Office Ladies - Job Fair

Episode Date: April 21, 2021

Today we’re breaking down Job Fair. Michael, Pam, Oscar and Darryl set up a booth at Valley View High School’s Job Fair in hopes of finding a new intern. Jim, Andy and Kevin golf with a potential client. Jenna and Angela speculate what a crossover episode between The Office and Monk would have been like, a fan gives a theory on why Pam skipped volleyball during PE and the ladies reveal which Office castmember is really good at golf. We’d never tell this to its face, but this is a wonderful and gifted episode. Listen to Stephen and Lori Saux' Down Syndrome Parenting and Advocacy podcast, If We Knew Then: https://ifweknewthen.com

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. Hi, lady and everyone. Hi, everyone out there.

I'm so happy you're here listening. Jenna and I, someday we're going to come out there and take it on the road and meet you. Whoa! That's news to me. I guess we're doing it though because if Angela gets an idea, it's going to happen. I think we got to do one in Scranton, Jenna. Oh, well that's a given.

We got to go to Scranton. We got to do an Office, ladies, from Scranton. All right. It's been said. Now it must be done. Lady, tell them what we're talking about today. Today is season four, episode 17, Job Fair. This was written by Lee Eisenberg and Jean Stepnitzke, writers of dinner party, and directed

by Tucker Gates. Would you like a summary? I can't wait for your summaries. Like Wednesday night, you know, because we record on Thursday, I go to bed and I'm like, oh, what is Jenna's summary going to be? I know you do. I know. You try to text me and get me to tell you my summary is ahead of time and I say you're

just going to have to wait for it. Yeah. You're going to surprise me. I go to bed thinking about it. I wake up thinking about it. Well, here it is. Wait no longer. Okay.

Michael, Pam, Oscar and Daryl attend a job fair at Pam's Alma Mater Valley View High School in search of the quote best and brightest potential summer interns. Jim is on probation at Dunder Mifflin. You know, he got his warning from Ryan. So he is going to attempt to redeem himself by working a potential client over golf with the help of Andy and Kevin. The rest of the Dunder Mifflin employees take the day off despite a warning from Dwight except for Angela who ends her silent treatment of him when they find themselves alone in

the office. It's perfect. That's a perfect summary. Thank you. You're welcome. Fast fact. Number one, Valley View High School, Pam's Alma Mater. Yeah.

We got mail. Anna R and Courtney K asked, is Valley View High School a real high school and did you film there? And? It is a real high school. Ding, ding, ding. It's about nine miles north of Scranton in the suburb of Archbold. Their school mascot is the cougar.

And their school colors appear to be blue and yellow, maybe blue and gold. Gold is yellow. I went to the website because it's the cougar, right? So you're saying it's yellow? I'm saying it's goldy yellow. Gold is yellow. Okay. Their colors are blue and goldish yellow.

Okay. We did not film at that school. Oh no. We filmed at Birmingham High School in Van Nuys, California. By the way, in my research, I discovered that the music videos for Gwen Stefani's Hollaback Girl, Eminem's No Love and Lil Wayne's Prom Queen have also all filmed at Birmingham High School. Very, very popular location.

Well, wait for it, Angela. Do you know what else is filmed there? Oh God. Oh, let me guess. Let me guess. Fast Times at Ridgemont High. No. Grease.

It's an office connection. Oh. Hmm. A 40 year old virgin? An episode of Monk. What is it with the office and Monk? I don't know. I really wish we had filmed back in like the 50s.

Remember when they would do those crossover episodes and all of a sudden like Laverne and Shirley would be over at, you know, the Fonzie's house? Yeah. It'd be like Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley. What if we had a Monk the office crossover? I wish we could go back in time and make that happen because we clearly use the same locations and the same guest stars. Have Tony Chaloux walk into the bullpen?

Come on. And interview someone. Maybe Toby for being the Scranton Strangler. Yes! We did it. We did it. There it is, everybody. Your office reunion is also a Monk crossover done.

A little more information on the school. The school colors for Birmingham High School appear to be blue and white. Kent Zabornak told me that we had to create all of our own signage and props for the school because we had to make sure, per our agreement with Birmingham High School, that none of their actual logos or artwork or signage was seen. So there you go. We made it all. Everything hanging on the wall.

Everything. Wowzers. That's a lot. Listen, Kent told me that as I was watching the episode, I was like, that's a lot of signs. Yeah. Check it out. I was very busy this episode. They were.

I'm moving us into fast fact number two. It's called golfing. Wait, wait. I sense a location breakdown. You are correct, Angela. And it's because we got a fan question from Sophia D. Where did you film the scenes at the golf course? Because I'll have you notice, I looked.

We never see a sign for where our guys are supposed to be. I googled, there is a country club of Scranton that offers golf as well as a few other golf courses near the Scranton area. I don't know which course this is supposed to be, but we filmed at Vista Valencia Golf course in Santa Clarita. It's a 27 hole facility. It has an 18 hole par 61 course and a nine hole par three course. Now here's what I found very interesting, maybe only to me.

Let's hear it. The prices to play depend on what day you're playing and also what time you arrive. It's least expensive to go during the week in the afternoon. If you come first thing in the morning, it's going to cost you $24.50 to walk the course or $36.50 to ride it. If you come at three o'clock, it's only $13 to walk it and $23.50 to ride it. But why is it more expensive to ride it? Is it because it comes with the cart?

I couldn't find that information. It seems like you'd flow faster if you're riding it than if you're walking it. That's what everybody, I don't know a lot about golfing. I don't. This is why I'm quiet because I'm like, I don't know. But here's the big kicker and this is why I think you and I need to go to this golf course. Okay.

They have something called foot golf. Foot golf. I'd never heard of it. It's a real thing. It's a combination of soccer and golf. And hacky sack. I think you could hacky and sack it in there. There's basically a special golf course, but the holes are really big and you kick the

ball down the course into the hole. Okay. Foot golf. Maybe we could frulf and then foot golf. I would foot golf if there was like a pony keg set up on like the eighth hole. So like you kick your ball, then you have a beer, then you kick your ball. What's a pony keg? A pony keg?

Isn't that? Don't y'all have pony kegs? It's like a party keg. It's like a mini keg of beer. A pony keg? Anyone? Sam? Cassie?

Pony keg? Ever heard of it? A pony keg is a mini keg? Yeah. It's like a baby keg. No. You're right. Pony keg is a quarter keg.

Yeah. Thank you. What's a half keg called? Silence. I don't find any cool names. Oh. So you can get up. Here are your choices.

Pony keg, half keg, keg. I feel like they sell more pony kegs just because the name is cute, but I don't know. And you can carry them if you're on the petite side like myself. Oh, we're learning so much today. So much. Fast fact number three, Angela, you were very, very, very pregnant in this episode. Yeah, I was. When you were filming your scenes with Dwight in the office, Lee Eisenberg had the flu.

He was not there that day. Only Gene Stupnitsky was on the set. And they got into the editing bay to edit the episode Lee Eisenberg was there. And he said, you guys, why don't we have any wider shots of these scenes? And Dave Rogers and Gene had to remind him because Angela's belly was very hard to hide. So all of these, all of these shots are like Angela from like the shoulders up. But here is what else I found in my Googling, Angela, what by the time this episode aired, you had given birth.

I know you gave birth five days before this episode aired. That is true. Well, lady, I have a really fun story from this episode. And it's something that involves the golf course. I had no scenes at the golf course, but I went to visit the fellas. I was doing a whole series at this time on NBC.com called Adventures with Angela. And Creed and Ed had written a song for my baby. I mean, with the banjo, the guitar, the whole thing.

So I went to the golf course on Monday, on their lunch, and we sat out in this beautiful green, like grassy area. And they sang to me. And not only that, I couldn't remember how we got there. I was like, I don't remember driving to this place or where it was. And you know, when you're a passenger, how you don't really pay attention as much, yeah. So I found this email that I had written to John Krasinski, where I said, hey, John, I'll see you Monday.

I can't wait. Creed is picking me up in his sports car. Should I be scared? And we're going to come and have lunch. And he and Ed are going to sing a song for my little baby. Oh, so you wrote in Creed's sports car? I wrote in Creed's little two-seater sports car. And they sang this song to me.

And it was on NBC.com. And Jenna, they gave me a copy, and I tore my house up looking for this this week. I have ransacked the whole house. I know I have it somewhere, and I really wanted to play it for you guys. But Joya, who worked with us over at NBC.com, is on the case. She's going to find it. And hopefully, maybe in a revisited, I'll be able to play it for you guys, because it's really special.

And I'm just heartbroken that I couldn't find it. That is so cool, Angela. I remember seeing the video of that, so I really do hope you find it. Me too. Me too. It was so cute. I remember Creed started off with Angela's baby. It was just so fun.

Well, and that's really all I had for this. I guess I have something that could be considered half a fast fact that I could throw in there. Half a fast fact? What you got? My half a fast fact is that Toby was not in this episode because he was busy writing the season finale. Oh, that is a good one. Well, I have a little Kinsey tidbit.

Oh, guess who found her script of job fair? This lady. Oh my gosh, Angela, this is very exciting to me because I have a couple of fan questions that I didn't know the answer to, but I bet the answers are in the script. Oh, let me get it. I'll get it. And let's go to break and we'll come back and jump into some job fair. I like it.

All right, we are back. I have my script of job fair and Jenna right out of the gate. I have a question for you. What is it? Did you notice that this episode does not have a cold open? I kind of did, Angela. We have a scene before the credits, but it's on plot. It's on story.

It's not one of those standalone comedic cold opens that we're used to. I did notice. That's right. We just kind of get right into the meat of the episode, right? Yes. There was a cold open and I'm going to read you a little bit about what it was. Okay. Okay.

So in the cold open, you hear the screaming noise from the men's restroom and everyone in the bullpen kind of grumbles like, ah, not again. And Michael comes out. He's just exasperated because he has dropped everything that was in his pockets into the toilet, like everything. He lists it off. He dropped his cell phone, his tip calculator, his wallet, his white strips, candy corn, his eraser, and then Jim says, what about your car keys?

And Michael says, I threw them into the toilet out of anger. And this leads him to this light bulb moment because I guess this happens quite frequently for Michael and he goes into his office and he comes out and he's like, guys, I have invented this amazing invention and he says it's the mesh toilet guard to go over the toilet. And then the camera pans passed him and he has just cut out the back of his desk chair that's mesh into like a circle and he's like, who's going to volunteer? This is going to be great. It's lightweight, portable, reusable.

You can just put it in your dishwasher. So what he's going to start using the bathroom through this meshy cover, but he's thrilled. He thinks he's going to be a gazillionaire with the mesh toilet guard. I don't know where to begin. I know. So that was the cold open that they didn't end up using and they just jumped right into the episode. Here's the thing.

I can't remember if we shot that, but I remember that joke probably from the table read because we must have read it. I remember the joke that Michael threw his keys in out of anger. That was my favorite part. So this isn't in the deleted scenes then. It's not in the deleted scenes, but it is in the script, but they didn't use it. It's a little trivia for you since I have the script. The script is paying off already.

I'm excited about it. The way this episode does start is Michael comes out of his office. He's dressed in his jeans. Yeah. It's got sneakers on. He's trying to look young and hip. I think so. Pam and Oscar and Daryl are all around reception and we find out that today the four of them

will be attending the job fair at Valley View High School in search of new interns because he wants to euthanize the office. Well, there is a deleted scene where Michael shares that he's been really depressed since Ryan left. Sam, can you play that? I am depressed, but since Ryan left, I've been going through empty nest syndrome and I call it that because that's the way I felt when empty nest went off the air. I am lonely and I need a new Ryan.

That's amazing. Yeah. And so he sees this job fair at the local high school as his way to recruit some young buddy. Michael just wants a younger sibling. Yeah. We had a fan question from Thomas V. How did they decide who got to go to the job fair? This was one of those instances where they would look at the cast and they would say,

who haven't we seen together yet or in a while? And that's kind of how they hold the names because something I noticed is that there is not technically a salesperson represented. So there's someone from accounting, there's someone from the warehouse, front reception who Michael refers to as the eye candy. And Michael, who I guess could also cover sales. Right. He was a really good salesman.

He was. Yeah. And this was more about pairing of people and characters and who would make a great foil for Michael at the job fair. Well we know why I couldn't go. Yeah. You would have just to shoot four floating heads. It would have just been four heads in a high school auditorium because that was super

pranks. Okay. So that's who went to the high school. But now we have this other kind of odd pairing headed to the golf course. It's Jim Andy and Kevin and Jim's on probation. He's got to make this big, big sale. And this is his ragtag team that I guess is going to help him. Yeah.

Things start off a little, how would you put it? Oddly because the first thing that Andy does is insult Mr. McGuire, their potential client because he's wearing a Dartmouth sweatshirt. He tells him to take it off and that his grandfather would be spinning in his urn if he knew he was golfing with a Dartmouth alum. There's clearly some real rivalry here between Cornell and Dartmouth. Well I looked it up. It's this big college football rivalry between the Cornell Big Red and the Dartmouth Big

Green. I guess these two schools were major football powers back in the day. There's since been a split in the divisions, the football divisions, but prior to the split, Cornell kind of dominated the national championships. They won in 1915, 1921, 22, 23, and 39 Dartmouth won once in 1925. So Cornell was dominating the Ivy League. Yes. But then in 1940, there was this infamous game, Amj.

Oh. Cornell had a 16 game winning streak. And this was like a school record. They were about to win the national championship with a score of seven to three, but guess what they did? What? They did a film review of the game and found out that Cornell had inadvertently used five downs instead of four, and they had to forfeit the game to Dartmouth.

Oh. According to the ESPN College Football Encyclopedia, they consider this to be the second greatest moment in college football history, and it is commonly referred to as the fifth down game. So I guess that's why Andy's grandfather was spinning in his urn. Well, Mindy went to Dartmouth, so she might have known some of that rivalry. I have to think that might have come up in the writer's room. I wonder.

And there are deleted scenes that support this. Jim shares that, you know what? He's bringing Andy on purpose because he knew Andy would flip out about Mr. McGuire being a Dartmouth guy, and then they would have sort of this like common enemy that it would be bonding for Mr. McGuire and Jim because Andy's an idiot. Well, that doesn't track because Jim seems so horrified by Andy's comment to Mr. McGuire. Exactly. So then there's the scene where, you know, Mr. McGuire's like, gosh, this guy and Jim's

like, I know, Cornell, right? Oh, I get it. Oh, yeah. Jim was being diabolical. He had a whole plan. Right. Best friends through a common enemy. That's right.

Look at us. We're buddies now. We're pals. Give me your business. Don't pay attention to that Cornell idiot. Thank God you have me here. Yeah. Don't pay attention to that idiot who also works at my company.

I don't know if this was a great plan, Jim. Well, part of his strategy. Andy also can't shake hands with Mr. McGuire because his hands are covered in blisters. Blisties. Yeah. He's nifty gifties. He's blisties. He loves a little IES on things.

I got the lowdown on how they made those blisters. Oh, let's hear it. Who did it? It was our makeup artist Laverne. She applied the makeup. It took her about 20 or 30 minutes to do it. She started by putting coloring on his hands, so she kind of painted his hands red. Then she covered it with something called RCMA scar making material.

She said it's really, really tricky to apply because as soon as it dries, it's set. You can't move it and it dries really, really fast. So she would put it on really quickly with a tiny metal spatula and tweezers and that afterwards Ed was not allowed to wash his hands or get them wet. How do you go to the bathroom? I mean, I guess he just didn't wash his hands after. I hope he didn't awkward get them wet in any other way. Do you always wash your hands after you go to the bathroom?

Yes. Even at home? Yes. After you pee at home, you wash your hands with soap and water every time? Every time. Every time I rinse them and I have a little pump, pump. Or I have a big bar and I rub my hand over the bar soap every time. It was drilled into me by my mom.

I rinse my hands every time and I make Isabelle. So it's just like automatic. I feel like it's really clear now that I don't always wash my hands after I pee at home. I feel like maybe we were going to bond over something but now we're not bonding over. Oh no. And now I just think you're disgusting. I guess now you're going to have to worry when you come over to my house. Did I wash my hands after I pee?

I always wash my hands after poop, always. I never wipe a poop and then not wash my hands everybody. Well good. I feel like I want that to be clear. Well, I'm not going to worry. I'm just not going to touch your hands or anything your hands touch. I don't know how I feel about this conversation. Well, we should probably segue out of it.

Well, I'll say this about blisters. It might fall under the heading of things you already know, but as the emerging amateur medical expert of office ladies, you should never pop a blister. The fluid inside your blister has healing properties and it also protects the affected areas so that you won't get an infection. So you really want the fluid to stay in there as long as possible and just let the blister heal itself. Don't pop it.

I did not know that. I feel like I have popped many a blister. This is so interesting. I'm not going to pop a blister now. I'm just going to look at it and say Jenna told me to let it do its thing. So I'm going to let it do its thing. I might start washing my hands after I pee at home. I hope so.

Well now Mr. McGuire wants to make this golf game more interesting. So he suggests that they make a little wager. Why don't they do a little betting? Oh my gosh. This is music to Kevin's ears. Kevin's like, what, what? Mr. McGuire suggests $10 a whole. But Kevin, Jenna, he lists all of these games.

I know. I wrote them down. You want to hear what they are? I do. All right. He says, you want to play skins, A.C. Ducey, Bingo Bango Bongo, Sandys, Barky's, Wolfe, Arnie's. Don't forget Arnie's.

Oh, I'm so sorry. I forgot Arnie's. I looked it up. These are all real ways to bet on golf. They're real. I mean, I have an explanation for all of them. I won't go into it, but fascinating. I didn't even realize you could do this much golf betting.

Clearly, there's so much golf gambling. And you know what? It tracks that Kevin would know. Yeah. This is bringing up his whole gambling thing. And he admits that he's going to take the petty cash from Oscar and use it to turn it into next month's rent. So he is gambling with Dundermifflin's petty cash.

Should we move on to this job fair, lady? Yes. Let's move on to the job fair. Pam has to walk down memory lane of her high school, and you learn a lot about her. Yeah. She has this talking head where she says this gym reminds her of all the time she pretended to have PMS to get out of playing sports. In particular, volleyball, but yet in company picnics, she's like a volleyball pro.

So what's happening? Oh, have we ever gotten more mail? I feel seen. Thank you for everyone that wrote in as soon as Pam said that, I was like, what the heck? I know Chelsea B wrote in this theory on why it still tracks that she would have pretended to have PMS while also being a volleyball champion. And I loved it. So here is Chelsea's theory.

She says, people always point out the continuity era that Pam says she faked cramps so she wouldn't have to play volleyball in gym class. However, maybe Pam faked cramps because she didn't want to have to play volleyball with her classmates who weren't very good at it. As a former athlete myself, I can tell you I wouldn't have had much fun playing my sport with people who sucked at it. So in my opinion, it's not surprising that she'd try to get out of it. Well, Chelsea, I think you're being very kind.

What? I love that Chelsea is like, Pam is such a badass volleyball player that she cannot handle a gym class volleyball game. I mean, come on in high school, like they would have pulled you out and put you in varsity volleyball. You would have been separated from the LAMOs. No, this was gym class. This was just like everybody get exercise in gym class.

We're going to play volleyball today. So Pam was probably on the varsity team, but she just didn't want to have to play in gym class. It was a waste of her time and talent. Okay, Chelsea. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Well, I'm living for your piece of mail, Chelsea. I appreciated it. You made her day, Chelsea. Well, there's another deleted scene with Pam as she's going through the high school. She walks past the sports trophy case and there is a big old photo of Roy Anderson, the big jock in high school, and she looks at it and says, nine years of my life. I remember shooting that. They had done this little photo shop of David Denman in a high school photo.

And Oscar has a deleted talking head where he says, no, surprisingly enough, I did not always dream of being an accountant at Dunder Mifflin. In high school, I was just a normal kid. I made decent grades, played bass in a new wave band, had a poster of Kim Bassenger over my bed. Oh, how I wanted to be Kim Bassenger. That is a great talking head. It was.

I wish it had stayed in. Michael is feeling pretty confident about his booth. So much so that the only thing that he brought was a blank piece of paper. So it's the four of them sitting at a table with a blank piece of paper in front of them. Well, he says a blank sheet of paper equals endless possibilities. It's conceptual. That's what he says. Meanwhile, the booth next door has like a basketball hoop and then one has like a popcorn

machine. No one is going to stop by this booth and there's a deleted scene that goes on for so long. I loved it so much of just a steady stream of kids walking past you guys, not stopping at all, and the only one that stops briefly sets down his popcorn container and just leaves it there like trash. It spills over and then Oscar is just tidying up this kid's trash. Angela, we had so much fun shooting these scenes.

I so loved getting to be on location with these three guys. We had the best time. They gave all the background actors the direction that they should be like having a great time and smiling and high energy at all the other booths so that when you got to ours, it was particularly quiet and sad looking. It really, really works. It was cracking me up. Should we go back over to Dunder Mithlin and see what everyone else is up to?

Yes. Well, let me tell you what they're up to. They're up to trying to sneak out of work. I mean, Meredith and Phyllis are stirring the pot. Michael is gone. They don't want to stay the whole day. No. And Creed has a great line where he says he finished his work months ago.

I loved that. Like, what is he doing? Dwight reminds them all that when Michael is gone, Jim is in charge. And when Jim is gone, Andy and Dwight are in charge. And when Andy is gone, you answer to Dwight. And Stanley's like, I don't give a crap. I'm out. I love so much that moment when Stanley walks out the door.

I did too. And Dwight doesn't know what to do. You know, we have said we feel like Stanley is the person Dwight is like, I am not going to mess with Stanley. But Dwight asserts to the whole office, look, you guys. The American workday ends at five o'clock. And so you must stay until the end of the workday, period. Or I'll tattle on you.

Right. Back at the high school, Pam is chatting up a young perspective intern. He's actually interested in Dunder Mifflin. And Michael signals her to stop. Yeah. Well, not just that. He goes up to this kid whose name is Justin. He says, I don't think this is the job for you.

Never should be more of a hobby for you. And then he takes away the kid's pamphlet that he was looking at. Yeah. We had a fan catch about it, though, from Harmjen V and Alyssa C. If Michael only brought one sheet of paper to the job fair, where did the brochure come from that Pam gave to Justin and Michael took away? Hmm. Good question.

I mean, clearly they brought a brochure. I felt like the paper was their prop, was the thing that was supposed to be the eye-catching moment as people walked by. So maybe under the desk, Pam had some additional materials. When the paper makes you stop in your tracks to talk to these people at their booth, then you get a pamphlet. Okay. I like it.

Michael is furious that Justin signed his name on their blank piece of paper. He's even more furious to learn that Pam only brought the one. Yeah. And Pam's like, excuse me? I love that she totally calls him out on it. I know. She said, Michael, do you not remember? I said, are you sure that we only need one sheet of paper?

And you said, yeah, we only need one sheet of paper to make a difference. And then you sneezed in my tea and said, don't worry, it's just allergies. Pam with the receipts. That's what the kids say, Jenna. Oh, I like it. We had a fan question from Kate B. When Justin signs his name on the piece of paper, he writes Justin E. But later in the episode, he tells Michael that his last name is Paul Snick. Explain.

I'll tell you, I am intrigued. The actor who plays Justin, his name is Trevor Einhorn. Oh, so maybe he was writing his actual last name. Yes. Isn't that amazing? So Trevor Einhorn has been a professional actor since he was five years old and his breakout role was on the television comedy, Frasier. He played Frederick Crane, the son of Frasier and Lilith.

Oh my gosh, yes. He also went on to have a recurring role on Mad Men. He was in season six and seven as a copywriter. And he also played Neil Kellerman in the ABC remake of Dirty Dancing. He currently stars as Josh Hoberman in the sci-fi show The Magicians. He is a Scorpio. I'll have you know. That's new for a guest.

I don't feel like you've shared their zodiac sign before. Is this a new part of the guest star breakdown? Well, it showed up in his bio, so I thought I'd throw it in there. Okay. Finally, he is not related to our cinematographer, Randall Einhorn. That is correct. Just a coincidence. Everyone back in the bullpen still really wants to sneak out.

They've waited for their moment. Dwight finally gets up and exits the bullpen to go to the bathroom. And Creed calls Angela to tell her they're all leaving. This scene made me laugh so hard, Jenna, because this is a bit that Creed and I still do. To this day, Creed will text me, Pumpkin's out. Or if we hang out and I'm like, all right, Creed, I'm going to go. He'll say, Pumpkin's out, like he still says this to me after all of these years. And this just warmed my heart.

I loved it so much. Sam, can you play the clip? One, two, eight. Hiya, Pumpkin. It's Creed. Say we're going to ditch this bitch. You in? No.

Are you out? Pumpkin's out. Let's go, gang. We got so much mail about this scene, Angela. People who listen to the podcast know that Creed calls you Pumpkin in real life. And they wanted to know, was Creed ad-libbing in the scene and using his real life nickname for you or was Pumpkin in the script and then he started calling you Pumpkin after this? This scene is exactly as it is in the script, exactly.

So Creed did not improvise that, but I will tell you, ever since we shot Job Bear, he has called me Pumpkin to this day. He still calls me Pumpkin. That is so cute. I know. It's so cute. I loved that scene. Well now Dwight comes out of the restroom and he sees that everyone has left.

Everyone except Angela, which makes total sense because she's the one other rule follower in this group. There is a great scene that's deleted where Dwight comes out and he goes, huh, last man standing and then Angela briskly walks past him and goes, excuse me. And then there's a talking head that Angela has that really explains why she is just as eager to be one of the last people in the office. Whenever I'm here by myself, I like to pretend that all the others are dead. So this is nice.

Oh my God, it made me laugh all out. I spit out my water. I went to take a sip of water while we were listening to the deleted scene. It seemed like a safe time to take a sip of water, but that, that was so good. She pretends that everyone is dead. And at the end, they had me do a little smile like that. I was very delighted by this. Oh, that is incredible.

Well Dwight's going to use this opportunity to call Michael and tattle. He is very, very mad. Michael is like, yeah, that makes total sense. Don't be weird. Everyone should go home. Why should they be there? I'm not there. Jim's not there.

Who cares? Right? Oh, Dwight is so sad. I know. But Dwight isn't going to go home. He has personal standards. He's going to work his day and he's going to dock everyone else's pay. He's going to try.

Look at the job fair. Pam has gone into her old art room to get a sheet of paper. I titled the scene brutal. Pam just wants one moment of her glory days, right? One moment. She's going to show the camera her piece of art. Surely it's still on the wall. Yeah.

We got a lot of mail about this. People wanted to know what exactly is Pam looking for on the wall? Was it artwork? An award? They wanted to know if there was more to this scene and also just what was my take on this? I'll tell you, the idea was that when Pam was in school, a piece of her art was put on the wall on display and it was a big moment for her that she was very proud of. And she very, very quickly, as soon as she says maybe it's still there, realizes that

like a decade has gone by since this moment that she was so proud of, probably the last moment that her art was held up for admiration because remember her art show didn't go great. And so she just has this crushing, like you said, brutal realization that a lot of time has gone by since she invested in this part of herself and she's quickly embarrassed and it has to just stuff it down and walk away. Well, it is exactly the same in the script as what you see in the episode. Yeah. In the script, it says, Pam comes up to a room that is labeled art room and goes inside

and walks confidently to the supply desk. She finds a blank piece of paper and shows it to the camera. Pam says, my old art room, hey, I wonder if it's still here. She looks around at the walls that have some student artworks on them. Nope. They must have taken it down. Never mind. Yeah.

It's hard. It's hard to realize that you've put your hopes and dreams on hold. Yeah. And she does in this moment. You know, after all that, Pam brings this piece of paper to Michael and it's wrong. He wanted Dunder Mifflin card stock. He doesn't want this stupid random piece of paper. He sends her back to the office.

Yeah. He said, I don't want this Pendleton crap, which I looked up online and I couldn't find Pendleton paper. I did find Pendleton business cards. And he says, Pam, I want the ultra white card stock. Pam drives all the way back to Dunder Mifflin. Yeah. And she goes and gets the ultra white card stock out of the copier.

Dwight looks puzzled and rightly so because I don't think that paper lives in the copier. Just gonna say. Well, let me tell you something about copiers, Angela. She pulls it from a specialty drawer in the copier, not from the main paper feed of the copier, which could have held copy paper, perhaps in our special drawer. You can select for when you want card stock. Well, I saw that she pulled it from the low drawer. Jenna, I saw that and not the other drawer, but I just think it would be on the shelf.

So, well, if it had been on the shelf, it wouldn't have been as good of a shot between Dwight and Angela. So it had to come out of the copier. All right. That's the real reason. Okay. Fine. Well, we're about to go back to the golf course and there's a lot to talk about.

I think maybe we should take a break and then we'll get into it after we've refreshed ourselves and emptied our bladders. I will wash my hands. If you need to know who Jenna's going to be at 70, you just heard her after we have refreshed ourselves and emptied our bladders. All right, guys, we'll be right back. All right. We are back.

Mr. McGuire is struggling with his ball. I like that. He's struggling with his ball in the sand trap. He can't get it out of the sand, Jenna. And he doesn't want anyone to help him. He wants to do it himself. Listen, Andy is just such a hot mess. He's having all of his rage issues.

He's got on his pants that have little pheasants on them. It's not going to make him happy when Jim gets a phone call from Pam while Andy's trying to swing. No, it is not. And Jim is really trying to recruit Mr. McGuire and McGuire is a big no. He's just like no, no, no. He just wants to play golf. Well, so does Andy, because he proposes that they race to the next hole.

He hops in the golf cart and crashes it. He goes flying. The roof of the golf cart is ripped off. This is a major golf cart crash. I mean, I feel like this was a big stunt for us. It was. We got a lot of mail about it. People wanted to know, did Ed do this stunt?

No. No, no, no. Of course not. No, no, no, no. It was a stunt driver. We also got questions about everyone's actual golfing ability. Thomas V wants to know, did any of these guys actually play golf? Well, well, well, well, well, we will tell you, we know, I reached out to Ed and he said

that before this episode, he had never been a golfer and that the show gave everybody lessons so that they could look like they knew what they were doing. And he really, really enjoyed it and he said since this episode, he has started playing recreationally, but he added it's just for fun, nothing like Brian Baumgartner. Brian is an athlete, you guys. We have talked about this before. He's a heck of a golfer. Oh, and he told me that his handicap is seven.

That's really, really good, you guys. It's really good. He plays on these big fancy golf tournaments, you guys, like Michael Jordan has a golf tournament and Brian plays in it. Brian won the Derek Jeter Celebrity Invitational one year. Yeah. He goes to so many professional celebrity golf tournaments. He told me he has a room of suitcases because apparently there was a year where they gifted

every golfer a suitcase. Okay. He's like, I have so many suitcases, if you ever need a suitcase, that's crazy. Well, Brian also told me that they didn't play any actual golf while shooting these scenes. They hit a lot of balls, but they didn't have time to play much actual short game golf. You know, I bet he was bummed because he would have just schooled them all.

I think so. And then I texted John. John told me that he absolutely loves playing golf, but he is horrible. I think he's no better than Jim. And he said that the reason Brian Baumgartner likes to golf with John is because that way Brian can really dominate. Oh, a little, little shade there at Brian. I guess so.

Well, that is why it made sense to me that Kevin went because Kevin's not in sales. Kevin's an accountant, but I thought, I wonder if the writers were like, we need one guy that looks like he knows what he's doing. Well, Lee gave an interview after this episode aired because someone had asked that very question. Why Kevin? And he said after they picked who would go to the job fair, they had to look at who was left because remember Jim is trying to woo a client.

So we learned from this deleted scene that he brought Andy as his way of maybe being able to have this common enemy over the Dartmouth Cornell thing. And he brought Kevin maybe because he was the last best athletic choice in the office. It works. And I also think Kevin provided them with that extra storyline of the betting because that tracks for Kevin's character. Yeah. It's the time he's good at math.

Exactly. Well, back at the job fair, literally no one is interested in Dunder Mifflin. So Michael is going to have to revisit this idea of hiring Justin. Oh, and lady, there is a deleted scene that really explains why Michael is like, well, I guess I should reach out to Justin. There's sort of like a young hip like student that walks by and Michael chats him up and the guy is just being nice, right? The kid is being nice and Michael is just relentless and just wants him to be his best

friend. Like literally wants him to be his best friend. And the kid's like, okay, you know what? You're starting to creep me out. I was just trying to be nice. I don't want to work at your stupid paper company and Michael is devastated. And that is when he sort of has this moment of like, oh crap. Like if Justin's the only one that's interested.

Well, Michael brings Justin around and introduces him to everyone. But in the process of introducing Pam, he says, she'll do you. I mean, just kidding. But she has dated two guys in the office that we know of. And this leads to one of my favorite lines of the whole series. Is it what Michael says? Yes. Pam walks away and Michael says to Justin, listen, I wouldn't say.

This to her face, but she's a wonderful person and a gifted artist. He wouldn't say it to her face. I feel like it's Oscars delivery of Oscars line that makes me laugh so hard because he goes, why wouldn't you say that to her face? I love that couple. That joke is so funny to me. So you guys, not only has Michael been, you know, in deleted scenes ditched by the hip cool kid, right?

He then sees Justin being chatted up by the Air Force recruiter and in a deleted scene, Michael walks over and the Air Force recruiter is telling Justin how amazing he is, what a great asset he would be. And Michael is like, no, no, no, no, no, no, you need to work for us. He like gets really sort of aggressive and offers Justin this job. And that part makes it into the episode where Justin declines. But there's a whole other scene where the Air Force is really going after Justin. Wow.

Justin's two choices are the Air Force or Dunder Mifflin paper. Those are real different sides of the pendulum there. Very different. And Michael says to the Air Force recruiter, you're telling me this guy could be a fighter pilot? He's like, yes, he can. And Michael's like, oh, my God. Well a woman comes to the microphone and announces that the job fair is coming to an end.

Yes. And that woman was played by our female stand in Lori Sox. Yes. If you go to 15 minutes, 58 seconds, you will see Lori. We loved Lori and her husband, Steven, their husband and wife, stand in duo. They were with us for years. They were like family. Well, you might remember Steven because he was featured at the dinner table in Benihana

Christmas. Yes. And so from time to time, they pop up in episodes. And like Angela said, these guys really are like family to us. Steven and Lori have two kids. And Lori had Sophia before I had Isabelle and Jenna, she was my person. I went to, I'd be like, Lori, I'm feeling this or I'm doing this or I had a question about breastfeeding.

And she was just always there to sort of guide me through being a working mom. It was Lori and Malora. They were the two moms I went to. Yes. Yeah. Both of her kids were born while we shot the office. So her daughter, Sophia is 13. I know her and Isabelle are very close in age.

And their son, Liam, who just turned 10 years old, I cannot believe he's 10. I know. Passage of time. You see it in your children. Well, their son, Liam has Down syndrome. And Steven and Lori actually have this amazing podcast and we want to shout it out. It's called If We Knew Then and it is a Down syndrome advocacy podcast for parents. Our goal is to reach as many parents and prospective parents as possible.

The podcast features interviews and positive information about Down syndrome advocacy and inclusion. You guys definitely check it out. Check it out. Again, it's called If We Knew Then. It is so good. I just listened to their episode where they talk about the week that they had Liam in the hospital and everything they were journeying through in that moment.

And they are so kind, relatable, thoughtful, caring people. I really enjoyed their conversation. We're just so happy to share about their podcast. We're going to put them in our stories. We'll put a swipe up to your podcast, guys. And Lori and Steven, we just love you guys so much. It is so fun for me to see them pop up in these episodes. We saw them every day at work, so we're excited that they've been memorialized in the episode

for everybody. Yes, and Steven is still part of that very competitive fantasy football league of the office cast and crew. Yes. Lee told me that actually Steven is responsible for the draft pick numbers every year. And there is a tradition where he makes a video of Sophia and Liam reaching into a bowl and picking out the numbers for the order of the draft. That's how all these guys find out their pick number is from Sophia and Liam every year.

I love our office family. I love it. Well, you guys, Michael's getting desperate and he's going to do that classic thing that Michael does where he has to go up on stage and take the microphone. Yeah. He wants to know if anyone wants to intern at Dunder Mifflin. He says they do not offer college credit and they cannot give you any sort of pay, but it's a super fun work environment.

Anyone? Show of hands? Anyone? Yeah. It's amazing. I mean, security comes pretty quickly. Yes. I know with Lori like marching right in front.

Yeah, it's not going to go great. They're going to leave with no interns. They're going to leave with no interns and no one ever wanting to work there. Thanks, Michael. Speaking of Dunder Mifflin and working there, we should probably catch you up on how it's going between little Dwight and Angela back at the office. First they had to make some copies. I took a screen grab of this scene of us making copies.

It really perfectly shows how much they had to crop me out. Oh yeah, your shoulders up. I know. When I say something that I noticed about this scene, okay, there's only two people in the office. Mm-hmm. Apparently you need to make copies at the same time. So there's a line.

Mm-hmm. There's also a copier in the annex. I think Angela just wanted to stand close to him. I think she did too. I think her heart is melting a little. You know, it's taken her a bit. He did freeze her cat. So she's had a lot to unpack there, but I think she's softening.

Well, Dwight's gonna sneeze, and Angela's gonna say bless you. I know. I think it's the beginning, the beginning of the Angela and Dwight rekindling. And I have more evidence. If you needed more, what? As they're leaving for the day, Dwight holds the door. He waits and holds the door for Angela, and she says thank you. I know.

I mean, this is in their language, like this is on again almost. Oh, yeah. They're about to go to the warehouse and hook up. Right. Exactly. Exactly. That's about to happen. Well, back at the golf course, turns out Kevin did okay.

He wants to collect his money from all of his winnings. But Mr. McGuire says, no, no, no, we'll start a tab because I'm gonna play more golf with you guys. Hmm. We'll play more golf with them, but he refuses still to give Jim his business. But Jim isn't gonna take no for an answer. No, he's gonna throw himself in front of this man's car. Yeah.

I found it a little off-putting. Jim said he said he would call him every day until he gave him his business. Well, it works on Mr. McGuire. I feel like Jim is using Dwight's sales tactics. He's certainly exercising persistence, and I guess it pays off. Mr. McGuire says, okay, there you go. It worked. And they're gonna come back to the office and they're gonna be drinking some beers toasting

their good fortune as Michael and Pam and Oscar and Daryl returned from the job fair. And Pam is like, you did it. You closed the deal. You sold it and she runs up and they smooch, then they shake hands because they're like awkward and then they completely make out in front of everyone. Angela, I remember shooting this scene. PDA, awkward. We were kissing for so long.

It felt like a long time. And it's not even hardly on camera. Now that I see the episode, you're like, dang it. But part of this big kiss was because we had this shorter season from the writer's strike and we didn't get to advance a lot of jammy storylines after all, right? They had this whole plan that they were gonna move in together. So we're near the end of the season and we had to throw in big jam moment, right? So here it is.

You're gonna get to see them have a big smooch. This is, I think, the biggest smooch of the series, really. It's the longest smooch. I would say the biggest, most epic smooch was Casino Night. That was not as long as this. Well, that's what I was about to say. I feel like it was a big pivotal smooch, but this is the longest smooch. Yeah.

And it was very, very funny. Angela, this is my question. Was it in the script for Michael to say kiss or kiss or good? Because I could not get through that. We were laughing so hard and my memory is that Steve did that as an improvisation. It's in the script. Oh my gosh. It's in the script.

It says Michael has gotten very close to Jim and Pam and is watching them kiss from really far too close. And Michael says, yeah, kiss her. Kiss her good. It was very, very funny. And you can see when John and I separate that my face is a little red. It's a little chased from so much kissing. We had to do this scene so many times.

And you can see, I think, John had a little stubble. A little stubble? Well, do you want to hear what was in the script? Yeah. Angela and Dwight were there for this moment. What? Yes. And while the guys are drinking beers, Angela shishes them.

And then Angela and Dwight have their moment later in the script when they leave and Dwight holds open the door and all that. But how awkward would it have been for Dwight and Angela to be there too? I'm glad they changed that. Yeah. That was a good move. Yeah. We need more, Angela, judgment, Pam doesn't need more.

The last scene of this episode is a flashback back to the job fair. This is going to set us up for Pam's storyline in season five. We're going to plant some seeds here. You see Pam go up to a booth for a graphic design firm and she wants to fill out an application. Yes. And you guys might notice that the graphic design guy is played by Nelson Franklin. He's going to come back in season six as the IT guy. I have a little fun tidbit about Nelson.

I know what it is. Tell us. Nelson and I were co-stars on a new show for Netflix, hashtag BlackAF. We played writers in the writer's room with Kenya Barris and Rashida Jones placed Kenya's wife, Joya, and Ken Quapas directed us. It was like a whole office reunion. That show is so funny. Your writer's room scenes are so funny.

Manjula, your character is amazing in that show. I play yet another miserable woman. You're so good at it. Oh, thanks. I loved all the writer's room bits, you know, because you and I, we've observed writer's rooms over the years and it was really fun to kind of play out some of that shtick. Well, Nelson is amazing. He also had a regular recurring role on Veep.

He had a regular role on Blackish and it's true. He's going to come back in season six and I don't know how they did that. I'm going to figure it out. When we get to season six, I'm going to tell you it's a little bit of a bewitched moment, isn't it? It is. It's like, which Darren is this? I will point out one thing.

Nelson joins our very tall male cast member club. He is six foot five. Every scene I have to be in with him, he has to be seated. Well, he's really good in this scene with Pam. You know, he kind of explains to her, you just need like basic knowledge of what's going on, all of these programs that Pam has no knowledge of at all. And then he says, you know, you could probably get training somewhere. Do you like an adult education class, but the best place to go, and this is where we

plant the seeds for next season, the best place to learn about graphic design are programs in New York or Philadelphia. And she's like, got it, New York or Philadelphia. Yep. What is Pam going to do? We'll find out. We will, and that was job fair. And lady, I can't believe I'm saying this, but up next is the finale of season four.

I know already. Thank you guys so much for sending in your questions and comments. Thanks so much to our cast members for letting us bug them about golf and pumpkin out and everything else we hit them up for. Yeah, they're amazing. They're the best. And Lori and Steven socks, we love you guys. We'll be putting a swipe up to their podcast if we knew then see you next week guys.

Have a fantastic week. See you then. Thank you for listening to office ladies. Office ladies is produced by your wolf, Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey. Our show is executive produced by Cody Fisher. Our producer is Cassie Jerkin. Our sound engineer is Sam Kiefer and our associate producer is Ainsley Bubicoe. Our theme song is rubber tree by Creed Bratton.

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