Office Ladies - Dunder Mifflin Infinity Pt 2

Episode Date: January 6, 2021

This week we finish breaking down Dunder Mifflin Infinity. We start off by answering some fan questions from the Office Ladies’ mail bag, including the scoop on where some mics were hidden around The Office set. A fan writes in to tell the ladies how the Office Ladies show inspired her to ask for more time off at work and she got it! Then the ladies break down Michael and Dwight’s quest to win over past clients with gift baskets, causing Angela to confess to her own basket obsession. We then tell you everything you want to know about the stunt of driving a car into a lake, which includes cinematographer Randall Einhorn protecting a very expensive camera. Jenna shares a story of trying to translate a French GPS in France and Angela tells real stories of people who followed their GPS into disastrous situations. This episode is jam packed, plus a little extra. Also, I love you.

I'm Jenna Fisher. And I'm Angela Kinsey. We were on The Office together. And we're best friends. And now we're doing the Ultimate Office rewatch podcast just for you. 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. We're The Office, ladies. Happy New Year. Happy 2021, everybody. Wow. This is exciting. We're in a new year. Man, oh, man. New year. I'm in a new size pants. I really am. I went up a whole pants. I made some New Year's resolutions, Jenna. And one of them is I'm going to move more. I'm going to keep it really simple. I'm just going to move more. You know, I did that, Ange, because

I felt really creaky when I would wake up in the morning. And I didn't like it. I felt like the age in my bones, you know? And I was like, you know, keep it in motion. It's a good thing. Yeah. I'm just going to go on more walks. This is my big New Year's resolution. More walking. I think that's good. Movement, fresh air. It's good for your health in so many ways. Yeah. I'm for this. I can't make my resolutions too complicated or it won't happen. So I'm keeping it real simple. Make attainable goals. This is amazing. I'm going to walk with you. Yay. Well, I'm excited. We'll do it together. Well, you guys, we are sorry you had to wait so long for part two, but we were, we were just wanting to spend

some time with our families and we're excited to share with you now Dunder Mifflin Infinity part two. Yeah. And I have to say it's worth the wait because Michael's going to drive his car into a lake this week. Oh, and we have lots to say about it. We do. Let's get started. Let's do it. Dunder Mifflin Infinity part two, season four, episode four, written by Mike Sher and directed by Craig Zisk. Here is a summary. Michael tries to show up Ryan and his emphasis on technology by winning back clients with old fashioned customer service and elaborate gift baskets. Along the way, he drives into a lake after misinterpreting the directions from his GPS. Also in this episode, Ryan asked Pam to design some logos

for Dunder Mifflin Infinity. And then he asks her out. And Angela makes it clear to Dwight that they are done. Yeah, she is not forgiving him. Well, gang, since we did fast facts on the first half of this episode, and since it is a new year, we thought we should pay a visit to our mailbag and answer some questions. Yes, it's time to talk to you guys. Well, our first letter came from Jesse S. And she said, Hi, I am a hard of hearing person who loves to listen to the podcast. But I do miss some things as I rely on lip reading a lot. I am wondering if transcribing the podcast is an option for other deaf and hard of hearing who are fans of the show and would love to be able to interact with the podcast. Well,

guys, we do have a transcription for every single episode going back to the pilot. And you can find it on officeladies.com. If you go to the episodes and scroll down, there's a little button for transcript. Yes, you go past the sort of summary of the episode. And it's right there. And you can click on it and read the whole thing. This is kind of personal to me, Jesse, because my sister, Emily, wears hearing aids. And she also relies on lip reading. And so I know that sometimes being able to both listen and read along is really helpful for her. And also, like when I go to her house, she always has the closed caption on her TV. So we definitely, definitely want the podcast to be accessible to everyone.

So guys, if there's any other ways we can make it more accessible, let us know. Yes. And in the meantime, go to officeladies.com and go to each episode and scroll down and their transcript is right there. And we have a team here at Ear Wolf that helps us with that. And we so appreciate it. All right. Well, our next question, Jenna, comes from Julie Weiss. And she says, I have a question about kissing the other actors. How do you prep for kissing someone that you are friends with, but not romantically involved with? Was it ever awkward? Oh, Julie. Julie, it's always awkward. It's always awkward. And thank goodness over the years, though, you do become such good friends that it's just like, okay, well,

we'll just do this really quickly. But something that made it difficult for me, which maybe you wouldn't think about is that I often had to kiss Rainn Wilson. And for whatever reason, he was usually eating something disgusting right beforehand. And I'd be like, Rainn, dang it. Do you have to eat a tuna fish sandwich right before we're supposed to kiss? Come on. Yeah, I remember he would always be like downing a cup of coffee and an everything bagel. Yes. And he'd be like, I'm ready for my kissing scene. And you would be like, Rainn, a mint. Can you do something? Anything at this point, just not the everything bagel, anything out? My God. Well, at least for me, John was always very conscientious. He would

have a mint or some gum. A mint. Rainn Wilson, a mint. We were very breath aware. Rain, Rainn, not so much. Also, Julie, we didn't do the big open mouth stuff that maybe you see in movies and whatnot. This was like television. Comedy kissing is very different than like a dramatic movie, make out, you know, it's your lips are kind of just together, you know, you kind of fake it. Fakey kiss, fakey bag. Well, our next question comes from Jessica Willis. I've always been curious how much ADR did you have to typically do for your episodes? I've noticed that in some episodes, you see characters remove a mic pack and the audio goes black. It's such

a real cool detail and a reference to the documentary. So how much original audio did you use and how much was re-recorded after filming? Well, lady, my memory is we did not do a lot of ADR. I mean, I have one memory of the whole nine years of going in to do it. Yeah. In the entire nine years, I only recorded one line that they had to dub in later, one in nine years. And I thought that's how it worked. Yeah. And when I went on other jobs, part of your job is you go in a studio every week and you dub lines that got missed or that maybe a plane flew over your head or there was a sound problem and they dump it in and I'd spend maybe 30 minutes an hour just doing that on other shows. But on our

show, we did not. And why is that? Because all the other projects I've gone on, you have like an ADR day where you go in. But on the office, I only did ADR once and it was for the finale. And I got to see footage of the finale before it aired, before anyone saw it because I went in and had to loop one line. And it was because we were outside and we had that storm coming in and they just needed me to loop a line. And I even took a picture in the ADR booth because I'd never been in there. You know, first of all, our sound engineers were Emmy award winning. They won Emmys for

their sound design on our show. They're just amazing. But they also had a mic pack on every single actor. We had two boom operators in the room and they hid microphones throughout the office. I had one at reception. Oh, yeah, we had a microphone in the accounting pod and they put it next to Oscar's phone. So it would sort of pick up the three of us, you know. But I also remember I would often see our boom operators and camera operators having little powwows because they would have to choreograph the boom swing with the camera swing so that they could pick up the sound. And it was this crafted dance that they did.

And it's really amazing. And I'm actually glad that Jessica wrote in because it gives us a chance to really shout out our sound department, which was incredible. Our main guys that were with us on the stage were Ben Patrick. Yep. He was our main like production sound mixer sound editor. And we had our two boom operators, Nick Carbone. Don't get car boned. Don't get car boned. And Brian Whittle, Brian Whittle would be the inspiration for the boom operator that we see later in the story. Yeah, but then we also had like a mixing department and we had other boom operators and people that would rotate in. We just had a really

amazing sound team. Yeah, they were great. While we have one more question, this one is from Alicia W. She asked, in the talking heads where the camera is facing into the office, Stanley is almost always in the background. Would Leslie David Baker have to stay in the background the whole time they filmed talking heads or was that background edited in? Oh, Alicia, he had to sit there. Yes. For nine years. Poor Leslie David Baker. He was always in the background. He was always there. You could see him at his desk. And he was such a trooper. When people had talking heads, when we had a long day of them, he'd sit there. Yep.

And sometimes Phyllis would have to sit there and sometimes Creed as well. Yes. And early on, they would have people there designated to cross. Like you might see someone like Cross to the kitchen or Cross back. We abandoned that after a couple of seasons. I think if you look at early season talking heads, you see crosses in the background. And then at a certain point, people are like, I think, I'm thinking, no, I think I'm not going to go to the kitchen and back to get a cup of coffee for two hours. Yeah, I don't. Also, I think they were a little distracting because I know I did a Cross one time and they had me cross really close to the conference room, that cabinet that was

there. And then they're like, oh, no. And then they had me cross way in the back. But I think ultimately they were just like, okay, no, no crossing. Well, also, if you wanted to improv, it would throw off the timing of the cross. Yeah. And so you would, when you went into editing, it did not work for crosses. It just worked to have poor Leslie at his desk as a constant Leslie and then Creed. I think Creed would be the number two runner up for that. I think so too. And then before we go to break, we just got a really nice comment and it made us happy. So we thought we'd share it. It is from Cecilia B. And she says, ladies, I have to tell you, you two are amazing. Thank you, Cecilia. I finally

got the courage to ask for our changes at work. And all I kept hearing was both of you ladies in my head saying, just go for it. Ask for what you want. And I'm so happy that I listened to you ladies. Now I get to have an extra hour with my daughters. I'm a single mom and every second with them counts. Thank you, ladies. Well, that makes me so happy. Aw. Well, Cecilia, that makes us so happy to hear. And what? Oh, Sam is waving at me. Jenna, before we go to break, Sam, what do you got? I want to let you guys know on the Office Ladies podcast fan page. I know you guys aren't on Facebook. We've heard of this though, Jenna. Yes. People have shared with us. So hi, you guys. Hello. There is a whole thread of people agreeing

with Cecilia that had similar experiences. There's a woman named Naomi Timmer who went in and told her boss she deserved more money after listening to that episode and got a raise. And then there's a whole thread of people underneath it who'd realized that they had been operating the same way, negotiating themselves down before they went in the interview who are not going to do it anymore. Oh my gosh, that is so great. I love that you're all sharing about it too. I love that so much. It's awesome. Well, I feel like I should give a shout out to the person who gave me this piece of advice. His name is Jeff Ulrich. And ever since he told me this, it has really resonated with me. I've been like, oh my gosh, I've been negotiating with myself

for less than I deserve my whole life. So this is a new piece of advice to me too. So we're all doing this together, folks. Yes. And Sam, thanks for sharing that. And I've been hearing about this Facebook fan group of Office Ladies. And I just love the community you guys are building there. And if I wasn't 100 years old, I don't know how to navigate Facebook. Guys, I tried. I don't understand it. But it's too many things too. I have to have just the one. That's the space I'm in. I know. I know. Like between kids and life, I'm like, I can look at one thing. But I will say someone did point this Facebook page out to us because the community that is being built there is really supportive, really encouraging, really positive. And I feel like

especially now, what a great community to have built. It's really cool. Yeah, it means a lot to us. And Sam, you'll have to continue to share with us. Sounds good. Okay. Yeah. Because if you peek in on the group, will you say what it's called again, Sam? It is simply the Office Ladies podcast fan page. Awesome. Well, we should go to break and get back and get into this episode. Let's do it. All right. Now we're in Dunder Mifflin Infinity Part 2. It starts with a scene in the conference room, right? Michael is showing them all the gift baskets. But Jenna, there was a deleted scene that would have started this part of the episode. What was it? I loved it. I found it fascinating.

And it's an alt. They ultimately end up providing this information with Dwight later, but there was a scene with Michael by himself. And it's the start of his day. And he's driving into work. He's doing one of those driving talking heads that Michael does, right? Oh, well, the last time he did that, it was very dangerous. I know. I know. He hit an employee. He did. So it's the same thing. He's driving into work and he's sort of showing off his rental car. It looks like a Ford, Taurus. I see Ford. I think, Taurus, I don't know, guys. Correct me if I'm wrong on that. But we learned the whole backstory why he's not driving the Sebring. Michael said he had to get a rental car because his Sebring is in the body shop because Meredith left a

big dent in the hood. And then he said, but listen, this rental has navigation. And Michael calls it his invisible driving companion. And he goes, but, you know, listen, it is really amazing. And it's like a computerized map in your car. And he goes on to say that he loves its voice, that he finds it so soothing. It's like taking a warm bath. And while he's saying how much he loves the voice, Jan calls. And this is what we hear. Sam, will you play that? Oh, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Ah, it is my lady love. Smell-o. Where the f*** are my grape nuts? I don't... I just want to know, did you eat my grape nuts? Ah, no, I hate those things. Grow up, Michael. I love...

Not a morning person. Oh, no. Oh, my God. And then after that, he sits in the car in silence, and he just hits the navigation button. So it just keeps talking to him. You have arrived. You know, it's like, he just needs something soothing. Oh, lady. Oh, wow. Wow. Just a window into his life with Jan. And maybe a little bit of the reason why he trusts the navigation so much, because it's just this soothing, invisible driving companion. Yeah, I get that. So yes, this episode actually does start with the conference room. Jenna, did you see the spread on that table? It was incredible. I remember it from shooting. They had excellent, excellent little snacks and treats. Excellent. In fact, Michael says that he got the finest gourmet items that Scranton has to

offer. How much did this all cost? I love every time you ask that question. You are personally fascinated by how Michael funds all of his extracurriculars. And it's such a good question to ask. This is where Angela Martin, the accountant character, bleeds into your real personality. It is, because let me tell you, those baskets were not cheap. Look at those. I love baskets. My husband says my nickname should be baskets. I have a basket problem. If I see a basket, I'm going to buy it. And I'm telling you, those baskets are primo baskets. Angela, I know that you recently did a huge clean out of your garage. I did. Will you share with us how many baskets were in the garage? 37. Yeah. 37. How many did you keep? 12. I picked my 12th favorite.

And let me tell you, it was hard for me to let go. I donated them to a church in our neighborhood that does outreach. And I was very, very happy that they got my baskets, but it was hard to say goodbye. I felt like when you were leaving me messages about this, I was really proud of you for this progress. Thank you. With your basket issue. Thank you. Yeah. That's not counting how many baskets I have inside the house. That I'm using though, like I have a basket genna by the fireplace that I roll up and I put blankets in. And then I have a basket in my bedroom that I roll up and put blankets in. Listen, I have a lot of blankets around my house because my husband is a giant mountain man and I'm always freezing. He runs hot. I have baskets of blankets

stashed all around. Okay. That is the title of your autobiography, Baskets of Blanket by Angela Kinsey. With a side of donuts and a glass of wine. It's a very long title. One million copies already sold. Yep. All right. Well, Michael has this talking head where he explains what these baskets are all about. He says, you know, Ryan thinks everything is about emails and IMs. It's all about technology. But he's forgetting about the original instant message, which is a letter attached to a basket of food. Yeah, that's the original IM, you guys, in case you were wondering. Well, I guess speaking of the cost of these baskets, Dwight is going to turn in receipts for the cost of these gift baskets to Angela,

yeah, who is very, very icy toward him. Yeah. And before we get into the scene, Jenna, we've brought this up before, but for any of you that missed it, 22 minutes, 53 seconds, you can clearly see on the message board under THUS, THUS, the following caption. In case you haven't noticed, there's a lot of colorful Huey on this board. Well, it's interesting you mentioned that Angela, because we had several people write in about this whiteboard behind you. Katie, E, Julie Bird, and Christopher Neville all said that there's even more stuff on the board now. For example, there is an anger management appreciation day on Tuesday, the 23rd. On the 8th, there is an accounting department meeting, and it specifies, be prepared to show your work. And on the 10th,

it says flex times, which interestingly enough includes Karen, even though she left. And under the flex times on the 10th, it says that Ryan will cover reception, even though he now works at corporate. Yeah. And what is a flex time? You know, when I worked in admin, you needed to give the front receptionist a break so that that person could go to lunch. And so the other admin desks would rotate in to sit at the desk for lunch. So I was usually the receptionist, and then each day, a different admin would take over my lunch hour because you couldn't have no one answering front reception or no one greeting guests. So I always assumed that's what it meant, that like flex time was who rotated to give Pam her lunch break. But I don't know. I would have loved to

seen that scene. I would have loved to seen like just a montage of like different people answering the phones. Well, yes. So Dwight Hansangela, the receipt for all the items in the baskets. And she's very icy towards him, Jenna. She just wants it to be business, just business. Yeah. And he says, I miss you. And she's like, elevators. Yeah. And then when they get to the elevators, Angela is making it very clear that it's over. And Dwight is kind of like, okay, okay, I do want to be friends. Plus a little extra. Also, I love you. This is one of my favorite things that Dwight ever says to Angela. I have seen this like stitched on a pillow. I've seen it on all of these Valentine's items. It's really cute. People have written this to their boyfriend or girlfriend. And they've

shared it with me online. But that plus a little extra also, I love you. It's so great. I actually broke up with a guy once and he was like, I get it. Totally cool. Can we still hook up? Yeah. And I was like, no, we cannot. That is not breaking up. Yeah. And he seemed genuinely confused about it, which makes me laugh because we're now going into the scene with Ryan and Kelly in the break room. What a mess, these two. Yeah. Ryan and Kelly are arguing. And Ryan is like, you lied about being pregnant. You lied. You don't understand. Yeah. Why that's a big deal. And Mindy as Kelly is so good in this. She's like, oh, why?

He's like, we will never get back together. And she's like, why not? It's so good. It's really good. Well, now Pam and Jim are at front reception and they're being super flirty. Yeah. They're flirting. He's saying, you know, oh, is the magic gone now that we're public? And then Pam's being sort of sassy but flirty at the same time. Well, this is their new way of flirting, which is to pretend that they don't like each other or that they're breaking up. So they do this little bit. And this is a little window into how they still have their sense of humor, even though they're together. Don't worry, everybody. The magic

is not lost. Yeah. The magic isn't lost. We're just all going to have to watch them flirt now. Also, two things from Pam's desk. There is an orange kind of rust colored ceramic pot with a very sad tiny plant, you know, because Pam could care less about plants now like she ever really cared. But her focus is elsewhere. And then Jenna, Pam and Angela in real life have something in common. What? At 24 minutes, 22 seconds, you can see a whole bunch of yellow post-it notes that Pam has put in her desk area. Oh my gosh, Pam did like post-it notes. Pam and Angela like post-it notes. Yeah. Yeah, it's true. Yeah, I did a lot of prop post-it note work on the show. Well, you know who likes post-it notes in real life.

You. Me. You love a post-it. I love a post-it. Why are you not like some sort of spokesperson for post-it notes? I don't know. I actually did a campaign with post-its a few years ago and they sent me a humongous box of every kind of different type of post-it you could imagine. And I was over the moon. I did a crazy thing with post-it notes. It was early in the run of the office. Wired Magazine wanted me to do like a nude cover. Yeah, but I wasn't I wasn't nude. Their pitch was that I was covered in post-it notes. Yeah. And so they built me like a nude bodysuit and then I came out onto the set in this nude bodysuit and then like a prop person had to slowly cover me in post-it notes.

It was super odd. And I was like, I guess this is what you do when your TV show is a hit and they ask you to do the cover of a magazine. A man covers you in post-it notes. Jenna, you should have worn it to an award show. You would have been all the rage. Remember the lady at the Oscars? She was a wardrobe designer and she made her whole dress out of American Express cards, gold cards. Do you remember that? Yeah. Yeah. You could have shown up in a post-it note couture gown. Well, lady, I think we know who needs to show up in a post-it note couture gown to something and it's you. And this is in your future and it can still happen. Oh my God. So Michael is going to unveil his plan, you guys, to win back clients. He makes his big

announcement. He's going to be delivering baskets door to door and unannounced. He's not going to warn anyone he's coming. It's a surprise gift basket, everybody. Ryan's not happy. We have a Michael talking head where he's like, you know what? He used to be told he couldn't do things like be on the team or move on to second grade. Jenna, are we finding out in this episode that Michael was held back in first grade? Yeah, I think we are. I think we're learning maybe he was held back more than once, it sort of sounds like. Yeah, because then he's like, I eventually went on to second grade and I was the biggest in the class. Eventually? Again, what happened in Michael's childhood? Why was he held back in first grade so many times? And now we cut back to the bullpen.

And Jenna, people are starting to yell out things and we have some major fill of sass. She says, Michael, this is stupid. She just lays it out. Lays it out. Yeah. And then Andy suggests he give away cash instead. Yeah. And then he says, Angela, cash basket. You guys, cash basket became an inside joke for all of us on the office for years and years and years. Every once in a while, there would be some line or some joke that it just struck us as particularly funny in the moment and we couldn't get over it. And cash basket was one of them. I think if my memory serves Angela, there was a take where Ed was maybe late to saying cash basket. And so it came out like this. Cash basket. And that made John Krasinski lose it.

Well, I think it was the very first take and a few things happened. We hadn't really heard him say it full out, right? Yeah. So it kind of took all of us off guard. And John was like right there next to him when Ed was like, cash basket. And we just lost it. But John really, he really lost it. I watched really closely because I was surprised they had a reaction shot of John at all in the scene because my memory of doing the scene was that John was on the floor in tears laughing the entire time because he couldn't get past cash basket. Well, I did notice though, because I was looking as well. He kind of is swiveling his chair around, but he glances back towards Andy. And that is just John looking at Ed. That is not Jim looking at Andy. He just has

this look of like, man, this guy is killing me today. Well, after I watched this episode, it really made me want to go to our office text thread and just text cash basket. Cash basket. Oh, we should. Well, Michael is just like, forget it, guys. I am going. I'm going to do this. And then Dwight begs him, can I please go with you? I need this. And at 26 minutes 41 seconds, Angela Martin is looking over the partition. She has a really great eye roll. But guys, look how high my head is over that partition. It's not realistic at all. Really and truly, that partition came up to my forehead. And I would have to stand on my tippy toes to get my eyeballs over it to talk to Jenna. I was standing on the biggest Apple box. It made me laugh when I saw

it. I'm like, who is this tall person pretending to be me? And I took a picture, Jenna, I'm going to show you. That is amazing. Yes, there is no way that that is you standing there because your chin never cleared the partition. I know, I know. Naturally. No, there's no way. Well, I really like this Michael talking head that comes up, Angela, where he says, I'd like to see a website deliver baskets of food to people. I know, as if it's like a novelty. Hi, that's like half of Christmas is just sending people baskets. I send everyone in my family a whole thing of mixed nuts. I love nuts. They're a big hit. A basket of mixed nuts. Yes, all kinds of mixed nuts. For sure. And there's, I mean, guys, there's many flavors. There's the Cajun nuts. There's pecans

or the caramelized ones. Just saying, Michael, people are doing it. Well, Michael is going to bring Dwight with him. And they're going to deliver these gift baskets. And they are in the car now, they're on their way. Here's one question I have. And yeah, these gift baskets are very, very large. Where are they? Where are they? Are they going back and forth to Dunder Mifflin? It looks like there's one in the backseat. Well, there's a camera operator in the backseat clearly filming them. It seems like there's only room for one more, but we're going to see them deliver a few. Where are they coming from? Is that can one fit in the trunk? I don't know. I wondered where the basket. How big is the trunk of a Ford Taurus? That's a question. That's a question. Well,

I have a thing I'm curious about. So Michael and Dwight are in the car. They're driving. The GPS starts talking to them. By the way, it looks like a Garmin. I remember because I had one for a while, just saying. And Dwight's like, why do you use that? It'll let them know where you are. Michael's like, where are you talking about? And he's like, the government, spy satellites, private detectives, ex-girlfriends. And then he starts to cry. And Michael has no reaction. Wouldn't you be like, why are you crying? What is happening? Yeah. Dude's not like dudes out there. If your friend cries, are you not like, what's up? Are you just like, I'm gonna ignore it. Maybe he'll stop. Like, what is that? Is that a,

is that a dude bro thing? I don't know. Well, we had a fan question about this scene. Callie Hendricks and Brendan Cullinan asked, how did you guys do the GPS voicing? Was it a voice actor? And if so, who voiced it? Yes, it was. It was a voice actor. It was an actress named Lynn Ann Zager. And we just hired her and she read all the GPS voice stuff. Well, she did great. She sounds like the real deal. I know. Jenna, my friend, Micah, you know, he's from Australia. And he set his GPS to the Aussie, the Aussie lady. So she's like, Oh, take a ride. No, you can do that. Yes, you can. You can have, like, like, I know you can have British, but he picked the Australian.

Oh, I kind of want to do this now. Yeah, I know. Is that great? Exit for Studio City. Oh, my God, I kind of love that. You know, there's this app, this meditation app called Headspace. I don't know if you've ever heard of it. And you can choose between either a male or a female, I guess, meditation leader voice. I don't know what to call them, but they lead you through the meditation and you can pick a man or a woman. And the man sounds exactly like our ear wolf producer, Colin. Really? Yes, to the point where I had to change to the woman, because as much as I love Colin's voice, I felt like I was like, I was like, why is Colin who talks to me about download numbers and ad sales

leading me through my meditation right now? It's really funny. Jenna, what if we did navigation for people? Oh, my gosh, what would that sound like? It would sound like this. Lady, take a right. You are at your destination. I love it. Oh, that's really good. All right. We should get back to the episode. Oh, man. Oh, man. I loved the scene. It's in the kitchen and Ryan is trying to impress Andy and Kevin about his life in New York City. And he's like, yeah, at 2am, you know, I went to get a sandwich because you can get a sandwich at 2am in New York City. He literally bumps into Vince Vaughn. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's incredible. And Andy says, you are so money, but you don't even know it. But you do know it. And that was a quote from

the movie Swingers. Yeah. Do you remember that movie? It was from 1996. How could I forget that movie? It was like, all of my friends were struggling actors. We were all broke and doing all these different odd jobs to pay rent while trying to go on auditions. And it was like this movie we like felt seen. We're like, this is us. Yes. Oh my God. It totally encapsulated the sort of like young LA transplant lifestyle. And it was written by John Favreau and stars John Favreau and Vince Vaughn and Ron Livingston. Yes. Directed by Doug Lyman. It launched all of their careers. I remember this. It features that club, the Dresden. Yeah. Do you remember the Dresden? It was this big swing dance club. Very hipster club. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's here are the things. I have to

read this off because it really got me tickled. You know, Jim is like, I can't believe you guys are impressed with this guy. You know, he's like, whatever with Ryan and his 2am sandwich, you know. And Andy's like, listen, this is why Ryan is awesome. Are you ready? Yeah. Number one, killer job. Number two, he's rich. Number three, smells like Pierce Brosnan. Number four, wears really cool rich guy clothes. Number five can get any girl he wants. We'll see. We'll see. Well, now Michael and Dwight arrive to their first client. They're going to woo him back with their big gift basket. He is confused why they've come. Yeah. Also, he's like, you don't have a website. We went with Office Depot because they have a really good website.

Like what? I don't know why you're here. Yeah. It's a very funny scene. The actor who plays the client is named Edward James Gage who in addition to numerous acting roles also spent 13 years as a real life private eye bounty hunter and bodyguard according to his bio on IMDB. Okay. Well, that's a pretty interesting resume there. Well, I have a question about this scene. I'm I was a little confused what this business was. So the character's name is Larry, the client's name is Larry. And if you look over his shoulder, what is the crazy machine behind him? I've never seen anything like it. What is it? I don't know. And then it got me wondering, what is this company? Where have they gone? Do we ever find out? It was it bothered me. It was a big mystery for me. It did not bother

me, but didn't bother you. Didn't occur to you. Now I guess I have to go back and look at this machine. Guys, check it out. What is it? There must be someone out there who knows what it is. They're going to be like, oh, they make widgets for plastic airplanes. Like it'll be obvious to someone and I'd love to know. Okay, me too. Me too. Well, back at Dunder Mifflin, Ryan is going to do a real skeezy boss move. He's going to go up to Pam and be like, Hey, do you want to do some mockups of the new, you know, Dunder Mifflin Infinity graphic? And, and she's really excited. Her and Jim do an air high five. And then you have a very adorable talking hedge. And I literally wrote, she's adorable. Okay. You're just like, yeah, I'm going to do some mockups, maybe a splash

frame. It's really cute. But you're excited. Well, Michael is going to deliver his second basket now. Second basket. Yeah, exactly. And this is where Michael is so great. I have to say, Michael's argument that the personal touch means something. He walks in, he asks about the client's 11 year old daughter, Emily, he remembered her name. He remembered she had a nut allergy. I mean, yeah, impressive. And genuine. Yeah. But then he has that line that breaks your heart. Oh, I know. I know what you're going to say. Yeah, he says, Well, I have a few of my own I want someday. Talking about kids. Yeah. Yeah. Michael. Well, the client's name is Aaron Grandy. He is a partner in this law firm. And he was played by Kevin Dorff. Kevin Dorff has had recurring roles on

Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Arrested Development. But most recently, he played Bill O'Reilly in the movie Bombshell. And I loved that movie. I haven't seen it. Is it Bombshell? Oh, is it a war movie? Is it like bomb? No, lady, it's not a war movie. It's a little bit of a war movie because there are a couple of women who take on a movement, I guess you could say. It's it's this amazing film. It's basically centers around Megan Kelly and Gretchen Carlson and their time at Fox News. They were their news anchors. News anchors at Fox News or were and Kevin Dorff plays Bill O'Reilly in this movie. Oh, wow. It's so good, Angela. And the makeup department on this film won an Academy Award and the transformation that they do to make people look like the real people.

Like Charlize Theron plays Megan Kelly. She really, really looks like her. Like it freaked me out. I once shared a train with Megan Kelly. I didn't speak to her, but I sat right across from her on a train from New York to Washington, D.C. And so I've I've seen her in real life as well. And I'm telling you what this makeup department did was I've never seen anything like it, but also the movie is amazing. Okay, well, Jenna, I'll add Bombshell to my queue. Please do. And we'll discuss after. Okay. And how cool that how cool that Kevin has a part in it? I know. I also want to say in this scene, though, the background acting behind the glass doors over the client's shoulder, you get a glimpse at the law firm. It is hustle and bustle in there.

There is so much going on. I mean, the background work is phenomenal. They're moving. They're moving and they're making it. They're making it. Yeah. Well, Michael's really trying hard. He wants this client back. He says, we want you back. And Dwight starts getting a little weird, because he's just thinking about Angela. And he goes, we had our chance and we killed it. And you just you just have this feeling that this is not going to go well for them. Yeah. Well, it's definitely not going to go well, because the big moment is about to happen. I think we should take a break. I like how you're setting this up, though. The big moment is about to happen. It's a big moment. It was a big stunt. Hey, it's not every day you drive a car into a

lake, guys. And we're going to tell you all about it after this break. All right, we are back. Jen and I are really excited because we have fun stuff to share with you about this car going into the lake. So here's the scene. Dwight says they have one more client. It's Elmhurst Country Club. I looked it up, Jenna. Elmhurst Country Club is in Moscow, Pennsylvania in Lackawanna County. So they're following the GPS and it's telling them to take a right. And Dwight is like, Michael, I think it means bear right, right? And Michael's like, no, it's telling me to take a hard right. And Dwight's like, no, Michael, that's the lake. It's like Scranton. And Michael's like, no, it's the GPS is telling me.

And he drives into the lake right into the lake. Well, we got a lot of mail about this scene. David B, Rachel K, Rob Holland, Thomas O'Brien, and many others all asked, please tell us everything you can about the scene where Steve and Rain drive into the lake. Did they really drive a car into the lake? Was there a camera operator in the back seat? Yes, folks. Let's break it down. But yes to all of that. Well, I started by reaching out to Steve and he said, yes, they really drove a real car into a real lake. He said they did the stunt twice all the way through and that Randall, our camera operator was in the back seat. So of course, Angela, I had to reach out to Randall.

Oh, oh, what did he say? Well, first of all, do you know where he was when I reached out to him? Listen, knowing Randall, I mean, he was he on horseback somewhere? The guy is an adventure guy. There's was he skydiving? Where was he? He was just finishing up a river rafting trip in Idaho on a freezing cold lake. Of course. Of course. But because Randall is awesome, he still broke down the whole stunt for me, which is completely fascinating. From Idaho. From on his drive home from Idaho from the freezing cold lake. When I first reached out to him, he literally said, I'm just getting out of a lake, which was ironic. Perfect. But I'll call you on my drive home. I was like, all right, amazing. Great. All right. So he says,

first off, they did not actually drive the car into the lake. They put the car on a system that hold it into the lake and stopped it at a certain depth. So there was a rig to make it look like they were driving into a lake was on some type of track pulley thing. Yes. Okay. And he said they did this because they needed to control how much water flooded into the car. Makes sense. Yeah. Yes. He said the car actually didn't even have an engine. They had to take it out. It didn't have a gas tank. It didn't have any oil. All of that was removed to submerge it in water. I found that interesting. Yeah. But he told me he really was scrunched in the back seat with a giant gift basket next to him. So he said at first they discussed just filming it on lipstick

cameras that were in the visors. You know, we've seen them do that before. But Randall felt very strongly that it should be shot using the handheld camera from the back seat. So he kind of fought for that. And is that because it just the look of it would be better? You would really feel that water coming in because it's just a better camera. Yeah. And you can't pan the lipstick cameras. Right. They're just like a... They're stationary. They only get that one little window that you're seeing. Whereas Randall with a handheld camera could get the whole view. Yes. Exactly. He said that the camera that he was using, it cost upwards of $130,000. Holy cow. And he could not get it wet. He was told, you cannot ruin this camera. And they put some kind of protective housing on it. But

he said he still had to lift his butt off the back seat to keep the camera from dipping into the water. Oh my God. No pressure. Also, Randall, I mean, he's a big guy and he's scrunched in the back of this Ford Taurus with a gift basket and a camera that costs like, I mean, my God, it's like... I mean, my God, it's like... As much as a house. A house. He's holding a house. Yes. He's holding a house, basically. Dang. He told me that for sound purposes, they had a wire on both Steve and Rain and they used these waterproof mic packs called the Countryman. No. Well... Which Randall knew about from Survivor. Because remember, he spent all that time on Survivor. Yes. He said they also put mics in the visors and they had boom operators standing outside of the car in water.

So our boom guys were like in like those like rubber pants in the water. Yes. Randall confirmed that they did three takes but they were losing daylight on the last one and he's pretty certain that we used the first take because everybody's reactions to hitting the water were just so pure. Yeah. And he said that there are only two cut points in this scene. So the first cut point is when the camera pans down to the GPS. That's when they cut into the car being on the rig. I mean, you can't even tell. It's seamless. I watched it like five times and I couldn't figure out... They did a great job. How they did it. And he said, and then after that point, it is all one shot until you see the shot of the basket floating in the water. And that's when they cut away and they

reset to get all the stuff of Michael and Dwight crawling out of the lake. But all of that commotion of getting out of the car and like Steve hanging on to the passenger side window and opening the door, that was all one take. And that was what Randall was fighting for. He was saying lipstick cams could have never, ever captured that. Yeah. I have a question. As Steve is making his way out and he's clinging onto the side of the car, he opens the back passenger door and was that to let Randall out? Well, we had a lot of people write in about that. They said, is Michael trying to save the camera operator or the gift basket? Yeah. And I asked Randall and Randall said, my instinct would be the gift basket. He's like, I never thought that Michael was opening the door

for me. But I thought it's funny, I gave credit to Michael. I thought Michael was trying to free the camera operator. Yeah. Well, at 35 minutes, 17 seconds, there is a absolutely perfect shot of our camera operator shadow across the lake. I saw that too. I was surprised I didn't see boom mic shadows. I was looking for boom shadows and I didn't see them. I was impressed. But yes, the camera operator shadow is there. Well, Jenna, I reached out to rain because I was like, rain, what was it like driving into the lake? I texted him and he sent us an audio clip. Sam, can you play it? Hi, office ladies. It's me, Rain. Angela called and asked me if I had any memories about driving into the lake. And my main fear wasn't like drowning or the car or anything like that.

It was kind of like, this water is not the cleanest. And there's all these houses all over the place. And I just knew it was pretty sewagey. And I was just really afraid of an eye infection or something like that. It was like kind of eerily warm. The water was not cold at all. But it was super fun. I mean, I love a chance to do a stunt. I was really excited to be a part of it. And I mean, how often do you get to kind of drive your car into a lake? It was fantastic, so much fun to shoot. And I wish I had more specifics. But it was just one of those kind of days where you're kind of like, wow, this is what I do for a living today. I'm playing a fictional weirdo and driving my car into a lake. And with Steve Carell, I mean, it was pretty great. Okay, I love you. Goodbye.

I love that rain's biggest concern was getting pink eye. Yeah, I don't want to get a sty today, guys. Not today. I would have had so many concerns doing this stunt. It did kind of gross me out that he said the water was oddly warm. And you have to remember, we filmed this at Malibu Lake, and that is a manmade lake. So there isn't like anything flowing into it, you know, it is probably a little stagnant. I have to point something out. When the tow truck pulls the car out, Jenna, the passenger door is shut, but Michael opened it. Oh, yeah. And then the other thing I was thinking about was, did Michael and Dwight just happen to have their windows down because they climb out through their windows? I'm like, were they driving around with their windows down? So

there are little moments like that that were just sort of like, I was like, huh, okay, guys. Well, when I was emailing with Steve about this scene, Angela, he reminded me that we got a lot of pushback after this episode aired because of this moment. He said people kind of thought it was a little over the top, that it was unrealistic that someone would follow their GPS into a lake. Yeah, people are like, no way that would never happen. But he told me that the writers based this on a series of real life incidents of people following their GPS into perilous situations. So I reached out to Greg and he said this was a pitch by Jen Salada. So of course, I had to follow this trail. I reached out to Jen. What did Jen say?

She said during the hiatus before season four, she went home to visit her parents in Maryland, and she was sitting in the backseat of their brand new minivan. She specified it was a Honda Odyssey minivan. She picked up the owner's manual and was reading about the minivan's GPS system. She said that on the very first page of the manual, there was a warning that said, do not drive your car into any bodies of water, even if the GPS tells you to. And Jen was like, what? Who would do that? You know, Honda had to put that in there because someone had done it. Yes. And she was like, wait a second, you know who would do that? Michael Scott would do that. Yes, he would. So she said before she pitched it, because she was

a little worried it was too crazy of an idea. She researched this phenomenon, and she said, there were so many cases of people doing things like driving their cars off of a cliff or into water because their GPS told them to. She said usually it was a case where like maybe there was a bridge somewhere and it had been taken down and the GPS didn't know and it told you to drive across a bridge that didn't exist. But anyway, she brought it into the room and she pitched it and she showed all of her evidence for why this could really happen and it made it into the episode. Well, it's fantastic and you guys, she is right because I Googled it as well. There are so many stories online of people driving their cars into things because the GPS told them to. Here of all of them that I

read and there were so many, I couldn't read them all. Here are two examples just to show you, okay? Okay, okay. In 2009, Robert Jones was using his navigation in West Yorkshire, England, and the road began to steepen and narrow, but it kept telling him to keep going. It kept insisting the path was the road, he later explained, so he trusted it. Jones only realized how wrong he was when his car bumped up against a thin wire fence just inches from a 100 foot drop. The car was taking him on the edge. Like the edge, there was no road. He managed to get out safely, but the car remained balanced on the edge. It took a recovery team nine hours to haul the car away. Oh my god. So this wasn't a road. It just was slowly, like it was like a road that like narrowed

into this hill. It was like a cliff side. Yes. And then here's this. In 2011, three women were visiting Bellevue, Washington, and they were out after midnight and they were unable to find their hotel, so they asked GPS, right? That seems like a normal thing to do. GPS rerouted them and took them on what they thought was a road that would lead them to the highway. Instead, their SUV ended up sinking into deep water. The road turned out to be a boat launch. Oh my god. Yes. And the water was a lake. All three managed to get out safely, but by the time the tow truck arrived, the SUV was completely submerged. Quote from the low, and this is the local fireman, and Bellevue, Washington was quoted as saying this, we've seen sitcom parodies of something like this, but to actually

see it is surprising. Well, I'm sure they were referring to our show. I think so. You know, when Lee and I were first dating, we went to France. This was our first big trip together as a couple. Oh, that sounds so fun. And we, yes, and we drove through the French countryside and we rented a car, but the GPS was in French. We weren't thinking. Well, we've discussed, Angela, that I know a little bit of French. You know a handful of French. So I say to Lee, I'll translate it. This sounds like your first fight as a couple about to happen. Honey, I'll translate the navigation in a foreign country where you're driving and you've never driven here before. Well, the problem was that it would take me a second to realize what the

directions were. And so there was this one turn where it would be like, turn right, turn right. But I was behind and we missed the turn. Yeah. So Lee did this huge circle around to get us back to this spot. And the person would be like, turn a lot. And I'd be like, right, right, right, right. It's turn right. And we missed that turn like four times because of my lag in translating properly. But it was more than that. She wasn't just saying that. She was like, lots of French and names of streets and somewhere embedded in there would be like, turn a lot. And I'd be like, right, I think, right. I feel like if it was you and I in the car and I'm driving and you're doing that, I'd be like the real southerner in me would come out like,

did she say arduat or not? Am I doing arduat? Well, you know Lee Angela and he is the most level person on the planet. Oh, this man guys, he is so well tempered. He's so good natured. Like unshakable unshakable. Well, after the fourth time of me missing turn a lot, he just goes, well, what the and I was like, oh my God, I broke him. I broke like the first time you ever heard him curse. Yes, he was just I was like, oh my God, does he still love me after France? And we but actually we laughed so hard about it after that. Yeah, I was like, oh my God, I broke you in France. We laughed. Well, you didn't break him. The navigation lady broke him. Oh my gosh, guys, if you ever traveled to a foreign country, and you're thinking you'll just

rely on your GPS, you have to request the language. Listen, listen, I won't take us down that road, but Josh and I had a fight in Scotland where he had to be driving on the other side of the road trying to do a and now for a roundabout was like roundabouts are so great, though, they really are so smart. We should have roundabouts in this country. They are wonderful inventions. They're overwhelming at first, because they are very foreign to us as American drivers. But truly, they are a wonderful way to control the flow of traffic. I feel myself needing to deep dive on the history of roundabouts. Deep dive, it probably goes back to the Romans or something, but doing a roundabout driving on the opposite side of the road and exiting the

opposite way that you've never exited is a recipe for maybe one of your first big fights in a car, just saying. Well, my pet peeve in America is that when we do have roundabouts, we put stop signs in them, which is not the point of a roundabout. Well, that's not how you do it. We're doing it right. Anyway, okay, well, guys, they do get out of the lake, they're soaking wet, and their big takeaway from this moment, the thing that they feel determined to do is to walk back to the previous client's office and reclaim their gift basket. Michael says they're going to take a stand. Also, Dwight's phone works. His flip phone. Yeah, old tech alert. What I didn't understand about this was why they

couldn't just take a cab. They have to walk. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know because Dwight's phone does work. But Michael's like, no, we're walking. Well, back at the office, Ryan is reviewing some of Pam's sketches for the new Dunder Mifflin Infinity logo, which by the way, I thought were great. Yeah, she did a great job. But that's not what really Ryan was there to talk about. No, he wasn't really getting her sketches. He just wants to take her out to dinner and he's trying to be sneaky. Yeah. Well, she turns him down and this is when she informs him that she is dating Jim. He's like, no way. Yeah. Ryan cannot get over the fact that both Karen and Pam have dated Jim and not him. Yeah. Well, Michael and Dwight make it back to this law firm.

I loved this scene so much. I watched it three times. It's so good. I mean, they walk in and they look horrible. They've been in a lake and they've walked in wet clothes. Yeah. And I mean, Michael seems unhinged. Steve's performance is so good here. It is rooted in so much truth and hurt and anger, disappointment. It is so good. He demands their gift basket back. When the guy finally brings the gift basket out, Michael notices that something is missing. The turtles. The turtles. And he loses his shiitake. Poor Aaron. Aaron never saw this moment coming. He's like, yeah, he loses his mind over these turtles. And Aaron is like, I ate them. They were mine. This gift basket was mine for a minute. So I ate things from it. But Dwight is like,

we'll bill you for it. Oh my gosh. It's incredible stuff. They just did that thing where they might have had a chance of getting him back and then they just burned it to the ground. Yeah. Yeah. Well, they come back to the office. They storm in. Michael proclaims that this office will no longer be using any new technology of any kind because he drove his car into a lake. An effing lake. Well, Oscar is like, you did what? And he is like, I drove my car into an effing lake. And they bleep it out. And this was rare. We did not do a lot of bleeping on our show, but every once in a while, man, it's just funnier this way. It's just funnier this way. Yeah. He also wants everybody to know that unlike technology, gift baskets never endangered

anybody's lives. And he basically declares himself triumphant. Yes, he does. And there's a very big Angela Martin eye roll at 40 minutes, 43 seconds, as Michael declares himself the winner. But he doesn't just declare himself the winner. This is what he says to Ryan, his new boss, he says, game set match point Scott game over end of game. And then he tries one more, but he can't think of it. So then he just walks into his office. It's so good. It is so good. Michael ends it all with a final talking head. And we see all of us eating from the gift basket in the conference room. I remember shooting that scene. Remember? Yeah, we shot the scene earlier where we were looking at all the things. And I

remembered I can't wait until we do the scene where I get to eat all this. I was not in the conference room. Angela is having none of it. Yeah, it's too bad because they were some good gift. There were some good stuff. I know. I remember you guys were actually excited in real life to open up those packages. And then ultimately we end the episode with a Ryan talking head. He's still gloating about his new shmancy life. He says, you know, he's not saying he had a meteoric rise, but you know, but I guess he did and that his haircut was $200. He's just being such a tool. And lady, there are some great extras in the deleted scenes of Ryan bragging about New York. He has a whole thing with Jim about like, well, you know, in New York and Jim's like,

yeah, I actually, I've been there and he's like, no, no, no, but it's different. You've got to live there. Like you don't, you can't really understand what I'm talking about because you haven't lived there. So, you know, sorry. Yeah. But anyway, they're really funny. That's too bad. I really loved the scene between him and Jim. He just would not let it go. Well, that's it guys. That finishes out Dunder Mifflin infinity. Dunder Mifflin infinity and up next, Jenna is what? Launch party. Launch party. Launch party. Kevin. It's a party. Launch party. All right, guys, we'll see you next week. We'll see you next week. Have a great one. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is produced by Irwin,

Jenna Fisher, and Angela Kinsey. Our producer is Cody Fisher. Our sound engineer is Sam Kieffer and our associate producer is Ainsley Bubakow. Our theme song is rubber tree by Creed Bratton. For ad free versions of Office Ladies, go to StitcherPremium.com. For a free one month trial of StitcherPremium, use code office.