Office Ladies - The Banker

Episode Date: April 27, 2022

This week we’re breaking down “The Banker.” Since Dunder Mifflin is being sold, an investment banker visits the office to talk with HR, a.k.a. Toby. And what do ya know? It’s a clip show! Actor David Costabile (“Breaking Bad”, “Billions,” “The Wire”) sends in clips about his experience playing the banker, Eric Ward. Jenna breaks down the history of clip shows on television, Angela gives a list of the most popular books people read while on the toilet and we also learn the Top 5 “Office” quotes that fans loved up to the airing of this episode. So knit a sweater for a kitten and find out why this was the only clip show episode of “The Office.”

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. Hello, hello. Hi, everyone. We're here today to talk about The Banker. The Banker? But it's more than just The Banker. There's a lot of stuff wedged in this one. It's true. Mm-hmm. We will discuss. We will. It was Season 6, Episode 14, written by Jason Kessler and directed by Jeffrey Blitz. Here's your summary. An investment banker visits the Scranton branch

to perform a due diligence check to verify that there are no hidden liabilities for whomever buys Dunder Mifflin. Because remember, Dunder Mifflin is being sold. Yeah. This prompts Michael and his employees to pull out all the stops to try to prove their worth. Mm-hmm. Well, as you guys know, Jen and I are rewatching the show for the first time in years. And I forgot that this was a clip show. It is. It was kind of a big deal back then for Networks. Sam, you have a whole theory about this. I do. I wonder if this is a time period thing. I remember clip shows were very popular at that time. Like, for big things like Seinfeld and Friends, like, in the middle of a season would go, hey, remember all this? And you

go, yes, I do. I'm a fan. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I read a few articles online about it and people were confused. They were like, why are they having a clip show? And then people either thought it was really well done for a clip show or they just hated it. Well, my fast fact number one is going to cover some of this. Okay. We got a fan question from Andy J. in Battleground, Washington and Hannah C. in Portland, Oregon, who said, clearly this episode is largely flashback clips, but I'm wondering what was the reason behind it? Had you gained new viewers and this was a way to bring them up to speed or was everybody else just busy filming other stuff? I went to Randy Cordray. What did Randy say? Randy

said this clip show was a request from the network. Sam, you were right. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Listen to you, Chuckle. Honestly thrilled. So the idea was that a clip show would be much less expensive to produce. Uh-huh. That it would save the network money in the overall budget for the show that year. But Randy pointed out that all of the actors were under weekly contracts. So even though this episode only took us two days to shoot, instead of five, they still had to pay the cast for the full week. And the same thing went for the writer and the director. Plus they had to pay a fee to every guest actor and director of every clip that got used in the clip show. There are so many. Yes. So Randy said in the end,

it cost as much as a regular episode. Oh, now this episode did forward along some story. You know, we do have this banker who's coming to review the company because we're being sold. And so those scenes obviously were newly written. The script for this episode was only 14 pages long. It was written by Jason Kessler, who was a member of our production staff, and he was our script coordinator seasons one through four on the office. And he played flower delivery man in Valentine's Day. Yay, Jason. Yes. So nice. Oh, he was the loveliest. My fast fact number two, Sam, you might like this. I did do a little bit of a deep dive on the use of flashbacks and clip shows in film and television. I do really

like this. Yay. I'm very curious because I had a screenwriter in college who had a theory about flashbacks. Go first. Oh, you go. All right. Well, according to Taste of Cinema, the best use of flashbacks in a movie belongs to Citizen Kane with Godfather Part Two coming in second. But this article said that Citizen Kane introduced many techniques that were fairly new to the film world at the time, like the use of depth of field and this fragmented storytelling that went back and forth between present and past different time periods. The website Industrial Scripps said that if you are writing a film and you want to study great uses of flashbacks, they suggest studying the following films. Memento, Forest Gump,

or Titanic. Yeah, because Titanic's told basically through flashback. Yes. Yeah. According to this site, all the stories of these films are told mostly from the perspective of flashback. It also noted films like Kill Bill, Old Boy, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which are some of my favorite movies. So perhaps I like a flashback movie. You do. I guess so. Before show, these are not flashbacks. This is actually a clip show, which is something different because these flashbacks are not part of overall storytelling. So it's a different category. All of these flashbacks are set up as sort of Toby looks off in the distance recollecting, right? Yes. But they are not forwarding any new story through their flashback.

Right. So that's why it enters the column of clip show. Wikipedia says that a clip show is an episode of a TV series that consists primarily of excerpts from previous episodes. They are also known by their nickname Cheaters. Okay. It's a cheater show. Here comes my screenwriting professor moment. Ready? Okay. I wrote a pilot. I had it start with a big old flashback and I got it back from my professor and he was like, you cheated at the top. The flashback was a cheat. Tell the story. I was like, well, damn it. It did make it a lot easier. Well, I don't know. I think industrial scripts would disagree with your professor because there are times when the use of a flashback is very powerful. I agree. But I guess not for the very

first time you tell a story in the first sentence. We see a sunrise flashback. What? We're only four words into your script. Now here's something I found interesting about clip shows. I guess they are often run before a series finale as a way to remind viewers about the series or sometimes they are made to help fulfill the episode requirements for when a show is sold to syndication. It's all about the money guys. Follow the money. All about the money. The first use of a clip show appears to be the serial movie Robinson Caruso of Clipper Island from 1936 for Republic Films. So they were supposed to make 12 chapters of this story. Each one was about 30 minutes long, like the length of a TV show, but it played in theaters. But I guess there was some

bad weather and they had to shut down filming. So writer Barry Shipman was forced to create two extra chapters to help recoup the lost production costs. So now he had to do 14 chapters in less time with less budget. So to do this, he created what is considered to be the first recap, which was Chapter 11, Agents of Disaster. He wrote a few original scenes where the characters recount their adventures to date and then they use stock footage from previous chapters instead of shooting new sequences. Well, Republic Films was so thrilled by this little cheat that the recap chapter became standard procedure moving forward. How about that? So I think maybe Barry Shipman started it all? Don't know. Sounds like it maybe. Maybe. I just have been delighted watching you

retell all of this. I wish you guys were here with me because she's so tickled by it, guys. She's so tickled. She looks absolutely delighted at her findings. It's adorable. Well, I have two more little facts about this that I will share. Don't stop now. Community, the TV show community, they did two fake clip shows. They took and did a clip show format, but when they flashed back, it was all newly shot material. They're so clever. I know. They are clever. And finally, this episode, The Banker, was our only clip show of the entire office series. Well, I wonder if the powers that be saw the comment boards because people were not happy that we did a clip show. Well, they also got the accounting spreadsheet and saw they

saved no money. That's right. That's right. All right. Fast fact number three is a fan question from Corey P. in Oak Harbor, Washington. Please tell us everything about working with David Constable, who, of course, was playing Gail in Breaking Bad when this episode came out. In this episode, he plays The Banker. Now, David was the third cast member of The Wire to appear on the office, but you probably recognize him. I mean, this guy has been in everything amazing. He's a phenomenal character actor. He's good luck. You should cast him in everything good and he's good. In fact, we will be casting you in Mom Detectives, David. David, get ready. Get ready. But he has been in billions, suits, Breaking Bad,

Better Call Saul and damages. He was Rain Wilson's very good friend. Yeah. From when they were younger and I reached out to him. I asked him how he got his role in the office and here's what he had to say. The story with me in the office is that I had known Rain Wilson since college and we became lifelong friends. And we had created this play called The New Bozina. And that's actually what brought us out to Los Angeles. We had been doing it in New York and we had done it off Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theater. And then we came to Los Angeles to do the show and to also see if we could sell it and make it into a TV show or movie or something, which we ended up doing, selling it, but not making it. And around that time, we were out there, Rain and in fact,

all of us got auditions to go in for the pilot of the office, which we did. So it was incredibly fun. So I had auditioned for the pilot and all of us, we kind of knew on some level, we all kind of knew Rain was the best suited for Dwight. And sure enough, he was. So none of us got it, but Rain did. And we were all incredibly excited because none of us had a nickel between us. So then throughout the years, like I would go in and audition for a bunch of things. And Alison always looked out for me and it was very exciting to be able to think that I could get on that show. And it was I really, really, really wanted to rain was always every season he would ask Alison, you'd be like, can you put them on? Can you put them on? And so they finally got me on the show.

Well, I remember David coming to visit the set as Rain's friend. I had lunch with him. And in fact, I ended up doing a movie with him. I did this movie called solitary man. And I played Michael Douglas's daughter and David played my husband. So I was so thrilled when David was then joining us as an actor. He's so good. He's super funny. Well, that's so great. I'm so glad we got to reconnect with him. Well, I have a few other clips that I'll share later on in the episode. But maybe we should take a break. Let's take a break. And when we come back, I have some deleted scenes from the clip show. Wow. Well, this episode starts with a Michael talking head. He explains that Dunder Mifflin is being sold. But first, an investment banker must

stop by and sign off on the Scranton branch. So in true Michael fashion, he has decided to judge the place up a little. We got a fan question from Josephine E in New York, New York. Michael's hair looks so different in this episode. It's kind of light and flat. Was Steve filming something at the time that affected his hairstyle? Such a good catch. Yes, Josephine. If you watch this episode, you might see Steve's hair changing from scene to scene. And I'll tell you why. We shot this episode over two days. One day was before we went on a break for Steve to do a movie. And the other was when we came back from Steve doing the movie. He has bookend hairstyles. So in this particular instance, we had just returned from our winter

hiatus. And Steve had been shooting dinner for schmucks. And he had a very, very, very short haircut for that. Our hairdresser, Kim Ferry, did an interview with OfficeTelly.com, where she said she tried really hard to recreate a Michael Scott look. But the hair was so short. She went on to say, you will see gradually over the next few weeks, his hair will grow out and be more like the old Michael Scott. She said, but we did shoot the banker out of order. So you might see that his hair goes from shorter to longer. There you have it. Well, now we're going to see all the ways that Michael is trying to fancy up the office. Eric Ward, the investment banker, is greeted, first of all, by Computron. It's a virtual helper. And Michael comes zipping out

of his office on a Segway. Yes. And then Andy suddenly announces that we are now the official paper supplier for the NFL. Mm hmm. And Pam is introduced as their international sales consultant and greets Eric in three different languages. We got a fan question from Eminé in London, UK. How many takes did it take for Steve to get through the scene where he is on the Segway? I mean, he must have crashed into Pam's desk or reception at least once. My memory is that Steve was very good on the Segway. This was my same memory, too, that he was actually really zippy on that thing. Well, Randy told us that our transportation coordinator, Jesse Dutchover, contacted the Segway company, and they were super excited to participate in our episode.

They gave us two Segways to practice with, along with a service technician and a company rep, and Steve practiced. That's why he was so good in the scene. I guess these Segways were out in the parking lot for two days. Anyone could check them out if they wanted to. I did not try it. Angela, did you try it? Oh, no. No, no, no. No. I don't know why I was like, I'm not getting on that thing. But then Steve came out of his office so effortlessly, and it looked so fun that I was like, dang it, now I wish I had tried it. I know. But after we shot with it, they went away. Yeah. You had to do it preemptively. Right. Randy shared with us that it's really pretty easy to use them. He said you use your body English, and it's like you lean forward or back, and then the machine

just sort of senses how to move. What if you don't trust your body English? Exactly. Randy also shared with us that his hometown of Jacksonville, Oregon has a two-hour Segway tour of their historic town. Now, I would do that. What? I would do that. That sounds so cool to me. Like Josh and I, my husband and I, we've done vacations where we rent the electric bike and we tour something on the bike. Uh-huh. So fun. Maybe we should go visit Randy and do a Segway tour. Oh my gosh. You had me at visit Randy. I would love to see him. He said in the summer, he looks out and he just sees tons of tourists roaming around Segways. We could be one of those tourists. Oh, I wanted to point out also in the scene at one minute forty seconds, the golf picture is still on the wall. I know.

I am so confused. I had no idea that this painting was missing for so long. I mean, we're going on like eight episodes now. Yeah. It's bonkers to me. As the scene continues, we learn from a Pam talking head that there's no one left in New York, so Michael is now Dunder Mifflin's highest ranking employee. Let that sit with you for a minute. Now, we had a fan catch from Catherine H in Denver, Colorado, who says, aren't Jim and Michael the same rank? Oh, good catch. I don't know. Why is it Pam recognizing Jim's position in this office? I have to say, she sort of continues to forget his position of authority in Dunder Mifflin. I know. She has to keep reminding herself. The next thing that happens is that Michael greets

Stanley, who is now young and fit. That's right. It's fake Stanley. Pam says, for the record, I'm not on board with fake Stanley, but I get it. I personally think that Michael should have had a fake creed. A fake creed? What about a fake Meredith? Yes. These are our true wild cards in the office. Yeah. But anyway, fake Stanley was played by Kenny Cooper. He's been on a ton of stuff. He's been on the TV series The Board, me, you and him, the Kominsky method. This is us, the after party and the Oscar nominated film Selma. He trained at UCB Improv Theatre in LA. And according to his bio, he was an all conference football player in college. He's been in everything. Talented, athletic. Oh my gosh. Well, Jenna, there was more to this

office tour by Michael. Some of it actually got deleted. Yes. Even though the banker is a clip show, we have deleted scenes. Two of them really made me laugh. You have to hear this. Michael, on his segue, goes up to front reception, of course, to try to impress Eric Ward and ask Aaron for his messages. Any messages? Yes. The governor called. He said, thank you. Well, tell him I told you so. What's the second message? The Treasury called. Dunderman Flint paper is being used for counterfeit currency. That's how good it is. That's the price you pay when you're the best. Amazing. Everyone calls Michael the governor, the Treasury of the United States. This continues. Michael writes his segue into the conference room and they have it set up kind of like

a Google think tank room. Okay. There's a big ideas board. In fact, there's a banner that says idea jam. And Ryan has a ball and he's tossing it against the wall, just sort of like spewing stupid ideas and Oscar weighs in. And in the corner, Angela is sitting next to a box of kittens nitting them clothes. Oh, you have to hear it. Ah, this is our creative think space. Google has one of these. What if we ran the whole thing backwards? Total paradigm shift. We spin it and we flip it. Look at that. See what the little one's doing. She's making some sweaters for the kittens. Sometimes they get cold at night. So we try to help them out. That's what's great about this place. Got something for everyone, whether you like cutting edge thinking or pilgrim

values. Help yourself to a kitten, Eric. You cannot have a kitten. Give him a kitten. You have enough. Angela David copied truck while back. Oh my gosh. And I remember Jenna, I worked with so many cats on this show, but this was a day on set that I had like six kittens. And everybody wanted a kitten. They were so cute. Oh my gosh. Well, I know from my experience with kitten rescue, there is just nothing cuter than a box of kittens. There isn't. I'm sorry, a box of kittens, it's even cuter than a box of puppies. You can come for me if you want, but I'm going to hold firm on this. A box of kittens is the cutest thing. Well, I will have to put in our stories on Office Ladies pod, just the scene with the basket of kittens because it's so cute. Well, I can't wait to see

it. Angela, do you know how to knit? Were you fake knitting? Was that fakey knitting? That was fakey knitting. Did anybody give you a lesson? No. So someone had knitted something and then you were just moving the little, what are they called? The needles. The needles. Yeah. It was so funny to me because Phyllis had to knit. She had a basket of like yarn and knitting needles by her desk, the entire run of the show. Yeah. And supposedly this was something her character would do. And they gave her a little tutorial, but that was early in the show. I think by this time, they're like pretending it. Right. Let's do it. My great grandmother used to crochet. Oh yeah, mine too. And I want to take it up. You know, I love doing that kind of stuff. You know, I made

my kids Christmas stockings and I love embroidery and things like that, but I really want to get into the crocheting. Oh, for sure. I actually crocheted with my grandmother. She taught me how. Mine too. And I did part of a blanket. Like I didn't finish it. So then it was just sort of a scarf. Right. But kind of a lame scarf. But I feel like that's something I would take up with you. Oh my gosh. Two ladies who crochet. The next episode of Mom Detectives. One of the needles went missing. What happened to it? Well, in crocheting, you only use one needle. Oh, it's that needle. I just solved it. Oh my gosh. It's not missing at all. It's not missing. You have what you need. I have everything I need. And episode ends credits.

Well, back to the episode. Eric, the banker explains that the only reason he came today was to check out the warehouse and speak with HR. That's it. He doesn't need all this other computron and the segue and the think tank. He doesn't need it. But Michael insists I want to show you around. I mean, I made a reservation at Cooper Seafood because it has the best lobster. But then Computron disagrees. You know who makes the best main lobster? Mouliam in Tel Aviv. We got a fan question from YLF in Tel Aviv. I myself am from Tel Aviv and thought you might appreciate a mini dive on Mouliam. Mouliam was a restaurant that specialized in fish and seafood that was considered to be one of the best restaurants in Israel. Its name is a play on words.

It could mean either in front of a sea or sea muscle. It opened in 1995 but was burned to the ground in an accident in July of 2015 and it has never reopened. By the way, I never got to go there even though I only lived 10 minutes away and the first time I ever watched the banker it was very shortly after the restaurant had burned down and I literally yelled at the TV because I was so annoyed that Dwight got to have their lobster and I didn't. Well, I did appreciate that mini dive. I did not know it was a real restaurant. I did. Oh, not only did I know but I have been there and it's one of the best meals I've ever had. Really? Yes. I was working on a commercial that actually shot in Tel Aviv. I know that's crazy but I was there and you know how I love

to make friends on the airplane, Jenna? I do. I love a friend on the plane. On my flight there, I sat next to this wonderful woman named Erit and she was telling me all the places to go and she was like, you must go to dinner with me. There's this amazing restaurant in Tel Aviv. It's on all the like the best restaurants lists and it's called Mulyam and as it turns out, it was only like a five minute walk from my hotel. So I was like, oh my gosh, yes. She got us a reservation. I met her there. It was one of the best dinners I've ever had. I actually found video on my phone of my walk there because it was like on this like wharf, you know? It literally is facing the sea and I found video of my walk there that night.

It was so beautiful. The food was amazing. I was so sad to hear that it burned. Did you eat the lobster? I ate seafood. I can't remember what I had but I can tell you this. I remember so vividly what a great meal it was. I texted my friend Tess who went with me and she was like, oh my god, it's like one of the best meals we've ever had. I was like, I know. What did we have? She was like, I can't remember. I didn't even order. The chef just sent things over. Wow. Yeah. I have some of those restaurants that I've eaten at or some of those meals that I've had that are just the best meals I've ever had. Yeah. I had a bowl of ramen that I got in a train station in Tokyo and I have been chasing that taste ever since I ate it.

Like I came back to the States and I'm always ordering ramen from restaurants and I cannot not get it back. Yeah. It makes me want to go back to this train station just to eat that broth. Good food. Good food is like one of those memories you have instantly, like smell, taste. Interestingly enough, the other food I'm always chasing, I had a soup when I was in Thailand that again, I haven't been able to find this taste ever since. I guess I love a good broth is what I'm realizing. I guess you do. I sometimes just think like it will come over me about my mom's gravy. My mom's gravy is so good. Yeah. She uses like things left over in the skillet. I don't even know what it is. It's so good. My dad barbecues a hamburger. Like no one else has

been able to barbecue a hamburger. We are recording this at lunchtime. I think we're both hungry. Well, you started talking about all this food. I know. And you know what I have waiting for me in the fridge out there is just some yogurt and it's making me sad now. I have a granola bar in my purse. It's so lame. I want all of the stuff we just talked about. I do too. Okay. Where are we in the banker? Well, where we are is that Michael is going to introduce Eric to Toby. Quote Toby. Exactly. It's actually Dwight sitting in Toby's chair and Michael explains that he bought himself some time because he put a copy of Best American Mystery Stories 1999 in Toby's favorite bathroom stall. Well, I was intrigued. Is this a real book or is this a made up book? Now, we know that Toby

likes mysteries. That's been established. It turns out that this is a real anthology series. The Best American Mystery Anthology Series started in 1997. It is a collection of essays and short stories. It would come out annually. I think recently they changed the name to Best American Mystery and Suspense Stories. But this Best American Anthologies, they go way back. It started in 1915 and is still published today. Wow. That is over 100 years. That's awesome. So in addition to short stories and mystery, there are seven of these serials still in publication. They are Best of American Essays, Best American Science and Nature Writing, Best American Travel Writing, Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. Angela, I thought you might

like that. Might be a future gift you see from me. And Best American Food Writing. There are a whole bunch of others that have been discontinued. There was a Best American Recipes, a Best American Spiritual Writing. This one, I was really curious about. Best American Non-Required Reading. Oh, so it's not on any of the list at school. I guess. Best American Comics, Best American Sports Writing and Best American Infographics, which is basically a book full of charts and diagrams. Well, Angela, I ordered Best American Infographics. Oh my God. Of course you did. It's so interesting. I bet. Well, remember when we talked about how Florence Nightingale made the pie chart go viral? Yes. I mean, this is a whole book of pie charts and graphs.

This sounds like a great book to have in your bathroom. I think it would make a great bathroom book. Well, that brings me to a little journey that I took, Jenna. Oh, really? After this Michael talking head, I was just curious. Like, what are the best books to read while you're on the toilet? Is there a way to research that question? Oh, yeah. In fact, there were many articles. I'm going to just bring up one. According to Sarah Johnson from Barnes and Nobles Read Section, here are five books to read in the bathroom. Okay. The Groucho Letters by Groucho Marx. Groucho Marx's correspondence with everyone from E. B. White to his phone company gives insight into the brilliance and humor he brought to every aspect of his life.

Hmm. Next one. The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman. I love John. Yeah. He's a friend. He's smart. He's funny. In this book, John is deadly serious about educating you on a range of useless topics. Oh, order that for me now. I know. Poor Richard's Almanac by Benjamin Franklin. It's a timeless compilation bursting with wisdom, puns, and satire. Who knew? I didn't know. Awakening Loving Kindness by Pema Chodron. This book teaches you how to love yourself without harboring anger or embarrassment and how to feel at peace with the world and whatever it throws at you. That sounds like a good book to read anywhere, anytime. I know. And lastly, Toilet Paper Origami by Linda Wright. Okay. I guess that's if you want to do more than

read. It says, why not learn to do something impressive while you're seeing a man about a dog? That's what the reviewer said. My search did not end there. According to a recent U.S. survey, 63% of people read books, magazines, or newspapers on the toilet, but up to 75% take their phone with them. I was going to say, I read a book called Instagram. And then there's another book I read called Twitter. Yeah. Well, that led me to this. I was curious, how long are people sitting on the toilet? Oh, from the website Livestrong.com, it says, checking your phone on the throne can be bad for your butt. Why? Unlike sitting in a chair, which gives you support, your bottom hangs down in the middle of the toilet. Kyle Stoller, a gastroenterologist and a neuro gastroenterologist,

and is the director of the Gastrointestinal Motility Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. You guys, Kyle knows what he's talking about. He says, the way you sit on a toilet allows the rectal tissue to relax and fall. Lingering too long on the toilet over a period of time can result in hemorrhoids, getting blocked up, anal fissures, or the worst, your rectum could fall out, your anus. What? Just from sitting on the toilet too long? I mean, clearly for years, right? It's a buildup. It doesn't happen overnight. So basically they said, go in and do your business and then get off the toilet. Don't make a meal out of it. Don't sit out there and read multiple

articles. Get in there, read one, get out. Listen, if you want to limit your time on the toilet, what you need to do is have small children because they will not let you stay in there long. No. Okay, they're going to help you get out of there because they're going to immediately need something the minute you go into the bathroom. Truly, they could be totally fine. And then the minute you're like, oh, I got to go to the bathroom, everybody has a question for you. Correct. Yes. So that's what I have to say about reading on the toilet. Don't linger on the loo. Okay. That is our public service announcement for today. Guys, don't stay on that toilet too long because your whole rectum could just fall right out. Oh my lord. Well, I think we should

take a break. I have to pee. Don't stay in there too long, lady. I'm serious. I'm going to time you. We'll be back. So now we are going to get into the portion of this show with the flashback clips. Yes. And for those of you rewatching with us, I have a quiz for you. Oh, do you know how many episodes were used in this clip show? See if you can keep a tally as you rewatch and I'm going to tell you at the end, thank you, Randy Cordray, for helping me with this quiz. Oh, well, I have a little tidbit to share from our writer's assistant, Rob Burnett. He shared a document with us that was used to generate the ideas for these various clips from the various

episodes. They got their ideas from two places. First of all, the writers were asked to go through the episodes they had written and list some of their favorite moments that might work in a clip show. And then Rob put it all into a document. It is so cool. And then Rob also compiled fan favorite moments from a poll on NBC.com. They had asked people to list their favorite episodes, their favorite quotes, their favorite Michael moments, their favorite Dwight moments, their favorite accounting moments, favorite pranks, favorite party moments, their favorite Jim Pam moments, their favorite romantic moments, non Jim Pam, I thought that was really funny. They're like something romantic, you can't say Jim Pam, their favorite costumes and favorite

webisode moments. And this was how they started to brainstorm what clips to use. This document was really fun to look through. I mean, Jenna, I found this document fascinating. Rob, thank you so much for sharing it with us. You know, I love a fan favorite list. I love it. And according to a poll at NBC.com, there are two I want to share. Here were the top five fan favorite episodes at this time. Okay. Number one, the injury. Yes. You love the injury. I love it. Number two, diversity day. Mm hmm. Number three, stress relief. Number four, dinner party. And number five, casino night. Wow. Yeah. And here were the top five fan favorite quotes at this time, according to this poll on NBC.com. Okay. Number one, any guesses, anyone? I mean, I could guess,

but I read the document. You can't guess Sam Cassie. Any guesses? I'm known for me. Cassie, you want to take a shot? That's what she said. Yes. That's what she said by Michael Scott. Number two, Bears Beats Battlestar Galactica by Jim. Mm hmm. Number three, I'm not superstitious. Well, maybe I'm a little stitious. So good. Michael Scott. Number four, I hate so much about the things you choose to be. Now that's my favorite. That's such a good one. That's what Michael says to Toby. That's right. And number five, just as you have planted your seed into the ground, I will plant my seed into you. Mm hmm. Dwight Schrute. Those were the fan favorites. I can't believe my all time favorite is just pooping. You know how I be. I can't believe that didn't make.

That didn't make it in. Yeah. Well, here we go. We're going to get in to some flashback clips because the real Toby has returned to his desk and Eric is going to start his questioning. Yes. His first question to Toby is, does your company have any outstanding liability issues? And then we just see a montage of just Michael, quite frankly, destroying the office and just so many mishaps that happened in the office. Yeah. Well, I thought this was a pretty good compilation. In my little bit of research, I saw that most of these clips came from episodes written by Leon Jean or BJ Novak. I don't know what that says. Yeah, guys, but you guys are writing like dudes like getting in scuffles. I guess so. Another one of the moments in this compilation

is that moment when Meredith gets the bat on her head and then Dwight is like suffocating her with a trash bag. That was a pitch from Danny Chun. Well, you know the moment where Angela takes her cat out of a cabinet in accounting and then tosses it into the ceiling to Oscar. Otherwise, no one is safe bandit. That was a fan favorite on NBC.com poll. I think it is a fan favorite. I think so. Well, now Eric is going to ask Toby if the staff is generally happy. Toby sort of laughs. He's basically like, what is happy? I love when you said happy is a funny word. Yeah. I have to say you always know someone is hedging if they like try to redefine the word that you're asking them about. Are they answered with a question? Oh, yes. That's the biggest tell.

Where were you tonight? Where were you? Or what I was thinking of if it's like, where were you tonight? Where was I tonight? Yeah. Oh, did you not hear me? Yes. That's right. The question is, where were you tonight? Exactly. Where was I tonight? Yeah. Where were you tonight? Right. Right. Right. Oh, you're good. You're good at it. So clearly in these series of questions, Toby is trying not to be forthcoming, but the flashbacks tell all. Thankfully, Eric, the banker cannot see all of this documentary footage because in this next series of flashbacks, we're going to see Andy punch the wall and Pam slap Michael and Jim smack Dwight. Phyllis is going to throw the post-its in Angela's face, which by the way, did really hurt. Those

post-its were pointy and hit my face at a fairly high velocity from Phyllis. Now listen, if I'm being critical, I felt like this clip segment was very similar to the last clip segment where he asked about liabilities. Like, I feel like these could have been interchangeable. I don't know. I thought our people happy is a pretty tough lead-in question. And I also kind of question why the banker would need to ask that question. You know what? I have a better question for the banker. What is it? He should have said to Toby, who has the most sass in the office? Oh, I would have loved to have seen clips of sass, right? Give me the sass clips in BC. If you were in charge, we would have had a whole flashback of sass. That's right. The next question Eric is

going to ask Toby is about liability of like harassment. Toby says he doesn't know. He doesn't know. Just flat out doesn't know. And Eric's like, but you're human resources. He's like, I don't know. I don't know. Well, now we're going to get flashbacks of many human resources, violations like Dwight calling out employees, medical conditions, specifically Meredith's hysterectomy. Also, one of my favorites when Michael kisses Phyllis' cheek and says he's worried about getting a bone or? Yes. Or when he tells Pam she can come into his office, but he is changing clothes and has no pants on. We had a fan catch from Christian E in Austin, Texas. There is a clip in this montage from Beach Games. It is the one where Michael says,

dip it in the water so it will slide down your gullet more easily. And then everyone says that's what she said. Well, Christian points out, and we pointed out on the podcast, this was a deleted scene. Yes. And also everyone responding was the cast improvising. Now, I believe that this is the only deleted scene clip used in the clip show. Everything else appeared in an episode that aired except for this one. Nice catch, Christian. Toby has this great talking head where he says he doesn't know how he's going to get through this because he doesn't want to lie, but he also really doesn't want to tell the truth. I mean, I just love these scenes between Eric the banker and Toby. I like that Toby is working so hard to defend the company. And when I was trading messages with David,

I asked him if there was anything he remembered in particular about shooting this episode, and he mentioned these scenes between him and Paul. Here's what he had to say. One of the things that I remember so strongly was I had a scene with Paul, and I wanted so badly to see if I could be drier and even more understated than Paul. And I was, sadly, I couldn't do it. And I've tried my hardest to do it, and I really, really wanted to it because I love Paul's acting, and I thought he was hilarious in the show, and I wanted to see if I could actually go underneath where he was. And as I did it, I realized, oh, no, he has so many other levels that he could even ratchet back. And he did. He smoked me out clearly as we were doing the

scene because then as I was trying to get below him, he would just get lower and lower and smaller and smaller. And it was an incredibly fun game to try to play as we were shooting the scene. So I have to say, after David said that, I went back and I rewatched the Eric Toby scenes. I feel like I can see it. I feel like I can see them even within one scene, each of them getting smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller. Also, just everything about it, if it's like these two guys trying to outbore each other, I thought it was so great. Their energy and tone was so perfect. I would like to see more of them. Well, now Michael is going to get in on the action. He is going to interrupt Toby and Eric. Yeah, Michael's now going to sit in and basically

almost sabotage what Toby's trying to do by not sharing information. I know. I think Michael is afraid that Toby is going to give away too much, but Toby is doing a good job. I know. Eric wants to know about waste. How are they wasting time and resources at the company? Yes. Well, obviously, there's tons of time being wasted at Dunder Mufflin. Well, this was the prompt so that we could show pranks. Yes, all the gem and Dwight pranks. Correct. When you watch this compilation, it is really fascinating to consider that Dunder Mufflin is the top branch in the company. The next question Eric has is about retirement age. Is anyone near the retirement age for Dunder Mufflin? Jenna, I had never thought about this. Like, Creed must be at retirement age.

Sure. He could probably resign and start receiving retirement benefits. Yeah. It seems like something Creed would want to do. Agree. He could go travel the world and get his checks, checking on his apartment in Canada. He has too many side hustles. He can't leave. I know. Who's going to like sell all of our equipment on the black market? Grow mung beans in their drawer. I mean, he needs to be there. It's also where he lives part time. Also, I feel like Creed is one of the only supporting cast members that got his own flashback clip segment. He kind of did. Well, our final flashback is going to be to flashback on all the romantic moments at Dunder Mufflin. Yes, because Michael is going to say that Dunder Mufflin is a place for lovers, basically.

Yes. Toby tells him it's inappropriate to speak about this, but Michael really wants Eric to know that this is a building where friends become lovers and lovers become sexually active. Sitting next to the human resources guy. So this montage backs up what we were saying the other week about how there are so many hookups at work. But I will say there is a moment missing from this montage, which is the Michael Holly stairwell hookup. And I would have liked to have had that in there. Agreed. Well, Eric's assessment of Dunder Mufflin is done. He's had, I think, probably way more than he needed to know about the company answered for him. It's time for him to go.

But we're going to end this episode with another flashback. It's Michael and Dwight doing the straight out of Scranton wrap. And it's the whole thing. That's right. This is the full extended cut. If you guys want to go rewatch it, it lives in this clip show. The full thing. And guys, that is the banker. We hope you learned a few things that you wouldn't have known otherwise. Here's something kind of dorky and rewatching it. Oh, this is so dorky. It made me miss early Jim and early Pam and the early days of the show, even though I'm really enjoying where we are in the show and everyone's character growth.

I did have this like longing of like, oh my gosh, I think I'm going to go back and rewatch those first early years. What is wrong with me? Well, lady, that's very sweet. I guess I'm just a dork for our own show. Well, listen, since we have time, I thought we could do a little housekeeping, maybe a little fan mail. Okay. So first off, we have a new clue in the steam town mall fountain case that we were working on as mom detectives. Do you remember? We were wondering, is there a fountain in the mall or not? Because Michael mentions it twice in Koi pond. He says he fell into it. And in double date, he fished a coin out for Helene scrapbook. Well, Cassie called the mall and some folks on our

office Facebook page called the mall. These poor people at the mall. Remember, and the people at the mall were like, why does everyone keep calling and asking about fountains? And they said, no, that's what the mall said. There's no fountain here. Well, I don't know. We might have to reopen this case because Josiah Trudeau sent in a photo of what he is saying is the fountain at steam town mall. What? Yes. Apparently there was a fountain at the steam town mall, but they had to shut it down because of financial reasons. He said it is still there, but it is now filled with dirt and plants instead. So if you went there, it would just look like a giant planter. I have a picture. You can put it in office lady pod stories. I believe that people do that. I've done that.

You've made a fountain into a planter. Yes. Where? Okay. So at our house, outside on our patio, there was a fountain. We actually put in the fountain when we redid our patio when we bought our house. We put in a fountain and it would get all mucky and then we had an infestation of mosquitoes and we would clean it out and we would try to filter it and we tried to keep this fountain going. And eventually we gave up and we drilled a hole into the bottom of it. We filled it with dirt and now there are plants in it. There's also a spout coming out above the plants, which was the fountain part. So it's a little odd, but yeah, now we have just plants. Yeah. I had some neighbors in their 60s who turned their hot tub into a flower bed.

Stop. No, they did. They said, you know what? We had a good time in that hot tub for years, but we're done going in hot tubs. We're done. And they made it into a planter. Huh? Mm-hmm. They said our hot tub days are over. I'm not going to argue with them. They're in their late 60s. They're done with it. They said they'd rather have flowers. I would have loved to see you argue with them. I wasn't going to argue with them. Well, if you thought that our mom detectiving was over, I have news for you. We have a client. We have a paying customer. Well, I don't know if they're paying. We have a customer. We have a customer, our first customer,

and our customer is none other than David Constable, aka the banker. What does he want us to find out? I'll let him tell you. I want to see, I want you guys, because you are the keepers of the Book of Knowledge about the show. Are there any other guest actors who have been in other projects with as many office regulars as I have? This is a question for you. This is a question that I'm posing to you, because Jenna, you and I did a movie together. John and I did a movie together. So I'm just saying, I'm not saying, I'm just saying. You tell me. Thank you guys. Good luck. Wait, is David like our Kevin Bacon? Is it like six degrees of David?

I think a little bit. So let's find out, David. We're going to get on this. As I told you earlier, I did a movie with David, and the movie he's referring to that he did with John Krasinski was the Michael Bay movie 13 Hours, which also has David Denman in it. Now, David Denman was a recurring character, but I feel like he is part of our main office family. For sure. So I'm going to count him. Plus, David has worked with Rain in the past. So that is four cast members that I've counted so far. Now, we've enlisted Cassie again. Cassie. Cassie, part of the mom detective squad. Yeah, I'm a cat mom detective. But this is a very hard thing to figure out. I started asking myself,

what other guest stars have been on the show? This is a lot of data. Well, I thought of Will Ferrell because I had done a movie with Will and so had Steve. I wondered if anyone else had. I thought of Tim Meadows. Right. And I did a project with Tim Meadows and Rob Riggle, a TV show. Oh, and then Rob Riggle has worked with so many people on the show. But Cassie did a real deep dive and thought of someone that I had not thought of. Cassie, what'd you find? Yeah. And first off, shout out to the Office Ladies Facebook fan page, especially Susan A, for all your help. And I'll just say, I only did movies. I feel like I have

to do this again with adding TV shows. Okay. But this person has been in eight movies with eight different office cast members. Who? Will Arnett. Will Arnett. Yes. Will Arnett comes in to interview to be the new boss at Dunder Mifflin as part of search committee. Oh my gosh. I forgot about that. And I think that's maybe the winner. I think so. The runner-ups I have right now are Ken John. He had seven movies and then Amy Adams had six. Okay. Wow. Yeah. I did a movie with Ken. Crazy. So tell us, who did Will Arnett do projects with? Yeah. So Jenna, he did Blades of Glory with you. Yes. With Ed Holmes, he did Semi-Pro. Then with both Steve and Mindy, Despicable Me, John, brief interviews with hideous men,

Brian Rumble, Rain, Monsters First Aliens, LaLaura, the Comebacks. Wow. Okay. Ken Jong was the runner-up with seven. He was also in Despicable Me with Steve and Mindy. He was in the Muppets with John. He's in the Hangover with Ed, Knocked Up with BJ, Furry Vengeance with Angela, and he did Pineapple Express and Knocked Up with Craig. Oh. Well, David, I'm sorry to say. It looks like maybe. Will Arnett beat you? Yeah. And Ken Jong. Yeah. Cassie, great work. Thanks. Maybe one day I'll try TV shows too, but my brain was already hurting. Well, it's finally time for us to answer the quiz. Remember the quiz I put at the top of the show? Oh, yes. Well, here it is. How many episodes do you think made up the banker? Okay, I don't know the answer, but I did watch

the episode and I know that the banker was, you know, we'd done over a hundred episodes by the time this clip show happened. So I'm gonna say maybe 40 different episodes? There were 63 episodes used in this clip show. Wow, 63. Yeah. They almost got a clip from every episode up to this point. I'm pretty impressed. Two thirds. Yeah. Very good work. Well, we are going to wrap up this episode with a little digital clutter and some more fan mail. Yes. Here's a little something from my digital clutter. Angela's digital clutter. Makes me happy every time. Every time. All right. So as you guys know, by now, that we only worked two days on this episode. And I found in my digital clutter that my daughter Isabel and I had a play date, Jenna, at your house during the week of the

filming of this episode. Okay. Yes. It was a Tuesday afternoon and Isabel and I came over and hung out with you. And then this same week, you emailed me saying, I might have fallen in love. That was the subject field. And I was like, what? And when I opened the email, it was a picture of you in an adorable kitten. Oh, yes. So that must have been when I was fostering Dunder and Mifflin. Uh-huh. I have the picture. It's so cute. I'll put it in stories. Well, I was going through some of our mail and this one really stuck out to me. This one is from Natalie from eight different states. Oh, we have a field on our form where you can fill in where you're from. And she had written, I have lived in eight different states in the past few years. I don't know where to say I'm from.

Oh, so Natalie from eight different states wrote, this isn't so much a question but a thank you. I wanted to say I've been loving my escape my me time while listening to the office ladies. I started a couple of months ago after being a huge office fan for years and it's just been so great. I've been a stay at home mom for four years while traveling with my family. It's amazing, but lonely too. I've never been away from my toddler and I haven't had a babysitter in a year and a half. I love my toddler and our unconventional life, but in many ways it's been very hard on me emotionally and mentally. The time I get to listen to the show, usually when cooking dinner, makes me feel like a person again outside of motherhood and feels like I'm listening to good

friends. Thanks. Oh, Natalie. Natalie, I'm so glad we could be there with you. Yeah, absolutely. I totally understand the loneliness that happens when you are staying home with your very young children. That is so normal. Those feelings, you know, you are giving everything you can to raising this little person. And you're happy too. That's the thing. You're so happy to be doing that, but you definitely miss like adult conversation and seeing people, but yet your heart and everything that you want to be doing is right there at home. Well, when my husband Lee travels for work, the thing that I say to him that I miss the most is our adult conversation. Because when you're with little kids, it's all little kid conversation, little kid activities. And I miss even just

us saying, oh, hey, did you listen to this podcast? Or did you read this thing? Or just the little adult social interaction moments. So I totally related to this letter because when he goes on trips, and I'm not in touch with him as much, you know, by the nature of someone traveling for work, that is when I will dive into just binging bitch sesh, just listening to friends, chitty chat about adult things, you know, or I'll listen to a bunch of best friends. I so gravitate toward these podcasts to fill that loneliness. Your adult time. Yeah. I totally get that. So thanks, Natalie, for your letter. Well, we had another letter from Abby from Texas and California. Abby writes, not so much a question as a thank you. My grandma who recently passed away and I would call each other lady.

I don't know where it started or why, but it was always a name that only she and I would call one another. I'm reminded of her every time you guys lady one another, and I could not be more grateful. Thank you for the sweet reminders and thank you for staying true to what gives your friendship its own flavor. What a treasure. Thank you again, sweet office ladies. I love that. Oh, Abby, lady, we love you. We sure do, lady. Well, there you have it. That is our episode today. A big thank you to David Constable, Rob Burnett and Randy Cordray for helping us get all the info we needed for this one. That's right. And a big thank you to Cassie, our new mom detective assistant. And Sam, always for your loving voice that pops in to share what not with us.

Our pleasure. All right, we hope you have a great week. We will see you next time. See you then. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is produced by Earwolf, 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 Bubico. Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton. For ad-free versions of Office Ladies, go to StitcherPremium.com. For a free one-month trial of Stitcher Premium, use code, OFFICE.