Second Drink: The Convict

Summary

Office Ladies Podcast Summary: "Second Drink: The Convict"

Release Date: July 14, 2025

In the second episode of the Office Ladies podcast titled "Second Drink: The Convict," hosts Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey delve deep into Season 3, Episode 9 of The Office, offering a comprehensive analysis filled with behind-the-scenes anecdotes, fan interactions, and thoughtful discussions on the episode's themes and character developments.

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Episode Breakdown

1. Introduction to "The Convict"

• Overview: Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey kick off the episode by summarizing the plot of "The Convict," where Michael Scott discovers that new employee Martin Nash is a reformed convict. The revelation leads Michael to adopt his infamous alter ego, Prison Mike, in an attempt to discourage his staff from viewing work at Dunder Mifflin as less desirable than prison life.

2. Fan Letters and Deleted Scenes

• Warwick S.'s Insight ([02:07]–[05:00]): The hosts share a letter from Warwick S. of Springville, Utah, which provides a deeper understanding of Michael's creation of Prison Mike. They revisit a deleted "Talking Head" segment where Michael recounts a childhood experience with Woodsy Owl, linking it to his development of the Prison Mike persona.

• Chris C.'s Mystery Solved ([05:00]–[09:13]): Jenna and Angela address fan questions regarding a mysterious item on Martin's desk—a desktop water fountain paired with file folders—clarifying that it was a combination of two separate items intended to create the illusion of a mini fireplace.

3. Character Insights and Behind-the-Scenes Stories

• Director Jeff Blitz's Perspective ([17:00]–[20:00]): The episode features exclusive audio clips from Jeff Blitz, the director of "The Convict." Blitz shares his transition from documentary filmmaking to directing scripted television, highlighting his experience directing his first scripted episode and the collaborative environment on set.

• Wayne Wilderson as Martin Nash ([21:50]–[25:42]): Wayne Wilderson, who portrays Martin Nash, contributes his thoughts on joining the cast, his experience filming alongside British co-star Steve Carell, and the timeless relevance of "The Convict" episode in the context of contemporary social issues like the Black Lives Matter movement.

4. Thematic Discussions

• Race and Representation ([37:02]–[38:02]): Jenna and Angela explore the poignant line Michael delivers—"A black man can be arrested for just about anything in this country." They connect this moment to real-world events and literature, specifically referencing Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy, to underscore the episode's commentary on systemic racism and the criminal justice system.

• Work Opportunity Tax Credit ([34:18]–[35:34]): Angela provides an in-depth explanation of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, clarifying that Martin's status as a convict qualifies Dunder Mifflin for significant tax benefits, thereby dispelling assumptions that the company serves as a money laundering front.

5. Prank Analysis and Character Dynamics

• Jim and Andy's Prank ([39:53]–[43:45]): The hosts dissect the prank where Jim tricks Andy into believing Pam is interested in him by listing activities she supposedly loves, which are actually things she dislikes. They also uncover the existence of "Frolf" (a combination of frisbee and golf), debunking a misconception and highlighting the show's clever wordplay.

• Prison Mike's Origin and Impact ([73:08]–[79:02]): Through deleted scenes and creator insights, Jenna and Angela reveal the backstory of Prison Mike, including Michael's inspiration from childhood experiences and improvisational roots within the writers' room. They emphasize how this character adds depth to Michael's attempts at leadership and humor.

6. Props and Continuity

• Pam's Necklace Symbolism ([63:08]–[65:22]): Addressing fan curiosity, Angela clarifies that Pam's unicorn necklace symbolizes strength and purity, replacing her previous heart necklace gifted by Roy after their breakup. This change signifies Pam's personal growth and evolving relationships within the office.

7. Final Scenes and Emotional Resonance

• Andy’s Banjo Serenade ([85:35]–[89:20]): The episode culminates with Andy performing "Rainbow Connection" on the banjo for Pam, a moment that blends humor with heartfelt emotion. Jenna shares her love for the banjo and recounts the enjoyable filming experience with co-star Ed Helms, while Angela discusses the significance of Jim's subtle participation in the scene, enhancing the romantic undertones between Jim and Pam.

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Notable Quotes

• Michael Scott on Race ([37:02] – 00:02):

  "A black man can be arrested for just about anything in this country." ([37:02])

• Prison Mike Introduction ([73:42] – 02:09):

  "Do you really expect me to not push you up against the wall?" ([73:42])

• Martin Nash’s Reflection ([55:23] – 03:15):

  "Michael's an all right guy. He told me he trusts me more than Kirsten Dunst. And no one's ever told me that before." ([55:23])

• Wayne Wilderson on Filming ([51:38] – 02:09):

  "The prison mic thing was hilarious. Take after take, you know, it was so very hard to not break while Steve was doing prison mic." ([51:38])

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Behind-the-Scenes Highlights

• Prison Mike’s Filming Challenges ([75:22]–[77:50]): Director Jeff Blitz discusses the difficulty of filming the Prison Mike scenes due to continuous laughter among the cast. The commitment to preserving the character’s essence despite on-set chaos is highlighted as a testament to the team's dedication.

• Wayne Wilderson's Experience ([57:50]–[60:04]): Wayne shares fond memories of filming "The Convict," emphasizing the supportive and humorous environment that made portraying Martin Nash an enjoyable experience.

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Fan Engagement and Theories

• Dunder Mifflin as a Money Laundering Front: The hosts address a popular fan theory questioning whether the paper company serves as a front for money laundering activities, considering Martin's insider trading past and the branch's unexpected performance. While skeptical, Angela entertains the possibility, drawing parallels with shows like Ozark.

• Details and Continuity Errors: Jenna and Angela tackle fan observations about minor details, such as a visible camera operator’s knee in the background and the absence of Meredith in certain scenes, explaining that these were addressed in deleted scenes covering Meredith’s car troubles.

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Conclusion

"Second Drink: The Convict" offers an in-depth exploration of one of The Office’s most impactful episodes. Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey skillfully intertwine episode analysis with personal anecdotes, guest insights, and responsive interactions with their audience. They not only dissect the comedic elements but also engage with the episode's deeper social commentary, making the podcast episode a rich resource for both die-hard fans and newcomers seeking to understand the layers of The Office.

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Stay Tuned: In the next episode, the Office Ladies will continue their re-watch by diving into "Benihana Christmas," promising another blend of humor, heartfelt moments, and exclusive behind-the-scenes stories.

Transcript

[Angela Kinsey]

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[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. What if it's a raccoon going through your trash?

[Angela Kinsey]

Well, then they'll let you know that.

[Jenna Fischer]

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[Angela Kinsey]

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[Jenna Fischer]

Well, Ange, you love it. You set it up yourself. You're not a techie person.

[Angela Kinsey]

I'm not a techie person. Josh and I, we did a combo platter. He and I set some of it up, and then there was a few things we needed help on. We called them. They are ranked number one in customer service, and I can concur.

[Jenna Fischer]

Visit simplisafe.com officeladies to claim 50% off a new system with a professional monitoring plan and get your first month free.

[Angela Kinsey]

That's simplisafe.com officeladies. There's no safe. Like simply safe. So it's wedding season, kind of. Right? I. I don't know about you, but we have a few family members, like cousins getting married, and we're all traveling, all five of us, for a wedding coming up in a few weeks. And we got an Airbnb because we're like, you know what? We want a kitchen.

[Jenna Fischer]

We want snacks. Yes. Well, it's also great for the host family because they're getting to make some extra money on the side. This is also summertime, time of summer travel. So, yeah, while you're away, your home could be an Airbnb.

[Angela Kinsey]

It's a great opportunity you might not even be aware of.

[Jenna Fischer]

I would be happy to have more people become host families because that just gives me more options. I might come stay in your house.

[Angela Kinsey]

Especially if you're someone who travels frequently, so your home is available more. It's true. And it's a little extra money. Some side money.

[Jenna Fischer]

Who doesn't like side money?

[Angela Kinsey]

You know what Oscar calls it? He calls it side scratch. Little side scratch.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how [e-mail] host.

[Angela Kinsey]

Hello and welcome to your second drink of the convict. You guys put on your purple bandanas because it's time for a prison mic.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, prison mic. Who might be one of Michael Scott's most legendary alter ego characters?

[Angela Kinsey]

I mean, if we're going off of Halloween costumes, I would say that's one. I see a Lot.

[Jenna Fischer]

A lot for sure. Well, we got a letter from Warwick S In Springville, Utah. It was the most wonderful letter. Thank you so much. And it included an amazing deep dive based on one of your shares from when we broke down the Convict, Angela. So I'm sure you remember that you explained that there was a deleted Talking Head where Michael talks about the time a person dressed as an owl came to his school. Yeah, and this is gonna explain sort of the origin of prison, Mike. Well, they added this to the Peacock Superfan episode of the Convict in our breakdown. You read it, but I thought maybe we should hear it.

[Angela Kinsey]

Okay.

[Wayne Wilderson]

When I was just a little kid, we had an assembly at school where a giant owl came out and gave a very impassioned speech about giving hoots and not polluting. And you know what? I never polluted again. It was right then that I realized the power of saying things as a character. People listen to you when you are wearing an elaborate costume or speaking in a voice that is not yours.

[Jenna Fischer]

It was an amazing find, Angela. And I love that they've added it back to the Peacock episode.

[Angela Kinsey]

It explains so much.

[Jenna Fischer]

I know. Well, Warwick wanted us to know that this owl character is real. Warwick was on a hike and saw a sign that said, quote, give a hoot, don't pollute with the photo of an owl, and wrote us to say, quote. So although I'm not a lady, I became a lady who Googles and looked it up. And, ladies, it did not disappoint. It led me to discover that Woodsy Owl was a character created alongside Smokey Bear in efforts to combat pollution and deforestation. But according to the Internet, Woodsy Owl was discontinued due to the polarizing spotted owl controversy of the 1980s.

[Angela Kinsey]

What controversy?

[Jenna Fischer]

Much like the band Mallard of Louisiana, Woodsy was a very unpopular bird, and the government requested that all Woodsy Owl costumes be incinerated. Wow. Ladies, I have only scratched the surface on Woodsy Owl. There are so many unanswered questions, but I thought I'd let the mom detective solve this one.

[Angela Kinsey]

I also love that Warwick brought back my band Mallard. I know. So thank you for getting us started. We did look this up. And you're right. The Woodsy Owl was introduced in September 1971 to help combat pollution. Initially, there was a discussion of making Woodsy a trout, an elk, or a raccoon. But instead, they decided to go with an owl due to the wise nature of the bird and how they could be found at the edges of urban areas, which they believed would make the Owl appealing to urban and rural populations. They really put a lot of thought into this. Woodsy is also much shorter than Smokey the Bear, and that was intentional. Woodsy was designed to be the same height as kids to better appeal to them. He even had his own theme song. You gotta hear it.

[Jenna Fischer]

Hi, I'm Woodsy Owl. In order to try and stop pollution, we need more help.

[Angela Kinsey]

So help Woodsy. Spread the word. Come on. Never be a dirty bird no matter where you go. You can let some people know too. Give a hunt, don't pollute. Never be a dirty bird in the city or in the woods. Help keep America looking good. Don't be a dirty bird. I have questions.

[Jenna Fischer]

Dirty Bird is like innuendo. Like, if you're a dirty bird.

[Angela Kinsey]

Why? What do you mean?

[Jenna Fischer]

What? Right, Sam?

[Jeff Blitz]

Yes.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes. What is a dirty bird? What do you think a dirty bird is?

[Jenna Fischer]

Don't be a dirty bird.

[Angela Kinsey]

It's like a penis.

[Jenna Fischer]

It's like, don't be a hussy. Don't be a creeper.

[Angela Kinsey]

Oh, I thought you were saying, don't be a dirty bird.

[Jenna Fischer]

Like a peeping Tom is a dirty bird. Don't be a dirty bird.

[Angela Kinsey]

I thought it was, like, don't have a dirty penis or something.

[Jenna Fischer]

No. How did you make that leap?

[Angela Kinsey]

No, like, I didn't know if a bird was like a. You know.

[Jenna Fischer]

No, it's like a. Like a pervert. Like, don't be a dirty bird. Like, if it's a nice way of calling someone a pervert. Right.

[Angela Kinsey]

A dirty bird. I imagined it as like a. Like a hussy or a slut. You're like a dirty bird.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh. So, okay, this is interesting. So to you, it's shaming women. To me, it's shaming men.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah, to me. To me, it's like a. Not just literally an unkempt Venus and a dirty penis.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, anyway, my point here is that I am surprised that we use Dirty Bird twice in the woods of the Owl song. But anyway, I'm guessing that Woodsy the Owl is who came to Michael's school. And I saw online that it is true that they discontinued Woodsy, but they reintroduced him again in the 1990s. I think the National Forest Service celebrated its 50th birthday recently. There you have it, Warwick. Thank you.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

Also, lady, during our breakdown of this episode, we got a fan mail flurry about a mystery item on the desk in the annex. We discuss it in the breakdown. We say it looked like a mini fireplace or something. And I believe we may have solved this mystery as well.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes. We got a letter from Chris C. That might have solved it. Chris said, I was able to figure out what the mystery item was that looked like a heater. You first see it at 6 minutes, 27 seconds. And we are seeing two things. The part that we see moving is a desktop water fountain. Very similar to the Homedics Mira Zen Tabletop relaxation fountain. You can see the fountain in action on several YouTube videos. Search for Home Medics Mirazen Tabletop relaxation fountain on QVC. Say that 10 times fast. Directly behind it, we have a stack of files folders sitting in a black metal upright folder organizer. You can see an identical sorter with white paper and a red folder on the end of Martin's desk at 6 minutes, 18 seconds. This makes it look like a large cylinder, but it's actually two separate items.

[Jenna Fischer]

Wow.

[Angela Kinsey]

Wow. There you go.

[Jenna Fischer]

So we're really solving some mysteries in our second drink today. All right, well, listen, before we get to our breakdown of the merger, we've got some office ladies news.

[Angela Kinsey]

You guys, this is a big deal for us. I think you all know I do our Wednesdays Instagram, and I mean, you know, it kind of looks like it's just me doing it.

[Jenna Fischer]

It's not too fancy. You do a good job, lady, and I don't want to hear you poo poo it in any way.

[Angela Kinsey]

Okay?

[Jenna Fischer]

It's very good.

[Angela Kinsey]

That's very sweet of you, but we've been talking for a long time that, you know, maybe we also want to have an office ladies TikTok or YouTube shorts, but that's just too much for me to figure out. I don't know how to do all that. So we got some help with this great group of, like, young folks that are so creative block party.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yep.

[Angela Kinsey]

They're going to be helping us with all that.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. We are so excited. You can now find us on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube OfficeLadiesPod.

[Angela Kinsey]

And they're going to help us make reels and fun stuff. I don't know. This feels very exciting to us.

[Jenna Fischer]

So check us out if you're on the other platforms. We'd love to see you over there.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah, we'll share in our stories.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, listen, that's all we've got, so now please enjoy the convict. 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 the 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. Hey, everybody.

[Angela Kinsey]

Hi, you guys.

[Jenna Fischer]

This week we are talking about The Convict, Season 3, Episode 9, written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant and directed by Jeffrey Blitz.

[Angela Kinsey]

There's some powerhouse there.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

Oh, yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

Oh, yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

I'm wasting no time. I'm gonna hit you with a summary.

[Angela Kinsey]

Hit me, baby, one more time. Oh, baby, just give me a summary. Oh, my God. Oh, Brittany, we love you.

[Jenna Fischer]

All right. In this episode, Michael learns that one of the new Stanford transfers, Martin Nash, is a reformed conviction. When Martin tells the other employees about his time in prison, the staff says it sounds like it's better than working at Dunder Mifflin. Well, Michael is heartbroken to hear that people would rather be in prison than at Dunder Mifflin. So he responds by turning into Prison Mike to scare them all straight. And then also, Andy asks Jim for advice on how to woo Pam. And we get a little bit of a prank.

[Angela Kinsey]

He's going to whoop him. There's going to be some banjo playing. It's real special. Jenna, I know you're about to hit me with some fast facts, but I bet I can guess two of them.

[Jenna Fischer]

Hit you with some fast facts. Oh, no, no. This is.

[Angela Kinsey]

People right now are hitting fast forward. They're like, please, can I skip past them Doing Britney Spears is your first fast fact that Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant created the office for the BBC. They're the O.G. of the O.G.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes, Angela, it is. Yes. And also, this is the only episode of the American Office that was written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.

[Angela Kinsey]

I didn't know that.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, our pilot was sort of technically written by them because, yeah, we really. We used so much of it. But it was also adapted by Greg Daniels. But this is the only original American Office that they wrote. Now, Steven did direct an episode. He directed Customer Survey in season five, and Ricky did a cameo in season seven. And they were around. They would come visit us.

[Angela Kinsey]

They would pop up.

[Jenna Fischer]

I remember Stephen Merchant being in the writers room a lot. Yeah, he would come by whenever he was in America. And you know, Angela, I did a movie with Stephen Merchant.

[Angela Kinsey]

You did a movie with the tall man from England?

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes, it was called Hall Pass.

[Angela Kinsey]

Oh.

[Jenna Fischer]

And it was a Farrelly Brothers movie. It shot in Atlanta. And I was so happy that Stephen Merchant was on this movie because this movie had, like, these huge, powerhouse comedic stars. Okay. It was Owen Wilson. There was Jason Sudeikis, J.B. smoove, Christina Applegate. And then like, me, I remember.

[Angela Kinsey]

I remember you going off to do this and you were like, oh, my God, I'm so nervous. I'm so nervous.

[Jenna Fischer]

I was so happy that I knew someone.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

So I kind of glommed on to Stephen Merchant when we were on that set because I was like, someone I know. Cause otherwise, when you go do those movies, I always feel like the new kid in school where it's like, where do I fit in? I don't know anyone.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

I was so nervous. But there was another reason why I was very nervous on this movie. And it was because I was staying in a haunted hotel.

[Angela Kinsey]

What?

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. You remember this?

[Angela Kinsey]

No, lady.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. I got to Atlanta and they put me up in this hotel. I would get woken up in the middle of the night at like 2:30 in the morning by the sound of clompy footsteps on my ceiling.

[Angela Kinsey]

Well, that happens in hotels, lady.

[Jenna Fischer]

Does it happen when your hotel room is on the top floor and there's nothing above you? What?

[Angela Kinsey]

No.

[Jenna Fischer]

I was on the top floor. So I called down to the front desk and I was like, excuse me, do you guys do maintenance on the roof at like 2:30 in the morning? Are people walking on the roof? And the. Well, the person on the phone was like, no. And also, just because you're on the top floor, they're like, that doesn't mean that, like, your ceiling is literally the roof of the building. Like, there's stuff in between. What's the ceiling of your hotel?

[Angela Kinsey]

Like, Like a secret floor.

[Jenna Fischer]

That's what I said. I said, what's happening there?

[Angela Kinsey]

Like when you get in an elevator and there's no button for it.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. That's what I wanted to know. What is happening in this space? Something is happening. People are walking. They insisted that I was not hearing these noises. They insisted, Angela. I wouldn't let it go well. So I went to a travel website and I googled this hotel.

[Angela Kinsey]

You did a deep dive on the hotel?

[Jenna Fischer]

It's a haunted hotel.

[Angela Kinsey]

No.

[Jenna Fischer]

There were tons of stories of people who had stayed on the top floor who had heard. Heard the footsteps.

[Angela Kinsey]

Shut the front door.

[Jenna Fischer]

Okay, so now I can't sleep.

[Angela Kinsey]

Right, because you have a full on ghost.

[Jenna Fischer]

I'm in a ghost hotel. I have to go to work tomorrow with Owen Wilson. I'm sleepless. I'm nervous. I called Lee crying in the middle of the night. Lee, who was my boyfriend at the time, who's back in Los Angeles writing a script. I was like, you need to fly here, and you have to come keep me safe from the ghosts. You have to stay with me during this movie.

[Angela Kinsey]

And he's like, what am I, a ghostbuster? What the heck, Jenna? Just move hotels.

[Jenna Fischer]

That's what Leigh said, But I was like, I am not about to call this production company and insist that they move me from this hotel because it's haunted.

[Angela Kinsey]

They would think you were looney tunes. They would be like, oh, this actress is convinced her hotel room is haunted, and she wants to move. I get it. I get it.

[Jenna Fischer]

So Lee flew out. He stayed with me while I shot that movie and protected me from the ghost. And by the way, when he got there, he heard it. He heard it.

[Angela Kinsey]

I would be so freaked out. Well, oh, my gosh. That fast fact took a turn. But I like that.

[Jenna Fischer]

It really did.

[Angela Kinsey]

I'm here for it.

[Jenna Fischer]

I'm gonna steer us back onto the episode with fast fact number two. This was the first episode directed by Jeff Blitz. We love Jeff blitz. He directed 11 episodes of the Office. This was his first.

[Angela Kinsey]

He is a wonderful, delightful human being. I adore him. We reached out to Jeff, and he sent in audio clips about this episode. We're so excited. I also told him I really need him to come back on because we need to discuss Save Bandit.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes.

[Angela Kinsey]

And when I threw that cat in the ceiling, that has to be talked.

[Jenna Fischer]

About because he directed that episode too, right?

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes. But, you guys, I want to give a shout out to a movie that Jeff had done. I had watched this movie. It's a documentary. I was a huge fan of it and a fan of his, so I kind of geeked out when he finally got to direct an episode, and. But he directed a documentary called Spellbound. It is a fantastic documentary about the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and it follows eight of the young competitors. It is wonderful. So if you're looking for things to watch, watch Spellbound. It is so good.

[Jenna Fischer]

It was nominated for an Academy Award.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, my God.

[Angela Kinsey]

I forgot that. Yes. It's so good.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, we asked Jeff, how'd you get this job? And I loved his answer. So, Sam, will you play that clip?

[Jeff Blitz]

When Greg was meeting people to talk about directing on the pilot, I got called in to meet with him. He was flirting with the great and probably crazy idea to bring a true doc filmmaker on from the start to kind of overlay a more authentic doc style onto the show. I had just done my first feature doc, Spellbound, about kids in the national Spelling Bee, and Greg thought the idea to have me on was an interesting one that he'd explore with NBC, who immediately said, not a chance. I think it was almost two years later, I hadn't seen Greg at all, and I got a call out of the blue. Greg wanted to know now, would I like to work on the show. At this point, he thought that he could talk NBC into it. So the Office season three. I had my first gig in the world of TV with the episode the Convict.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. So this was his first scripted television show that he ever directed. He was just coming out of the world of documentary, which I love. I love that Greg did that. Right. That he wanted a cinematographer who had shot documentaries, and now he wanted to hire a documentary film director. He was really interested in preserving the integrity of this documentary style for the show.

[Angela Kinsey]

I also love that Greg is such a champion of people. You know, he doesn't give up on you. NBC said no. He was like, I'm gonna get you in there, Jeff. You know, and then he did. I just love that. We also asked Jeff what it was like to shoot his first scripted television show, and here's what he had to say.

[Jeff Blitz]

The thing that stood out to me is that I had done all this prep work figuring out all these shots, and, you know, I just had a ton of thoughts about the way each line might be. And then when the shooting actually started, I realized that all the prep work I had done, it just didn't fit for the kind of show that this was. The first or second setup, I think had me standing right by Pam's desk. And I realized that by then, all of the prep work I had done, it just didn't make any sense. And I think that I just. I just dropped all. All of it into the trash can right there.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, Angela, I remember Jeff standing at reception for that scene.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

And we really bonded. I felt so fortunate that I got to have him up at reception with me, because I just loved him instantly.

[Angela Kinsey]

I feel like reception, you got that sometimes, like, just sitting where you were sitting. A lot of times that directors and writers would be sort of perched up there either on that sofa. You know, they would sit on the sofa right there and watch the scene. And I was a little jealous that you got to have all that time with them.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, the other thing that used to happen at reception, though, Angela, is that people would stand, like a wall in front of reception with their back to me, and they would also steal my pens, and they would also leave their water bottles on the reception desk.

[Angela Kinsey]

So there's. There's an upside. And A downside.

[Jenna Fischer]

There was. There was. All right, are you ready for fast fact number three?

[Angela Kinsey]

I am.

[Jenna Fischer]

Fast fact number three. Wayne Wilderson, amazing comic actor, played Martin Nash. We also reached out to Wayne, and he sent in some audio clips about his time on the show.

[Angela Kinsey]

He did, Jenna. This time I was sliding into someone's DMs.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, I loved it. I loved it.

[Angela Kinsey]

I love that now you and I are just these two ladies in their 40s sliding into people's DMs. I know, right? Wayne is fantastic, and we started by asking him how he came to be on the Office, and here's what he had to say.

[Sam]

Hey, guys, it's Wayne here. How you doing? Thank you so much for letting me come to the party. This is great. I dig the podcast. Okay, jumping right into a question. 1. Can you share how you came to be on the Office? Yeah, I got to be on the Office. It was just a regular audition call. They had this role. It was two episodes, working two different weeks, and I already loved the show, and I was a big fan of the British Office, so I was very excited for this edition. I knew Steve and I knew Ed had just worked with those guys in Evan Almighty. Nancy, Steve's wife, is one of my oldest friends, but they swore they had nothing to do with getting the audition, so that's what they said. But I got the job and was super excited. And that particular episode, I'm not sure if I knew when I got the part that Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant had written it. And I think it was two episodes, were the first ones that they ever did for the US Office. So that was a. That was a bit of an honor.

[Jenna Fischer]

I did not know that he knew Nancy.

[Angela Kinsey]

I didn't either, but it makes sense, right? I mean, they're both really funny, talented people. They were in Boston. I don't know. I know I see them crossing paths.

[Jenna Fischer]

No, they have the comedy connection and the Boston connection, so. Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Well, you know, when we were trading emails with Wayne, too, we asked him if he still gets recognized for being on the Office, and he said yes all the time, especially now with the resurgence on Netflix. And he's so tickled by it. But he said it's all young people now.

[Angela Kinsey]

Oh, yeah. I mean, we're crushing it with middle.

[Jenna Fischer]

Schoolers, guys, because we talked about this on the merger. He had a big recurring on Veep as well, but I think he gets recognized more for the Office, even though it was only two episodes.

[Angela Kinsey]

Oh, Veep is so Good.

[Jenna Fischer]

So good.

[Angela Kinsey]

You know, we exchanged a lot of emails with Wayne about this episode and we were talking about what it was like to rewatch this episode in light of everything that's happening in our country with the Black Lives Matter movement. And here's what he had to say.

[Sam]

Wow. I just watched it again. I watch it, you know, maybe every year or so. It's such a good episode with everything that's going on in the world now. You know, it feels a little even edgier at some points, but it's super poignant, I guess, for all of it. The issues that we're dealing with now with race and how we deal with it and what's funny and what's not funny and who can say what when. And, you know, this port puts a magnifying glass on where we've been and how far we've come along, what comedy we can do. So it was very interesting. I probably hadn't watched it in a year or so, and to watch it during these times was. It was very interesting. With that, the comedy and its commentary, I think it holds up very well. I think it's kind of a classic Office episode. I'm gonna say it's a classic Office episode. Boom.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, Angela, I had not watched this episode since it aired and I definitely found a new poignancy when I was watching it.

[Angela Kinsey]

Oh, yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

And there are definitely lines and moments that stood out to me and I'll bring it up as we go through the episode.

[Angela Kinsey]

Same.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, why don't we take a break and when we come back, we will break down the convict.

[Angela Kinsey]

We'll see ya. As soon as you become a parent, really what you want is just for your kids to succeed and for them to do well. And that starts with empowering them to learn in ways that are best for them. Because not everyone learns the same way.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. K12 powered schools are tuition free online accredited public schools for kindergarten through 12th grade. And it's designed to help your child to learn at their own pace, in their own place, with an engaging curriculum that supports individual learning styles. Now, this is different from homeschooling where you are responsible for teaching them.

[Angela Kinsey]

That's right. K12 powered schools has state certified teachers that are trained online educators. They utilize hands on innovative technology and make learning interactive.

[Jenna Fischer]

Join the more than 3 million families who have been served by K12 and empower your student to reach their full potential.

[Angela Kinsey]

Now go to k12.com officeladiestoday to find a tuition free K12 powered school near you and enroll.

[Jenna Fischer]

Now that's the letter k. The number.

[Angela Kinsey]

12.Com officeladies k12.com officeladies Listen, we're in July now, but there's still a lot of summer left. And Macy's summer favorites sale has everything you need to get the most out of it. There are 20 to 50% off some favorite brands.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, I'm gonna go shopping because I want more T shirts. Lady, I'm gonna say it. I wanna go into the crop.

[Angela Kinsey]

The crop.

[Jenna Fischer]

The crop T shirt. Like, I've been wearing my T shirt super long and I don't think it's doing the right thing for my proportions.

[Angela Kinsey]

We need a waist.

[Jenna Fischer]

I wanna crop it up.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah, crop it up. Well, I just got some big designer sunglasses. Oh, I love this. I do. Okay. They're sort of big square and chunky sunglasses. They're not normally what I would wear, but I think they look really cute, especially by the pool.

[Jenna Fischer]

Shop your summer favorites now@macy's.com and get 20 to 50% off from July 18th through the 20th.

[Angela Kinsey]

Shop now at macy's.com or in store.

[Jenna Fischer]

Okay, so we are back. This episode starts with Hannah bringing her baby into the office. She is setting up for the. Like, her baby's staying all day. Clearly she's got a pack and play.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah, there's a pack and play. I mean, she's. She's moving in. What's happening?

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah, we had a fan question from Ellis Friedman, Victoria Leyva and Megan Keel. Why did Hannah bring her baby into the office?

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes, ladies. Why? Why? We don't know. I watched the deleted scenes. I have a lot to bring to this episode that is explained in deleted scenes. We'll get to that. This is not. There's. There's a whole runner in the deleted scenes with the baby. There's no explanation.

[Jenna Fischer]

People holding the baby. Yeah, I saw that in the script because I have the script for this one. And there are all these scenes of people with the baby, but never is it explained why the baby is there. I would like to point out that this is a very progressive choice by Michael to allow a new mother to bring their baby into the office for the day. So I appreciate that. Although what we didn't need him to do was get under the table and do an impression of look who's Talking. Do you remember those movies with Kirstie Alley and John Travolta? They were huge hit.

[Angela Kinsey]

Wait, is Bruce Willis the talking baby?

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah, Bruce Willis. So Kirstie Alley has like a one night stand with this cab driver played by John Travolta. And they have a baby, and now they have to figure out how to, I guess, co parent this baby when they're not a couple. Of course, spoiler alert. They're gonna fall in love.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yay.

[Jenna Fischer]

But all the while, you're getting commentary on their parenting and their romance through the voice of the baby voiced by.

[Angela Kinsey]

Bruce Willis as a grown man. So because he's not doing a baby voice, he's a grown man voice and.

[Jenna Fischer]

A baby voice, Regular man voice.

[Angela Kinsey]

I want to be in that pitch meeting. I want to be in that pitch meeting. I want to see the. The person that's like, here's the thing. The baby talks, and it's Bruce Willis, the same guy that said, yippee ki, yay, mother ever is gonna be the baby. It's gonna be great. Here we go. Okay, well, in the deleted scenes, there is a baby runner. I mean, Karen holds the baby and flirts with Jim, and Pam watches it all.

[Jenna Fischer]

I read that in the script.

[Angela Kinsey]

Mm. Kelly holds the baby and just jiggles it in front of Ryan. And Ryan finally is like, what? Kelly? What do you. Are you holding a baby because you want me to want to have a baby with you? And she's like, no. What are you talking about? Whatever. And then three seconds later, she's like, oh, my God, I want a baby right now. It's actually really funny. And then there's a very funny deleted scene where Andy and Dwight have, like, a baby off. Like, they're so ridiculous. These two are so ridiculous. Like, Andy's like, I was a baby model. Not going to apologize for it. I was a beautiful baby, and I modeled.

[Jenna Fischer]

This is like their whole competition in the last episode about who has seen more movies.

[Angela Kinsey]

Exactly. So they're arguing about themselves as babies. Andy was a. I guess a gorgeous baby and modeled, and Dwight was like, Well, I weighed 13 pounds, and my mom couldn't walk for three months, so take that. It's so weird.

[Jenna Fischer]

All right, well, the scene with Pam having to watch Jim and Karen fuss over this baby was deleted. But the next scene in the episode is Pam watching Jim and Karen kind of flirt at the copy machine.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

And at 1 minute, 47 seconds, you can still see my zit from the week before.

[Angela Kinsey]

Stop it.

[Jenna Fischer]

From the merger. It's a little smaller, but it's still there.

[Angela Kinsey]

You have got to stop pointing it out. None of us noticed. Or maybe Hadley did, because I know she. You know, she noticed. White zit. But, Jenna, you like to track things. Stop tracking your acne.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, I Think my zit's going to be gone next week. But, I mean, we'll see.

[Angela Kinsey]

We'll see. It'll make your list, I'm sure. All right, so then we have this, you know, Jim talking head, and he says that he. He is seeing Karen. He is. He admits it, but he isn't ready to talk about it openly because he doesn't want some people, you know, treating them differently. I have a beef with Jim. I just wrote not cool. Not cool.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah, this goes back to my wishy washy gym.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah, wishy washy, Jim.

[Jenna Fischer]

There it is again. All right, so now we move into the conference room. We've got Angela, Kevin, Michael, and Pam. They are all on the speakerphone to Jan, and they are discussing this mysterious check that has arrived.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah, I have a question, Jenna. Yeah, I get why Michael's on the phone. I get why the accountants are. Why is Pam there? Is it just because Michael just likes to have Pam around? She's like keeper of the minutes or something?

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah, he sees Pam as his personal assistant. She is not his personal assistant. She is the receptionist. But he doesn't have a personal assistant. And so he sort of, you know, makes her play that role. Yeah, she's always in these meetings she shouldn't be in.

[Angela Kinsey]

That's right, always.

[Jenna Fischer]

There's many episodes of meetings of Pam in conversations between Michael and Jane. And I love it because the camera will just, like, pan mid scene, and then it reveals Pam has been sitting there with a notebook the whole time. I mean, she's always in these scenes.

[Angela Kinsey]

So awkward.

[Jenna Fischer]

I loved it. As an actress, I loved it. I bet Jan eventually explains that this check is something that they're getting in exchange for hiring an ex convict, which Michael is like, I didn't hire an ex conviction. They come to realize that one of the Stanford transfers must be part of this program, meaning that there is someone from Stanford who has a criminal record.

[Angela Kinsey]

All right, so, Jenna, when Jan said, oh, they're probably getting the tax break because they hired an ex con, I was like, hold up. I know this program. Why did she just jump to ex con? Because several people qualify for this program. Because I worked at a company that had employees that qualified for this federal work program, and guess what I did.

[Jenna Fischer]

I'm. Well, I'm sensing a deep dive here.

[Angela Kinsey]

Then you sensed, right, lady. All right, I went on the U.S. department of labor and the IRS websites for, like, three hours. Real fun stuff there, guys. Real fun.

[Jenna Fischer]

I love you. And I deeply love you for that. I really do, Angela. I love that you did that.

[Angela Kinsey]

I know, because this is coming from someone who spent, I think, probably five hours of her life researching an Alpha Womb.

[Jenna Fischer]

So go on.

[Angela Kinsey]

Anyway, so it is called the Work Opportunity Tax Credit. It's a federal tax credit available to employees for hiring individuals from certain targeted groups who have consistently faced significant barriers to employment. And there are several types of people that qualify for this program. There are veterans, all right, they're recipients of SNAP benefits, which is food stamps, people with supplemental Security income, people that have long term unemployment. So a lot of people qualify for this, not just ex cons. And the companies that hire this group, depending on the hours they work, there's like, certain categories they have to check off the list. But your company can get a tax credit anywhere from $2,400 to $9,600 per employee you hire through this program.

[Jenna Fischer]

Wow.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. Oh, am I getting applause for my deep dive?

[Jenna Fischer]

That was a really well done deep dive, lady.

[Angela Kinsey]

You deep and you dive, and you deep in a dive. What was your song? Your son made it.

[Jenna Fischer]

You get a deep. You get a dive. Put them together. Get a deep dive. Well, Angela, I have a beef with Jan, right? Because all of us ask like, oh, who is it? Who's the ex convict? And she's like, hold on a second, I'll find out. You'll find out what, Jan, what are you going to do? This conference room full of people. This, like, private, personal. This feels like an HR violation to me. Toby, where are you?

[Angela Kinsey]

Toby, where are you? Jan, you would have to go to a special HR meeting because you just crossed the line, lady.

[Jenna Fischer]

I feel like she crosses the line by giving out this information. But while we are on hold, everyone starts trying to guess, who is it?

[Angela Kinsey]

Michael guesses. Basically, they're. They're just looking out in the bullpen at who they can see. Hannah, Andy. Then Kevin says, martin. And Michael's like, how dare you?

[Jenna Fischer]

He goes, you just said that because you think Martin is black. And Kevin is like, well, no, he. He is black. So they're kind of bickering about it. And then Jan comes on the phone and she's like, it's Martin Nash.

[Angela Kinsey]

They're all wondering, well, what did Martin do?

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah, why did he. Why was he in jail?

[Angela Kinsey]

And now, Jenna, we are coming up to this line that Michael has you and I talked about really stood out to us in light of the Black Lives Matter movement.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. This is when Michael says to us, a black man can be arrested for just about anything in this country.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

I mean, we were re watching this episode, in the middle of a civil rights movement in our country, people are literally in the streets protesting this very fact of black people being arrested for just about anything, but not just that, being killed. So, yeah, this line hit me hard. And I have to say, I expected Michael to make a joke here, but he doesn't.

[Angela Kinsey]

No, he doesn't.

[Jenna Fischer]

And I'm so glad that he doesn't.

[Angela Kinsey]

I know, Me too well. You know, I think, Jenna, as the viewer, we're always expecting Michael to play it up for the cameras, right? He thinks he's like an entertainer and anyway, but he doesn't. In this moment, he's just truthful and sincere, and I think it made the line that much more powerful.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah, I agree. I agree. And you know, also, Ange, while we were prepping this episode, I was reading the book Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. And it's an amazing book. It's a memoir. It's the story of this lawyer, Bryan Stevenson, and how he helps to overturn the sentence of a man who's on death row for crime he didn't commit. But it also goes into ways that our criminal justice system is in need of reform. And it's just. It's a really powerful book, and I feel like I learned so much. We can actually, we can link to it in our show notes, but just to rewatch this episode right now and hear that line, I mean, it just. Yeah, it had a lot. It had a lot of added poignancy for me.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah, for me too. I know. Just Mercy is also a movie that's out now. But, Jenna, you love the book so much and you're sending it my way, so thank you.

[Jenna Fischer]

I am. Yes. I'm giving you my copy.

[Angela Kinsey]

Thanks.

[Jenna Fischer]

Okay, so getting back to the scene. What happens next?

[Angela Kinsey]

Okay, so next, Michael tells them, you know what? Do not share this information. No one needs to know about this.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes.

[Angela Kinsey]

I mean, he's oddly the voice of reason in this moment. He's like, it's no one's business. It's not a good thing to share. Right. Kevin says, cool. Pam's like, okay, Angela, I have a hard time with that.

[Jenna Fischer]

Angela needs to know what was the crime.

[Angela Kinsey]

Right? And she's also very, you know, she's not a very trusting person. She's a very fear based person. And she starts to spiral out.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, she's also not a very forgiving person. I mean, don't make a mistake around Angela. She'll remember it forever.

[Angela Kinsey]

And it's no surprise to me that Dwight has a similar reaction because the two of them are, you know, they're soul mates. And so they both spiral out. But we'll get to that.

[Jenna Fischer]

All right, so next we're out in the bullpen, and Andy calls Jim.

[Angela Kinsey]

And this is what I wrote on my card. Jenna, why does Jim even entertain this conversation?

[Jenna Fischer]

He calls him on the phone because he wants to know which woman in the office he should hit on. And he's like, starts naming all the women. And I agree. Why does Jim not just hang up?

[Angela Kinsey]

I think Jim sort of sees a way to prank Pam. I don't think he wants to be part of Andy's grossness, but he suggests Pam.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. So next up, Michael takes Dwight aside to tell him about Martin's past. And Dwight has this talking head where he explains that he is upset simply because he does not like criminals. He doesn't like criminals. And we had a fan question from Mary Coors, Nicole Bridges, and Jet Fenton. After Michael tells Dwight about Martin being a convict. He has this talking head in front of a window, but normally his talking heads are facing into the office. Why the change now? Okay, People have really been tracking the where the talking heads are and the whole window thing ever since we shared about it. So I just want to put this one to rest. This is because this is one of those on the fly talking heads. This is next to the window that's next to our Dunder Mifflin sign in the little lobby as you walk into the office. This is not. This was not done in the conference room. This was not a formal talking head. If it was, I'm sure they would have sat Dwight down in that same chair with the bullpen behind him. But since this was on the fly, that's what that window is. It is not significant of our previous talking head theme.

[Angela Kinsey]

So the symbolism happens in the conference room. Not so much talking head on the fly.

[Jenna Fischer]

Right.

[Angela Kinsey]

So Dwight, like Angela, starts to spiral out with this information. He's going to try to get to the bottom of things.

[Jenna Fischer]

Both Dwight and Angela are preoccupied with the fact that they don't know why Martin was in prison. They can't let it go like Michael suggested.

[Angela Kinsey]

And meanwhile, Andy is quizzing Jim about what are Pam's interests. And Jim lists off all of these crazy things. One of them Andy really jumps on, which is Frolf.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes.

[Angela Kinsey]

Frisbee golf.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. It becomes very clear that Jim is actually listing all of the things that Pam hates, but presenting them as the things that Pam loves. And he says, any Frisbee based competition. To which Andy says, oh, my gosh I guess he invented some sort of combination of frisbee and golf while he was in college.

[Angela Kinsey]

No, he didn't invent it. He was on the team. He played frolf at Cornell. Andy doesn't say he invented Frolf.

[Jenna Fischer]

I think he did. I think he says he was one of the founders of the frolf team at Cornell.

[Angela Kinsey]

Cornell's team, but not of the sport. It's an actual sport.

[Jenna Fischer]

No, no, no, Angela, wait.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes, it is.

[Jenna Fischer]

I thought that was made up for all thing. No, no. There is not something where you play frisbee and golf at the same time. That cannot be true.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes.

[Jenna Fischer]

Stop it.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes, there is, Jenna. So Andy. Andy is just saying that he founded the team at Cornell. He is a founding member. I did a deep dive on froth also. My husband was like, yeah, Frisbee golf. I love frisbee golf. I was like, wait, what? He was like, yeah, you play it in the park.

[Jenna Fischer]

I did not Google Frolf because I thought there is no possible way that is a real thing.

[Angela Kinsey]

It's a real thing.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, my gosh.

[Angela Kinsey]

It's a real thing. You can go on. Go. Go on YouTube.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, my gosh.

[Angela Kinsey]

And I went on the ehow YouTube channel, and basically, you have a frisbee, and you have to throw it in a basket. There's courses all across the country. You can actually go to the Professional Disc Golf association website. That's the pdga, and you can find out where there are frisbee golf courses in your area, in your city. And it's a whole thing, Jenna.

[Jenna Fischer]

Wow.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, I just googled Frolf, and I'm reading on frolf.com. this is my favorite thing I've read so far. Everyone and everything in the world is part of a frolfing game. Every tree, street sign, building, car, person, animal. Everything is a part of the game. Everything must be taken into consideration when playing a hole. Wow.

[Angela Kinsey]

I have played frisbee golf, and I played it, like, out of college in New York in Central park. And it'd be like, okay, now, we weren't on a course like the PDGA where there's, like, a park with the baskets, but we were just like, okay, the first hole that you have to get is, like, between those two trees. And then you've got to get it onto that fountain, and then you've got to get it onto that park bench. You can play froth anywhere, Jenna. Anywhere. You can play froth in your backyard. Make your own course, Jenna.

[Jenna Fischer]

I still. It's still so insane to me that I Like, there's a part. There's a very, very tiny part of me that is convinced that you have planted all of the frothing websites on the Internet just to, like, prank me right now.

[Angela Kinsey]

Well, that's. That is absolutely something I would do.

[Jenna Fischer]

Not. All right. Wow. Honestly, my mind is blown at that. Frothing is a real thing. Okay, here are more of the things that we learn that Pam hates that Jim presents as things she loves. Hunting ads for Six Flags with the Old man. Do you remember those?

[Angela Kinsey]

I do. I do.

[Jenna Fischer]

It was a guy in, like, really creepy old age makeup. He wasn't actually old. Right. He was covered in this latex makeup, and he did this, like, intense dancing.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

He would, like, break dance.

[Angela Kinsey]

It was creepy.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah, it was creepy. And then also pig Latin.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

I got in a conversation with my husband about pig Latin. This is when you talk about, like, bring your work home.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

This is like. I'm like, babe, do you play frisbee golf? Babe, do you speak pig Latin? Apparently I've been doing it wrong. Shocker. Not a shocker.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, wait. We had a fan question about this. Angela, Demetria wants to know, can you speak pig Latin in real life, Angela? You thought you could?

[Angela Kinsey]

Well, my friends and I, we did our version of pig Latin, but then when I looked it up online. Online, it says it's the first two consonants. Okay. And we just did the first letter of each word. That's how we did it. We did the first letter, add it to the end, and add a Y. But when I looked it up online, it said it's the first two consonants. Is that how you guys do it?

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, what is an example of a word with two consonants?

[Angela Kinsey]

Thought. Ought.

[Jenna Fischer]

They. How would you say ought?

[Angela Kinsey]

Okay, so my friends and I would say hot. Tay.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, that's so wrong. Did you guys know what you were saying? Did you guys understand each other? Did you struggle?

[Angela Kinsey]

No. We had a fine time. We were fine.

[Jenna Fischer]

It was even more secretive for you because other people could not understand your pig Latin.

[Angela Kinsey]

So how would you say they're air.

[Jenna Fischer]

They.

[Angela Kinsey]

Okay, so we would say hair day.

[Jenna Fischer]

Wow. Well, my friends and I, we actually, we spoke something called the ob language. It's called the ob language. My friend Sarah o' Halloran's mother taught her the ob language. So Sarah's name and ob would be Sabaraba. Abba. Haba. Loba. Robin.

[Angela Kinsey]

Stop it. Stop it.

[Jenna Fischer]

That was always my favorite thing to say.

[Angela Kinsey]

That's ridiculous.

[Jenna Fischer]

So you put an ab sound before every vowel sound that you hear. So a word like really is spelled R, E, A, but you don't put a before the E and before the A, you just put it before the vowel sound. So the word really would be rabba. Lobby, abba, kabba, rabbalabi, kabbalabaj, Aben mabe fraband, sabaraba, abba, haba laba, rabbin, aben kabag, sabig nabigabo, aben, abelaban, grabant, yabos, tabus babai, dabas, aban, habes gobble.

[Angela Kinsey]

Okay, this is ridiculous. And could your friend understand you and speak it back? And would you guys walk around talking like this?

[Jenna Fischer]

We were so cool. We were so cool.

[Angela Kinsey]

So would my name be ab. Ang Abaloba?

[Jenna Fischer]

No, your name would be Abala. Angela Abalad. Oh, my gosh. How do you say Angela Abraham. Angela, Aben, Jabba laba, Kaban sabi, Coban sabi.

[Angela Kinsey]

Is that Kinsey?

[Jenna Fischer]

My name is Jabba Naba. Faba Shabber.

[Angela Kinsey]

Oh, my God.

[Jenna Fischer]

All right, all right.

[Angela Kinsey]

Okay, okay. Where are we in this episode?

[Jenna Fischer]

All right, so I have a couple of fan questions from this scene with Jim and Andy. Are you ready? Okay, fan question from Sarah Hodges, Liz Franco, Rachel Hayes, and Donna Miller. Are any of the things that Pam hates, things that Jenna hates, too? They want to know, did I get to collaborate on what items Jim chose? No, I did not give any consultation on that list.

[Angela Kinsey]

Clearly, because you had no idea.

[Jenna Fischer]

I had no idea. I don't even know what Frosting Frisbee golf was a real thing that I hated it because I didn't know. And then also, we have a mystery. Many people wrote in about this mystery at 6 minutes and 50 seconds. Christopher Jake, Donna Miller again, Amy Cruz, and Chelsea K. All wrote in to say, it looks like there is a mini fireplace heater in the background on a desk over Jim's shoulder. What is it? Okay, there really does look. I don't know what it is, but I was mesmerized by it. Mesmerized. Guys, go to 6 minutes and 50 seconds. What is it?

[Angela Kinsey]

I'm writing this down on a note card because I want to go check it out.

[Jenna Fischer]

It looks like there is a little heater that has a light you know where. And then it blows the little, you know, thing to look like a flame. Yeah, it looks like it's sitting on that desk where Luann always used to sit.

[Angela Kinsey]

Oh, my God.

[Jenna Fischer]

Right in front of Toby's desk.

[Angela Kinsey]

One of the things that used to sit on Luann's desk was a little Zen garden. Do you remember And I wondered if.

[Jenna Fischer]

That'S what it was. I wondered if there was some light reflecting off of her Zen garden.

[Angela Kinsey]

It could be she had like a little sand and a rake.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

Okay, so at 7 minutes, 17 seconds, Michael does the thing that he does, you guys. He cannot hold on to information. You can't tell him anything. He won't be able to hold on to it. Much like how Michael had to announce to everyone that Oscar was gay. Michael now feels like he's helping. He thinks he's helping. He's just gonna say, hey, let's just come clean. And you know, he lets everyone know of Martin's past.

[Jenna Fischer]

It's an amazing scene because he walks over to Martin's desk and he's like, hey, I just wanted to come over and say, like, how are you settling in? And Martin's like, oh, yeah, thanks for coming over. I'm settling in fine. And then he immediately says, attention everyone. I just want you to know that Martin is an ex convict, but I trust him and you're not allowed to judge him. And the look on Wayne's face is so amazing because he's clearly like, I'm so sorry. I thought we were making small talk and now apparently we're making a grand announcement about my past.

[Angela Kinsey]

I mean, Wayne's reaction is so good, it's what sells it. And we asked him what it was like to do these scenes with Steve and do these big sort of bullpen scenes. And here's what he had to say.

[Sam]

The show at that time was getting hugely popular. Steve was a huge star, which was just wild because it was just Steve, you know, you're the guy from the FedEx commercials, aren't you? But yeah, I watched the show and I watched the British version as well. I was a big fan of the show. It was really quality work by all people in front and behind the camera. You could tell that you had this feeling it was going to be a historic show and it was going to be around for a long time. So it felt, felt really good to be, to be a part of it. But walking on set, everybody was so nice, so welcoming. Everybody knew what a great thing they had on their hands. That kind of improv is my favorite improv. That subtle, understated thing that's best done on camera. And everybody there was much so, so good at it and they were already becoming this well oiled machine. It was nice to sort of, to jump in and play. So, yeah, that's pretty great.

[Angela Kinsey]

I think that's true. You know, I really feel like, at this time on the show, we were just this machine. Like, the cast and the crew and the writers, we had really gelled. And as I rewatch it, I can feel that and I can see it.

[Jenna Fischer]

You know what I didn't know, Angela, was that Steve was in those FedEx commercials.

[Angela Kinsey]

Oh, yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

And I went and I Googled them, and there's like a ton. He was like, how? There's, like, a Verizon guy and then there's Flo from Progressive. Like, Steve was the FedEx guy.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

I did not know this.

[Angela Kinsey]

Are you serious?

[Jenna Fischer]

And I asked Sam to pull a clip.

[Jeff Blitz]

So the bundt cake was bad?

[Wayne Wilderson]

The Bundt cake was abysmal. But you're missing the point of the story. The entire staff has food poisoning, leaving packages to be shipped, deadlines to be met, and one sales manager to do it all.

[Jeff Blitz]

Just one?

[Angela Kinsey]

One.

[Wayne Wilderson]

He had the Danish stay with me. He jumps on FedEx.com, he's shipping, he's tracking, getting confirmations on his cell phone. He's pagers pda.

[Jenna Fischer]

He's got a pda.

[Wayne Wilderson]

Everybody's got a pda. Nevertheless, packages arrive. He triumphs over adversity.

[Jeff Blitz]

I don't pay.

[Jenna Fischer]

There you go.

[Angela Kinsey]

Well, wait. I have a piece of trivia about that specific FedEx ad that Sam just played. What I want you guys to know, Steve is saying that everyone in the office got food poisoning. The first person that runs to the bathroom to puke in this commercial is Eric Stonestreet.

[Jenna Fischer]

What? That's crazy.

[Angela Kinsey]

Extra in this commercial, and he's running to the bathroom to puke. Eric Stonestreet, who's on Modern Family, is in this commercial as a puking employee.

[Jenna Fischer]

I love that. Oh, my gosh. That's amazing. All right, so also in the scene after Michael announces to the entire office that Martin is an ex convict, he then challenges everyone to name a white man they trust and he will name a black man he trusts even more. So he's like, Pam, name a white man you trust. And she says, my dad. And he says Danny Glover. In the script, there is a Martin talking head. And I don't know if this is in the deleted scenes, Angela, but it made me laugh out loud. It was so funny. Martin says Michael's an all right guy. He told me he trusts me more than Kirsten Dunst. And no one's ever told me that before. I love that talking head so much. It is three sentences, but it is so rich with information. And was that in the deleted scenes? Can I see that talking head or no?

[Angela Kinsey]

No, it's not in the deleted scenes, and I'm really sad. There is a Martin talking head in the deleted scenes, and it's this one here. He says usually when people find out about the prison thing. Yeah. They get pretty weird.

[Jenna Fischer]

Mm, That's a good one.

[Angela Kinsey]

All right, Jenna, now we're in the break room, and we find out why Martin went to prison.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. Martin says, do you guys want to know what I was in for? And he explains that he went to prison for insider trading. Now we move into a Kevin talking head that I love. I laughed out loud, he says. I asked Martin to explain why he went to jail three times. Because it sounds a lot like what I do every day here at the office.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes, Jenna, there's a whole theory online that Dunder Mifflin is a front, like a money laundering front. Yes, there is. There is. And. And that, like, maybe, like, Kevin and I and the accountants are in on it. So here's a fan question from Thomas o'. Brien. He. He says that he knows about this theory, and the main reason for this is that Scranton consistently outperforms all the other branches, despite the rapidly decreasing paper market. And Thomas wants to know, what do we think about this theory? Do we think it has any merit that Dunder Mifflin is actually a front for money laundering?

[Jenna Fischer]

I would say no. I don't think it really is a front for money laundering. I mean, if that was part of the story, I believe Greg Daniels would have revealed that to us in the finale or somewhere in the last season. So. No, But I am curious. It does sound like Kevin is participating in some sort of something shady. Yeah, right. Because that's what it is. It's insider trading. It's not money laundering. Martin didn't go to prison for money laundering. He went to prison for insider trading.

[Angela Kinsey]

I know, but this is the theory online that Dunder Mifflin is a front for money laundering. And I'm gonna say. I could see it. Oh, no, I could see it. I could see it. Because if you were gonna have a money laundering front, by the way, I've also been watching a lot of Ozark, and that's all he does. If you watch Ozark, it's. He's has to launder money for the drug cartel. So I'm like, oh, my gosh. Yes. A paper company. And you have to. You have, like, all this inventory, and then you have sort of like a boss who's kind of incompetent, who might not catch everything. Right. I think I. I can see it. Thomas. I can see it.

[Jenna Fischer]

All right.

[Angela Kinsey]

But I'm also watching Ozark, so maybe that's informing me.

[Jenna Fischer]

All right, well, in this scene, Martin fields a lot of questions from all of us about what prison was like, and he gives a rather sort of rosy view of prison. He's like, oh, yeah, we had outside time. We got to watch tv. I got to take some classes. Pam's like, they had watercolor classes in prison.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

And then we're like, wow, Michael, it sounds like prison is better than Dunder Mifflin. We're kind of teasing Michael. Right. And then Michael is just very upset at this implication that Dunder Mifflin is worse than prison.

[Angela Kinsey]

What you have to remember is that everyone at Dunder Mifflin is Michael's family, and Dunder Mifflin is, like, his home away from home. So basically, his family has just told him that prison is better than home.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

Prison is better than this world that they've made together. And so Michael is really hurt. Michael had no issue with Martin until right now. And it's because, you know, somehow his employees, which are like his family, think that there's some other cooler place to be. And he's like, no, this is the best place to be. You guys, we have it amazing here. And he can't believe that they can't see Dunder Mifflin the way he.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, I asked Wayne what it was like to shoot that break room scene, because here he was. He was a guest star, and he had to really drive that scene, you know?

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

And I mean, I remember what it was like to be a guest actor on shows and how intimidating something like that could be. And so I just wanted to hear what was it like to do this scene from his perspective. Here's what he had to say.

[Sam]

Coming to work on your guys. Awesome show. It wasn't. Even though the show was so huge, it wasn't intimidating just because everybody was having, like, Christmas morning fun. Like, they couldn't believe their good fortune. They couldn't believe the people they got to work with, both in front and behind the camera, and they couldn't believe how funny the writing was.

[Jenna Fischer]

So.

[Sam]

That scene was. I loved that scene. I love sort of being the. The fish out of water, getting into the water so everybody can get out of the pool, if that makes any sense. I don't really know what I'm talking about, but, yeah, it was a. It was an easy environment to do your best work. So, yeah, that's. I knew that day, like, oh, gotta redo my reel. Because that's the shizzle.

[Jenna Fischer]

I thought that was the sweetest response.

[Angela Kinsey]

All right, Jenna, I have something to say to you. What? Pamelama. Ding dong.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, boy. Yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

So it's 10 minutes, 38 seconds and Andy is hitting on Pam in all the wrong ways.

[Jenna Fischer]

No. And the look on Jim's face, it says it all. This is a great prank. It's going great. And then we have the talking head from Pam where she's like, that was. Wow. So she loves this prank. She's into it.

[Angela Kinsey]

Well, she's impressed at Jim's ability to prank her in this way. I think she's like, wow, I see where you're going now, Jenna. There is a deleted scene where Pam gets him back.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. That is in the script. This is a portion of this story that got cut out. There's a bit of a prank war that happens, right?

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. Yeah. So Pam gives Andy all this information about all these things that would. Would just be a horrible night out for Jim. Like drinking White Russians, like just going out.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. Going to this German restaurant.

[Angela Kinsey]

She basically is like, you know what, Andy? Um, I'm not available. But Jim would love to hang out. He would love a buddy.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

And so Andy's like, what are you doing tonight? We're going out. And Jim's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait. So she does get him back.

[Jenna Fischer]

She does. But that did not end up in the episode, which I think is a little bit unfortunate because later when Jim is going to suggest to Andy that he go get his banjo and sing in a high falsetto. That was actually in response to. To Pam's prank on Jim.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

So that was like Jim one upping her.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

But instead it sort of seems like this one sided prank. But in the script it was actually both of them doing it to each other.

[Angela Kinsey]

The two sided.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. Well, we had a fan question during this talking head. Angela. A lot of people wrote in Emily Soto, Tori Quill, Angela C. Harshita V and Monica Jacks all said, is the necklace that Pam wears a horse or a unicorn? Do we know its significance? And do Pam's necklaces represent different periods in her life? Well, guys, it is a unicorn. And Pam used to wear a little heart necklace, but it was a gift from Roy. And so when they broke up, she took it off. And with the wardrobe department, we picked a new necklace for Pam. And this is what we picked.

[Angela Kinsey]

Now I am curious. I did a deep dive on unicorns. Of course you did. I'm sure my search history on my computer is like irs, United States Department of Labor. Unicorn. Unicorn. Unicorn. Okay, why did you guys pick it? And then I'm going to tell you what I found on the Internet.

[Jenna Fischer]

We just liked how it looked.

[Angela Kinsey]

Okay, you just liked.

[Jenna Fischer]

We did not assign a particular significance to the fact that it was a unicorn.

[Angela Kinsey]

Okay, well, lady unicorns have been depicted in ancient seals that go back as far as the Bronze Age, the ancient Greeks. Unicorns are mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible as a symbol of strength. Yes.

[Jenna Fischer]

Unicorns go back to the Bible.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes. The unicorn is mentioned in the Bible several times. The first verse I found was in Numbers 23:22. God brought them out of Egypt. He hath, as it were, the strength of a unicorn. I mean, okay, so the unicorn symbol has been around for a long time. It's been associated with strength, fantasy, rarity, purity. It is Scotland's national animal. What? Yeah, when I was in Scotland, like, you would see it in places like you go into Edinburgh Castle and it's in the crest. You know, there's also another meaning for unicorn. You might want to take a minute and put some earmuffs on your kids ears. The unicorn is also known as the third woman of a threesome.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh.

[Angela Kinsey]

It's called a unicorn. Which I probably jumped too far on this. But you have Jim, you have Karen, you have Pam. Wow. Is Pam the unicorn? I don't know. I don't know.

[Jenna Fischer]

Okay, I need to reach out to Carrie Bennet in wardrobe and ask her if this unicorn pendant was as arbitrary as I thought it was. Because I like both of your explanations of unicorn. When you were describing the significance of unicorn, I'm like, yeah, strength, change, perseverance. I'm into it. Right. And. But then your third woman thing. I don't know.

[Angela Kinsey]

I am just saying. I'm just saying it could be.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, listen, lady, on that note, I think we should take a break and then we will come back and see some of the changes that Michael has instituted at Dunder Mifflin to make life more like prison.

[Angela Kinsey]

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[Jenna Fischer]

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[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah, well, merit helps you simplify what it takes to get ready.

[Jenna Fischer]

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[Angela Kinsey]

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[Jenna Fischer]

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[Angela Kinsey]

Okay, okay, I'm listening, Merit. I am listening.

[Jenna Fischer]

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[Angela Kinsey]

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[Jenna Fischer]

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[Angela Kinsey]

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[Jenna Fischer]

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[Angela Kinsey]

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[Jenna Fischer]

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[Angela Kinsey]

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[Jenna Fischer]

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[Angela Kinsey]

I do. I have a little coffee shop by me that's owned by a mother and son. It's not a chain, it's just their little spot. I go there every week.

[Jenna Fischer]

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[Angela Kinsey]

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[Jenna Fischer]

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[Angela Kinsey]

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[Jenna Fischer]

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[Angela Kinsey]

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[Jenna Fischer]

All right, so we are back. Michael announces to the group that he is, quote, instituting some changes to make this more like prison, starting with one hour of Outdoor Time. So he makes everyone go down to the parking lot.

[Angela Kinsey]

They're all freezing. One of my favorite things about this scene is that he has two and a half pound weights in his trunk.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah, well, he's not trying to bulk up.

[Angela Kinsey]

No, no. He just wants to tone.

[Jenna Fischer]

We had a fan question from Cali, Corinne and Bernadette. When you guys were bundled up and went outside for rec time in the parking lot, was it actually cold out? No, it was not cold at all. I looked it up. We shot this the week of October 2nd. But October is hot in Los Angeles, you guys. It stays really warm.

[Angela Kinsey]

Every October, I get suckered in to try to recreate, like, a fall woodland scene to my front yard. Like, I buy all these pumpkins. I have, like, an autumn wreath. I do this whole thing. And every year, my pumpkins, like, explode from the heat and turn to mush. And I have to, like, shovel them off the porch. Cause they're so flattened.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah, it was not cold, but I felt like we did a wonderful job of making ourselves look cold. We did great. I was like, hey. And they put all the ice on the ground and on the cars.

[Angela Kinsey]

Look at us acting and we look cold. We sold it.

[Jenna Fischer]

We did. All right. So then we go inside to the break room where Michael is setting up a very sort of grainy television set for Kevin to watch.

[Angela Kinsey]

And Martin shares with him that the TV in prison was a lot bigger.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, we had a fan question from Graciella, Sydney, Joe, Brooke, and Leah. Was the weather forecast that Michael plays on the TV an actual weather forecast from a Scranton newsroom, or was it an actor? I don't know.

[Angela Kinsey]

Well, lady, I looked this up on the Internet and Dunderpedia, if you are correct, you say that it is the actual Scranton weather, that it is the NBC weather station. It's W, B R, E, N, B, C. And that that weather guy is Josh Hodel. Oh, so is that true? Josh Hodel, Is that you?

[Jenna Fischer]

You know what? That tracks for me? I feel like we would have that detail.

[Angela Kinsey]

I feel like we would. I feel like Phil Shea would have been all over that.

[Jenna Fischer]

Just like all of our.

[Angela Kinsey]

All of our menus were local Scranton restaurants, things like that. I feel like Phil Shea would have been on that.

[Jenna Fischer]

I agree. So now should we talk a little bit about how this prank is going? We mentioned it before. Andy is at Jim's desk, and Jim's suggesting that he play, you know, the banjo for her and asks if he can sing in a high falsetto.

[Angela Kinsey]

And he's like, you know, I can.

[Jenna Fischer]

I loved it. It's so funny.

[Angela Kinsey]

Ed is having so much fun in that moment that I loved watching Ed get to do that.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, what we didn't talk about is that Karen comes up.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

And she's like, what are you guys doing? What? I want in.

[Angela Kinsey]

I want to play.

[Jenna Fischer]

I'll be part of the prank. And wishy washy Jim shows up. He's like.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah, because he's caught now. He's caught now. And now if he had to explain this and who she was to him and all their pranking that they did together, now there's accountability. And now he's backpedaling.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah, exactly. All right, Angela, should we go into the break room so that we can meet one of the most famous characters from the office?

[Angela Kinsey]

This character is so famous. I mean, Jenna, I love roller skating. Stay with me here.

[Jenna Fischer]

All right.

[Angela Kinsey]

And I have found a community of people who love to roller skate online on Instagram. And I was just sent. This gal won a roller skating competition dressed as Prison Mike. It's, like, amazing.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, my gosh.

[Angela Kinsey]

I know. It's amazing. I might have to post it.

[Jenna Fischer]

It's so good.

[Angela Kinsey]

I put it in my Insta story, but she is phenomenal. But this character. People love Prison Mike. They love Prison Mike. Jenna, I found the origin story for Prison Mike.

[Jenna Fischer]

What?

[Angela Kinsey]

It's in the deleted scenes. I have to read this to you guys. It made everything make so much sense for me.

[Jenna Fischer]

All right.

[Angela Kinsey]

Okay. Hang with me. As I get my notes, Michael Scott has a talking head that's in the deleted scenes. Listen to this.

[Jenna Fischer]

All right.

[Angela Kinsey]

He says, when I was just a little kid, we had an assembly at school where a giant owl came out and gave a very impassioned speech about giving hoots and not polluting. And you know what? I never polluted again. It was right then when I realized the power of saying things as a character. People listen to you when you are wearing an elaborate costume or speaking in a voice that is not yours.

[Jenna Fischer]

I can't even speak. I. Wow.

[Angela Kinsey]

Michael thinks since he was a little boy, that the way you get people to listen to you and make changes as if you are a Character. That's how they listen to you.

[Jenna Fischer]

I am so sad that this was deleted because not only does it speak to Prison Mike, it speaks to every character Michael has ever done or ever.

[Angela Kinsey]

Will do because a giant owl told him something and he paid attention. Okay.

[Jenna Fischer]

Wow.

[Angela Kinsey]

He goes on Jenna, there's another talking head where he says this isn't the first time he's done Prison Mic. He's what? Yeah, he's done Prison Mic before because he developed Prison Mic in improv class. And he said he was in improv class and he was doing a scene, and these two college kids, they just wouldn't stop talking. So I became Prison Mic and I turned to them and I said, hey, shut up or I'll stab you twos.

[Jenna Fischer]

Okay.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

Wow.

[Angela Kinsey]

Not only had he done this character before, but he does characters when he wants people to pay attention. This is huge information.

[Jenna Fischer]

Angela, I know who came up with the idea of Prison Mic in the writer's room. Who? All right, so this script was written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, but we've established before that after a script is written by the original writer writers, it always goes back to the writer's room for punch up and rewrites. And that scripts really are a kind of, like, collaborative effort. Right. So when I was watching this scene, I thought to myself, this sounds like BJ Novak to me.

[Angela Kinsey]

Was it?

[Jenna Fischer]

I texted bj. I was like, bj, I know that Steven and Ricky wrote this episode. Did you come up with Prison Mic? Cause I'm putting it on like you or maybe Mike Schur, but I think it's you. Here's what BJ told me. Well, in the lore of the writer's room, I get credit for Prison Mic, but it wasn't.

[Angela Kinsey]

By the way, I love the writers room has a lore. I want to know more about the writer's room lore.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, I'm paraphrasing. He did not say lore, but he basically said, I have been given. I have the reputation of having written Prison Mic Mic, but it actually wasn't me. So he said it was late one night and he was in Paul Lieberstein's office. It was him and Paul and Mindy, and they were tasked with having to punch up this scene in the conference room. The idea of the scene was that Michael was just going to convince us all that Dunder Mifflin was better than prison. But how? And he said that at the beginning of the meeting, Paul kind of offhandedly said, what if he plays a character, you know, like, I don't know, like, Prison Mike or something. But they quickly glossed over it, and they kept spitting out ideas and this and that and this and that. And then near the end of the meeting, BJ said something like, well, I really like this idea of him playing a character, Prison Mike. And that Mindy and Paul were like, prison Mike, that's a brilliant idea. And BJ was kind of like, well, I was really just giving you your own idea back. But somehow he gets credited with Prison Mic. But he said, I think I would give it to Paul Lieberstein. But it was the three of them together that then wrote those Prison Mic jokes.

[Angela Kinsey]

I love that. And I love that he had the crazy guys and Dolls like, yes, that's in the script. Oh, my gosh.

[Jenna Fischer]

We actually had a ton of fan questions about this because it's. It's such a good scene. So Kristen went, Jordan C, Gina D, Megan M, Mark M, and many more. Wanted to know, were any of Steve's lines as Prison Mic improvised? Yes, some, because I looked at the script. But, like, the main ones, the ones that you remember, like, about the gruel and the dementors, that was all in the script. That was all scripted. There's little moments, like, little things that Steve kind of added. But I would have to say, for the main points of Prison Mike are.

[Angela Kinsey]

Scripted, I feel like we can't do this episode without hearing a little bit of Prison Mike agree, Sam.

[Jenna Fischer]

I'm Prison Mike. You know why they call me Prison Mike?

[Angela Kinsey]

Do you really expect us to believe you're somebody else?

[Wayne Wilderson]

Do you really expect me to not.

[Jenna Fischer]

Push you up against the wall?

[Angela Kinsey]

Beyond. All right.

[Jenna Fischer]

Hey, hey, hey, hey.

[Wayne Wilderson]

That's just the way we talk in the clink.

[Jenna Fischer]

Amazing. Tanks.

[Angela Kinsey]

Tanks. Tanks. Guys, I wrote about this scene in my journal, and I have to tell you guys what I wrote. Oh, my gosh. This is kind of a big thing, Jenna, Because I said in the conference room scene, when Steve became Prison Mic, the first time he turned around with that bandana on in his crazy Guys and Dolls accent, we all lost it, even Steve, which never happens because it was so ridiculous. We all cracked up. And then I said, but if you watch really closely, you can see John and Phyllis are barely holding it together. And if you go to 16 minutes, 3 seconds, you can see John breaking.

[Jenna Fischer]

I feel like all of us are near breaking through this whole scene. We emailed Jeff Blitz about this, and we were trading messages about this scene, and I said to him, my memory of this was that we were in this conference room doing Prison Mic for, like, three days. I'm sure it wasn't that long, but we spent a long time on it. He sent in this audio clip about it.

[Jeff Blitz]

I think for scenes like this, that the goal of it, for me, anyway, as you guys well know, I wasn't trying to do it with the most speed. I'm picturing you guys are laughing right now. Yeah. I know that for scenes like this, there's a way to get through it where the whole of the scene gets really boiled down. But something like this, it felt like it needed to. It just intuitively felt like that if I could give Steve more of a run at it, that the whole thought of the scene was just gonna come through. So, yes, I know. I know for the cast that it was a slog. I know the way I did it was a slog. And yet, man, I love this scene. I do. I just do. I love it.

[Angela Kinsey]

Well, we were all breaking. Wayne emailed us, Jenna, that he broke in this scene as well. And we asked him what some of his favorite moments were, and here's what he had to say.

[Sam]

There were a lot of really great favorite moments shooting that episode, the convict, and shooting the one before that, the merger. The. The moment with Stanley was great, but the one I remember most is obviously, the whole prison mic thing was hilarious. And take after take, you know, it was so very hard to not break while Steve was doing prison mic. And we broke a lot. And in that conference room, it was pretty hot. I remember. Had to get wiped down for sweat a lot. But there's one moment towards the end of his prison mic routine, and they use this particular take in the episode, I believe, where he goes, thanks for letting me be a part of your.

[Angela Kinsey]

Life, because you got a good life.

[Sam]

You got a good life. And that was the first time he had done the second. You got a good life. And the camera is behind me, and you can see my cheeks bulge because I'm about to explode with laughter and don't want to ruin the take. But that whole. That whole day in the conference room with Prison Mike was pretty special, I have to say.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. And by the way, I looked at that moment he's talking about, and you totally can see him smiling. It's like, on the back of his head, and, you know, he's smiling.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

Like, it's one of those. That's how funny the scene was to us when we were shooting it.

[Angela Kinsey]

I rewatched that with him in mind as well, and just. You got a good life. Just, like, made me laugh. So Hard. It did really make me laugh that he remembered how hot the conference room was. Yes. Because Jenna, the guys hated the conference room because they would get so hot. It was the one place where my body temperature actually felt okay.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes, same. That was something about conference room scenes that I loved. I knew I wasn't going to be cold.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes. We knew we wouldn't freeze to death. But meanwhile, the guys were like a sweaty mess. So that made me laugh.

[Jenna Fischer]

We had a fan catch in this scene as well from Allison Kamada. She says around 14 minutes and 23 seconds when everyone's in the conference room. I saw, like, someone's knee in a pair of shorts and boots. Was this the camera operator? Yes.

[Angela Kinsey]

Who?

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

Randall or Matt?

[Jenna Fischer]

I think it was Randall. So it's right after prison Mike asks you, Angela, if he. If you really expect him not to push you up against the wall. That clip we played.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

The camera widens out to show the whole group sort of being like, hey, whoa, whoa, whoa.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

If you look in the far right corner, I think you can see Randall's knee. Oh, I think he's, like, perched in the corner there. And he's got his camera on Steve.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

And then Matt probably had his camera on you and the group.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes. Because Matt would get reactions and Randall would have Steve and. Yes, you are right. I bet it's Randall's knee. That's a great catch.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah, I thought so, too. I thought so, too. So the group is not sort of giving Michael what he wants.

[Angela Kinsey]

No, he's.

[Jenna Fischer]

So he resorts to locking them in the conference room. He's like, if you want to feel what it feels like to be imprisoned, here you go. And he walks out of the conference room. Now, here's a little something that is such a faky fake lock on the door. Did not lock at all. I don't even think it shut very well. I also think that if you look at it, you can see that, like, Steve is doing a bit of sleight of hand. I don't even think the key goes in the keyhole. I don't think that that keyhole has always been there. Well, now I can't be sure because I know that Jim locks Dwight in there.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes, Jim. It's not the first time someone's been locked in there. Dwight was locked in there.

[Jenna Fischer]

But in that one. Again, I meant to point out that it looks like there's nowhere to lock anyone in.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

There's no keyhole. I see no possible way that Jim actually locked him in there. It looks. It's all very fakey. Fake sleight of hand.

[Angela Kinsey]

All right, where are we? Where are we? We're locked in the conference room. Pam calls Toby.

[Jenna Fischer]

Pam called Toby. And Toby explains to Michael. Michael, they're just teasing you. Of course they know that prison is worse than Dunder Mifflin. The look on his face when he realizes he's being teased. He, like, he immediately forgives everyone. And he's just so delighted to be part of a joke.

[Angela Kinsey]

Exactly. He's like, oh, they do get it. They do like it here. They do like me. They are happy here. It's a joke. Oh, I get it now. So now Michael has a talking head, and he explains that Martin has quit. And, Jenna, do you blame him? I mean, no, I don't blame him. Like, how do you work there now? And also, you have to remember, this fulfills a story arc for the show that each week a Stanford employee is.

[Jenna Fischer]

Going to go, yeah, well, I noticed something. When Martin is leaving, he's getting into the elevator, and you see him. He's carrying his box of things. Meredith is walking out of the elevator back into the office. And that made me realize, wait a second. She was not in the prison mic scenes in the conference room.

[Angela Kinsey]

No.

[Jenna Fischer]

And then we got a fan question from Joy Morin that says, wait, where was Meredith all this time? Is there a deleted scene that explains why she's so late to work? Angela, please help me and Joy out.

[Angela Kinsey]

All right, ladies. There is a whole runner in the deleted scenes, and it explains all of this. So Meredith says that her car's in the shop and she needs a ride to go get it. And Martin offers to give her a ride. Dwight and Angela, because they are so suspicious of Martin and why he went to prison, they have this whole, like, sort of like, I don't know, like, they're detectives on the case. They have a whole runner as well. But Meredith goes to get her car out of the shop. So that's where Meredith is.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. I feel. I feel bad for Kate that she wasn't in the car.

[Angela Kinsey]

I know. That's what I thought, too, Jenna. I was like, oh, my gosh, Kate didn't get to sit in there and have to bite the inside of her mouth. So she didn't laugh out loud at prison Mike.

[Jenna Fischer]

I thought the same thing.

[Angela Kinsey]

Cause you got a good life.

[Jenna Fischer]

You got a good life. All right, so now we have the final scene. Andy is playing the banjo for Pam and singing Rainbow Connection in a high falsetto. A lot of people wrote in about this scene.

[Angela Kinsey]

Let's hear it. What'd they say?

[Jenna Fischer]

Okay, Leslie G. Ashley G, Ava H, Alyssa C. And Carrie C all said. Jenna, how did you get through that scene at the end when Ed is singing to you? Did you ever break and laugh? Yes, like a million times. But I have to say something. I love the banjo.

[Angela Kinsey]

I love the banjo. And you and I, Jenna, have talked about this a lot. And we've told Ed that some of our fondest memories on set with him are when he would get out the banjo and Creed would get out his mandolin and they would play.

[Jenna Fischer]

I did not want this scene to end. Yeah, this was very funny. As Jenna, I had to love a part prank and hate the banjo. But in real life, I hate a prank and I love the banjo. So I loved doing this scene and I didn't want it to end. And we filmed it at the end of. I think we filmed it at the end of the week. And so it was again, one of those scenes where there weren't many people around. It was just a few of us. And it always felt like you could take all the time in the world when that was the case. No one was waiting on you. And that's one of my fondest memories, is doing that scene with Ed. I loved it.

[Angela Kinsey]

So we asked Jeff Blitz what it was like to shoot this scene, and this is what he had to say.

[Jeff Blitz]

So that final scene, that song, I love that too. I loved it so much. I love that. For Andy, it's so sweet, and for Pam, it's so bad, but it's so sweet also. I don't know. Boy, you know, I will say about it, though, I think it was about trying to figure out to what extent should it be such the funnier the song is. The. It just means that Andy's sense of himself in the world is changed by that. So I do think there was a lot of talk about. About it there, you know.

[Jenna Fischer]

So, Angela, something that I noticed in the script about this scene is that Jim is not in that scene. It's just in the script, Andy playing the banjo for Pam. And it's so beautiful the way it is now, right, that you have this rack focus from Pam looking to Jim and then Jim looking to camera. It's perfect. And I asked Jeff about it and he said, yeah, that was his idea to add Jim at the end. He actually said that he forgot to tell everybody that that was his idea. And on the day they had, like, started to send John home and they had to, like, get him back, call him back. Yeah, they had to be like. He said it was a little bit of a mess with his schedule. Here's what he said. He said, I really do love revealing Jim there, enjoying the lunacy of what he's put Pam through. And in a weird way, even though it's heavily ironic and played off as a joke, this is the closest Jim can come in that moment to serenading Pam himself.

[Angela Kinsey]

Aw.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

Well, yeah, to me, that moment doesn't work without Jim there, because that final moment is him and Pam getting to flirt and have a connection. They just now have to do it through a conduit. Like, once again, they can't communicate to one another because there's other people in the way, so they have to find ways around it.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah, that was all Jeff Blitz.

[Angela Kinsey]

I love all of these audio clips, Jenna, that Jeff gave us and Wayne, and they really just open up the episode for me so much. And I don't know if you guys heard this, and it's something Jeff will go on to talk about, but Jeff.

[Jenna Fischer]

Has a stutter, and he was a little nervous about making the audio clips. Then he actually sent in this audio clip that we want to play for you about how he felt like his stutter was an advantage to him.

[Angela Kinsey]

Here, listen to what he has to say.

[Jeff Blitz]

As a side note, I want to say this, that the stuttering thing, which I'm sure that is coming through loud and clear for some of this stuff, it is part. When I started working with you guys, I was so scared that the stuttering was going to make it such that when I wanted to share notes with you, that I would. That the amount of time it would take to do it, and then I'd be embarrassed and all that stuff. But anyway, I do think it inspired something where, like, rather than shout notes out to the cast, that I would go. And that for me, it. For me, it just. It felt like a better thing to not do that. And so I think it turned into something where the note had, like, a thoughtfulness to it, and I could talk to people about it, and it felt like I could spin it in a way that it made that, for me, anyway, feel like a good thing. It's not as good on a podcast. I'm sorry. But anyway, yeah, just wanted to say that.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, it's interesting, Angela, because my memories of working with Jeff are of close, intimate conversations that were very connected. And so I never found his stutter to get in the way of connecting with him. In fact, I think he's right. I think it actually created a deep, deeper connection because we had these one on one conversations.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

My memories of being around Jeff are of these quiet, intimate conversations coupled with laughing harder than I've ever laughed.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes. Yeah, I absolutely agree with that. And that's why I cannot wait to tell the story of Save Bandit with Jeff. Because it was me and Jeff and Kent and Greg on set that day when we rehearsed it getting the cat in the ceiling. I'm not going to get into it, but let me tell you, I am living for that podcast because I want all of them, I want us all to retell the story.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, my gosh. We should get all you guys to come together and we should do a special Save Bandit where everyone speaks their memories of that scene.

[Angela Kinsey]

A safe Bandit deep dive. Yes.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. I love that. Well, guys, we also have a final audio clip from Wayne Wilderson. He's just letting us know a few of the things he's doing now and where you can find him.

[Sam]

Well, I did upload on Amazon prime with Greg Daniels. I know they've been picked up for a second season, so hopefully we'll be seeing me back on that. You can go find reruns of work I did with another Office alum, Randall Einhorn, where I played the principal on the Mick. And yeah. Oh, where can you find me? On Twitter, I'm Wayne Wilderson. One word. On Facebook, I'm Wayne Wilderson, one word. And on Instagram, I'm Wayne Wilderson. That's one word. You guys. Miss you. Thank you so much for letting me come on your awesome podcast. It's been a lot of fun. All right, later.

[Angela Kinsey]

He makes me laugh.

[Jenna Fischer]

The way he was setting that up, I thought he was going to say something different for his Instagram, but I know his Instagram is Wayne Wilderson, one word. And yeah, anyway, by the way, it's not Wayne Wilderson one word. It's just Wayne Wilderson.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah, one word. Exactly. It is his name combined, guys. And you can find Jeff Blitz on Twitter at Jeffrey Blitz.

[Jenna Fischer]

Jeff. Wayne. Thank you so much, guys. That was the convict.

[Angela Kinsey]

That was the convict. Thank you so much for listening and sending in your questions. We will see you next week with part one if Benihana Christmas.

[Jenna Fischer]

It's Christmas already and it's going to.

[Angela Kinsey]

Be a two parter and we have guests.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, we're excited. See you next week.

[Angela Kinsey]

Bye.

[Jenna Fischer]

Thank you for listening to Office Lady's second drink.

[Angela Kinsey]

This episode was initially created in collaboration with Earwolf.

[Jenna Fischer]

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

[Angela Kinsey]

Our executive producer is Cassie Jurkins, and our audio engineer and associate producer is Molly Nugent. Odyssey's executive producer is Leah Rent Reese Dennis.

[Jenna Fischer]

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