EP. 80 — Revisited with Carey Bennett

OFFICE-080-202010512-S4Rev-SKv04.mp3

[00:00:03] Jenna I’m Jenna Fischer.

[00:00:04] Angela And I’m Angela Kinsey.

[00:00:06] Jenna We were on The Office together.

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

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

[00:00:12] Angela 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.

[00:00:19] Jenna We’re the Office Ladies. Do not turn off this podcast, keep listening to this.

[00:00:26] Angela This is a good one.

[00:00:28] Jenna I know we’re not breaking down an episode this week, but oh my gosh, this is so good.

[00:00:33] Angela It is a delicious second drink. We have uncovered some fun stuff.

[00:00:38] Jenna This is a season four revisited and we are going to kick things off with an interview. We got to talk with Carey Bennett, our wardrobe designer for seasons one through four. She is a badass woman.

[00:00:51] Angela She is one of the original visionaries for the show. She helped create the show. You’re going to hear all about it. She’s amazing.

[00:00:58] Jenna Let’s get to it.

[00:00:59] Angela Let’s get to it. Hello, Carey.

[00:01:06] Jenna Hi, Carey.

[00:01:08] Angela Welcome to Office Ladies.

[00:01:11] Carey Oh I’m so happy to be here. This is so fun.

[00:01:14] Jenna Carey, I have been so excited for you to come on the podcast because I know that you have, like, literally the most awesome stuff to share. I know your story, and I can’t wait for everyone to hear it.

[00:01:25] Carey Oh, good.

[00:01:25] Angela Yes, it is fantastic. And for the true Office fan, Carey really helped shape the look of the show-

[00:01:32] Jenna in maybe the biggest way.

[00:01:35] Angela Yeah.

[00:01:36] Jenna But let’s start at the beginning. We always like to ask people, how did you get your job on The Office?

[00:01:41] Carey I was designing the TV show Scrubs, so I was doing a lot of work with NBC at the time. You know, it’s all kind of foggy to me. Somehow I ended up on the pilot of The Office and it was in between. It was like on a hiatus from Scrubs. Like, I just squeezed it in. It was just a little pilot, 90 percent never go anywhere.

[00:01:59] Angela That’s right.

[00:02:00] Jenna You were like, it’s a good summer job.

[00:02:02] Carey Right.

[00:02:03] Jenna I’m on a break from my regular job designing a whole TV show, Scrubs. So I’ll just do this as a little summer break gig.

[00:02:11] Carey Right. Well, you just so you don’t you don’t know you don’t, like, put too many eggs in that basket. It was actually a really long time before it went somewhere, I think, wasn’t it?

[00:02:19] Jenna It was.

[00:02:20] Carey A year maybe. I feel like.

[00:02:22] Jenna It was. OK. So here’s the story I’m dying for you to tell, Carey, which is you agree to do the pilot for The Office and now you have to create the wardrobe design.

[00:02:32] Angela What do you wear at a paper company in Scranton?

[00:02:37] Carey Right. Well, you know, research is the king of the whole deal. And I never assume that I know what I’m talking about. Like, I always try to go to the source and see something in real life, because real life is always way more nuanced and amazing than anything you can think up in your head. Like, it just is. I always find things that astound me and are like the little seed that kind of sets the fire off in me.

[00:03:07] Angela Yeah. So how did you do that? How did you, like, find the real life of this?

[00:03:13] Carey Yeah, well, so I was like, I’ve never worked in an office. I have no idea. So I literally opened the phone book and I looked for paper companies and there happened to be one in Glendale, the next town over from me. And I just kind of like called them up. I talk to the owner and I invited myself over there and-

[00:03:32] Angela to a Glendale paper company.

[00:03:34] Carey Yeah. And the owner was so darling. And I just went in there and was very respectful and was like, this is what I’m doing. I’m just trying to get a vibe and see what goes on here and see if I can kind of glean some details that maybe I wouldn’t have normally known. But once I got in there, I was like, oh, my God. I mean, having watched the English version of it, it couldn’t have been more perfect. I mean, there was like inspirational posters that they had printed off their printer. So they were like super long and they went all the way down the hallway of, like, inspirational things, just, you know, funny things posted, really personal things posted. There was a moose head in the or maybe it was a deer, a deer head in the the warehouse, like, just amazing details. So I took a million pictures and I took pictures of all the people. They were so kind to let me do that. Literally all the characters were there in different iterations. Even Dwight was there, although he was this guy that was more like a wolf t shirt to work.

[00:04:41] Angela That is very Dwight. So did you take all those pictures and show them to Greg?

[00:04:48] Carey Yeah. So I made a little slideshow and I put the little music, Welcome to the Working Week, and I brought it in for my first meeting with everybody. And I was like, it’s like playing and it’s showing all these guys. Greg was like, what is this? Where is this? And you will take us there.

[00:05:05] Angela Who all did you take there?

[00:05:07] Carey So then we all went back and we took the we took Greg, I think possibly Ken Kwapis came with us. We took our production designer who was Donald Lee Harris at the time. I think our DP came and we just all trundled back over there. And this time we brought video cameras and we videotaped everything.

[00:05:25] Jenna What were these people thinking? They’re like I have been selling paper in Glendale for years. And now all of a sudden,

[00:05:33] Angela all of a sudden, people want photos of my wolf shirt. What’s happening?

[00:05:38] Carey Right? I took pictures of them, like smoking outside the warehouse and just all that stuff, all the little details I still have that I still use it as a slideshow sometimes when I teach costume design, like, you know, like you gotta- you can’t just go on Wikipedia and do your research. You have to go and see real people doing this.

[00:05:55] Angela But I just think that’s so fantastic, Carey, that you’re like, no, I’m going to go see what this looks like and then use that information to inform you about how to create Dunder Mifflin.

[00:06:04] Carey Yeah, yeah.

[00:06:05] Jenna Well, the thing is, this trip to this Glendale paper company, it did not just inform the wardrobe of our show, it informed the entire look of our show. When you took those guys over to film, I know that they used that in the production design. They used it in so much of creating the world of Dunder Mifflin. And that was all initiated by you. We have you to thank.

[00:06:29] Angela Yes, we have you to thank for Dwight’s mustard shirt. Like, how did you do that? How did you come up with these looks for the different characters?

[00:06:39] Carey You’re welcome. Oh, my gosh. Well, I mean, really, literally, the jumping off point was that office and just that vibe, like, that’s why I’m saying, like, I have to feel immersed in that world, otherwise I can’t do it justice. It will always feel a little bit fake. And, you know, the thing about what I saw there was that and I think maybe in a lot of offices is that the looks are slightly dated, like everybody’s a little dated. So like I kind of was having this, we did this like in the early 2000s. It was two thousand five, I think. So it’s kind of like I sort of like early 90s was kind of like almost even eighties, like a little bit of that clunkiness, like just kind of, you know, not real polished was what I was after, which was actually the hardest line to hold with y’all. Keeping it- keeping it not not too polished, you know, like that’s- I think that that gives it this vulnerability and sweetness is what makes the characters really attractive.

[00:07:39] Jenna Well, Carey, I remember working in a real office, and I didn’t want to invest a whole lot of money in my officewear because I didn’t super love my office job.

[00:07:51] Carey Right.

[00:07:52] Jenna So I thought of that with Pam. I remember thinking, I know she has to dress for work and I had to dress for work, but I want to put my money into my cute non-work clothes. Yeah. More than I want to spend a bunch of money on, like, expensive pants for work.

[00:08:10] Carey Yeah, no exactly.

[00:08:12] Jenna Or shoes. Right? And so that’s that’s reality. That’s real life. And you were trying to create a real life office environment,

[00:08:18] Carey and that was one hundred percent my idea with Jim, because obviously, I mean, he’s like this super handsome Hollywood guy. And I always imagined that he was probably borrowing his dad’s stuff, like maybe he grabbed a couple of ties from his dad’s closet. And that’s why he always had those kind of wooly ties, you know, which I had great ones for the a pilot and then it was really hard to keep finding those. We actually ended up making them. But that kind of clunkiness, the sort of softness of them, really helped bring him down, you know, make him just really sort of a real guy. But I always imagined that that’s maybe where he got his closet from, like he didn’t necessarily shop for it.

[00:08:58] Angela You have shared with and I that you had a tie story for all the fellas. So so that would be Jim’s right, that he was borrowing his dad’s old ties. What were some of the other ones?

[00:09:08] Carey Michael’s was just that he- I think they were ties that he thought were cool, but they were just kind of staticky. They just kind of look like static. And of course, like Dwight’s, his whole muddy story is the mustard and the olives. Actually, that that mustard shirt is kind of like a good luck thing that I do on my projects. And that has a back story. That was from Scrubs, the wonderful director that that pulled me onto that project, Adam Bernstein, he has a thing about mustard shirts. And he was like, we just need a mustard shirt. It’s just important. And now and of course, in that show took off. And so now I try to put a mustard shirt like it’s just my thing. Mustard shirt.

[00:09:51] Angela So wait, the mustard shirt is the good luck charm for you?

[00:09:54] Carey Yes. That and and I discovered, like, when I went shopping for this, I did a lot of shopping at Mervyn’s, at J.C. Penney, and at the time in the men’s section, you could buy a whole outfit, the suit, the shirt, the tie and the belt, all for like one hundred dollars. And they had all of his- all of Dwight’s colors they had there. And I just it was just it just blew my mind. I’m like, who’s wearing these colors? You know? And I just thought that was so hilarious. I’m like, that’s what you would do. You would just buy the suit kit.

[00:10:27] Angela Right. Especially Dwight, because he’s so efficient. Right. He’d be like, well, there. Done.

[00:10:32] Carey Yeah. Yeah.

[00:10:33] Jenna Well, Carey, I remember when I had to do an episode, it was the email surveillance episode where I had to wear casual clothes. Finally, I was going to get to wear jeans instead of a pencil skirt and hose. And when I came into my fitting, you had a whole bunch of jeans from Old Navy, I think, and maybe The Gap. And there was not one pair of designer jeans on the rack. And I noticed it because I had done other projects where I wore jeans and they would always put me in designer jeans. And so I, I mentioned that. I said, I’m noticing you didn’t buy any designer jeans. And you said, well, Jenna, Pam can’t afford designer jeans. Pam has to only wear clothes that she can afford. And we picked out totally cute jeans, but I just was like, yes, I hate it when I watch TV and somebody is like a struggling pediatric nurse in two hundred dollar jeans. It drives me nuts.

[00:11:30] Carey Right, right.

[00:11:31] Jenna And so I just loved your integrity.

[00:11:35] Angela Well, that that episode in particular was Jim’s barbecue, right?

[00:11:39] Jenna Yes.

[00:11:39] Angela We really got to see everybody as their true selves and and really and truly the one that stood out to Jenna and I was Meredith, like that was a very revealing outfit and to Meredith’s life. So so, yes, we love to hear more about that.

[00:11:55] Carey I mean, those are the kind of episodes that that totally throw me for a loop, because you get in this rhythm of making these sort of we have our iconic looks like we know we know all the characters. But then will we still know them when they’re in their everyday clothes? Like that always takes a lot of brainpower. You know, that episode in particular, you guys were so invested in your characters by then. And I feel like that was it’s something kind of of an era like I don’t always see that nowadays when I design stuff that the actors have thought through who they’re being. But you guys were there and I always took my cue from anything. I mean, Rainn always would call me and be like, I have this idea, this hat. I’ve got this hat on my mind, you know, and and it was the same with Meredith’s outfit, like she was like, I just feel like I should wear this biker jacket. Like, I think it just is like this whole side of me that nobody knows. I was like, OK, let’s figure out how this works. I always say that as the costumes and I’m sort of the filter. I’m reading the script. I’m hearing from producers, I’m hearing from the actors. And then I’m putting my own spin on it too. But it’s just all that information gels together somehow, and that’s the magic.

[00:13:13] Angela Well, I have a question for you. Dwight and Angela bump some Birkenstocks in that episode. And I remember Carey, we had several like Birkenstocks for me to try on. Like, I feel like you sort of also shaped that moment, like those two Birkenstocks. Do you remember that?

[00:13:32] Carey You know what? That’s that’s such a perfect example of like that kismet that just kind of all the magic that all happens. Like we had those Birkenstocks, because that was a product placement thing that we had. But the people that were offering us product placement because it was like an office show, it was all these really comfortable brands like I think we had Earth shoes and we had Birkenstocks, you know, but that free stuff was was integral to costuming everybody, because our budget was so tiny. I mean, just to give you an idea, I had seven regulars on Scrubs. I had 16 regulars on The Office that I had to dress every every show, and I had five thousand dollars less a week to spend. So we were just always scraping, scraping, scraping. So so yeah, so so we have a big box of Birkenstocks, but it fit like, you know, I thought it was a nice way to sort of like show that connection. And also like there’s a there’s a foreshadowing of that moment in the episode. Like you show you like I stepped in something with your Birkenstocks, so you see your Birkenstocks. And then somehow he mentions his too and you see his. So I thought it was kind of great. It was like this moment where… Oh, they both wear utilitarian shoes. So anyways, it’s just like one of those costume things, like it just all like matched up into that beautiful moment.

[00:14:53] Angela Well, I noticed in re-watching a few episodes that, like my pants would be a little bit too long, like mentioning seeing my feet in the Birkenstocks like I nothing was altered. Like very rarely did we alter anything. And I know that goes along with the budget you had, but I went on to do a show after The Office and I have never been so altered in my life. You know, the little seam on your shoulder? I realize all my shirts on The Office like the seam hit me like halfway down my arm. Like all of a sudden every little thing was altered. And in re-watching, like, this episode in particular, I was like, oh, look how long my pants are.

[00:15:29] Carey Right. But on purpose, though, because, I mean, that was the thing. It’s so funny. Somewhere along the way, Ricky Gervais came to our set and he’s like, how’s it going? And I’m like, well, my biggest challenge is sort of holding the line and making everybody look really pedestrian, because here they are, these incredible Hollywood actors coming to work and they all look chic in their cute little designer jeans. And I got to take them down a notch. That like, that’s my job. And he was like, oh, my God, tell me about it. He was like after the first season of the English Office, like everybody came back, they were tan, they had their teeth were all fixed and white. And I was like, oh, my God, thank you for feeling my pain.

[00:16:10] Angela We had outfits. I remember fittings and I’m like, oh no. I feel like I should apologize, where you would put something on me and I would go to like the cuter thing. And I’d be like, what about that? And you’d be like, Angela, no, no, you don’t get to wear that on this show.

[00:16:29] Carey I know it was really hard. It was really hard. But I think that that is what makes that character so endearing like that, because that’s how real people are like they don’t have everything tailored. It’s off the rack.

[00:16:42] Jenna Well, sometimes you had to create wardrobe from scratch, like in the fire episode you had to create the uniforms that the fire department wore. And I remember you wanted it to be authentic to Scranton. Will you tell us that story?

[00:16:58] Carey OK, so there was no way to see what the fire department in Scranton looked like on the Internet. So I figured out the Chamber of Commerce in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and I called them up. And amazingly, the amazing Mari answered the phone. And I was like, I just explained everything. I’m like, I’m working on a TV show. I’m trying to recreate your fire department. Is there anybody who could go over there and take a picture of the patch for me? And she did it. She actually did it. And she sent me this picture.

[00:17:30] Angela Amazing. So this woman you had never met got in her car, drove to the fire department, took a photo.

[00:17:36] Carey Yes.

[00:17:37] Angela That’s so great.

[00:17:38] Carey And then she subsequently became the liaison between our show and Scranton, Pennsylvania. And I called on her for every thing we ever needed. Then Phil Shea, our prop guy, also got in on the action. And we would just we would just be like, hey, is there a flower shop that would like to donate their their aprons? Or how about the radio station? Could they send us some stickers? And then we started to get more savvy about it. Like Phil and I would coordinate and we’d be like, OK, we’re going to need all these kind of things like delivery people, pizza guys. And we just wanted it to be authentic. And she was willing to help us. Bless her soul like she was, she was she-

[00:18:18] Angela Applause for Mari, you guys.

[00:18:20] Carey Applause for Mari in Scranton Pennsylvania. So she just she just kept on with it. And over the years, we ended up doing a a thing in the mall there. She hosted a thing, the radio station there. And Phil went out there and businesses came and saw him. People were lined up out of the mall and they brought their stuff from their businesses.

[00:18:41] Angela I remember this, Carey. I remember like walking into the kitchen after Phil had gone, the set kitchen, and all of a sudden there were all of these Scranton menus from local restaurants. All the magnets on the fridge, like every little detail you could imagine.

[00:18:59] Carey Yeah, yeah it was amazing. I mean, he said that he said he was there for like five hours and he left to go to the bathroom once people followed him into the bathroom. I mean, it was people brought the sweetest, funniest, most ridiculous things like cupcakes with your pictures on them. And I mean, it was amazing. I gave him the job to take pictures of every single person you see, if you can. Ask their permission, take pictures. I need people in uniform. I need kids. I need people on the street. And he did that, which was amazing. I had another opportunity to do that too. One of the PA’s on Scrubs was from there, and when he went back for Christmas vacation, I sent him with a camera. And I was just like, if you could just take pictures of everybody you see, it would be awesome. He came back with a thousand pictures.

[00:19:47] Angela Oh my gosh.

[00:19:48] Carey And that just became my catalog. Like, I literally had a catalog of people and it was so amazing. So every time we had a new person on the show, it would be like, well, what kind of vibe do we want? Let’s look at our people catalog. But that really also informed, like how people wear things and how people combine outfits and just all of that.

[00:20:11] Angela That is so fascinating to me and I just really respect it. I really respect the amount of research you did and how it just went on to continue over the years inform the show.

[00:20:23] Jenna Yeah, I just have to say it again. Your trip to the Glendale paper company informed the look of our show and then your idea to call the Chamber of Commerce set off a chain of events that like further specified our show. You are the boss lady.

[00:20:44] Angela You are!

[00:20:45] Jenna Behind Dunder Mifflin.

[00:20:47] Angela You are! You are the Dunder Mifflin like secret superpower.

[00:20:52] Jenna One hundred percent.

[00:20:54] Carey It just stems from like like I don’t want to be audacious enough to think I know I’m I’m the end all. Like, I just think that real life is, what’s that quote? If you can’t see God in all you can’t see God at all. Like I think of that like I think like if you if you’re not looking at real life and noticing what makes it weird and wonderful, then you’re missing out. You’re really missing on those beautiful details that that makes something really special and really resonate. I feel like there’s so many TV shows that are kind of, you know.

[00:21:30] Carey All look the same. Right? Well, they’re all they’re all- and I totally get it, you’re moving fast and furious. It’s so hard to get through those production schedules. There’s so much work and you’re doing so much. But and and and also here in Hollywood, there’s so many there’s so many resources for us. There’s prop shops, there’s costume shops, there’s all that stuff. But if there’s no little spark, little like, I don’t know, the glitter, the little like whatever that is, that’s the it’s I don’t know, just the spark. Like, that’s what I always I need to find that for myself. Otherwise I kind of can’t do the work.

[00:22:03] Jenna I think The Office was unique in the sense, too, that it was trying to present a real slice of life, it was trying to find the beauty in the ordinary things. I mean, that’s-.

[00:22:14] Carey Yeah, yeah.

[00:22:15] Jenna That’s what the point of the show was. And a lot of television shows, they are presenting a heightened version of reality, an idealized version of how a mom actually dresses. Right. Fashionable and put together at drop off as opposed to how I look at drop off.

[00:22:34] Carey Right. Right, right.

[00:22:36] Jenna So you know, I think like our show was begging for the kind of work that you did on it, and it’s what it needed. Yeah.

[00:22:43] Angela All right. Well, we we we just love every single ounce of this information. Like, it’s just so wonderful. But, Carey, do you have any memories that you would want to share about your time on The Office? Something maybe we haven’t covered here?

[00:22:57] Carey Oh, my gosh. For me, it was like kind of this undoing of everything I knew in the sense that and actually really this I have a great story that started really from the pilot, because as you do, you do when you’re trying to get a show off the ground, you do a lot of fittings. We have a lot of fitting pictures, and you’re kind of looking at what works. And then you’re sort of you know, each scene is like a painting, really. And they get all the all the players have to work together. And for me, it’s kind of just visually sort of putting the pictures together and making it all work color wise if there’s a pattern or anything. So on the pilot, we were all bustling around. It was we were trying to get that first shot and there was all this hemming and hawing about stuff and some costumes got changed kind of at the last minute. We were like, oh, no, that this would be better is better. So when everybody appeared on set and we were doing the last looks, which, you know, the special thing about The Office and this is a big part of my undoing, was that there was no- you can’t stand there and watch and and fix. We weren’t allowed on the set. Hair, makeup, wardrobe was not allowed. The set was clo- we would see you, put you in there, and hope for the best. And that was huge because we’re usually standing- when you see things on TV, we’re usually standing right there, like getting fixing it. So everybody had to come to the set and Ken Kwapis, our director, was there, and I’m standing next to him just kind of observing and I go, oh my God, there are three people, three guys are wearing white shirts. Like I never in my career with that- you always kind of mix up the colors. I’m like, oh, my God, wait, hold on. I got to just I got I need to fix something. There’s three people wearing white shirts. That is crazy. I never do that. And Ken literally stopped me. He goes, because this bothers you, it’s correct. And I was like, oh, OK.

[00:25:05] Angela Because it doesn’t look right, it’s perfect,

[00:25:07] Carey It doesn’t- it’s perfect. Right? And that was like it was so huge for me. That carried me through the whole thing because I would from there on out, I would set the racks, you know, like, say, there was three days in the script, so I would set these huge racks, everybody’s costumes, and I would sort of have like as you do as a trained designer, you would kind of be like, well, this is sort of the blue show, the blue day, and this is kind of the green day, just kind of the things would work together and everybody would look harmonious. And I would set those three racks and then I would literally just take like Angela’s costumes and just go and mix them. Just just flip them, just mix it. And even though it still to this day, it makes me feel a little sweaty.

[00:25:54] Jenna So you would like you would do your design and it would be perfect and it would have the color harmony and then you would purposely just mess it up.

[00:26:02] Carey Yes.

[00:26:05] Jenna And you’d be like, and now we have The Office.

[00:26:08] Carey And here we are.

[00:26:12] Angela So good. Well you know, I think what our listeners one of the things we would want to share with you guys is on normal shows between scenes everyone comes flooding in to the actor. Hair and makeup. You have like five set of hands on you. Maybe there’s someone adjusting your mic. Maybe wardrobe is fixing the bow on your shirt and then hair and makeup is getting rid of a weird little flyaway hair and powdering your nose. And this all happens instantly. It’s like it’s like the pit car at a race.

[00:26:38] Carey Yes.

[00:26:38] Angela You bring the car in and like all these people surround it, zoozj it up and then they hop out and then you’re back on camera. That never happened on The Office. Never. And so I remember one time we were like broken for lunch and I was leaving and I guess a few of my buttons, I had one of those shirts, Oh my God, that had 32 buttons, and I guess a few at the neck had come open. And you’re like, how long were those open? I was like, I don’t know, and you’re like, okay. I guess that’s what that’s going to look like. I wish I knew your process all those years ago. I think I wouldn’t have bugged you for a cuter blouse. But it’s just so wonderful to hear how you shaped the show. You are so smart. You’re so good at your job. And the world of The Office has a lot to thank you for.

[00:27:28] Jenna You’re one of the original visionaries of the show and it’s pretty damn cool.

[00:27:35] Angela Yeah.

[00:27:36] Carey I think so. I mean, you know, it’s so funny because I was I was so young back then and that was just my process. And thank you for for honoring it and recognizing it all these you know, all these years later, I just kind of did my did my job. We all did. We were all just so into it. And now we’re all old and jaded. But…

[00:27:58] Jenna No, but we talked about that Carey and I actually talked about it with Phil as well, because, you know, Phil Shea approached props the way you approached wardrobe, just detail, detail, authenticity, authenticity. And we were saying, you know, back then we could all just like, you know, eat and breathe our work. And our lives are more complicated now. And they’re filled out in other ways. And, you know, it’s hard to keep up a pace like that. So there was also like a perfect storm where we were all brought together at exactly the right time in exactly the right way.

[00:28:32] Angela In the same place in our lives. Right. We were sort of starting out.

[00:28:37] Jenna Yeah, yeah.

[00:28:38] Carey Yeah, yeah. I know.

[00:28:41] Jenna Super cool.

[00:28:42] Angela Super cool. Thank you so much, Carey.

[00:28:43] Carey So amazing.

[00:28:44] Jenna Thank you, Carey. Is there anything else we can share with people before you go?

[00:28:48] Angela Where can we find you? Are you OK with people finding you? Can we tell them anything you’re working on?

[00:28:54] Carey OK, sure. Yeah, you can find me. My Instagram is at Carey Bennett costumes and I try to put some more pictures up up there and and keep people up to date on what I’m doing. I’m just about to start Head of the Class, the reboot of Head of the Class. So we’ll see how that goes.

[00:29:12] Angela What network is Head of the Class?

[00:29:14] Carey Head of the Class is going to be on HBO, Max.

[00:29:17] Angela OK, so there you go. That’s where you can find Carey. You guys go follow and support her. We adore her. And Carey, thank you so much.

[00:29:26] Jenna Thanks, Carey.

[00:29:27] Carey Thank you, ladies. It’s so nice to be with you again, just be in your presence. So this brings back all the good memories. So it’s such good days back then.

[00:29:36] Angela I know. Jenna and I say we want to have a big Office Ladies lunch. And like call in all the Office ladies. Not that we don’t want the fellas there, but maybe I just want the gals.

[00:29:44] Jenna I don’t want the fellas there. I don’t want them there.

[00:29:45] Angela I know I was like trying to be nice. Alright.

[00:29:48] Jenna I’m not going to try. I’m going to say my truth. Ladies only.

[00:29:52] Angela I’m gonna say my truth.

[00:29:52] Carey The ladies were really special on that for sure. Kept the whole world running.

[00:29:59] Angela We sure did.

[00:29:59] Jenna All right, we are back,

[00:30:06] Angela we are back. That was awesome.

[00:30:08] Jenna I’m still loving Carey Bennett.

[00:30:09] Angela I know. Me too.

[00:30:10] Jenna So hard crushing on her.

[00:30:12] Angela Hard core love for Carey Bennett.

[00:30:14] Jenna Should we get in to some good season four revisited stuff?

[00:30:18] Angela Jenna. I can’t wait. I know you have something and I have a little something and we haven’t shared so that we would both hear it for the first time with you guys. You go first.

[00:30:27] Jenna All right.

[00:30:28] Angela All right.

[00:30:28] Jenna I decided to do a title sequence breakdown because we haven’t done it. We haven’t talked about the credits.

[00:30:37] Angela Oh, at the beginning of every show.

[00:30:39] Jenna At the beginning of every show. And I want to say there’s a reason why it’s perfectly timed because the credits at the beginning of the show stayed the same all the way through season four. But as we move into season five, there are going to be changes and now I’ll be able to point them out because we will have done this breakdown.

[00:30:57] Angela OK.

[00:30:58] Jenna I’m going to start with the theme song.

[00:30:59] Angela Do it.

[00:30:59] Jenna The very famous Office theme song. (Sings)

[00:31:04] Angela (Sings)

[00:31:06] Jenna That was created by composer James Ferguson. He has done music for tons of shows like NCIS Los Angeles, Women’s Murder Club, Melrose Place. Erie, Indiana. He’s done a lot. He’s also composed music for films like The Terminator, Charlie’s Angels Full Throttle, and This Is 40.

[00:31:29] Angela He’s the real deal.

[00:31:30] Jenna We got him.

[00:31:31] Angela We got them for our theme song,

[00:31:34] Jenna But we almost didn’t got him.

[00:31:35] Angela What?

[00:31:36] Jenna There were three other options for songs.

[00:31:38] Angela Oh, I remember this.

[00:31:40] Jenna Is it coming back to you?

[00:31:41] Angela Yeah.

[00:31:41] Jenna So Greg first thought I’m going to use a song like rather than use an original composition, he was going to use a song. And he whittled it down to three choices and he created title sequences to all three songs and he gave DVDs out to the whole cast. And we got to vote on the songs.

[00:31:59] Angela We voted.

[00:32:00] Jenna Let me tell you what the songs were. And we’re going to play them so you can imagine the titles of Dunder Mifflin.

[00:32:07] Angela Imagine Pam with her white out, Kevin with his adding machine, Dwight flipping his tie.

[00:32:14] Jenna Start with Better Things by the Kinks.

[00:32:18] The Kinks (MUSIC PLAYS)

[00:32:38] Jenna OK. OK. That was one option.

[00:32:40] Angela All right, I’m feeling it a little bit. I mean, it’s hard now to imagine anything but what we chose, but OK, I see it.

[00:32:46] Jenna All right. This is the second choice. I know a few people suggested this: John, Angela.

[00:32:52] Angela Yes.

[00:32:53] Jenna Float on by Modest Mouse.

[00:32:55] Angela That’s right.

[00:33:08] Modest Mouse (Music plays)

[00:33:17] Jenna Alright, there you go.

[00:33:18] Angela Yes, I was a big fan of that one.

[00:33:20] Jenna Final choice was Mr. Blue Sky by ELO.

[00:33:24] ELO (Music plays)

[00:33:41] Jenna I mean, I love that song.

[00:33:42] Angela I love that one, too.

[00:33:44] Jenna So here’s what we decided, you guys. It was Mr. Blue Sky.

[00:33:48] Angela That won.

[00:33:49] Jenna It won. When we did a viewing party at my house of the pilot, Greg brought over a DVD and our credit sequence was ELO’s Mr. Blue Sky.

[00:33:59] Angela That’s right.

[00:34:00] Jenna I still have the DVD.

[00:34:01] Angela Do you really?

[00:34:02] Jenna Yes! Of the credits cut to Mr. Blue Sky.

[00:34:05] Angela I want to see that.

[00:34:07] Jenna Well, we were waiting for our show to come out. We had to wait a while. While we were waiting, another show came out. It was called LAX. It starred Heather Locklear and Blair Underwood. It was also on NBC.

[00:34:21] Angela And it was about the LAX airport.

[00:34:23] Jenna Yes,.

[00:34:24] Angela OK.

[00:34:25] Jenna They used Mr. Blue Sky as their theme song.

[00:34:27] Angela But we had picked it.

[00:34:29] Jenna I know.

[00:34:30] Angela Didn’t matter. What happened? I know what happened. I’m kidding.

[00:34:35] Jenna We couldn’t use it. So Greg had to change it. And that is when Greg hired James Ferguson or as his friends call him, Jay, to write our theme song.

[00:34:46] Angela Wow. So if Blue Sky was available, that would have been our thing.

[00:34:50] Jenna Yeah.

[00:34:50] Angela Our song.

[00:34:51] Jenna Isn’t that crazy.

[00:34:52] Angela Crazy.

[00:34:52] Jenna So we did not record the theme song, the famous Office theme song until one week before our first episode aired.

[00:34:59] Angela Oh my gosh. They must have been sweating it.

[00:35:00] Jenna They were scrambling. So Greg kind of talked about this on Booze Cruise. He had a musician friend, Bob Thiele, who went in with his friends and they recorded James’s composition. And after they recorded it, they formed a band. They called themselves The Scran Tones. And then that is the band that appears in Booze Cruise.

[00:35:23] Angela That’s right. Oh, lady, I don’t want to give anything away, but I feel like sometimes we get same brain.

[00:35:29] Jenna Why?

[00:35:31] Angela No, no. You’ll see, this is nothing related but connected all the same.

[00:35:36] Jenna Oh, all right.

[00:35:37] Angela My nugget is like there’s a thread. You’ll see.

[00:35:40] Jenna I’ll see. Well, I want to tell you some more things about our opening credits. And this is specific to season four. It was during season four that we started playing the theme song at the end credits. You might notice that in the first three seasons it’s silent credits.

[00:35:58] Angela Oh, lady, I didn’t realize that. That’s such a good catch.

[00:36:01] Jenna Yeah. And so starting in season four, we started playing the theme song at the end as well. As you all know, there are no lyrics to our theme song. It was just musical. But Creed Bratton wrote some lyrics.

[00:36:15] Angela He did.

[00:36:16] Jenna And you guys, they are so fun. I talked to him about it and he said that when he would go out and go on tour, he would always riff on the theme song. They would play it. And he started throwing out little lyrics here and there just for fun.

[00:36:32] Angela Right. He was like, improvising.

[00:36:33] Jenna Yeah.

[00:36:33] Angela Yeah.

[00:36:34] Jenna But this got him thinking, what if I sat down and I did write lyrics, what would they be? And so he ended up writing a whole song and it is so cool. He plays it at every show. And we’re going to play a little bit of it for you now.

[00:36:54] Unidentified Let’s start at the top with Michael Scott, played by Steve Carell, and he’s pretty swell. We got Rainn Wilson and he played Schrute. He got militant in his mustard suit. We love Jim and which one’s Pam played by Krasinski and Jenna Fischer, we moved to accounting with Oscar, but he’s not really gay and Brian with his number Klevin and Angela Kinsey, who’s three foot 11. One, two, three…. (audience sings) Phyllis Smith was married to a Vance and Stanley with his eyes at half mast. And BJ and Mindy fought all the time but David Denman who played Roy, just that one time with Jim if I recall. We got Ed Helms with his banjo and Holly Flax wearing sandals. And Toby and the minor chord, bad guy, Scranton Strangler…

[00:37:40] Jenna You guys, it goes on, he ends up naming everybody in The Office and it is so cool.

[00:38:19] Angela You guys, you have to go see Creed live. He is an amazing musician. His shows are so fun. I’ve been fortunate to go to three. And I have to tell you guys, when he played the song, several of the cast members that were attending, we all walked out on stage when he sang about us. And, you know, he always texts me and he’s like Ange, sorry, I throw you under the bus because you’re short. But we all walked out on stage and we locked arms and then the whole crowd is locking arms and swaying to the la la la la la part. It’s so sweet. It’s such a wonderful fun show.

[00:38:53] Jenna Guess what.

[00:38:53] Angela Yeah.

[00:38:54] Jenna He is going back on tour.

[00:38:56] Angela Oh awesome.

[00:38:58] Jenna And here’s where you can find him. In September of twenty twenty one he’s going to be in Idaho, Washington, Oregon and California on a two week tour. Then he goes to Australia in October of twenty twenty one and in February of twenty twenty two he’s going to be in Ireland and England. You can find his whole tour schedule at CreedBratton.com.

[00:39:20] Angela That’s right. And a bunch of us, you guys, whenever he does shows in California, if we can, we show up.

[00:39:25] Jenna We do.

[00:39:25] Angela We never know like what the schedule is going to be or whatever. But I’ve managed to make a few and I love it.

[00:39:30] Jenna I love that he wrote those lyrics.

[00:39:32] Angela I do, too.

[00:39:33] Jenna He’s not the only person who’s written lyrics

[00:39:37] Angela Wha?

[00:39:37] Jenna John Krasinski hosted Saturday Night Live and he did a song version of our theme song as well.

[00:39:46] Angela That’s right! Oh, you did some digging. I forgot about that.

[00:39:48] Jenna All right, let’s listen to that one.

[00:39:50] Announcer Finally, John Krasinski sings the long lost lyrics to the original office theme song, which he wrote himself.

[00:39:56] John Krasinski Scranton, Scranton, Scranton, Scranton, Scranton, Scranton, Scranton, Scranton. That’s where we all live and work, that’s our calculator, there’s Dwight. He’s the bad guy and the heroe’s name is Jim. Highlighting. That’s his girlfriend. That guy’s on the phone. Tie flip. Then there’s me again. Then Carrel does the trophy thing. The Office.

[00:40:25] Angela Oh, my gosh. John hitting that low note. The Office.

[00:40:33] Jenna I know, I know, I thought that was so fun. All right. That covers the theme song. I feel like I’ve covered it.

[00:40:40] Angela You’ve got the theme song. Now what?

[00:40:42] Jenna We have to talk about the actual credits on the screen.

[00:40:45] Angela Oh, right. Right.

[00:40:46] Jenna The visuals. I’m going to break it down for you. The five actors featured in the opening credits with images are Steve, Rainn, John, me, and B.J.

[00:40:56] Angela And Brian’s hand.

[00:40:58] Jenna And Brian’s hand. And the reason that we were featured was because we were the actors who had regular contracts when the series started. For all of season one and part of season two the rest of the supporting cast are listed as guest stars in the end credits. But later, when you guys became series regulars, your name started to appear after the main titles as the show begins, where the writers and directors are also credited.

[00:41:25] Angela That’s right. It was a big deal. They call it top show, guys.

[00:41:28] Jenna Top of show.

[00:41:29] Angela If your name gets in the top show as an actor, that’s party time.

[00:41:33] Jenna The shots of Scranton that you see in the opening credits, those were shot by John Krasinski.

[00:41:38] Angela Yep.

[00:41:39] Jenna John was living in New York when he got the role of Jim Halpert, and after he was cast on the show but before we started shooting it, he and his friend decided to drive to Scranton and do a mini documentary on a local paper company there. They interviewed people. They interviewed a manager of a paper company in Scranton who was a woman. And while they were on this trip, they also shot images of Scranton. These are the ones that made it into the credits.

[00:42:07] Angela That’s right. It’s like a driving shot. And I feel like they had like a handheld camera.

[00:42:11] Jenna They did. And his friend had a jeep and John was just like hanging out the window. So the shot of the pen, paper and supply building, the Scranton Center on Mulberry and Washington and the Scranton welcome sign were all shot by John. Here’s a little fun fact about that Scranton Welcomes You sign, it is no longer on the side of the road. Now I’ve heard two stories about why this is. One is that they had to take it down because too many people were stopping to take pictures with it and it was unsafe.

[00:42:41] Angela Oh, OK. Well, that makes sense.

[00:42:43] Jenna I mean, it’s on the side of a highway. The other is that it blew over in a windstorm. That’s sort of like the city official story, right? I don’t know. Either way, you can still see it. It was relocated to the second floor of the Steamtown Mall. So you can take a picture with it. It’s next to the Kay Jewelers.

[00:43:05] Angela Yes. I love that they saved it and it’s in the mall.

[00:43:08] Jenna It’s perfect.

[00:43:09] Angela Yeah.

[00:43:09] Jenna Also, while John was there when he was interviewing the woman who was the manager of the paper company, she had a little stuffed hamster on her desk. And so I don’t know if you noticed, but on Michael’s desk, on the little credenza behind him, there are these little stuffed hamsters. And when Greg saw them in John’s footage, he said, I want to put hamsters on our manager’s desk, too.

[00:43:34] Angela Hamsters in little outfits.

[00:43:36] Jenna I think one of them is like in a band. Is he going to play the drums?

[00:43:40] Angela I don’t know. I always feel like one of them had a vest on.

[00:43:42] Jenna Yeah, I guess I’m putting him in a marching band. But I don’t know if that’s what he’s really doing, but he does have on a vest.

[00:43:49] Angela I just always thought he was a fancy guy.

[00:43:50] Jenna A little fancy hamster. Most of the shots of the actors in the title sequence are from the first season of The Office. Dwight’s shot with the shredder is from Diversity Day. Jim on the phone is also from Diversity Day. The shot of me answering the phone is a deleted scene from The Alliance. Ryan on the phone is from the pilot, Dwight flipping his tie and Ryan with his bag of clothes are both from Basketball. And the shot of Jim and Pam is from Hot Girl. Michael adjusting his Dundie was B roll footage. There is one shot that changed in our opening sequence in the first four seasons, and that is the shot of Steve. The establishing shot of Steve in season one was from Diversity Day, but they changed it in season two to a shot from Sexual Harassment because they wanted to match his updated image, you know, because we changed his look in the second season. Here’s a fun fact. People always talk about that piece of paper that’s getting highlighted because it gets circled with a highlighter rather than highlighted with a highlighter. That piece of paper is from the Los Angeles Department of City Planning.

[00:45:06] Angela Well, I think that’s really cool because I didn’t realize the opening credits was such a mix of so many different episodes. You know, the supporting cast is in it just for like a millisecond. We’re like in the conference room, you know what I mean?

[00:45:17] Jenna Yes. You’re in that shot when Ryan answers his phone.

[00:45:20] Angela Right. We’re behind him. And I guess that was from the pilot.

[00:45:23] Jenna That was from the pilot.

[00:45:24] Angela I did not realize that.

[00:45:25] Jenna And that would mean that Kate Flannery is not in that shot because she was not in our pilot.

[00:45:29] Angela Oh, yeah, yeah, I mean, it’s very quick, but that’s so cool.

[00:45:33] Jenna That’s kind of what I got going through the credits. I think I broke it down. I’m excited as we move into season five, because now I’ll be able to tell you the changes. There’s change happening.

[00:45:47] Angela Stay tuned. As we were looking back on season four, I really did some digging on the DVDs and I found a commercial that NBC put together to highlight The Office to its viewers. So here is NBC’s commercial of season four. It ran during this time.

[00:46:06] Commercial Every once in a while, a comedy comes along that critics love and audiences cheer for. Woo! I feel very blessed. Welcome to The Office where you’re invited every Thursday night. Do I care that I wasn’t invited to Michael’s dinner party? So grab someone you love and settle in. I have a friend who is single. Would an average rowboat support her without capsizing? It bothers me that you’re not answering the question. The Office Thursdays on NBC.

[00:46:36] Jenna Wait, they ran that at the beginning of season four? There’s spoilers in that.

[00:46:39] Angela Oh, no, no. They ran it at the end, you know what I mean? Like, it was like summer reruns and I don’t know, Jenna. They ran it at the end of season four.

[00:46:47] Jenna They ran it is what we know. What we can tell you with great authority as they ran that commercial.

[00:46:51] Angela And I love that it is this guy that’s like find someone you love, get comfortable. Watch your favorite office folks. Like that guy’s voice. All right.

[00:47:02] Jenna I mean, what would be more accurate would be like start making dinner, turn it on in the background, have it play while you clean the house. The Office. We’re here for you. I feel like that’s how people watch The Office today.

[00:47:14] Angela Right. Or they should have just gotten Rainn as Dwight to be like, don’t be an idiot. Watch it. Bye.

[00:47:19] Jenna Exactly. We should make the commercials for The Office.

[00:47:23] Angela Well, I just thought that was a fun thing to stumble across on the DVDs. And you guys go to season four, disc one and you’ll see the commercial with Mr. Announcery guy.

[00:47:34] Jenna Now what else do you have, Angela? Because you’re smiling and you’re shuffling papers.

[00:47:39] Angela Oh, okay. This is me shuffling papers. Here’s a little something I did a deep dive on. All right. I know we talked a little bit about the very first office convention. Jenna you weren’t able to go. We talked about that this year.

[00:47:49] Jenna Yeah.

[00:47:49] Angela Well, I decided to deep dive The Office convention because it took place during season four. And you guys, I uncovered something delicious.

[00:47:58] Jenna I am so glad you did this.

[00:48:00] Angela OK, so here’s what I found. According to the University of Scranton’s royal news, the very first The Office convention in Scranton was October 26th through 28, 2007. Here’s some quick facts. They have quick facts, Jenna. We have fast facts and the royal news has quick facts.

[00:48:18] Jenna All right.

[00:48:18] Angela Three thousand people greeted Al Roker of the Today Show with members of the cast, including me, for a live broadcast from campus. The Today Show, Weekend Edition also broadcast from campus. Four hundred University of Scranton students volunteered for the convention. Ten thousand attended The Office convention over a three day period. Three thousand four hundred attended a Q&A with the cast at the university’s long center. One hundred and fifty seven journalists attended the convention, including reporters from the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, USA Today, MTV, VH1 and the Associated Press.

[00:48:58] Jenna Wow. All those numbers mean this was a big event.

[00:49:01] Angela I mean, if you go to Scranton and see the town itself and then realize one hundred and fifty seven press outlets were there, you know, there was like something happening on every street. There was a street festival, Dunder Mifflin Infinity’s Office Olympics, food and local vendors selling Scranton related merchandise, two open air stages, offering a wide assortment of live entertainment. There was also a Q&A panel with cast members, a bloggers breakfast and a writer’s block discussion. But, lady, a lot of us from the cast that attended, we had to fly in at different times. Guess who kicked off the whole The Office convention weekend?

[00:49:38] Jenna Who?

[00:49:39] Angela Creed Bratton and Kate Flannery performing with the ScranTones.

[00:49:44] Jenna Yes, I saw footage of this.

[00:49:47] Angela Yes, they were asked to perform the Pennsylvania polka and I had to call Kate. I had to call her about it. I saw a grainy YouTube video of it. I was like, Kate, please tell me about this. She said, Angela, this was amazing. We knew we wouldn’t have time to rehearse once we got to Scranton. So Bob Thiele gathered the ScranTones band. Bob played guitar. His friend Dylan played piano. Brian played drums. Hal is on bass, Dave was on bass. And Scott Schriner from the band Weezer also played bass.

[00:50:18] Jenna What?

[00:50:19] Angela Yes, but ready for this? Weird Al Yankovic joined them in the studio to rehearse.

[00:50:26] Jenna What?

[00:50:27] Angela Yes, he is friends with Bob and he was going to be at the studio that day anyway. So Bob said, Hey, can you come over, play the accordion at our rehearsal?

[00:50:37] Jenna Wait, did Weird Al go to Scranton with them then?

[00:50:40] Angela No, no, no. He was just there the day they rehearsed in the studio in Los Angeles.

[00:50:44] Jenna OK.

[00:50:44] Angela But he totally helped them out. And are you ready for this? Bob recorded the rehearsal and Kate asked him if we could play it on the podcast and he said yes. So here it is, Creed Bratton, Kate Flanary, the ScranTones, and Weird Al playing the Pennsylvania Polka.

[00:51:08] Creed, Kate Flannery, Weird Al (Pennsylvania Polka)

[00:51:34] Jenna I’m very moved, I am emotional.

[00:51:36] Angela Is that so fun?

[00:51:38] Jenna Let me tell you why. You guys. The cast was not paid to attend the convention. You guys were not paid for this. They paid your airfare.

[00:51:46] Angela Yes.

[00:51:47] Angela And your hotel.

[00:51:47] Angela They got our room and board. But everything else we did was for the love of the show and the love of the fans.

[00:51:52] Jenna And these guys went into a studio and they rehearsed on their time. And then they brought this show to the fans and to Scranton. And this is one of the things that I love about Creed and Kate especially, is that they are like those old school performers. The show must go on. We’re going to make the best show possible. They are in it because they love it and they love performing and making people happy. And when I heard this rehearsal tape, it just gave me all the feels.

[00:52:21] Angela Yeah, it really was so amazing. And if you can find it on YouTube, I found one version of it. Not only are they singing their hearts out, they’re dancing around. They are fully committed to doing the Pennsylvania Polka for The Office fans in Scranton. And I just thought that was so cool that they started off the whole convention.

[00:52:41] Jenna I love them.

[00:52:42] Angela They’re awesome.

[00:52:43] Jenna Awesome.

[00:52:44] Angela And thank you to Bob Thiele and the ScranTones and weird Al.

[00:52:47] Jenna Yeah.

[00:52:48] Angela Well, that’s some trivia that I found about the very first The Office convention in Scranton. I thought it was really fun.

[00:52:55] Jenna I’m loving this. I think we should take a break because now we have stuff that we discovered about specific episodes.

[00:53:02] Angela All right.

[00:53:03] Jenna I mean, you thought we covered it, you guys. We found more stuff.

[00:53:07] Angela I’m just going to say two words. Dinner Party.

[00:53:10] Jenna Oh, yeah. We’ll be right back. All right, we’re back. We are going to talk about some of the episodes from season four and some new stuff, but I thought I’d start with this. Office Tally. You know, our website, our beloved website. We love Jenny Tan.

[00:53:29] Angela That’s right.

[00:53:30] Jenna Every season they would do rankings of the episodes. Fans would vote on their favorite episodes from a season.

[00:53:37] Angela Oh, are you going to tell me the fan favorite for season four?

[00:53:40] Jenna Yes. So of the 14 episodes from season four,

[00:53:45] Angela According to Office Tally fans,

[00:53:47] Jenna the number one ranked episode was Chair Model.

[00:53:51] Angela Really?

[00:53:51] Jenna Yes, that was followed by Goodbye, Toby in second place and Money in third place. Dinner Party was ranked ninth out of 14 episodes. Remember, we talked about that. We said this was not a fan favorite when it first aired.

[00:54:09] Angela No, it is the type of episode that I think caught momentum after many re-watches.

[00:54:14] Jenna Yes, but on the first watch,

[00:54:16] Angela Number nine,.

[00:54:17] Jenna Nine out of 14. Should we get started, Angela? You’ve got something to tell me about Fun Run. I think

[00:54:22] Angela I do. So Whitney Croy and a few other people asked me, Angela, when you and Dwight are having that big argument, right, about Sprinkles, we’re running and we’re fighting… Michael jogs between us and says something kind of under his breath as he jogs between us while we’re fighting.

[00:54:41] Jenna OK.

[00:54:42] Angela What does Michael say? People were like, please tell us what he says. I could not make it out. I went back. I re-watched with subtitles because I didn’t know what he said either. As he runs between Angela and Dwight, as their relationship is basically ending, Michael under his breath says, take backbite seriously. Don’t get bit.

[00:55:06] Jenna He’s just spreading rabies awareness as he runs.

[00:55:10] Angela Right. So, Whitney, thank you for writing in. A few other people did as well.

[00:55:14] Jenna I’ve got a little nugget from Melissa Williams who wants to tell us something about Launch Party. Launch Party is when Meredith comes back with her cast and she wants Jim to sign it. And we were very confused about how she goes to the bathroom in this cast. We were questioning if you need a cast for a broken pelvis.

[00:55:33] Angela Right. Or if your cast looks like a giant pair of underwear.

[00:55:36] Jenna Yeah, well, Melissa Williams would like us to know that there is a cast that covers the whole pelvis and it’s called a Spika cast, and it is for a broken femur. It covers your whole pelvis and all of one leg and some of the other leg. But there’s like an opening in the crotch and there’s a bar going across it. And that’s how you pee in your full pelvic cast.

[00:56:02] Angela Oh my God, that sounds horrible. Because what if you’re not always tidy when you go to the bathroom? I mean,

[00:56:08] Jenna if it sprays,

[00:56:09] Angela sometimes things don’t go according to plan.

[00:56:13] Jenna Yeah, that’d be hard to clean up. I guess if you’re a man, it’s easier.

[00:56:19] Angela You could put your thingy-.

[00:56:19] Jenna We’re looking at it from a woman’s perspective.

[00:56:22] Angela They might could aim it better.

[00:56:24] Jenna I would think so.

[00:56:26] Angela Well, Melissa, thank you for sharing that.

[00:56:28] Jenna Ladies, don’t break your femur because then you might have to have a Spika cast.

[00:56:34] Angela With a hole in the crotch

[00:56:35] Jenna and a bar and maybe some pee spray.

[00:56:39] Angela Well, let’s hope that’s the only spray.

[00:56:41] Jenna What would the other spray be?

[00:56:43] Angela If it’s a cast for your whole pelvis? You have to go poop too.

[00:56:45] Jenna I didn’t even think of the pooping. I didn’t even think about having to poop in the cast.

[00:56:51] Angela Yes.

[00:56:52] Jenna I didn’t think about it.

[00:56:53] Angela That’s the first thing I thought of.

[00:56:53] Jenna Oh, when you said things don’t go as planned, you met pooping.

[00:56:57] Angela Yes.

[00:56:58] Jenna I. Oh, wow. I hadn’t. I mean, now I feel so horrible.

[00:57:03] Angela I know you just turned bright red. It’s like you just realized something.

[00:57:06] Jenna Oh my God. You’re going to get poop on that cast.

[00:57:08] Angela I know.

[00:57:10] Jenna It’s unavoidable.

[00:57:10] Angela I know. Or on the bar.

[00:57:13] Jenna Oh god, it’s getting worse.

[00:57:17] Angela Anyway. Oh my God. We shouldn’t be laughing about it. All right. We hope you guys are well and don’t ever have to wear one of those. And Melissa, thank you for sharing.

[00:57:25] Jenna What do you got, lady?

[00:57:26] Angela Well, where do we go? OK, all right. In the deleted scenes, you guys, I found something I thought was very interesting for Local Ad. Remember, Local Ad, everyone is pitching their ideas about what the Dunder Mifflin commercial should be.

[00:57:40] Jenna Yes.

[00:57:41] Angela Toby pitches his idea and we find out something about Toby that was not in the show Bible.

[00:57:48] Jenna What is it?

[00:57:49] Angela His previous job.

[00:57:51] Michael Scott All right. So anybody else know bad ideas? Everybody, let’s keep him calling me. Oh, God. OK, Toby?

[00:57:57] Toby Well, you know how everyone fast forward’s through ads these days? Well, what about an ad in slow motion? If they fast forward through it, it’ll just seem normal and will catch your eye. Plus the slogan can be Dunder Mifflin: We adapt to the pace of your business.

[00:58:12] Michael Scott There are no bad ideas, but for an idea that was really, really bad.

[00:58:17] Toby I spent three years in advertising before I came here.

[00:58:20] Michael Scott And that is probably why most ads suck. Oh.

[00:58:23] Jenna Oh my God.

[00:58:24] Angela Toby worked in advertising for three years.

[00:58:26] Jenna And that’s a really good idea.

[00:58:28] Angela I know everybody really liked it.

[00:58:31] Jenna Oh my gosh, that’s so good.

[00:58:33] Angela Toby wasn’t always the H.R. guy. He was the ad man. Toby, could have been on Mad Men.

[00:58:39] Jenna There’s a crossover.

[00:58:40] Angela There’s a crossover. Also in Local Ad, a few of you pointed out, ladies, not only does Jim put Dwight’s stapler in Jello in real life, but that in the deleted scenes for Local Ad in Second Life, guitar Jim puts Dwight’s bazooka in Jello.

[00:59:00] Jenna Oh, yes.

[00:59:01] Angela Well, I went back and looked. Seven minutes, forty nine seconds, you guys are correct. If you go to the DVDs or maybe I’ll put it in the pod, you’ll see it.

[00:59:09] Jenna Interestingly enough, I have a little Second Life trivia as well that I uncovered.

[00:59:15] Angela What?

[00:59:16] Jenna So we told you that we set up a real second life for Dwight and Jim. Well, Dwight’s Second Life, Dwight K. Shelford was his name. He made an announcement in Second Life to all of the Second Life players on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008. And it was titled Angela’s Baby.

[00:59:42] Angela Oh!

[00:59:43] Jenna And here’s what it said. Attention, employees. Dunder Mifflin Second Life branch would like to welcome the newest addition to the Dunder Mifflin Infinity family, Miss Isabel Ruby, born on Saturday, May 3rd, to her proud parents. Be forewarned, Miss Isabel weighs six pounds, 14 ounces, sleeps on the job and has no higher math skills. She also babbles and is capable of projectile vomit.

[01:00:13] Angela Thanks, Dwight. Oh, my gosh. I didn’t know they did that.

[01:00:17] Jenna Well, that was just like our crew who was so proud of you Ange and so happy for you that they sent out this little announcement to our Second Life account that was still going.

[01:00:29] Angela That is so moving to me.

[01:00:30] Jenna So we also had a lot of people asking about a comment that Jason Reitman made in one of his audio clips for Local Ad. He said the phrase, cold is comedy, and people were asking if we could explain more of what that meant.

[01:00:44] Angela I mean, our set was incredibly cold.

[01:00:47] Jenna Yes. Well, I think what it means is there is a tradition and David Letterman’s set was so cold.

[01:00:53] Angela Oh, freezing.

[01:00:54] Jenna So freezing, freezing. This idea that when you’re too hot physically, like if you’re too warm, you’re not on your toes comedically. So it’s a very famous thing that a lot of comedians and comedic performers like it cold because I don’t know, it just keeps you keeps you-

[01:01:12] Angela Keeps your brain awake.

[01:01:12] Jenna Yes, that’s right. Because you know what happens when you get hot a hot day, you’re like sluggish. You start to fall asleep. You’re like, bleh.

[01:01:20] Angela Well, you definitely don’t want a warm audience. You don’t want your audience warm.

[01:01:24] Jenna That’s right. So we kept our set very, very cold. And that was for two reasons. One, cold is comedy. And number two, Steve got really hot in his suits, like especially hot. And so in order to help him stay cold as comedy, we kept our sets really cold.

[01:01:43] Angela Yes. And I’ve also heard in theaters and studios that the lights they used to light the stage to light the set, that equipment gets very, very hot. And so you’re sort of combating that heat as well, keeping all of the instruments cool that help the show go on, so to speak.

[01:02:02] Jenna My personal feeling is that I can be very funny when I’m warm. I’m I’m OK with it. I’m OK being warm and funny.

[01:02:10] Angela You know what? We’ve never been able to try. I’ve never been on a warm set. I’ve never walked onto a set and been like, ooh I’m gonna wear a tank top.

[01:02:18] Jenna No.

[01:02:19] Angela I walk on a set in a parka.

[01:02:20] Jenna Always.

[01:02:21] Angela Always. I have on four layers right now.

[01:02:24] Jenna Is warm is drama. Is it that we haven’t done enough dramas? Dramatic actors, are you warm all the time? Because maybe I need to switch gears here. Let’s ask who can we ask? Kate Winslet? We don’t know her, but let’s write her an email.

[01:02:37] Angela If we don’t know her, how are we going to get her email?

[01:02:39] Jenna David Denman is doing that show with her.

[01:02:42] Angela Oh, my God. You’re going to hit up David Denman for Kate’s email. Kate, I’m calling you by your first name. And then our first question to Kate Winslet, who we’ve never spoken to, is, are sets warm for dramas?

[01:02:54] Jenna When you do dramas? Here’s what I think we could do. You’re right. That’s ridiculous.

[01:02:57] Angela We can’t show our ass to Kate Winslet the first time we talked to her.

[01:03:00] Jenna Let’s ask David to just ask her or just be like, bring it up casually, David. Be like, Kate, I’m curious, are all of your sets warm because you’re doing dramas? And she’ll be like, that’s a weird question, but it’ll be on David, but we’ll still get the answer.

[01:03:16] Angela But also, David might just say, hey, you buttholes, you can ask me. I am also on the dramatic set. I’m standing next to Kate.

[01:03:26] Jenna I know, but I need someone who’s been on, like, almost exclusively dramatic sets to really give me a real answer.

[01:03:31] Angela OK, you need an overview.

[01:03:32] Jenna And David really straddles it. He does both. Well, maybe actually now that I think about it, he’s the perfect person to ask because he could tell me if there’s a temperature shift between comedy and drama.

[01:03:42] Angela There it is. And now we don’t have to bug Kate Winslet.

[01:03:47] Jenna I was looking forward to getting to know her.

[01:03:50] Angela I’m sure you guys would’ve really bonded via email about temperatures on sets.

[01:03:56] Jenna You never know.

[01:03:57] Angela It’s true. You never know. Why am I being such a snark? Yeah, like Kate Winslet is going to be your friend, Jenna.

[01:04:03] Jenna Just you wait. You’re going to feel real dumb one day when I show up somewhere with Kate Winslet.

[01:04:10] Angela When you start podcasting with Kate Winslet, I’m going to be so bummed.

[01:04:16] Jenna And the name of our podcast is Drama is Warm.

[01:04:20] Angela Drama Ladies.

[01:04:21] Jenna Yeah. There you go. Should we move on? What do we got next?

[01:04:26] Angela I want to know if you got to the bottom of what Michael was eating in Survivorman.

[01:04:30] Jenna Yes, I did.

[01:04:31] Angela OK, good. You told me you were digging.

[01:04:34] Jenna OK, this i actually a crossover catch between Money and Survivorman.

[01:04:40] Angela OK.

[01:04:41] Jenna We were dying to know what were the pellets in the bag.

[01:04:44] Angela Yes.

[01:04:45] Jenna Tom Corey Lewis wrote in. He thinks Michael is eating Dwight’s bag of Wild Oats that he would have received from his parents for courting a woman. I checked the show Bible, according to the show Bible, in the Money episode, Dwight says there is a Schrute family tradition for parents to leave a bag of wild oats on the doorstep after their male child has had sex.

[01:05:10] Angela Oh, my God.

[01:05:11] Jenna So Tom thinks maybe these are the oats, these are the sex oats. And he had them and he gave them to Michael. They’re the sex oats.

[01:05:20] Angela Oh, my gosh. Naughty oats.

[01:05:24] Jenna Naughty oats.

[01:05:24] Angela Naughty oats being eaten in the wilderness.

[01:05:28] Jenna Oh, now that is a product right there.

[01:05:30] Angela Naughty oats.

[01:05:31] Jenna Naughty oats. Sex oats.

[01:05:33] Angela NAUGHTY  Naughty oats. What are we making? Cereal.

[01:05:38] Jenna Yeah.

[01:05:39] Angela I kind of like the name naughty yolks.

[01:05:42] Jenna Are you saying oaks or oats?

[01:05:48] Angela Naughty oats.

[01:05:50] Jenna Naughty oats.

[01:05:51] Angela Naughty oats.

[01:05:52] Jenna I want to eat that cereal,

[01:05:54] Angela But do you want it to be called sex oats or naughty oats?

[01:05:57] Jenna Hmm, that’s tough.

[01:05:59] Angela You can’t have a cereal called Sex Oats. It’s got to be naughty oats.

[01:06:06] Jenna All right. I’ll eat it.

[01:06:07] Angela So your four year old can be like, mama can I have naughty oats?

[01:06:08] Jenna I don’t say that. That’s terrible.

[01:06:15] Angela I know.

[01:06:15] Jenna It’s an adult cereal.

[01:06:16] Angela Why?

[01:06:17] Jenna It’s for adults only. Because it’s naughty. It makes you have sex. No, you eat it after sex.

[01:06:22] Angela After sex. What are the shapes? Are they naughty shapes?

[01:06:26] Jenna Little penises and boobies.

[01:06:27] Angela Oh, Lord.

[01:06:28] Jenna What has happened to us in this podcast today?

[01:06:30] Angela I don’t know. I don’t know. All right.

[01:06:33] Jenna Dinner Party, Angela?

[01:06:34] Angela Oh, yeah. Listen, I didn’t think there was any way that we would uncover anything that we hadn’t already covered in Dinner Party. I thought that was a pretty thorough episode.

[01:06:46] Jenna I thought so. I was very proud of that episode.

[01:06:49] Angela Well, let me put my glasses on, because James- A- pedia came through. James shared with me the candy bag talking head alts. You guys remember what candy bags are, right? We shared this with you. Dinner Party was a one hundred percent scripted. The script was amazing. Nothing was changing. But when we would go to do a talking head, the standard on our set was writers would hand us a bunch of alts.

[01:07:16] Jenna Yeah.

[01:07:16] Angela And we called these candy bags. You had your talking head that was the quote must shoot-.

[01:07:21] Jenna From the script.

[01:07:22] Angela From the script. And then we had the candy bags. I want to share two candy bag, alt talking heads, one for Jim and one for Dwight.

[01:07:31] Jenna I cannot wait.

[01:07:33] Angela This is a talking head for Jim that did not obviously make it in dinner party, but it really made me laugh. Here it is. If I had known that Michael would make everyone stay late just to trap me and Pam into a couple’s only dinner at his condo with Jan, Andy and Angela, I would have never asked Pam out in the first place. And I really like Pam. Isn’t that funny?

[01:08:02] Jenna That’s so good.

[01:08:03] Angela OK, so that was that was a candy bag alt for Dinner Party. And then I was texting with Rainn because we actually did a Q&A with University of Scranton.

[01:08:15] Jenna Yeah, that’s right. Yeah.

[01:08:16] Angela Yeah. We had a great time over Zoome. Anyway, we were texting and I was like Rainn. I just found an adult talking head for Dwight for dinner party and Rainn read it as Dwight and sent it in as an audio clip. And you guys remember this talking head is in reference to, you know, Dwight and Angela’s relationship.

[01:08:35] Rainn Wilson A farmer and his plow horse have a strong bond because they have a shared mission. But what mission to a man and a woman have? None, really. So they’re left to just stare at each other blankly, waiting for the other one to flinch or die or say something cute. Horses never say anything cute, but if they did, it would be a really big deal.

[01:08:58] Angela There were several alts for Dwight where he is just comparing Angela and Dwight to like some kind of farming analogy, but that one made me laugh. Thank you, Rainn.

[01:09:09] Jenna You know, and Rainn is always so supportive of the Office Ladies podcast. He really shows up for us. I love you, Rainn.

[01:09:16] Angela I know, he’s a good friend. He’s like a tall, sweet, crusty friend.

[01:09:20] Jenna Yes.

[01:09:21] Angela And you guys, his podcast, “Metaphysical Milkshake”, is now available on all platforms where you listen to podcast. It’s Rainn and his friend Reza Aslan. They talk about life’s big questions.

[01:09:33] Jenna He’s a good person to do that.

[01:09:36] Angela Mmhmm.

[01:09:36] Jenna I call him when I have big questions and I mean it. I’m not joking.

[01:09:40] Angela I know.

[01:09:40] Jenna So guys, go give it a listen.

[01:09:42] Angela I wish we could have Rainn read all of Dwights candy bag talking heads.

[01:09:47] Jenna I bet all the candy, big talking heads are so good because the thing about the candy bag talking heads was that they would push it.

[01:09:55] Angela The writers could swing big. Right?

[01:09:57] Jenna Yes. And sometimes they would make it in.

[01:10:00] Angela Yeah.

[01:10:00] Jenna But I think more than anything, those candy, big talking heads were just for their amusement. They just wanted to hear us say the stuff that was the biggest swing.

[01:10:08] Angela Yeah.

[01:10:09] Jenna I’m going to move us on to “Chair Model”. you know, in “Chair Model”, Creed is collecting chairs.

[01:10:14] Angela Yeah.

[01:10:15] Jenna We got a comment from Eve Elizabeth who said that Creed’s talking head about needing three chairs could have been a reference to Thoreau, who said this, quote-.

[01:10:27] Angela What? Henry David Thoreau?

[01:10:28] Jenna Yeah.

[01:10:28] Angela OK.

[01:10:29] Jenna He said, “I had three chairs in my house, one for solitude, two for company, three for society”.

[01:10:41] Angela I’m only laughing because of the way you said society.

[01:10:44] Jenna Society.

[01:10:44] Angela Society.

[01:10:46] Jenna Yeah.

[01:10:46] Angela Wow. Well, I mean, I sort of believe that Creed would like Henry David Thoreau. Why not?

[01:10:53] Jenna All right. “Goodbye, Toby”. Remember, we did our show Bible goodbye to Toby.

[01:10:59] Angela Yeah.

[01:11:00] Jenna We promised we would do one for Karen.

[01:11:02] Angela Let’s do it.

[01:11:03] Jenna Here it is. Karen Filippelli speaks French and can also speak some Italian. She’s very into call of duty and her favorite chips are hers, salt and vinegar. After getting kicked out of the Party Planning Committee, she creates the Committee to Plan Parties with Pam. She likes Jim, but she does not love the film “Bridget Jones’s Diary”. She gets a bra and panties when Michael offers to buy her something at the mall. She dates gym for about six months and in the end she thinks Pam is kind of a bitch. She’s even willing to move to New York if Jim gets a job at corporate. But in the end, when they break up, she takes a job as the regional manager of Utica. And while this is not the end of Karen Filippelli, we will not be seeing her for a while. So there you go. Karen Filippelli,

[01:11:51] Angela Show Bible goodbye.

[01:11:53] Jenna That’s all I have for episodes, but we got a general question that made me chuckle.

[01:11:58] Angela OK.

[01:11:59] Jenna Angela, Madelin O., wrote in to say, when you guys say we got a letter or we got mail, did you actually get a physical letter or is that your mom way of saying, we got an email? I genuinely want to know.

[01:12:14] Angela Oh, Madeline, we are such moms. That’s an email.

[01:12:18] Jenna Yeah. That’s just an email.

[01:12:19] Angela But I always think of it as like, well, we got mail.

[01:12:21] Jenna We got mail. Yeah.

[01:12:23] Angela Aw. Because we’re oldies.

[01:12:24] Jenna We are. But I do say we got a letter sometimes.

[01:12:27] Angela Yeah. Because it is a letter.

[01:12:29] Jenna An email letter.

[01:12:30] Angela Yeah.

[01:12:30] Jenna Yeah. That’s Mom speak Madelin.

[01:12:32] Angela Yeah. Lady are you ready for some shout outs?

[01:12:35] Jenna I want shout outs.

[01:12:36] Angela Several of you have shared with us that you would really like for our insta stories to stay in the highlights on OfficeLadiesPod because by the time you get to listen to the episode, they’re gone. I was like trying to figure out how to do this because I’m a dinosaur. And I was like, how do I do him every week? How do we do him Jenna? How do we do? And then as I was literally trying to figure this out, someone tagged me in a post and it’s from an account called OfficeLadiesStories on Instagram. So I reached out to OfficeLadiesStories on Instagram and I got in touch with who created it and I want to give her a shout out. Her name is Aizu Garcia. Aizu, thank you so much for setting up Office Ladies Instastory. It’s a highlight’s account. Aizu shared with me that she recently graduated from the University of Houston with a degree in retailing and consumer science and that the office got her through long nights of studying. She loves the podcast and she started the Instagram page because she often listens to the podcast after the stories have left.

[01:13:43] Jenna Yeah.

[01:13:43] Angela And she wanted to be able to share them with other people. So Aizu, thank you so much.

[01:13:49] Jenna Thank you. Because now Angela and I don’t have to figure out how to do that.

[01:13:53] Angela Exactly.

[01:13:53] Jenna We would have never figured it out, I’m pretty sure.

[01:13:56] Angela I mean, I just didn’t know how to maintain it either.

[01:13:58] Jenna That, too.

[01:13:59] Angela Yeah.

[01:14:00] Jenna We’re very grateful.

[01:14:01] Angela Thank you.

[01:14:02] Angela And lastly, I have wanted to mention this on a revisit it a few times. I often quote scenes. I have the dialog. I like to read it back. I put it in my document.

[01:14:14] Jenna Yeah.

[01:14:14] Angela And four episodes that we haven’t had the scripts for. There is a website that is amazing. If you want to see the aired version of the office and written word, it’s called OfficeQuotes.net. It is every word ever said on the show.

[01:14:31] Jenna Oh my gosh.

[01:14:32] Angela Yes. I find it a great website and I have used it as we have prepped episode after episode. So thank you.

[01:14:39] Jenna One of my favorite websites is Dunderpedia and they have a page that is like a Wikipedia page for every single episode of “The Office”. And I found something cool as I was going back to do additional research for Season Four. They have started adding things to the pages that we have found.

[01:14:58] Angela Oh, they’re updating them.

[01:14:59] Jenna From doing “Office Ladies”.

[01:15:01] Angela Well, that’s great.

[01:15:01] Jenna From doing the podcast. So extra little nuggets that we’ve gotten from cast members, things that weren’t already out there. They are still updating those pages. And that’s really cool, too, to look back at a specific episode and see all the fun facts.

[01:15:14] Angela Yes, well, there you go. Those are my shout outs.

[01:15:17] Jenna I think we revisited it.

[01:15:19] Angela I think we took a second drink.

[01:15:20] Jenna That was Season Four revisited. Thank you, Carey Bennett, for being amazing. Thank you, Creed, for hopping on the phone with me. Thank you, Kate. And Rainn Wilson and James Pedia.

[01:15:32] Angela And Bob Thiele for giving us the Pennsylvania Poca rehearsal tape. You can find Bob at BobThieleJr. You’re on Instagram, B-o-b-T-h-i-e-l-e-J-r. That was so cool and you guys, Kate Flannery and Jane Lynch are going to start touring again.

[01:15:51] Jenna Oh.

[01:15:51] Angela Yes. So I’ll put in stories where you can find their show dates. They do a fantastic show. And, you know, they have that great Christmas album. I’ll put all that and stories.   

[01:16:10] Jenna And Carey Bennett. Is that CareyBennettCostumes. And you can find Creed’s tour schedule at CreedBratton.com.

[01:16:16] Angela There you have it, guys. Season Four.

[01:16:18] Jenna We’ll be back next week to keep breaking down Season Five.

[01:16:22] Angela Five.

[01:16:22] Jenna Five.

[01:16:23] Angela Season Five.

[01:16:24] Jenna I’m going to go eat some nasty oats.

[01:16:26] Angela I’m from St. Louis.

[01:16:28] Jenna Yeah.

[01:16:28] Angela Farty far.

[01:16:30] Jenna I got to use a spoon, not a fork for my oats.

[01:16:33] Angela For my Naughty Oats.

[01:16:34] Jenna My Naughty oats. I think we’ve moved to Wisconsin now.

[01:16:37] Angela I don’t know where we are.

[01:16:38] Jenna I don’t know where we are either. We can’t do accents.

[01:16:40] Angela I, well, you know what, I have like three I can do and I don’t think Missouri is one.

[01:16:46] Jenna I can’t really do any. Oh well. We’re going to end the podcast now. We’ll see you later.

[01:16:53] Angela Bye.

[01:16:54] Jenna Bye. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies Office Ladies is produced by Earwolf, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. Our show is executive produced by Codi Fischer. Our producer is Cassi Jerkins, our sound engineer is Sam Kieffer, and our associate producer is Aynsley Bubbico.

[01:17:13] Angela Our theme song is “Rubber Tree” by Creed Bratton.

[01:17:16] Jenna For Ad free versions of Office Ladies go to StitcherPremium.com. For a free one month trial of Stitcher Premium, use code “office”.