Second Drink: Weight Loss, Part 2

Summary

Office Ladies: "Second Drink: Weight Loss, Part 2"

Date: March 23, 2026
Hosts: Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey
Episode Theme: A deep dive into The Office Season 5, Episode 2 (“Weight Loss, Part 2”), featuring behind-the-scenes stories, commentary, and fan questions—with special focus on the iconic Jim and Pam proposal.

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Main Theme & Purpose

This episode continues the breakdown of “Weight Loss,” the two-part Season 5 premiere of The Office. Jenna and Angela deliver a scene-by-scene recap, highlight behind-the-scenes details about filming, discuss evolving perceptions of beloved characters, share notable deleted scenes and fan observations, and—most memorably—offer a thorough deconstruction of Jim’s proposal to Pam.

This episode is especially engaging for fans interested in production trivia, character dynamics, and the enduring social discussion around the Jim & Pam relationship.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Changing Perceptions of Jim & Pam (02:09–04:52, 38:34–39:26)

• Jenna addresses ongoing debates about the romanticization of Jim's big gestures (like buying a house and starting a company without Pam's input).
  • “Some of the things that were seen as romantic 15 years ago, they hit a little different now.” — Jenna (02:34)
• Comparison to Skyler White (Breaking Bad), noting how female characters like Pam and Skyler bore disproportionate criticism for reasonable reactions to their partners' big actions.
• Jenna labels much of the backlash as sexism, observing that "Pam faced a lot of scrutiny as a character, I think, because she was a woman" (39:16).

2. Notable Deleted Scenes and Details (04:52–07:22, 22:10–23:52)

• Ryan’s Return:
  • Ryan is dropped off by his mother and starts over in Scranton, highlighting his downfall (22:10).
  • Deleted scenes feature Ryan keeping a "revenge list" against coworkers who wronged him, echoing Arya Stark from Game of Thrones.
• Kelly's Nameplate:
  • Fan Megan M. points out that Kelly’s desk plate is different from the Christmas episode—proving the show’s prop continuity is more nuanced than it seems (07:04).
• Michael’s Loyalty:
  • “He can't talk to clients. He can't sell. If he so much as sniffs whiteout, it's on you.” — David Wallace (Paul Feig as David Wallace, 05:51).
  • Michael’s absurd devotion to Ryan shines in deleted content.

3. The Role of Paul Feig in Season 5 (08:49–14:03)

• Fast Fact: Paul Feig directed “Weight Loss, Part 2” and stepped in as supervising director and co-executive producer for all of Season 5.
• Feig’s job: Act as “tastemaker”—ensuring directors and cast kept a consistent vision and style.
• “He was like the man of the ship. He was, like, guiding us along the way. Having him on set always just made me feel better.” — Angela (09:04)
• Feig shares fond memories via audio clip and plans to contribute more stories throughout the season (13:24).

4. Filming & Production Insights

The Art School & Props (14:03–16:54)

• All “New York” art school scenes filmed on USC’s campus in L.A.
• Fun Fact: The real Pratt Institute (where Pam ‘attends’) is famous for its population of “Pratt Cats,” which even have their own Instagram (15:31).

Guest Star Highlight: Rich Sommer as Alex (16:03–16:52)

• Longtime friend of the hosts and Office-connected actor, Sommer plays Pam’s art friend, stirring drama among ‘shippers’.

Set and VFX: Rain, Rotten Fruit, and More (29:19–37:40, 44:11–45:32)

• Rotten Fruit and Fruit Flies: Meticulous setup for the two-second fruit-fly gag, including coordinating real, sterile fruit flies’ breeding cycle and fruit’s decay stages (29:33–31:35).
• Rain Effects:
  • Rain in week seven was all practical, not digital—using rain panels and recirculated water (44:22–45:16).
  • Jenna: “They wanted to establish this big rainstorm outside... and you're gonna see it in the backdrop of several scenes.” (44:16)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Jenna (on the Jim-Pam debate):
  “When you say that out loud, that's like, what? You took our savings? You got a job out of town?” (03:20)
• Paul Feig (about Season 5): “It was just fun to be with all these other people who were starting to direct and seeing how great they were doing… I got to see the show through a lot of fresh eyes.” (12:40)
• Angela (on the prop team’s dedication): “Phil Shea had to time out rotting fruit over the course of eight weeks… for this one gag that is, like, on camera for, like, two seconds.” (30:38)
• Phyllis (on herself): “She wonders what people would like about her. Probably her jugs, maybe.” (36:19)
• On Dwight’s shenanigans:
  “Dwight drives Phyllis to an abandoned warehouse five miles away and kicks her out of the car… he took her money and her phone, and so she had to walk back.” (33:01)

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Detailed Scene Recap & Behind-the-Scenes Stories

Jim and Pam's Proposal at the Gas Station (50:34–58:37)

• The Scene:
  • The couple meets halfway between Scranton and NYC at a highway rest stop—in the pouring rain. Jim (John Krasinski) proposes with no grand plan, simply because “I couldn’t wait.” (50:36)
  • Pam (Jenna Fischer) is surprised and delighted; the ring has been burning a hole in Jim’s pocket.
• Production Details:
  • Filmed in a Los Angeles Best Buy parking lot—set built from Google Street View images of a Merritt Parkway gas station (51:47).
  • Four-lane race track built for moving traffic using 35 precision drivers—cars and semis—at 55 mph for realism (51:58).
  • Rain created by massive rain machines, not CGI (57:47).
  • Digital effects painted in East Coast trees to mask California landscape.
  • Most expensive scene in The Office history: $250,000 for 52 seconds. (53:57)
  • Site was once a toxic waste dump: “Jim and Pam, our beloved jam, got engaged at a former toxic waste dump.” —Jenna (55:13)
  • Trivia: The drinks behind the gas station glass were a giant, realistic photo print. (55:54)
  • The final cut included audible dialogue after much debate about whether to run the scene silent or not. (56:03)

Other Key Storylines

• Ryan’s Apologies and Lists
  • Ryan returned as a temp (dropped off by mom!). He’s hostile, making a list of coworkers for revenge—like Arya Stark (“She kills everybody”) (24:13).
• Dwight & Phyllis Take a Walk
  • Dwight’s perceived motivational tactics get him in hot water; his “weight loss” scheme involves leaving Phyllis stranded (33:01).
• Andy & Angela’s Wedding Planning
  • Ongoing comedic preparations (including a wedding website, now archived) and Andy’s a cappella group “Here Comes Trouble” (48:17).

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Additional Fun Facts & Observations

• Kelly’s Desk Decor: Fans tracked prop changes in her famed nameplate (07:04).
• Pam’s ASCII Art: Real prop—Joya from NBC’s digital team provides the original, will be shared on social. (46:53–47:03)
• Hospital Scenes: Toby’s Costa Rica hospital sequence shot at USC; USC film students helped on set (60:43–61:01).
• Hidden Gags: Phyllis’ “probably her jugs” talking head (36:19), Creed’s “hell of an ass” compliment to Kelly (36:03), and Mindy Kaling breaking character (“covering her mouth so you can't see her starting to break”—35:47).

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Debate on Jim & Pam’s dynamic: 02:34–04:52, 38:34–39:26
• Paul Feig’s audio memories: 12:40–13:24
• Fruit fly breakdown: 29:33–31:35
• Phyllis’ walk and confrontation: 33:01–33:47
• Art school & proposal buildup: 40:46–53:46
• Proposal scene deconstruction: 50:34–58:37
• Wedding website secrets: 48:53–49:10
• Toby’s hospital scene & USC interns: 60:43–61:01

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Memorable Quotes (with timestamps)

• “It’s absolutely 100% sexism. Thank you so much for saying so.” — Tara’s fan letter, read by Jenna (02:09)
• “If he so much as sniffs whiteout, it’s on you.” — Paul Feig as David Wallace (05:51)
• “Phil Shea had to time out rotting fruit over the course of eight weeks…for this one gag” — Angela (30:38)
• “The single most expensive scene ever shot during the entire run of the show. It lasts 52 seconds, and it costs $250,000.” — Jenna (53:46)

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Closing Thoughts

Jenna and Angela wrap up with gratitude to fans and crew, noting this episode’s record-setting production values and meaningful place in Office history. Angela promises more rare props and web features will be shared on the Office Ladies socials.

“We hope you enjoyed this one and we are kicking off Season Five. We’ll be back for more next week.” —Angela (62:47)

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For fans and first-time listeners alike, this episode offers rich context, warmth, dry humor, and a celebration of what makes The Office so enduring—and why the Jim & Pam proposal became an iconic moment in TV romance.

Transcript

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[Angela Kinsey]

Welcome to your second drink of weight loss, part two. Jenna, you had a soapbox in this episode. We got this letter from Tara M. Jenna, I just wanted you to know that I was so so with you today on part two when you talked about all the hate Pam gets. It's absolutely 100% sexism. Thank you so much for saying so. I support you and love you both so much.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, thank you, Tara. I am aware that by soapbox from this episode created a lot of debate of people arguing back and forth, but I think I help some people see things in a new way. And now, you know, 15 years later, people are really seeing the Jim Pam situation a little differently. You know, some of the things that were seen as romantic 15 years ago, they hit a little different now. Like, maybe it's not so romantic to surprise your wife by buying a house. Maybe it's not neat to invest your savings and take a job out of town at a startup without telling her when you have two small kids whose care is all gonna fall to her.

[Angela Kinsey]

When you say that out loud, that's like, what? You took our savings? You got a job out of town?

[Jenna Fischer]

Like, we didn't tell her with, like, an insecure startup. And he doesn't tell her for weeks.

[Angela Kinsey]

I know.

[Jenna Fischer]

It's like Daryl has to convince him to be like, are you gonna tell Pam, like, we're leaving for Philly soon? Like, when are you gonna bring her in the loop? So I think it's hitting a little differently now with this younger generation that's watching the Office. And those folks are like, I think maybe Pam's right to be a little grumpy. Like, it's not unsupportive to be annoyed that your partner did something. But, yeah, when the episode first aired, I got a lot of for it. And it reminds me, too. I recently did a rewatch of Breaking Bad. Do you remember when Breaking Bad first came out? Anna Gunn, the actress who played Skyler White, you know, married to Walter White?

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

She got a lot of for, like, how hurt and upset she was that her husband was becoming a methamphetamine drug kingpin.

[Angela Kinsey]

She didn't have space in her heart for that.

[Jenna Fischer]

Like. And it's interesting because when I rewatched it, I was like, oh, my God. She was like. I thought her performance is just, like, spot on. Could you imagine? Could you imagine? But everybody was so dazzled by the charismatic Walter White. They were pissed that she wasn't more supportive.

[Angela Kinsey]

That's so wild. Okay, so I also talked about an amazing deleted scene with Ryan getting yelled at by David Wallace. David is so mad when he calls and Ryan answers the phone. You know, Ryan was stealing from the company. What the hell? Now he's answering the phones again. There's this great scene with Michael on the phone with David. And I brought it up in our breakdown. It's been added back to the superfan Episode. And I just wanted everyone to hear it.

[Paul Feig]

I want him out of the building now. Michael, the man stole from the company.

[Jenna Fischer]

Allegedly.

[Paul Feig]

No, not allegedly. As part of his plea, he admitted his guilt.

[Jenna Fischer]

Allegedly admitted his guilt.

[Paul Feig]

What?

[Jenna Fischer]

Listen, David, I know Ryan. He is good people. He made a huge, huge error. I just. I think he needs direction, that's all.

[Paul Feig]

I'm tired, Michael.

[Jenna Fischer]

Me too.

[Paul Feig]

Okay, you really want to go out

[Jenna Fischer]

on a limb for this guy?

[Paul Feig]

You really want to vouch for this?

[Jenna Fischer]

With all my heart, yes.

[Paul Feig]

Fine. He can't talk to clients. He can't sell. If he so much as sniffs whiteout, it's on you.

[Jenna Fischer]

Woo. On me? What do I have to do with it? I mean, this guy has a criminal record. I think that's a little excessive. He's like, whoa, wait, on me? Yes, Michael, you brought him back. Amazing.

[Angela Kinsey]

It's so good. And Andy Buckley's so great in that scene.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, listen, I have one last letter to share. It's from Megan M. Who says, hey, I found a little error. In the last Office Ladies episode, Jenna and Angela said that Kelly had the same nameplate that she was gifted in the Office Christmas party episode. But upon looking at it, it's a different plate. The one in the Christmas episode is purple with seven orange, blue and pink stemless daisy ish flowers. But the plate on her desk in this episode is different. It's metallic, and there are only two red flowers with stems. So it's a floral plate, but not the same one that was gifted to her in Christmas Party, huh? Well, lady, you know what?

[Angela Kinsey]

I did I side by side.

[Jenna Fischer]

You know I did. Look, there it is. It's different.

[Angela Kinsey]

Oh, my goodness, Megan, you're so right.

[Jenna Fischer]

Megan is right.

[Angela Kinsey]

Clearly there is a theme here, and that is fancy font with flowers, but they're totally different.

[Jenna Fischer]

Totally different. And Megan, thank you for giving me the opportunity to do a side by side, which, you know is one of my favorites things to do.

[Angela Kinsey]

All right, you guys, here is your second drink of weight loss part two.

[Jenna Fischer]

I'm Jenna Fisher.

[Angela Kinsey]

And I'm Angela Kinsey.

[Jenna Fischer]

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

[Angela Kinsey]

Each week, we will break down an episode of the Office and give exclusive behind the scenes stories that only two people who were there can tell you.

[Jenna Fischer]

We're the Office Ladies. Hey, gang. How's it going?

[Angela Kinsey]

Howdy.

[Jenna Fischer]

It is Weight loss part two, season five.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

This is the second part of our season five premiere. It was Written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky and directed by Paul Feig.

[Angela Kinsey]

Hit us with a summary.

[Jenna Fischer]

All right, well, you might remember last week we set up that Dunder Mifflin is doing a company wide weight loss contest. That contest continues. It's really causing some division among the employees.

[Angela Kinsey]

People are getting hangry.

[Jenna Fischer]

They are. Ryan returns to Scranton. He's a temp again. Michael hires him to fill in at reception for Pam, who is off at Pratt. She's, you know, doing art school now. Michael is very slowly still pursuing Holly. Dwight and Angela are continuing to hook up in the warehouse behind Andy's back. And Jim has an important question for Pam.

[Angela Kinsey]

The question.

[Jenna Fischer]

All right, fast fact number one. Paul Feig directed this episode. And he also had a much larger role overall in season five. Paul was with us for every single episode of season five.

[Angela Kinsey]

He was. And he was amazing. He was this great constant, like, I don't know. Jenna was like. He was like the man of the ship. He was, like, guiding us along the way. Having him on set always just made me feel better.

[Jenna Fischer]

I'm with you. I loved it. You remember last week we talked about how Greg Daniels was now working on both the Office and he was trying to get Parks and Rec off the ground. He had groomed Jen Salata and Paul Lieberstein to run the show. They were overseeing the writing of the show. They were running the writer's room. Well, Paul Feig was brought on as a supervising director and co executive producer to oversee the on set production and to oversee all of our directors, because we had a lot of new directors in season five, including some cast members and crew members and even some of our writers. They all directed their first episodes. Paul was also in the writers room a bit. But mostly he was like the tastemaker. Right. He was like one of these original visionaries.

[Angela Kinsey]

What is a taste maker?

[Jenna Fischer]

I mean, I don't know, but I think a tastemaker is like, you set the tastes of.

[Angela Kinsey]

Did you make up that word? No.

[Jenna Fischer]

Tastemaker is a real word.

[Angela Kinsey]

Well, maybe if you're, like running a

[Jenna Fischer]

winery, but you can be like, a tastemaker. Like is the same as like.

[Angela Kinsey]

I think you made it up.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, I didn't. You can Google it. I can't believe you're getting out your phone right now to Google it. This is unbelievable. Tastemaker is a real word.

[Angela Kinsey]

It's like a trendsetter.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. Thank you, Sam. It's like a trendsetter. Okay.

[Angela Kinsey]

Tastemaker.

[Jenna Fischer]

Okay.

[Angela Kinsey]

According to the English language learner's definition, a person whose judgment about what is good, fashionable, etc. Are accepted and followed by many other people.

[Jenna Fischer]

That's right.

[Angela Kinsey]

He was a taste maker.

[Jenna Fischer]

He was a tastemaker. He was. It was his job to control the quality of the show. You know, he said yes to jokes and no to other jokes because of his good taste.

[Angela Kinsey]

I know. This is getting us off so early. I really want to know the origin of this word. Like, where did the word tastemaker come from? Was that the person that, like, tried the food for the king and if he didn't die, okay, fine. We'll all eat what that guy had.

[Jenna Fischer]

I don't know, but I think you should deep dive it for a revisit, Angela. I do.

[Angela Kinsey]

Okay. Paul Feig was the tastemaker.

[Jenna Fischer]

Wow. You know what just happened there, Angela? What? You just got real hot and bothered with me.

[Angela Kinsey]

I did not.

[Jenna Fischer]

You did.

[Angela Kinsey]

That is not hot and bothered. That is perplexed and curious. And you were right there.

[Jenna Fischer]

You were real.

[Angela Kinsey]

You were right.

[Jenna Fischer]

You were real.

[Angela Kinsey]

You were right.

[Jenna Fischer]

You were real hot. To trot.

[Angela Kinsey]

That means wanting sex. I know what that means now.

[Jenna Fischer]

All right, well, listen, I talked to Greg Daniels about it, and he said that this was a big push that he had to make with the network. In particular, Jerry DiCaneo, the head of production at Universal, because our show had been functioning just fine without someone in this role before. But Greg explained he was often called down to set to discuss the shooting or the motivations with the actors and directors, and he wanted to make sure that that would still be covered while he was gone. And they eventually agreed. And I traded some messages with Paul Feig about this, too, and he even sent in an audio clip.

[Angela Kinsey]

Ooh, Paul Feig, all the way from London. Yep.

[Paul Feig]

It was such a fun year because, you know, to be around you guys and the cast every day and to be in that writers room with that amazing group of writer was just such a special opportunity. Yeah, I got to direct a lot of episodes that season, but also, it was just fun to kind of be with all these other people who were starting to direct and seeing how great they were doing. It was so fun to be with Steve when he directed his first episode. And Brent Forrester did a great job, and Dave Rogers. We had so much fun. And so that was kind of my experience of the fifth season was being around everybody so much, but also just kind of getting to see the show through a lot of fresh eyes of these new directors or people coming on and doing it for the first time.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, I want to say that Paul also Directed five episodes himself this season. And when we were trading messages, Angela, he said he loved his time on season five so much that he wanted to send us audio clips for every single episode of season five.

[Angela Kinsey]

Get out of his memory Polypedia.

[Jenna Fischer]

I was like, paul, you're busy. You're directing a movie right now in London. I mean, you don't have to do that. And he said, well, I'll do as many as I can. So, guys, get ready.

[Angela Kinsey]

Get ready for. Should it be Figopedia or Paulipedia?

[Jenna Fischer]

Paul Figopedia.

[Angela Kinsey]

Paul Figopedia.

[Jenna Fischer]

All right, fast fact number two is an art school location breakdown. We didn't do this last week. We're gonna see more of art school this week, so I thought it was appropriate. Okay, fan question from Yvette and Rachel. Where were the New York City art school scenes shot? I will tell you. Everything was shot at usc, the University of Southern California. The classrooms were empty. Classrooms on campus that our set decorators dressed. Even the dorm room was a USC dorm room. The hallways, when Jim's watching TV in the common room. We were basically all on campus. The only thing we didn't shoot on campus and we talked about this last week was when Jim and Pam are video chatting. They recreated my dorm room on that warehouse set of Dunder Mifflin.

[Angela Kinsey]

Well, I have one other thing to share about the USC campus, but I am going to save it when it comes up in the episode.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, all right. I have one fun thing to share about the real Pratt, which is in Brooklyn. That's where Pam's meant to be. We got a letter from Mila S, who is a student at Pratt, and she said this. There is a communal cat population living on campus called Prat Cats. They have their own little houses, and they wander the lecture halls and the campus freely. If you're ever in New York, I highly recommend you visit the campus. Along with its sculptures and cats roaming the grounds. Angela. The cats even have their own Instagram page, and it's called Prat Cats.

[Angela Kinsey]

Pratt Cats. That's so cute.

[Jenna Fischer]

Two T's for Pratt and two T's for Cats.

[Angela Kinsey]

Prat Cats.

[Jenna Fischer]

Prat Cats. I looked at it. It's just a lot of super cute pictures of cats.

[Angela Kinsey]

I want to see it. Oh, my gosh, there's so many.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

I wonder who does the Instagram. There's so many cats.

[Jenna Fischer]

I think we should put this on our list.

[Angela Kinsey]

We should.

[Jenna Fischer]

All right, fast fact number three. We've got a big guest star alert. It's Rich Summer as Pam's art school friend, Alex.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes. And we are friends with Rich.

[Jenna Fischer]

We're like really good friends with Rich.

[Angela Kinsey]

He needs to come on.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, he's refused.

[Angela Kinsey]

No, he has. Not kidding.

[Jenna Fischer]

We are gonna have him on you guys. Rich is probably most well known for his role as Harry Crane on Mad Men, but he's also acted in such shows as Wet Hot American Summer, the TV series, as well as many movies with office connections.

[Angela Kinsey]

Oh, yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

He was in the Devil Wears Prada starring Emily Blunt. He was in Celeste and Jessie Forever starring Rashida Jones. And he was in the Giant Mechanical man starring me.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yay.

[Jenna Fischer]

He is also supposedly real life friends with Nicholas DeGosto, aka Hunter. We're going to have to ask him about that when he comes on the show.

[Angela Kinsey]

Oh yeah, we have lots to ask him.

[Jenna Fischer]

We do.

[Angela Kinsey]

Jenna, as you remember from last week, there is a fantastic DVD commentary for weight loss and it's an all crew DVD commentary. I have more to share from that in this week's Weight loss part two as well as I reached out to Joya Balfour. Do you guys remember Joya? She has contributed information on the podcast before. She worked on the Digital [e-mail] and she has some fun Andy Angela wedding stuff that she shared with me as well as one little surprise. But we'll get to it.

[Jenna Fischer]

I love it. Should we take a break and then we'll be back?

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

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And there's so many tools we haven't even used yet that Squarespace provides. I mean, lady, who knows what's next for us?

[Jenna Fischer]

Head to squarespace.com officeladies for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use offer code officeladies to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

[Angela Kinsey]

So I've decided something. I want to start wearing scrubs, like in my everyday life.

[Jenna Fischer]

First off, love this for you. Secondly, please explain.

[Angela Kinsey]

All right. Well, not just any scrubs. Specifically figs. It seems like every Dr. Derm pediatrician I meet with is wearing figs. And it shows the fit, the colors, the comfort. It's all on point. I want n. Okay, I see the vision.

[Jenna Fischer]

Figs truly are as cute as they are functional. Soft, stretchy, and breathable, yet durable enough for long back to back shifts.

[Angela Kinsey]

Right. Or in my case, grabbing a quick coffee or a grocery run. Sky's the limit, really.

[Jenna Fischer]

So true. They also come in so many fun colors and flattering styles. You could have a different look every day of the week.

[Angela Kinsey]

You know I would. And did I mention they also have loungewear, accessories, and even a collab with New Balance on comfortable footwear?

[Jenna Fischer]

No, but I'm glad you did. Figs really does think of everything, don't they?

[Angela Kinsey]

They sure do. So if you Work in healthcare. Know someone who does or just want to rock some seriously comfy essentials? Head to WearFigs.com right now and use code FIGSRX for 15% off your first order. That's WearFigs.com FIGSRX. We are back, and a friendly Ryan has returned to Dunder Mifflin, Scranton. There is a deleted scene, Jenna, that the camera catches Ryan being dropped off to work by his mother. She's driving a station wagon. She pulls up, he hops out with a little sack lunch, and he starts to go in the building, and she rolls down the window and honks her horn, and he runs back and gives her a kiss on the cheek. And then he runs in the building. Wow. If this tells you where Ryan is at at life, he's back living at home, and his mom is driving him to work.

[Jenna Fischer]

Wow. He's also grown a goatee. And this now explains why Michael has had a goatee, because he says, michael, did you grow that goatee after you saw mine when you helped me move?

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. Remember, these goatees are not real hair and makeup. Put them on. I thought they did a fantastic. And Michael has a talking head that explains that he hired Ryan off the temp agency.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. He said Ronnie was very bleh. And he told the temp agency, I don't care what it costs me. I have to have him. I have to have Ryan Howard.

[Angela Kinsey]

People don't know how to react to Ryan being back. Kevin is excited, runs over, gives him a noogie, which starts a great runner. And Jenna, there was more in the deleted scenes of Ryan having these talking heads where he's putting everyone who's wronged him on his list.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. He explains that he's making a list of everyone who wrongs him so that when he is back up on the top, he can get his revenge.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. And Kevin just made the list. Also, who makes the list is David Wallace. In a deleted scene, David Wallace calls Ryan, answers, and David flips out, starts berating Ryan. You can hear it, you know, through the phone. So much so that Ryan cries, and Michael vouches for Ryan, and David Wallace does not want him there, but agrees. And so now David Wallace has made the list. And Jenna, I couldn't help myself. You know what this made me think of?

[Jenna Fischer]

What?

[Angela Kinsey]

Game of Thrones.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, somebody has a list. I didn't get that far.

[Angela Kinsey]

Arya Stark has a kill list for everyone who's wronged her.

[Jenna Fischer]

Can we take a minute, everybody? If you haven't seen Game of Thrones and you don't want spoilers. Just, I don't know. Fast forward 30 seconds. Angela.

[Angela Kinsey]

What?

[Jenna Fischer]

I started Game of Thrones. I never finished it. I'm never going to finish it.

[Angela Kinsey]

Really?

[Jenna Fischer]

Will you just tell me, does Arya ever kill.

[Angela Kinsey]

She kills everybody.

[Jenna Fischer]

She does.

[Angela Kinsey]

She kills everybody and she kills the biggest baddie. And I don't want to ruin it in case someone didn't. Fast forward. But she kind of saves the whole world. I'll just say that that is kind of a spoiler.

[Jenna Fischer]

That was the only thing that was kind of keeping me there was that I saw the potential in her character.

[Angela Kinsey]

No, she follows through.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, that's good to know.

[Angela Kinsey]

Continuing Ryan's list, Ryan apologizes to Jim. Right. Jim shakes his hand. And now are you ready for some Jim sass?

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, it's so good, though.

[Angela Kinsey]

Ready. Ryan says, jim, I want to apologize for how I treated you last year. He goes on to explain all the things he feels sorry for. And he said, you know, he's even started volunteering. He's giving back to the community. And Jim goes, well, that's great. You're talking about your court ordered community service. And Ryan says, I don't need a judge to tell me to keep my community clean. And then Jim goes, but he did, right? And Ryan goes, all right. And Jim goes, all right. So much Jim sass.

[Jenna Fischer]

And then there's just a silent Ryan talking head where he's staring down the lens of the camera and he's clearly writing Jim Halpert in his list.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

Which I loved. It's time for another weigh in on the giant scale that was custom made for our show. We learned last week there is a zero pound weight loss. People are really starting to melt down.

[Angela Kinsey]

Mm. 22 minutes, 59 seconds. Did anyone catch that? Meredith's face is back to normal.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, I didn't catch that.

[Angela Kinsey]

No more sunburn on Meredith, I'll tell you.

[Jenna Fischer]

We had Erin M. Write in and say during that moment of the weigh in, Michael, does this bird like flapping move?

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes.

[Jenna Fischer]

I love it when he's frustrated. And she says, it's literally my favorite moment in the whole show. She wants to to know if Steve improvised that. Yes. That was not scripted. That was Steve's take on his character's frustration.

[Angela Kinsey]

I loved it so much. At 23 minutes, 21 seconds, Andy has a talking head. He says this is the hardest thing he's ever had to do. And, you know, he hasn't had a very hard life. Ding, ding, ding. This was a digitally corrected shirt and tie. Once again, we Talked about this in the episode previously. Weight loss. One that the writers wanted to move around some of Andy's talking heads. And to match his outfits for continuity, they had to go in in post production, change the color of his tie and his shirt.

[Jenna Fischer]

I mean, it just blows my mind.

[Angela Kinsey]

Still, I know.

[Jenna Fischer]

Some other things that happen in the scene are that Holly tells Oscar that her date went well with his yoga instructor, and Michael overhears. And then he blames Jim because he thinks Jim's bad advice has landed him in the friend zone with Hollywood.

[Angela Kinsey]

Mm.

[Jenna Fischer]

And then we move upstairs.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. Dwight is really mad. He doesn't think everyone's taking this seriously. He randomly selects Stanley, Phyllis, and Kevin and tells them to get liposuction on their own dime.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah, they have to pay for it.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. And meanwhile, Ryan goes to apologize to Kelly. And now we have some Kelly sass.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, it's so satisfying. I know, Brian, come on.

[Angela Kinsey]

I wish she could have stuck to it.

[Jenna Fischer]

I know.

[Angela Kinsey]

It's so good. He's like, hey, should we, you know, grab a drink later, catch up? And then he says, pick me up at 8, right? He's trying to do his old shenanigans with her. And she goes, that is so sweet, but I'm dating Daryl still, and we're, like, crazy in love, so. And he goes, oh, cool. Well, maybe I'll see you around. And Kelly goes, it's a small office. Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. Did you notice on her desk what she had her little nameplate from the first Christmas party?

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes, I did see that with the flower.

[Paul Feig]

Mm.

[Jenna Fischer]

I thought that was so cute.

[Angela Kinsey]

I did too.

[Jenna Fischer]

Dwight's gonna apologize to Phyllis for telling her she should get liposuction on her own dime. He says, I'm gonna make it up to you. I have a sale, but it requires two people. Will you go with me?

[Angela Kinsey]

Big sale.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, yeah. It's a sure thing.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

I'll give you 40%. I'll split it with you. 60. 40. He says he'll drive. She's like, all right.

[Angela Kinsey]

And then, of course, Kelly needs to have this really odd forced make out session with Daryl in front of Ryan on purpose. But I want you to know, Jenna, at 26 minutes, 12 seconds, you get a really good shot of Ryan's, like, his phone earpiece headset thingy. Yeah, yeah. According to Randy Cordray, our line producer, there was a lengthy discussion about which ear headset Ryan should use. He said Phil Shea, like, brought over a tray. He said it looked like 12 to 20. Like, that sounds right, Right. Different versions for Them to pick out.

[Jenna Fischer]

That sounds about right. Yeah, they picked a real douchey one. So good job, guys. Let's go to the break room. Jim is having lunch with Michael and Hollywood. Two things here. Continuity. Catch. I don't know if you noticed, but Michael suddenly does not have a goatee. Oh, yes.

[Angela Kinsey]

They were having issues keeping track.

[Jenna Fischer]

And also, there are a lot of fruit flies in the vending machine.

[Angela Kinsey]

Well, lady, I think it's time for a fruit fly breakdown.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, please. Angela, we got a lot of mail about the fruit flies.

[Angela Kinsey]

Hit me with your questions because I have some answers.

[Jenna Fischer]

People wanted to know if they were real. Were they cgi? I remember Gene Stupnicki told me they were real. And they even had a fruit fly wrangler.

[Angela Kinsey]

They were real. Let me tell you everything I learned about them in the DVD commentary. First of all, this whole bit cost thousands of dollars. All right? These fruit flies were from the Florida fruit fly growers, and they were bred specifically for this episode. These type of fruit flies are a sterile type of fruit fly, and they are bred for Florida citrus farms. According to Kelly Cantley, they have a very specific breeding cycle, so they had to schedule the fruit flies to be released on a specific day. And Randy. Randy said we had fruit flies for weeks.

[Jenna Fischer]

I remember them.

[Angela Kinsey]

I do, too. We go in the break room, and there would still be a few buzzing around.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah, I guess even though they couldn't mate, a lot of them, they really lived beyond their life cycle.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. In addition to these fruit flies breeding schedule that we had to plan around Jenna, Phil Shea had to time out rotting fruit over the course of eight weeks.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, my gosh.

[Angela Kinsey]

This fruit had to go through stages of rotting. He had a table set up on our soundstage full of fruit in different stages of rotting.

[Jenna Fischer]

For this scene, lady, I was just about to say that, as you said that, a memory came flooding back into my head of this giant long table where he had created little squares out of tape, and each square had a different piece of fruit in it in different stages of rot.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes. All for this one gag that is,

[Jenna Fischer]

like, on camera for, like, two seconds.

[Angela Kinsey]

I know.

[Jenna Fischer]

Again, like some little throwaway line in the script created all of this production.

[Angela Kinsey]

Florida fruit fly growers rotted fruit. Fruit fly wranglers.

[Jenna Fischer]

Incredible. Shifting gears here over at Pratt. Pam is in the hallway between classes. She's palling around with her new school friends. Alex, played by Rich Summer, is making some jokes. Jim calls Pam, says, I'm gonna call you back because I made some friends. Okay. They were trying to make everybody mad. They were trying to make people feel like this art school thing might drive a wedge between Jim and Pam.

[Angela Kinsey]

Now, see, I wasn't worried yet. As I rewatch it, I'm not worried yet. I'm happy that she's making friends.

[Jenna Fischer]

I am too. I do wanna say, Pam, what the f. With your earrings?

[Angela Kinsey]

This is sassy college Pam. She's got her updo ponytail.

[Jenna Fischer]

Did you look at the earrings, though? They're like these purple roses. I mean, has this woman never dressed casually?

[Angela Kinsey]

I don't know. I feel like I'm celebrating Pam in this moment. You're really judging her whole outfit.

[Jenna Fischer]

I guess. You know, you don't have to be too worried about Pam attracting other men with those earrings on.

[Angela Kinsey]

Oh, stop.

[Jenna Fischer]

I don't know.

[Angela Kinsey]

She looked cute. I have to take us back to the bullpen because at 27 minutes, 13 seconds, one of the best scenes of this episode is Phyllis storming in. She is ticked off.

[Jenna Fischer]

Gene Stupnitsky said this is his favorite scene of the episode.

[Angela Kinsey]

I loved it so much. I mean, Dwight drives Phyllis to an abandoned warehouse five miles away and kicks her out of the car.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah, he took her money and her phone, and so she had to walk back. And Dwight says, I bet you burned about 1,000 calories.

[Angela Kinsey]

Phyllis is not having it. I think pissed off Phyllis is my favorite Phyllis.

[Jenna Fischer]

It's such a hard call because pissed off Phyllis is so great. But I do also love, like, emotionally wounded Phyllis. Like the whole thing that went down with Sue Grafton.

[Angela Kinsey]

Oh, gosh, yes.

[Jenna Fischer]

At the Steamtown Mall.

[Angela Kinsey]

Sue Grafton. That was so good too. Well, she calls David Wallace. She is done with Dwight.

[Jenna Fischer]

Week six of the weigh in. There is no weigh in this week. Holly instead reads an official statement from corporate. They're just concerned. You know, this was supposed to be about health and wellness, and they need to make sure that everyone knows the point of this, like, health kick. In case the memo wasn't enough, Michael's gonna try to help explain it.

[Angela Kinsey]

Oh, yeah. Michael wants to bring it on home with one of his characters. This is how you get people's attention. Remember as a little kid, Hoot the owl came to his elementary school? If you want to get through to someone, you dress up as a character. So enter Michael Klump.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yep. We had a fan question. Angela from Graying L. When Michael says he's wearing his sumo suit from Beach Games, was Steve actually wearing his sumo suit underneath his clothes?

[Angela Kinsey]

No. So here's the deal. Alicia, our wardrobe designer, was actually part of the DVD commentary And she said they weren't able to use the sumo suit. They had to buy a special type of suit that went under the sports jacket and pants. And Steve actually had to have two pretty thorough fittings for this whole thing to happen.

[Jenna Fischer]

Wow. I bet Steve got hot. I wonder if they used his air conditioned vest that you told us about last week.

[Angela Kinsey]

His cooling vest?

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah, probably. Well, Michael is leading this whole meeting where he wants to celebrate people's body image no matter what you look like. And during this meeting, he looks over and he notices that Ryan has shaved his goatee.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

And he's like, ryan, did you shave your goatee? And Ryan's like, yeah, I did. Well, now all the goatees are going to come off.

[Angela Kinsey]

Well, yeah. You know, Michael is trying to get everyone to celebrate how their bodies are different but beautiful. And Michael kneels down to talk to kelly. You guys, 31 minutes, 21 seconds. Mindy is doing her classic covering her mouth so you can't see her starting to break.

[Jenna Fischer]

I noticed it too.

[Angela Kinsey]

I noticed it right away. Michael makes Kelly stand up. He wants everyone to look at her and tell her how great she looks. Ryan says she's perfect. Meredith likes her fingernails. Phyllis likes her dress. And Creed says she has a hell of an ass.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

And Kelly's like, what else?

[Jenna Fischer]

I wasn't there. I was at art school. Yeah, it was such a bummer. There were a lot of things that I missed. These were the classic conference room scenes when you guys would be stuck in there for a whole day, maybe two.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes, we got pretty punchy in there. But one of my favorite talking heads is Phyllis saying she wonders what people would like about her. Probably her jugs, maybe.

[Jenna Fischer]

So speaking of art school, Pam's in class and Alex is making her giggle.

[Angela Kinsey]

Flirty flirt. They even get in trouble.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, I have a little fun. Fact. If you listen closely, you can hear her art school professor saying this. Some blame it on the new air conditioning system. This is what he's talking about. There are these paintings in France called the Lascaux paintings, if I'm pronouncing that correctly. They are ancient cave paintings. And they have just faced incredible disturbance since their discovery because they have tourists come through, like upwards of like 1200 tourists a day. They put in air conditioning in this cave. They put in lighting systems to make viewing these paintings more enjoyable. But as a result, lichens. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that correctly, but whatever. Lichens are right. And crystals, they start to appear on the walls. In the late 1950s, and they had to close down these caves to preserve what was left of the sacred paintings. So when he says some blame it on the new air conditioning system, he's talking about these cave paintings in France.

[Angela Kinsey]

Well, that was a lot of good information.

[Jenna Fischer]

I just think it's really cool that our writers. Someone is very, very smart on our writing staff.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

Was it Jean? Was it Lee? Was it someone else? I don't know. Maybe it was Paul Lieberstein, because we know he's quite the world traveler and likes art.

[Angela Kinsey]

Someone did a little digging and planted a little seed there.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

Well, this scene in juxtaposition to Jim's talking head got people fired up, because here's Pam laughing in art class with Alex. And then there's a Jim talking head. He says, summer's going great. Just listen to Michael Klump for two hours, convinced I have an ulcer. And my girlfriend lives in New York, and I haven't seen her in 10 days. So people were not happy with Pam when this episode aired. I remember.

[Jenna Fischer]

I have a lot to say.

[Angela Kinsey]

Oh, no. Oh, no.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, I just want to say that when Pam went to art school for only three months when she was not yet married and didn't have children, people came down real hard on her because of Jim's feelings. Then when Jim invested in a business without telling Pam and left his family and left Pam alone to care for their two children while he chased his dreams, people came down on Pam again for not being supportive enough of Jim. So in both of these instances, I just want to say I noticed a lot of hate for Pam. Do I want to call it sexist? I do. I do.

[Angela Kinsey]

Oh, my gosh.

[Jenna Fischer]

I just want to say that Pam faced a lot of scrutiny as a character, I think, because she was a woman. Right?

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. That river runs deep.

[Jenna Fischer]

It runs deep, and it's gonna run long into some future seasons. Okay, should we take a break?

[Angela Kinsey]

We should, because when we come back, we're gonna have a weather breakdown.

[Jenna Fischer]

A weather breakdown. I can't wait.

[Angela Kinsey]

Jenna, you know this. We had a leak upstairs in our son's bathroom. So we've been doing some construction, and we're gonna be redoing that bathroom. And guess what I did. I went to and I got one of their closet systems. They're awesome. And so we've got some shelving and drawers and then an area where he can hang things.

[Jenna Fischer]

You know, a friend of mine who is having a baby, I got her crib from Wayfair, and I went over And I saw it and it's absolutely gorgeous.

[Angela Kinsey]

That's such a great gift. Another thing I like is that you can check out the reviews for the different things you want to purchase. There was over 3,000 comments about this one closet system I got, so I really like that part of their website.

[Jenna Fischer]

Find furniture, decor, and essentials that fit your unique style and budget. Head to Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home.

[Angela Kinsey]

That's W A Y-F-A-I-R.com Wayfair Every style, every home.

[Jesse Tyler Ferguson]

Hi, it's me, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, in case you haven't heard. And I don't know how that's possible. You're obviously not seeing my Instagram stories, but I have a podcast. I know, I know, I know. I didn't think there was enough podcasts, especially podcasts hosted by actors. So here I am. It's called Dinners on Me, and it's actually pretty special to me. It combines two things that I absolutely love. Eating and connecting with people. So in each episode, I take an old friend or a new friend out to a fabulous meal. And as we break bread, we dive into everything from imposter syndrome and mental health to being a new parent and navigating new relationships. It's fun because you truly get to be a fly on the wall for some really intimate conversations. So please, pull up a chair, join us. You can listen to Dinners on Me wherever you get your podcasts.

[Angela Kinsey]

Remember the TV show Jury Duty? Our dear friends, Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky. This is their show. The first season was Jury Duty. It was amazing. The next one, you guys, I cannot Wait. Set in a courtroom in the first installment and a company retreat in the second. Jury Duty presents Company Retreat.

[Jenna Fischer]

And it has taken everything we loved about Jury Duty. The heart, the humor, the celebration of everyday heroes. And it drops it into the most painfully relatable setting imaginable. A corporate retreat.

[Angela Kinsey]

Everyone is in on this except for one person this time.

[Jenna Fischer]

That person is Anthony. He is a real temp hired at Rockin Grandma's Hot Sauce. And Anthony has no idea that the whole company retreat is staged around him. It is workplace comedy meets hidden camera. Unpredictable and authentic in the best way. And by the way, Rock and Grandma's Hot Sauce is real. The hot sauces will be available on Amazon.

[Angela Kinsey]

Watch now On Prime Video.

[Jenna Fischer]

AG1 is a daily health drink clinically shown to support gut health and fill in common nutrient gaps. You add a packet of AG1 to your water, and it is now filled with 75 plus ingredients, including five clinically studied probiotic strains, all in one scoop. Angela, you know where I heard about AG1? From Josh.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. Josh loves AG1. He loves how he can work it into his routine and stay consistent. He's very big on that. He has his workout routine and he has his morning ritual before he goes to the gym. And AG1 is part of it. It's super easy, and it's a way that you can feel good about yourself. And he says he also feels like he's doing something good for his body and he starts his day that way.

[Jenna Fischer]

Go to drinkag1.com officeladies to get an AG1 flavor sampler and a bottle of vitamin D3K2 for free in your AG1 welcome kit or with your first AG1 subscription.

[Angela Kinsey]

Order only while supplies last. That's drinkag1.com officeladies. Well, we are back and it is pouring rain. There is a black screen with the words Week 7, August 11th. And you can just hear the rain. Now it's time for the weigh in. Everyone's in the warehouse. The huge warehouse door is open and it's just coming down.

[Jenna Fischer]

Hmm. I wonder why it needed to rain.

[Angela Kinsey]

I wonder why we needed to establish a big rainstorm. Huh?

[Jenna Fischer]

I don't know. Maybe we'll find out in a little bit.

[Angela Kinsey]

Well, this was fake rain. And yes, this was thought out. They wanted to establish this big rainstorm outside of the windows of our set in the bullpen, where normally there would be the big backdrops. Right, Jenna?

[Jenna Fischer]

Yep.

[Angela Kinsey]

They brought in those rain panels that you told us about.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, because we had an episode where Michael couldn't get the top up on his convertible and then it rained inside the car.

[Angela Kinsey]

That's right. So they brought back in those big window panes that they were able to sort of recycle water through so it looked like raining. And you're gonna see it in the backdrop of several scenes that just help keep reinforcing that it is a rainy day out. The one thing I will tell you is that sometimes with this rain, like outside the warehouse, they would have to adjust that for the sound department and editing, but they said it sounded real, so the sound department didn't have to edit out the fake rain.

[Jenna Fischer]

Huh. Well, there you go.

[Angela Kinsey]

Also, if you're keeping track, remember Kelly Cantley in last week's episode gave us a list of things to keep track of. We are now two guys. No goatee, One guy, goatee. Michael and Ryan, no goatee. Dwight with a goatee.

[Jenna Fischer]

That's right. They're also having their week seven weigh in. And this is when Holly says she hasn't heard from her yoga teacher date in, like, three days.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

She had even bought tickets to the Counting Crows for that night. And she doesn't know, like, is he gonna show? Is he gonna call?

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. And Daryl announces that they've lost £4.

[Jenna Fischer]

£4. Meanwhile, back in the bullpen, Jim and Pam, they're chatting on im. They're trying to figure out when can they see each other. Jim has a conflict with his nephew's. You know, they don't know. Jim says, why don't you meet me for lunch?

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. Kind of spontaneous.

[Jenna Fischer]

We'll meet in the middle.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. Meet halfway.

[Jenna Fischer]

Let's meet at the rest stop. That's halfway between New York and Scranton.

[Angela Kinsey]

When this whole time, Dwight thinks Jim is talking about him, Right? That he's up to something. And Pam IMs Jim and says, oh, by the way, finish my summer project. And Jim clicks on it, and guess what's there?

[Jenna Fischer]

A picture of Dwight.

[Angela Kinsey]

It is an ASCII portrait, which stands for American Standard Code for Information interchange, which is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text and computers, telecommunication equipment, and other devices. Well, guess who has a copy of it?

[Jenna Fischer]

Who?

[Angela Kinsey]

Joya. And she sent it to me.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, my gosh.

[Angela Kinsey]

So I have Pam's a s C I I portrait of Dwight. I'll put it in our stories.

[Jenna Fischer]

I love that. Well, I like it because it shows that Pam is learning things in school.

[Angela Kinsey]

Mm. She's not just flirting.

[Jenna Fischer]

No, she's not. Everyone. She's taking it seriously.

[Angela Kinsey]

She's putting on her purple flower earrings and marching her ponytail into class. Holly goes in to talk to Michael, and she wants him to know that they have lost Utica by only eight pounds. And Michael's like, wait a second. We have to. The end of the day, maybe if they really go for it, they crank up the heat, they're going to wear trash bags. Maybe they can get there.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, Andy's into it immediately. He puts on his trash bags. He says he does not lose competitions. He wins them or he quits because they're unfair.

[Angela Kinsey]

Mm.

[Jenna Fischer]

Kelly is not participating. She's having some pizza.

[Angela Kinsey]

The wedding planning has not stopped between Andy and Angela. Angela says, hey, she asked very nicely, by the way, if the first dance can be to Little Drummer Boy, her favorite song. Andy's like, yeah, he's already booked his a cappella group.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, yeah, it's even better than can their last song be to Little Drummer Boy. His A cappella group is gonna sing it for ya.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. Here comes Trouble, class of 96. And he's like, Sweetheart, you're gonna love these guys. Carl 1, Carl 2. Broccoli Rob, Sparerib, Doobie, Lunchbox, Boner Champ. That's me, Pewby Lewis and the News. Hopscotch, Jingle Jangle and Sandwich.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

And they're collectively gonna be his best man.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

Guess who's paging Dwight.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, yeah. Now, if I remember correctly, Angela NBC built a website for Andy and Angela's wedding. Do you remember that? It's not live anymore, but do you remember that?

[Angela Kinsey]

I do. And I asked Joya about it. She sent me the homepage photo of Angela and Andy's wedding website, complete with their wedding gift registry and the audition video that Andy put together of Here Comes Trouble to be their wedding band.

[Jenna Fischer]

Wow.

[Angela Kinsey]

I have all of it. I'll put it in stories. I have all of it. And I want to read to you though the items on the registry, please. So Joya said the joke was that Andy would list something and then Angela would list something in stark opposition to what Andy had listed. Okay, so see if you can guess who put what on the registry. The singing machine isM370 Karaoke with iPod Dock, noise canceling headphones, Twilight thick non see through shower curtain deadbolt, bathroom door lock, modesty changing screen, his and hers kitty cat PJs, kids small and men's size large kitty cat chaise lounge 3 Cornell Big Red ultimate outdoor rugs, Marie Osmond inspiration bench decorative wall hat and Getty's calendar.

[Jenna Fischer]

Wow.

[Angela Kinsey]

That's what was on their registry on the NBC.com wedding site.

[Jenna Fischer]

It's time.

[Angela Kinsey]

It's time. Jim and Pam, they're going to meet up at the rest stop in the pouring rain. We have a lot to share about it. Jenna, you were there. I was not. I have some fantastic DVD commentary stuff to share with you from our crew, but you should take it away.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, this is the proposal scene.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes.

[Jenna Fischer]

Jim gets down on one knee and he proposes to Pam. She's totally shocked. They're at a gas station. You know, he was supposed to wait till she got back from art school, but he says he couldn't wait.

[Angela Kinsey]

She's completely thrown. Yeah, you can really tell. She had no idea. In fact, the beginning of the scene, she's like, hey, this is not halfway. I drove further. Like, she's. Her head is so not in that place.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. But she says yes and they kiss. So, first of all, I just want you guys to know that Greg Spoke with us about this. He said that he really wanted Jim's proposal to Pam to be in the season premiere. He thought, number one, that would be unexpected. You usually end seasons with proposals, Right. So he thought this would be a real shock.

[Angela Kinsey]

And it was. Jenna. I even remember at the table read. You know, we had so much going on with this weight loss story and Pam at art school. I didn't see it coming.

[Jenna Fischer]

No. And we'd been teasing it all last season. He said he also wanted to throw people off by having it in a very ordinary location. So he wanted to feel special, but he also wanted it to feel like Jim made the decision without a whole lot of planning.

[Angela Kinsey]

Mm.

[Jenna Fischer]

So Greg thought that the ideal location for this scene would be a gas station along the freeway between Scranton and New York in the rain. And they based the rest stop on one that Greg Daniels had traveled to as a kid along the Merritt Parkway. We did not actually fly to this location. This is the insane part. They built this in the parking lot of a Best Buy that I have been to many times. Actually, what they did was they used Google Street View to capture images of a real gas station along the Merritt Parkway. And then using those images, they built it to match in this parking lot. It took them about nine days to build it. To create the illusion of highway traffic, they built a four lane circular race track around the gas station set. They set up cameras on the other side of this raceway, and they had cars drive around it at 55 miles an hour. Then they added rain pouring down on us, these giant rain machines. Our production manager, Randy Cordray, said they had about 35 precision drivers. They were driving not just cars, but, like semi trucks. When we were standing there on that set, you could feel the wind, like, of these cars speeding past you. It was so, so bonkers. But after we shot the scene, they had to hire a special effects company to paint out the background, because the background were these California mountains. And so they had to paint out the mountains and put in some trees, like east coast looking trees. In the end, this was the single most expensive scene ever shot during the entire run of the show. It lasts 52 seconds, and it costs $250,000.

[Angela Kinsey]

Oh, my Lord. Oh, my Lord. Wow.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. So a quarter of a million dollars for less than one minute of screen time.

[Angela Kinsey]

Oh, my gosh. Well, listen, they talked in depth, our crew, about this moment in the DVD commentary. Several obviously very similar things as what you just shared. So after months and months of scouting and meetings, it was our location manager, Kyle Alexander. Who found this enormous paved parking lot. I guess it was off Los Feliz Boulevard.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yep.

[Angela Kinsey]

Acres and acres of paved ground, which is what they needed if they were going to build a racetrack, basically. Right?

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

So these cars could loop around. Now, according to Randy Cordray, the reason why it was such a massive, massive, massive parking lot is because it was a paved over toxic waste site.

[Jenna Fischer]

What?

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes. Apparently years and years and years ago, there was an old, like, ceramics plant or something that had buried lead paint waste into the ground, so they had to seal it and cover it.

[Jenna Fischer]

So, Angela, I just want to make sure that we acknowledge that the information you've just given us means that Jim and Pam, our beloved jam, got engaged at a former toxic waste dump.

[Angela Kinsey]

Fluorescent jam.

[Jenna Fischer]

I mean, yikesy.

[Angela Kinsey]

Well, this is what they shared in the DVD commentary. It was a long time ago. They sealed it up. It's a giant parking lot. Apparently there's a Best Buy there now. Well, Michael Gallenberg shares on the DVD commentary, one of his favorite things that he built of this whole set was the drinks behind the glass doors. It's in fact one humongous giant photo. It was an inkjet print on foam core paper. It looks amazing. And there's a great shot at 38 minutes, 32 seconds right behind Jim and Pam. I would have never known that those drinks were a photo.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah, it was an incredible set.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. Really just kudos to our set design team and our construction guys. They just crushed it.

[Jenna Fischer]

It was incredible.

[Angela Kinsey]

The one other debate about this scene, which I'm sure you know, was whether to have sound or no sound. This was a huge, huge debate. Greg could not make up his mind. They had two versions ready to go. One with sound during the proposal and one without. And literally, I mean, Jake shared on the DVD commentary, Jake oust that up until the day of airing, it was the air date Greg was still trying to decide.

[Jenna Fischer]

It's so funny because I vaguely remember that. But we spoke dialogue every time. So the debate was just simply whether Jim and Pam were still wearing their microphones and you could hear our dialogue, or Jim and Pam weren't wearing their microphones and you couldn't. So we said dialogue every time. It wasn't like there were two different scenes that were written with or without dialogue. It was just whether or not you could hear it. Yeah, I don't think John and I knew about this big debate because we were just saying our lines every time.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah, I liked being able to hear it.

[Jenna Fischer]

I think it was important that you heard it.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah, I have A few more things to share that hopefully won't shatter your memories of this moment. Like you said, the trees were digitally put back in, right? They are east coast trees. They were put in digitally by Stargate. And here was the other thing that was a big, big question mark about how they do this was the rain. How do they do the rain? And they really considered doing it digitally, adding it in post production. But Paul Feig was very, very against it. He wanted the rain to feel as real as possible.

[Jenna Fischer]

And we could feel the rain. I mean, there were. You know, it was. I don't know if it was just the wind from the cars. I don't remember there being wind machines, but I do remember the rain hitting us. And, I mean, even though it was a former toxic waste dump and even

[Angela Kinsey]

though it was a Best Buy parking lot.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. Just like it was actually to be there, really romantic. You know, it was funny. The gas station, it was just a front. If you went in, it was like a fakey fake. You go through the door, and then you're just, like, looking at trees that didn't have a back or anything. But it felt magical. It did. And it was so much fun to shoot that scene. I mean, I feel like we got it on the first take and maybe we did a few, but my memory is that we weren't there long, that we got it pretty early. And it was a cool moment.

[Angela Kinsey]

It's a really magical moment.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, when the gang is ready to weigh in again, Jim is late. And then he shows up soaking wet and so happy. So happy. I was a little sad that they didn't get to spend the whole evening together after getting engaged. I guess Pam just had to drive back to school. I know, but Jim is so happy. Holly decides that this yoga guy is never going to call her. And Michael says, you know what? I'll buy the Counting Crows tickets from you. And she's like, really? Everybody thinks this is, like, going to lead to Michael offering to go with her.

[Angela Kinsey]

I thought they were going to have a date.

[Jenna Fischer]

No. Michael rips up the tickets, like, gallantly,

[Angela Kinsey]

like he's saving the day. And she's confused.

[Jenna Fischer]

We got some mail from Emily G. Okay, here's what she said. Having worked at several concert venues, I wanted to let you know that if you lose or damage your concert tickets, you can go to a venue's box office with your photo ID and someone will reprint them for you. Oh, she said, I hope Holly knew that was an option.

[Angela Kinsey]

Oh, that's good to know.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah, it didn't Seem like Holly knew.

[Angela Kinsey]

No, I didn't know.

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, now we all know.

[Angela Kinsey]

Now we all know. Thank you, Emily.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. In the end, Dunder Mifflin did not win the weight loss competition. Stanley lost seven pounds.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah. He says he's going to take off five days anyway.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Angela Kinsey]

And now it's week eight. Toby is on his fifth week in a hospital room in Costa Rica.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, poor Toby. Guys, remember Toby had his weird moment with Pam, so he moved to Costa Rica.

[Angela Kinsey]

And on, like, his first day or day. Was it like day three?

[Jenna Fischer]

Day three.

[Angela Kinsey]

Day three, he went zip lining and

[Jenna Fischer]

he broke his neck.

[Angela Kinsey]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

He hasn't even been to the beach. Did you notice what was playing on the TV in the hospital room?

[Angela Kinsey]

Yes, I did.

[Jenna Fischer]

It is the Hug it Out bitch episode of Entourage. That is the episode of Entourage that Michael quotes in the couple.

[Angela Kinsey]

Well, I have a little location breakdown for you about Toby's hospital room.

[Jenna Fischer]

Give it to me.

[Angela Kinsey]

It was also filmed at usc. Oh, yeah. While they were there filming Pam's art school, they used the USC television stage building, and USC asked if eight of their film students could intern and help that day. They had interns in all of the different departments. And our crew said they did a phenomenal job.

[Jenna Fischer]

That is so cool.

[Angela Kinsey]

Mm.

[Jenna Fischer]

Before we go, I just want to give a shout out to whoever the guy is in the bed next to Toby. He was a background performer. Angela. I tried so hard to figure out who this is because he is so funny. He just stares into the camera the whole time Toby is talking. It is so good. I watched it three times. I was like, how is this guy doing such a great job with no words? I was so impressed.

[Angela Kinsey]

We couldn't figure out who he was. We reached out to several people.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes. And I checked everywhere. You can check. He is uncredited in the episode. Phenomenal job.

[Angela Kinsey]

Way to crush it. And you guys, that was Weight Loss Part two. There's so many folks to thank for helping us get this episode out to you. First of all, our crew that participated in the DVD commentary. Randy Cordray, Michael Gallenberg, Brian Whittle, Nick Carbone, Ben Patrick, Alicia Raycraft, Kelly Cantley, and Jake Oust. Amazing. Best commentary. Really. Such a good listen if you love behind the scenes information. And James O. Carey for letting us bug you with questions.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah, we did. We did bug him.

[Angela Kinsey]

We did enjoy a balfour. Oh, my gosh. I'm so excited to share all of this of that NBC.com website stuff about

[Jenna Fischer]

Angela and Andy and then Greg Daniels. Yes, thank you. And also Paul Feig for that audio clip I promise not to bother you too much. Paul Feig well, we probably will. I know. Why am I making that promise?

[Angela Kinsey]

But we appreciate our cast and crew so much. We hope you enjoyed this one and we are kicking off Season five. We'll be back for more next week.

[Jenna Fischer]

We sure will. 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 Odyssey 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 Reese Dennis.

[Jenna Fischer]

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

[Angela Kinsey]

Lady, have you ever invested in something that seemed really amazing at first but then did not live up to the hype?

[Jenna Fischer]

I once got this kind of fancy jacket that looked amazing in the store, but then I wore it out once and I realized it was not comfortable and now it just lives in my closet collecting dust.

[Angela Kinsey]

LinkedIn has a word for that. Bull spend.

[Jenna Fischer]

Bullspend is when you optimize for numbers that look great. Impressions reach reactions, but then those numbers don't actually drive revenue. Invest in what actually looks good to your CFO. LinkedIn ads generate the highest ROAS 121% of all major ad networks. You can reach the right by targeting company, industry, job title and more.

[Angela Kinsey]

So cut the bull spend. Advertise on LinkedIn, the network that works for you. Spend $250 on your first campaign on LinkedIn ads and get a $250 credit for the next one. Just go to LinkedIn.com office that's LinkedIn.com office.

[Jenna Fischer]

Terms and conditions apply.

[Angela Kinsey]

Having the right people in your corner. It just makes all the difference lady.

[Jenna Fischer]

Having you in my corner.

[Angela Kinsey]

Aw well, right back at you. Well, we are working with State Farm and one of the things I like about State Farm is knowing that you have that support. Because like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Whether you need coverage for your car or your home, you can choose the right amount of coverage for you.

[Jenna Fischer]

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[Angela Kinsey]

That's right. You can go [e-mail] or use the award winning app to get help from one of their local agents.

[Jenna Fischer]

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[Angela Kinsey]

auto insurance, you have options to choose from to help best fit your needs. Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can choose to bundle and save with their personal price plan.

[Jenna Fischer]

Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

[Angela Kinsey]

Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state.