Office Ladies - Halloween w/ Creed Bratton

Episode Date: January 15, 2020

This week Jenna and Angela welcome their Office co-star and Angela's real-life neighbor, Creed Bratton, to the pod to discuss the Halloween episode. Creed talks about memorizing his first big scene on The Office, and his wild life as a musician. Then Jenna, Angela and Creed discuss the hierarchy of cat whiskers, Three Hole Punch Jim, PPC category drama, and how to complete a successful air high-five. We end this episode with new song from Creed, called The Ride. Check out more of Creed Bratton's music at creedbratton.com . Enjoy, and see you at Poor Richards after the podcast (You're all invited).

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. I love it. Creed is here.

Creed is here. Creed is here. Creed is here. Creed is in the house. This is so amazing. Creed is going to be with us for the whole episode, guys. Okay, Creed, you are our first in-house visitor, right? I mean, we've had people call in, but you're our first in-house guest.

I'm the first one. I might have a bathroom break or something. It won't be for the whole thing, but I'll be in and out. We can provide you with a bathroom break. That'd be good. I'm old. I'm old school. Well, I'm old, so that's part of it, you know.

I need everybody to know that I've already teared up twice since Creed has been here. And you've said two touching, well, first of all, just seeing you, almost burst into tears, but then you've said like five amazing things that have touched my heart already. Well, as soon as I get together with you, it's just back and we're back on the set, you know, and it's all like, oh, I miss you girls. Creed lives down the street from me. I think everybody who knows me knows this. The world knows that.

Don't give him my address, please. I won't. Creed's address is. His hidden key is, yes, we are neighbors, and it's one of the joys of my life that we're neighbors. I love that. You're right around the corner. I love that we have.

We see each other walking. We see each other walking. We see each other hiking around the street. We do. Hey. You were walking. Was it your daughter's dog? Your son's dog.

My son's little Yorkie, yeah. Little Yorkie. And I hear, hey, pumpkin. And I turn around and it's Creed. And we've also maybe had some adult beverage and in red solo cups. We may have. We may have. And we like to do a little bit of what we call the sauce trail and walk around having

a glass of wine. And watching documentaries. Oh, yeah. Creed loves. I think we're like animals go crazy like planet earth. Yes. All that stuff. I just love it.

All right. Well, we are really excited to have you here. We are discussing the Halloween episode. Yes. Right. Right. Season two, episode five. This was written by Greg Daniels and directed by Paul Feig.

And it is the first episode that Creed speaks. Well, I actually spoke in diversity day. In diversity, I had lines with Phyllis and they paid me afterwards and well, the first day, the girl we had the first day, the first season, she thought it was part of the cast at the time. So Kate, she came in with her little hands and she said, now you and Phyllis just start talking and Phyllis said, wait, I said, never mind. It's okay.

Never mind. Phyllis was going to get out of you. Phyllis was going to get out of me. So I never mind. It's fine. And so we started. I started talking about, you know, sacrificing goats or something, you know, trying to tell her what was on her head.

You're improv with sacrificing goats. Yes. Yes. And then they said, wait a minute, Creed's talking in the background. And they said, oh shoot, how did that happen? Yeah. How'd that happen, Creed? And so, so they, they, they paid me on the side, but they didn't say, but we can't.

I said, no, it's fine. It's fine. And then off camera, then also was the voice for the, the ride. Yes. For the mining ride. For the mining ride, you know. You were so funny. I think they paid, they paid attention to that one.

Yeah. You were so funny as the voice of the mining ride and Isabelle was watching that episode with me and she said, mom, I know that voice. I know that voice. And I was like, wait, you're, oh my gosh, she was like, I think it's Creed. She, I'm discerning to she. She is. I mean, I didn't catch it.

And then I looked it up and I'm like, Isabelle, we do know that voice. It's Creed. Yeah. But anyway, this is the first time where I actually was, was, had some, had some serious lines. It was six and a half pages. I remember Kent Zabornek threw the script down and said, okay, here it is. This is your, this is your moment.

Wow. And I, I had memorized it forwards and backwards. I had set a timer on a little recorder at a night, subliminally at two and three in the morning that it would go off and play the lines while I was sleeping. Creed. I had it backwards and forth. No joke. I had it back.

Wow. I knew this was the Rubicon. This is the place that I was going to get. My intuition said, this is it. And then of course we walk in the office and Greg, they came in and said, by the way, we made changes of course to the, to the, to the lines and we've reversed them around, add some new stuff. You okay?

He goes, yeah, fine. I go, oh. Cause they used to do that to us. All the time. We would come in and you'd just get new pages and then shoot the scene five minutes later. Yeah. They would hand you the pages and sometimes we've talked about this, the pages would be hot.

Right off the copier. Right off the copier. And we'd drop them some. Yeah. Ow, ow, ow, ow. Now change, now change your lines that you have learned and you've been having a tape recorder play at three in the morning to you. Do you remember the backdrop there right off of where my desk and, and Kate's desk was

and the screen is so you can walk, you can sneak around the back and get to the green room from behind it. Yeah. Yeah. That set up like that. I walked back like that after they told me this and put my hands up and said, okay, here it is. And I said, I've come this far.

I'm going to do this. And once we started that with Steve, it was like into, into battle, you know. Yeah. And it was like some improvisation on that scene because I, I was paraphrasing my lines because I was desperate. Well, you knocked it out of the park, Craig. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, Craig, you started out as a musician. Yeah. And a very long successful career as a musician. How did you even end up on the show in the first place as our stand in slash background person? Background person. I was working on Bernie Mac and Ken Quapas came on to direct an episode and they'd been using me for all these little vignettes and where I was doing funny.

And if you ever watch old Bernie Mac, you'll see me all the time in the background mugging up. I really want to see that. I want to go back. I'm always in the background doing some stupid stuff and they just allow me because I made Bernie laugh. I made them laugh. And so Ken was talking about this guy's funny and he heard from Joe Moore, the first AT

that I was on in the grassroots. So he sent to Amoeba for some albums for me to sign because he was a big grassroots fan. And we started talking and talked about music and he's very knowledgeable. Then I found out that he was doing the Office of American Workplace and I was a big fan of the Ricky Gervais show. So he gave me his number. Now, I've never, ever called anybody like that before. I called him as my intuition said, this feels right.

This feels right. And Ken would not have given you his number. I feel like Ken is so discerning. Oh my God. He didn't mean call me. Yeah. Yeah. So he did.

And so he talked to Greg and then I talked to Ken later and he said, I talked to Greg. I told him, you're a very interesting and funny guy and he said, well, what we'll do and this is his words, Greg's words, we'll put him in the background and see if we can work him in the mix in that first time. That was working in the mix. That's all I need to hear. That's why I took liberties just kind of like pretending that I was a part of the part of the group and that paid off.

You know? Yes. Oh, I love that. Oh, that is awesome. That is awesome. What's next? Should we do a summary? Jenna, do you have one?

You know I do. Yes. So in this episode, Halloween, Michael is told that he must fire someone during the month of October due to cutbacks at Dunder Mifflin. But in true Michael fashion, he waits until the very last day of October, which also happens to be Halloween. He also has no idea who to fire. He has not made a decision.

He spends the entire episode trying to figure out what to do while the rest of us are dressed in our costumes for the Halloween party. I love that. I love that. So much. I love the juxtaposition of that someone is going to get fired while wearing a ridiculous costume and they're going to have to go home fired in that outfit. Well, I have a fast fact about this episode, fast fact number one, Greg Daniels wrote this

episode and he told me that the inspiration for this episode was that he had always wanted to do a story about someone being fired, but from the point of view of the boss rather than the employee. He felt like we always see stories of people being fired and how they're wrestling with having been fired. But he was like, you never see what it does to the boss. That's the genius of Greg Daniels right there. Absolutely.

The problem that this plot presented for Greg was that he was going to have to fire someone on the show. He was going to have to pick a Dunder Mithlin employee to be part of the plot. Well he couldn't fire any of the series regular characters because we all had contracts and he didn't want to fire any of the supporting cast even though at this point you guys still did not have your full-time contracts, right? We didn't become series regulars till booze cruise, so listen, we were all on the chopping line.

Were you a little worried when you saw the show? Maybe. Well, Greg didn't have any intention of losing them. He didn't want to lose anyone in the warehouse, but he also told me he didn't want to hire someone new that you'd never seen on the show just to fire them. He felt like those stakes would feel very manufactured. So he turned to our two background actors, Creed and Devon, and he was like, well, these guys are very well established on the show at this point.

And this is where I'd like to know what happened because I know the end of this story, which is that Greg found out that Devon had a theater contract coming up that he was going to go on tour with a play. And so that's what Devon said. At the time, though, they told us, one of you guys are going to have to go, but we don't know yet. We're going to shoot you both and see how it works out. Oh, my God.

Wait, they're going to shoot the scene two ways? They know that we're going to shoot the thing because they could have gone back and changed it, I'm sure. Oh, because Michael could have said, you know what? I said, is that it was Creed and it's Creed? You can't change my mind. But it was going to be one of us. They said it was going to be one of us.

And I remember being a little nervous. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And Devon and I were friends. We'd become friends by this time. And by the way, you know, on the finale, jumping ahead a lot, I don't know if I could just kind of jump ahead.

Yeah, I can. When Greg brought me into the office to find out what I wanted to do for the Creed character, I said, well, one thing I'd like to do is sing the song, sing my song, but I also think we should have Devon back on the show. Oh, Creed, that's nice. Yeah. Because we get together sometimes, you know, and have to have coffee and stuff like that. I was feeling nervous because I kind of was feeling bad that I might have to go, but also

that Devon might have to go too. So it was a mixed blessings and all that stuff. All right. Fast fact number two, this is the first time we see Pam's hair down instead of her usual half up, half down hair clip. But the cat ears. That, to me, is so important. Oh, well then, Creed, then Creed, you're going to love some of my note cards if that's

important. Buckle in. Yeah. That was a huge deal. Kim Ferry, our hairstylist, and me, and Greg, and Paul Feig, we all had a meeting about Pam's hair and if we could let her hair down. And it was, I mean, it must have been 30 minutes. We talked about it.

There was a lot of concern that she might look too pretty with her hair down. And I can't remember how we got permission. Kim was delighted. I mean, Kim had been putting my hair in a hair clip now for like 12 episodes or something. She was so thrilled to be able to scrunch it. Do something different. Anything. Anything different.

And it was kind of a big deal. Well, they were playing down both of your beauties all the time with the way they dressed you and put you in stuff. That's right. Did everyone hear that? Did you fight? Did you fight? That's true.

Creed says they played down our beauty. But it's true. Toward the end, did you guys lobby for, come on, just let us show a little bit of, you know, glowing. I remember really wanting lip gloss. Yeah, something like that. So what's funny to me is that that was a 30 minute meeting about your hair. Meanwhile, I go to hair and makeup and they put on full, enormous, purple, fake eyelashes

on me. If you look at me as this cat, I have big purple eyelashes. They were so huge. I had a hard time like even navigating them. Like I look, when I watch the episode, I look a little sleepy. I think it's because I couldn't open my eyes. No meeting. No meeting.

They just put, I was like, are you sure? They just put them on me. And then one of the writers walked up to me, I can't remember who, and was like, do you have purple? It's probably Mindy. She was like, do you have purple lashes on? She might have been jealous. Yeah.

Yeah, she wanted them. She would want those purple lashes. No one said anything. Why is Angela Martin putting on purple fake eyelashes? Everyone was too busy meeting about my hair. Yeah. Yes. Yes.

All right. Fast fact number three. Creed, I don't know if you remember this. Angela, I think maybe you do. The week we shot the Halloween episode, Ricky Gervais and Steven Merchant visited one day. I know this because I have a photograph with them in my cat outfit and Jim is three hole punched Jim, but you can't really see the holes because he's got his arm around someone. So it's a whole picture of our producers and Ricky and Steven and me and John.

And I am the only person wearing a costume. I like to imagine that they came to see me in a play where I played a cat or something. Your one act play? Because we look like we're standing backstage. And you're in the cat, yeah. You're the only one in a costume. Yeah, this is how I know this because I only have two pictures of myself with Ricky and Steven and one of them is me in a cat costume.

I remember that they were there because I could still, my ears still hurt from that high castral toe of Ricky Gervais, the laugh that's such a good impression. He laughed. He laughed at everything. He was laughed at. It was like some coffee. Yeah. Oh, by the way, ladies and gentlemen, he is the sweetest man and just a just a joy.

All right. Those are my fast facts. That's our summary. Maybe we should do we need that bathroom break? Let's do a bathroom break. Let's do a bathroom. I could use one. By the way, I just want to say I just love these fast facts.

Oh, well, then if you love the fast facts, get ready for the note cards, Creed. Oh my God, I can't wait to be still in my throbbing heart. Okay. Sounded a little weird when you said it like that. Started to be weird and then I drifted away. Okay. Go back. Go to the bathroom.

All right. Let's get into some note cards. Can we? Note cards. All right. Let's get into the episode. Let's do it. I have a note card from the cold open.

Oh, what is the cold open of this? Okay. The cold open is you say that Jan, Jan called and he's like, oh, and Michael has to go in because he knows he has to fire someone. And so he calls Jan and her assistant, Sherry answers the phone and Sherry has so much good sass. She's like, okay, well, who are you going to fire and he goes, well, I'm not really sure.

And she's like, we just need the name. Jan needs the name. Jan needs the name. Yes. And then he's like, who would you fire? And she's like, just give me the name. And then, and then he thinks he's hung up and he's like, I'd like to fire you and she could still hear.

Right? He's like, I wish I could fire Sherry. Sherry. I mean, I want to know who Sherry is. Who is Sherry? Yes. I thought the same thing. So the first thing I did, I went to IMDB, Internet Movie Database.

I did too. I looked up this episode, uncredited. Uncredited. Who is Sherry? Who is Sherry? I reached out to Dave Rogers. He was the editor for this episode. You guys, he knows everything about the office.

He didn't know. That is saying something because he is like, he knows everything in the bible of the show. He's encyclopedic memory cat. No one knows. Listen to what Dave did. Dave reached out to Allison Jones, our casting director, who went to her storage facility. Oh my Lord. Found the contracts for this episode, looked it up.

Wow. Allison, thank you. Oh my gosh. Allison, you're like an episode of the Pelican Brief, an episode, the movie. This is CSI the Office. You're like CSI the Office. It is Lisa Malone. Okay.

And by the way, this was shot on September 13th, 2005. Wow. Well, Lisa, you were fantastic as Sherry. You killed it. You killed it as Sherry. Oh man. And Allison, thank you. Thank you for being our CSI the Office.

I want to go back, Angela, because I have a note that precedes your note card. Is it at five seconds? Is it the shot of Devon and Creed at their desks? The establishing shot. Yes. Yes. I noticed it too. The second shot of this episode is Creed and Devon at their desks.

I have to imagine this was not an accident that they wanted to drive home Devon and Creed since we know that one of you- It was well-placed. It was well-placed. It's Phyllis putting on makeup and then it goes to Devon and Creed at their desks. Well, the scene with Michael and Pam, do you guys remember how he's wearing the second head? Yes.

Yes. I have two cards. Pam goes in his office and he tells her that he needs to fire someone and then he sort of implies maybe it could be her. Oh, I have two cards from this scene. And so Pam decides to quickly start flattering him. She pivots hard. About his costume and then she just gets out of the room as quickly as possible.

I could not get through that scene. Yeah, listen, Steve is funny enough on his own, but Steve with that extra Steve on his shoulder, it was too much and it wobbled in a sort of weird way. He was wobbling it on purpose. He loved it. He loved wobbling that thing. He loved it. Anytime you give him a little cat.

That's what she said. Come on, guys. That was a great, that's what she said. Come on. He loves wobbling things. He loved wobbling that thing. Oh, that's what she said. Hey!

We got it back. We got it back. We got it back. Creed, what did I write? At three minutes, 12 seconds. God, Pam is diabolical. Her turn to flattery when she realizes Michael would fire her. Wow.

Diabolical. Diabolical. I'm seeing a real devious streak in Pam. I want to just comment, if I may, the brilliance of Steve Carell, the pain and the anguish in his face when he's trying, when he's getting ready to fire someone. You can just see it. He's just dying. He's absolutely dying.

He's not acting. To me, he looked like a man just suffering, suffering from a dream and a death. It's interesting you bring that up, Creed, because we've talked a lot about how Michael wants to be popular. He wants to be friends with people. He wants to be the life of the party. But I think this episode goes beyond that. That it isn't just that he knows that it's going to be, he's going to not be well-liked

by the person he fires. I think it really, like, I think it touches on something. He really doesn't want to hurt someone else. Yep. That's exactly right. Yeah. So it's deeper than that, just unpopularity. I was moved by his performance in that.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, yeah. He crushed it. I get more pictures at Halloween of Pam as a cat and Jim as three-hole punch. I think that is the most popular Halloween costume that I get sent to me. I get myself, well, Angela Martin in an Argyle sweater, like with a turtleneck and a headband holding a stuffed animal cat next to some guy in a mustard shirt with a tie and his

hair parted down the middle. What about you, Creed? I get the Joker. The Joker. I want to walk in as the Joker. And then when Brian comes, damn it, Creed, and he hip-checks you, no, that's a later episode. Later.

Yeah, that way you guys are both dressed in the same costume. But he almost knocks you over. Oh, yeah. I howl every time I see it. That's a recurring thing. It's brilliant, brilliant. Angela, I want to talk to you about your costume. Please.

Okay. I'm counting. Mm-hmm. You're dressed as a cat. There's three cats. Phyllis is a cat. I'm a cat. You're a cat.

Yes. Actually, we could do really quickly the rundown of costumes. Kelly is Dorothy, Phyllis, Pam, and Angela are cats, Dwight is a Sith Lord, Kevin is the Dunder Mifflin superhero, Creed is a vampire, Oscar is a lady. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if she's a character lady or just a lady. I think he's a lady.

He's just a lady. Jim is three hole punch Jim, Stanley no costume, Ryan the temp no costume, and of course Michael has the two heads. And Devin was a tramp. And Devin was a hobo. Hobo. Yeah. Angela, why does your cat only have two lines for whiskers and not three?

Jenna, I don't know. Why does my cat have purple fake eyelashes? Why does your cat have weird cat ears? I mean, I just want to say that as the resident cat lady of the office, I think you have the worst cat costume. Why do I have a fuzzy white skirt? Why? With a giant tail that was almost impossible to sit in.

It was so, and the skirt didn't quite fit me and it kept like heading south. I had to keep like grabbing it and yanking it up. It almost ruined the whole episode, that whole cat. I think now there was such a big meeting about your hair that my cat costume was just like, ah, just put this on her. But you ended up wearing that costume like two more times. For years. For years.

And it's the worst one. I have a vague memory, a very, very vague memory of being in makeup and having them discuss how they were going to differentiate the three different cats. And it was decided that Phyllis and I would have three whiskers on each cheek and you would only have two. My cat was maimed. I feel like that happened. I don't know if we can ask Laverne.

Laverne was our makeup artist. I don't know. I don't know. But I mean, right, I just think you had. You were smaller than you deserve three. They decided to give me less. I have to, while we're talking about this scene and accounting, I have to point out that we don't often, our camera guys didn't often do like a full character slow panned,

you know? And they do such a hilarious one. They start at Kevin's feet and they go all the way to his head while he's filing to get him in full, red leotard. With his socks all miss bulging in wrong areas. Oh my gosh. Oh, that's great. It's great.

There's a great slow pan of Kevin. We should say we loved dressing up in these Halloween costumes because our outfits normally were pretty boilerplate. It was almost like we wore uniforms in a way. And our wardrobe people loved, loved, the wardrobe crew loved getting to dress us because they, it was just like gray turtleneck. Angela, give us a note card. All right.

At five minutes, 23 seconds. Creed, this is a runner. This is a reference to a runner, but this is a really big deal. What? Kelly has braided like pigtails. Oh! Her hair is down. Her hair is down.

Her hair is down. Oh my gosh. I remember. It's not in a bun. Mindy had a bun for like the whole first season and then about, I guess, was starting. It was like a twist. A twist. A French twist, I think.

I mean, she looked, her character really changes her look. And then she starts having her hair down, she gets a little sassy, but this has been a big thing. We've been wondering, when did they change her hair? This is the beginning. I see. I don't think this counts because it's a Halloween costume. What?

Yeah. I'm sorry to say. No, no, I agree. I'm going to have to say I'm with Jenna. Thank you. It doesn't count. It doesn't count. Well, I don't know if I like you here, Creed.

All of a sudden I have someone. Oh, well. The dovetoe. Two against one. Oh, fart. I got pretty excited because her hair was down. But it was a costume, though, wasn't it? Oh, my God.

See, that's what I'm saying. It doesn't apply. It doesn't apply. I don't think to Jenna or Creed, I don't know anymore. It doesn't apply. All right. You know the scene where Pam and Jim set up a resume for Dwight to get a job someplace else?

I have a fan question about that. R.C.J.H. asked, what were you typing on the computer when you and Jim were working on Dwight's resume? I was typing what we were saying. Of course you were, Jenna. Of course you were. Because you're so method. I was very method.

You're like, I am a responsible person. You would type out your lines on the computer while you were doing it? Yeah, because Jim would say, like, I would say, what should we say here? And then he would say what we should say, and I would type it. And see, here's the thing. I'm very proud of my typing skills. Oh, we know. We know.

Yeah. Creed, do we know or do we know? We really know. You guys. I'm back on your side, Angela. Thank you, Creed. This is how it feels? This is how it feels.

We know. When you walk in this thing with your fingers, we'd be talking about stuff at a craft store and your fingers would be going like you're typing. Oh, now that is not true. That was, it was too much. It was too much, Jenna. Tone it down. And then you would tell us about your typing speed and your level of accuracy.

Well, you should know I was typing our actual lines because I could. Well, I think that's pretty great though. Because she could and I can and I will. And you're fast too. That's right. She's very fast. I've been with Dwight when he calls Dwight into his office and he tells Dwight that he has to fire someone and Dwight starts naming all the people he should fire.

But then Michael implies maybe it should be Dwight. And then Michael's second head starts talking to Dwight. Do you remember, do you remember Steve and Rain laughing during that scene? Because I do. I remember they could not get through that scene. I'm sitting out at reception in the background. And they were cracking themselves up in there. Rain was literally doubling over because he was like kind of leaning forward and he would

just kind of collapse into himself. He was laughing so hard. There must be deleted scenes of that scene. Oh man, I would love to see those. I would love to see that. Yeah. That is a funny scene. Well, Paul Feig called in when we did Office Olympics and he said one of the things he

loved about directing episodes of our shows is that you could really find a shot that was cool and you would have the support of Greg to just kind of go with it. And he sort of found that shot where Dwight as the Sith Lord has his like hood kind of like, it looks like it's straight out of the movie, you know? Yes. And they just love that. Shot from the side, right? Yeah, shot from the side.

And they sort of just found that and went with it. And Greg was totally supportive of it. And Paul was talking about like how fun that was to have that creative freedom and find those little nuggets. And it's so cool looking. We had a lot of shots like that. They're just more at the cookie cutter or a stereotype, you know, sitcom stuff. And we get interesting shots.

Yeah. Because our cameramen were so great. And something that we haven't talked about on the show yet is the idea of actor marks. So usually on a television show, so that they can get these shots, they put a little piece of tape on the ground. And if you, for example, if Jim had to walk up to Pam's desk, there would be a little mark on the ground and he would have to stand exactly on that mark. And it's really hard to do.

I mean, do you guys find it hard to do? I'm always, I feel like I'm always looking down for the tape and then I get to my spot and I look up. It's like a hard thing to manage. Well, on our show, we did not have that. They would just let us wander. They would say, just walk up in this general area and the camera will find you. Yeah.

It was so loosey-goosey, so amazing. Didn't you say you were in a band called loosey-goosey? I was in a band called loosey-goosey. I was. You were not. I was in a band with Peter White, who used to play with Al Stewart. He probably still does. We had a band with Dave Camp on sax and remember we played the rap party for this movie I did

with, worked on with Bo Bridges at the beach house at Lloyd Bridges house, loosey-goosey played out there and they were dancing out there like Annette Funicello and the surf and stuff. Oh my gosh. We just need you to just sit here and tell us about all your stories. Creed, you have literally the most interesting life. I have a fan question for you. I'm a fascinating character.

You are. And humble too. This is a fan question from Todd Myers and this feels like a good place to ask it. Who is the biggest rock star you ever partied with during your touring days? Oh. Wow. Partied with. It maybe doesn't have to be the biggest.

No. What's the most interesting? Yeah. I lived for a while at the Camrose Highland Estates and Linda Ronstadt was there, Laura Nero was there, Jackson Brown used to, there was a lot of people playing at this place and lived there and they would play their instrument. You hear the instruments going around the Cameron Highland Estates and Butch Trucks from the Almond Brothers was there and one night Butch came over.

Wait, wait, wait. I'm so sorry. You all lived together? No. We lived at the Estates in little bungalows. You could rent these bungalows at the Camrose Highland Estates. Now it's been fixed up a little bit. It's right next to the Veterans of War and War place.

I think they're right on Highland Boulevard, right on Highland Boulevard, right off to get off the freeway. It's right there. And like a lot of artists. A lot of artists were living there. So Butch Trucks from the Almond Brothers came over one night and Griffin from the Bread and Jesse Ed Davis used to play with John Lennon came over one night and we jammed. We jammed for hours and hours and hours and hours and there was a lot of heavyweight

guitar players there at that night. I remember Butch wanted me to go back to Alabama and be the lead singer for this group, Cowboy, but that never happened. Creed, your life is amazing. Jenna, I don't know that we would have been hip enough to hang out there. We would not. Well, I have a card right here. Tell me.

Seven minutes, 44 seconds. Creed, we have some PPC rock. Oh, I've got it down. Pam versus Angela. Angela Sass? Angela Sass, but also same category. What? I get this.

So my character says, what, you brought brownies? What did you bring? And you're like, I brought brownies. Brownies. And I'm like, but I brought cookies. Same category. Yeah. Same category.

You should have brought something savory. You know, Angela Sass. Is that what you say in the thing? Same category? I say, same category. I remember that. Well, I mean, I feel like there's a backstory missing here. Did you assign me something other than brownies?

I'm sure I did. That's your implication. Yes. You're implying that I went rogue and brought brownies instead of chips and dip. You clearly did. I clearly at some party planning. Don't you say, where's the chips and dip or something? Yes.

I clearly at some party planning committee meeting said, all right, I will make sugar cookies. Why don't you bring the dip and chips and then you show up with these fricking brownies. How dare you? Wait, Sam, can we see that? Those aren't chips and dip. No, I made brownies. But I'm just trying to figure out why you're sabotaging things.

I made brownies. And I made cookies. Same category. All right. After watching that clip, I will admit, I think Pam did go a little rogue. Clearly you assigned me chips and dip. Thank you. Yeah.

Thank you. Same category. Yeah. Same category. All right. I needed to hear that because I think, Jenna, if it was your house and you were having a party, you would be like, hey, come on. Yeah.

All right. Guys, I think we should go to a break and then we'll come back and finish the episode. All right. Craig, how are you doing? I'm doing wonderful. Oh my God, I love having you here, Craig. I do too. And we are back with my delightful neighbor and an office favorite, Craig Bratton.

Thank you. Craig, we're going to make you come back on this podcast all the time. I hope you're ready. Yeah. You know what? We could carpool. We could. I could swing by and pick you up.

There's the lurking, lurking, these office ladies. You guys, do you remember the scene where Jim takes a phone call from a potential employer for Dwight and he does a Michael Scott impression? It's really good. John does a very good job. It's at eight minutes, 34 seconds. Oh, you've got the time code. Guys, is this when we find out that Michael's middle name is Gary?

Oh, is this the first time it's said? Because he says Michael G. Scott. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. Because later it was when we had the scene where we showed him as a little boy and he doesn't get all the love that he wanted because he wanted a family. That's later, right?

Yeah, yeah. Okay, that was Gary. We knew Gary there. That might be. That might be the first time. I don't know. I'm putting it out there. Our fans will know.

Our fans will let us know for sure. I loved the scene. I just thought that John crushed it as Michael Scott and it also had the Jim and Pam air high five. The first. The first. Air high five. Yes.

I'm getting creeds, getting misty, misty eyes. I've got, I've literally, when I saw it, I think I audibly said out loud to no one. Oh. Yeah. Super cute. Okay. So I have a question about the air high five. Say it.

So I was trying to do the air high five with my daughter Isabel. Now granted, she's 11. I'm 48. We, we, our timing's off. We couldn't get it. It's difficult. You guys did it perfectly. Yeah.

And you know what? We kind of did it perfectly the first time. That's, it was meant to be. It was meant to be. That was, that speaks to our chemistry, I believe. So shortly after this momentous air high five, very sadly, Pam tells Jim he should go for the job at Cumberland Mills, but the job is in Maryland and he is so hurt. This happens a lot with you guys.

Yeah. Him going off to do a job. It's a recurring theme, right? It is because he's, you know, later he's going to go off to the other branch. And then later to New York and do that stuff with the sports thing, right? Yeah. That kept happening. And then you go to art camp or school or art camp.

I went to a university. Thank you very much. And then she goes to. Art camp. Plaster of Paris making place. Geez. But yes, they constantly are being pushed together and pulled apart, right? Yeah, they are always.

Yeah. Always, always. But sometimes just through a comment. We're seeing in this second season, in each episode, there seems to be a really sweet moment with Jim and Pam and then a moment where someone gets their feelings hurt. They're feelings hurt. A little bit. So many feelings.

So many feelings. Feelings. But then at the end, Jim admits that if it weren't for Pam, he would take the job at Cumberland Mills because the pay is twice as much. It's a better job. Yada, yada. So why is he staying? He just basically admitted why he stays at this job.

Yes. Yeah. What was the one where he admitted that crabs are his favorite food? So he was going to go to this. Maryland. Maryland. But that was it. Yeah.

That was the crab thing. Yeah. Soft-shelled crabs. Soft-shelled crabs. Are apparently one of his favorites. Yes, exactly. Who knew that? Well, he eats that tuna sandwich every day for lunch.

We didn't know that. So he is a seafood fan. Yes. So he just stinks all the time. I guess so. And he could have called him crab if he wanted to. Oh, crabby. He eats tuna sandwiches and Pam eats sour cream and onion chips.

They're a match. Wow. And I eat mung beans apparently. Wow. What is there? The smells in the sauce. I know. Oh, dear.

All right. So finally, Michael asked for Jim's help and he wants to do some role-playing where he tries to fire someone and that is just a delicious scene. Did you enjoy that one? How did John get through it is what I want to know. And it's like, Steve, it's Michael, it's like, why are you doing that? I'm going to kill myself. And he's like, wait, is this you as you or who are you right now?

What is happening? John has to check in. And this brings us to your big scene creating. Your big scene. Oh, here we are. This is it. After the scene, he calls you in and tell us, break it down for us. What was it like to sit in that chair and now you're going to launch into five pages

with Steve Carell? Right. Right. I mean, I never had five pages with Steve Carell. Six and a half, you said, six and a half. Six and a half original. They may have cut it down, but it was, it was like, it took a long hours to get through that thing.

And I mean, I never had more than a few lines with him one on one. So yeah, let's, let's hear about it. Well, first of all, there was a scene where I slowly take out the teeth, you know, and I resolve myself. I gird my loins as it were. I stand up within a resolute and I march in like Nesferatu, you know, with a purpose. Are these some of your notes that you wrote in your script? No.

I don't know. I don't have any intention. This is just some storytelling, Jenna. It's the, it's the B story. Storytelling. I'm into the story right now. Yeah, exactly. So you march in.

So I march in and then I, I remember I sit, I sit back like this and I put my cross, my feet, I kind of houch down and I have my arms crossed because I'm protecting myself from attack like this. And he goes, well, I'll create, I just don't like this. I said, well, you want to leave? He says, no, no, I don't. No, Nes, you do. No, no, I don't.

You're the hardest person to fire ever. You're going to leave. No, no, really. No, I know I'm very happy here. I said, Creed, I've got, I've got to fire somebody and it's got to be, well, then fire Devon. You know, he's horrible. He's a job, you know, I'm so much better at my job and I'm doing the Creed voice right

now too. He goes, it goes up a bit, you know. And then I just thought, I just fought for my survival and we kept doing it over and over and over and finally. And Steve was so great. It's like, you've all done scenes with people where it's forcing it, it's so hard to get through a scene. Yeah.

Working with Steven was like that. He kept tossing me like these big beach balls and I had a Nerf bat, which is easy. Yeah. It was easy to hit those things, you know. God bless him. He's a very giving person, you know, and when you're in scenes with him, he's so eager for you to get the laugh. He doesn't, some actors, guys out there, they want to get the laugh.

They want that moment. Steve is so eager to share it and really just what makes the scene work is what he focuses on. But Dave Rogers later, he said, he's what made him laugh the most is when I stood up and he said, no, no, you're doing a good job. Good for you. I'm waiting. I'm waiting.

I'm waiting. I'm waiting. My finger and all that stuff was just off the top of my head. Yeah. When I watched, when I rewatched it, I was like, oh, that is Creed. That is classic. That is just Creed being Creed. Yeah.

Yeah. That is actually. Yeah. I feel like you've left me voicemails where you're like, hey, I'm going to do it. I may have. I was just stuttering perhaps, too. But you were doing a bit. I was doing a bit.

Yeah. No. But still, I look at that with fond memories. It was a great night. And I thank Steve so much for being so gracious as an actor to work with, you know. So after that scene, Michael does fire Devin in a much shorter scene. Devin gets so angry, he announces to the office, if anyone wants to join me at poor Richard's bar.

Poor Richard's bar. Is this the first mention of poor Richard's bar? Well, he says he gives him a chili. He gives him, she says. Yeah. Michael gives him a chili coupon. Yeah. Chili coupon.

Which is a nice nod back to the dundies. Yeah. He rips it up. Yeah. He rips it up. Yeah. But have we, because we end up mentioning poor Richard's bar over and over again and we go there eventually, but have we mentioned it yet?

Oh, in the basketball episode, I think Daryl suggests that we all get drinks at poor Richard's. Okay, in that scene though, where Devin invites everyone to poor Richard's, there's three people he does not invite. Oh, yeah, you're right. He lists a bunch of names. Who does he know? It's very personal. Who does he not invite?

It's personal. Who are they? He does not invite Michael. Of course. He does not invite Dwight. He does not invite Angela. He doesn't invite you? Why?

There's nothing. It's an arbitrary. It's an arbitrary. I'm sure I've been, you know, bitchy to him at some point. He didn't. I'm sure. I knew you wouldn't go. Maybe so.

He might have had a crush on you too. Oh, come on. Oh, he might have. You never know. So he leaves and he smashes a pumpkin. There we go. Pumpkin! Pumpkin!

Pumpkin! And when we go downstairs, we see Hank, the security guy at the security desk, who was played by Hugh Dane. God rest his- Yes. He passed away a couple of years ago. He was so nice. Yeah.

Just a sweetheart. He was great as Hank. His delivery was always perfect. Amazing. Is this the first time we see Hank at the security desk? I think so. It has to be. You guys leave, you know, to go to the dojo, but you don't see him there.

You don't see him. No. Well, it's brilliant because there he is and he's sitting there and it's another example of introducing a character in an episode where they don't speak, but they will eventually. They will come back. He did that with so many people. He did that with Craig in the warehouse and the Alliance. You just see him in the background watching Dwight Pop out of the box.

Creed of course, you were in the background forever. And then now Hugh Dane in the background is the security officer. Just so thoughtful. And this thing that I love about our show and we've talked about Creed is that Greg had the audience just start in the middle. He doesn't explain things to you. You discover it as you go. It's not spoon-fed information.

Yes. I love that. I don't think we can end this episode without talking about Michael's list of former costumes. Oh, please list them. Okay. He's really, really bummed the camera crew wasn't there the Halloween before when he was Janet Jackson's boob. Very topical.

He's really bummed you guys missed it when he was Monica Lewinsky's dress. Twice. Yeah, twice. And then he was Monica Lewinsky the year before. And then before that he was OJ Simpson. So where does he pick these people? Yeah. Very topical.

Yeah. Great costumes that he was really sad the camera crew missed. I know you're going to want to talk about the very end with Michael and the trick-or-treaters because it's just such a touching moment. All right, Creed. I cried every time I watched it. I did too. I did too.

Every time. I was loving the show and then when I got to that episode I was like, he just killed me. I said, oh my God, this is a perfect episode. It's one of them. One of the great ones, you know. Yes. At the end of the episode, Michael goes home and you see him sitting alone very lonely

on the couch. And then the doorbell rings and there are trick-or-treaters at the door. And there was a big debate on set about how exactly this scene should play out, about whether or not the kids should be nice to Michael or if they should be annoyed by Michael, how Michael should be with the kids, should he be off-putting, should he be kind. And the writers and producers also, well they also discussed if he should be happy or sad while handing out the candy and they decided that they were going to start on that spy shot of Michael looking sad and lonely all alone on Halloween night.

But when he gets to the door, I'm going to cry, it's saying it, he lights up, he makes his silly jokes, the kids laugh. The kids love him. Love him. They love him. And it ends on him making a connection. I just think it is the most kind and heartbreaking, wonderful scene. I think it's moments like this that make the office so special.

We just spend an entire episode kind of laughing at Michael Scott or finding him annoying, but then in the end he just breaks your heart with his vulnerability. Take them all. Don't, they drop them. Don't worry. Take them all. Take them all. Take them all.

Take them all. Take them all. And they love him. It's all yours, yeah. And that's the first time we saw him just so loving. But really? Don't you think so? At that moment, we saw his heart.

We saw his heart come out there at that moment. Well, and you tore me up. And you have to think that Michael is somewhere being a great dad. Yeah. He's a great dad. And I wish we could see that. That's the one thing when we talk about a reunion, obviously, we don't want to tread on hallowed ground that is the office and we don't want to mess with anything that everyone

loves so much. But boy, I would love to see where some of these people are and I would love to see Michael as a dad. Yes. Yes. Do you agree that when you watch that scene, I think more than any other scene I can recall. I see Steve. Yes.

Mm-hmm. That is Steve handing out candy. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes. That's the kind of just kind hearted gentleman that he is. Sweet, sweet man. Yeah.

And I think that's part of the reason too why it hits you that hard, Jenna, because we see our friend and we see the kind person he is that gets to shine through, which often as Michael Scott does not. No, it's not. It's true. It's not. Well, I have one little final piece of trivia. All right.

In the credits at the end, as it rolls, over the Diddle Dee logo, which Diddle Dee is Greg's company. His daughter Haley actually drew the picture that says Diddle Dee when she was little. You hear, and it's the only time it ever happens, Dwight's voice say, quiet you. Oh. Really? Yes. Angela.

Do we know why that happened? I think they loved it. They pulled it from earlier in the episode when Dwight is the Sith Lord. It's not the only time that they've done something like that. It's the only time there's dialogue over Diddle Dee. Wow. Oh, I'm kind of moved by that. That's kind of cool, right?

Yeah. Quiet you. Quiet you. We did it, guys. We did it. We did it. That was a Halloween episode creed. Thank you.

Thank you so much for coming. But before you go, will you tell us what are you up to now? What are you doing? You have an album and you're touring. I'm touring. I was in Europe, UK, in Scandinavia for a month touring and doing shows. I'm bragging now. Seven sold out shows in the UK went great.

I'm off to Australia, New Zealand in February. And then you did the whole East Coast too because I was texting with you and you were like, yeah. Then I did the East Coast. I had a great tour there too. Yeah. And the fans. And I want to thank all the office fans for coming out and supporting my character

and my music. It truly means a lot. I'm having my second childhood now doing this. And by the way, I have a surprise for you, ladies. What is it? I brought, which I think may be the single, if there's going to be a single from my, I'm going to play you a little snippet if you'd like of the album. Can we do this in there?

Can I play it right now for you? And you guys, before he plays the song, I just want to encourage you, if creed is coming to a town near you, go see his show. It is fantastic. And apparently he also makes fun of me during it. Quite a bit. Angel, yes. And we are trying to figure out one of your locations where I can come on stage and give

it to you right back. Where can people find the schedule? creedbratton.com. We love your creed. All right. Let's hear it. Here we go. You taught me how, you taught me then, how I could one day be your friend.

It's not so hard, just don't lie, don't control, then by and by, we'll be side by side, we'll be side by side, for what's left of the ride. All right. That's that song. There it is, gang. What do you think? Well, Angel is sobbing. I'm, I just started crying.

The song is so beautiful, creed, but also, and I totally am emotional, but oh my God, it might be too emotional. Oh. Well, you know what? It just, do you ever have just like a wave hit you where you're like, you know, you're in a special moment? Yeah. Yes.

And it just hit me. Well, I'm like, contaved with the two of you today. Yeah. I feel like we're in a special moment now. It just felt really special and like something I'll always remember and I'm facing my best friend who is now my boss lady business partner and I'm so proud of us and, and this journey we've taken together. And then I just love you, creed.

Oh, I love you, sweetie. You're like, you know. Well, now I'm, well, I, ladies and gentlemen, when I, the last album I did, I had a song called more than you know. And I, one of the first people I ever played it for was for you and Josh, you know, it's your house and I came over and acoustically played it and you know, I, and she got, and she started crying. I started crying.

I knew I had a winner then. Well, creed, some of my favorite memories on the set were at lunchtime when you would play guitar and Ed would play banjo. Banjo. Yeah. Ed's trailer was next to mine. Yeah. And the two of you would play through my lunch and you guys would call, you would come over

and take your hand in and listen. We'd come over and hang out for years. My alarm clock is banjo music because it would make me think of you guys. And sometimes, especially when I was pregnant, if we had a little break, I might take a cat nap and I'd wake up to banjo music and it was like so pleasing that I made my alarm clock banjo because I thought, oh, maybe I won't wake up grumpy. Ed and I had so much fun. He's a great banjo player.

I haven't played with him in a long time because we're working all the time, but I would love to. Oh, yeah. You guys were great together. He's the best. Well, thank you again, Creed. Thank you so much for having me, my dear friends. Creed, can we end with a final fan question?

Yes, of course. This is from Tim Blair. Tim asked, do you have a favorite creed line from the whole show? Which one's Pam? Which question, Pam? Yes. Oh, gosh, I don't know. It probably would be someone making soup or which one's Pam or, but I think, actually,

I would have to be. In the 60s, I made love to many, many women, often outdoors in the rain and the mud. It's possible a man slipped in. There'd be no way of knowing. Yes. Yes, applause from the booth, and that is how you end an episode, my friend and me. Thank you, Creed. Thank you, Creed.

Oh, everyone, please join us next week when we will be talking about the fight. The fight. Yeah. I'll miss you, Creed. You have to come back. Well, I'd love to come back. Okay. Okay.

Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is produced by Earwolf, Jenna Fisher, and Angela Kinsey. Our producer is Cody Fisher. Our sound engineer is Sam Peefer. And our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Gratton. For ad-free versions of the show and our bonus episode's candy bag, go to StitcherPremium.com. For a free one-month trial of Stitcher Premium, use code, Office.