Office Ladies - The Alliance with Phil Shea

Episode Date: November 6, 2019

Happy Birthday, Surprise! This week's episode is chock full of goodies. We have the birthday party, the Jim and Dwight alliance, and the introduction to the notorious PPC (Party Planning Committee). Angela has a realization about Dwight's bobblehead collection, and both ladies catch a few continuity errors. Finally, Jenna and Angela call up Phil Shea, Prop Master of The Office, to answer the big questions about that box!

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. Hey everyone, it's Jenna Fisher. Hi, I'm Angela Kinsey.

We have a great episode. It's The Alliance. It's so good. I was tickled. Can I tell you? I was tickled watching this. Same. And I made my note cards, Jenna.

I'm real excited about it. There are so many inside jokes from this episode for The Office gang. We will get to that. Angela, I'm sorry. I think we have no time for chit chat this morning. We have no time. No, we have no time because this episode is too good. There's too much to talk about.

But Jenna, I love chit chat. I know. Well, you're going to have to save it. Well, I have really good day two here for the ladies out there listening. I got a blow dry last night. This is what I said. We don't have time for it. This is literally what I just said.

We don't have time for it. I can't tell you how great my hair looks today and I didn't even brush it. I mean, the back of it's a hot mess, but that's kind of my go-to. You are so proud of your hair that you had to get it in there even though I said we didn't have time. All right, Jenna. Get to your dang, fast facts. All right.

The Alliance, season one, episode four. I'm listening. This is written by Mike Schurr and directed by Brian Gordon. A little bit of trivia, Mike Schurr plays Moe's on our show. He does. He plays Moe's. Not yet. Not yet.

And he's also just insanely talented. I mean, you know, look him up on IMDb. He's writing everywhere. He's everywhere. Yeah. He produces a million amazing television shows. If you're watching a television show and you love it, Mike Schurr probably made it. Mike Schurr's probably doing it.

Yes. So I'm going to start with a synopsis on this episode. I know we usually start with our fast facts. Oh my God. What are you going rogue? What's going rogue? I'm going rogue. What are you using to allow any chit chat?

I'm starting with a synopsis. You're like in a black shirt with a black hoodie. You've got camel pants. I know. What's happening? Are you taking a kickboxing class or something? You know, I took my kickboxing yesterday. I know.

I know. You're feeling very tough. I know. You're very tough. Okay. All right. Synopsis. So this episode has two basic storylines.

One, in an attempt to raise morale, Michael insists on throwing a birthday party, even though it's no one's birthday. It's no one's birthday. The closest birthday is Meredith, so it's next month, but he insists on throwing her birthday party. And then at the same time, Jim and Dwight form an alliance. Dwight is worried about the rumored downsizing, and so he goes to Jim and suggests they form an alliance.

And this is like candy for Jim. He's like, oh my God. Yes. Oh my God. This is such a great opportunity to mess with Dwight. Both of these themes are because people are afraid that the office is being downsized. This is a big theme of the first season of the office. And so Michael thinks the answer is to throw a party, and Dwight thinks the answer is to

form an alliance and spy on his co-workers. Yes. You know, it's not Meredith's birthday, right? But we sort of forced this party, but it is Ryan the Timp's birthday. Oh yes. That's a little nugget at the end of the episode. It's such a great reveal at the end. Okay.

I didn't mean to jump ahead. Okay. That's all right. Well, I'm going to give a little fast fact. So fast facts for anyone who's new to listening. These are just a few fun facts about an episode that sort of are overreaching. They apply to the whole episode rather than just one scene. And for those of you just tuning in, Jenna came up with the idea of fast facts.

That's right. And she really loves it. And I call her keeper of the notes. She is keeper of the notes, keeper of the records. She loves a list. Angela. Yes. She loves a list.

Anyone who has been listening regularly knows these two things. Oh, Jenna just cut some eyes at me. I'm telling you. She is sassy today. And now we also know you have good hair today. Okay. The first fast fact is that this episode was inspired by the television show, Survivor. Yes.

Yes. The writing staff watched a bunch of episodes of Survivor and they did this so that they could properly satirize the way people talk about alliances and this idea of, you know, ganging up against other people. And also though you have to mention that our cameraman, Randall Einhorn and Matt Stone, their background was Survivor. Yes. They were camera operators on Survivor, which for me as a huge Survivor fan.

You're a huge Survivor fan. You guys, Jeff Probst, officiated my wedding. Now, this is something that, you know, now here's the thing. If you know Jenna and she's like from St. Louis, she's a good Midwest gal. And I remember when you were planning your wedding and you're like, Jeff Probst is going to officiate. And you're like, the guy from Survivor, what is happening? So here's what happened.

My now husband, Lee and I, we were at an Emmys party. Now I know out there, people think that when you go to these parties, you become friends with people, but you really don't. Like you kind of hobnob, you maybe take a picture and then you never see them again. And you sort of stick with the people you already knew. Oh my gosh. I just would always sit like next to like Brian and Oscar and you. Yes.

You know, I'd like to go meet people. You're better at it. I think you're better at it. Am I? Yes. Remember when you made me go up to Meryl Streep? That's a story for later. Yeah.

And Amy Adams and I, I, I said nothing. I look like such a dork. I just walked up and was like, we had to meet Meryl Streep. I'm sorry. If you have a chance to meet Meryl Streep, you don't let that go. Well, anyway, that's a great story, but we'll save it. Okay. Okay.

Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. So I ended up approaching Jeff Probst at this party. See, you would approach Jeff Probst. I would never go up to him. Okay. Go on.

And I told him that I was a huge survivor fan and I was. And we ended up really hitting it off, especially Jeff and my then-fiancé, Lee, really hit it off because they had tennis in common. They played tennis together. Oh, they were tennis pals. Yeah. So after this party, they ended up becoming tennis pals. And then we started going to dinners, couples dinners, you know, Jeff's wife is so lovely.

Her name is Lisa. So we just ended up becoming great friends with them. And at one of our dinners, Jeff said that he was nervous because that upcoming weekend, he was going to be officiating a friend's wedding. And you were like, ding, ding, ding, ding. Jeff Probst is the type of guy where he is really caring and he has a sort of just like a spiritual soul kind of like Rainn Wilson, right? Yes.

I'll tell you one thing. When you talk to someone like Jeff or Rainn, you feel like you're the only person in the room. Yes. And they're truly interested in you. They really want to know you. They care about what you care about. Like they're interested in you.

And I thought that's the kind of person you want to officiate your wedding. You want that kind of soulful, caring person. But then also he's a host, so he's comfortable sort of commanding attention from a group of people. Wow. And it was awesome. You were there, Angela. It was awesome.

I was there. Here's my one story from your wedding. Jeff Probst, before your wedding, called me. He got my phone number from you and was like, can you tell me any stories about Jenna that you know from the years? And I was supposed to give a speech at your wedding, a toast. I was going to give a toast. You had asked me to give a toast.

And I sort of told Jeff some of my stories about you that I was going to have in my toast. Oh, no. And he stole them. He took some of my bits. And so then, like when I got up to give my toast, I don't know if you remember, I'm like, I'm going to say a few things. I mean, Jeff Probst pretty much stole all my stuff, but whatever. And I called him out for stealing my bits.

So as you were watching the wedding, all you were thinking was like he kept stealing your stuff. Yes. Dang it. Probstie. I told you and I called him Probstie. I made up a nickname for him. I'm sure he loved it.

All right. Next, fast fact. What? The original cut of this episode came in at 40 minutes, which is way too long because for a show to air on television, on network TV, on network TV, it can only be 20 minutes and 30 seconds. Well, that's crazy room for the commercials. Hey, network TV people, I just have a little tip for you.

And I know you want me, you know, to weigh in on things, change up your format. I know because they had to cut out like half of what they wanted to cut. And Greg considered splitting this into two episodes. I wish they could take all the stuff they cut out and re-release it all. Wouldn't that be so fun? I will tell you, on the season one DVD, they have the deleted scenes from this episode and they are delightful. I watched them and most of what was cut out were really funny kind of general office life

scenes. So there was this great bit between Jim and Dwight where Dwight is changing his password where he's going on and on about how his password on his computer is the best and Jim keeps guessing it. He's like, is it Frodo? And it is. And it is. And then there's another really great one of Dwight just cleaning out the fridge in

the break room and he throws away Jim's tuna sandwich. There was also a really great scene that when I was watching this deleted scene, I remembered shooting and it was so funny of Michael coaching Pam on how to answer the phone with a smile. Oh my Lord. He said that she sounded really gloomy. And he then stands by her desk and waits for the phone to ring and there's just these long pauses. Awkward pauses.

And then he does this funny thing where he puts his hands in front of his face and he says, tell me if I'm smiling or not. Oh my Lord. He's like, Dunder Mifflin, this is Michael. And she's like, yes, you're smiling. And then he's like, Dunder Mifflin, this is Michael. And I'm like, not smiling and he's like, you hear the difference. And then I have this line where I'm like, that was a really great example.

Thank you. But so there is a place, if you're interested, the season one DVD has all of these deleted scenes on it. And you know, by the way, the reason Greg couldn't split this up into two episodes, he thought of doing one episode that was just about throwing the birthday party and one episode that was just about the alliance, the big prank. And then you could have filled it out with some of these general office life scenes. The problem was at the end of the episode, we all have birthday hats.

We all have cake and birthday hats. And so the end of the alliance part ends with birthday hats. And so he couldn't do it. Jenna, I have some trivia on my note cards, but you need to tell me when you're done with your fast facts. So I have one more fact. I don't want to mess up your list. I see.

Don't look at my note cards. I can see one of my fast facts on your note cards. Stop looking at my homework. Well, my goodness. Well, excuse me. Here's my last fast fact. Okay, do it. Near and dear to my heart and yours.

This is the first time we meet the party planning committee. The PPC. The PPC. Oh, my gosh. Just years of just lovely memories of us planning ridiculous parties. Oh, my gosh. I remember that because I remember that there was just a tiny bit that was scripted. And then Greg told us, Greg Daniels said, guys, just keep planning the party.

Yeah, just we're going to record you. And that's when Phyllis was naming colors, like what color streamers. And then we did this whole, like we did a whole other tangent about, do we say happy birthday or do we say surprise? Or do we say happy birthday surprise? Well, who would say happy birthday surprise? Who would say that? You're right.

We should start with surprise. You say surprise first. And then Pam's just caught in the middle of you and Phyllis. And I love the dynamic of your subtle bullying of Phyllis. Yes. Your famous line, I think green is kind of horish, is in this episode. Yes. And Phyllis is, of course, wearing green.

And then I throw her under the bus at the end. I blame her for the lame streamers, the red streamers. I just love all of it. And there was so much that was there that got cut. And I know why. I mean, no one wants to watch like 20 minutes of us trying to plan a party, but it was so fun. You, I always, I felt like there could be a spinoff, like a web, a web series called

the party planning committee. The PPC. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Or they like uncovered all of the, the like unused footage of us planning parties. Oh my God. That's got to exist in a vault somewhere. Somewhere.

I would totally want to see it. But we did. We had so much fun. And we, we took such long pauses and it was so boring. It was so boring. And Pam was dying inside. My take on that scene was that I should speak very little. Like how I got roped into being on this committee, I feel like I was forced onto it by Michael.

I don't think I volunteered. And I just wanted the meeting to be over and it didn't, you know, but you have that. Have you been in those office? Oh my God. Yes. I, I mean, come on. You and I both tipped and we worked in offices and I mean, yes, you've been in those meetings where it's that, that famous like line that people say like this whole meeting could have

been one email. Yeah. That's, that's what it is. Um, you know, I have to point out my hairstyle in this party planning committee scene because that hairstyle was bonkers crazy. It was like, I don't know, we took two pieces and we twisted it back to the back of my head and then we did a low ponytail that connected it and I had so many like rubber bands and pins holding it.

And then I had one piece that kept flopping out and it drove me crazy. And by the end of the episode, I was like, I don't ever want this. I can't do this again. I can't have this hairstyle again. You can do whatever you want. But this weird multiple like rubber band, I can't do it again. Angela, I feel like we've come full circle here. We started by speaking about your hair and now we're speaking about your hair again.

It's almost like, it's almost perfect. This must make you so happy, Jenna. It does. And I take it back. I think that you were right to have that banter. I will take that, Jenna Fisher. Let's take a break and then we'll come back and we'll start to really dive into this episode. Okay.

Scene by scene. Oh, let's do it. Well, welcome back. Welcome back. We're talking about the Alliance. Let's get into it, Jenna. All right. The very first scene in this episode is Dwight waiting outside of the bathroom to confront

Michael about the downsizing rumors. And I just have to say, we do this a lot to Michael and it always makes me laugh. First of all, how much time does he spend in the bathroom? And whenever people want to talk to them, they, because this already happened, Oscar Yes. waits outside the bathroom to confront him. Yes. We're always bombarding him outside of the restroom.

Well, I think, I think it's because Michael is always avoiding us. He's like, he always is avoiding work, right? Yes. Unless he has a joke to tell or unless he has good news. Yes. Otherwise he hides. And so people wait for him outside of the bathroom and he's always startled. I have a lot of empathy for him because as a mother, I feel like every time I go to the

bathroom, someone is literally waiting outside the door for me. Always. Always. I don't understand it. What is that? I don't know. Why can't mothers go to the bathroom without someone outside the door? I don't know.

You know, I have such like empathy for my parents now in a different way. I remember my dad going to the bathroom one time and I was outside the door like, and I think I was like messing with the door. I was like doing like click, click, click, click on the door and click, click, click. And my dad was like, I'm just trying to go to the bathroom. And I was like, hey, dad, he's like, he just needed five minutes. Just five minutes. Five minutes.

My kids slide things under the door. Always. Slide things under the door. Like that drawing couldn't wait. No. Or they just open the door. Or they just come on in. I know.

I know. Okay. Sorry. Okay. Anyway, poor Michael is accosted as he comes out of the bathroom once again. I have like a fun little Dwight thing that I noticed in rewatching this. What? So it is such a joy for me to go back and rewatch these episodes.

I know you're having a lot of fun with it too, but I always thought the first bobble head that Dwight ever had was the one that my character gave him for Valentine's. Really? Of himself. I knew that wasn't true. What? The reason your character made him a bobble head of himself was because of his love of bobble heads.

It's just maybe something you want to look into for your character, Anne. What? Really? Yes. That's- Was it a known thing that Dwight loved bobble heads? Yes. Did he have-

He has them on his desk. Oh my God. Wow. How did I miss that? I mean- Jenna is now looking at me like I'm having, like I might need to take medication for something. Oh my God. That card.

That just occurred to you now in the rewatch. That just occurred to me. I thought he was so excited because I gave him a bobble head. Oh my God. Oh my Lord. I am a ding bet. Okay. I wrote on my no card.

You have to hear what I wrote. I'm such an idiot. Dwight has a bunch of bobble heads. Exclamation point. Baseball team. He can't- I counted six bobble heads. Are they from the Phillies?

Oh my God. Yes. Because- How many times did I walk past his desk and I didn't notice that? Because he collected bobble heads. I had him- Your character makes him a bobble head of himself. That's where your character got the idea.

Oh, I hit my head. It's a good thing. It's a good thing you don't write the show. I hit my head on the microphone. Oh my God. How did I miss that? I mean- So this, I think, is an example of how fans of the show might know it better than some

of the people on it. Oh my God. As Angela is pointing out a fact of the show that landed on everyone else but her. I was so excited. Look at my no card. So many exclamation points, guys. I put so many- Six bobble heads.

They're all baseball players. I do have some other good no cards coming up. Let's see another no card. Okay. We'll decide. All right. Let's see what happens. I put an asterisk for this one because I thought it was so good.

Do you know that there is a continuity error? Aha. Oh, look at your face now, Jenna Fisher. All right. I don't have this in my note. Oh, I know. There's a continuity error. What is it?

And it's in accounting at seven minutes. At seven minutes, Michael is talking about what he's going to write on the bird day birthday card. Yes. And he says, and you know what, guys? I have set the bar really high. Oh, Sam, pull it up. Pull it up on the screen.

Sam is here in the booth. He's going to show Jenna. All right. I'm at the copier at the beginning of this talking head behind Michael. I'm in my beige sweater that I wear through the whole episode with my crazy ponytail. All right. And then it cuts to me at my desk during his talking head. And I'm in a white T-shirt, a white button down with a black sweater vest and a different

hairstyle. They edited in a different piece of footage to cut to. And I'm completely... You're in a different outfit. Completely from a different episode. I'm in a white button down and a black sweater. I'm looking at it now. I see it.

Okay. Beige sweater. Okay. Over Michael's shoulder through the window. At the copier. Jim Rowe. Meredith, I heard you're turning 46, but come on. You're an accountant.

Just fudge the numbers. I bet. Pretty funny. See me at the copier. I don't appreciate condoning corporate fraud, though. Now I leave the copier. I go to my desk. Go to your desk.

This is apparently when you're changing clothes. Really? So what are you doing back there? You're putting on a... We don't expect it. I've already set the bar. See? Really high.

Look at that. Look at that. I'm in a completely different outfit. Ha ha. Whoa. I have something else to talk about in this scene. But, okay. Can you just say though, okay, maybe I fumbled the bobble head moment, but I did catch

a continuity error. Okay. So suck it. Suck it. Okay. I'm giving that to you. I didn't see it. I didn't see it.

Thank you. I saw something. I did it. So you saw something too. What'd you see? Well, I'm not going to take credit for this. Okay. This was from IsRoses on Twitter.

Okay. IZRoses, capital IZRoses on Twitter. Okay. Okay. Mentioned that in this moment, when Michael's reading Jim's comment, Jim references that Meredith is an accountant. Yeah. What?

Wait. We just watched the scene and you didn't catch that. Because I was looking at my outfit. You were looking at your outfit. I was listening to the words and I heard it too. Just a dig. That's just a dig. I heard it as well.

So, you know, her question was, what's up with that? I thought there were three accounts. Why does he say, you're an accountant, just fudge the numbers. This is another continuity error. Another. So here's something that I have at home. Okay. That is an amazing thing.

It's called the show Bible. Okay. Do you know what a show Bible is for a TV show? I do. Okay. You know. Yeah. Let's explain it to people.

A show Bible is a giant document. I mean, like thousands of pages. It looks like a phone book. It looks like a phone book. And in it, it lists every character and every fact about them and every episode. If we learn something new about them, it gets put in the Bible. Yes. So it says our job.

It says our relationships to people. I have a copy of the show Bible for the office. Wow. How I got this, I don't know. I mean, there's probably only like two or three of them. Yes. I know. And I think I borrowed it.

Jenna. Because I over the summer. And you didn't give it back? Yes. I think this is true. Over the summer from season eight to season nine, Greg Daniels came to John and I and asked us if we had any ideas for our final character arc in season nine. And he said, if it helps you, you can borrow the show Bible.

So wait, Greg. Jenna has your show. I've got if you've been looking for it. Maybe I shouldn't be saying this out loud because I really love my show Bible. I could probably make a copy before I return it. I think you should make a copy. According to the show Bible, Meredith's job is customer service rep slash supplier relations. She is not an accountant.

No, she's not an accountant. No. And is Rosas said, what is her job? Because I know she's not an accountant. So that's your answer. So Kelly is a customer service rep and I remember there was a bit of a story where we put her back in that other room in the annex back by Toby because she talked too much. She was too chatty and she was bothering Meredith.

So they moved her back there. But really the reason she sat back there was because she was a writer and they didn't want her to waste her writing time doing background work. Yeah. So she had to be separated so she could get out to write. But they made it a story point. You know what Greg said one time? We had a new writer one season and he was talking to me, they were going to be giving

like food in the episode and they handed me like this steak or whatever. And I was like, well, my character is a vegetarian. And he was like, oh, I didn't realize that. And I was like, yeah, my character is a vegetarian. And then Greg was like standing next to me and he was like, you know what? Anything you want to know about each of their characters, just go talk to them. They know their character. They know sort of like the canon of all, they've lived every episode and they know their individual

character story so well. I didn't know your character was a vegetarian. When do we establish that? It's established early on and then like it's throughout, throughout all the years. Like at Diwali, I was like, I guess I'll just eat non, non. Like there's like a whole thing. Oh, I'm going to look it up in the show Bible. Okay.

Look it up in the show Bible. Maybe we should, well, let's get back to this episode a little bit. We got on a tangent. Oh, me and you on a tangent. Get out of town. Hard to believe. What are you even talking about? All right.

So there's this scene early on where Pam and Michael are stuck in the office together. And I remember I could not get through this scene. There's this never ending drum roll where Michael wants me to announce who has a birthday coming up. And he also calls you his assistant in this, which I think is hilarious. Like he has such a grandiose view of his job and who he is. You are his assistant. You're not front reception for the whole company.

You're Michael's assistant. His personal assistant. You're his personal assistant. Which is not true. And he does this never ending drum roll on the desk that was making me laugh. And he wants me to announce whose birthday is coming up. And I say, there's no birthdays. And he's like, well, next one next, just who is it?

So then I say, well, Meredith's birthday is next month. And then I'm just, I am just giving him nothing in the scene and he starts swooping his phone across my face to see if he can find signs of life. Yes. I cracked up. Oh my gosh. He was so funny when he was doing that. I just remember when I was rewatching this, I just remember losing it.

But that's sort of where we set up that storyline is that we now have to throw a party for Meredith whose birthday is next month. This is like a real dork thing. But when I watch these early scenes of Michael's office, it looks so different over the years. You know, like there's that shelf in the corner. He doesn't have the tall standing shelf with two doors. It's a different lower shelf. I don't know if you like look at all that.

And I'm like, oh, his, like the furniture in his office keeps changing. This is a super nerdy thing for me to notice. But I mean, I don't notice bobbleheads, but if you're going to notice a major story point, if you're going to move a cabinet, I'm going to notice. So the next big sort of plot point scene is Rain asking Jim if he wants to form an alliance. And this produced one of our inside joke lines. He asks him if he wants to form an alliance and Jim pauses. And then he says, absolutely I do.

And we used to say that to each other on the set that used to be a thing. Absolutely I do. I love, I love this so much because it's just like Jim finally gets to have fun at work. This is like one of his favorite days you would think, right? Like, because otherwise it's just the monotony of it all and Dwight does drive him crazy. He talks about how crazy that Dwight makes him and he finally gets to like really mess with him at Dwight's invitation. That is the best.

He has that talking head where he says, sometimes it's just handed to you. I mean, you're thinking, how can I mess with this guy? And then here this wonderful gift comes. So after they decide to form the alliance, he says, don't tell anyone. You can't tell anyone. Right. Jim's like, of course not. And then Jim immediately comes up to the reception desk and tells me that he's formed

an alliance with Dwight. And you see Dwight hovering in the background listening in and he wants to get Jim away from me. So he has this line where he's like, Jim, can I talk to you about the paper products? So I listened to the DVD commentary of this. And I guess in that scene, they have a bunch of takes where Reign, every time he would change the end of the line. And I think it was Mike Scherr said his favorite alt of that was, hey, Jim, can I talk to you

about the, he just like mumbles that you couldn't even hear. I love that. I also loved like John, John Krasinski as Jim. Just you could just see John, I think, because we know him having so much fun. You know, like when, when they go into like the kitchen and Dwight's like, what are you doing? He's like, I'm, I'm working her. You know, like I'm on this.

Okay. I just saw John, like our friend John having so much fun in that moment and it just made me smile. It's so cute. The whole way that he is winding Dwight up in this episode, it happens again where he goes into the kitchen where he's supposed to be spying on Toby and Kevin who are having lunch. Oh my God.

That conversation is the most ridiculous, they're like amazing, boring conversation. Yes. And that produced another most frequently quoted inside joke line on the office, which is when they're talking about the bread and then John's take on that line. He says, their bread is very good, very good. We would do that all the time. And then here you are, the bread maker. Oh my gosh.

Full circle life moment. Guys, my bread is very good. Thank you. And we cannot not talk about the fact of how eagerly Pam is to join in Jim's prank and becomes a huge participant like in pulling this prank on Dwight. Oh yes. Yes. Well, this is their opportunity to spend time together.

Any opportunity to team up with Jim, I mean, in the deleted scene, we established that the phone rings very infrequently, which we could probably have guessed anyway. This is so much fun for her. She is having so much fun and Jim is just loving it. And his talking head about like how brilliant you are that you just came up, Pam came up with that all on her own. Yeah. When I come up to his desk and I'm like all fraught with it, oh, I just don't know.

Michael's told me so many things and I want to unload all these secrets, but he told me not to. And I'm doing that all so that Dwight can overhear. Yeah. Dwight's like jackpot. But Jim is just so enamored with Pam in the scene. And you know what? I'm a jam fan.

You guys. Yeah. And I love their storyline. I was just like a total fan of them. And I remember like every little nugget they had together, I was like, oh my God. And this is definitely one of those episodes. Should we take a break? I don't know.

Do you want to take a break? Please take us to a break. Oh my God. We're back. All right. The other big part of this episode is Oscar baiting Michael into donating to his nephew's Walkathon charity. But Michael sort of not getting what a Walkathon is.

So he puts in this big bid. And this is an example also of the benefit of the documentary crew element of the show because you can tell at first when Oscar walks into his office and asks him if he'll donate to his nephew's charity, he doesn't want to. If the cameras weren't there, he would probably say no. Right, right. But he can't say no. He wants to look like a good guy.

He wants to look like a good guy. And so then he goes over the top and he donates $25. And only later is it brought to his attention that it's $25 per mile. Yes, exactly. And that realization happens in a great scene with Jim at the birthday party. And there is just this long pause. I'll tell you what, Steve Carell is better than anyone at letting an emotion wash across his face.

And you watch that emotion of like, oh, crap, like just like, oh, what'd I do? Like go across his face. And I feel like we see this again in Fun Run, right? Because he like signs up to do like so many miles and he doesn't realize what is something about Michael does not understand the concept of a walk-a-thon or anything like that. But no, that is so good. Well, I did, I added it up because in the, in the episode, Michael, once he realizes it's per mile, he asks Oscar like, hey, how strong is your nephew?

Like is he in good shape? He did 18 miles. He did 18 miles. So Michael has pledged $450. I did the math. He thinks he's pledged $25, but instead he pledged $450. I also need to go back. I skipped something that I think is really a fun thing.

In the parking lot, there's a scene where Jim and Dwight, what am I going to say? It was Phyllis's car. It was Phyllis's car. Yes. Jim and Dwight are standing next to a car and they are comparing notes about everybody in the office and what they've learned. And they're standing next to a car and it's Phyllis's car. And rain as Dwight keeps kicking the car and Phyllis, she didn't care for it.

She was very nervous about it. And I guess at some point she went up to rain and said, listen, it's totally fine if you kick my car, but don't kick the car or the hubcap. Just the tire. Just the tire. I, we used to park our cars in that little parking lot. Yeah. And then a lot of our real cars have appeared as cars in the, in the show.

And then they, in seasons later, they had us move our cars. I think maybe they realized there's like liability or something. I mean, so, but in those early days, those were our cars. A very, very big element of this episode is the point where Dwight ends up in a box in the warehouse to spy. And more than any other question, when I put this out to fans for questions, the most questions that we got, the most frequently asked questions were about this box. Right.

How long was rain in the box? How many takes did we do? How many boxes did we use? Right. One of the questions was there's a scene where Pam is on the phone doing a fake phone call and the box kind of tips over and I laugh and run off with a note card. Wait, I have a note card about this. What is it?

I want to, okay, I know you put it out to Twitter, but this is your, your BFF. So I get to, can I, can I ask you first? Okay. One more question. Yes. Did you really break and laugh by the box? I think you did because I know what happens to your shoulders when you really laugh. This was the question.

This is the question that people want to know. I think I faked it. What? Yeah. I don't think I really broke. I don't want to believe that. I know. I think, because I remember shooting that scene and I remember it was very technical.

Okay. So it was, I, it was happening over my shoulder, stuff was happening on my shoulder, but there was a way where they wanted me to break at a certain moment. So it was kind of technical. So you had to sort of get out of the way and the box was tipping. Yes, exactly. So I remember shooting at a number of times and I remember thinking to myself, gosh, does this even look real?

Like, do I, it's, it's a really, there are two things that I think are really hard to do when you're acting. One of them is cry. Right. People would expect that. But the other is to laugh convincingly. Yes. You know who has the best fake laugh is Steve Carell.

Steve Carell can do this fake laugh that is the most honest, genuine laugh. And every time he would do it, I would start to laugh, even though I knew it was a fake laugh. It was so contagious. He, he's the best at it. I find it's easier to cry than to fake laugh myself, myself for acting. Very difficult. It is.

One reason I think that I didn't really break is because I remember having anxiety over whether or not anyone was going to buy it. Um, Jenna, I have a little something on my note card here. What is it? I have another note card. I wrote, this is the first time we see Daryl. Yes. Yes.

When rain pops out of the box at the end, Daryl is down there. Now, he is not going to have a big scene. We're not going to hear him speak until the next episode, which is basketball. Yes. But that is the first time we see Daryl. So I was very excited. I know. And look, my note card came in handy.

I love that about her. I love how we plant seeds that grow later. Right. We don't, that is a person who is going to be a major character on the show, but we introduce him just as a guy seeing rain come out of the box. Yeah. That is one of the things, and I know we say it over and over and we will for the life of this podcast, but one of the things I love about what Greg Daniels did is he starts

in the middle. He doesn't like spoon feed you information. Just the way they design the show, you play catch up as an audience member. You're just like a day in the life and you're right in the middle. Yes. And I love that. Yes. I love that too.

Okay. Here's a big confession about the box. This is going to blow your mind. What? Rain wasn't in the box most of the time. What? Who was in the box? Phil.

Who's in the box? Phil Shea, our props guy. Yeah. Phil Shea. He is a very tall person. Yeah. Well, so is Rain. And he was in that box all the time.

So most of the box acting was done by Phil Shea, of course, except for the end where Rain busts out. And comes in. So in that scene where I'm cracking up, Phil Shea was in the box. Oh my gosh. You know what I think we should do, Angela? Tell me, Jenna. I think we should call Phil Shea and get him to answer all of our questions about the box.

What was it like in the box? Phil Shea, we are about to blow up your phone. Oh. Phil? Yes. Phil Shea, it's Jenna and Angela. Hi, Phil. Oh, hey guys.

How are you? Good. How are you? Thank you so much for letting us call and bug you. It's always a pleasure to help out Pam and Angela. Oh my gosh. Phil, thank you so much. It's just so nice to hear your voice.

That's what I was thinking. I was like, gosh, it's so nice to hear your voice. Hey, what an experience we had for nine years, right? Yes. We were the luckiest. We were the luckiest. Well, if you have a second, Phil, can we ask you some questions from the Alliance episode? Absolutely.

So we opened up questions to the fans and the overwhelmingly, the thing people wanted to know about was the box that Rain gets into in the warehouse. So they wanted to know how long he was in the box, everything about the box. But Phil, I know you were in the box. Rain only got in after all this, the shoeing and the scooching and the sliding and then the tumbling was done. Yeah. Phil, you did all of that in the box.

You were the scoocher and the tumbler and all that? I was. Apparently, Mr. Zabornak, our line producer, didn't think we had enough money to hire a stunt guy. So he assigned me to be in the box. And I remember I had to go out and buy my own elbow pads and knee pads. And then I had a loose walkie-talkie in there with me with Liz Ryan, who was the first AP, shouting out all of Brian Gordon, who was our director for that episode's command.

I remember like it was yesterday. So, Phil, can you take me through it from the beginning? You get a script and it says this character has to be in a box. So what do you do? Because you're in charge of getting the box as the prop master. So where do you start? On that particular prop, I sought out Greg Daniels and I said, do you see Rain sitting down squatting in the box or is he kneeling down on his hands and knees?

And he said kneeling on his hands and knees. And Rain is tall. Rain is tall, right? And so are you, Phil. You're very tall. Yeah. Yeah. Rain is, I think, 6'1 or 6'2.

I'm 6'1 if I blow-dry my hair. You do have great hair. Like you guys should know, Phil has an amazing head of hair. He really does. This is true. I leased it. I leased it. It's a Hollywood fake hairdo.

But I tracked Rain down and I asked him to get on his hands and knees and I was measuring for this box. Wait, you made Rain get on his hands and knees and then you measured him? You measured him to know how big it was. That was season one. Rain was willing to do anything. Then I went to a couple box cities around Southern California and no one had a box close to that.

So then I went on to the internet and I looked at box manufacturers in Southern California and I found a company in San Diego named Kent Lansberg and you have to understand as prop people, we have a very short production time and lead time to get all these props. So I called this Kent Lansberg paper company and asked to speak to the manager and in a much more frenetic and hyper voice, I said, look, you got to help me out. I have to have a custom box made. I probably need about 100 of them and they need to be mentioned. Oh my gosh.

And San Diego, San Diego is like three hours away too. Well, and also that's such a good point. You didn't need one box. You needed a hundred boxes because you didn't know how many takes we were going to do. And Brian Gordon, the director of this episode, ended up being notorious for doing many, many takes. So you were right to cover your bases and get a hundred. Yes.

Right. And we shot that scene in the Dundermiffle and Warehouse and we wanted to have some boxes on the shelves. Oh, right. Just ones that he didn't bust on them. Yeah. Of course. It wasn't a prop box.

It just appeared out of nowhere. So we had to give some legitimacy to where it originated from. Look at all the detail. Look at all the details. I know. So how did you do it? So how did you do it? This guy said he would do it.

No problem. And then how did you get them? Well, I taught him. He said the lead time is usually a month and a half. I said we have four days. Oh, no. I need the boxes in four days and I said it was for a TV show. It says for the office.

It's a remake of the British version. And he probably said, I'm sorry. I'm a huge fan of the British version. I've never heard of your show. Yeah. It's like you guys were listening into the phone call. It's exactly what he said. No, no.

He said he would be glad to make an exception for a TV show. So he made it happen. We got the boxes delivered to Culver City, which is where we shot that episode in our first season. And then they put the graphics on the box and we had them back two days before we were filming. So we had it all done and range fit in the box fine. And then it was just about coordinating where the holes would be inserted.

I mean, I'm inside the box with Dwight's Swiss Army knife and it was a great scene. I mean, I remember we shot that down. I think it was a Friday night we shot that scene, but it was fun. Everybody was laughing. The crew was always laughing on that show. And it was a great scene. And I'm glad the fans love it so much. Oh, Phil, thank you so much.

I'm looking at a picture that I can email you that Michael Gallenberg gave me. I'm going to send you a picture as soon as we hang up of me getting ready to tape up the fist box. And I don't know if you have the ability to put the picture on the podcast, but I'm going to take a picture. We can put it on our website maybe. Yeah. Okay.

I'll take a picture and you can see by the expression on my face after about take 50. You were like in a sweat lodge. Oh, Phil, thank you. But Jenna, you were there and you remember the last take when Brian Gordon said one more. I hope you remember this where he had me do all this stuff. And then when I cut myself out of the box, everybody had went and hit. Oh, I came out into the warehouse. So he at least played a practical joke on me at the end to make me laugh.

So that was pretty fun. We did. We left you in the box and we pretended like we were still filming and then you just were there for so long. That is horrible. That is kind of horrible. Why were we so mean? Phil, if I was there, Phil, I would have come up and said, Phil, get out.

They left. It was so funny. That was a great scene. Phil, I do. Can I throw two questions at you really quickly before we let you go? Okay. Okay. Yeah.

So after getting this box sounds like it was a massive undertaking. Phil, your job is sounding really fun. Like you read an episode and then it's you have to come up with all these weird objects and gags. It sounds fun and stressful, Phil. Like, like how do you get 100 boxes in four days? It's always fun. It's always stressful and it's great to be like a sort of small part of a production

that resonates with viewers and fans across generations as the office did. So it is fun. It is stressful, but it's a real joy to do it. When everybody laughs and everybody enjoys the prop and it adds a little value to the scripted scene and then we all go home and laugh and have a good day. Yeah. We sure appreciate you and we are going to be calling you a lot at the office, ladies. So thank you.

Thanks for taking the time, Phil. I have vivid memories of all the props we made for the office. So anytime you guys want to call me. Can we? Okay. Anytime. As you were talking, I had like eight questions about different episodes down the road. I did too.

We will definitely be calling you back, Phil. Thank you so much. We miss you. Yeah. Let's keep Dunder Mifflin going. I miss you as well. Let's keep Dunder Mifflin relevant for the next 30 years. Okay.

All right, Phil. We'll have a good day. Yeah. Tell everyone we say hi over there. Okay. I will. Thanks, Angela. Bye.

Bye. Thank you. Bye. What's next, Jenna? Well, three note cards left. Well, now we need to talk about the cake. Oh, yes. The ice cream, the mint chocolate chip ice cream cake.

Yes. I got so sick. This is the second most frequently asked question was about the cake and what the cake was like and did we really eat the cake? Oh, we ate that cake, you guys. And guess what? You start filming, we would start filming at 7.30 a.m. Yeah.

So at 7.30 a.m., you're going to eat ice cream cake? Someone had you a plate of ice cream cake at 7.30 a.m. And you're going to eat it for five hours? All day. All day. And then they're like, let's break for lunch. And you're like, I want to puke. Yeah.

Let me say something about prop food. Oh, do it. BJ Novak loves prop food. Mindy Kaling loves prop food. I also kind of like it. I get real excited when I have to snack in a scene. I do not because I know it's going to turn on me. I know.

And it's going to turn on me every time. Every time. And I still make the same mistakes. Every time. I would see Ed Helms, Mindy Kaling, you, BJ, be like, ooh, prop food and get so excited. Like, guys, pace yourself. I know. It's going to get gross.

We'd have a party in the conference room and they'd have like pigs in a blanket and you just, me and BJ would be over there. I'd be like, guys, slow down. I know. You're going to have to eat that for four hours. I know. Well, this was the first time that I made the mistake and I started wolfing down ice cream cake early.

And then you have to match that in every shot. So whatever you do in that first shot, you then have to match it. So continuity wise, it all makes sense. And here's the thing. I'm in the background of most of the ice cream eating scenes. What are you thinking? So I was wolfing it down in the background. She didn't have to.

She was in the background. I was in the background and then by the time it was time for my close up, I was so sick. I didn't want to eat the ice cream cake, but then I had to. I'll tell you this. I had a slice and Michael walks up to Phyllis and I. And when he walks up, poor Steve is like wolfing the cake down as he's talking. Oh yeah. He would eat a full piece every take.

Oh man. They eventually got a bucket though that he could spit in, which is also disgusting. It's called a spit bucket. It's called a spit bucket. But he would walk up eating the cake and he was talking to Phyllis and Meredith and my character. And I was just going to take one bite as he walked up. And by the end of the five hours of doing the scene, when I would scoop up that one bite, my hand would start to shake because I was anticipating it.

So I was like, hello. Yes, your body was rejecting it. My body was rejecting it. It was like, please don't put that mint chocolate chip ice cream in your mouth one more time ever again for the rest of your life. I can't eat it. I can't eat it. I can't eat it now. I can't eat it now.

My daughter loves mint chocolate chip. I don't want it near me. I loved ice cream cake in general. No. And only, it was last year for my son's seventh birthday. I finally ate a piece of ice cream cake again. But that's, it had been like, I'd gone on like a 15 year moratorium. So the final thing I think we should talk about.

Oh yeah. Let's go. On that note. The scene with Roy coming into the office and confronting Jim. You guys are so busted. I remember like being over and accounting being like, oh, and also David Denman can be scary when he wants to be intimidating. He can be intimidating. He's such a teddy bear in real life.

I know. He's so snugly. When he came in like that, I was like, he's a big guy. He's a big guy. And I think he turns my character on because he's such a man. Like you see that play out later where I'm like, I'm clearly like enamored with Roy. But in that moment, I was like, oh my God, Roy is going to kick Jim's ass. Yeah.

Your character, Angela likes a beefy alpha male for sure. She just does. That's true. So I remember this scene. I remember breaking it down. We shot a ton of versions of this scene because we really didn't know how big of a reaction Roy should have. So the first thing I remember was that somehow in the scene when Jim and I are giggling about our accomplishment, we had to find a way to hold hands that there had to be like an organic way and organic way where his arm is around me.

There had to be something because Roy has walked in the door before and seen Jim standing at reception talking to me. So we had to come up with this reason that John would come around the front of the desk. He's so excited. Yeah. He's so excited that he jogs around. So instead of coming up to me with the desk between us, which is what you've seen in the past, this was a big moment. He breaks that barrier. He comes around the desk.

He puts his arm on me. We end up kind of holding hands and giggling. And I remember us really struggling to make sure that it looked real and organic and not staged. We didn't want to do something so out of the ordinary that you would be expecting something to happen. Right. And I think we accomplished it. And then when he burst in the door, there were a couple of takes where he pushed Jim up against a wall. Where he got really more physical with Jim.

And so we shot all these different versions so that we could get it just right. Right. And the version they went with is the best. I think if Roy had gotten too physical there, it just would have taken us all out of it because we'd be like, whoa. But I think just how ticked off he was. And then I thought John was brilliant in that moment. He was so believable when he was like, I don't even know how to explain this because he realizes how ridiculous their whole day has been. Yeah.

And how do you explain what they've been doing? Yeah. And they're so busted though. I know. It is a moment that made me totally cringe. Yeah. And you know that Pam and Roy had words about that. Oh, the car ride home.

And the car. Yes. Yes, car ride home. That was a tough one. My husband and I always talk about that. It will be at a dinner party or something and you see a couple have an awkward exchange. I'll like lean over to my husband and be like, oh, car ride home, car ride home. That's going to be a rough one.

So that's it. That's the alliance. Can I say one more thing? I want to say one more thing. This episode has a special place in my family's life. Why? Because while we were shooting this episode, they got me out early so that I could go home for my sister's wedding. My real sister's wedding I had to travel.

So she got married while we were shooting this episode. And this year she celebrated her 15th wedding anniversary. Aw. And that's sweet. So when I was watching this, I remembered that. That's like a fun full circle life moment too. I know. Well, this is the thing you guys are going to hear a lot as we do this podcast is, you know,

this show spanned 10 years of our lives and so much life happens in those 10 years. And we really do have all these special memories of our own lives mixed in with what was happening on the office. And I feel like it shows because we all became so invested in each other's lives that we are our own misfit family. Like the cast of the, the people that played the characters on the office in real life have a lot of shared life moments and memories. And I think it just makes the show special to me. So when I watch it, I remember things too. Yeah. And it's just so, I love that you shared that.

Yay. Okay. That was the alliance everyone. That's right. Don't judge me for the bobblehead moment. Jenna's already judging me enough. So just, you know, you can rest. I judged you.

And then it was over because then you pointed out that great other fact about your outfit. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. You earned back my respect immediately. I redeem myself. Okay. So you guys, we would love to hear your questions or if we get something wrong. If we miss something, we might miss a few things.

For sure. I mean, we get chatty, Jenna. We get a little chatty. And we miss things. We miss things. So write us. Yes. You can contact us at officeladiesatearwolf.com.

If you have questions about an episode, put the episode title in your subject line. Do that for Jenna, please. I like organization. That don't really help us organize your questions. Please do that for Jenna. Or she's going to call me and invent. Or you can even put general Q&A. If it's a general Q&A question.

But if it's assigned to an episode, we want to make sure that we flag it for that episode. You know what else you can do? What else, Jenna? You can send us an audio memo. Oh, oh, yes. Do that because then we get to hear your voice and it's kind of fun. Wait, can we play that in the episode? I think we could.

You guys, there's so much fun. There's so much fun. So there's a lot of options. That is officeladiesatearwolf.com. We sound official. We really do. We've got an email. We have an email.

I'm excited. Next week is basketball. Basketball. One of my favorites when we became best friends. We became best friends. And basketball. While shooting the basketball episode, we're going to tell you all about it. We'll tell you all about it.

All right. See ya. See ya. Officeladies. Officeladies is produced by Earwolf, Jenna Fisher, and Angela Kinsey. Our producer is Cody Fisher, our sound engineer, Sam Keeper. And our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton. Remember, you can listen to ad-free versions of Officeladies on Stitcher Premium.

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