EP. 47 — Cocktails

OFFICE-047-20200902-Cocktails-SKv03.mp3

JENNA FISCHER [00:00:04] I’m Jenna Fischer.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:00:05] I’m Angela Kinsey.

JENNA FISCHER [00:00:06] We were on “The Office” together.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:00:07] And we’re best friends.

JENNA FISCHER [00:00:08] And now we’re doing the ultimate “Office” rewatch podcast just for you.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:00:12] 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 [00:00:19] We’re “The Office” Ladies. Hello, everyone.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:00:25] Hi there.

JENNA FISCHER [00:00:27] Do you have your drink ready? Did you pour a drink? Because today we’re talking about “Cocktails”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:00:32] I should have, dang it.

JENNA FISCHER [00:00:34] Why are we not drinking right now?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:00:36] That’s a whole other podcast. But you know what? With all of the kids like virtual learning, it might have to happen.

JENNA FISCHER [00:00:49] Angela, do you want to tell everyone where you are right now?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:00:52] Yes. You guys, OK. So the Internet at my house is El Crapski and, can I say “El Crapski”? That’s so weird.

JENNA FISCHER [00:00:59] I think you can. We’ve said worse.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:01:03] So the Internet at my house is really bad. And apparently we’re in an area that doesn’t even qualify for a real upgrade. Like we’ve called and they’re like, yeah, no, it’s not available there. And I’m like, what are you talking about? So anyway, I just, I just did not have a great system. I tried, Jenna. I really tried for months. For months.

JENNA FISCHER [00:01:25] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:01:25] And what you guys haven’t seen is I would just be Zooming with Jenna and then I just get the boot for like 45 minutes.

JENNA FISCHER [00:01:34] Yeah. And then people are always like, why don’t you guys just do a video version of your podcast, just throw it on up there. And I’m like, well if you want to see 45 minutes of Angela cursing and disappearing and coming back.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:01:48] Yes.

JENNA FISCHER [00:01:48] We’re happy to throw it on up for ya.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:01:50] Sam said his favorite was when Mindy was a guest, I got booted off three times and he said he could hear on my audio track, you and Mindy were talking and I was just going “Mother [beep beep beep]”. So yes.

JENNA FISCHER [00:02:06] But also, Angela, you would be frozen and then Mindy and I wouldn’t really know if you were there or not. And so we would throw to you. We’d be like, “Right, Ang”? Oh, I don’t think she’s there.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:02:16] No.

JENNA FISCHER [00:02:16] She’s not, she’s not responding.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:02:18] She’s not moving. So I am really excited, very Covid safely, thank you to the folks at Earwolf. Today, I guess at Earwolf, it’s just me in one room, Sam in another room and I guess Conan O’Brien is coming later? Oh, he canceled. So it’s just me and Sam. It’s just me and Sam here today. And when I saw Sam, I thought I was going to cry because it was just so fun to see him in person rather than just hearing him.

JENNA FISCHER [00:02:43] Well, it’s really cool for me to see you in the studio. It’s making me very homesick.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:02:48] I know. And then I have my mask and we have sanitizer. And you guys we’re, we’re figuring it out. We’re figuring it out how to, how to safely return to work. And that, that gives me hope.

JENNA FISCHER [00:03:00] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:03:00] And I know a lot of y’all out there are doing this. I know my sister, you know, my sister’s a nurse and one of my sisters works for the phone company. And she gave me a real lecture on Wi-Fi. And what I apparently don’t have. You guys, there’s there’s this thing, it’s like the holy grail of Wi-Fi. Jenna, I think, you know what it’s called. It’s like Gamer Wi-Fi.

JENNA FISCHER [00:03:23] Yeah. You get a Gamer modem.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:03:25] Mmhmm.

JENNA FISCHER [00:03:26] And it can just handle a lot. And we got it because, you know, we’re trying to make a podcast while both of my kids are Zooming school. So to have three of us on the system, the guy came by to install it and he had this little like thing that shows you the strength of your signal. He looked at my husband. He goes, “You guys really don’t get much of a signal here”. And we’re like, “Yeah, we know. We’re aware. It’s why you’re here”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:03:52] At least it’s available in your area, Jenna.

JENNA FISCHER [00:03:54] And it’s available in our area.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:03:56] Well, now we need to get you Gamer headphones and we need to get you a Gamer chair. Have you seen? They have these special Gamer chairs. Oh, it would make me really happy to see you sitting in one.

JENNA FISCHER [00:04:07] Are we ever gonna talk about the episode today? I don’t know.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:04:09] Oh, God. Yes. What are we-?

JENNA FISCHER [00:04:10] Maybe we shouldn’t. What are we here for?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:04:12] Oh, my gosh. 20 minutes later. It is “Cocktails”, you guys. Season 3, Episode 17.

JENNA FISCHER [00:04:20] It is written by Paul Lieberstein and directed by J.J. Abrams. Here’s a quick summary. “Michael and Jan go public with their relationship when they attend a party at David Wallace’s home”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:04:35] The CFO, not his initials, common mistake.

JENNA FISCHER [00:04:42] Everyone else in “The Office” goes out for happy hour. And Pam tells Roy about her and Jim.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:04:50] Oh, Pam. Pam. Not Pammy, but Pam.

JENNA FISCHER [00:04:55] Don’t call me Pammy.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:04:56] Don’t call her Pammy. I bet you have some Fast Facts.

JENNA FISCHER [00:04:59] Fast Fact Number One, this is a fan question from Scott F., Eladio Ben and Abby Kellner. How was J.J. Abrams tapped to direct? Right? J.J. Abrams directed this.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:05:14] J.J. friggin’ Abrams. You guys, Google him, he’s done everything. We could not believe he was comin’ to our little show.

JENNA FISCHER [00:05:21] Now this was before he directed “Star Wars”. But Angela, still.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:05:28] Still.

JENNA FISCHER [00:05:28] Like does it freak you out that “Star Wars” guy directed you in an episode of “The Office”?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:05:33] J.J., I know you probably listen to our podcast faithfully. Why wasn’t there a very tiny, petite, sassy blond in your “Star Wars” movie? Please, just in the background. I don’t even have to say anything. Please, can I just be an extra in a “Star Wars” movie? Please?

JENNA FISCHER [00:05:52] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:05:52] I’ll just walk by, and som-.

JENNA FISCHER [00:05:56] She’ll just walk by. She won’t do anything but just walk by.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:06:01] I promise.

JENNA FISCHER [00:06:02] A tiny blond comedian is just going to walk on through “Star Wars”, J.J.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:06:05] No shenanigans. I won’t look at camera. I look just straight at the ground.

JENNA FISCHER [00:06:14] I hope, I hope he hears this. Well, listen, guys, so at this point, J.J. Abrams was most famous for the TV shows “Lost” and “Alias”. I was a huge-.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:06:25] “Felicity”! “Felicity”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:06:26] He did “Felicity” too?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:06:27] Yes.

JENNA FISCHER [00:06:30] Wow.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:06:30] I know.

JENNA FISCHER [00:06:31] That wasn’t in my notes.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:06:33] Well. Well.

JENNA FISCHER [00:06:37] Well, I think it was just because I was such a huge fan of “Lost”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:06:40] And “Alias”, the role you didn’t get.

JENNA FISCHER [00:06:43] Thanks for reminding me.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:06:45] I have to tell you. Oh my god, this made me laugh so hard. You posted about the “Ben Franklin” episode.

JENNA FISCHER [00:06:53] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:06:53] And you were like, on your Instagram, you were like, and you know, also we talk about the fact that I didn’t get the part of Sydney in “Alias”. Jennifer Garner went away in and I responded, did you see her post from the beach? Did you see her try to ride that skimmer thing? I mean, come on, lady.

JENNA FISCHER [00:07:13] I can’t believe you are doubling down on this. I did one hour of yoga today. Very easily.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:07:20] Well.

JENNA FISCHER [00:07:20] I’ll have, you know, which basically qualifies me to play a spy on television.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:07:25] Look out, Community of Secrets spies. OK. OK.

JENNA FISCHER [00:07:32] Alright. In case you’re wondering, I did not confront J.J. Abrams about why I did not receive the role of Sydney Bristow.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:07:38] Opportunity missed.

JENNA FISCHER [00:07:39] I let it go. But here’s the thing. Here’s what happened, guys. He reached out to us about directing an episode, and we were like, yeah. And we were like, come direct an episode. That’s how it happened.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:07:52] We were so giddy, Jenna. We were all so excited.

JENNA FISCHER [00:07:56] I just remember him being so smiley. Remember how much he smiled? He was like so happy and kind and just energetic.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:08:05] He was so nice. And then, like, I don’t know, a few months later, I ran into J.J. and his wife at like a fancy, you know, awards show party. And he was like, “Angela!” and like chatted me up and she was so nice. They’re just really nice folks, y’all.

JENNA FISCHER [00:08:21] Yeah, it’s all true.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:08:23] So put me in your stinking “Star Wars” movie, J.J.

JENNA FISCHER [00:08:26] Yeah. She just wants to walk by.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:08:28] I just want to walk on.

JENNA FISCHER [00:08:30] All right, Fast Fact Number Two, lady, I’m calling this one “Location Change”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:08:37] Why are you saying it like that?

JENNA FISCHER [00:08:39] I don’t know. Is it intriguing?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:08:41] “Location Change”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:08:45] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:08:46] Yeah, I’m intrigued.

JENNA FISCHER [00:08:47] All right, good. Fan question from Anna Carter, B. Smith, Sophia B., Chelsea Lane and Berkeley S. “What house was used as David Wallace’s home in this episode? Was it the same house used for the inside and the outside”? And then we’ve got additional questions from Mary Roberts, Kelsey Joseph, Zu Yi Wang, Kendall K., and Yvonne A. “Hold up, David Wallace’s house is a different house than the one used in. ‘Branch Closing’. But some of the details are the same. What gives”? Here is the answer. Yes, guys, these are good questions because the original house that you saw on “Branch Closing” was in Pasadena. This is a different house. This one is in Encino. More people wrote in about the house too. And many people noted that this house has a circular driveway in the front, which is different. We changed the house because J.J. Abrams really liked the interior of this house, so we did dress the front door to match the front door of the Pasadena house. But, yeah, it’s, it was a different house. Good eye. Good catch.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:10:06] Very good catch, folks. Real good catch. And that makes sense because he would need the interior of the house more than the exterior because the whole episode almost happens in that house.

JENNA FISCHER [00:10:17] Yeah. And it needed to flow. And there’s a lot of moments in this episode where you’re on one group of people and then the camera will rack focus and then some other thing is happening in the background. So having that open floor plan inside was really important to the storytelling.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:10:33] I agree.

JENNA FISCHER [00:10:34] All right. So my next little piece of this Fast Fact is about poor Richard’s.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:10:41] Mmmm.

JENNA FISCHER [00:10:41] We shot Poor Richard’s at the Pickwick Pub, which is inside the Pickwick Bowling Alley in Burbank, California, which is right next to the Pickwick Ice Rink where we shot “Michael’s Birthday”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:10:53] Well, I have a question for you about this.

JENNA FISCHER [00:10:56] Yes.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:10:56] Because in, if memory serves, we shot the interiors stuff at Pickwick, but that exterior parking lot was a different location.

JENNA FISCHER [00:11:06] Yes.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:11:06] And it was the bar. What’s it called? The bar at Oyster House on More Park in Studio City.

JENNA FISCHER [00:11:15] Great catch, lady. Yes.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:11:16] Yes, lady. I knew what parking lot that was because back in ye olde improv days when I was performing long form improv sometimes we would go there afterwards for a drink to celebrate our show.

JENNA FISCHER [00:11:34] So the actual bar that’s inside of that parking lot area is called Oyster Bar.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:11:40] It’s called The Bar at Oyster House.

JENNA FISCHER [00:11:44] Oh.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:11:45] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:11:45] I’ve never been.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:11:46] And you can enter from the parking lot, which is how we sort of set it up. Right?

JENNA FISCHER [00:11:51] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:11:51] Or you can enter from the street. Just, just so you know.

JENNA FISCHER [00:11:54] Now, I have a question for you, because I know we’re going to talk more about Poor Richard’s later. Have you been to the real Poor Richard’s in Scranton, Angela?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:12:02] Yes.

JENNA FISCHER [00:12:04] And do you enter from a parking lot?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:12:06] Yes.

JENNA FISCHER [00:12:07] And was it a good match?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:12:10] Sort of.

JENNA FISCHER [00:12:13] Oh. I cannot wait to hear more. Save it. Tell us no more.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:12:15] OK, I’ll save it. I’ll save it. I’ll save it.

JENNA FISCHER [00:12:18] All right. I mean, to move us on to Fast Fact Number Three. Lady.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:12:22] What?

JENNA FISCHER [00:12:22] Do you remember during “Ben Franklin” when we said that the SAG nominating guy came to set to tell us that we were all nominated for SAG Awards?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:12:31] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:12:32] Well, we shot this episode right after we won our SAG Award!

ANGELA KINSEY [00:12:37] Oh, my gosh. Oh, dang it. Dang it. I should have looked at my journal. I bet I wrote about it.

JENNA FISCHER [00:12:44] I wrote about it in my journal!

ANGELA KINSEY [00:12:46] Dang it. OK, what’d you write?

JENNA FISCHER [00:12:49] OK, here’s what I wrote. “We won the SAG Award for Best Comedic Ensemble cast. Our table was right next to the people from ’24’. So yes, I was drooling all night”. What is that? Why am I saying that?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:13:06] Lady, we were such dorks.

JENNA FISCHER [00:13:08] “What a great group of people. I talked to Kiefer. Or should I say ‘babbled’”. That’s what I wrote. “Later that night, I met Patrick Dempsey”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:13:20] Oh, my God.

JENNA FISCHER [00:13:21] Right? “He has magic sparkles that rotate around his head. The word ‘dreamy’ is completely accurate”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:13:30] Jenna, I don’t know what happens to the two of us, but when we write in our journals, it’s like a 13 year old girl is writing in sparkly pencil, you know?

JENNA FISCHER [00:13:40] 100 percent. What is this diary entry? I was a grown woman when I wrote this.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:13:44] I know.

JENNA FISCHER [00:13:45] All right. Then I wrote, “The best part of the night was probably when Oscar, David, Angela, Kate and her boyfriend and I all started dancing in the middle of a party that did not have a dance floor”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:14:00] That sounds like us.

JENNA FISCHER [00:14:02] That does. But we started a craze and soon a bunch of people were all goin’ to town.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:14:09] I think that’s the night I was doing like a really kind of Rock n’ Roll version of the Charleston with Jack McBrayer. And I step back right onto Oscar’s date’s foot.

JENNA FISCHER [00:14:20] Oh.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:14:20] Remember that? I felt so bad.

JENNA FISCHER [00:14:23] Now, this isn’t the night that you jumped into the pool with your dress on, is it? That’s later.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:14:28] No, that’s a different night.

JENNA FISCHER [00:14:29] We’ll get to that, guys.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:14:31] Always wanted to do it. People had jumped in a pool in their fancy dresses. Remember Angelina Jolie did this one time? Look, she wasn’t at this party, but I was determined to do this once in my life.

JENNA FISCHER [00:14:43] I regret not doing it. Right?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:14:46] I’ll tell you, the car ride home sucked. But the first part was magical.

JENNA FISCHER [00:14:54] All right, guys, well, we’re going to take a break and we will be back to breakdown this episode, “Cocktails”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:15:04] Yeah. All right, you guys, we are back. Now before I break down the cold open for you. I have a few observations to share with you that I remember. Number one, Steve was sick. Do you remember, Jenna?

JENNA FISCHER [00:15:16] Really?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:15:16] Yes. He-.

JENNA FISCHER [00:15:16] I don’t.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:15:17] He had like a cold bug this week. And you can hear it. You can hear it if you rewatch. So he really had to power through because there were a few scenes he was not feeling well in. And no Phyllis.

JENNA FISCHER [00:15:30] No Phyllis.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:15:31] Phyllis is on her honeymoon.

JENNA FISCHER [00:15:34] Oh yes.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:15:34] Yeah. So no Phyllis. And then before we get into the cold open, the blooper reel that’s online for this episode is fantastic. My daughter loved it. We watched it over and over. And now I can see these moments where people were breaking. I’m going to point them out as we go. OK?

JENNA FISCHER [00:15:54] Oh, I love that.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:15:55] All right. So in this cold open, Michael is going to show off his magic skills. You know, he’s been in magic camp and he has a straight jacket on. Dwight is securing chains around him. He’s going to lock it up and then show everyone how he can be a Houdini and get out of it.

JENNA FISCHER [00:16:14] Yes. Well, we had a fan question about this, Ang. Meghan Khiel, Reonin Cobb, Ali Jo Higginbotham, Charlotte Nicholas and Claire Nichols all asked, “How long did Steve have to be in that straitjacket”?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:16:30] He spent the morning in that thing.

JENNA FISCHER [00:16:32] Yeah. I asked Kent Zbornak about it because, you know, he keeps all the logs from our production days-.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:16:39] Are you kidding me?

JENNA FISCHER [00:16:41] That’s how he tells me all this stuff, Angela. He has all of the call sheets and the production logs. And all the, he has it all on file.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:16:50] I knew he had a lot of information. I didn’t realize he had like the production logs that show the time increments we spent on each scene. That is crazy.

JENNA FISCHER [00:17:00] Yeah, he said that all told, Steve was in the straight jacket for about an hour and a half. We didn’t do that many takes. We did about seven or eight. Based on his records. But knowing now that Steve was sick while he was rolling around on the ground trying to get out of that crazy outfit is, oh, my gosh.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:17:23] Yeah. He was like flopping off the chair, like diving across the table, knocking a plant over.

JENNA FISCHER [00:17:31] Well, here’s my question. You know, you saw that he had the very, very large key in the corner of his mouth. Right?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:17:39] So obviously, yes.

JENNA FISCHER [00:17:41] That then falls on the ground and Jim steps on it with his foot. That was just step one. I mean, let’s say he was able to get the key and undo the chains. How was he going to get out of the straight jacket?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:17:54] I don’t know. But in the blooper reel in one take, Steve manages to get out of the straight jacket.

JENNA FISCHER [00:18:00] No.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:18:01] Yes. And we all cheer.

JENNA FISCHER [00:18:02] Oh wait, I remember shooting that.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:18:03] I know, it was like the same moment. I remember when, like in basketball, when he actually made one of those crazy Hail Mary shots and we all cheered. But they can’t use it.

JENNA FISCHER [00:18:14] Yeah. Yeah. Well, lady, we also had a Fan Catch and I love this Fan Catch. It’s from Stella P. and Madison J. “In the cold open. Jim says to Kevin, ‘Have a good weekend’. It’s Friday and no one is dressed for casual Friday”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:18:32] Oh, that’s a very good catch. I bet that made you happy.

JENNA FISCHER [00:18:36] They went on to say, “Isn’t casual Friday supposed to exist until Toby cancels it in Season 5, Episode 26”?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:18:44] Wow. Applause.

JENNA FISCHER [00:18:48] Yep. All right. So should we move on and get into this episode?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:18:51] Yes, let’s do it.

JENNA FISCHER [00:18:53] Michael and Dwight are getting ready to leave for this big party at David Wallace’s house. He makes Dwight smell his breath.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:19:04] He just gets in there. It’s like Steve’s head is a Pez dispenser, Rainn is curling inside it. I don’t know how they got through that.

JENNA FISCHER [00:19:14] I know. And I love Dwight’s line. He’s like, “Good, not great”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:19:20] Yeah. Oh, OK. And then Michael has this talking head, you guys, where he really lays out the stakes of this episode for him. It is Jan and his coming out party, he said. They’re, they’re finally an official couple. This means a lot to him.

JENNA FISCHER [00:19:37] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:19:37] Yeah. And I have one thing, it’s a blooper reel catch of someone about to break. You guys, at 3 minutes, 15 seconds, Michael is trying to see if Jim wants to carpool. He leans down. He’s like, “Wanna carpool”? John could not get it together. John was laughing so hard and Steve knew it and Steve was messing with him. Steve, at one point in the bloopers goes, “You want a ride my Sebring”? And you know, he knew that was going to make John break. John was like destroyed by it.

JENNA FISCHER [00:20:10] Oh, I loved it whenever Steve would do that and he would do it to John mostly because he would find some little thing. And it was usually when he would get like real real close.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:20:22] Yeah. You want to carpool?

JENNA FISCHER [00:20:23] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:20:24] You want to ride in my Sebring?

JENNA FISCHER [00:20:26] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:20:27] It’s really fun to watch.

JENNA FISCHER [00:20:28] So now we cut to Michael and Dwight are in the car and Dwight is like, thank you so much for bringing me along. And Michael’s like, wait a second. Should I have brought you along? I don’t know.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:20:40] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:20:40] And then Jan calls on speaker phone.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:20:44] And do we find out Michael’s nickname for her in this moment?

JENNA FISCHER [00:20:49] What does he call her?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:20:50] He says, “Hello, Buttercup”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:20:53] Oh.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:20:53] Is this a “Princess Bride” moment?

JENNA FISCHER [00:20:56] It sounds like it.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:20:57] A little bit.

JENNA FISCHER [00:20:58] Well, Jan is like, what do you say we blow off this party and we just like, we just go after each other like we did on that black sand beach in Jamaica?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:21:07] Yeah. Doesn’t she say something like why don’t we just smash up on each other or something? It’s a real visual image. I probably didn’t need.

JENNA FISCHER [00:21:15] And then she’s like, wait, am I on speakerphone? Are the cameras there? And she’s like, I’ll just see you at the party. But Michael, Michael does not want to go get it on with Jan. He is like, no, I want to go to this party with you and show everyone that you and I are together.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:21:32] I know this kind of breaks my heart because it’s clearly so important for him and she just wants to blow it off. She doesn’t want to go public with him and he’s kind of forcing her hand. And Jan, I know you’re a fictional character and you won’t ever hear this, but I need to say it. Always assume you’re on speakerphone and cameras are rolling. This is something that comes up with her all the time. She’s like, are the cameras there? I’m like, why are you asking? Just give up. They’re there.

JENNA FISCHER [00:22:03] It’s so true.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:22:05] Well, then, Jenna, as they’re off and on their way, we have at front reception Roy and Pam and Pam is like, Roy, come out with us tonight. And he’s like, no, my brother took a bath on the jet skis. We’re gonna go get drunk. And you’re like, yeah, we’re going to a bar. We’re going somewhere where that can happen. And you’ve got to do boyfriend stuff. If you want to be my boyfriend. Right? You make a big speech.

JENNA FISCHER [00:22:32] Yeah. And Roy is like, OK.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:22:35] Mmhmm.

JENNA FISCHER [00:22:36] And it’s kind of this nice moment where you see Pam as being more assertive. And Roy hears her.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:22:41] Well, there’s a deleted scene Jenna that would have happened right here that I thought was really sweet, where Roy notices your art has been framed and is hanging on the wall and he compliments it. He’s like, hey. Oh, my God, it’s your art. It’s framed. You know, that’s so cool. And it’s this sweet moment that I think would have just extended that beat of where Roy, he’s trying.

JENNA FISCHER [00:23:05] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:23:05] Before we move on from the sweet Pam Roy moment, there is a new plant alert.

JENNA FISCHER [00:23:11] Another new plant at reception?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:23:14] I wish really and truly there was a way that someone could, by the end of the nine years, tell us how many plants that Pam had had. There is a new plant. It’s in a very cute blue ceramic pot with what looks like to be like little colorful balloons on the pot.

JENNA FISCHER [00:23:34] Hmm.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:23:34] It’s very cute. It won’t last. It’s very cute.

JENNA FISCHER [00:23:39] Oh, my gosh. What is this, like, secret story we’re telling about Pam’s ability to care for house plants?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:23:47] Well, it’s not much of a story.

JENNA FISCHER [00:23:50] You know, a friend of mine gave me an air plant recently. It lives on air. You like water it once a week. You you turn it upside down and you put it in a glass of water and then you put it back in the pot. And you know what, Angela? It’s dead.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:24:09] Well, it doesn’t sound like a real thing.

JENNA FISCHER [00:24:11] What? No, it’s real. An air plant is real. It’s a real thing. It was living in air. It’s not even in any soil.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:24:19] What do you mean in air? What does that even look like?

JENNA FISCHER [00:24:23] It looks like a plant. It’s in a piece of wood. But there’s no soil or water in the pot.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:24:30] OK.

JENNA FISCHER [00:24:32] OK. It’s like a fern-y kind of plant.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:24:34] OK.

JENNA FISCHER [00:24:35] And then you, the idea is that this is the thing that people who can’t keep other plants alive can keep alive because it lives on air. I don’t know. But mine is dead.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:24:46] Is it like a fancy chia pet?

JENNA FISCHER [00:24:49] No. No. It’s an air plant.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:24:54] It was an air plant.

JENNA FISCHER [00:24:56] It was.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:24:57] Oh, my gosh, you and Pam can’t keep plants alive.

JENNA FISCHER [00:25:01] We can’t. Well, listen, Pam is now going to have her big moment in her talking head. All right, everyone, she is going to start being direct with people. She’s going to start asking for what she wants. She says, “Look out, world. Old Pammy is getting what she wants. And don’t call me Pammy”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:25:22] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:25:23] I get that quoted to me a lot.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:25:25] Do you really?

JENNA FISCHER [00:25:26] Yeah. “And don’t call me Pammy”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:25:28] The things people quote to us are so different. Like I get, “Poop is raining from the ceilings. Poop”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:25:34] Well, we had a fan question from Ashley Portugal, and Stephanie Shipmen Bahraini. “In this episode, when Pam decides she’s going to be more assertive and she says, ‘And don’t call me Pammy’, it kind of leads us to believe that she doesn’t like that nickname. But in the next episode, when Roy and Pam are talking at the diner, he calls her Pammy. Do you think that was a way of showing how Roy doesn’t really know or pay much attention to Pam and her likes and dislikes”? Yeah, I think this is planting the seed for this nickname of Pammy that she’s probably said, I don’t love that nickname. And he just is the guy who’s like, oh, whatever. Tickle, tickle Pammy.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:26:19] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:26:20] And you’re like, no, I actually mean it. Like, I really don’t like being called Pammy. And he’s like, OK, Pammy.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:26:26] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:26:27] Right? And you’re, then you just give up.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:26:30] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:26:30] And youre like, OK.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:26:31] OK, fine. Yeah. I think it is just that thing where Roy just, he just kind of doesn’t see her. He tried but they’re just not meant to be together. Now Dwight and Michael have arrived incredibly early to the party. There are catering vans and guys carrying in flowers. Dwight realizes pretty quickly that Michael is dressed like the servants. That’s what he calls them.

JENNA FISCHER [00:27:00] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:27:02] And then they, of course, have to change clothes in the driveway. And once again, we see Dwight’s belly. Someone track that. How many plants die and how many times do we see Dwight’s belly?

JENNA FISCHER [00:27:13] Well, I love it that Michael says, “Only good friends arrive early to a party. So the best way to become a good friend is to come early”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:27:23] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:27:25] That’s what you do. That’s his strategy.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:27:27] His strategy is to be the first ones there and the last to leave. And then you’re going to love him.

JENNA FISCHER [00:27:35] You know, that reminds me of Ellie Kemper. You know, Ellie Kemper had a rule to always be the last person at a party.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:27:41] I know.

JENNA FISCHER [00:27:42] And she is fun.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:27:44] And you sort of adopted that with her.

JENNA FISCHER [00:27:46] Yeah. Because she told me that once and I was like, oh, I’m always the first one at a party. I like to come in the early part and here’s why. I’m not going to come so early that you’re just getting out of the shower, OK? And your house isn’t ready. I like to get there early. I get my face time with the host. You know? Get to have a sort of meaningful conversation because they’re not juggling a lot of people yet. And then I’m there as everyone arrives and I get to chit chat with everyone. I feel overwhelmed when I enter a party and it’s like two hours in. I’m like, oh, my gosh, it’s like too much like instant party for me. I need to ease into a party. I need the population of the party to grow around me slowly.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:28:31] I think this is your metaphor for life, though, Jenna. I feel like you need to ease into situations.

JENNA FISCHER [00:28:37] Yeah, well, I have a lot of social anxiety so my way of navigating large social situations is to ease in. I don’t like an instant crowd.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:28:46] I like the instant crowd. I want to jump in. I want the music thumping. I want everyone to have had like a little bit of a cocktail. The pressure is off on me. I can just show up and just be a part of the flow. You get there early, I don’t know, Jenna. You might get stuck in a conversation that goes on forever.

JENNA FISCHER [00:29:07] Well, that happens. That happens. I’ll take it. I’d rather do that than the other thing. And also, if you come early and you chat with the host, if I start to get overwhelmed, if my anxiety gets too high, Irish exit. I can leave.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:29:23] You just fade out.

JENNA FISCHER [00:29:24] But I was there. Everyone knows I was there. Right? And-.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:29:26] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:29:26] Then just the social sort of like obligation is completed. Do I sound like fun?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:29:33] You are fun. You actually are a ton of fun.

JENNA FISCHER [00:29:37] I am fun.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:29:37] And you’re a ton of fun. I, it’s just so fascinating to me. You and I have all of these core things that are so the same. And then all of our social stuff is completely different.

JENNA FISCHER [00:29:49] It’s so true. I always say Angela’s house is like an episode of “Three’s Company”, there’s just people coming through the door randomly at all times.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:29:59] It’s true. I’m just like, “Come on in. I’m out back. Come down the driveway”. Whatever.

JENNA FISCHER [00:30:04] It’s like your neighbor, your contractor. I don’t know. It, literally anyone. Coming on over. Creed comes with his guitar.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:30:14] I know.

JENNA FISCHER [00:30:15] And I’m like, “Make an appointment”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:30:17] Make an appointment. Show up on time.

JENNA FISCHER [00:30:20] I need to ready myself for this social interaction.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:30:24] OK. So now the whole gang is arriving to Poor Richard’s. And I have a little bit of Poor Richard’s trivia, Jenna.

JENNA FISCHER [00:30:32] Oh, is this about the real Poor Richard’s? Because we had two people write in. Lucas Thunderous and  Andrew L. said, “Is Poor Richard’s a real pub that people can go to today? And if so, where is that”?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:30:44] Yes, it is a real pub and it is in Scranton, Pennsylvania. And here’s the thing that was kind of interesting, Jenna. Where we shot in Los Angeles was attached to a bowling alley, right?

JENNA FISCHER [00:30:56] Yep.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:30:57] So is Poor Richard’s. It is not a stand alone bar.

JENNA FISCHER [00:31:01] What?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:31:01] It is the part of a bowling alley. Yes. Yes.

JENNA FISCHER [00:31:05] Is the bowling alley called Poor Richard’s?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:31:07] No. The bowling alley is its own thing. Well, here’s the cool thing. Poor Richard’s actually does have a door that goes into the bar from the outside. But when you go into the bar, there’s a whole section of it that’s just opens out into the bowling alley.

JENNA FISCHER [00:31:20] Wow.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:31:20] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:31:21] That’s exactly what it’s like at Pickwick.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:31:23] Yeah. And right next to the door to go inside is like an old timey looking wooden plaque thing that says, “Poor Richard’s”. And I have a photo I took by it, actually in 2018, my husband and I were randomly driving through Pennsylvania and I was like, oh, my God, it’s a good hour and a half out of the way, but let’s go to Scranton. And we drove to Scranton. We drove all around and I said, let’s go to Poor Richard’s and grab a beer. But it was closed.

JENNA FISCHER [00:31:53] Oh, no.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:31:54] I know. So I took all these pictures by the plaque. But years and years ago, 2017, I was there and I went inside Poor Richard’s with Brian Baumgartner.

JENNA FISCHER [00:32:04] What was that like?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:32:06] It was such a blast. We just drank beer and hung out with the folks from Scranton who were all so nice. And I just love that town.

JENNA FISCHER [00:32:17] Yeah, me too. I’ve only been there the one time, but it was so great.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:32:21] It’s so fun. But yeah, I have some great photos from, from Poor Richard’s. But yeah, you guys families are bowling and then folks are in the bar just right there on the side. But I want to tell you guys, if you go to Poor Richard’s, here’s something that you would you would never think, they have so many different types of French fries.

JENNA FISCHER [00:32:40] Tell me more.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:32:41] You can get regular French fries. You can get French fries with gravy, French fries with cheese, French fries with cheese and gravy, chili cheese fries, devil fries, which are smothered in hot or mild sauce with your choice of cheese, pizza fries, which have garlic parmesan, seasoned fries with pizza cheese and marinara. Bacon, cheddar ranch fries, spicy curly fries or sweet potato fries with salted caramel and marshmallow glaze.

JENNA FISCHER [00:33:12] Did you order any fries when you were there with Brian?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:33:15] I did.

JENNA FISCHER [00:33:17] Which ones?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:33:17] I cut the plain ones. I didn’t realize they had so many others. They were like, what would you like? I was like, Oh, I’ll have some French fries. You know? Because I was just trying to snack. Had I known, I think I would have hit up those bacon cheddar ranch fries.

JENNA FISCHER [00:33:32] Wow.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:33:33] Mmhmm.

JENNA FISCHER [00:33:34] I see a road trip in our future.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:33:36] Oh, good Lord, I would love that. You and I driving through Scranton. Come on.

JENNA FISCHER [00:33:43] We have to make that happen. We’ve got a list.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:33:46] We’ve got a list. We’ve got a bucket list. You guys, you can find out more about Poor Richard’s. You can go to PoorRichardsPub.net.

JENNA FISCHER [00:33:54] Well, the gang all sits around the table and they’re having some drinks, and Pam asks Kevin about his wedding plans.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:34:04] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:34:04] And he’s like, yeah, we set a date. Everyone’s so excited to hear more. And then he’s like, you know what? It’s complicated. And I’d really like some space.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:34:13] Yeah. I need some space.

JENNA FISCHER [00:34:15] Aw.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:34:16] What? At 7 minutes, 3 seconds, there is a fantastic close up of Brian’s tiny curled hair on either side of his head.

JENNA FISCHER [00:34:26] Oh.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:34:27] Yes. The ladies in hair and makeup really must have hit, hit that curling iron hard. Wait, Jenna, I have to show it to you. You have to see. This is a, what should we call this? Poofy Kevin Hair Alert.

JENNA FISCHER [00:34:39] OK. Wow. That is, I think he needs a haircut. Is what I see when I look at that.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:34:49] Yeah, I think so. I think maybe his hair had gotten long. But it’s a big curl on either side of his head.

JENNA FISCHER [00:34:56] It kind of looks like he has gigantic ears underneath his hair that they’re covering up, maybe.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:35:01] It looks like something’s hiding in his hair, right above ear.

JENNA FISCHER [00:35:04] Yeah. It does. Well, listen, Ang, Roy now arrives with his brother Kenny, and they’re going to buy a round of drinks for everyone. And I have a lot of questions for you.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:35:16] I also have some thoughts on Roy and Kenny, but I’ll save those.

JENNA FISCHER [00:35:21] No.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:35:21] OK.

JENNA FISCHER [00:35:23] Do you want your questions now, then?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:35:24] Yeah. Give me some questions.

JENNA FISCHER [00:35:26] OK. Fan question from Heather Heartline and Molly Predican, “What was the reason behind Angela going to Poor Richard’s with everyone? She didn’t really interact with anyone and it didn’t really seem like she would want to go out to a bar with her coworkers. Was she lashing out because Dwight went to the other party”? But before you answer, fan question from Hannah Clinger, Megan Reid and Devin B., “Is Angela crushing on Roy”? Angela? Why’d you show up Poor Richard’s tonight?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:36:01] First of all, at 7 minutes, 28 seconds, here is part of that Angela Roy sort of thread that we’ve seen online. Were they ever a thing? Were they going to be a thing? You can hear off camera when Roy offers to buy everyone a drink, I say, “No, thank you, Roy”. Kind of like eh, right?

JENNA FISCHER [00:36:19] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:36:20] Here’s what I think is the truth, though, guys. We like to think that Angela went there for Roy because it sounds sassy, but the deleted scenes tell the real story.

JENNA FISCHER [00:36:31] Ooh, do tell.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:36:32] Yes, there was a runner between Angela and Oscar at Poor Richard’s. And I think two things were happening with her character. One, Dwight was busy that night and she felt like going out with everybody. But also, it seems, at least in the deleted scenes, that her and Oscar mend the fences even more.

JENNA FISCHER [00:36:54] Oh.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:36:55] I don’t know if you can tell by watching it, but Angela and Oscar actually aren’t at the long table where everyone’s sitting, they’re at a little two top right next to it.

JENNA FISCHER [00:37:04] Oh.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:37:04] And they have dinner together and they have a scene where Oscar has a huge plate of, like, wings in front of him. He’s sort of like takes a bite and makes a gross face. And he goes, “These wings are all fat and bone”. And Angela’s eating one carrot and she goes, “Oh, this place is disgusting”. And then the two of them look at each other and smile and Oscar kind of laughs.

JENNA FISCHER [00:37:33] Oh, my gosh. I love it.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:37:35] Yeah. I think Angela is there because her and Oscar were meant to have these scenes together.

JENNA FISCHER [00:37:40] Hmmm. I love that.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:37:42] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:37:42] Great question. Great answer.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:37:43] They don’t play the game. They’re just they’re kind of hanging out. I know everybody would love a little Roy Angela controversy, but it never happened, guys.

JENNA FISCHER [00:37:53] Mmmm. Well, let’s wait until the next episode, because I’m going to have more to say about it then.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:37:57] OK.

JENNA FISCHER [00:37:59] All right. But for now, we had a quick Fan Catch from Luanda O’Club, “When Roy walks into the bar, there is a sign for Fat Tire beer, which does not distribute to Pennsylvania”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:38:10] Oh, that’s a really good catch.

JENNA FISCHER [00:38:12] A little catch. And then because we mentioned him, I do want to give a shout out to Roy’s brother, Kenny, who is played by Michael Patrick McGill. He does such a good job.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:38:23] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:38:23] He came to the art show. He was amazing. He’s here in this episode again. Just great.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:38:30] Just great. And I really buy their relationship as brothers. I really believe it. He, not only do they look like they could be related to me, but also I just feel like it, it really fills in the picture of Roy and his family and his dynamic and why maybe Pam is, is feeling like she’s evolved past that.

JENNA FISCHER [00:38:51] Well, there’s a lot of testosterone in that family.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:38:53] There is. I mean, these are two guys that we’re gonna go out to get hammered because the jet skis, they didn’t get enough money for them or something.

JENNA FISCHER [00:39:04] Yeah. They didn’t sell for what they wanted them to sell for, I guess.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:39:06] So they’re like-.

JENNA FISCHER [00:39:07] But then I feel like Kenny’s also just upset that he had to sell them in the first place.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:39:11] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:39:12] That’s my backstory for Kenny.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:39:14] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:39:14] It’s both.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:39:15] Mmhmm. Before we leave Poor Richard’s to go back to David Wallace’s house. I absolutely love the story that Toby is now going to spend the whole night trying to get that stupid duck.

JENNA FISCHER [00:39:28] Yes. Well, the other thing too, Angela, is I remember how they spent all this time positioning the claw machine right there at the entrance, and they did that on purpose so that Paul wouldn’t be in the background of everything.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:39:41] Exactly. He had to be on set with our director, J.J. Abrams. He couldn’t be in the background. So it was a very strategic storyline to get him out of every scene.

JENNA FISCHER [00:39:52] And a very, very funny fix.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:39:54] Yes.

JENNA FISCHER [00:39:54] Because, yeah, I guess we should remind everybody that whoever wrote the episode, they shadow the director and they helped to produce their episode. And so it’s hard to both be on camera and being part of those creative conversations over by the monitors.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:40:12] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:40:13] All right. Well, let’s head back over to David Wallace’s house because we forgot to talk about Michael’s offering of the potato salad.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:40:23] Yes.

JENNA FISCHER [00:40:24] We forgot to talk about how he has brought this Tupperware full of potato salad that he has had in his car all day.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:40:34] Well, I love this talking head because he whispers it. And whenever Steve as Michael like whispers like, it just makes me laugh. He’s like, “It’s been out in my car all day. The sun beaten down on it. Mayonnaise”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:40:47] Yeah, I know. Well, Angela, we had a fan question from Jace Lyttle who says, “In light of Michael bringing potato salad to the party. What are your go to dishes to bring to parties”? Do you have a go to dish when there’s a potluck party?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:41:03] Oh, yeah. I mean, I love to bring a side because usually if you’re going to someone’s party, I feel like they sort of do the main stuff and then you bring the sides. So there’s a few that I love. We do this corn dip that I really like. My husband like, my husband has tons of really great dips. Is that? Shameless plug, BakingWithJoshAndAng.com. Tons of really great dips. He does that one. Jenna, you have the dip, we brought over for Super Bowl last year. Do you remember?

JENNA FISCHER [00:41:33] Yes.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:41:34] It’s so good. It’s like, it’s like a jalapeño chicken dip. It’s so good.

JENNA FISCHER [00:41:41] Mmhmm.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:41:41] And then I love these Sriracha brussel sprouts.

JENNA FISCHER [00:41:49] Mmmm.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:41:49] I could go on.

JENNA FISCHER [00:41:50] I never, I don’t think I’ve ever had those.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:41:51] They’re so good that, he cooks the brussel sprouts and then he pours over it this marinade he makes with like soy and I think it’s got Sriracha and honey, it’s so good.

JENNA FISCHER [00:42:02] That sounds amazing.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:42:03] It’s real good.

JENNA FISCHER [00:42:05] That sounds amazing.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:42:06] OK, we’ll bring that next time instead of the Chicken Jalapeño dip.

JENNA FISCHER [00:42:10] Well, my son’s hockey team would always have these like hockey season kickoff parties or holiday parties, and it would just be a big potluck situation. They would order pizzas. But then, you know, everyone brings something too.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:42:25] Mmhmm.

JENNA FISCHER [00:42:26] And I have two go tos.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:42:27] What?

JENNA FISCHER [00:42:29] One, fried chicken from the grocery store.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:42:32] Oh, fried chicken, you can’t go wrong with. Especially with little kids. I was talking like adult party. I have a whole different sides for kids stuff.

JENNA FISCHER [00:42:40] OK. Well, we always like to bring fried chicken. A friend of mine actually tipped me off to this offering and it is always a huge hit and I completely stole her idea. And we do it all the time. Also, it’s really easy because you just pick it up warm from the grocery store on your way to the event.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:42:56] Yes.

JENNA FISCHER [00:42:57] And no one cares that you didn’t make it yourself because they’re just happy eating it.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:43:00] Yep.

JENNA FISCHER [00:43:01] But then my other thing that I would do for these potlucks is I do these shredded chicken mini-sliders.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:43:11] Yes, I’ve had those.

JENNA FISCHER [00:43:12] Yeah, I, I, I love them. I actually put them in a cookbook. Angela, I’m in a cookbook.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:43:19] I know.

JENNA FISCHER [00:43:19] I’m in, I collaborated on this cookbook with King’s Hawaiian and I put this recipe in the cookbook. And what you do is you put chicken breasts and you marinate them on low in a crockpot, in root beer. That is the secret ingredient. And you do that for several hours until they’re all soft. Then you drain the root beer, you shred up the chicken, you put a bunch of barbecue sauce in, let that cook on low for a couple of hours and then you just bring the whole crock pot along with little slider buns and other accoutrements.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:43:52] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:43:52] And you’re like, Here you go. It’s sort of like a spin on like a pulled pork sandwich. But it’s chicken.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:43:57] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:43:58] Those are my go tos.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:43:59] I think those are great. Well-.

JENNA FISCHER [00:44:00] Since Jace Lyttle asked.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:44:03] All right.

JENNA FISCHER [00:44:03] All right. Well, should we move on because now Dwight is at the buffet.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:44:09] I love a buffet!

JENNA FISCHER [00:44:11] He tells the woman-. That is fine, lady, you love a buffet. If I say buffet, I should just pause and let you have your moment.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:44:20] I’m always going to have a moment.

JENNA FISCHER [00:44:21] Well, Dwight tells her that the piece of shrimp she’s eating, that the line on the back of the shrimp is poop.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:44:29] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:44:31] And you know what?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:44:31] What?

JENNA FISCHER [00:44:33] It is poop. I looked it up.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:44:35] Oh, yeah, it is.

JENNA FISCHER [00:44:37] So here’s what I found out.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:44:39] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:44:40] If you’re going to cook the shrimp.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:44:41] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:44:42] Then you don’t have to devein it. They call it deveining. But it’s not a vein.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:44:47] No.

JENNA FISCHER [00:44:48] It’s poop.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:44:47] I think they call it deveining because no one wants to really think about the fact that we’re just scraping poop off their backside.

JENNA FISCHER [00:44:53] Yeah. So anyway, you should de-poop it if you’re not going to cook it.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:44:59] Like a shrimp cocktail.

JENNA FISCHER [00:45:01] Right. But if you’re going to cook it, you can just leave the poop there because the cooking will kill the bacteria. At least according to this L.A. Times article that I read about it.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:45:11] OK.

JENNA FISCHER [00:45:11] The end.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:45:12] Do you like shrimp?

JENNA FISCHER [00:45:18] I mean. Wow. This is not that important of a question, but I’m really weighing my answer.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:45:23] I know.

JENNA FISCHER [00:45:27] I don’t hate it, but I don’t look for it.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:45:31] Right.

JENNA FISCHER [00:45:32] I think the most shrimp I eat is maybe in a Pad Thai.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:45:36] Mmhmm.

JENNA FISCHER [00:45:37] What about you?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:45:38] I love shrimp. I love shrimp.

JENNA FISCHER [00:45:40] Oh.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:45:40] You cannot have relatives in Louisiana and not like shrimp. We talked a lot about food. It’s called “Cocktails”, but we’re still talking about food.

JENNA FISCHER [00:45:51] Yeah, I’m hungry.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:45:53] I am, too. I don’t even know where we’re at anymore.

JENNA FISCHER [00:45:56] I don’t either. But I’m going to share something, it’s personal. Lady, the other night, I ate an entire box of Cheddar Bunnies snack mix. That’s over twelve hundred calories.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:46:10] Is that-?

JENNA FISCHER [00:46:11] Of Cheddar Bunnies.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:46:11] Like the Cheddar Bunnies we get for the kids?

JENNA FISCHER [00:46:14] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:46:14] Oh, lady.

JENNA FISCHER [00:46:16] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:46:17] Lady. Were you-?

JENNA FISCHER [00:46:18] I had a moment.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:46:19] Did you have a bad day?

JENNA FISCHER [00:46:21] Yeah. It was just, you know, where it just feels like you’re in a hole and you can’t get out? And for whatever reason, my tunnel out of the hole was this box of cheddar crackers. Before I knew it, my fingertips were scraping the bottom of the box. I couldn’t believe I’d eaten the whole thing.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:46:41] What were you watching? Were you watching something?

JENNA FISCHER [00:46:45] Yeah. I was watching the show called “Search Party”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:46:47] Oh, yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:46:49] Yeah, it’s really good.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:46:50] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:46:51] And I was riveted. And before I knew it. I’d finished the, all of them. And I’m going to say I felt better the next day. I don’t know what the moral of this story is, but-.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:47:09] How were your BMs? Were you OK?

JENNA FISCHER [00:47:13] Yeah, I was expecting to have a lot more tummy trouble than I did. I was fine. I was fine.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:47:19] Do you ever want to eat one again?

JENNA FISCHER [00:47:23] I’m craving it. I want another box.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:47:26] Oh, my god!

JENNA FISCHER [00:47:26] And I’m not going to buy it, because if it’s not in the house, I won’t eat it. But I had this problem with the Trader Joe’s cheese crackers a few years ago. Where if I ate one, I ate the whole box and I managed to get over that. And clearly my new trigger is the Cheddar Bunnies snack mix. It, it’s got everything in it. It’s got, not just the cheddar bunnies that we love, but it’s got like little pretzels and, like, little Cheese-It things and.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:47:55] Yeah, I was so expecting the story to go differently. I thought you were going to tell it to me and say, I came out on the other side. I am done with junk food. I am only going to eat healthy snacks. But you’re like I ate at all. I felt fine. I’d do it again.

JENNA FISCHER [00:48:12] So you were expecting, like, the story to go somewhere is what you’re saying. You didn’t expect it that it would just hit a wall. Actually, Angela, I have been turning things around and we’ve been texting about it. I’m trying to do physical exercise three to four days a week, and I’ve been eating really good. But I had this low moment with the box of cheddar crackers. I don’t know. Sometimes you need to be OK not being OK. Right?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:48:41] Lady, who are you talking to? I got nothing but love for you with all of that. I mean, do you remember that night where it was like 11:00 at night? And I was like, well, I guess someone needs a piece of chocolate pie. I guess that person’s me. Everyone’s gone to bed. Not even going to put it on a plate. I’m going to stand inside the fridge and just have a fork and just carve at it.

JENNA FISCHER [00:49:07] I do remember because you sent me a video message of yourself eating the pie from the fridge.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:49:14] Uh huh, yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:49:14] And I’ll tell you what, it made me feel better.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:49:16] There you go. There you go. OK, wait. Where are we?

JENNA FISCHER [00:49:20] Where we are is that Jan and Michael have arrived to the party and they’re outside. And Jan wants Michael to sign some papers waiving his right to sue Dunder Mifflin in the event that their relationship, in his mind or in reality, interferes with work.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:49:40] I have to tell you, I laughed so hard when she was digging in her trunk and he said, “What cha looking for? You bring a dip”?

JENNA FISCHER [00:49:49] Amazing.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:49:49] Like somewhere in Michael’s mind, you go to a party, you bring a dip. No matter what party, you bring a dip. He’s like everybody must have brought a dip. Right?

JENNA FISCHER [00:50:00] Also, I cannot get enough of Jan and Michael.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:50:03] I know.

JENNA FISCHER [00:50:04] I love this relationship. I love Melora Hardin so much.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:50:07] She’s so phenomenal.

JENNA FISCHER [00:50:09] God, she’s good.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:50:10] Well, you know, she has this amazing talking head where she’s like, Hey. Yeah, this is a calculated risk. You know, upside, I’m going to fall deeply in love and have babies and normalcy. No more self-loathing. Downside, she collapses in on herself like a dying star. Right? So in the deleted scenes, she has a much longer talking head. They really trim this down. And lady, she over shares so much like its al-, it’s so uncomfortable to watch.

JENNA FISCHER [00:50:43] What does she say?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:50:44] I mean, she’s, she talks about past relationships. She was like, well, I guess one good thing is I orgasm really easily. So.

JENNA FISCHER [00:50:52] Oh my god.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:50:53] She really overshares. And I was like, oh, my God, I see why they, they deleted it. But it really, really does show you where Jan is at. Her mental space.

JENNA FISCHER [00:51:06] Well, as soon as he walks in the door with Jan, they run into David Wallace. They’ve barely introduced themselves and he says, “Jan and I are lovers”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:51:20] He doesn’t say, Jan and I are dating. First of all, he doesn’t need to say that. He doesn’t need to clarify their relationship. But he’s so excited and he always refers to them as lovers. And you guys, I don’t know if you guys have ever had people like this in your life, but I know a couple who, when they talk about each other, they refer to each other as their lover.

JENNA FISCHER [00:51:47] What?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:51:47] And it makes me so uncomfortable every time, every time. I remember when they got engaged, we were like, Oh, tell us your engagement story. And they were like, well, we said to each other, you know what? You are my lover. You are my friend. It’s always, they always bring it up.

JENNA FISCHER [00:52:07] Is it me and Lee?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:52:08] No.

JENNA FISCHER [00:52:10] Why, are you saying you don’t like it, that I say that? That Lee and I refer to one another as lovers.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:52:16] Oh my gosh. I can’t.

JENNA FISCHER [00:52:16] I want to do it now.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:52:17] Oh.

JENNA FISCHER [00:52:18] The next time I go to a party, I’m gonna introduce Lee and I as lovers. “This is my lover, Lee”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:52:22] You know what? Show up really early when there’s no one else to buffer your awkward conversation and no one’s had a drink yet and be like, My lover and I are early and my lover and I brought Cheese-Its”. Or whatever.

JENNA FISCHER [00:52:36] We brought some Bunny snack mix.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:52:40] My lover told me not to eat so many in the car and I said, “Lover, you’re silly”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:52:45] I can’t wait to do this bit at my next party.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:52:49] Oh, it makes me so uncomfortable.

JENNA FISCHER [00:52:51] So now we’re, the party is going at David Wallace’s house and we just have what is possibly one of the most awkward conversations at a party.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:53:01] Yeah. 9 minutes, 52 seconds, Michael tries to hold Jan’s hand. He’s already, you know, as we said, called his lover. Then he tries to hold her hand. She won’t hold his hand. Then he blows in her face. Then he asked for an appetizer. Wants to know if they have any bagel bites.

JENNA FISCHER [00:53:20] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:53:21] Then Dwight asked for the square footage of the house. Then Michael’s like, “That’s inappropriate. How much does this house cost”?

JENNA FISCHER [00:53:27] And then doesn’t, Jim, like do like a spit take with his drink? Let me tell you something. I was having a cup of tea while I was watching this episode, and I happened to be taking a sip right at this moment. And Jim and I simultaneously spit into our cups from that line, that I was, that line made me laugh out loud.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:53:51] I know. It’s so awkward and it sends Dwight now on this crazy journey of checking out every nook and cranny of their house.

JENNA FISCHER [00:53:58] Yes. And this is also where Karen is going to start her little prank on Jim. She says to Jim, “Do you see that guy over there? Because I just think you should know we used to date and it didn’t end well”. And Jim is like, “Oh”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:54:15] I didn’t like this prank. I didn’t like the storyline.

JENNA FISCHER [00:54:18] Tell me more.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:54:20] Well, I mean. I think it’s passive aggressive. I think Karen is maybe still a little stung by the fact that Jim dated Pam and the way she found out about it. And I feel like this is her kind of playful way to make light of it, although it’s not something that she feels light about because they’ve had all these late night talks. But it’s her sort of playful way of, I don’t know, kind of jabbing him about it.

JENNA FISCHER [00:54:53] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:54:53] And it feels a little sad and a little desperate to me, Karen. Oh.

JENNA FISCHER [00:54:59] Wow. You said it.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:55:02] I fed it.

JENNA FISCHER [00:55:03] Well, should we talk about this scene with the scotch?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:55:07] Oh, God. It is so good. There’s wonderful moments in the deleted scenes too. Oh, my God.

JENNA FISCHER [00:55:15] Well, I have to say, when Steve takes a sip of this scotch, which David tells us was gifted to him by Lee Iacocca. Steve starts coughing.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:55:27] Mmhmm.

JENNA FISCHER [00:55:28] And it is some of the best liquor coughing I’ve ever seen in a performance. It was so real.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:55:35] And it’s so amazing too because there’s a great moment in the bloopers where he’s like, “Over the gums and through the lips”. Like he is not understanding the magnitude of a 20 year old scotch given by this amazing man who he thinks discovered the DeLorean.

JENNA FISCHER [00:55:52] Yes, yes.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:55:53] All of it is wrong. All of it is wrong.

JENNA FISCHER [00:55:56] We had a few people write in about that joke and they were like, I don’t understand the joke about Lee Iacocca and the DeLorean. And this is just a matter of Michael. He’s just mixing up his automobile executives.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:56:10] Yes. This is a classic, Michael, where he gets one part right. And then the rest wrong.

JENNA FISCHER [00:56:15] Yes. So for anyone who doesn’t know, Lee Iacocca was best known for developing the Ford Mustang and the Pinto cars. He worked for Ford. But then he went on to work at Chrysler. And he was just this huge automobile executive legend. But here is a fun fact.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:56:36] What?

JENNA FISCHER [00:56:37] Lee Iacocca wrote his autobiography with another writer, William Novak.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:56:45] Holy crap.

JENNA FISCHER [00:56:46] B.J. Novak’s father. Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:56:48] Wait.

JENNA FISCHER [00:56:50] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:56:50] Wait.

JENNA FISCHER [00:56:51] Yep.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:56:51] Wait. B.J. Novak’s dad.

JENNA FISCHER [00:56:54] Yep.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:56:55] Was the ghostwriter for Lee Iacocca’s autobiography?

JENNA FISCHER [00:57:01] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:57:01] Am I getting this right?

JENNA FISCHER [00:57:03] You are. B.J. Novak’s father, William Novak, was a ghostwriter. But he was also a writer.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:57:09] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:57:10] And he wrote this book with Lee Iacocca. I, I don’t want to tell B.J.’s stories for B.J., but I just want everyone to know that his childhood was fascinating and he had just legendary people who worked with his father, who then B.J. had like moments with-.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:57:34] As a child.

JENNA FISCHER [00:57:35] As a child. But here’s the thing. What’s so cool about B.J.’s stories is that he’s a kid meeting legends of different industries. And it just makes me think about the time that my husband, Lee, was making a movie with Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day. And Billy Joe would come over to our house and rehearse with Lee for this movie. And my son, who was a big Green Day fan and who is a drummer himself, like hang out with Billie Joe Armstrong and Billie Joe would like show him riffs on the drums and stuff like that. But to my son, he was just like this cool guy named Billy who was coming over. But one day, like, when he’s older, I’m gonna be like, do you know who was in our house teaching you that whole thing on the high hat? Like did, that was? Do you know who, like, tuned your bass drum for you that one time? That was Billie Joe Armstrong.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:58:35] Yeah. It’s gonna be so cool. Jenna, I am there, but I’m there with “The Office”. Because my kids now love “The Office”. They love it. And they want to watch every episode with me. They’ll say, you know, what, what, what episode are you guys doing for “Office Ladies” this week? Can we watch with you? And half the time they’ve seen the episode and it’s their second or third viewing of it. And Isabelle, there’s a photo in our kitchen, Jenna. You know how I have that, I have like a big bulletin board with a bunch of photos on it. And I have a photo of you and I and Isabelle on a swing set and I’m holding her and it’s from “Company Picnic”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:59:13] Yeah. I remember that.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:59:13] She had come to set that day at lunch, right?

JENNA FISCHER [00:59:16] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:59:16] So the other morning Isabelle was like, “Mom, that’s ‘Company Picnic’. I was on set for ‘Company Picnic’”. I was like, “Baby, you were on set every week”. I just don’t have a picture every time. And she was like, “Oh, my gosh”. But it’s, it’s that moment. It’s all becoming really real for her.

JENNA FISCHER [00:59:34] Yeah. Well, that was B.J.’s life. He had, you know, all these crazy people, but he was just like, oh, you know, my dad’s friend Lee came over to write a book about cars.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:59:47] Lee Iacocca.

JENNA FISCHER [00:59:48] Just Lee Iacocca.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:59:50] Crazy.

JENNA FISCHER [00:59:51] Not a biggie. Nice guy.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:59:52] Nice fella. Well, lady, we did have a great callback to a character in this scene while they’re in the house. We see Dan Gore, who is the regional manager for the Buffalo branch.

JENNA FISCHER [01:00:05] Yep.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:00:05] Dwight calls him an idiot for not knowing “Battlestar Galactica”. So I thought that was a nice little callback to Season 2. And up next, we are going to get into a pretty rowdy drinking game over at Poor Richard’s.

JENNA FISCHER [01:00:19] Before we do that, we’re going to take a little break.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:00:21] All right.

JENNA FISCHER [01:00:23] How’s that sound?

ANGELA KINSEY [01:00:23] That sounds sounds real good.

JENNA FISCHER [01:00:24] All right.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:00:29] OK.

JENNA FISCHER [01:00:29] All right, guys, we are back and we are about to start a drinking game called, let me just say we had a number of fan questions about what it’s called. Tracy Williams, Alex Taylor, Nicole Sabino, Bethany Devish and Samantha Skelley all said, “Number one, is the drinking game everyone plays at Poor Richard’s a real game? Number two, is it called ‘Up Chickens’ or ‘Up Jenkins’? And number three, where did the writers get the idea from”?

ANGELA KINSEY [01:01:00] First of all, yes, this is a real game. It is called “Up Jenkins, Down Jenkins”. And I will tell you how Paul found out about it. So Paul’s brother Warren went to Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. And I was in New York with him and we were hanging out with his friends from college, Martin and Nellie. This is a game they played in college. We played it all night at a little dive bar in Manhattan. Paul knew about this game from Warren and he incorporated it into the script.

JENNA FISCHER [01:01:31] OK, so how exactly do you play?

ANGELA KINSEY [01:01:33] OK, now. According to Warren, Martin and Nellie from Kenyon College, this is how you play it. There are two teams on opposing sides of a table. You grab a quarter and you pass it underneath as slyly as possible. Right? You’re passing the quarter under the table to your teammates. And at any time, the opposing team on the other side of the table can say, “One, two, three, up Jenkins”. And at that point, every single person has to put their elbows on the table and clench their hands into fists to hide whoever has the quarter. Right?

JENNA FISCHER [01:02:10] OK.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:02:11] And then the opposing team says, “One, two, three, down Jenkins”. And at that point, you slam your hands down to the table. Everyone at the same time, you try to do it at the same time to mask the sound of that quarter hitting the table. And then the opposing team goes down the line and touches every single hand they think doesn’t have it, leaving the hand that does have it.

JENNA FISCHER [01:02:38] Now.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:02:38] OK.

JENNA FISCHER [01:02:39] Do we know why it’s called “Up Jenkins, Down Jenkins”? Did someone named Jenkins invent it?

ANGELA KINSEY [01:02:46] We don’t know why. And when I looked it up on the Internet, a few things came up. First of all, Jenkins is a very Welsh name. And apparently there is a version of this in Wales, and it’s called “Tippett”.

JENNA FISCHER [01:02:59] Oh.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:02:59] I don’t know. It is also played in Iraq. And it’s called “Mheibes”. If I’m saying that correctly. Apparently it’s been documented that a version of this game was played by the Native Americans and it was called “Hand Game” and it’s played throughout America. There’s several different names. It has been referred to as “Up Chickens” in Midwestern states or sometimes it’s just called “Jenkins”.

JENNA FISCHER [01:03:27] Well, there you have it, folks.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:03:29] I’m sure there’s more information out there about “Up Jenkins, Down Jenkins”. And if you guys have any, let us know. Jenna, do you remember on set me teaching everyone how to play?

JENNA FISCHER [01:03:38] Yes, I do. I do. You gave a little tutorial.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:03:42] And I was so bummed that once again Angela Martin does not participate.

JENNA FISCHER [01:03:47] I know. You were our teacher, but you were not a participant.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:03:51] No.

JENNA FISCHER [01:03:52] Well, in the episode, Pam is the one who ends up having the quarter under her hand and Roy is doing the guessing and he kind of looks at her and he’s like, you know, not here to Stanley revealing that Pam has it. And then he says, like, I can just read you like a book. You can’t keep anything from me.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:04:12] Oh, and Pam’s like, oh, but I can. And I did.

JENNA FISCHER [01:04:17] Well, she just feels, I think, super guilty. She’s on this track in this episode where she’s trying to be more assertive. Remember, she went up to the bar and the bartender gave her the wrong drinks.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:04:29] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [01:04:29] And she mustered up the courage to say, “I’m sorry, one of these is supposed to be a light”.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:04:35] And I really do think she meant it. And we’ll get there when she’s like, you know, I want us to have a real chance. And she sees Roy trying and she wants to try. And if, if this is going to work, then she wants all the cards on the table.

JENNA FISCHER [01:04:51] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:04:52] And part of this sort of being empowered to speak her mind is all just part of that.

JENNA FISCHER [01:04:58] Well, now there’s this little runner that happens at the bar that I love. It’s so small, but it’s these moments that just make the show for me, where all of these kids walk in and they are introducing themselves to Creed.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:05:11] He says, “Hi”. He knows every single one of them.

JENNA FISCHER [01:05:14] All of them. And then he’s just got this quick little talking head where he’s like, Oh, yeah, I run a small fake I.D. company out of my car using a laminating machine that I swipe from the sheriff station. That’s it.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:05:25] That’s it.

JENNA FISCHER [01:05:26] That’s how I know them.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:05:27] Why was I at the sheriff’s station? How long have I been doing this business? It’s clearly illegal.

JENNA FISCHER [01:05:34] Well, listen, should we go back to David Wallace’s house, lady?

ANGELA KINSEY [01:05:39] Oh, yeah. Because things are going off the rails.

JENNA FISCHER [01:05:43] Oh, my God. It’s amazing. Well, Karen is continuing her prank on Jim. And they’ve had a conversation with a couple and she’s like, “Oh, my gosh. Did you see the way that woman was just staring daggers at me? I think it’s because I dated her husband for a while while they were separated”.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:06:03] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [01:06:03] So she’s keeping her joke going.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:06:04] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [01:06:05] Dwight is still inspecting the house. He’s testing the smoke detector. The banister.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:06:12] I have to tell you, Dwight in this episode really reminds me a lot of a friend of mine who is a contractor. He’s a comedian and also a contractor, which is a very funny combination. His name is Pete Only. He’s been in a ton of movies and things, he’s very funny. But he would walk through my house and he would like bang on a wall and he’d be like, “Yeah, this can go”. He’d like-.

JENNA FISCHER [01:06:33] What?

ANGELA KINSEY [01:06:34] He’d thump a pillar, and be like, “You can lose this”. He’d like hit something else, he was like, “Yeah, you don’t need that”. I’m like, “Pete, what is left of my house”?

JENNA FISCHER [01:06:41] Well, this reminds me a little bit of my dad, because my dad is a builder, you know?

ANGELA KINSEY [01:06:48] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [01:06:48] And, not professionally. He’s an engineer, but he builds now displays for the Children’s Museum in St. Louis. This place called the Magic House.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:06:57] No, your dad is amazingly talented.

JENNA FISCHER [01:06:59] He’s amazingly talented. And by the way, can I say something about my dad that’s sort of amazing? So my sister is a schoolteacher and with the pandemic, their school opened. So they are doing in-person learning.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:07:12] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [01:07:12] And in order to make the space safer for the kids, especially the real little ones who have a hard time keeping their masks on, like the preschool age, my dad built 30 plexiglass screens for the preschool classes so that they could separate all the kids by these little-.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:07:33] That is amazing.

JENNA FISCHER [01:07:33] Screens. He just did that in his free time and delivered them all up to the school. He’s amazing.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:07:38] That is amazing. I know. My sister, Janet, listens to our podcast and her and the other teachers made little screens using Legos and plexiglass. They could’ve used your dad.

JENNA FISCHER [01:07:49] He was so excited. He had a whole template for it. He had a whole little like assembly line he created. But I could kind of see my dad, like my dad, because, you know, later in the episode, Dwight’s like this was a great party. He had a fantastic time. Like I think my dad’s favorite time at a party would be if he could walk around and just like structurally examine a home.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:08:11] Yeah. He doesn’t need small talk. He just needs a crawl space and a flashlight.

JENNA FISCHER [01:08:16] Yeah. And he might fix something, if you’ve got like a a wonky doorknob, that’ll be fixed when he leaves.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:08:23] Aw, I love that.

JENNA FISCHER [01:08:25] Well, Michael is very impressed by the vanilla candles.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:08:32] What a weird like foreshadow, right?

JENNA FISCHER [01:08:37] For Jan’s candle business?

ANGELA KINSEY [01:08:39] Yes.

JENNA FISCHER [01:08:39] I know. So insane.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:08:41] He really, he really wants David Wallace to go to Sandals with them. He’s like, “You would not believe how low this lady can go in the limo”? Jan is horrified.

JENNA FISCHER [01:08:52] Yes. She’s like, “Excuse us”. And she pulls him into the bathroom. And then she starts just-.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:09:00] Attacking him.

JENNA FISCHER [01:09:01] Attacking him. Like she’s like, “Throw me up against the wall right here, take me right here”. And he’s like, “Jan, what are you-? Stop getting undressed. This is inappropriate”.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:09:11] And she goes, “Oh, I’m inappropriate. Get out of my way”. She is, I mean, the woman is unhinged.

JENNA FISCHER [01:09:20] It’s so incredible because it really, it’s like she’s some sort of like a masochist or something, right? Like, she just, it, there’s something in the humiliation that turns her on.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:09:35] Listen, she said this could go two ways. One is where she collapses into herself like a dying star. It’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy. She is just going to do that.

JENNA FISCHER [01:09:50] Well, now we come up on one of my favorite scenes at the party.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:09:53] Is it Dwight wanting the rocking chair?

JENNA FISCHER [01:09:55] Yes. We had a fan question for Meghan Lucharoney, who said, “I read that David Wallace’s son is played by Greg Daniels son, Owen Daniels”. That is correct.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:10:09] That is true. It was so fun to have him on set. And, you know, it’s just, it’s so amazing now, Jenna to see these kids as they’re older. Talk about feeling old. Oh, my gosh. Owen’s like a-.

JENNA FISCHER [01:10:22] Yes.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:10:22] He’s like a young man now, you know? It’s crazy.

JENNA FISCHER [01:10:27] Yeah. I know, I know. The scene is just so good and we had a Fan Catch from Nora A., Alija Brown and Ashley Dodd who said this, “In this episode, when Dwight is in David Wallace’s son’s room and he’s sitting in the rocking chair, he asked the kid where it’s from and says he wants one. In the final season, we can clearly see that Dwight got the same rocking chair”.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:10:54] Get out.

JENNA FISCHER [01:10:56] They must have saved it and put it at Schrute Farms.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:11:00] That’s such a great tiny detail to catch. I’m very impressed.

JENNA FISCHER [01:11:06] I love that.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:11:06] That’s amazing.

JENNA FISCHER [01:11:09] Well, then David Wallace asked Jim if he wants to go shoot hoops out back.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:11:14] Well, while they’re playing basketball, they hear like a clamoring noise and they look up and there’s Dwight on the flippin’ roof and he’s like busted up part of the chimney.

JENNA FISCHER [01:11:26] Yes, we got mail about this, Angela. Stephanie T., Phoebe B., Violet F., Abbie M. and Iris Bell all wrote in to say, “Is Rainn really climbing on the roof when Dwight is inspecting the chimney? How did Rainn get on the roof? Because in previous podcasts you mentioned that you guys had to ride a crane to get on the roof, so how did this work”?

ANGELA KINSEY [01:11:48] Oh, good question. I didn’t even think about that. But it looks like he’s really up there.

JENNA FISCHER [01:11:52] He’s really up there. But the chimney is fake.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:11:56] Oooh.

JENNA FISCHER [01:11:57] Here is what Kentapedia told me. They had to build a chimney and rig it onto the roof of the house because where those guys were playing basketball, if you looked up at the roof, there was no chimney there. So that is a fake chimney. Rainn had to climb onto the roof using a ladder. He was assisted by a stunt coordinator. And after he got on the roof, the stunt coordinator attached a little safety line to Rainn’s waist, fed it through his pant leg so that in the event that he slipped, he wouldn’t fall off the roof. So they had him like sort of like chained to the roof.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:12:36] He wouldn’t fall off the roof, but he would get a horrendous wedgie.

JENNA FISCHER [01:12:41] Yes. Yes. Correct.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:12:43] He’d get a wedgie to end all wedgies.

JENNA FISCHER [01:12:46] Yes.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:12:46] I cannot believe they built a fake chimney. Wow. That is so wild.

JENNA FISCHER [01:12:51] Well, and then back inside the party, Angela, is a little couplet that I just love and so did a lot of other people.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:12:59] I bet it happens at 16 minutes, 41 seconds.

JENNA FISCHER [01:13:04] Is it, “Hi, Jan”. “Not too good”?

ANGELA KINSEY [01:13:07] “Hey, Jan”. “Not too good”.

JENNA FISCHER [01:13:12] Yeah. Well, Alana Winkle, Rose Dowl, Julia Tyson and Hannah Hauk all wrote in saying it was one of their favorite moments and they love how there’s this runner of Jan not responding correctly to the greeting that someone has given her.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:13:28] Yes, because we saw this in “The Initiation”, when Pam says “Hi”, and Jan goes, “I’m great”.

JENNA FISCHER [01:13:34] Yes, exactly. Amazing.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:13:40] Well, Jenna. I love that couplet of dialog, but I also loved Micheal’s talking head. I thought Paul, as the writer, knocked this out of the park, because this is really how people talk, how they process information. Michael is saying, wow, you know, she really likes my potato salad. And I just bought it at the store, I. I wish I could make potato salad like that. I mean, I guess it’s really simple. It’s potatoes and mayonnaise. There is something very wrong with Jan. Like why does this pivot? But I feel like that’s real life. I feel like that’s how you, you’re talking about something like, oh yeah. There was such a, you know, a lovely breeze out today and I don’t think we can be married anymore. You’re like, what?

JENNA FISCHER [01:14:26] Well, let me tell you, I was completely distracted during this talking head, Angela. Behind Steve’s shoulder, sitting at what looks like a vanity.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:14:39] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [01:14:40] Did you see It looks like it is a woman with really, really, really long blond hair. Or something. It looks like something out of like “The Ring”. Remember that horror movie, “The Ring”?

ANGELA KINSEY [01:14:58] Yeah, wait. So there’s-?

JENNA FISCHER [01:14:59] But with like blond hair coming over her face or it’s the back of her head. I was like, what? Who is? Oh, is that a person? Is it a wig on a stand? What is the hairy object over his shoulder? And I could never figure it out.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:15:13] No, I didn’t catch it at all. I think I was so, like, riveted on Steve. But now I need to see it.

JENNA FISCHER [01:15:21] Well, remember when we couldn’t figure out what the weird, fluffy thing was by Phyllis’ desk and we figured out that it was a feather duster?

ANGELA KINSEY [01:15:28] Thanks to Codi. Codi knew immediately.

JENNA FISCHER [01:15:31] Well, I don’t know if we need to get Codi on this, but what is over Michael’s shoulder during this talking head?

ANGELA KINSEY [01:15:38] OK, it’s-.

JENNA FISCHER [01:15:38] Someone tell me.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:15:39] It’s around 16 minutes, 50 seconds. If anyone knows.

JENNA FISCHER [01:15:43] Codi, we’re going to move on, but could you take a look at it and weigh in?

ANGELA KINSEY [01:15:48] Yeah. 16 minutes, 50 seconds.

JENNA FISCHER [01:15:50] Well, while she’s doing that, I feel like we should go back to Poor Richard’s, Angela, because some shiitake is about to go down.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:15:57] So much shiitake and so quickly out of nowhere.

JENNA FISCHER [01:16:03] Yeah, should we talk about it?

ANGELA KINSEY [01:16:06] Yeah. I mean, Pam and Roy are at the bar. Looks like it’s been a pretty successful night. It definitely seems like Roy has had a few cocktails.

JENNA FISCHER [01:16:15] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:16:15] He seems a little tipsy and Pam says she wants to make a fresh start with him, no secrets. He says, “Me too”.

JENNA FISCHER [01:16:24] And then she says a month before their wedding at the Casino Night, her and Jim kissed.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:16:33] She says, “I kissed Jim”.

JENNA FISCHER [01:16:36] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:16:37] And she said he had, you know, told her his feelings and then Roy’s like, “Wait. Jim came on to you”?

JENNA FISCHER [01:16:46] And she’s like, “Listen”. And he’s like, “I am listening. That’s the problem”. And he just goes from zero to 60.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:16:55] He throws a beer bottle or something at that mirror and it shatters.

JENNA FISCHER [01:17:01] Yes. Yes. Well, I asked Kent about that because I remember that moment. And I remember something happened there that wasn’t supposed to happen. I was like, “Kent, was that mirror meant to break”? Because when I was watching the scene, I was like, what was the mishap with that mirror? So he said the glass mirror was a prop sign. It was rigged with safety glass and Roy was meant to hit it with his beer bottle. And that all the bottles that Roy and Kenny are throwing are all made of candy glass. But he checked the production report and guess what it said?

ANGELA KINSEY [01:17:39] What’d it say?

JENNA FISCHER [01:17:41] He said that in one of the takes. I got hit in the face with some of the candy glass when it, like, sprayed off of the mirror. So that was my memory. It was like something happened with that mirror. But he said the production report said that I was fine and able to finish the day. So there you go.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:18:00] I kind of do remember, like a little bit of a hullabaloo because some stuff flew in your face. That kind of jogged my memory. Well, and then, I mean, Pam is like, “This is over” and he’s like, “It is over”. You know? And he just starts wailing stuff at the wall and out of nowhere, I mean, where the hell has Kenny been? He just shows up and starts breaking shit.

JENNA FISCHER [01:18:22] Yeah. Well, also, I don’t know if you noticed at 18 minutes, 51 seconds, there is someone else in this scene and a number of people wrote in pointing it out.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:18:32] Kevin.

JENNA FISCHER [01:18:34] Yes.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:18:34] Kevin. And doesn’t he have his hands like clenched in little fists? Like he’s ready to go just in case.

JENNA FISCHER [01:18:41] Yes. Kimberly Willis. Heather R., Shannon R., Corey Hayley and Lauren Greenley all said, “That when Roy’s starts the fight at the bar and he’s yelling and throwing the glass in the lower left corner of the screen you can see Kevin standing there, fist clenched, ready to defend Pam if Roy comes at her. It was such a sweet moment during a tough scene. Was this scripted”? No, it was not in the script.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:19:11] Brian just improvise that, huh?

JENNA FISCHER [01:19:14] I guess so.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:19:15] I think he did. Aw.

JENNA FISCHER [01:19:16] It was a really great choice.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:19:19] Yeah, yeah. Well, he’s told Jim before he’s got his back. But let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. So that’s, that’s, I think Kevin being there for Pam and Brian just, that was part of his story that he had written for his character.

JENNA FISCHER [01:19:36] Well, then we also got a really touching letter, Angela, from Paola Marquez, who says, “I am grateful for that scene with Roy going violent at Poor Richard’s and Pam’s reaction to it. Many girls, me included, still believe that their partners’ violent reactions are their own fault and that they must apologize for whatever triggered them that way. The first time I watched this episode and I saw Pam walking away from Roy stating that they were over was very remarkable for me. But it didn’t make much sense to me. At first, I still thought that she had to calm him down, maybe apologize and work on their relationship. But after a while, I realized that it wasn’t her responsibility and she was so right to stand up for herself and walk away from him”. And Ang, I just want to say that it really means so much to me when women, young women especially, find strength through Pam’s story.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:20:42] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [01:20:42] On this show, and I feel like it is a way that her story is impactful and it’s just really meaningful to me in being the person who got to play Pam.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:20:58] I love that. And I’m so glad that that scene was able to resonate with her. Well, Jenna, I don’t know if you caught, but there is a song playing under the whole scene while Pam and Roy are talking. And then it kind of crescendos as Roy and Kenny start smashing things.

JENNA FISCHER [01:21:13] Yes.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:21:14] It is “Carry on my Wayward Son” by Kansas, which I thought was the interesting choice.

JENNA FISCHER [01:21:21] Yes.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:21:22] Right? Well, the party has also ended over at David Wallace’s and Michael and Jan are driving home and, oh, this car ride, ooh.

JENNA FISCHER [01:21:35] This is maybe one of my favorite scenes that I didn’t know was a favorite scene until I watched it for this rewatch.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:21:42] I just can’t get enough of Michael and Jan.

JENNA FISCHER [01:21:44] Same.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:21:44] They’re such a hot mess and they’re so fun to watch.

JENNA FISCHER [01:21:48] And Melora is so good. You know, Jan is like, “I feel sick. I just feel sick”. And he’s like, “You didn’t eat the potato salad. Did you”?

ANGELA KINSEY [01:21:57] Yeah, he can’t let that go.

JENNA FISCHER [01:21:59] She’s like, “No, I just think it was a mistake to take our relationship public. It was so much more exciting when it was a secret”. Michael is so hurt.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:22:07] And Michael’s like, “I want it all, Jan, I want the house and the kids and the picket fences and the ketchup fights and the tickling and the giggling”.

JENNA FISCHER [01:22:18] I know. And then this is when Melora’s performance is one of my favorite things. She’s like, “You know what? I didn’t mean it. I didn’t mean it. I’m just tired. I didn’t mean it, Michael”. She’s so good.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:22:31] She’s so good. She’s so good. And then, of course, out of nowhere, Dwight’s like “You guys, don’t break up. You’re so good together”.

JENNA FISCHER [01:22:43] I did not remember that he was going to pop up at the end of that scene. It was great.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:22:49] And you know what? They don’t break up. Michael frames his love contract. That’s in a deleted scene you don’t see. You know, he, he thinks of it as a love contract. He really does. And he frames it.

JENNA FISCHER [01:23:03] He’s so proud of it.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:23:04] It’s just a letter to H.R. That’s all it is.

JENNA FISCHER [01:23:10] Well, that episode ends with a pretty big cliffhanger.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:23:13] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [01:23:13] And we don’t do a ton of cliffhangers on this show, but this is one. Roy is sitting outside in the parking lot of Poor Richard’s. Kenny comes out, he explains that he paid off the bar with the jet ski money so they won’t call the cops. And then Roy’s says, “I’m going to kill Jim Halpert”.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:23:37] Oh.

JENNA FISCHER [01:23:39] My God.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:23:40] Oh, my God. Yeah. This is kind of big for our, our show because we never have a button like this.

JENNA FISCHER [01:23:48] No, no. And we’ll get to it next week. But, boy, how we open next week.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:23:58] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [01:23:58] Well, we had a Fan Catch here, in this little scene in the parking lot, Max Better Visselburg said, “We see a car parked outside of Poor Richard’s with the license plate, CHT8635. We have seen this license plate elsewhere, but it’s always associated with Meredith’s van. And Creed’s Cadillac has the same license plate in the episode, ‘Gossip’. What is the story with this license plate”?

ANGELA KINSEY [01:24:28] Oh, what a good catch. You guys are so good. Clearly, it’s a license plate we had cleared and we just kept putting it on different cars, am I right?

JENNA FISCHER [01:24:37] Yes. They had a few of these Pennsylvania license plates. And, you know, if we had a scene where a couple characters had to be walking down the street, we would park a couple of cars and just slap these approved license plates on them. And there weren’t a ton of them. And so they just went on whatever car was visible and they were not counting on Max Better to keep track.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:25:01] They were not. But he did.

JENNA FISCHER [01:25:04] Well, guys, that was “Cocktails”. We’ll be back next week with “The Negotiation” and special guest, David Denman.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:25:13] David Denman is gonna be there. Angela Martin might be titillated.

JENNA FISCHER [01:25:18] Oh, she is. She is. But, guys, before we go, Codi is weighing in on that background catch at 16 minutes, 50 seconds, and she says it literally looks like a person with a yellow blanket over them. It is so weird-.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:25:32] Wait. Can I see it? Codi, can you po-, can you, can you show it to us?

JENNA FISCHER [01:25:36] What is that, Ang?

ANGELA KINSEY [01:25:38] That’s so weird.

JENNA FISCHER [01:25:38] Right? It’s so creepy creep.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:25:42] David Wallace’s house is haunted.

JENNA FISCHER [01:25:45] All right. That is the biggest takeaway from today’s episode, everyone. But listen, we’ll put it all up on OfficeLadiesPod. You can decide who this creeper is in the background of Michael’s talking head.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:25:58] All right, you guys, we hope you have a great week and we’ll see you next week.

JENNA FISCHER [01:26:03] Love you.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:26:04] Bye. Love ya. Thank you for listening to “Office Ladies”. “Office Ladies” is produced by Earwolf, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey.

JENNA FISCHER [01:26:15] Our producer is Codi Fischer, our sound engineer is Sam Kieffer, and our associate producer is Aynsely Bubbico.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:26:21] Our theme song is “Rubber Tree” by Creed Bratton.

JENNA FISCHER [01:26:24] For ad free versions of “Office Ladies”, go to StitcherPremium.com. For a free one month trial of Stitcher Premium, use code “Office”.