer
And he knows it and he'll laugh.
Ken Jeong
About it too, but we actually let him. A scene got into the show in Second City because we all agreed we're going to let Ron pull the gun, and then we're going to let him.
Jenna Fischer
Kill all of us in the scene. And that's what the scene was.
Angela Kinsey
That really made me laugh. It took me back to my improv days. Well, if you're like me and you wanted more scenes from that improv class, there are a lot more in deleted scenes. Let's hear some.
Ken Jeong
I need to know who shot Johnson.
Angela Kinsey
President Johnson.
Ken Jeong
Shut up.
Angela Kinsey
Okay?
Ken Jeong
I have a right mind to shoot.
Jenna Fischer
You right in the head.
Angela Kinsey
I killed him. You're right.
Ken Jeong
It was me.
Jenna Fischer
Just shut up.
Angela Kinsey
I don't want to hear anything more from you.
Ken Jeong
Now listen to what she's saying.
Angela Kinsey
All right, I'll be quiet if we.
Jenna Fischer
Can make some kind of deal.
Angela Kinsey
A deal?
Jenna Fischer
No deals.
Ken Jeong
Not with Michael Scarn.
Angela Kinsey
FBI.
Ken Jeong
Michael Scarran doesn't make deals. Michael Scarn shoots and then asks questions later.
Jenna Fischer
Good, good.
Angela Kinsey
Guess what. Michael Scarn is now alone on stage because he no longer has any scene partners.
Jenna Fischer
I rewatched all these deleted scenes, too. And after that moment, he gets in this whole argument with the teacher and the student about how she wasn't doing the scene. Right. The teacher's trying to, like, gently suggest that that could have gone another way.
Angela Kinsey
Right?
Jenna Fischer
And Michael's like, well, it could have gone another way if we wanted to do it. Not funny. Basically, like, that's his whole thing.
Angela Kinsey
He's like such a horrible scene partner. Well, there is another deleted scene, which they actually added to the superfan episode, where the teacher tells everyone to partner up. But no one wants to partner with Michael.
Jenna Fischer
No.
Angela Kinsey
Why would they?
Jenna Fischer
No.
Angela Kinsey
So he just keeps shouting out suggestions, and then the teacher keeps suggesting, you know what? Why don't you take a break? It's really funny. All of these scenes brought me back to my improv days. I mean, I feel like I have shared with you how we had one guy who would steamroll every scene he was in. So we all just made a pact that in every scene, we'd find a way to kill him.
Jenna Fischer
Oh, you were Michael Skarning him in reverse.
Angela Kinsey
Yeah, but everyone got so creative. There were blow darts, attack of a killer cat.
Jenna Fischer
Well, you know, this is also the episode where Jim is throwing a party at his house and Michael finds out that he's not invited. I know. There's actually a lot of discussion about who is invited and who is going. And, Angela, in our breakdown, you mentioned how at 5 minutes and 57 seconds, we see the invite on Michael's computer. We see the Invitation. Well, a new catch. I have a new catch. If you look closely, you can see that The Evite says 14 people have said yes to the Evite and two have not replied. Now we can only see who said yes. But Pam is not on the list. Has she not replied? Maybe. But Pam has not confirmed her attendance.
Angela Kinsey
Well, lady, I found another nugget that might explain why Pam hasn't RSVP'd yet. I wonder if it's because she didn't know she was RSVPing for one or two people. When we broke down this episode, we were speculating why Roy wasn't at Jim's barbecue. Well, the reason Roy doesn't go is a deleted scene, and it was added to the Superfan episode. It's great. Let's hear it.
Jenna Fischer
Can you hear my stomach? Hi.
Angela Kinsey
Hey, babe.
Ken Jeong
Hey.
Angela Kinsey
How are you? Good.
Jenna Fischer
You look good. Thank you. Hey, I was wondering if it might.
Angela Kinsey
Be okay if I go to Lonnie's poker game tonight.
Jenna Fischer
I promise it'll be like the last.
Angela Kinsey
Time for a while.
Jenna Fischer
We're supposed to go to the barbecue at Jim's house. Oh, man.
Angela Kinsey
Could you go without me? Make something up, Sam, like, ate something or.
Jenna Fischer
Huh? Huh?
Angela Kinsey
You're the best. You're the best.
Jenna Fischer
I might be late. Okay.
Angela Kinsey
Don't wake me up. Cause I'm playing ball in the morning.
Jenna Fischer
Okay.
Ken Jeong
All right, bye.
Jenna Fischer
I mean, he starts by telling her she looks great. Did you hear that? How he, like, butters her up before he ditches her for the night, then.
Angela Kinsey
Says, you're the best. Also don't wake me up?
Jenna Fischer
Yeah, and he has to play ball in the morning. He.
Angela Kinsey
He's busy. He's got a lot going on. And none of it is with Pam.
Jenna Fischer
None of it. Well, everyone, that is your second drink for today.
Angela Kinsey
And now, here is email surveillance.
Jenna Fischer
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 doing the ultimate Office Rewatch podcast just for you.
Angela Kinsey
Each week, we will break down an episode of the Office and give exclusive behind the scenes stories that only two people who were there can tell you.
Jenna Fischer
We're the Office Ladies. Welcome everybody, to the email surveillance episode of Office Ladies.
Angela Kinsey
Howdy.
Jenna Fischer
It is season two, episode nine, written by Jen Salata, directed by Paul Feig. And we have a special guest in the studio with us today. He played Bill, one of the members of Michael Scott's improv class.
Angela Kinsey
It is our friend, Ken Jeong.
Ken Jeong
Hey, guys. Thank you so much for having me.
Jenna Fischer
We Are so excited you are here. You are our second in studio guest.
Angela Kinsey
Yes. You and Creed Bratton.
Ken Jeong
Ken, that is privileged company. So I'm very, very excited to be here. So seriously, thank you guys. And congrats. Congrats on the success of your podcast. I listen to it, and it's awesome. So thank you for having me.
Angela Kinsey
Thanks, Ken. And this is Ken's day off. And, I mean, you're a busy, busy person. I can't even get into the masked singer and what it means to my children and how much we have to talk about it. That's a whole nother subject. But you're a busy guy, and we appreciate you coming in on your day off.
Ken Jeong
Thank you.
Jenna Fischer
Before we get into this episode, you two have known each other for a very long time. When did you guys become friends? You did a movie together, I think.
Angela Kinsey
Really, Ken, what crystallized our Friendship was your 40th birthday. Was it your 40th birthday?
Ken Jeong
It was my 40th birthday.
Angela Kinsey
Your 40th birthday. Okay.
Jenna Fischer
He's twisting in his chair right now.
Angela Kinsey
He literally is about to fall apart.
Jenna Fischer
I don't know this story.
Angela Kinsey
Okay, so, you know, Ken had done the Office, but we didn't work together that day. Our paths never crossed. And then years later, we're on hiatus from the Office, and I am going to be playing this role on a movie called Furry Vengeance. Brooke Shields was in it. Brendan Fraser. I was such a huge Brendan Fraser fan. Me, too. Oh, my gosh. We were filming in the middle of nowhere, Massachusetts, day one. I think we were, like, two doors apart. On our floor.
Ken Jeong
Yeah. No, we were on the table. I think we're across from each other.
Angela Kinsey
We're across the hall. We're across the hall at the Radisson. I come out of my room, Ken comes out, and I'm like, hey, you picked the Radisson, too.
Ken Jeong
We're the only two actors.
Angela Kinsey
Only two actors in the Radisson with the crew. So we would. We just would hang out all the time. We were always in the shuttle together. We became pretty fast friends right away.
Ken Jeong
Very fast friends.
Angela Kinsey
And that first week was Ken's 40th birthday, and here he is away from his family. You were a little sad about it. And we didn't have a car because we were on location. We had the day off. Our day off happened to be his birthday together, him and I. I said, you know what? I'm going to take you out for your birthday. And from the Radisson, there was a. We were sort of up on a hill, and you could see down the hill, down a big, steep hill in this parking lot was a PF Changs. And I said. I said, ken, I'm taking you PF Changs for your birthday.
Jenna Fischer
Amazing.
Angela Kinsey
Not. Wait. I don't know why we didn't want to get a cab, but I know why. Why you walked it. We walked it, and it wasn't like it was connected in the parking lot. At one point, we had to, like, crawl a little bit through a grassy median thing. Remember, it was like the parking lot was separated by, like, a little bit of a grassy knoll. Anyway, we walked down this parking lot. We go into P. F. Chang's at, like, 11:00am there's no. There's, like, no one there. We're the first people there. We ate so much and drank a ton of beer, and we were both really buzzed. And now we have to walk up this hill, and we're, like, tipsy, and we're like, oh, my God, this hill sucks on the way back. And Ken was like, what did you do to me? My 40th birthday.
Ken Jeong
Okay, you just decided mid walk, like, hey, I should just exercise. And you're, like, walking around the parking lot like you're doing laughs.
Angela Kinsey
Pop your arms, Kim.
Ken Jeong
We're literally speed walking drunk at a Radisson parking lot. Just remember, you're just. There's a hill.
Angela Kinsey
I was like, pump your arms.
Ken Jeong
Come on, pump your arms.
Angela Kinsey
I'm gonna get a workout.
Ken Jeong
And I was just crying, laughing.
Angela Kinsey
You were crying, laughing so hard. You were like, what are we doing? And you turned to me.
Ken Jeong
Pump, pimp, pump.
Angela Kinsey
Okay, okay, I'm taking us off topic. All right, focus, Jenna, how about a summary?
Jenna Fischer
In this episode, Michael gains access to everyone's emails and discovers that Jim is hosting a barbecue. Everyone except Michael has been invited. Michael fumes, but Jim holds firm. After attending his weekly improvisation class, Michael crashes the barbecue after all. And Pam suspects Dwight and Angela might be a couple.
Angela Kinsey
Dun, dun, dun.
Jenna Fischer
Yes. This is a big episode.
Angela Kinsey
This is a big episode.
Jenna Fischer
All right, fast fact number one. We always start with fast facts, Ken.
Angela Kinsey
Well, that's Jenna. Jenna loves a fast fact. Okay, okay. So let's don't mess with them.
Jenna Fischer
You like my fast facts.
Angela Kinsey
I like them, too, but it's like you coined the phrase fast fact.
Jenna Fischer
Did I not?
Angela Kinsey
Ah.
Jenna Fischer
Did I not?
Angela Kinsey
Joel McHale's flipping you off.
Ken Jeong
Bad Joel.
Jenna Fischer
Do our listeners need some context?
Ken Jeong
Bad Joel. This is Joel McHale, my nemesis on Community.
Angela Kinsey
We are in one recording booth, and the glass window is facing his.
Jenna Fischer
We can see him through the glass window. He can see us. And he is being offensive.
Ken Jeong
Yes.
Jenna Fischer
And aggressive.
Angela Kinsey
He gave us the bird, and then he mooned us. Now he's coming in. Now he's coming in.
Ken Jeong
Lock it. I am here with friends, all right? I'm here with friends. People who I love and adore. This is just my favorite Parks and Rec episode.
Angela Kinsey
This is.
Ken Jeong
This is the Office. Joel, this is not. No, this is the Office.
Angela Kinsey
How dare you.
Ken Jeong
This is the show that started it all. And as much as Angela and Jenna are best friends, you and I, if we had a show, we would call ourselves Community Enemies because I didn't like you. I never liked you. For six seasons. That was over 100 episodes, we barely tolerated each other. And the antipathy has only grown in the last four years. That is true. And here's the thing. When we saved Ken's career. Stop talking about saving my career. Stop it. Have you ever listened. Stop it.
Angela Kinsey
Has he talked about how many.
Ken Jeong
Knock it off.
Angela Kinsey
When he's. When you look at his.
Ken Jeong
Knock it off. When you look at his filmography. Stop it.
Angela Kinsey
Hangover. Stop it.
Ken Jeong
Hangover two. How dare you. Hangover three. How dare you.
Angela Kinsey
How about I'm sorry, but you're leaving Furry Vengeance?
Ken Jeong
That's the movie Angela and I did together right before Community. You're saying this on mic. Look, I'm here as a humble day player talking about how I was Bill on email surveillance.
Jenna Fischer
I. I want to go on record and say, I really think Community Enemies is a great podcast.
Ken Jeong
I'd be a good companion.
Angela Kinsey
That just happened.
Jenna Fischer
Will you please do a rewatch of Community with Joel and call it Community Enemies?
Angela Kinsey
Just give each other for like an hour.
Ken Jeong
That is.
Jenna Fischer
Speaking of, I'm a really big fan of Community, and I remember that we would meet up at all the NBC events. Cause we were on air at the same time, and you had such a funny group of people, and I loved the show. And I would be interested in hearing some behind the scenes banter about that.
Ken Jeong
Yeah, no, it was huge. Because I think the premiere. I think the first two episodes, I think we. We followed the Office just to survive on the air on NBC. Because, I mean, the Office, you know, Thursday nights, NBC was the flagship show. And so when we found out that we would. It would air after the Office, we were always, you know, that was. That was like the anchor for us and that. It's funny how you think certain shows like the Office has helped other shows and then, you know, get on the air, stay on the air, and then give actors like myself and unfortunately, Joel, you know, a career, and that's been. You know, I'm grateful for mine, you know, but the fans should be regretting Joel. I'm looking at Joel, and you can quote me on that.
Jenna Fischer
We will.
Ken Jeong
We will.
Jenna Fischer
We're gonna. We're gonna use that as our promo clip for this episode.
Angela Kinsey
Yes.
Jenna Fischer
All right. So before we were so rudely interrupted.
Angela Kinsey
I know. Before Joel McHale came in and he trashed our desk.
Jenna Fischer
He literally trashed.
Angela Kinsey
He dumped over a cup of pens. He moved our.
Jenna Fischer
He moved our beverages and our tea. I know. I was gonna discuss my fast facts.
Ken Jeong
Yes.
Jenna Fischer
Fast fact number one. This is the first episode from writer Jen Salata.
Angela Kinsey
I love Jen Salata.
Jenna Fischer
Now, she will go on to write fan favorites such as Beach Games and Benihana Christmas and many more. She also directed several episodes, but this was her first episode as a writer, and we love. One of my favorite memories of Jen, I think, more than any other writer, is she would giggle behind the monitor and her shoulders would shake. It's not that it was easy to make her laugh. It was that she was ready to laugh. She was ready to love what you were doing. Mindy was like that, too. I have to say. I just loved her energy on set.
Ken Jeong
I think that helps with the actors, right? Like, just give the performers the talent, more confidence, you know?
Angela Kinsey
And Jenna's the type of person because she's so earnest and sincere that when she does laugh, it's like her whole body gives into it. It's just a sweet, wonderful thing to witness.
Jenna Fischer
It really is. It really is. All right, fast fact number two.
Angela Kinsey
Do it.
Jenna Fischer
See, they're fast, and they're fast.
Ken Jeong
Oh, my God. Unlike slow, like Joe McHale.
Jenna Fischer
That's right. All right, we have two big guest stars for this episode. The first is Omi Vaidya, who plays the IT specialist, Sadiq. Now, he is also the star of this Bollywood movie called 3 Idiots. It was a huge smash hit. Like, he's just gigantic star from this movie. And then he was also in our episode. And our other guest star, Ken Jeong, who is in the room with us now.
Angela Kinsey
Well, Ken, I did not know you when you got the part in the Office. We met years later.
Ken Jeong
Right.
Angela Kinsey
Can you tell us a little bit about how you got the part?
Ken Jeong
I used to be a doctor. I used to be a physician, but I really. I was auditioning just, like, during. Like, after work or during lunch. And then Allison Jones just took a liking to me, and she got me an audition for the Office, and it was Keep in Mind, I really had no screen credits when she brought me straight into producers. I still remember it vividly. It was in 05, and I had read in front of Jen Salata and Paul Feig, the director of the episode. And I was a huge fan of Paul's from Freaks and Geeks, so I was already just geeking out in the Office. And I'm not saying it because you're my friends and because this is the Office ladies. It was my favorite show on tv, so. And I just a huge BBC Office fan, so I just knew the show inside out. And so it was really one of the first times, maybe the first time ever, I was brought in for a producer's read, you know, with the director in the room. And it's funny now because a lot of people, and rightly so, attribute. My acting is very over the top and very like on Community, you know, very, very. Just pushing it out. And it's very, you know, very ironic. Like, really, I think my breakthrough role was playing something very understated and with just maybe two lines, and I would basically whisper every line. And I improvised a look to camera, even if it wasn't scripted. And I remember. I still remember where I go, like, he told me he couldn't say, but he has a gun. And I just look straight down the barrel. And Paul Feig and Jen laugh so hard at this just tiny movement, that little choice, that little choice. And I still remember, like, Paul could not stop laughing. And whenever I see Paul, we still talk about it, and it's still. It's one of those things in an actor's life where sometimes, like, I've forgotten years of working on Community, probably because of Joel and. But I remember every single minute of my maybe three hours on the Office. You know, it's just really. It's one of those things, and I'm sure you have that, too, in your careers of. You just remember your first time, and you just know if it's not a watershed event, it's maybe your favorite event. And that's kind of what the Office means to me. Yeah.
Angela Kinsey
Oh, I love that.
Jenna Fischer
Wow.
Angela Kinsey
That's such a wonderful thing to share. I love that. Ken, thank you.
Ken Jeong
Very grateful.
Jenna Fischer
Well, I have some fan questions, if you don't mind answering about your time in the scene. Jason P. Asked once you started shooting the scenes, how much of the improv was actually improv?
Ken Jeong
That's a great question. To my memory. I remember we shot it a few times as scripted, just so we have it. And then to see Steve Carell and Actually, I believe Dee Ryan, who was also in that episode, was a Second City, you know, colleague.
Angela Kinsey
I knew Dee Ryan from improv Olympic and had performed with her in the Armando Diaz show. I knew Dee. And Wyatt Snack was in that scene.
Ken Jeong
Wyatt Snack, biggest stars. Joe Nunez, who I've known, and then.
Angela Kinsey
Also Michael Naughton, who led the improv scene, who played Chris. I had done a sketch comedy show with him, like, years ago. Yes. Okay, wait, so. But did.
Ken Jeong
Was there improv after a couple of. I do remember after a couple of things where it was in the script he was FBI agent Michael Scarn. Like, as soon as the end, when we down for the post mortem of the scene, Steve goes, I'm sorry, but she was denying me in this whole scene. She was negating me this entire scene. And that was not in the script. And they kept arguing back. And she goes, you know what? At least I'm not Jim carrying all this. And he goes, thank you. And they just had this whole back and forth exchange for literally two minutes. And then she storms out of the room, out of the class. And as if it was scripted, as soon as she had her back turned, Michael Scarren had the gun to the back where boom. And I was like, this is like my first big guest star moment or co star moment. I'm like, I've just never seen this level of genius in my life on a set. It was this improv on top of an improv. And that right there, I'll just never forget.
Jenna Fischer
I have another fan question. This is a weird one, but I have to say it. I noticed as well. Hannah Benson said, I did notice. Literally everyone in the improv scene has pit stains. Were they not allowed to have air conditioning? Was it real hot?
Angela Kinsey
Was it really hot?
Jenna Fischer
I mean, when you guys raise your hands, everyone has a pit stain.
Angela Kinsey
He has a huge one when he.
Jenna Fischer
Raises the women I know, even the women who usually sweat less.
Angela Kinsey
Ken is, like, laughing so hard.
Ken Jeong
I don't remember any of that.
Jenna Fischer
Well, guys, you can go back and look at the episode when everyone in the improv class raises their hand. It is sweat city.
Angela Kinsey
It is a sweaty day.
Jenna Fischer
Hannah Benson and Angela and I all noticed. But you don't have a memory of it being terribly warm in the rain.
Ken Jeong
No, we shot that in. We shot that in the fall. And I just remember it was cold. It was. I just remember it was cold. I had to wear actually that. The wardrobe that I had on the show, that those were my own clothes.
Angela Kinsey
I believe that. Yeah, I wore my own clothes in the pilot, really?
Ken Jeong
Wow.
Angela Kinsey
We were, we were shoestring budget at this time.
Ken Jeong
Yeah, I had my own, I had a, I had a ski jacket on that was my own jacket that I wore to set. I mean everyone, I was such a greenhorn, just not knowing anything. I had even gelled my own. Like, I just.
Angela Kinsey
You did your own.
Jenna Fischer
You came ready?
Ken Jeong
I came ready. I came ready like tootsie, you know, it was like I had everything ready. Like, it was, it was, I, I, I was so green. I was so green. I had no idea what was it.
Angela Kinsey
Like doing that scene with Steve.
Ken Jeong
It, to this day is just something I'll never forget because he was coming out the 40 year old virgin and I'd literally just watched him in the movie theater, you know, the previous month and it, you know, so I'm sharing a scene with the biggest star in comedy. You know, he really is a role model to me because he really is just a professional, elegant, classy actor who he has no weakness in his game and you know, either on or off screen. So he's just someone that I just really look up to.
Angela Kinsey
That was so beautifully said.
Ken Jeong
No, it really was.
Jenna Fischer
I mean, he's a role model to me too because kind of what you're talking about, like you now in life, you are Steve Carell to other young actors who get paired with you. And I always remember, I look back on how Steve treated people and I think that's how I want to be if I'm ever in a position where I'm the Steve Carell of a moment, like not Steve Carel within a moment. I want to behave like he did. I want to be generous and thoughtful and giving and warm and inviting of this actor who's brand new to the system.
Ken Jeong
I remember talking to him. I had a short lived sitcom on ABC for a couple years that I created and wrote. And I had run into Steve somewhere and I'd asked him for advice and he actually, he had said, you can't go wrong with just leading by example. Just, hey, if you're not gonna act difficult, then nobody's gonna act difficult. I remember he told me that and it was. Yeah. And I remember thinking about that when like you said, I had my, I had a moment and I remember thinking to myself, if I work hard, everyone else will work hard.
Jenna Fischer
Ken, thank you so much.
Ken Jeong
Are you kidding? Thank you for coming, for coming in, truly. Thank you. Cheers to you guys. Congrats on this.
Jenna Fischer
So generous of you to give us your time.
Ken Jeong
No, the Office was my favorite guest star appearance ever. And it's just, it really just helped jumpstart my career. So thank you.
Angela Kinsey
Well, listen, we were not on Community, neither of us, but when you and Joel do Community Enemies, we will. Come on. You guys will be eps.
Ken Jeong
We'll just come in and you'll be giving us notes.
Jenna Fischer
We'll storm your room.
Ken Jeong
Yeah, you'll storm the room. Give us notes. Hey, maybe, maybe a little bit of friendship could show up in this episode.
Angela Kinsey
I'm just gonna come in and flip off Joel and dump his pins on his lap.
Jenna Fischer
Done.
Ken Jeong
We're the anti office, me and Joel. This is all class, fun, dignity, and.
Jenna Fischer
Then me and Joel, just like your intro can be. You know, we're gonna give each week we're gonna watch an episode of Community and we're gonna give you all the behind the scenes info and trivia that only two people who hate one. And really, I'm gonna tell you all the fights. Yeah, all of the.
Ken Jeong
And do a deep dive.
Jenna Fischer
All of the tension.
Ken Jeong
Do a deep dive. Critiquing each other's performance.
Angela Kinsey
Performance and lot in life, apparently.
Ken Jeong
And like personal, personal, personal choice.
Angela Kinsey
Not just professional attacks.
Ken Jeong
Yeah, physical attacks.
Angela Kinsey
I know. All right, Kim, thank you so much.
Ken Jeong
Thank you.
Jenna Fischer
Thank you guys. We're gonna take a break and then we'll be back to break down the rest of this episode. It's the sweetest time of year. That's right. Valentine's Day is approaching and Macy's has the best of the best gifts for your loved ones. This Valentine's Day, let Macy's be your guide to gifting. I love shopping on Macy's dot com. They really, really do have everything and their gift guide is amazing. I've gotten so many good ideas from the Macy's gift guide. I did probably two thirds of my Christmas shopping on Macy's.com this year with my kids. We do a gift for Valentine's Day, a small gift instead of candy. We don't do a lot of candy. There's been enough candy with Halloween and the Christmas stocking and all of that. So when we get to Valentine's Day, I like to wrap up a little something for them. Macy's has got you covered for the adult loved one in your life and the kid loved one in your life. Shop Macy gift guides for the perfect hand picked items for everyone on your list. This Valentine's Day, let Macy's be your guide to gifting. Shop in store or online@macy's.com giftguide oh my gosh, Angela. This is a harrowing statistic. Every 26 seconds. A burglary takes place according to FBI.
Angela Kinsey
Data in the United States. Yeah, well, you can protect your home before too late with Simplisafe's proactive security system. Here's the thing. Traditional security systems only take action after someone has broken in that's too late. Simplisafe's active guard outdoor protection can help prevent break ins before they happen. You know, Josh and I have used Simplisafe for a while now and we actually are adding to our system. We're adding a few extra outdoor cameras.
Jenna Fischer
There's no long term contract or cancellation fees. Monitoring plans start around a dollar a day. There's a 60 day satisfaction guarantee or your money back. Named best home security systems by U.S. news and World Report five years in a row. Visit SimpliSafe.com OfficeLadies to claim 50% off a new system with a professional monitoring plan and your first month free.
Angela Kinsey
That's SimpliSafe. There's no safe like SimpliSafe. I'm excited to tell you about Home Chef. I have personally used Home Chef and it can save you both time and money. And it is delicious. Users of leading meal kits have rated Home Chef 1 in Quality, Convenience, value, taste and recipe ease. It delivers fresh ingredients Chef design recipes conveniently to your doorstep step and simplifies your whole cooking experience. Whether you prefer classic meal kits with pre portioned ingredients or quick 30 minute recipes, oven ready options, microwave meals or a dedicated family menu, Home Chef has everything you need. Here's the thing that I like. Home chef has over 30 options a week because I like a little variety so you can mix it up. Plus it's economical. Home Chef customers save an average of $86 per month on groceries. For a limited time, Home Chef is offering our listeners 18 free meals plus free dessert for life and of course free shipping. On your first box, go to homechef.com officeladies that's homechef.com officeladers for 18 free meals and free dessert for life. Homechef.com officeladies must be an active subscriber to receive free dessert. Okay, we're back.
Jenna Fischer
We are back. Thank you, Ken Jeong.
Angela Kinsey
And not thank you, Joel McHale.
Jenna Fischer
Not thank you Joel McHale. If you're tracking and maybe you are, I hope you are that we did not do our third fast fact.
Angela Kinsey
We did not.
Jenna Fischer
And it's a special fast fact. It's special because Angela and I both found our journals.
Angela Kinsey
We found our journals that we wrote in after each episode. Sometimes during an episode. Yeah, you guys, I have journaled for so long. I have. I found, like, in setting up my. She shed 12 journals.
Jenna Fischer
Oh, my gosh.
Angela Kinsey
I had so much to say.
Jenna Fischer
I've been journaling since I could write. I mean, I have journals about my crushes in second grade.
Angela Kinsey
I found a journal from college that is like. I'm like, who is this person? I'll tell you what. She was real hung up on a certain fella for a while.
Jenna Fischer
In this journal entry, I wrote about this exact episode of the Office. Here's what I wrote. Here's a gem. It rained for three days while we were shooting this episode. It takes five days to shoot an episode, and for three of the five days, it rained. Like, downpour. Heavy rains, apparently torrential rain. I noted that our AD Richard had to wear a parka. He's the person who would knock on our trailer doors and get us to come from our trailers across the parking lot onto the stages.
Angela Kinsey
It was a little bit of a walk, you guys. And this parking lot would flood. There'd be huge puddles of water. Yes.
Jenna Fischer
And I guess it really caused a problem for hair, makeup, and wardrobe, because we would get ready outside in our trailers, and then by the time we got to set, we were drenched. And I wrote all about it in my journal. I said that we had umbrellas. We each got an umbrella with our name on it. Remember that?
Angela Kinsey
Yeah.
Jenna Fischer
They would give a little sticker so that we could keep track.
Angela Kinsey
I have to share with you that I often would misplace my umbrella, and I would just take someone else's. Angela. And then I would hear Richard on the radio being like, has anyone seen John's umbrella? Anyone? I'd be like, it might be in my trailer.
Jenna Fischer
I also noted, speaking of John, that John's birthday was the week that we shot this episode. He turned 26.
Angela Kinsey
26?
Jenna Fischer
Yeah.
Angela Kinsey
Oh, my Lord. That's so young.
Jenna Fischer
I know. He and BJ and Mindy were all the youngsters.
Angela Kinsey
Oh, no, they were.
Jenna Fischer
Because the rest of us were all in our 30s and beyond, but they were still in their 20s.
Angela Kinsey
Wowzers. Okay, so I also wrote my journal now. I wrote about some things that happen at Jem's party and a few other places in the episode. I'm gonna save those, Jenna.
Jenna Fischer
Okay.
Angela Kinsey
But I will tell you one thing I wrote about Jenna. We carpooled to work this week when.
Jenna Fischer
We were shooting this episode.
Angela Kinsey
Yes. I wrote that we had to go on location. We were very excited because Jim's party, his barbecue happened at his apartment, and we got to Drive to location. And I wrote that you and I carpooled, and we had the best time. I wrote. I was. We chatted, we sang songs, and, you know, we solved the world's problems.
Jenna Fischer
That's what I wrote. I do not remember that.
Angela Kinsey
I don't remember it either. But we clearly had a great time.
Jenna Fischer
I love that you wrote that down, because I'm sure we did do that. Cause we lived really close.
Angela Kinsey
We lived really close. And we were probably so excited that we had a commute. Like, we had to drive far. And I said it was a little bit of a drive. But the thing that really cracked me up, as I said, we sang our hearts out and we solved the world's problems.
Jenna Fischer
We probably did.
Angela Kinsey
What did we sing, Jenna? What did we sing? I'd love to know.
Jenna Fischer
I wish I knew. Sounds of Scranton.
Angela Kinsey
Oh, I hope we sang Sounds of Scranton.
Jenna Fischer
All right, so let's get into this episode. Now we're gonna start breaking it down. It starts with the cold open.
Angela Kinsey
Yes. So Siddiq is coming to fix an IT problem, Right. And Michael looks out his window. He sees him coming. He panics. Because probably Michael has some growing immaturity to do about how he perceives others. That's how I'm gonna say it.
Jenna Fischer
That's a good way to put it.
Angela Kinsey
He has some maturing to do. So anyway, he freaks out. He wants to turn off the lights and have everyone hide. But do you remember how we couldn't get it coordinated, Jenna? Like, we. We couldn't turn off the lights, like, at the right time.
Jenna Fischer
Yes. People should know that in this scene, when Michael runs over to shut off the light switches, those light switches do not actually operate the lights. The lights are controlled by a grid and a guy who's in charge of them. And so what they would do is they would have someone on a radio who would see when Steve hit the light switch, and then they would radio go. And then the light switch hit. The light switch guy would actually turn off the lights, but it didn't always work. So sometimes Steve would hit the switch and the lights would just stay on. Or sometimes they would anticipate too quickly and the lights would go off before he hit the switch again.
Angela Kinsey
This is one of those moments where I'm like, thank God we didn't have to do any car chases or explosions.
Jenna Fischer
Because that's so true.
Angela Kinsey
It seems like the light switch was, like, really tricky for us. I have to ask you one thing. Okay. So Sadiq from IT is coming to help Michael. Right. I just have to Say this, Jenna. At 1 minute, 26 seconds, this actually, like, I thought about this for days after watching this episode. Michael says he tried to install the software himself, but it was password protected. Sadiq says that just means you have to enter your password. Does this mean that Sadiq didn't even have to come there? If Michael had just entered 1234 that was on the Post it note, had he just entered that, the software would have installed.
Jenna Fischer
I think that's what that means.
Angela Kinsey
So that is so, like, if you put that in perspective, Siddiq is probably like this idiot. All he had to do was enter the password. I put on a Post it note and taped to his desktop.
Jenna Fischer
It also feels like something that could have been solved with a phone call.
Angela Kinsey
Yes.
Jenna Fischer
He definitely did not need to come into the office and be subjected to Michael's to open.
Angela Kinsey
No. Oh, my gosh.
Jenna Fischer
So at 1 minute, 46 seconds, Dwight surprises Michael outside of his office. Right. He's demanding to know why the IT guy is there. And of course, Michael doesn't want to tell him because it's going to be revealed that he's there to install software so that Michael can spy on everybody's emails. Well, I want you to look in the background of this scene. As Steve's coming out the door, he quickly shuts the door behind him. That's because Omi was not there on that day of filming, so he had to quickly shut the door. Steve has to shimmy out and then shut the door behind him so that you won't see that the office is actually empty.
Angela Kinsey
Oh, look at you with your little behind the scenes nugget.
Jenna Fischer
Yes.
Angela Kinsey
All right. At 2 minutes, 14 seconds, Dwight lists off what could possibly happen to Michael so that he might take over the office. Right?
Jenna Fischer
Yeah.
Angela Kinsey
Here are the things that could happen.
Jenna Fischer
Okay?
Angela Kinsey
Number one, brain aneurysm. Number two, getting hit by a car, a bus or a train. Number three, poisoned. Fall down a well, step on a mine. These are. These are like, Dwight has thought this out, you guys. This is what could happen. And he'd have to do an immediate takeover.
Jenna Fischer
Immediate takeover. And Michael has that great line where he says, you know what, Dwight? If I step on a mine in Scranton, Pennsylvania, you can have my job.
Angela Kinsey
He's so annoyed.
Jenna Fischer
Yeah. So the next big scene is kind of in the bullpen when Oscar confronts Michael about spying on everyone's emails. He does it in front of everyone.
Angela Kinsey
I loved it whenever Oscar confronted Michael in front of everyone. And he does this throughout the series. And it's just some of my Favorite moments of the show.
Jenna Fischer
He is able to take Michael to task like no one else. I think Stanley also does this from time to time, but Stanley is usually more under his breath. Right. Like, he's a little more to the side about it.
Angela Kinsey
Yeah.
Jenna Fischer
In this scene, Steve does this never ending robot bit. Oscar's trying to get a word out, and Steve just keeps doing the robot thing. I remember shooting that. So in the script, that was not supposed to go on for that long. That was supposed to just be like a quick little thing, but Steve really dragged it out, and that was, I think, of some of his just brilliant comedic timing.
Angela Kinsey
I honestly think that Steve would drag things out like that to see when he could get all of us to.
Jenna Fischer
Break and we would break. He did break in that he was.
Angela Kinsey
A little sadistic that way. He'd be like, oh, you haven't broken yet. How about this? Yeah, how about this? Kenzie? I see you going, like, just keep going until we fell apart.
Jenna Fischer
Well, right after this, then we have the little aside.
Angela Kinsey
Well, the erasing begins. Right?
Jenna Fischer
The erasing begins. And Dwight says to Angela, if you have any sensitive emails, they need to be deleted immediately. Pam overhears. She calls Jim over. She suspects that they might be a couple. This is the first moment where we call out that Dwight and Angela might be together.
Angela Kinsey
Well, the first moment that anyone in the office has any idea. Right.
Jenna Fischer
Yes.
Angela Kinsey
Yeah.
Jenna Fischer
Fan question from Kelsey McGrath. Angela. When did Angela and Rain find out that they were love interests?
Angela Kinsey
I mean, I'm not sure if Rain had any heads up before I did, but I found out at the table read.
Jenna Fischer
Really?
Angela Kinsey
Yeah. When we sat down to read the script and. And Austin.
Jenna Fischer
So no one warned you beforehand?
Angela Kinsey
No one warned me beforehand. I had no idea. And when we sat down at the table read and we read that their Birkenstocks were bumping.
Jenna Fischer
Yeah.
Angela Kinsey
Right. I was like.
Jenna Fischer
Well, I remember there was an audible gasp in the room when we read that. There were times when we would do these table reads where people would be legitimately surprised by plot twists. And this was definitely one of them.
Angela Kinsey
This when we found out Oscar was gay.
Jenna Fischer
Yes.
Angela Kinsey
Right.
Jenna Fischer
Yes.
Angela Kinsey
I mean, when we found out Jim and Pam were gonna have a baby.
Jenna Fischer
Yes.
Angela Kinsey
I mean, there were these big moments, but I did not know. And I remember being like, oh, my God. And I definitely don't think a lot of the cast members knew because there were real reactions there.
Jenna Fischer
Yes.
Angela Kinsey
I also. I know we're going back a little bit, but I love that Kevin says he has to delete a lot A lot. Gross. Kevin, what's going on over there?
Jenna Fischer
Pam has a talking head. Next.
Angela Kinsey
Oh, wait. Can I say one thing?
Jenna Fischer
Yeah.
Angela Kinsey
Jenna. Just to go back to Jim and Pam's conversation about Dwight and Angela.
Jenna Fischer
Yeah.
Angela Kinsey
This happens at 4 minutes, 45 seconds. I want you guys to rewatch the scene. Pam is so grossed out. So is Jim. At the idea of Dwight and Angela. They're like. I'm just like, come on. That. What is. What's wrong with that? Two people falling in love. Pam was like, I can't.
Jenna Fischer
We are a little over the top.
Angela Kinsey
Grossed out by it. I was like, gee, he's.
Jenna Fischer
Well, Pam then goes and has a talking head where she says directly to the documentary film crew. If you see anything, let me know.
Angela Kinsey
Oh, yeah. She's like, all chummy with the documentary crew.
Jenna Fischer
She full on invites them to help. I think this is the first time we see this moment where someone in the show speaks directly to the character of the documentarian who we never see.
Angela Kinsey
Right.
Jenna Fischer
But yeah.
Angela Kinsey
Yeah. I think that Pam and Jim probably are the two people that engage with them the most. I mean, Michael. Cause he's a showboat, you know? But it's like Pam knows them. That's what it felt like in that moment.
Jenna Fischer
Yeah. Like they're kind of friends or something.
Angela Kinsey
Yeah.
Jenna Fischer
All right, so something else in Pam's talking head. At 4 minutes, 57 seconds, I'm tracking the mail cart now.
Angela Kinsey
She is, you guys. She's become obsessed with the mail cart.
Jenna Fischer
I'm tracking casual Fridays and the mail cart. And I want you all to know that Meredith comes over to the mail cart behind me during my talking head. Thank you.
Angela Kinsey
I'm applauding. I'm applauding Jenna's mail cart. Tracking.
Jenna Fischer
The mail cart got used.
Angela Kinsey
And then at 5 minutes, 12 seconds, there's just this interaction between Pam and Dwight that I love. I actually love Pam and Dwight scenes. They're some of my favorite. Yeah, you are often so, like, just exasperated by him. And it's one of my favorite things you do as Pam. She comes up to him. Pam's on the case. She's very excited. Detective Pam, she's like, Dwight. So my friend is kind of, you know, into these two girls, and Dwight's like, nice. And your face is like, oh, God. At 5 minutes, 41 seconds, we find out that Dwight, as a volunteer sheriff, goes through everyone's medical records. So that's great.
Jenna Fischer
Gross.
Angela Kinsey
Gross. Dwight.
Jenna Fischer
My gosh.
Angela Kinsey
All right, Jenna. I have a thing that I track, you know, it's called old tech oh, yeah.
Jenna Fischer
What's your old tech trek? Guys, I think we should just call this the we tracked it episode.
Angela Kinsey
We tracked it.
Jenna Fischer
We're on the case.
Angela Kinsey
We're on the case. Much like Pam. We're on the case. I love me some old tech. And at 5 minutes, 57 seconds, you see the Evite and you see it's like, so outdated looking. If you go to Evite now, it looks like the old Evites of that day and age, if you will. Yes.
Jenna Fischer
This is the scene where Michael is discovering the Evite and he learns that Jim is having a barbecue at his house and he is not invited.
Angela Kinsey
He's not invited. He sees the list of people who are invited and he is sort of looking around. He's using his mouse, right?
Jenna Fischer
Yeah.
Angela Kinsey
And it all is so old looking.
Jenna Fischer
Super old graphic.
Angela Kinsey
Yeah.
Jenna Fischer
So next, Detective Pam walks up to Angela at the vending machine.
Angela Kinsey
Oh, you guys, this is like, some of my favorite stuff. I also wrote about this in my journal. I wrote you guys. Jenna and I have a scene together. We're so excited.
Jenna Fischer
We did get so excited when we had scenes together.
Angela Kinsey
We were horrible because then we would just laugh and be idiots once we were in the scene.
Jenna Fischer
And they would take forever and people would get, like, really tired of us. It's true.
Angela Kinsey
But we were really excited about this scene.
Jenna Fischer
We were. I ask Angela if she's bringing anyone to the party, and Angela says no. But then Angela buys an extra candy bar.
Angela Kinsey
Yeah. Two Baby Ruth bars.
Jenna Fischer
Evidence.
Angela Kinsey
Dun, dun, dun.
Jenna Fischer
Fan question. Michael and Kristen Mulligan want to know why did you choose Baby Ruth for you and Dwight? Did you, Angela, the person, get to choose what the candy would be or was it scripted?
Angela Kinsey
Usually Phil Shea, our props guy, would give us a few options. And they were options that had been cleared because for legal reasons, you have to make sure you can use logos and things like that. So they probably gave us a few options. I actually love Baby Ruth bars, so I guess I want. I'm sure I was like, oh, Baby Ruth bar. And thank goodness. I guess Frayne agreed because he had to eat one too.
Jenna Fischer
No kidding.
Angela Kinsey
Yeah. So I think that's probably how it went down. I want to point out, though, you guys, one of the things I love in this scene is that as Pam goes to pick something from the vending machine, I swat her hand away and I'm like, excuse me. I love it whenever my character would just swat someone away. It's so dismissive. It just made me laugh.
Jenna Fischer
Pam was probably going to buy some.
Angela Kinsey
Of her chips her gross, smelly chips.
Jenna Fischer
Okay. Also, Angela, in this scene, at 6 minutes, 47 seconds, there is a really great shot as you're bending down to get the snaps of your ponytail. I know it sounded like I was gonna say something else. It's your ponytail. There's a great shot of your ponytail.
Angela Kinsey
It's a family show lady.
Jenna Fischer
I know.
Angela Kinsey
Yes. You've got, like, hair wrapped around my own hair.
Jenna Fischer
Yeah. Describe it.
Angela Kinsey
Okay. This is a classic Kim fairy thing where even the ponytails were amazing. She would pull my hair back in this sort of severe ponytail, but then she would leave a big chunk of it out, and she would wrap it around the ponytail holder so it looks like my own hair is holding up the ponytail.
Jenna Fischer
It's very polished looking.
Angela Kinsey
I know.
Jenna Fischer
And it's very Angela Martin to do this detail.
Angela Kinsey
It's very, very Angela Martin to do it. But I used to joke with Kim, I would be like, how early does Angela get up to do these elaborate braids? And also, is she an octopus? Like, how does she get back there? How many? Does she have, like, a mirror behind her head? Like, what does her bathroom look like? How does she do this?
Jenna Fischer
I have done that ponytail to myself because I thought it was so genius. It is not that difficult to pull off, really. And it looks really good.
Angela Kinsey
Well, I am crap with my own hair, so you might have to give me a tutorial.
Jenna Fischer
Well, guys, you should check it out if you're looking to spruce up your ponytail. Six minutes, 47 seconds.
Angela Kinsey
Fancy pony. Fancy pony.
Jenna Fischer
Great ponytail. Well, you know the scene in the kitchen where Steve as Michael is eating a cup of noodles, and he's confronting the group. He's trying to get us to feel guilty and. Or invite him to this party that he's not been invited to. John and I had a massive, massive laughing fit during this lunch scene. So much so you can see I'm eating some yogurt. So much so that I snorted the yogurt up into my nose, which is probably painful. It was a little Bernie, which then caused John to laugh so hard that he was crying. And it was. It was just the two of us. The two of us were having a moment where we could not.
Angela Kinsey
You couldn't get it back. You couldn't get it back.
Jenna Fischer
Couldn't. I don't know how they had any usable tape.
Angela Kinsey
I want you to know I went and watched the season two bloopers. Okay, you guys, they're on YouTube, and it's really worth it.
Jenna Fischer
Can you see us using it?
Angela Kinsey
There's bloopers of this scene, and it is hilarious. I was cracking up watching you guys. And also, Brian does break in one of them too. But it's mostly you and John breaking. But the bloopers, the outtakes from this are fantastic.
Jenna Fischer
Oh, my gosh. I have to watch those because that was just my memory. I just remembered when I saw the scene how much John and I couldn't stop laughing.
Angela Kinsey
Okay, well, look up season two, the Office Bloopers on YouTube. Cause it's really funny.
Jenna Fischer
Also, did you notice that there was a community plate of Doritos?
Angela Kinsey
Yes. On the table on a paper plate.
Jenna Fischer
What's the story there?
Angela Kinsey
I don't know.
Jenna Fischer
Someone bought Doritos. Put a paper plate in the middle of the table, and then put the Doritos on the plate for us all to eat. I eat some. John eats some. What is that?
Angela Kinsey
I think you guys just shared some Doritos.
Jenna Fischer
I don't think.
Angela Kinsey
I don't think it's that complicated.
Jenna Fischer
Have you ever done that in an office? Like, when you're eating lunch with people, you're like, hey, guys, who wants to split some Doritos?
Angela Kinsey
Oh, my gosh. Oscar and I shared snacks all the time. Jenna. We would get a bag of chips, and we'd share, and we would get little paper cups and, like, split snacks into paper cups. We also, like, at least once a week, would share a Coke. I can't tell you how many times I would walk over to my desk and Oscar would be like, there's half a Coke for you. Like, thanks. And some chips.
Jenna Fischer
I think that I'm a person who always wants a full Coke and a full bag of chips. So I have not experienced this thing you're talking about. Well, this sharing of snacks.
Angela Kinsey
Oscar Nunez and I shared snacks and sodas every single week.
Jenna Fischer
That is adorable. That is adorable.
Angela Kinsey
In fact, sometimes. I know I'm, like, going on and on about this. Sometimes one of us would get the Coke and start it, but the other wouldn't be ready. So we'd be like, I put the half Coke in the fridge for you. Okay. So we would know. We'd sort of hide it in the back.
Jenna Fischer
This is absolutely adorable. Meanwhile, I'm just over at my desk chugging my full coat.
Angela Kinsey
Your full soda. I had a question for you about this scene.
Jenna Fischer
Okay?
Angela Kinsey
At 7 minutes, 48 seconds, Pam says the professors would go to the parties. And Michael goes, yeah, they were the most fun. Jenna, how did you get through that line? I know you said you were looking a lot, but, like, I didn't get.
Jenna Fischer
Through Any line in that scene.
Angela Kinsey
That line would be so hard for me to say because it's coming off of him being so ridiculous.
Jenna Fischer
Also the whole time he's eating those dang noodles. So I just. It. It was. I have to go back. I want to watch the. Deleted. Well, what is it? The bloopers.
Angela Kinsey
The bloopers. You gotta watch the bloopers. At eight minutes, two seconds, you guys. We find out what Jim thinks are the three ingredients for a great party. Number one, three cases of imported beer. Number two, karaoke machine. Number three, do not invite Michael. Yeah, I mean, he's probably not wrong.
Jenna Fischer
All right. At 8 minutes, 25 seconds, the camera crew helps Pam. The camera rushes over to her desk and indicates that she should look over to Dwight, who she discovers is eating a Baby Ruth bar. The one that Angela bought.
Angela Kinsey
That's right. I have that. You are in cahoots.
Jenna Fischer
In cahoots.
Angela Kinsey
Pam and the cameraman are in cahoots.
Jenna Fischer
So first Pam takes the step of talking directly to the camera crew, and now the camera crew has gotten involved. This is a big deal. I'm surprised that we did this so early in the series when I was watching this. We're not that far in for us to be involving the crew like this. People should know that. Our camera operator was Randall Einhorn. He's also our dp. He went on to direct a bunch of episodes. And I had a really special relationship with Randall. And I remember filming the scene with him. He was really performing for me. He would come over and he'd have a big smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye, and he would motion over, he would give me a little thumbs up. So all this interaction was happening. I felt like we were really performing together. And he was playing the character of the camera person. So I just have really fond memories of working with Randall in general. When Pam would have really emotional scenes, sometimes I would look at him and he would be teared up.
Angela Kinsey
No, he's got a big heart and he wears it on his sleeve. And we all got really attached to Randall. And I just think of him as sort of this very charming blue eyed Terminator.
Jenna Fischer
Yeah, that's my.
Angela Kinsey
Because you guys, you only ever see one of his eyeballs because the other eyeball is looking through the little eyeball. The lens.
Jenna Fischer
Yeah.
Angela Kinsey
So you see this one blue eye emoting emotion. And you're like, oh. Aw. You're like the friendly Terminator.
Jenna Fischer
The friendly Terminator.
Angela Kinsey
At nine minutes, 29 seconds, you guys. Oh, Jim, you just break my heart. All the Time. But he's trying to be sly. He's trying to do that thing where he figures out, is Roy gonna come? But he's trying to play it cool. So he's like, yeah, I just. You know, I just need a headcount.
Jenna Fischer
Yeah. Is Roy gonna be there tonight?
Angela Kinsey
You know why? It's just. Cause I need to know how many burgers to make.
Jenna Fischer
Yeah.
Angela Kinsey
I mean, this is the subtext.
Jenna Fischer
Right? It's nothing else.
Angela Kinsey
It's not because I love you, and I want you to be in my apartment without. About your fiance.
Jenna Fischer
Yeah.
Angela Kinsey
Wait, is he. Yeah. He's still your fiance? Yes.
Jenna Fischer
I know. It's hard to remember, right. Fan question from Juan Martinez. Was Roy really unable to attend the party, or did Pam ditch him so she could hang out with Jim? I don't think she ditched him, and I don't think she lied to him.
Angela Kinsey
Yeah.
Jenna Fischer
I think Pam was just as excited that Roy couldn't attend as Jim is.
Angela Kinsey
Yeah. I think Roy probably has some dude hangout. He's very. He's kind of a dude dude. Right. He probably has his thing. And also, Roy wouldn't want to go. I was gonna say, the last thing Roy wants to do is hang out with any of the Dunder Mifflin employees. He's sort of over it. They have to do enough of that, probably for him. So he was, I think, happy to sit this one out. And Pam was like, oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. And so was Jim.
Jenna Fischer
I'm, like, totally making this up. But maybe Pam waited kind of till the last minute to tell Roy about the party so that it would be less likely that he could attend. Like, I could see her maybe be.
Angela Kinsey
Doing that, and I could see her downplaying it. Like, you know, I don't know. It's this thing I have to go to.
Jenna Fischer
Everyone's going, yes, 100%.
Angela Kinsey
It's going to be lame. You don't. You know what? If you don't want to go, you don't have to.
Jenna Fischer
Yeah, it's fine. I'll go because I feel like I have to. But I don't want you to have to. I totally change your plan.
Angela Kinsey
I totally get it if you don't want to go. It's okay.
Jenna Fischer
This is 100% how that went down, I believe. Yes. All right. So now everyone's trying to get out of the office, and they're trying to avoid Michael because they all know he's not invited. So people are making up excuses to not hang out with him that night. And Angela, you have a great one. You say, charity bake drive.
Angela Kinsey
Oh, yeah, I'm sure my character's, like, horrible at lying horrible.
Jenna Fischer
Well, a lot of people wrote in to ask if our excuses were scripted or improvised. Angela, was yours scripted or improvised?
Angela Kinsey
Mine is a combo. So my scripted line was charity bake drive. And then Michael's scripted line was liar. And then Steve improvised. You are a liar. And then I improvised. No, I'm not. As I left and I didn't even look back, and it stayed in. And I think it's great because that's exactly how my character, I think, would have responded.
Jenna Fischer
Yes.
Angela Kinsey
I just love that Dwight says he has soccer and clarinet practice.
Jenna Fischer
Yes.
Angela Kinsey
And you know what I feel like sometimes? I mean, we have young children, and sometimes when they're bad at lying, they just sort of list what their activities are. So I sort of feel like Dwight, probably, growing up, had clarinet and soccer practice and he just went to default.
Jenna Fischer
Also, as Dwight leaves, he says, see you Monday, Michael. Casual Friday. Tracker coming at you.
Angela Kinsey
No one's dressed casual.
Jenna Fischer
No, it's clearly a Friday because he says, see you Monday. None of us are dressed casually, even though we're going to a barbecue after work.
Angela Kinsey
Well, people are going to change clothes. Don't you think? They're going to go home and freshen up. I don't want to listen, it's. It's still not Casual Friday. I get it. I get it.
Jenna Fischer
It's still set up in a previous episode that we have casual Fridays, and yet here it is, a Friday, and none of us are dressed casually.
Angela Kinsey
No, you're right. You're right.
Jenna Fischer
I'm gonna stay on this. Okay, I think you stay on everybody. I'm on it. That I'm on the mail cart. I'm on Casual Friday. And we will continue to track Mindy's hair. Don't anyone lose sleep over it. We're on it.
Angela Kinsey
Oh, I'm, as you know, obsessed with Mindy's hair. I'm obsessed. I have one thing to say before we go to the party.
Jenna Fischer
Yeah.
Angela Kinsey
And again, this was like the sadiq moment in the cold open for me. It's something I thought probably way too much about. Wouldn't Jim have known that Michael saw the Evite? This is the day he gets access to everyone's emails. Jim clearly sent it to everyone's work email.
Jenna Fischer
Yeah.
Angela Kinsey
Wouldn't he have known? He knows Michael knows. Right?
Jenna Fischer
Well, he knows Michael knows. By the way Michael is behaving. But you're saying as soon as he got Access to the emails. The first thought Jim would have would be, oh, no, the Evite's there.
Angela Kinsey
The Evite's sitting in everyone's email. He's gonna know.
Jenna Fischer
Well, similarly, how did we get all the way to the day of the party before Dwight thinks to mention the party to Michael? There's that scene where Dwight starts bringing up the party and Jim shushes him and he's like, shh. No, no, no, don't say anything. You're telling me. I mean, when did he send out the Evite? At least a week ago. In that whole week, he didn't have to, like, keep the shush on Dwight.
Angela Kinsey
No, that didn't bump me as much because I feel like. I don't know. I know. I feel like, listen, guys, this isn't all dudes, but I know from my experience with fellas, they probably aren't going to think about the party till the day of. You know, they're not like. It's not like Dwight is, like, thinking about this party every day. He's got, you know, he's busy. He's a.
Jenna Fischer
He's busy. He's managing a secret relationship with Angela.
Angela Kinsey
Yeah. He's tracking yeast infections in Scranton.
Jenna Fischer
Yeah, he's got a lot going on.
Angela Kinsey
He's got a lot going on.
Jenna Fischer
All right, fair enough. All right, guys, we're gonna take a break and when we come back, we're going to a party, a barbecue at Jim's house. We're gonna tell y'all about it.
Angela Kinsey
So Jenna and I love Quince. You know, Quince is this wonderful website that has really affordable but high quality items. Here's the thing we like about Quince. It has a range of high quality items at prices within reach. I just got this set of towels that are really luxurious. I probably normally wouldn't have bought them, but they were such a great deal on Quince. And now I have fancy towels that are so soft and cozy, like something out of a really nice hotel, but in my bathroom at home. The best part, all Quince Items are priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. By partnering directly with top factories, Quince cuts the cost of the middleman and passes the savings on to you. Give yourself the luxury you deserve with quince. Go to quince.comofficeladies for free shipping on your order and 365 day return. That's Q-U-I-N C E.com officeladies to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com officeladies you know we're all driven by the search for better. But when it comes to hiring, the best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all. Don't search match with Indeed when you're hiring. It feels amazing to finally close out a candidate job search. But what if you could get rid of the search and just match you can with Indeed. Indeed is your matching and hiring platform with over 350 million global monthly visitors according to Indeed data, and a matching engine that helps you find quality candidates fast. You know, thinking back to all the different companies I worked at as I was a struggling actor man, we could have used Indeed when we were looking for new people to hire. Indeed's matching engine is constantly learning from your preferences. So the more you use Indeed, the better it gets. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit. To get your jobs more visibility@ Indeed.com officeladies just go to Indeed.com officeladies right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed terms and conditions apply. Need to hire you need Indeed. This show is sponsored by Liquid iv.
Jenna Fischer
This is that time of year when we set new rituals, new goals for ourselves. Maybe they're fitness goals. I mean, that's a pretty common one.
Angela Kinsey
Yeah.
Jenna Fischer
How about be better hydrated?
Angela Kinsey
Well, you can get extraordinary hydration from Liquid iv and they have new flavors like their new hydration multiplier sugar free raspberry lemonade.
Jenna Fischer
The sugar free raspberry lemonade is very good.
Angela Kinsey
It is really good.
Jenna Fischer
Break the mold and own your ritual. Just one stick plus 16 ounces of water hydrates better than water alone.
Angela Kinsey
Eight essential vitamins and nutrients, always non GMO, vegan, gluten free, dairy free and soy free.
Jenna Fischer
Embrace your ritual with extraordinary hydration from Liquid IV. Get 20% off your first order of Liquid IV when you go to Liquid I.com and use code Office Ladies at checkout.
Angela Kinsey
That's 20% off your first order when you shop Better hydration today using promo code officeladies@liquid IV.com.
Jenna Fischer
Are you ready or you want to lay those out? Do you want to lay them out? I don't want to rush you.
Angela Kinsey
She's back. She got some food. And the sass is back, you guys. Before we went to break, Jenna was getting a little light headed because she was really hungry.
Jenna Fischer
Yeah. So if you notice a tonal shift in this last part of the podcast, it's because we took an actual break during our break and we ate a full lunch.
Angela Kinsey
We ate Jenna and I eat lunch together, and it kind of reminds me of how we had lunch every day on the set of the Office.
Jenna Fischer
I know.
Angela Kinsey
I love it so much.
Jenna Fischer
I was just talking to Lee last night where I said, well, he asked me a question. He was watching the episode with me, and he said, what's it like for you to watch these episodes again? Does it bring you back? And I said it really. The flood of memories that come back to me. And the most prevalent is how much we laughed together as a cast. And I said, and now I do this podcast with Angela, and we laugh the same way when we do the podcast and when we edit the podcast and we eat lunch the same way. And now I'm tearing up because we just had one of our lunches.
Angela Kinsey
Yeah. That lunch in particular, Jenna, was a good one. Was a good one. And it really reminded me we navigated nine years of our lives. A lot happened to both of us, and we shared a lot at lunch. And some days it was just little tiny things. And then some days we had huge heart to hearts, and Jenna and I just now had a really pretty big heart to heart.
Jenna Fischer
Those lunches were like. Sometimes they're like a therapy session. They're better than a therapy session because it's your bff.
Angela Kinsey
It's your bff.
Jenna Fischer
That's right. All right, well, we're back, guys. We're full of food.
Angela Kinsey
Okay.
Jenna Fischer
And I'm gonna start with a fan question.
Angela Kinsey
Do it.
Jenna Fischer
How about that from Rob Fish?
Angela Kinsey
Okay.
Jenna Fischer
He says, whose house was used for Jim's barbecue? Because that's right. We're go to this barbecue at Jim's house. So for the house, we shot in a real neighborhood in Northern California. It wasn't a set, and we had to have really unusual shooting hours because it was a night shoot, and there was really nighttime outside of the windows. So we usually would shoot from like 6am to 6pm when we were shooting at Dunder Mifflin. But here we were really shooting more in the evening. Now, they. If they were shooting into the house, it didn't matter what was outside. They could black out the windows. But for all those shots outside, it was really night. And some nights we stayed past 10pm and do you remember we'd get a little bit tired.
Angela Kinsey
Yeah.
Jenna Fischer
We'd get a little loopy as of 9pm and this was the first time where we shot offset, like, really offset since the Dundees. And we always had a lot of fun when we would do that.
Angela Kinsey
Yeah. And also, I remember there wasn't really, like, a place between scenes for you to go.
Jenna Fischer
No, I don't remember our trailers being there.
Angela Kinsey
No, I think they couldn't park them in the neighborhood. They were far away, so they would shuttle us in. And so in between scenes, we just really all hung out. Kind of fun in that little living room kind of.
Jenna Fischer
Totally. This leads me to a fan question by Rufio. He said, when you had to go to the bathroom, did you use the actual bathroom in the house or did you go off set? I don't remember, but I. Cause a lot of times you shoot in houses and they'll tape the toilet closed and put a little sign on it and it says, do not use. And you have to go outside. They have like those porta Potty things outside.
Angela Kinsey
Or they'll rent the house next door and that becomes a holding area for everyone. Yeah.
Jenna Fischer
And maybe you can pee in the holding house.
Angela Kinsey
I peed in John and Jim's house.
Jenna Fischer
Oh, no. Well, I don't remember the toilet being taped shut.
Angela Kinsey
I remember them saying that I could go and I like, you know, quickly. I used. There was like a hall bathroom or something.
Jenna Fischer
Well, sometimes they would let cast members use the bathrooms in the house, but then they would have porta Potties for the crew, which I always thought was kind of lousy.
Angela Kinsey
Well, I know one time it was explained to me by an ad because I was like, well, wait, where's the bathroom everyone's using? And she said to me that they could not afford for us to go too far away.
Jenna Fischer
Oh, that makes sense.
Angela Kinsey
And so they often would have a bathroom for the actors a little bit closer. Just purely because of timing.
Jenna Fischer
Yeah.
Angela Kinsey
So just know that. So you don't feel guilty.
Jenna Fischer
So I don't feel so guilty. Yeah, but it's true. Like you said, our actual trailers were probably a 15 minute van right away. So they had to create a way for us to go to the bathroom that was a little closer to the set. All right, so when we all get to the party, Jim takes everyone on a tour of his house.
Angela Kinsey
Before we go on the tour, tell me there is something that I just love little things like this. Did you notice everyone's party attire?
Jenna Fischer
Wait, I. Yes, I have that here too. Can we talk about everyone's casual clothes?
Angela Kinsey
Yes.
Jenna Fischer
Meredith is dressed like a biker gal with, like a smokey eye.
Angela Kinsey
I have a whole card just for Meredith.
Jenna Fischer
Okay.
Angela Kinsey
Okay. She has a denim vest. She has a black V neck shows a little bit of midriff.
Jenna Fischer
Yeah.
Angela Kinsey
Her hair is half up, half down.
Jenna Fischer
Oh, boy.
Angela Kinsey
She has some very dark, smoky Eyeliner and jeans. She. She looks a little bit like she's ready to go party.
Jenna Fischer
It is such a striking difference. I thought of everybody's. The difference between everybody's casual outfit and their work outfit. The most striking is Meredith, for sure. Like, because she wears, like, corduroy jumpers.
Angela Kinsey
Oh, yeah. She.
Jenna Fischer
To the office, she dresses kind of like a Raggedy Ann doll.
Angela Kinsey
She looks like she's in a potato sack and her hair down. But clearly party Meredith.
Jenna Fischer
Yeah.
Angela Kinsey
Comes to play.
Jenna Fischer
She does. What about Kevin's hat?
Angela Kinsey
Oh, his black. Is it like a fedora hat?
Jenna Fischer
Is it. What is that called? It's not a fedora, but it's like a. Right.
Angela Kinsey
He looks like an old timey, like gangster in like a 1920s movie. Right.
Jenna Fischer
And he wears it all the time when he's in his band.
Angela Kinsey
Yeah, he does. Scrattonicity.
Jenna Fischer
Yeah. This is clearly, you know, casually. Kevin has his hat, his go to look.
Angela Kinsey
And Kevin's fiance's there too.
Jenna Fischer
Yes. A lot of people asked, who's the blonde woman at the party? Who's the blonde woman at the party? It's Stacy.
Angela Kinsey
Stacy.
Jenna Fischer
It's Kevin's fiance. And also, you notice Stanley's wife is there as well. She's the brunette woman sitting on the couch next to Stanley.
Angela Kinsey
Yes.
Jenna Fischer
All right, what about the fact that Phyllis is still dressed in purple?
Angela Kinsey
Yes.
Jenna Fischer
She only wears plum purple.
Angela Kinsey
Very committed to her lavender. What about the fact that Dwight has on Birkenstocks and says that he keeps an extra pair in his car?
Jenna Fischer
Yeah, that's interesting. They look very new. When we. I notice it's a. It's an important thing that we establish the shoes that both you and Dwight are wearing in this episode. Later on, you're gonna be at the barbecue with Jim and you're gonna complain about getting SAP on your shoe.
Angela Kinsey
I just have so much to complain about. I stepped in SAP. I'm a vegetarian.
Jenna Fischer
But the whole reason they had to write the line that you, Stepp and SAP is so that we can pan down to your shoes. Because making sure we know which shoes you guys are each wearing is going to become very important later.
Angela Kinsey
It is. It is. Paul Feig said, are you ready to bump some Birkenstocks? Hey. Bumping Birkenstocks.
Jenna Fischer
That's right. All right, so I want to talk about Jim taking everyone on the tour of his house.
Angela Kinsey
Okay.
Jenna Fischer
He's so excited. Pam has arrived. She doesn't even have her coat off, and he's ready to take her on this tour. And as they're walking down the hallway. First of all, just a side note, as they're walking down the hallway, Jim has a painted circular saw hanging on his wall.
Angela Kinsey
That's popular. I mean, I have. My mom has a painted circular saw. My grandfather was really into that. And we have a few saws that are painted.
Jenna Fischer
Well, I.
Angela Kinsey
Okay.
Jenna Fischer
I have seen the long saws painted sort of like a long landscape. But I have so many questions about that.
Angela Kinsey
I have.
Jenna Fischer
Is that popular on the east Coast? Because, you know, being from Missouri and spending a lot of time in Lake Ozark, I've seen plenty of painted saws. But I just wasn't sure where Jim in Scranton, Pennsylvania got that item.
Angela Kinsey
Maybe it was a hand me down from a family member because I was given a painted circular saw.
Jenna Fischer
Okay.
Angela Kinsey
And I had it in my hallway and I hung it myself. I sort of like, I sort of balanced it on two nails.
Jenna Fischer
Yeah.
Angela Kinsey
And I had a friend who, like, was like, kind of clumping through my hallway and it fell off.
Jenna Fischer
Oh, dear.
Angela Kinsey
And they were like, are you trying to kill me? Because I kind of. I. I didn't do a great job hanging it, but there you go.
Jenna Fischer
Well, yeah, I thought it was very interesting. So you can check that out. People who like things in the background.
Angela Kinsey
Yeah.
Jenna Fischer
So anyway, as they're walking up the steps after they've passed by this saw, Ryan asks if Katie is coming. And this is when we learn that Jim and Katie aren't dating anymore.
Angela Kinsey
He said, I haven't talked to her in a while.
Jenna Fischer
I know, but. Fan question from Christina Velodata. Ryan asked about Katie. Jim says he hasn't talked to her in a while. So it sounds like they've broken up, but then she's on booze cruise.
Angela Kinsey
Well, I think they're on again, off again. Because then Ryan in the same conversation says, do you mind if I ask her out? And Jim goes, maybe we won't talk about that right here. Right. He says something like that.
Jenna Fischer
Right.
Angela Kinsey
So he kind of skirts around the issue. To me, that answer is no. Ryan, like, don't call her. Like, he didn't say, sure, man, go ahead.
Jenna Fischer
Well, when I heard him say that, I interpreted that as being him trying to just protect Katie from Ryan.
Angela Kinsey
He might have Not.
Jenna Fischer
Not like, I have such strong feelings for her that I don't want you to call her. But more like, no.
Angela Kinsey
I read it as like, yeah, I don't really know what's going on there and I don't really want to talk about it in front of Pam, but I certainly don't want you asking her out.
Jenna Fischer
Okay, I buy that.
Angela Kinsey
Okay.
Jenna Fischer
All right. So also, here's another fan question, this time from Latimania, who we have heard from before. And by the way, I did look at Latimania's Insta page, and she does amazing fan art of the office.
Angela Kinsey
Oh, I'll check it out.
Jenna Fischer
So I'm just gonna give a shout out, guys, go check out Latimania for some amazing office fan art.
Angela Kinsey
How do you spell that? Ladmania.
Jenna Fischer
L A D A M A N, I A.
Angela Kinsey
Okay, we'll check it out.
Jenna Fischer
Okay. She asked, why does Jim have two of the same poster in his place? This was such a good find. Okay, so around 13 minutes, 14 seconds after the circular saw, they pass by just a pretty generic looking kind of framed poster picture on the wall. When they get up to Jim's bedroom, the same picture is hanging above one of his bookshelves. Clearly, as we've mentioned, we were on a budget and we ran out of decor.
Angela Kinsey
I think they just moved it when they saw it. They moved it.
Jenna Fischer
I think they moved it, which I think is very, very sad.
Angela Kinsey
There might have been something on the wall they need to cover.
Jenna Fischer
Okay, so at this point in the show, we cut from the party back.
Angela Kinsey
To the improv class.
Jenna Fischer
Yes. And we're gonna see Michael in the improv class for the first time. It's real. He wasn't lying. He really has to go to class. And this is when you find out that Michael just gets out a gun and shoots everybody in every scene he does. It's brilliant.
Angela Kinsey
He's the worst. He's the worst person to improvise with, and he thinks he's hilarious.
Jenna Fischer
And the scene when the teacher says, michael, I want you to give me all the guns you have.
Angela Kinsey
Yeah.
Jenna Fischer
Is so great.
Angela Kinsey
I tried to reach out to Michael Naughton because I did a sketch show with him years ago called Balls Out.
Jenna Fischer
Amazing.
Angela Kinsey
And he is such a funny guy.
Jenna Fischer
And he played the teacher, right?
Angela Kinsey
He played the teacher, Chris. He performs at the Groundlings. You can see him there if you're in Los Angeles.
Jenna Fischer
He's also done tons of episodes of Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Angela Kinsey
Oh, yeah.
Jenna Fischer
So you might recognize him from.
Angela Kinsey
He's a hilarious actor. But he's currently mainstage company at the Groundlings as well.
Jenna Fischer
I wonder if people at home understand the genius satire of this improv class. Like, as an improviser, were you just dying when you were watching this?
Angela Kinsey
I wanted to be in the improv class. I know it wouldn't track for my character, but I was like, oh. And I knew a bunch of those people. And they're such funny, funny people.
Jenna Fischer
So now we go back to the party for the scene. The scene Pam is alone in Jim's bedroom. I have so much to say about this because the preparation that went in to any scene with Jim and Pam, it would bring production to a halt. It really would. They were so concerned about getting these scenes right when Jim and I would have to get in a fight or if we had to have these moments up on the roof in this bedroom and we would spend so much time on these. So it's true.
Angela Kinsey
As a cast member.
Jenna Fischer
I'm so sorry.
Angela Kinsey
When we would see that there was a big pivotal Jim and Pam scene, we'd be like, oh, God, are you before it or after it?
Jenna Fischer
Oh, no. I feel like Phyllis would bring in all of her bills to pay. She'd be like, I'm bringing. I need stuff.
Angela Kinsey
Buckle in, we're gonna be here a.
Jenna Fischer
While because they're gonna just really indulge.
Angela Kinsey
Once I became a mom, I didn't mind it. When I saw you guys had a big scene, I'd be like, ooh, that means I'm gonna go visit my daughter at preschool.
Jenna Fischer
Yeah, you'd be like, can I leave? Can I come back?
Angela Kinsey
I have a three hour break.
Jenna Fischer
Well, just know that it was always so important to us to get it right. And I remember having long conversations about this scene. So the words that are written in the scene are of no importance. We discussed that what was important was the everything. We're not saying the subtext of the scene. This is all about Pam being in Jim's bedroom and sitting on his bed. We had to make sure that we very naturally found a way for Pam to sit on his bed. And she couldn't just walk in the room and sit on the bed. So she had to start by sitting on his night table. And then we had to put the yearbook in exactly the right place so that when she went to grab it, she would most naturally then sit on his bed. And as I was watching this, it brought me back to all of those moments early on in dating and in college or whatever, when you walk into that person's bedroom for the first time.
Angela Kinsey
And you've thought about it for a long time, you've thought about it like. Like, where do they sleep? What does that look like?
Jenna Fischer
This is their most intimate room in their house. And. And John is so perfect. If you notice, as soon as Pam sits down on the bed, John starts shifting in his desk chair. And he looks at her, and he immediately looks away. Like the fact that she's just sat on his bed, it's almost too much for him.
Angela Kinsey
Not only is this woman he's in love with in his room, but now she is in this intimate place where she's sitting across from him on his bed, as he's probably hoped and thought about for a long, long time.
Jenna Fischer
And here's what I love about our show, and I think that this is why people are in love with Jim and Pam and why they respond to them so well, is because a lot of times in movies and television shows when people, quote, unquote, fall in love, or you have the couple that is going to fall in love, it seems to kind of be like, a lot about sex. Right? Like, they meet at a bar and then they burst through the door ripping each other's clothes off. That never happens, really. Right. Like, that's not really real. Jim and Pam, this moment of them just being in this bedroom, not kissing, not touching, not talking about this stolen moment is more romantic and sexy than that. Burst through the door, ripping each other's clothes off, in my opinion.
Angela Kinsey
Well, the stakes are so high, and that's real life. When you really like someone, it's like you can feel your heart beating out of your chest the first time you see a part of them that you've wondered about their space and where they live. Well, I wrote to break up this beautiful moment, please. When Pam is looking at Jim's yearbook while sitting on his bed, Jim gazes lovingly at her. In this moment, you can see my character's purse on the bed. What? My character always carried this little black clutch, you know, and it's there on the bed with, like, a coat. That's what I love, too.
Jenna Fischer
It's like.
Angela Kinsey
It's that thing. You go into someone's house when you're in college or Even in your 20s starting out, you're like, oh, you know, you go to a party, there's that one guest room, or where you throw your coat on the back. There's some coats in my purse. I thought it was such a nice touch.
Jenna Fischer
I. Oh, I love that look for.
Angela Kinsey
The little black clutch. That's my purse. Angela Martin's purse.
Jenna Fischer
That's a great detail. Well, I remember, in addition to the scene, they spent a lot of time planning Jim's bedroom because it was going to be very revealing. And so our set decorator, Michael Gallenberg, he's our set designer, he was in charge of decorating this room under the direction of Paul Feig and Greg Daniels and Jen Salata, who wrote the episode Fan Question, Ricky Caden or Caden and Zach McCutcheon both wrote in separately. How much of the stuff in Jim's room was actually John Krasinski's? None. None except Fan Question from Lulu, Katrina, Michael Kemper, and many others. Was that really John Krasinski's yearbook photo? Yes.
Angela Kinsey
Yes.
Jenna Fischer
Not his yearbook. They made a fake yearbook page where they superimposed his actual yearbook photo. But there's a lot of interesting stuff in that room.
Angela Kinsey
All right, background folks. There's a lot of wonderful little nuggets in Jim's room. I'm sure you noticed. I know I'm probably gonna have missed some, but here are some. He has a guitar. Of course he does.
Jenna Fischer
Okay. Of course he does. But why of course?
Angela Kinsey
I don't know.
Jenna Fischer
Have we ever seen him play a guitar?
Angela Kinsey
I don't know, but I feel like all the guys that I thought were cool in my 20s had a guitar.
Jenna Fischer
Well, I get.
Angela Kinsey
They hardly even played.
Jenna Fischer
Well, a fan, Kelsey VZ7, pointed out that in a later episode, you know, when Jim is playing Second Life, his avatar has a guitar slung over his shoulder. So there's something in Jim that either wishes he played guitar or thought it.
Angela Kinsey
Was cool to play or.
Jenna Fischer
But we never see him play it. Right. Correct us, guys, if we're wrong. I don't think we ever see Jim bust out a guitar.
Angela Kinsey
He never takes the stage with Scrantonicity.
Jenna Fischer
No. No.
Angela Kinsey
There's a lava lamp. There's the favor poster on his bulletin board.
Jenna Fischer
Oh, boy.
Angela Kinsey
Okay, I want you to know we hadn't even released an episode yet. A fan wrote in to me and said, look at Jim's bulletin board. Is that a voodoo doll of Roy?
Jenna Fischer
Yes. He has a doll hanging by a noose in what looks like a warehouse shirt.
Angela Kinsey
This is crazy.
Jenna Fischer
Yeah.
Angela Kinsey
Yeah, it's.
Jenna Fischer
Yeah. We had another fan write in Alston Brown who said, was Jim the Scranton Strangler? This was perhaps evidence. Yes. What is that? Now, listen, I reached out to Michael Gallenberg to ask him about that. He's on vacation. He's on vacation.
Angela Kinsey
Well, we'll have to get it as a follow up question.
Jenna Fischer
We will, because I would love to find out who put that on the cork board.
Angela Kinsey
Yeah, we'll have to put that in our candy bag.
Jenna Fischer
Yeah.
Angela Kinsey
Also, there's like a. Some kind of sketch of a motorcycle. It looks like a printout. Like, what does. Does Jim. Jim is starting to sound a little bit like a cliche. He has a guitar. He has maybe a motorcycle he wants. Who knows? There's also. It looks like a card. It says son. Like, maybe his parents. A. I know. Did you see that? It was so sweet. There's some photos. There is a. A little, like, plaque that says, making sense.
Jenna Fischer
Okay.
Angela Kinsey
What? There's a penguin on his desk. I do love when you pan across over to Pam, you see his CD player. These are the.
Jenna Fischer
The tech moments.
Angela Kinsey
Tech moments that kind of date us. And then he does take work home a little bit because there's a Dunder Mifflin catalog on his desk.
Jenna Fischer
Wow. That's good stuff.
Angela Kinsey
And I'm sure there's more I missed. So you guys write in.
Jenna Fischer
So now we go back downstairs to the party. Party's going. Everyone's having beer. Now. Omi, who played the IT Guy, who's also at the party, he gave an interview where he said that we were drinking real beer.
Angela Kinsey
I don't remember that. And I wrote it on a card. Jenna, I did not drink real beer.
Jenna Fischer
I. I didn't either. Well, I hate beer, so I had a beer bottle filled with water, so I don't remember that either.
Angela Kinsey
Yeah, I don't remember any real beer.
Jenna Fischer
No. That feels like it would be unusual for our group. Yeah, we weren't that kind of group.
Angela Kinsey
I had water. I know that. In my beer.
Jenna Fischer
All right.
Angela Kinsey
And that's why I said, well, Jesus drank wine. You know, I'm sort of trying to justify it, I guess, but mine was water.
Jenna Fischer
Yeah.
Angela Kinsey
He did also say in the same interview that they were playing the Xbox 360, and it had games that hadn't been released yet.
Jenna Fischer
I remember that the guys were so excited.
Angela Kinsey
They were so exc. That I do remember, but the beer. I don't remember.
Jenna Fischer
Okay. Did you notice in the kitchen scene with Kelly, Oscar, and Stanley where they're talking about paper? I can see it.
Angela Kinsey
Kelly's hair is half up, half down.
Jenna Fischer
But she's still in a paisley top.
Angela Kinsey
But she is more Mindy.
Jenna Fischer
She's like, oh, she's 100% Mindy.
Angela Kinsey
She's now fully Mindy, but she is. Her wardrobe hasn't caught up.
Jenna Fischer
Okay. I feel like at this point, her hair has become unfuzzed. It's. You know, we're not doing that anymore. But now I kind of want to start tracking her wardrobe.
Angela Kinsey
Okay, Jenna.
Jenna Fischer
Okay. Because I feel like the hair has come down now enough times. I want to see when the wardrobe changes.
Angela Kinsey
There is also a scene during the party that I love because it's just one of these things I Love about our show. What is a runner? I love a runner that carries over multiple episodes for many years. And Kevin calls Ryan Fire guy.
Jenna Fischer
Yes.
Angela Kinsey
You know, and I just love that it's stuck.
Jenna Fischer
I like that, too. So when the karaoke machine gets going, Phyllis is singing karaoke. It was so sweet. Phyllis was so charming. Do you remember filming that?
Angela Kinsey
I do, and I wrote about it in my journal.
Jenna Fischer
You really journaled hard on this episode.
Angela Kinsey
This was a big journal episode for me. So, okay, I wrote this. Oh, my gosh. When Phyllis had to do the karaoke scene, we were all losing it. We started laughing so hard. First of all, she had to sing White Snakes. Here I Go Again. And she had never even heard of White Snake.
Jenna Fischer
Oh, my gosh.
Angela Kinsey
The production staff got her a copy of the song, and she walked around for days listening to it and practicing. She was so cute. And she was really nervous, but I thought she was brilliant. That.
Jenna Fischer
That is amazing. I love this image of Phyllis walking around listening to White Snake. Incidentally, that album was the first record album I ever bought. Like, actual record album as a teenager was White Snake. And I would listen to it all the time.
Angela Kinsey
My first tape cassette I ever bought was Reo Speedwagon. Heard from a friend who heard it from a friend who heard it from another. You've been messing around.
Jenna Fischer
Okay, we can't sing anymore.
Angela Kinsey
Okay, we can't sing. We can't pay for that.
Jenna Fischer
Also, no one wants to hear that.
Angela Kinsey
Also, no one wants to hear that. But imagine sweet, adorable Phyllis walking around.
Jenna Fischer
Here I go again on my own.
Angela Kinsey
With, like, a headset on.
Jenna Fischer
Well, do you remember that music video? Oh, Tawny all over the hood of the car. Redheaded lady, just crazy.
Angela Kinsey
She did the splits on a car in a dress.
Jenna Fischer
Yeah.
Angela Kinsey
Okay, you know what? No judgment. Feel yourself do it.
Jenna Fischer
Now, tell me, when do you go outside with Dwight?
Angela Kinsey
There's a moment where I slip outside. No one notices. And then if you're watching the scene inside, I'm in it on the couch. Yeah, right.
Jenna Fischer
Well, when Michael crashes the party, you're inside, right?
Angela Kinsey
I'm inside. That's right. And then all of a sudden, as the party gets going, you don't see me or Dwight.
Jenna Fischer
Well, this is what's a little curious for me, because Michael crashes the party and you're inside. And then he starts singing Islands in.
Angela Kinsey
The Stream, a duet.
Jenna Fischer
Jim saves him, which is very charming. And then I just need to point out, by the way, Steve starts to harmonize, like, real. Well, I know in that song. I know it's really pretty great. But I also want to point out that when he crashes the party, Jim and Pam are always sitting next to each other at the party. If they track us, we're on some chairs, then we're on the couch together. We are making sure to maximize this party for, like, maximum next to each other time.
Angela Kinsey
You're sitting next to each other. The other thing I noticed throughout the party is that Jim's roommate and his girlfriend are all over each other.
Jenna Fischer
They're constantly making out.
Angela Kinsey
They're making out. Or she's sitting on his lap, or she has a leg, like, over his leg.
Jenna Fischer
And to say those two people did not know each other before they started filming. And, I mean, what is that job? How do you get. I mean, I would feel so shy if I was. That was my job. I was like, hi, nice to meet you. I guess we're just gonna hang on to each other all day for tonight while we shoot this thing. Back to the scene. Steve and John, as Jim and Michael, are harmonizing islands in the stream. And then in the background, we go over their shoulder and we slowly push in on Angela's feet and Dwight's feet, bumping the Birkenstocks.
Angela Kinsey
All right, let's break down this scene for a second. I have to tell you some behind the scenes.
Jenna Fischer
Okay. I have some fan questions as well.
Angela Kinsey
Well, ask them.
Jenna Fischer
Perhaps they'll lead you in.
Angela Kinsey
Maybe they're part of my note cards.
Jenna Fischer
Well, this is not a fan question. This is a me question. What are you in? Is it a. Is it a doghouse? It seems too small to be a shed and too large to be a doghouse. What is it?
Angela Kinsey
It looked like a giant dollhouse that people would buy for their little girl. There was like a ramp of steps that went up to it. It looked like someone had bought this for their little girl to play in, like a fancy dollhouse.
Jenna Fischer
Yeah. Well, Angela, I have a fan question now. A Town and Nat Attack and Brooklyn Jade all want to know, was that really Rain and Angela making out, or were they just random stunt people wearing the same shoes? And if it was them, did they talk? How did they make it not weird? I mean. Yeah, I think we all just want to know. Okay, how did that go down?
Angela Kinsey
All right. Okay. So, of course it's weird. It's totally weird. It was Rain and I. We did not kiss guys. We did not make out. In fact, it was really cold out in that dollhouse. So I had on a big, thick, thick coat. I had hand warmers. But they did want to see Our Birkenstocks. A bump in it was a little tricky because we had to time it out perfectly, and we tried different positions of our feet. Here's the thing. Rainn Wilson is 6 3. I am 5 1. So my feet did not hang out of the dollhouse.
Jenna Fischer
Oh, my gosh.
Angela Kinsey
Yeah.
Jenna Fischer
If your bodies were positioned so that you could actually be kissing one another, we would never see your feet.
Angela Kinsey
Feet. No, no. So we tried our feet in a few different positions so the camera could see them both. We were laying side by side, kind of flipping our feet back and forth, and Paul Feig was like, you guys kind of look like you're doing a sad breaststroke swim or something. He was like, I don't know what you're doing. It looks like you're swimming. So he was like, all right, how do I say this? This is somewhat awkward, Angela, but I think you need to lay on your back and straddle reins, like. I was like, what? And he said, yeah. He said, I'd love to see your little feet wrap around his calves and rub back and forth. So in order for me to do this, you guys, my face was in his chest for you to see my.
Jenna Fischer
Feet, were you, like, suffocating?
Angela Kinsey
Kind of. I'm imagining.
Jenna Fischer
How are you breathing?
Angela Kinsey
Rain was also doing sort of like this painful kind of plank move.
Jenna Fischer
So he didn't crush you?
Angela Kinsey
So he didn't crush me so I could breathe. And then I was like, how do I wrap my feet around his calf? It's kind of awkward. You know why?
Jenna Fischer
Your ankles don't bend that way.
Angela Kinsey
Your shins don't bend that way. So I was doing this weird. On action, Rain would roll over on top of me, do his weird plank move, like, in one take. It kind of took a long time, and he started to shake a little.
Jenna Fischer
Oh, dear.
Angela Kinsey
All I will say is, Rain, you're a very strong guy, but planking friend does take a toll on people. Take after take, we did a bunch of takes. Also, my feet were, like, in this weird position. So we did this every take. And in between takes, we would roll on our back, side by side. We would have these really deep conversations. It was just one of those surreal moments where we were doing the most ridiculously silly thing. And then in between, we talked about, like, our lives. I feel like this is the moment where I really became friends with Rain because we talked about where we grew up and our childhoods and, like, what we believed in and just really had this really huge heart to heart in between this plank straddle Foot rubbing of the calf. I did write about this in my journal as well.
Jenna Fischer
Okay.
Angela Kinsey
And I just said that I was really glad they weren't rolling sound out there. We weren't mic'd because I was giggling so much whenever we had to rub beat.
Jenna Fischer
Aww. So that kind of is the end of the episode. That ends the episode. There's a little tag where we go back to the improv class. It's a little bit of a flashback. I think that they just loved this monologue, this talking head that Steve gives so much that they had to include it at the end of the episode. But I don't know if you remember this, Angela, that last night when we shot, we stayed till after midnight. It was a really late night. And I also wrote this in my journal. I said, Steve ordered pizzas for the cast and crew, and we all had, like, a little. A little bitty, like, kind of, I guess, mini party.
Angela Kinsey
After the party, he ordered Baroni's pizza.
Jenna Fischer
Yeah. His favorite.
Angela Kinsey
His favorite. It was so good. And that was. That was really cool.
Jenna Fischer
I love that we kept journals. We're women in our 30s journaling.
Angela Kinsey
We were 80 when we were 30. We're almost to our appropriate age, I think so.
Jenna Fischer
All right, guys, thank you so much. We cannot wait. Next week is the Christmas episode. The first Christmas episode, and we have a lot to say.
Angela Kinsey
Yankee swap. Thank you so much. Ken Jeong, Joe McHale, not so much. And we'll see you next week.
Jenna Fischer
Thank you for listening to Office Language. Ladies Second drink.
Angela Kinsey
This episode was initially created in collaboration with Earwolf.
Jenna Fischer
Office Ladies is a presentation of Odyssey and is produced by Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey.
Angela Kinsey
Our executive producer is Cassie Jerkins, and our audio engineer and associate producer is Daniela Silva.
Jenna Fischer
Odyssey's executive producers are Jenna Wise Berman and Leah Reese. Dennis.
Angela Kinsey
Office Ladies is mixed and mastered by Chris Basil.
Jenna Fischer
Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Grace Creed Bratton.
Angela Kinsey
It's the sweetest time of the year. Valentine's Day is approaching, and Macy's has the best of the best gifts for your loved ones. This Valentine's Day, let Macy's be your guide to gifting. Here's what I love about Macy's. It really has a little something for everyone. This Valentine's Day, I got my husband the most romantic gift ever. I got him a set of Tupperware, but hear me out. He really loves having nice Tupperware. He bakes a lot. He is a baker and a chef. And I went to Macy's home section, and they had amazing Tupperware. So I got him a set of that. And then while I was there I also got him a new skillet. He's going to be so happy. And Josh, I know you listened to the podcast, so sorry. Now you know. But you know Macy's truly has everything you need at such great price points. Shop Macy's Gift Guides for the perfect hand picked items for everyone on your list this Valentine's Day. Let Macy's be your guide to gifting. Shop in store or online@macy's.com giftguide.
Podcast Information:
In the episode titled "Second Drink: Email Surveillance with Ken Jeong," Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey dive deep into Season 2, Episode 9 of The Office. This episode focuses on Michael Scott's questionable decision to monitor his employees' emails, leading to humorous and tense interactions within the Dunder Mifflin office. The hosts are joined by special guest Ken Jeong, who shares behind-the-scenes insights from his experience portraying Bill, a member of Michael's improv class.
Email Surveillance centers around Michael Scott's attempt to boost productivity by installing spyware on his employees' computers. This move sparks tension among the staff, leading to confrontations and revelations about office relationships, particularly between Dwight Schrute and Angela Martin. Jim Halpert organizes a barbecue at his home, inviting most of the office except Michael, which exacerbates the existing tensions.
Scene Description: Michael attends his weekly improvisation class, where his antics often overshadow the performances of others. He frequently disrupts scenes by introducing his alter ego, Michael Scarn, complete with an imaginary gun.
Behind-the-Scenes Insight: Ken Jeong reveals that Michael's character, especially his penchant for introducing a gun during improv, was inspired by a real individual from Second City. "We actually let him. A scene got into the show in Second City because we all agreed we're going to let Ron pull the gun, and then we're going to let him kill all of us in the scene." (02:38) This approach added a layer of unpredictability and humor to the performances.
Scene Description: Jim hosts a backyard barbecue, inviting most of the office while intentionally excluding Michael. This exclusion is highlighted through an Evite, leading Michael to discover the invitation via his newly installed email surveillance software.
Detailed Observation: At 05:57, Jenna notes the Evite indicates 14 RSVPs, with Pam's response pending. This subtle detail adds depth to the office dynamics, especially concerning Jim and Pam's relationship.
Scene Description: Oscar Martinez openly confronts Michael about his decision to spy on employees' emails. The confrontation is humorously extended by Michael's friend, Steve Carell (playing himself), who interjects with a robot dance to derail the serious discussion.
Behind-the-Scenes Insight: Ken Jeong shares, "Steve really dragged it out, and that was, I think, some of his just brilliant comedic timing." (38:42) This improvisation showcased the actors' ability to blend scripted lines with spontaneous humor.
Scene Description: Pam Halpert overhears Dwight and Angela discussing the need to delete sensitive emails, insinuating their romantic involvement. This is the first explicit hint of their secret relationship.
Notable Interaction: At 04:07, Angela mentions the scene where Pam and Jim suspect Dwight and Angela are a couple, adding layers to the office's interpersonal relationships.
Ken Jeong reminisces about his friendship with Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey, highlighting moments like celebrating his 40th birthday together during the filming of Furry Vengeance. Their camaraderie translated seamlessly into the podcast dynamic.
Ken shares his audition experience for The Office: "I used to be a physician, but I really was auditioning just during, like, after work or during lunch. Allison Jones just took a liking to me, and she got me an audition for the Office." (09:23) His transition from medicine to acting, bolstered by supportive colleagues, underscores the unpredictable paths actors may take.
Discussing the filming process, Ken explains the complexities of shooting improv-heavy scenes: "It was like my first big guest star moment or co-star moment. I've just never seen this level of genius in my life on a set. It was this improv on top of an improv." (21:02) These layered improvisations required quick thinking and adaptability from the cast.
Ken recounts the difficulties in executing a specific scene where Michael's improvisation with a gun leads to unexpected comedic beats: "This was like my first big guest star moment... It was my favorite show on TV, so I just knew the show inside out." (20:05) His dedication to understanding and embodying his character contributed significantly to the episode's humor.
Ken Jeong as Bill:
“We actually let him. A scene got into the show in Second City because we all agreed we're going to let Ron pull the gun, and then we're going to let him kill all of us in the scene.”
(02:38)
Jenna Fischer on Ken's Insight:
“I found an interview that Steve did with Janelle Riley for the Screen Actors Foundation where he explained the inspiration for Michael's character. Always pulling a gun in improv class. It was based on a real person.”
(02:18)
Angela Kinsey on Michael's Improv:
“He turns every scene into a Michael Scarn moment. He pulls out his imaginary gun and he shoots them.”
(01:42)
Ken Jeong on Steve Carell's Performance:
“He is such a role model to me because he really is just a professional, elegant, classy actor who he has no weakness in his game...”
(24:08)
Jenna Fischer on the Romanticism of Jim and Pam:
“Jim and Pam, this moment of them just being in this bedroom, not kissing, not touching, not talking about this stolen moment is more romantic and sexy than that.”
(77:08)
In this episode, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey provide an in-depth analysis of "Email Surveillance," leveraging their firsthand experiences and insights from guest Ken Jeong. The discussion not only breaks down key scenes from The Office but also offers listeners a glimpse into the intricate dynamics and creativity involved in bringing these beloved characters to life. From the challenges of filming improvisational comedy to the nuances of office relationships, the hosts ensure that both fans and newcomers gain a comprehensive understanding of the episode's significance within the series.
Note: Timestamps are indicative and correspond to the podcast transcript provided.