Office Ladies - Niagara, Pt 2
Episode Date: February 16, 2022This week we finish breaking down “Niagara”. On their wedding day, Jim and Pam sneak off to get married on the Maid of the Mist while their guests wait in the church and Michael hits it off with P...am’s mom. The ladies go into greater detail about the lost storyline that involved a horse and Roy unsuccessfully trying to stop the wedding. Angela found a stunt photo to fool the paparazzi featuring Pam and Toby, Jenna breaks down the viral dance video that inspired “The Office” cast to dance at Jim and Pam’s wedding and the ladies point out a very special cameo by Randy Cordray! So enjoy this wonderful episode because you know Plan A was to listen to it a long, long time ago. Link to Jill and Kevin’s wedding dance website: http://jkweddingdance.com/
Transcript
Discussion (0)
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.
Angela, Angela. Jenna, Jenna. Today is Jim and Pam's wedding day. And we are celebrating.
Cheers. That's my drink. Can you hear it? I sure can. I'm taking a picture of you.
Okay, well, if you take a picture we can post this on Office, ladies, pod because
I'm drinking out of a very special champagne flute. Tell them all about it.
It is, Jenna, can I say it's craptastic. It is the kitchiest thing you've ever seen in
your life. It is a champagne flute, but the stem is a series of four glass hearts that
are like hollow in the middle. Yes. And it's a very large champagne flute. I didn't have
any champagne. So I'm actually drinking an old fashioned out of it. Is that weird?
I think it's flippin' perfect. Thank you. Cheers to you. I wish we were in the same
room today. Dang it. I know. You've got a glass of red wine, though, so.
I came to Airwolf today. I said, Sam, Jenna is pouring an old fashioned into her Niagara
champagne flute. What do we got here? And he goes, I think there's some stuff over there.
I found a bottle of red wine and a croissant. Oh. So I'm feeling very fancy. You're very
European, I think. Red wine and a croissant. I feel like I am. Well, let me tell you where
I got this champagne flute. When we traveled to Niagara Falls to shoot this episode, the
hotel put a basket in my hotel room with these two champagne flutes, champagne, chocolates,
candies, nuts, like a whole welcome basket. And they were just so delighted that the office
had come to shoot there. And I was so charmed by that. I thought it was the sweetest gesture.
And so I ate all the food. I actually shared it with the hair and makeup ladies. And I
took the champagne glasses home. And now here they are in all their glory. Yum.
Jenna, I love this story so much. You are truly my BFF, because I would have done the
same thing. I would have been like, these glasses are going home with me.
Oh yeah, lady. I wrapped these up in a t-shirt and I packed them in my suitcase. It's amazing
we have to post it in stories. You guys, Niagara Part 2, we're here to break it down for you.
That's right. This is Season 6, Episode 5. It was written by Greg Daniels and Mindy Kaling
and directed by Paul Feig. Let me give you a summary of what we'll be going over today.
Last night, Andy slept on Pam's floor because he was recovering from his torn scrotum. Michael
slept by the vending machines. Dwight hooked up with Pam's friend and Kevin is about to
lose his shoes. How's that for like a headline? That's good.
The wedding, which is happening today, is becoming even more hectic than enjoyable for Pam and
Jim and ultimately they're going to take matters into their own hands. Meanwhile, Michael makes
an unlikely love connection and the office gang surprised Jim and Pam with a celebratory
dance. I love this episode so much. I know we both have said that, but this second part
of Niagara is when all the heartstrings are pulled. I mean, it's so beautiful and cringy.
It's fantastic. We had Greg Daniels on for Niagara Part 1. We talked about the whole
entire episode, so if you guys haven't heard that interview, listen to it. Now we're going
to break down the second part. We have lots of fun stuff to share.
This second part of Niagara also features the part where Jim and Pam sneak off and have
a wedding ceremony on Made of the Mist. That is my fast fact number one. We got a fan question
from Ashlyn M. in Windsor, Canada. Did everyone get to go on location to Niagara Falls or
was it just Jenna and John? Did you stay on the American side or did you get to go to
the Canadian side as well? Well, like we said last week, Ashlyn, we shot the rehearsal dinner
and the church wedding and the bulk of this episode in Los Angeles. The only people who
went to Niagara Falls were me, John Krasinski, Mindy, Randy Cordray, who was our line producer,
our cinematographer, Randall Einhorn, our director, Paul Feig, and then a handful of
crew members. And we went to the American side of Niagara Falls. And we only had, Angela,
one day to shoot. One day to get all of that? Yes. And I'm going to tell you now a little
bit about how it all went down because Randy had to do an insane amount of preparation
to get us there. He sure did. And he shared with us, you guys, we're going to break it
down for you. You know, originally, the network said that they wanted John and I to shoot
this on a green screen at like a fake water tank on like a fakie boat in Los Angeles. Boo!
Boo! Right? Yeah. Randy was like, no, no. So. Good for Randy. Yeah. So Randy set out
to create a budget that the network would approve for me and John to actually go. Now
Greg told Randy that he would like us to shoot on the Canadian side of the falls because
that's the side that has all the fun kind of kitschy wax museums and the water park.
And it had the look that Greg was going for. On the Canadian side. On the Canadian side.
Okay. But Randy found out that Canada has this very strict one-for-one staffing rule.
And what that means is for every person that he brought from our crew, he would have to
hire a Canadian to do a job. So if we wanted to bring our regular makeup artist, we would
have to hire someone locally, you know, for a different job. It didn't have to be another
makeup artist, but just there had to be like a one-for-one representation on this crew.
Oh. We did not have the budget for that. Got it. He also said that Canada has a 14-day
embargo on all equipment. So any costumes, cameras, props, we would have to send it
14 days ahead of time. Well, we couldn't do that because we were using all that stuff
in Los Angeles. Right. So Randy got this approved. Great. We had the budget to shoot
on the American side of the falls. But then there was a problem. The made of the mist,
it's in like dual waters. Also, the made of the mist is owned by a Canadian company.
So that was a whole thing that Randy had to work out. That's right, because he said they
leave Canada and then cross over into American waters. Yeah. And then they go back to Canada.
Right. But then they do have a boat that will start on the American side or will pick up
Americans and go back to the Canadian side. So you can ride it from the American side,
there's limited access to those rides. Most of the rides start on the Canadian side. It
was a whole thing. This is so complicated for a boat ride. I mean, while I was in my
hotel room with my fancy champagne glasses, I had no idea everything that had gone on
to get me there to that gift basket. Wow. Randy shared with us that there were a lot
of people that made this amazing moment happen for Jim and Pam. We promised him we would
give them a shout out. He said first he was in touch with the film commissioner there,
Tim Clark. Randy described him as a fountain of resources. Tim put Randy in touch with
the location manager, Michelle Barone. Randy was also in touch with Tim Ruddy. He was the
vice president of marketing for the made of the Miss Steamboat company. Angela Birdie,
the media director of Niagara State Park. She was a huge fan of the show and Randy said
she helped a lot. Randy even had to write a proposal to the New York governor's office
and there was a film liaison there named Pat Kaufman who helped Randy get it all done.
He said this was the nicest group of people and they just really made it happen without
them. This scene would not have happened. Wow. Well, listen, I have even more stories
to tell about our adventures getting on this boat. I'll save them for the breakdown, but
it was incredible. So let's move on to fast fact number two, which is a follow up on that
horse going over the falls deleted storyline that Greg told us about in his interview last
week. Remember that? Not only do I remember, I'm so excited. I brought the table draft
script to our recording session so I could read the scene. What? Yes. Oh my gosh, this
is perfect. I was just going to say, do you want to remind people what the story was?
But you have it. You have it. I have it. I have what we read at the table read. Oh my
God. This is an exclusive. Okay, here it goes. So in the table draft, Jim and Pam are saying
their wedding vows. Jim is saying enjoy and in sorrow and sickness and in health as long
as we both shall live, suddenly gasps race through the audience. The minister looks up
and stops. The camera whips over to see a man leading a horse into the space. On top
of the horse is Roy dressed in a suit. I have to point out Roy didn't even ride the horse
into the church. He had like a guy bring him in as a guy leading him like he's someone
is holding the reins walking him in. Roy yells wait. Pam has a horrified expression. Everyone
is staring shocked at Roy who tries to keep the horse pointed at Pam. But the handler struggles
to keep it pointed the right way. So like Roy has no command over this horse at all.
The horse's tail whispers by Stanley's face who looks annoyed. Jim whispers to himself.
Holy ****. What? They had an F bomb? They had an F bomb. Roy says Pammy, we lived together
for nine years and did everything a man and wife do. Camera pans over to me ma. Pam is
horribly uncomfortable. Roy you love me once and can you imagine ever seeing me again as
your night on a white horse or a brown horse. People change and I have to if you have any
second thoughts any at all don't do this thing. Pam I don't have any second thoughts Roy.
I love Jim not you. I wish you had just called first. Long awkward pause. Then Roy says then
I will leave you with this thought. You're making a mistake Jim seriously man. Roy get
me out of here. That's what he says to the handler of the horse. Jim you could have learned
to ride it you know that would have been a little less and then Pam goes Jim Jim Jim.
The handler walks the horse away as Roy tries to keep his dignity. Oscar boo boo. Then the
minister says okay where were we? He starts them back into their vows but the camera pans
over to Dwight. Dwight is seated next to a wedding guest and says that is a powerful
looking horse excuse me. He gets an idea he gets up and follows Roy out. Wow. Wow. Yeah
and then the other scenes are the ones Greg talked about where Dwight convinces Roy to
let him return the horse but then because he's seen all of this like historical footage
of animals that can go over the falls and survive Dwight then tries to ride the horse
over the falls but then he bails EMS like rescues Dwight but the horse goes over but
the horse survives. Yeah it was a crazy storyline and Greg shared that they did end up cutting
this but one thing Greg said in his interview really piqued my curiosity. I mean there were
so many things but he said that you know this storyline wasn't cut until the table read
which is about one week before we started shooting. Oh yeah. So we were very close to
shooting and this entire time Randy had been prepping this episode as if a horse was going
to go over the falls and Greg even said like they went to Universal Studios and they saw
a demonstration of a water tank and how the horse might fall into the water tank and I
was like what. So I reached out to Randy Cordray. Angela I have to share with you how much
prep he did on this horse scene that was cut. I find it fascinating. I still can't get
over the fact that this horse story was a go until about seven days before we shot.
I know. Alright here's the first thing that Randy said to me and I'm going to quote him.
He said I had never been asked to create a scene of such complexity and magnitude. This
was far beyond the scope of creating the rainy proposal rest stop or throwing a fake cat
into the ceiling or adding a soccer ball careening off of Phyllis's head or producing
a Chloris Leachman Jack Black mini movie. I was fearful that our meager television budget
was far too small to produce the needed quality to make this gag appear credible and above
all funny. But he said nonetheless he moved forward as that was what he had to do. So
he said the first thing he had to do was find a church in Los Angeles that could fit a horse
through its front doors. That's how we picked the church. Yeah because Roy had to come in
riding a horse so not just big enough to fit a horse but fit a man on a horse through the
front doors. And I guess a man leading a horse. Imagine that scout. Imagine that. Are you
just measuring church doors? And then the people are like what are you measuring for?
This makes the church choice make sense to me now because it was one level. There weren't
like multiple steps you had to go up to get to the front door and they had two big doors.
Yeah. For the horse. For the horse. All right. Then he went to Stargate International. They
were our go to effects company. He was going to have to create the element of rushing water.
He was going to have to have Dwight on the horse riding into that rushing water. Dwight
bailing off the horse and being rescued. And then like a series of the horse in various
poses to stimulate tumbling down the falls. Oh my gosh. And then Stargate would have to
be able to composite all of these and put them behind Jim and Pam in the waterfall as
they're getting married. Randy said the costs were astronomical. I was going to say I think
our ending had to have been cheaper. He said he reached out to Universal Studios back lot
because they have a location there called Lower Falls Lake which is basically that tank that
Greg was talking about. It has an enormous green screen. It can be filled with warm water
to a depth of about eight feet. But in order to make the water churn like to simulate the
rushing water of the Niagara River. Their plan was to chain four jet skis to the side
of the tank which would then run and create like a white water effect. So like listen
to everything he's like I need four jet ski drivers. Then he had to contact the animal
service company to talk about the horse and get this. I did not know this. Randy learned
that you need a special stunt horse because horses actually don't like to walk in water
on their own because they don't like to walk or run anywhere where they can't see their
hooves. And he said when you see horses in a western movie like dashing across a river
those are specially trained horses. So they had to like start that process immediately.
Yeah, that makes sense. So we've got our jet ski drivers. We're training the horse to
go into water. But for the digital element of the horse tumbling he said they were going
to have to put a horse into like a green screen harness and then lift the horse on a construction
crane against a green screen and then have a camera crew like shoot like 360 degrees
around the horse so they could then make it look like it was tumbling. Like it would be
a visual effect. They would never tumble the horse but they do have to suspend the horse.
Sure, sure, sure. He said this also required like many weeks of training and preparation
to make sure that the horse was not stressed, that it was okay being lifted up. So this
whole time, yeah, there was a horse actor. Right. Learning how to get comfortable in
water and being suspended in a harness from a crane. Yeah, that horse was prepping. Oh,
plus its heart. Yes. Then Randy had to find a stunt double for rain because obviously
rain did not want to ride a horse into a tank of rushing water and jump off of it. So they
had to find a special stunt double for rain. But he said they still needed close ups of
rain's face so they were going to have to do that facial replacement effect. Oh my gosh.
Or they replaced the stunt man's face with rain's face. Alright, in the end, Randy estimated
that this two part episode with the church and the hotel and the Niagara and the cast
and the extras and the animals and all the horse stuff, it was going to be about a million
dollars more than our usual budget. Oh my gosh. And NBC said you can only have half that.
And he was like, I can't do it all. Oh, on top of that, I forgot to tell you, Allison
Jones told him David Denman is not available. He's shooting a movie in New Orleans. They
will not let him leave. So they were also like trying to fight with this movie company
to get David Denman out for a day so he could ride this horse into the church. Do you realize
how happy Randy was when this gag got pulled? He must have like done a cartwheel down the
hallway. Like I can't even imagine. It did not matter all of the time wasted prepping
this. He was so relieved because he said that freed up the budget so that he could get John
and I to Niagara to actually shoot on Made of the Mist, which was what he wanted more
than anything. And so he went back to NBC and he said, listen, if you had the budget for
this horse business, you've got the budget to take these two and let them get married
as they should on the boat with the real falls behind them.
Oh, so this whole storyline gave him leverage as it turns out. Yes.
NBC. Completely. So I hope y'all liked that because I was just like, oh my gosh, all this
time all I was doing was like trying on different wedding gowns. And you know, that was my
prep. It just goes to show how hard our team at the office was always working every week.
Unbelievable. All right, let's move on to fast fact number
three, which I'm calling wedding buzz. Lady, the Jim Pam wedding was such a crazy pop culture
event. It was such a trip to be a part of it. Entertainment Weekly called and asked
John and I to do a cover shoot the cover of Entertainment Weekly. So fun. I remember those
photos. They were so cute. Oh, they had us in wedding attire. We're
like smashing cake on one another's faces. It was crazy. Like when I was growing up,
there was the General Hospital, the soap opera. Yeah. Luke and Laura were finally going to
get married. And it was like on the news. Luke and Laura from General Hospital, they're
getting together. That's what this was like. This was like Jim and Pam were everywhere.
You guys really were. And Jenna, when we were researching this episode, guess what I found?
What? I found on YouTube video they filmed while you and John were doing your photos
for Entertainment Weekly. Oh my gosh. Is there anything we can say that is that we're
not supposed to say? Can we tease anything? Something. Jenna's pregnant in real life
because she's helping. Oh, you mean about the show things I shouldn't tell. Oh, God.
John. Oh, man. You're not even showing yet. No, I am. I'm wearing a really tight corset
for this photo shoot. It's my big secret, which is that. You're that method of an actor.
Yeah, I'm that method of an actor. I'm also getting married. But that was an internet
dating situation. I did. I put out an ad. As soon as she found out that Pam was having
a baby, she said, who wants this? Which I thought was a little crass. No, that was who
wants this? That was my time. Who wants this? And then it showed you holding a baby and
then a lot of news responded. Yeah, I'll say Kevin goes through quite an ordeal at our
wedding about that. Yeah, I'd say and Andy as well. I'd say that Michael's dating life
is expanded beyond our wildest dreams. That is very true. Very true. That's a good one.
It's a good one. It's a good teasing. A tease. Very good tease. Teasing. I don't know what
this is, but that's what you do when you tease. Nice.
Ah, listen to that banter. I know. I'm going to put it in stories because it's so cute.
You guys look so cute. Well, it's very funny to me because that is totally a representation
of our personalities whenever we would be interviewed, which is that John is just making
wisecracks and I'm like midwesterly earnestly trying to answer the reporter's question because
the reporter had said like, is there anything you can tell us about this episode? And I'm
like, must answer question. And John's just like having fun. And it's so funny. That's
always how we were in interviews. And also, both of you had in your brain that you actually
can't say anything. Yes. Greg would have told you guys do not say a word about any major
storyline. I know. And so like John was so quick-witted, he could come up with a bunch
of jokes on the spot. And I'm just like in my brain being like, what can I say? Is there
something I can say? Must compute. I also wanted to share that Joya Balfour, who worked
at NBC Digital once again, came through for us here at Office Ladies because she shared
with me, Jenna, that NBC had built a whole wedding website for Jim and Pam. You probably
remember that. Oh, I remember it because they created like a registry tab. And as a joke,
they had like two household items that they said were fulfilled. And then they had like
a fancy sports car. Yeah. So the original website was called helpertbeasley.com. That
is no longer active. But Joya did send me all the archived images that they had for
the website. I'm going to post it all in our stories. There was even a guestbook entry.
And Joya shared with us that the writers from the show, they are the ones that did all of
the copy, all of the messaging on the website. But I wanted to read you a few of the website
guestbook entries. Oh, I love it. Congrats, you guys. Good to see Pam taking my sloppy
seconds. Just kidding. Hey, hey. Guess who wrote that?
I believe that's Meredith. That's right, Meredith Palmer. You're so lucky, Pam. Jim is going
to be a very handsome groom. You're very, very lucky. Any guesses? Okay, I think that
would either be Kelly or Phyllis. Phyllis. Okay, ready? I can't believe you're getting
married before I am. I mean, I guess it makes sense. You are older. Congratulations. Kelly,
that's Kelly. That's right. Congratulations. What color dress are you going to wear down
the aisle? Okay, that's Angela. That's right. Okay. Some people think that buffets are cheap,
but I actually prefer them over the small portions of a fancy sit down dinner. Oh, I
don't know that one. Someone who's into food, but that feels like, is that like, I don't
know. That is Kevin. Oh, Kevin. Okay, one more, one more. That could have been Creed.
I feel like that could have been Creed. Food related could have been Creed. It also could
have been Oscar because he's kind of frugal, right? True. True. All right. Here's the last
one. Pam, you are like a daughter to me and Jim is like a son. I'm so proud that my son
and daughter are to be wed. Tis a thing of beauty. Glory be. I think that's Michael Scott.
That's right. Aw. You did really good. I did. I know my wedding guests, I guess you
really do. Well, listen lady, I think we should take a break and then we will really get into
this part two of Niagara. I've got a lot of cool stuff, I think. Let's do it. We are
back and we open with Andy riding in pain in her hotel room because Pam's the only sober
person who can take him to the hospital for his torn scrotum. Yeah. She tries to call
Jim to help her, but he's clearly drunky Jim. Jenna, this was a much bigger storyline that
would have really shown Jim's night and where he was at. In fact, there was a talking head
where he explained their night of drinking and I think you need to hear it. What? Yeah.
In deleted scenes. Let's hear it.
A bunch of us decided to go over the border to Canada for one quick drink. So I'm in
a car with Michael and Dwight and we get to the border. Dwight refuses to relinquish
the sidearm. So four minutes later, here we are. Wow. Yeah. Greg said in the commentary
there were more scenes of the guys night out that they even like get Oscar in and they're
going to go to a club. Like it was a whole thing, but it ended up just being the scenes
you see in the episode. Oh, wow. Well, Pam does end up driving Andy to the hospital.
And Angela, I just want to point out Pam's glasses that she's wearing. I thought this
was a great callback to the fact that she wears glasses at all. And remember we had
the episode where she wears her backup glasses to work. But I think my question is, are these
glasses better than her backup glasses? I thought she looked cute. Greg said in the
commentary this was like a big thing for Greg. He really, really wanted Pam when she wasn't
at work or somewhere out and about that she wore glasses. And whenever you could see
Pam with her glasses, Greg just loved it. So funny. I loved wearing them. Now I have
to wear glasses all the time, but it was fun. I loved the scene between Andy and Pam. I
thought it was hilarious when he was like, I was kind of doing your job. So, and she
goes, my job? My job is to get married in the morning. That's my job.
Data shared in the commentary that there were a lot of alternate takes where you guys didn't
reference balls and scrotum so much, but that you ultimately used most of the references.
And then Randy and her talked about the fact that our show pushed the standards and practices
limit almost weekly. So I counted, Jenna. Oh my gosh. In this episode, we say scrotum
five times, balls one time and penis one time. That's not very many. I know. I was like,
that's not that bad. It's not as bad as when Phyllis got flashed. No. Well, ultimately Andy
is going to spend the night in Pam's room on her floor. And my goal is going to spend
the night in the vending machine area. Because Dwight has a lady. There's a sock on the
door knob. Location alert. If you can call it a location. That vending machine area was
actually an unused office at the hotel. And Michael Gallenberg's team had to dress it
to look like like an ice machine vending machine nook. Here's my question. Where do you get
an ice machine? Like a hotel ice machine? Like who do you call? Where? What is that?
How do you do that? I'll tell you what, if anyone knows where to get an industrial size
ice machine, it's our team at the office. Clearly. Oh, I want to say I do believe that's
filled with fakey ice. Oh, it was. They said that on the commentary. It's
fakey ice. Yeah. Well, now we're coming up on one of my favorite scenes in this whole
episode. Is it Kevin at the front desk? Yes. Did you notice? And I know this was just
Brian being Brian. How hard he hit that little dingbell. It scared the crap out of those
ladies. Kevin is looking for his shoes. He left them outside his hotel room to be polished.
But the hotel manager, the amazing Nicholas Schaefer, who plays the hotel manager, he's
so good. Informs Kevin that they were so smelly that they made the decision to incinerate
them. It was a safety issue, Jenna. It was a safety issue. The only thing missing to
me in this scene is Angela Martin in the background, smiling ear to ear, feeling so affirmed. She's
been talking about Kevin's smelly feet for years. Oh, Angela is delighted. She is so
happy. Somewhere she's so happy. Well, the idea that they were going to have to burn
Kevin's shoes because they were so smelly was our writer, Charlie Grandy. And my friend,
Michelle Gunn, who played the front desk clerk, she told me that she improvised the
line, we can offer you a complimentary breakfast. But get this, Angela, do you know how she
got the idea to improvise that line? No. This is very similar to how you created sprinkles.
She was doodling on a post-it note at the front desk as a bit of business. And she was
writing comp breakfast to room on the post-it note. And she said on one of the takes, Paul
Feig just let the camera keep rolling for a really long time after the manager. That's
what they would do on our show. Yes. So after the manager told Kevin that they burned his
shoes, there was just this very long pause. And so Michelle saw her sticky note and said,
we can offer you a complimentary breakfast. And then Brian improvised, okay. And she said
it felt so good to be a guest actor on the show and get to contribute in such a fun way.
She said our show was really special like that because she's been on other things. And
she was like, you know, at this point, she had done several scenes and she had been working
with Paul Feig now for a couple of days. And she was like, I don't know, I feel like this
would be okay. I just love that. That just goes to show again how our show was so welcoming
and such a creative collaboration. And I love it. Well, the next scene is Dwight wrapping
things up with Isabelle. She slept over in his room. Michael is waiting out the hallway.
This made me laugh so hard, Jenna. I got so tickled. As he walks up, Michael says, it's
about damn time. I haven't gone to the bathroom in a day and a half. I know. I thought the
same thing. I was like, you've been around a lot of restrooms. I mean, surely there's
one off the lobby. I think it meant he hadn't gone gone. Do you know what I mean? Oh, he
hasn't. Oh, yeah. He hasn't gone number two. Right. He hasn't had a private space. He
hasn't. And that just cracked me up. He's so grumpy about it. They then go to breakfast
and Michael is so disgusted. Look at how Steve looks at rain as Dwight. It is so funny.
Dwight is just shoveling all this food in his mouth. They shared in the DVD commentary
that Phil Shea had like 100 pancakes ready to go because you know how rain was in those
scenes as Dwight? He eats. He was going to destroy it. Yeah. Like he would eat a lot.
That was part of his like character thing. Remember when he ate all those bananas and
he got sick? I do. But then they just sort of made it part of who Dwight was. Dwight even
says he's ravenous after a night of love making. What about you? And then this is when we
hear about Michael's European girlfriend. Yeah, exactly. I have some news. It's time
to go to the church and I've got a location alert. If you are interested in getting married
somewhere in Sherman Oaks, California and you need doors big enough to fit a horse,
you can head on over to the church of the chimes on Magnolia Boulevard. We shot at this
church on two different Saturdays. I mentioned last week we had to shoot on Saturdays because
that was the only day that we could get every single guest star together in the same room
at the same time. The little ready room that I get ready with with my bridesmaids and my
mom. That was one of the Sunday school classrooms at the church and they just kind of redressed
it to look like a bride's ready room. And I don't know if you remember this about the
location. We kind of talked about this with Greg. We didn't have trailers on site. So
we just all kind of hung around on that patio and we talked about how Ed and Creed were
playing music. Yeah, Ed brought his banjo. I think Creed had his mandolin. They had a
little jam session and there was that grassy area. You see it in a few shots from the church
scenes and we just hung out there. It was really fun and it's one of my fondest memories
of the whole run of the show. Now, do you remember when the paparazzi showed up? Oh,
yeah, I do. Yeah, they were trying to take pictures of me and John in our wedding outfits.
Yeah, they did. You know, the church is on a kind of a busy corner and Randy talked about
it, that it was hard to make it private because it was on the corner of an intersection. So
guess what, Jenna? They shared on the commentary and you probably remember this, that you and
Paul Lieberstein decided to stage a photo. Yes. Oh my gosh. Yes, I remember that. Yeah,
we thought, what if we do like a fakie, we were going to pretend like we were shooting
a scene and we were going to have me and Paul dressed as Toby run out of the church holding
hands as if we had gotten married or as if he was stealing me from the wedding. We even
had the camera guys pretend to shoot us so it would look like we were shooting and we
wanted the paparazzi to take pictures of that so they wouldn't get a real spoiler. Well,
they did. You guys clearly ran out the front doors and you hugged. There's like an embrace.
I found the paparazzi photo that ended up in a tabloid. No. Yes, I did. I'll put it in
stories. Fakie photo of Pam and Toby hugging and it's really funny, Jenna, because on the
internet people were like, I'm sorry, why is Pam on a wedding dress? Why is she hugging
Toby? What's happening? Oh my gosh, that is so funny. I did not remember that party.
Did not remember that it worked. It did. At the church, everyone is arriving. Phyllis's
outfit is amazing. Giant hat, many feathers. I mean, it's a whole like pink suit hat. The
whole thing. Mindy, I guess, had really wanted the character Phyllis to go all out. Like
she wanted a huge like fashion statement outfit as if she was going to one of those big Southern
weddings. Well, speaking of going all out, Kevin shows up with his hairpiece, but then
he doesn't have his shoes. And this is where we see that he has made shoes out of a couple
of tissue boxes. When he walks in and sits down next to Oscar and Angela, Jenna, we had
so much fun in the scene. It is such a small moment, but I want you to know it was so delicious
when my character looks over at him and goes, oh my God. And then Oscar looks at him. We
just had a blast. We got a fan question from Amy A. in Louisiana. Who came up with the
idea for Kevin to wear tissue boxes to replace his shoes? And what were they made of? How
did they make them basically? So it was Greg who came up with the idea of Kevin using the
tissue boxes. And they were constructed using extra large Kleenex boxes. And Randy Cordray
said that's an actual thing. This was not a fakie construction. They just bought giant
tissue boxes.
Where do you buy tissue boxes that big? I don't know that, but they were fitted with flip flops inside.
So that's how they stayed on Brian's feet. He said we had to make about 10 pairs of them
because they did get beat up pretty quickly.
Now you're going to see a bunch of little vignette scenes of everybody at the church.
Michael has a talking head where he shares what he got Jim and Pam as their wedding gift.
It's, it's, um, I am at a loss of words. It's a, it's a painting. He made it himself.
He did it from memory. Right. He also has another version of this painting where they're
nude. He's keeping that for himself. Right. Awesome. What? But here's a little tidbit.
If you go to seven minutes, 35 seconds during this talking head, you'll notice that the
stained glass window behind him is totally dark. There's no light coming through it,
but he's lit up so bright. It's because you guys, we filmed this at night, but it was
made to look like daytime, but you can't hide the stained glass. So if you look at the stained
glass, there's no light coming through it.
We got a fan question from Molly S in Bentonville, Arkansas, who is asking, who painted Michael's
portrait of Jim and Pam? Well, it was created by an outside artist. Steve did not paint
that. Uh, this was commissioned by Phil Shea, and it was actually the same artist that made
the clown painting that hung in Jim's childhood home. Oh, really? Yes. Randy said he is really
bummed because he looked through all of his records and he cannot find the artist's name.
So again, if you know the person or if you are the person who painted the clown painting
and painted this portrait of Jim and Pam, we would love to hear from you. Randy also
shared with me that there were 10 different versions of this painting that were made,
all different. And then Greg picked this one. And after we used it in this episode, Greg
hung it in his office until the end of the series, and now it hangs in his home office.
Yes. So Greg has it. I loved all the scenes between Pam and her mom and her sister. They
felt so real. I mean, clearly Pam's mom is going through a thing. She's like, you don't
have to go through with this. And then her sister's like, mom, you're being a drag,
you're projecting, but it just felt so honest. I know. And then her friend is like, you know
what? If you're good, I'm just going to go out and I'm just going to try to find Dwight.
And Pam's like, wait, what? Pam's like, okay, wait, what? And then Chase is kind of after
her to stop her and her veil gets caught on like, like a door hinge thing.
Yes. We got a fan question about that. Rebecca R. from Sydney, Australia said, how many veils
did you go through? I just love a deep dive on these kinds of costuming things.
Rebecca, so do we. Well, I can tell you, this was very complicated, probably more complicated
than I expected it to be even as the actor. It really was. They shared on the commentary
that this was a three piece gag. Okay. First of all, you have the moment before the tear
with the veil, then you have the actual tear, then you have the after tear. So to create
these three beats, they had to use fishing line, special effects, a hook like thing
on the door to snag the veil. It was weeks of figuring it out and timing it. Kelly Cantley,
our assistant director, had to wear the veil twice as they tested it out. And they said,
Jenna, they were really thankful because you really sold it. You really played out that
your head was sort of tugged in a different direction as you were moving the other way.
Yeah, it was crazy. We filmed the whole scene and I like didn't tear my veil at all. And
then they actually connected me to the thing like the fishing line and the hook. So like
I'm connected to it, but I'm pretending like I'm not. And then they sort of like pull the
thing and I pull my head. And sometimes the veil wouldn't tear. So then we had to do like
what Randy said a third time where they replaced my good veil that wouldn't tear with a torn
veil to get like the after effect of the torn veil. It was a whole thing. It looks seamless.
And it's sort of amazing how much effort it took to get that little moment. You know,
we also got a fan question from Emily Kay in Hugo, Minnesota. She's sort of asking me
this question. Jenna is the dress that Pam wore, the style you would have picked out
for her. I'm curious if there's anything you change about her look for the big day and
how many meetings went down about what you would look like. Oh, Emily, so many things.
So many meetings, Emily, so many, so many. So originally, Alicia Raycraft, our wardrobe
designer and I, we had a little meeting and we were going to have her design Pam a wedding
dress because Alicia is an amazing designer. But then we realized that Pam could never
afford a custom wedding dress. So we stayed with the rule that our characters can only
wear what they can afford to wear. So what we realized was that Pam would do what most
brides would do. So Alicia and I went to David's bridal and we had a budget because you know
the consultant is always like, what's your budget? We gave her a budget. She pulled a
bunch of dresses and I absolutely loved this one. I mean, I thought it was perfect for
Pam. We really tried to approach it like the character would approach it. You know, she
had this pregnancy that she's trying to hide also that she has to make room for. So we
got like a line dresses with a princess cut and this had that little extra bit of like,
what do you call that, tool or whatever in the front? Yeah, like fabric to hide what
you need to hide. Yeah, we were like, this is perfect. I tried the dresses on with my
little pregnancy bump belly. And then I actually contributed something to Pam's wedding outfit,
which is her wedding necklace. There's a really good shot of it at eight minutes and 14 seconds
in the scene. I had gone to like a jewelry art show, you know, those like an art fair
and they sell jewelry and are you kidding? I love an art fair in the park. Get out of
town. Yeah. And this woman was selling jewelry and I loved this necklace and it was made
out of these crystals and it had a meaning behind it where it was supposed to bring you
like peace and good luck. And when I saw it, I was kind of like, would Pam wear this on
her wedding day? And so I brought it into Alicia and she approved it and the producers
approved it and then we bought two necklaces and I kept one. Aw, that's so sweet. Yeah,
because you know, we always have to have a double. So yeah, that's the story behind
Pam's wedding dress. Well, I think we should take a break because when we come back, Jim
and Pam are going to run off. I know it's true and we'll have a lot to say about that.
All right, we're back and Pam calls Jim on the phone and she's like, will you come meet
me in my dressing room? And he's kind of like, um, is that allowed? Is that okay? She's like,
I'm allowing it. You know, lady, I got curious about this as this happens about this tradition
of not seeing the bride before the wedding. Yeah. Did you look it up? I did. It's totally
sexist. Do you want to hear it? Is it because there were arranged marriages and they didn't
want guys to bail if they didn't find the person attractive? That's 100% right. That
was just a guess. Yes. I think that's also why women had to wear a veil. Yes. And that's
why you didn't lift the veil until after they said you were married. Okay. They also like
made up the whole like, you know what? We got it. We got it. It's bad luck to see her
before the wedding. It's bad luck. It was just like, it's totally made up. So anyway,
everyone who's been worried about seeing your brighter groom before the wedding or being
afraid that you've created some sort of bad luck, you're off the hook. You're fine. You
can go ahead and take those pictures before the ceremony. It's okay. We also got a fan
question about this little scene, Angela, because Jim is playing soccer and Karen Kay
from Pennsylvania would like to know, did Charles Miner soccer obsession rub off on Jim?
Because I was very surprised to see him playing soccer with the little boy on his wedding day.
I thought this was such a sweet scene. And Greg shared with us that Mindy really loves
romantic comedies and she wanted this moment. She wanted Jim in the courtyard with like
a young wedding guest, kicking the soccer ball around, you know, sort of that pre-wedding
nerves and he's out there just hanging out. And it was really important to Mindy. She
wanted this moment.
Well, lady, when Jim gets to Pam's room, she's totally crying. Like she tore her veil. She
thinks she looks terrible because she got no sleep. She's five months pregnant. She
knows way too much about Andy scrotum. Yes. She feels like, I don't know, this day is
just not going how she wanted. I remember I had to really work myself up because I wanted
this emotion to feel really genuine. And I mean, we filmed this scene so many times.
I feel like I was crying for like two hours. It was like, I had a headache afterwards.
Like it was really intense day of acting for me.
This scene is so beautiful. I thought you and John both crushed it.
Well, it's in this scene where Jim is going to try to make things better by cutting his
tie to kind of prove to Pam that this day can be perfect without everything being perfect.
Right. It doesn't matter about the tie. It doesn't matter about the veil. It just matters
they're getting married.
And Greg shared in his interview that this was based on a kind of real life event of
a friend of his. It's really sweet. And like I said earlier, we did a lot of takes of this.
We wanted to get it just right. We ended up doing like seven takes of this scene, but
we ran out of ties. We didn't have a ton of ties, Angela. And so what we did was John
would snip just the bottom of the tie. And then on the next take, he would go a little
higher in the middle.
So he just kept climbing up the tie.
Yes. And if you look at 10 minutes, six seconds, you can see that the bottom of his tie is
already cut off.
It goes by really fast. But if you pause it, you can tell.
Well they decide to kind of elope in the middle of their wedding day.
They run off. It's a beautiful shot.
Beautiful shot. Greg said in the commentary, that's a nod to the movie The Graduate.
I can see it.
And of course, right behind them is Meredith smoking a cigar.
Yes. Now everyone is inside the church and they're just waiting. The ceremony isn't starting.
Everyone has opinions.
There are so many little vignettes here, little different clumpings of people being chatty,
being snarky, wondering where Jim and Pam are.
The cutest, I think, is Michael, who is very hungry, asked Pam's mom for a snack.
Well there are a few I want to point out. Number one, at 13 minutes, nine seconds, when Dwight
walks up to a sleeping Toby, he's laying down, you know, in the church pew, did you notice
it looks like Toby is in a coffin the way it's framed at the top?
I did not. Was that on purpose?
I noticed that. And then when I listened to the commentary, that was on purpose.
Paul Feig said that. So if you go back and look, I'll put it in stories. It cracked me
up.
Also, there were more, Jenna. There were way more scenes while we all waited for Jim and
Pam. Did you know that Angela tells a joke to Oscar and Kevin? No. Oh yeah, she thinks
she's real funny. And she even talks about her inspiration for comedy. We have to hear
it.
Wait, do you two want to sit next to each other?
Wait, was that you trying to be funny?
I saw the funniest comedian one morning. Her name is Kelly Ripa. She's unrestrained. She
will say anything.
Oh my gosh. Angela is a huge Kelly Ripa fan. Who knew?
She's a huge Kelly Ripa fan. And when like they had me talk about her at the end, they
wanted me to laugh and then just wave the camera off. Like I'm so tickled. I can't even talk
anymore.
Oh my gosh. I love that.
I completely forgot that I had done that talking head.
Well, Pam and Jim are just going to arrive back at the church. They're blissful. Pam's
veil is nowhere to be found. Her hair is up now. We're going to start the wedding processional.
That's right. But all of a sudden, Jim's brother looks to the back pew in the church where
Michael's seated. Michael gives him a nod. Jim's brother then signals to the organ player
to stop. Then Jim's brother signals Dwight to get up. Dwight goes over to an iPod shuffle.
It looks like some kind of device like that and hits play.
Yes. And now we are going to see all of Jim and Pam's family and all of their coworkers
from Dunder Mifflin dance down the aisle to Chris Brown's song forever. That is going
to be intercut with footage of them getting married on the maid of a mist. We have this
big beautiful wedding montage. It's so joyous. Let's start by breaking down this dance number.
Let's do it.
This was the idea that they had to replace the horse. And I am so glad they did because
this is so cute. This dance was a remake of a viral YouTube video. This couple, Jill
and Kevin danced down the aisle at their real wedding along with their wedding party and
our writers saw it and they thought this is what we should do. We should redo this dance
video because they thought Michael would see this and this would be something he would
think is super cool to recreate. And I guess in real life couples were recreating this
viral video at their weddings.
Oh yeah. Everybody knew about this video. Everyone had seen it. It never fails to make
me smile. And Greg shared in the commentary that the cast in particular really wanted
to end on an up note for Jim and Pam.
Yeah.
We wanted it to be a happy day. They had had so many things thrown their way. And this
joyous moment really checked everyone's boxes.
I found the original website for this wedding dance and the real couple, the woman Jill
is now a forensic psychologist and associate professor of criminal justice. Her husband
Kevin is an immigration attorney who owns his own firm in St. Paul, Minnesota. Their
video has over 100 million views. They have a whole website dedicated to their video.
And they said that when they did it on their wedding day, it was a total surprise to everyone
in the church. The pastor knew, but no one else knew. And they only posted it on YouTube
because they wanted to share it with the friends and family who couldn't come to the wedding.
They did not like intend for this to be shared widely.
It was also during a time on the internet and YouTube in particular before we understood
how things could quote unquote go viral.
Yes. They said within 48 hours of posting their video, they were flying to New York
to be on the Today Show that it was just a total wild ride. They also said that they
had no idea that we were going to recreate it on the office. And Randy Cordray said
we did not like call them or tell them. They said they just saw it on TV. They said they
nearly passed out when they saw the episode. They were fans of the office. But after the
episode aired, we did send them a big photo of the cast dancing down the aisle that we
all autographed. And Jill has it in her office at work today. And I think the coolest thing
about this couple, I have to say, you know, they're still married. They have three kids
now, two boys and a girl. And they used the popularity of this video to raise over $70,000
for charity. And so if you go to their website, they have a place where you can donate. So
we're going to post all that because they are a pretty cool couple.
They really are. We tried to find you guys. We tried to reach out. We wanted to talk to
you today. We sent you an email through your website. We did. If you maybe don't check
it that often, but we're in there. We're in there. We just want to say thank you for sharing
such a special part of your wedding that brings joy to so many people, including office fans,
Paul Feig shared that the background performers that filled out the rest of everyone attending
the wedding, you know, the attendance and all the different pews, they were having so
much fun watching us. He didn't even give direction. It was just pure joy. They were
laughing and cheering. And he just let everyone's natural reactions play out. Vada shared that
her and Paul Feig both began to cry when they watched us all dance down the aisle because
there was just so much love and happiness in that moment. I feel it whenever we watch
it.
You know, I have to say I was really bummed because Pam is at the back of the church the
whole time. So I did not really get to see that until it aired. I could just see you
guys from behind. So I couldn't see your faces. And I remember thinking, John is so lucky
that he's at the front of the church.
Aw, I never thought about that, lady. I remember standing back there with you before it was
my turn.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, Mary Ann Kellogg, who choreographed Cafe Disco, also helped choreograph the dancing
down the aisle. Parts of it were choreographed and part was like freestyle, you know, a little
bit of a combination. I remember talking to Paul Feig about Angela Martin and we both
sort of felt like she wouldn't dance in a church.
Yeah.
And yet she would want to participate if everyone was participating. She wouldn't just be sitting
in a pew watching. So I said to him, what if Angela Martin walks down clutching her
purse because I also don't think she'd leave her purse unattended.
These are great details.
Yeah. So he really liked that. And so that's why Angela Martin just walks down the aisle
looking at everyone holding her purse.
We got a fan question from Peyton H. in Vermont who said, how many takes did you do to get
this right? You guys, it was one take.
Randy Cordray shared with us that because this was such a last minute idea and we had
so little time at the church, we only had enough time to do this dance scene twice.
We could do two takes of it, but everybody nailed it on the first take. So we moved on.
I was also in touch, Lady, with Tug Coker who plays one of Jim's brothers and he has
a crazy story about doing this dance sequence. So here's the thing, we did one full take,
like one running long take of this, but within that we did several takes of each bit.
Right. We would reset really quickly depending on who was in the aisle.
Yes. So Paul Feig, I guess, told Tug, here's what I want you to do. I want you to dance
down the aisle and then once you're off camera, run around the back outside of the church
through the courtyard, back to the front of the church and go down the aisle again.
That's right. We had to do that, you guys, as soon as we did our individual pass, then
we had to run back so we could do the group pass.
So Tug said he did a couple of laps where he just danced individually down the aisle
and then they would hold and he would run and he would do his individual dance down
the aisle and then he would run. And he said, and then he also had to run to get into the
group formation. He said, well, one of the times when he turned the corner from the courtyard,
he slipped in his dress shoes and he just wiped out in front of the whole cast. He said
he almost took down Ed Helms. Oh no. He said he was in a lot of pain. He went to the doctor
and found out he had badly sprained his wrist. He had to get a splint after we wrapped the
episode. He must have been really hurting. Yes. He said he fell and he did that thing,
you know, like where you're like, I'm fine. I'm fine. I'll just continue dancing down
the aisle. But like as soon as the take was over, he like went to the doctor and he was
really hurt. So when we got back in touch, he was like, Jenna, Jenna, when you get to
the Niagara episode, I've got a story. You got to hear this story. And listen, lady,
tug wasn't the only person who wanted to tell us a story about dancing down the aisle at
a wedding. We also got some fan mail from KS in Virginia. Here is what she said, I have
been waiting for this episode to tell you ladies this great story. I was a bridesmaid
in a wedding where the bride wanted us to dance into the reception like the office crew
danced down the aisle at Jim and Pam's wedding. The other bridesmaids were not really into
it, but being the office lover I am, I knew this was my moment to shine. I started by
walking like Phyllis. Then I broke into Oscars pivot. Then I wanted to do the infamous Dwight
kick, but my foot slipped and I fell immediately forward. My face broke my fall. Oh no. She
said I was so embarrassed. I jumped right up, ran to the dance floor behind everyone.
And as soon as the bride and groom came out, I ran to the bathroom because my face was
covered in blood and I was missing my front tooth. Oh my gosh. But she said it was all
for the love of the office. Oh my gosh. Kate, you waited so long to send us that piece of
mail. I just had to read it. I am so sorry. But thank you. Thank you for sharing with
us. Jenna, I feel like Kate needs an office
ladies coffee mug. I mean, she lost her tooth. Yes. Yes. We have to send Kate a mug. Kate,
we're sending you a mug. Thank you for your love of the office. Big hugs. Well, while
all of this dancing is happening at the church, they cut back and forth between the church
and Jim and Pam getting married on Made of the Mist. It just makes the whole moment that
much more special. I loved it. I know, lady. Let me tell you now about the Made of the Mist.
We kind of covered this a little bit with Greg, which is that we could only rent out
the front of the boat. The rest of the boat was filled with paying customers. The other
thing was that we were in no way allowed to change the course of the boat or the length
of the boat ride. So before we went out, Randy and Randall and Paul Feig had all scouted
this boat trip. They rode the boat over and over again to see exactly when they wanted
Jim and Pam to exchange vows to have the falls in the background, how long we had before
the boat would turn everything. They sort of estimated that to cover it all, we would
have to take eight boat trips. So they also realized that depending on the time of day,
there would be spray coming off the falls. Like sometimes of day or depending on the
wind, you got more spray. So when you get on the boat, everybody wears those like blue
parkas. They give them to you with your ticket. Right, right. Like the ones you get at Disneyland.
Exactly. When it's raining, everyone has their poncho on. Exactly. So they were like, okay,
we'll have them wear their little ponchos. They'll take them off to go get the boat
captain. That's super cute. They had it all figured out. Randall was like, listen, I am
going to need to shoot on a film camera because the white falls are like really white. I'm
not going to be able to color balance on a digital camera. That was like a whole extra
thing, you know, to shoot on film instead of digital. But anyway, we were so limited
in the number of people we could have in the front of the boat that Greg asked Randy Cordray,
our line producer, to play the minister, the boat captain. So that's who you see marrying
Jim and Pam. And it warms my heart to see him. I just love it so much. I know. I do
too. It makes me so happy. But we also had a bunch of family members of our cast and
crew in the front of the boat with us. Greg Daniels assistant, Mary Wall is from the area
and her family volunteered to come ride the boat. That's right. If you listen to the DVD
commentary, Mary is pointing out, she's like, that's my cousin. That's so and so like her
whole family was in it. Also, Kelly Hannon, who is one of our writer's assistants, her
family rode the boat. And then the craziest thing was that Brian Baumgartner's parents,
Bruce and Cherry, happened to be on vacation in Rochester, New York, and they told Brian
they were going to visit Niagara Falls the same day we were shooting. This is so crazy.
They actually just had this planned, unknowing that we were going to be there filming. Yes.
Brian was like, well, you should stop by the set. So he texted us and we were like, oh
my gosh. And then Paul Feig talked them into coming on the boat with us. They did not know
what they were getting into. They are directly behind Jim and Pam as you guys walk on the
boat. Yes. So let me just say, as we get out there, they warned us, you might get a little
wet. Lady, lady, as we took our first trip to the falls, we're getting closer, a little
bit of spray. All of a sudden, like, I don't even know what to call it, like a tidal wave
of water, like sheets of water hit me. Similar to the water cannon that hit me when I was
an extra on the Universal Studios Jurassic Park ride, just like so much water. Kelly
Cantley said on the DVD commentary, Jenna, it looked like someone took an enormous full
giant tub of water and just doused you with it. She said they could not believe how drenched
you got in a matter of seconds. You were drenched. I will never forget John Krasinski's face
after whatever that was hit me, that spray hit me. He, I knew how wet I was because of
how he was looking at me. He sort of turned to them like, are we, I mean, can we continue?
Like, is this, she looks like someone just tossed her over the side of the boat. Yes.
My makeup was running down my face. So they just shot us from behind and actually for that
trip. And you know that beautiful shot at the very end of the montage where my head is
on John's shoulder. Yeah. That is because I could not turn around. Because you were
so soaked. I was so soaked. So they brought us back to shore and they dried me off the
best they could. Like on the side of the shore, they sent us back out again. The same thing
happened again. They were like, Oh no, I don't know what to do. I guess this is what we have.
Finally in the afternoon, we went out again, hoping like maybe, you know, like it'll be
drier this time. And Randy got to talking to the real boat captain, who was like, your
actors got pretty drenched this morning. And Randy was like, Yes, yes. But you know, we
were told that you cannot change course at all. So we're going to deal with it. And the
boat captain said, Who said that? I'm the captain of this ship. And I'm a huge fan of
the office. I'll take you anywhere you want. What? And Randy was like, Wait, what? And
he was like, That's right. He goes, I just won't get so close this time. So he he like
stopped the boat. So you were out of like the splash zone. Yes. And that is how we ultimately
were able to get a dry take. So crazy, right? Well, it all worked out because it's such
beautiful footage. You know, there's one thing that did not work out. What? We got a fan
question from April end and South Bend, Indiana, who noticed what's with the cheek kiss after
the Made of the Mist ceremony. Did you notice that on Made of the Mist, John kisses me on
my cheek and not my lips? Yeah, I do. And I was like, What's why? Why don't Jim and
Pam want to kiss? Well, what's happening? I will tell you, John Krasinski had a terrible
flu. Like, truly, you guys, he was running a fever. Like he showed up in hair and makeup
that morning. And he was like, You know how like you're all clammy and glassy eyed? Yeah,
when you're really sick. That was John. He was having a hard time keeping food down.
Oh my gosh. And I'm sure you guys were like, We only have one day here. What do you do?
You have to rally. We had to shoot it. First of all, to John's credit, you would never know
he was sick. He was so amazing. He was such a trooper. But he was really, really worried
about giving me his flu. And he was kind of like, I am not going to kiss her on the lips
and give her this flu. That is terrible. I won't do it. And I'm sure you were like, Thank
you. I was. I was like, Okay, but we didn't know like, What are we going to do? So in
editing, Claire had the idea that she would cut from the kind of fakey cheek kiss to a
really good real kiss back at the church ceremony. And we just kind of hoped no one would notice.
It's true though, because everyone is waiting for that magical kiss after they say I do.
Yeah. And the church one is such a good one. This all leads to this beautiful talking head
by Jim. Greg shared with us that he assigned the talking head to Danny Chun. It's so lovely.
I think we should hear it. I bought those boat tickets the day I saw that YouTube video.
I knew we'd need to back up plan. The boat was actually plan C, the church was plan B,
and plan A was marrying her a long, long time ago. Pretty much the day I met her. And Claire
Scanlon, our editor, shared that she fought really hard to keep this talking head in. And
she's shared maybe if it would have been one of the guys that might have gotten cut because
everyone did think the wedding ended on such a high note. But she just loved this talking
head and I think it's so great that it stayed in. I get goosebumps every time. I just absolutely
love it. And once again, our writers did that amazing thing they do where you go from this
incredibly sweet moment to Kevin putting his feet in the ice machine at the hotel. And then
to Michael and Pam's mom sneaking into a hotel room together. What? What? And that is how
Niagara ends, you guys. Oh, wow. What fun rewatching this episode. Thank you once again to Greg
Daniels. Thank you, Tug Coker, for your wonderful stories. Yes. And as always, Randy Cordray. Oh,
my goodness. Thank you for all the details you shared with us. Enjoy about four for hooking
us up with Jim and Pam's amazing wedding website. And be sure to check our Office Ladies pod
Instagram account, because we're going to be posting a bunch of fun stories to go with
this episode. And if you listened to this a little late, just a reminder, there is an
Instagram account called Office Ladies Stories. And the woman who runs the account will go
and save our stories for us. We are so grateful. Yes. And that's it for Niagara. We'll see you
next week. We hope you have a great one. Love you. See you then. Thank you for listening to
Office Ladies. Office Ladies is produced by Ear Wolf, Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey. Our show
is executive produced by Cody Fisher. Our producer is Cassie Jerkins. Our sound engineer is Sam
Kiefer and our associate producer is Ainsley Bubaco. Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed
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