Office Ladies - The Client w/ Melora Hardin

Episode Date: January 29, 2020

I want my baby-back, baby-back, baby-back... This week Jenna and Angela break down The Client episode of The Office, and Mrs. Michael Scarn herself (Cathrine Zeta-Jones) reads the summary for this week's episode. (Yes! It's really her!) There's big news in our "Mindy's Hair Watch", and the ladies call up Melora Hardin to chat about those hilarious scenes in the Chili's with Steve Carell and Tim Meadows.

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. Season two, episode seven, The Client. The Client! Welcome to Office, ladies, everyone. I am still putting my note cards on the table. This is more note cards than I've ever seen you have, ever. Jenna, I take my job very seriously. I am keeper of the

note cards. First of her name. It's Game of Thrones, Jenna. I'm keeper of the note cards. Angela, you know I don't know that show. Well, I'm gonna quote it at you. You are the rest of my life. Okay, where are we at? Let's get started. This episode was written by Paul Lieberstein and directed by Greg Daniels. You have nothing to say to that? You don't have it? You've got a gazillion note cards, but nothing to say to that. I mean, listen, sometimes you say things that are just facts. That's just a fact. I don't know what to do with that. So like, yes, that is true, Jenna. That is a true statement. That is who wrote this and who directed

this. Next. Okay, well, I guess next I usually do a summary. Yeah. But I'm not gonna do it today. Why? Because I don't maybe like, I don't like that you're not responding to me today. No, I'm kidding. But I'm not gonna do the summary today because I got someone else to do the summary. Who? I don't know. Is it somebody? Is it your husband Lee? It's not my husband Lee. I'm gonna let you listen. Alright, hit play, Sam. In the client, Michael heads to Chili's with Jam to try and close the deal with a major client. While Michael is gone, Pam discovers a screenplay Michael has been writing called Threat Level Midnight, an action movie about an FBI agent named

Michael Scarn, who is married to, yours truly, Catherine Zeta-Jones. The star divides up the roles and reads the script aloud. Also, in this episode, Jim and Pam share grilled cheese sandwiches on the rooftop of Dunder Mifflin and Michael and Jan share a kiss. Oh my god. Holy crap, balls. Is that Catherine Zeta-Jones? That is Catherine Zeta-Jones. You are freaking kidding me. I am not. I am not. What the hell? What? What the hell? What is going on? Yes, should I explain? Yeah. Yeah. Alright, I've never met her. I should start with that. What? Did you not know that? We've never met. No, I didn't know that. Yeah. In my mind, you're like, you have this whole

friendship with like a big movie star and I'm like, oh, that's cool Jenna, I guess, whatever. Well, I'd like to say I would love to be friends with her. Yeah. She has a love of movie musicals, like traditional movie musicals. She's so good herself. She's so fantastic. But I also have that love. So I have daydreams of us watching like old movie musicals together and then tap dancing a little bit and then maybe having a cocktail or some tea. Reenacting scenes from Chicago. Yeah, this is what I imagine my friendship with Catherine Zeta-Jones is like. But I did do a movie with Michael Douglas. I played his daughter in a movie called Solitary Man. He's so good in it. It stars him and Jesse

Eisenberg. In that movie, I did my first New York City walk and talk. Do you know those movies you see that are shot in New York and they're just people, they're just walking and talking. And from the time I was little, I would see this in movies and that to me was like, you're a movie star. Doing a walk and talk. If you do a walk and talk on the streets of New York, you've made it kid. So I'm shooting this scene with Michael Douglas and I turned to him and I said, Michael, this is my first New York City walk and talk. And he turned to me. He got it. He goes, what? You got to be kidding me. This is fantastic. I'm your first New York City walk and talk. Congrats. It was everything I wanted the moment

to be. Well, so flash forward to I'm on the office and they write this joke in this episode that Michael Skarn's wife is Catherine Zeta-Jones cut even more forward. Their kids are now, I think, big fans of the office and she started posting about the office. So I got up the courage to DM her on Insta. He slid into Catherine Zeta-Jones DMs. I did. And we've had a nice little DM relationship ever since and then I became brave enough to ask her if she would please, please record our summary. And that brings us to now. Okay. Well, Catherine, I don't know you, but that was fantastic. And thank you so much. Thank you. Now can I go into fast facts? Please go into your fast facts. Fast fact. Number one, big news, everybody.

Big news at two minutes, 50 seconds. Mindy's hair is down. Why do you want to frickin steal one of my big note cards? Damn it, Jenna. That's my running, my running bit about Mindy's hair. Your running bit? My running bit. It's not our running bit. It's mine. Oh, I have to admit it is kind of yours. You started it. Okay. Yes. It's a half up, half down. But it's very flowy. Very flowy. We are starting our transition to all down. This is half up, half down because in Halloween, there were these braids, but you said it didn't count because it was a costume. That's right. And I also claimed that I thought the first time we were going to see her hair down was casino night. So I stand corrected. It is two minutes, 50 seconds, the client. The client.

Also in that scene, I think we're getting closer to the Kelly Kapoor we will all know and love. Oh, she was giggly. She was like, say it's not your fiance. Yes. Right. Giggly. Yes. No more morose. French twist. Kelly Kapoor. So for those of you who've been listening to the podcast here, you know why this fast fact was so big for Jenna and I. Kelly's hair is almost all the way down. We've been tracking her transformation. When will she become Mindy? We're almost there. Speaking of hair, what is up with John's hair in this episode? Did you notice? Well, it's like it kind of like is flipping out a little. No, the front like the bangs that are usually kind of like sloppy and real cute. They're like shellacked a little bit. Well,

it looks like someone just took a pair of scissors and just did a real blunt horizontal cut. Well, I have said, I feel like he has a bowl haircut. Yeah. This is the most bowl I've ever seen. So guys, you can check that out. Yeah. Fast fact number two, Tim Meadows. Guest stars in this episode as the Lackawanna County representative Christian. I feel like, you know, we had this rule where we weren't going to do any stunt casting and this is the first time we kind of broke that rule, but we had to because he was so good. He's so good. And actually, Jen and I both know Tim and I was able to connect with him this week and we hopped on the phone and talked about this episode and he was so delightful. So I have some fun Tim tidbits for

this episode and I'll get to those here in a minute. Well, I didn't work the day that they shot the scenes with Tim, but I was such a big SNL fan that I went up to the set just to meet him and I had lunch with him. I was, I totally fangirled and eventually we would end up doing the movie Walk Hard together. And so I actually got to work with him, talk about fangirl. I did a pilot with Tim Meadows for Fox called the Gabriel's and Rob Riggle was in it and we had so much fun. He is so hilarious. He's a hoot. Did I just say he's a hoot? Am I a nerd? You did say he is a hoot. Why don't you give us a fast fact? Fast fact number three, this episode was inspired by an idea that they had in the writer's room early on that Jim and Pam would go on a date without really

being on a date. So that was the card that they put up on the wall. How can we get Jim and Pam on a date without really being on a date? But then they also wanted to do the same thing with Michael and Jan. They thought it would be really fun to have both of these couples have this romantic evening. Right. So to have a, have a convention within the work day that they would somehow end up on a date. They also had the end of this episode written first and then they wrote toward that ending. So that look that you see between Jim and Michael at the very end of the episode where they both kind of shrug together like the ladies, the ladies in our lives. They knew that that would be the ending and then they tracked it back. Interesting. Because another thing that they

wanted was this moment where Jim and Michael relate and bond over something. So that's what they decided it would be. Those are my fast facts. Okay. Can I start my note cards? I think we have to take a break. What is with you today? What is with you? What is going on? I don't know. We are taping this like two days before the Christmas holiday week. I am in check it off the list mode. It is pretty funny though because you're saying something and then I'm just looking at you and you're like, that's it. You got nothing. I know you're just staring at me or nodding and I'm like, it's, it's an audio show. You have to give some audio cue that you've heard me. Are you done? Okay. All right. We're going to a break. I did it. I did it. I did it. I did it.

Hey, we have a pretty special guest in this episode. We do. Coming up after the break, we're going to talk to Melora Hardin. Who plays Jan? Yeah. We had to talk to her because we were not at the Chili's. No. So we had no firsthand knowledge of the Chili's, of the kissing. That smooch. We had to go straight to the source. So when we get back from the break, we're going to talk to Melora. Yay. All right, Angel, let's call Melora. Let's call her. Sam, call Melora. Hello. Melora. Hello. Hi guys. Hi. Hi. How are you? Oh man, we're great. It's so great to hear your voice. Nice to hear yours too. It's been a long time. Melora, thank you so much for agreeing to do this. The fans are going to go crazy. Let's get started by asking you, how did you end up on the

office? That's hilarious. Well, I got called last minute. It was sort of a last minute like come in and read for this, which I did. And I remember that, you know, I went in and like, you know, literally looked at the side right there before I went in because it was that last minute. Wow. You know, it was like Ken Qopas was in the room and so was Greg Daniels. And, you know, I could feel everybody was kind of excited. And Allison Jones, our casting director, you know, you can always feel that as an actor, right? When it goes well and people are responding to what you're doing. Sure. And then the next day, I was testing for a pilot and Allison Jones was casting that as well. She came out into the hallway and I was about to go in for my test. And I was like, oh, that was

really fun yesterday. I really like that, you know, those sides. And she's like, yeah. And I said, maybe I'll get, you know, maybe I'll get them both because that was the character of Jan at the time for the pilot was a guest star, possibly recurring character. But this one that I was testing for was a lead character, regular in a pilot. For an actor, you want to get the pilot because, you know, when you're the regular or the one of the stars of the show, because that's better money and, you know, just seems better. And she's like, well, I really want you to get that one, meaning the office. She really wanted me to get the office. Anyway, I went in and I did the pilot test. I didn't get the pilot test, but I did get the office. Wow. Well, the client

is a very big episode for Michael and Jan. Oh, yeah. You know, this is where you have your smooch in the parking lot. And we have a fan who wrote in his name is Ryan and he asked, how far in advance did you know about Michael and Jan's relationship? Well, when we were filming the pilot, I remember sitting at the tables having lunch with Greg Daniels and Steve Carell. And we were all laughing at how kind of weirdly interesting Jan and Michael were together. Like we sort of, and we were like, well, yeah, that's funny. You know, if we get it, if we get it, if we get a pickup and we get an opportunity to do this more of this show than just, you know, the six that we're doing, which was our first season, then, you know, it'll be fun. We should,

we should have them hook up. Wow. Because we kind of felt like there was a little spark between them. And we kind of conjured it on the pilot. Well, you guys had fantastic chemistry. And I think they were all picking up on that and seeing the possibilities because you and Steve and scenes together were just amazing. Thank you. You know what else is like, everybody is so perfectly cast in this show. I mean, that's one of the things I think that makes the show, besides the writing, which is unbelievable, but also just every single person is perfectly cast. There's not one person that you look at and go, well, you know, I mean, I mean, everybody's just absolutely spot on. I agree. I agree. Jinx. Okay. Well, Malora, can we ask you a little bit about

what it was like filming those scenes and that chilies? I mean, how did you get through those scenes? I was dying laughing. Oh, it is ridiculous. I will say that the stuff that Steve and Tim Meadows, he's actually a friend of ours. He was so great in that. He is so freaking funny. And the stuff that they did and the improv that they did and it just, it just flattened me. And I swear, last night when I was watching it, I watched it with my husband and, you know, I was just like, I kept going, oh my God, it was so hard to keep my straight. Oh my God, it was so hard to keep. I was so amazed at how incredibly straight faced I was because I'm telling you, every time we cut, I would just burst into laughter. And I had to look so irritated

and so, you know, so like just completely put off by all the stuff they were doing. But in reality, it was tough. So do you remember anything in particular that those guys improvised? Like was the baby back ribs song? Was that improvised? Yes, I think that was that whole little section there was really, I think that really was just spur of the moment, the way that they kind of went back and forth. Well, I have to move us along. Yes, we have another fan question that I'm actually dying to hear because when I rewatched it, I was like, oh my God, I forgot how long you and Steve kissed. You really smooched quite a bit. David R. Carroll said, BJ Novak has been quoted as saying that the kiss between Michael and Jan was rehearsed and filmed many, many, many times.

I don't remember rehearsing it. I'm certain that when we rehearsed it, we certainly didn't kiss during the rehearsal. No. And actually, last night when I watched it, I was like, that was a really sweet and like kind of awkwardly, just bumpy, bumbly kiss that I kind of loved. I thought it was a really great first kiss for the two of them. Yeah. Do you remember any direction that Greg gave you during that scene? I don't remember. I really think we did it like one time or two times. I don't even know what he is talking about. I remember it being really quick. And I actually think that the take that you see on there is the first time we did it. So I feel like, and it just has all that. It has everything it needs in it. It has the tension. It has the kind of like,

wait, that's so wrong. And wait a second. I want more of that kind of thing that Jan, I think, struggled with the entire relationship with Michael. So I love that. Well, that was really a spy shot. I know that Randall was crouched behind a car and he had this idea of shooting through the car window to you. That's right. And I remember doing some scenes like that. And they always felt so real because you couldn't feel the camera, you know, a foot away from you. You really felt like you were out in a parking lot. Exactly. You really do feel like you're in the middle of nowhere doing your own thing, having that private moment that we're all trying to strive for at all times as actors.

Well, Malora, there is a scene in the Chili's I thought you did such a phenomenal job in. It's at the end of the night and you guys, you've had a few drinks, you're over it. They're having beers and talking and you're just sort of checked out. And then you realize that Michael is about to close the deal. You see what he's doing and you perk up and you look at him with this smile on your face. And it, that was the moment for me that I realized why she even entertained being in a relationship with Michael. She saw that side of him and was like, Oh my God, he's crushing it. And it totally made everything make sense for me. Yeah, but you did a great job. It is a great moment. And it's,

Jan really rarely smiles in the show. I do so much scowling and kind of, you know, a disapproving look. And so it's really, it's really nice to see her kind of have that big full expression of, you know, kind of enjoyment of, Oh my God, this whole thing that, you know, that he's been doing all night that I thought was just a bunch of BS actually was, you know, there was a method to his madness. And I do love that. And I think that is the thing that leads to the kiss is that he feels the, you know, he gets to have the moment of, of the victory. And, and she has, you know, and she kind of is like, Oh, there's more, there's more to this guy than I thought, you know, he's not just this idiot that I thought he was.

Yeah, yeah. Melara, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us about this. Will you consider coming back for future episodes, perhaps? Oh, sure. Well, when you get to the dinner party, that is why I was going to say, I mean, it is, I mean, it is like one of the best episodes ever. And you're so phenomenal in it. And Melara, what are you up to now? Can we give you a little shout out? Oh, you're sweet. Well, I mean, I'm doing the fourth season of a series that I've been starring on for a while called the bold type. And I just directed an episode for season four. So I'm currently editing that episode. So that's exciting. And I love everybody to

check that out. That's episode 12 of season four, but they can watch the bold type seasons one, two and three streaming on Hulu and on freeform.com now. And also season four begins airing on January 23rd on freeform. So everyone go check out the bold type on Hulu and freeform. Yeah, that's right. Okay. Well, you guys are sweet. And what an amazing thing we've been part of together with the office and everything. It's really exciting. And I love that you guys are doing this for the fans and revisiting all this. It was really fun watching the episode last night. All right. Well, great. We'll see you for dinner party, lady. All right. I'll see you then. Thanks, Melara. Bye, you guys. Angela, I think we should get into this episode.

Let's start talking about the client. Okay. Can we talk about Michael and his jeans? Yes. Oh my gosh. This cold open made me laugh so hard. I just think it's really funny that when Michael is dancing around in his jeans, there's this tiny spy shot of Angela Martin's head that's to the left of the potted plant while Michael is dancing on the end table. And she's just looking there snarky, but I'm so short. My head barely comes over the partition. And so there's the plant and then my head just for like a split second at 18 seconds. And then back again, when he's goofing off, I'm like judging him from the copier. So Angela Martin is just being placed in these little spaces in the background judging. Well, I remember that I had to have a big wardrobe fitting of quote,

unquote, casual clothes so that we could shoot these flashbacks to casual Fridays. But Angela, are you just wearing your regular gray office wear? I am never, I never participate in casual Friday. What's interesting to me is that this cold open implies that we have casual Fridays at the office. But so far, we've never shown a casual Friday or reference to casual Friday. And I believe we never do again, even though we very often have episodes set on a Friday. No, this is the one time I said, also, there's some real great PAM sass in this cold open because what do you do at the end? You just chunk his jeans under the chunk them? Yes, you just, you flip them over and you toss them. Have you been saying chunk your whole life? It's chuck.

You chuck them. Wait, no. Have you? Have you been saying chunk for your whole life? I think I said you chunk it at something. Chunk it? Sam, Sam, it's chuck, right? It's chuck. It's 100% chuck. Some people. Another wiffle. Oh my God. Do you chunk your wiffle ball? I chunk it. You chunk it. Chunk it real hard at someone. Oh my God, I've taken my glasses off because I'm crying. I'm crying, I'm loving so hard. I chunk it. You don't chunk it. Oh man. Oh Lord. Yeah, PAM chucks the jeans into the trash. Well, there is some PAM sass there. There is. Also, how long in my life have I been saying things wrong? And now I'm just learning about it all

in the podcast. I don't know. Oh God, okay. Well, that is life intimidating art right there. Okay, so after the scene with the jeans, the show opens with Michael and Jan having a meeting. They're talking about how they're hoping to secure a very big account. Lackawanna County, the whole county, they will buy their paper from Dunder Mifflin. This is when Michael tells Jan he has changed the meeting from the Radisson, which he describes as too snooty, to Chili's, which he says is the new golf course where business happens. Yes, I have that on a card. I thought it was so funny, the Radisson. Too snooty. Too snooty. Too snooty. Too stuffy. I have two note cards from this scene that I have to bring up. Oh, well then go. I mean,

at a minute 16 seconds, you guys, Jan has hot pink nail polish. She does? Yes. I think Angela Martin is probably judging her. I mean, you know, she judges her, but hot pink nail polish in the workplace, I'm just saying. And then a minute 31 seconds, Jim has a talking head and he says that if we get this big Lackawanna account, we might not have to downsize, but didn't we just downsize in the Halloween episode? Well, we let go of one person, but I think the bigger deal is that they're saying an entire branch might have to close. So it's either us or Stanford. Got it. It's going to have to close completely. Okay. So this would save us. I got it. This moves us into the scene in the kitchen where everyone is telling their worst first date stories. Oscar tells a story

about how he went on a date and he found out the woman had background checked him. The woman. Yes. I have this on a note card. I'm like, Oscar is telling this like kind of horrible date scenario where he went on a date with a woman. So did, did the writers not know that they were going to make Oscar gay yet? Or is Oscar kind of covering in front of his co-workers? Well, that backstory of being on a date with someone who'd done a background check on you, that was based on a real story of Paul Lieberstein's dating life. What? Yeah. He said he went on to date the woman for a while, but that on their first date, she revealed that she had done like some, a real deep dive on him to make sure that he was on the up and

up. I have a fan question. Both Sarah Clark and Kim asked who came up with Pam's worst first date story. Well, Pam's story of being left at a hockey game was not based on anyone's real story, but the writers went around the room and they just pitched worst first date stories. Where is the worst place that you could leave a date? That was their assignment one afternoon. That's a little insight into the writer's room. What it's like. They sit in there on a bunch of couches and they eat snacks. They eat a lot of snacks up there. They really do. Cause we would go steal their snacks. We would steal their snacks, but they also do sit at a table with computers as well. Well, they do, but sometimes when they pitch these ideas, it's really fun to go in there

because they'll say, okay, what is the worst place to leave a date? And then they just go around there and you just shout it out. It's like so fun in a writer's room because I feel like when they do that kind of stuff, it's almost like playing a game of Pictionary or something in your living room. So they said that they had a lot of alternates, but this was their favorite. They liked the idea. I wish we could know what their alternates were. I know. This is the one that ended up in the script, but I think it's perfect. First of all, that he took her to a minor league hockey game on their first date. Second, that he brought his brother. And then third, that they left her there. Yeah. And then that it was Roy. Yeah. It totally supports the

backstory you made up that he bought Seedoo's with the money you were going to plan your wedding with. Yeah. With his brother. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I loved it. I thought it was perfect. At three minutes, 35 seconds, in the background, there is a mail cart, like a rolly mail cart. Oh yeah, it's there a lot. No one ever pushes it. No one ever delivers from it. No, sometimes we've had people push that cart, I think. I feel like Oscar has done something with that cart. Really? I don't know, guys. We don't have a designated mail person though that like comes around with their mail. We don't have a mail room. We don't. I feel like Pam handles all the mail. Well, then she just pushes the cart to the back of the room. Well, I never pushed the cart,

but maybe anyone out there comment us, let us know. Yeah, who pushes the cart? At three minutes, 54 seconds, you can see three photos on my desk. Yes. Look, I have one of them. Oh, Janet, there's a photo of your sister and her husband taped to your desk. Yes, that's right. Yes. And my sister's husband's name is Dwight. Isn't that crazy? Now, the writers didn't know that. That was just all like by chance. Yes. Here's a little bit of interesting trivia. My father's name is Jim. My brother-in-law's name is Dwight. And my niece's name is Cece. Well, and they named the character after Cece. Yes. That the other two were already happening. Yeah. But that one was all you. My niece Cece was born about a week before we filmed

the episode where Pam and Jim have their baby. And I asked if we could name their baby Cece after my niece. I think that's so cute. All right, ladies, should we take a break? I think we should. I see you've paired down your note cards here. I'm pairing down my note cards. I've collected myself. I'm no longer laughing at you when you just simply look at me. Thank you. Thank you for admitting that all I'm doing is looking at you. I know, but the expression was really funny. Dwight, now you just did it again. You just implied that there's some way I'm looking at you. This is your thing. I'm going to take a sneaky photo of your face. Don't you dare. Lady, you do. I have to do the impression. Ready? This is my

impression. You be me. Hold on. Look down at your note, whatever you're doing. Okay. Ready? And those are my fast facts. Nothing? You have nothing? Angela, this is a podcast. You're supposed to talk. That's my impression. But did you see my face? Barely. Those are my fast facts. And those are my fast facts. Your turn. Okay. We are back. Michael and Jan are getting ready to leave to go to Chili's for their big meeting. And did you notice in the parking lot, Michael says, Chili's is just a couple blocks away. They should just drive together. However, the closest Chili's is actually about 30 minutes away in Wilkesbury at the Wyoming Valley Mall. Somebody did a little bit of a deep dove. I

remember this. I remember when we were shooting it that we discovered that there isn't really a Chili's in Scranton. You have to go outside to get there. And it wasn't a big deal when we did the dundies. But here, Michael does say it's only a couple blocks away, but it's not. And then he goes on to say, you don't know Scranton at all. It's like, well, maybe, maybe you don't know it. What was it like for all the people in Scranton to see this episode and be like, wait, what? Where's the Chili's? Well, they probably had the same moment when they saw a palm tree or two every once in a while. They'd be like, wait, what's a palm tree doing in there? I also want to say, I looked it up. There still isn't a Chili's in Scranton. Chili's missed opportunity here. You

guys want to go ahead and put a Chili's in Scranton already? Chili's, maybe you should call us, because Jenna has some business plan for you. We will cut the ribbon. Oh, we would cut the ribbon. We'll cut the ribbon. I've never done that. That'd be fun. I know. I've always wanted to do that, where you hold the giant scissors. Don't chunk them though. I won't chunk them, Angela. I will not chunk them at anyone. So they walk inside the Chili's to one of my all-time favorite scenes. Yes. I bet it's this. I'm putting up my note card. It is. Is it, is Gould dead? No Gould. When she says no Gould, when Steve's face as Michael, when he whips around and goes, no Gould, like it is, you see everything in him go electric. Yes. Is Gould dead? Do you want to talk about it?

Are you okay? We're in a meeting, Michael. Michael, we're in a meeting. And then he has to give that look to camera. Yeah. Oh my God. It's so good. Oh man, Steve is so good in that scene. Oh, we have the same thing written down now. What? I just peeked at your note card, the waitress Megan. You hold your paper up so I can't see it, but my note cards are right here in front of you. That's your business. Five minutes, 47 seconds. Megan, may we have an awesome blossom, please? I think this is a great detail. Now, I don't know if this was in the script. I don't know if Steve improvised that, but I love that Michael remembers the waitress by name. I absolutely believe that the character of Michael would remember every waiter or waitress by name.

I think that Michael, every flight attendant. Yes, I was going to say, I think Michael knows the name of every person he has to interact with. Yes. And it's his pleasure to get to know their name. And I love that he knows the waitresses, Megan. It is a great, great detail. Six minutes, 19 seconds. Michael calls Pam on the phone back at the office to get him to read her a bunch of jokes from these joke books in his office. I got a lot of questions about this. People wanting to know the punchline for that joke about the lighthouse that Pam starts. And Michael's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. There is no punchline to the joke. It was not in the book. Those jokes, quote unquote, were scripted and they just wrote the beginning of the jokes. Oh, I love it. There

were no endings. I bet the writers had a lot of fun with that. Just writing the first line of a joke that they know they have, they don't have to worry about the payoff. That would have been fun. Well, and I had the challenge of having to memorize the line, but look like I was reading from the book that I was not reading from. Oh yeah, that's tricky. It was a little tricky. After this, Pam finds threat level midnight, the script that Michael has written where he is an action star, Michael Skarn. And at seven minutes, 18 seconds, Jim finds drawings of the threat level midnight poster within the script. And we had a fan question from Becca Ramirez. She asked, who made the drawings in the script of threat level midnight? Do you know? I don't. Great question. Greg Daniels.

Did he really? He made the drawings himself. Oh my gosh, I could see him sort of sitting on the side quickly drawing them. So he sketched them out. And then he gave them to, I guess it would be Phil Shea. Yeah. And Phil hired an artist. But this was the example, like Greg kind of sketched it out to say, here's my idea of what the poster, this is what the drawing should look like. And Greg said the artist came back and the drawings were so good that he thought, he thought maybe his kind of crappier drawing was more realistic. More realistic. Yeah. That Michael would do that. Yes. So he kept his own drawing in. I think it's just perfect. Okay. Well, two things. Number one, here's the actual joke that Michael tells. At the chilies. At the chilies. Here's the

actual joke. Well, I'm an astronaut. So I drive a Saturn. Second guy says, I'm a pimp. So I drive a cheap escort. Third guy says, I got you both beat. I'm a proctologist. So I drive a brown probe. Yeah. And that's the line that like makes Christian, the client just roll over laughing. How about it's seven minutes, 36 seconds. They're all eating this awesome blossom with no drinks, not even waters. Megan, where's their waters? Megan. I mean, those are kind of salty. You need your water. You do. Oh, I have a fan question. Okay. So a lot of people asked if this was the same chilies where we shot dundies. Yes. All right. I did some research. So we got a lot of conflicting information on this one when I went to research it. First of all, the internet says

it was not the same chilies, yet they have no citation for their information. That's right. So I asked Phil Shea, he said he thought it was the same one, but he said it was close to our set. But the original dundies one was not close to our set. Then I asked Greg, he said he couldn't remember, but he knows it was an empty black Angus. So I don't know. So I actually asked Tim this as well. I said, Tim, can you tell me a little bit about where you filmed? Cause we're trying to figure out if it was where we filmed the dundies. And he said, well, I can tell you this. It was like this really gross out of business restaurant in a kind of sketchy area. So maybe it was the same. I know. That makes me think it was the same. And he said it was gross

because no one had been in that building in so long. There were like little nooks and crannies of it that were kind of dusty and corrody. As I was watching it, I couldn't tell if it was different. They did an excellent job of making it look like it was the same place. Yeah, I couldn't tell either, but Tim's description of it kind of brought me back. Eight minutes, 34 seconds, Michael's tie with the little mouth on it. Yes. That he uses to eat the awesome blossom. That was scripted that he would do that. And the wardrobe designer actually had to make that tie that is a custom made tie. She made seven different mouth options that she showed to Greg and he had to pick the mouth that would go on the tie.

Oh my gosh. This is when I'm like, our jobs are crazy. That is a crazy thing. Hey, how was your day? Well, I had to make ties with mouths on them, like a bunch of different mouths. I made seven different mouths and then my boss picked one. Okay. Can we get to one of my favorite scenes, which is nine minutes, seven seconds, the baby back ribs. Yes. All right. I was so excited to talk to Tim about this. Now, a lot of you guys wrote in and said, was that improvised? Was it scripted? And here's what Tim said. Tim said the beginning of that song when Michael starts off singing was in the script and in the script that he was supposed

to join in at the end. Okay. Baby back ribs, right? At the end. And he said when they started filming it, Steve started to sing and it just kind of wasn't working when Tim joined in. So Tim started doing the other part, just kind of improvised that I want my baby back, baby back, baby back. And then it was like lightning bolt. Off to the races. We've got it. And he said one of his favorite moments, it's in the bloopers and I went and watched it is he goes to do his, I want my baby back back. And Steve just improvises, no, you come in later and he's like, Oh yeah, right. Like, and it's so funny. It's a great little moment in the bloopers. I watched those deleted scenes as well. So good.

So good. And Malora is right. Malora could not hold it together. I mean, can you blame her? No, they were so funny. And they really wanted to hold that three shot. They really wanted her to be the anchor of the scene. So they couldn't carve it up. They couldn't have all these singles or anything. So anytime she laughed, they had to start again. They did. You can also tell that those guys are having so much fun singing together. They're having a blast. The week after this scene, Steve was going to shoot to host Saturday Night Live. And so when I was there that day, I remember Tim giving him like some little, yeah, all the insider intro on what it would be like. Well, I actually said to Tim,

I was like, Tim, you and Steve had such great chemistry. How like, how long have you known each other? And he said, we've actually known each other a really, really long time. So they met a long, long time ago before any of them were famous when they were really young. They were all at Second City in Chicago. And they also did Improv Olympic. And then Tim was cast on SNL with Nancy Carell and Dave Kekner. Oh my gosh. Right. But he said, honestly, he said when they became really, really tight and got to know each other is the summer when he had off from Saturday Night Live, all of those guys went and did a Second City tour in DC. And they were there for the summer. And he said, that was so much fun. He said they would do their show. And then after the show,

they would all stay and do an improv set. And he said it's some of the best improv he's ever been a part of. Could you imagine if you could go back in time and buy a ticket to that show? I would have loved it. There are people who got to see that. Yeah. And Tim said, I was like, who is in the cast? And he said it was Steve and Nancy, John Glazer, Adam McKay, Theresa Mulligan, who I know, who is hilarious. And they just had the best time. Well, some of the most fun we ever had Angela off camera on our show was when we would get to hang out with the cast of Saturday Night Live. Because remember, they're an NBC show, we're an NBC show. So we would often have to do press with them. We would go to New York, they would fly the

cast of The Office to New York. And we would spend an entire day doing press conferences. And then in the evenings, they would throw a little party for all of the actors on the NBC shows. And it would be the cast of The Office and the cast of Saturday Night Live. And we would just crack up. Crack up. And have dance parties. Those are some of my most fun memories. And I even remember being there and pinching myself and thinking, remember this, remember all of this. Yes. I remember one of the things I remember is that you and I going to watch Saturday Night Live. And we got there and we were sort of hanging out with everyone, you know, before they're kind of getting ready. So we just said, hi quickly. We went to our seats. And then afterwards we went back in

their dressing rooms and hung out like another half hour. Then we went to this like after party that they have after everyone, every taping. That was really cool. But then Chris Parnell was like, guys, do you want to go to the after party? The after after party. And I was like, wait, isn't this the after party? And he goes, no, no, no, the after after party. And then we went to the after after party. And it was like in this bar, Jenna, that looked like a forest. It had all these trees. I remember. And you and I like, I think I just had on like a denim dress. I got it the gap. And like everyone was dressed so cool looking. And I turned to you and I was like, it is three in the morning. Oh, I think the sun was coming up when we finally called it a night.

I remember going up to Chris Parnell and being like, so I think we're done. He's like, all right, guys, they were still there. Crazy. We left and they were still there. Those are some of my favorite memories. And I'm so glad we did that stuff because we are kind of the people who don't normally stay out late. No, we don't. But we went for it. And I was, there were two casts that we hung out with a ton in our heyday of the office, I would say. And one of those was SNL and the other was Mad Men. Yes. Mad Men, that show was coming up at the same time that we were. And I would hang out with the cast of Mad Men a lot. Because the same thing, we would have to go to these press junkets. And the stars of all the shows would be in their various conference rooms

speaking to the press, but then they'd have some like big buffet lunch for all of us. And I would chit chat with all the Mad Men people. The other cast that I ended up talking to quite a bit, who I really thought were fantastic, was Community. Oh, yes. That's right. Everyone on that show was just so cool and fun. And I loved getting, when we got partnered with them, you know, to do press. Well, bringing us back to the episode, you know that scene where they're eating the ribs? Yeah. Okay. I found out a really interesting little tidbit. I listened to the DVD commentary. That's actually Paul and Greg making the slurping sounds. Oh, no. They recorded slurping sounds in the editing room to lay on top of that scene to just make it even grosser

for Malora's reaction. That is so funny. That is so funny. And just makes me like love our show because I felt like we were just like this little, this little engine that could, this little team of like, we need two people to make slurping sounds. Oh, that happened all the time. Yeah, all the time. You have some more stuff about Tim, though. What do you want to say? Well, I just asked him, you know, if he, you know, had heard of the office and how he came to get the job. And he said that he was a humongous fan of the BBC version. And he said that when he got the call about the show that it was not a hit, right? It was kind of early on. It was sort of, sort of like, what is the show about? And like, he said in like inner comedy circles, people were like, the show

is really funny. So he knew it was funny, but it was like, the world didn't really know about this show yet. And he was kind of busy. And he was like, I don't know, guys, I don't know that I can do it. And, and so he initially said no. Oh, he turned it down. Yes. And then they called back and Tim said his theatrical manager's assistant was like, Tim, this show is so hilarious. And he was like, All right, all right, all right, I'll do it. I'll do it. And he said he's so glad he did. Of course, he had the best time with Steve and Tim is right now on a show on ABC called schooled. It's on Wednesday at 8 30 p.m. So check it out. Thanks, Tim. So now Angela, I think we should go back into the office and talk a little bit about threat level midnight. Oh, yes. Everyone in the office

goes into the conference room, they divide up the parts and they start reading threat level midnight. I think this is a great example of what a table read is like. This is what we would do every week on the office. Tuesdays or Wednesdays at lunch, we would all go into this conference room, they would hand out the next week's script, and we would read it out loud. Yeah. And usually, the director was the narrator, they would read all the stage direction. And on threat level midnight, Jim is the narrator when you guys all read it. And he casts Oscar as golden face. But when threat level midnight is actually made, Jim is golden face. Yes. Yes, that's right. A little catch there. One of my favorite things in this is DwiGT, the fact that Michael's bumbling assistant

clearly used to be named Dwight. So that talking head that Pam gives where she explains the typo and all of that, the first time we shot this episode, that explanation did not exist. And so that was a reshoot. I actually liked that talking head because it helped it make sense for me because Samuel L. Chang was actually DwiGT. That's right. Well, here's the cast that we see in threat level midnight at the table read. Now, it's more fleshed out and things have changed once it's an actual movie, and we see that in season seven. Phyllis is Catherine Zeta-Jones. Dwight is Michael Skarn. Oscar is golden face. Ryan is Samuel L. Chang. And that's the only people that are cast in what we see. Everyone else is sort of sitting around, but those are the ones

that are called out. Well, I had a big fan question here. A lot of people asked if threat level midnight was a fully written script. They did write quite a bit so that we would have something to work with, but as you see in the show, it's an unfinished script. So it was not a fully written script. They also wanted to know if we read from the script or if it was improvised. Next, I was going to say that I thought we read from the script, but I found an interview with Brian Baumgartner where he said we improvised it and BJ backed that up, that we were sitting around for about five to 10 minutes and we were just throwing out anything at all, which seems almost impossible to me, but there's two people in the cast who say that's how it was. I remember it

differently. Even Phyllis, when she said, I have two things to say. First thing is, I love you. No, no, no. So I should say some of it was scripted, but we did also improvise some. Okay. So it was both. And that happened a lot when we were shooting. They would leave the cameras rolling and then we would throw stuff out there and some of the improvisations stayed in. I love that. But you could definitely tell the beginning of the scene was scripted, getting you into it. Yes, that's true. Back at Chili's, guys, let's have a little bit of an adult beverage timecode count. Oh dear. So at seven minutes 59 seconds, Jan orders a vodka tonic. We never see this vodka tonic. Oh, that's right. Yeah. At eight minutes 35 seconds,

they all have margaritas. So is Jan on her second drink? At 13 minutes 44 seconds, Michael and Christian are having beers. Jan looks like she's having a water with lime. I can't tell. It's in a tall glass. Maybe that's finally her vodka tonic. I don't know. That's our adult beverage count for those of you who love the background stuff like me. Angela, I'm ready to take us on a date. To the roof. To the roof. Pam and Jim's roof date. I have so many questions. I have so many technical questions and I have some just, you know, fan of the office questions. What do you want to know? How did you get up on that roof? Okay. So the ladder that you see in the episode really leads up to the roof.

Do you really climb that little fire escape looking ladder? John and I did not. But that is how the crew got up there. Okay. John and I, for I guess, safety reasons and insurance reasons, we got into a harness. Okay. And then they lifted us up to the roof. Like in a forklift kind of thing? Yeah. In some sort of weird platformy forklift, which seemed scarier and more dangerous than if I'd just been allowed to use the ladder. And we shot on the actual roof of Dunder Mifflin. I would rather climb the ladder. Same. I asked to climb the ladder, but we went up and down on the platform forklift. Okay. I have a fan question about the roof. Okay. James K asked, was it cold on the roof?

It looked cold. It wasn't. It wasn't? Angela, shooting the scene is one of my fondest memories of all time from the show because the only people on the roof were me, John, Greg Daniels, Paul Lieberstein, our first AD and our camera operator and DP, Randall Einhorn. It was warm. It was a warm summer evening, but like a beautiful summer night. Warm breeze. It was, I can't explain it, but this little group of us up on the roof, it hit me while I was up there. I'm on a TV show. I'm living my dream. This is amazing, right? I'm sure it felt really magical, just like a magical moment, completely magical. We had really gelled as a group at this point. We were really in it all together. We all loved

the show so much. We loved being at work so much. It was just really, really special, and the grilled cheese sandwiches tasted so good. It was great. I have another fan question. Donna asked, was anyone hurt by the fireworks that looked kind of dangerous? I saw Brian Baumgartner recently, and I asked him about the fireworks. He said, Jenna, it was insane. There was no stunt coordinator for these fireworks. He said, because they had to get the shot of us from so far away, they really left the two of them out in the middle of this parking lot field, which looked alone, looked very dry. Yeah. Well, you know, fireworks are illegal in LA. Oh my gosh. They had a hard time even getting fireworks for this scene. We were breaking the law?

I'm not sure. I know BJ said once in an article that there was a rule about how big the fireworks could be. They weren't allowed to shoot anything up in the air because LA is very dry. That's right. I think I do know that. So you can do the thing that's on the ground, but that's it. Yes. So they were like the sparkler thing on the ground. Yes. And Brian said that they couldn't hear anything. They could barely hear action or cut. They just were out there playing these fireworks, but at a certain point, he heard someone shout, hop over them. Kick them. It was probably Greg. It was probably Greg screaming. But Brian said they felt very real, and I think that was part of it about what made that night so magical was that it was really like we were watching those guys

goof around with fireworks because they were because you were. Yes. Yes. And after this, when we come down from the roof, you know, Jim and Pam, they leave the office and they're listening on the headphones. Oh, at 14 minutes, 34 seconds. I have a note card that says old tech alert. What? Because it's an iPod. Yes. It's an iPod. And you guys have like the little headphones where you each take a little ear. It's so cute. Well, Matt Hurt asked, what if anything were you and John listening to when you shot the swaying dancing scene? Okay, that's one of my questions too, Matt. So what was it? Okay, the song you hear in the episode is a song called Sing by Travis. But John and I were actually listening to an Interpol song. Which song?

I don't remember. But you know it was Interpol. Yes. I remember that. And I think that was John's actual iPod and that he suggested that song, that we listen to the song. Jam fans are going to love that. Yeah. And that was also lovely. Same warm summer evening. It was awesome. So we talked to Melora a little bit about the next scene, which is Michael and Jan in the parking lot. That's at 15 minutes, 21 seconds. It is the big smooch. Yes, the big smooch. All right. So I feel like there's just this brilliant moment. And I don't know if it was written or if Steve improvised this that just shows how over the moon giddy Michael is that him and Jan just kissed and that she said, let's get out of here. He's so giddy. And I wrote down the scene because I thought it was so adorable.

It's at 15 minutes, 21 seconds. Jan says, Jan is sort of like all of a sudden camera aware, right? Yeah. She's looking for the camera. Is this getting caught on tape? She doesn't find the camera, but she wonders. Right. And so she says, let's go. And Michael goes, what? And she goes, let's go. And he says, where are we going? Oh, okay. Doesn't matter. Going to the go-go. Going to the go-go. Going to the go-go. I thought that was so cute. He's just so excited. I thought it was adorable. All right. So it's the next morning now. The Dunder Mifflin film crew enters the office. Do they have a key? Do you notice that? Dwight is sleeping on the couch. Maybe it's not even locked. I know. Maybe he never locked the door that night. Why is Dwight in blue

underwear and his tank top under like a foil, like a FEMA foil blanket? Well, I'll tell you, there was a very big meeting about what underwear he would wear. Of course there was. Yes. Would it be boxers? Would it be briefs? What color? This is what they decided. Of course there's a huge meeting about Dwight's underwear. Of course. Yeah. I know. And they decided on those blue, blue, kind of like tidy whiteies. Yeah. They're, I guess, very slouchy. Very baggy. Oh, you know, Rain loved that. He loved every second. What about the scene where he runs to the window? Angela sees Jan. That's right. So obviously the camera crew busts Jan, right? Yeah. She's so busted. But there are two Dunder Mifflin employees who also now know. Angela, who's arrived early in

the parking lot, and Dwight, who's peeping down from the window. Yeah. And Jan sees Dwight. I'm assuming she sees Angela as she drives by. But I love that Dwight and Angela. Oh, I think she totally clocks you. Oh, yeah. I do too. But I love that Dwight and Angela, who go on to have their secret relationship, totally busts Jan. I love that it's Angela in the parking lot because I feel like the very last person who you want to see during your walk of shame is Angela. Exactly. All right. So Michael arrives into the office with his delicious secret. He's so giddy. I felt like Melora described that so well. How sweet and innocent and happy he is that he... He's so excited. He's so good. He really, he really is like, I'm not going to talk about it,

right? No, I'm not going to speak about it. Gentlemen, don't kiss and tell, and neither do I. Ha, ha, ha. You know, and then the next thing we know, he's like, we'll have to disclose, we'll have to write a letter. Yeah, that's so true. About our relationship. He just, oh man. In that talking head, I love the camera work in that. It's a very, very slow push in on Michael's face. And you can just feel the camera putting all this pressure on Michael to tell the truth. How long does he last? He lasts like 14 seconds. Seconds. Seconds. He's like, all right, fine. We went, we went back and we... To our hotel. Yeah, we made out for a little bit. I held her and she talked to me about her divorce. Oh my gosh. That phone call with Jan, where he goes under the desk, Greg directed that. Greg told

Steve, why don't you take this phone call under the desk to avoid the camera crew? And he said it was great because they were able to edit together all of Steve's improvisations because you can't see his mouth. Oh, so smart. Yeah, because Steve was improvising a lot of that phone call and the things that, you know, he was saying back to Jan. Then we have Jim and Pam's, kind of their first fight. I don't know. They have that hiccup at the dojo, but this is different. They have little moments. I mean, he got his feelings really hurt when you suggested he try, you know, go for that job at the other branch. Yeah. And then there was the dojo and now there's this. Well, this one doesn't get resolved at the end of this episode. Jim suggests to Pam that maybe they had their

first date, that you could say this was their first date. And I want to say something. I understand why Pam bristles at this. Well, let me just take a minute. First of all, Pam lies to Roy, bold face lies to Roy and says, I have to stay at work. And he's like, are you kidding me right now? And she's like, no, I have to work. So already, like, she has probably within her moral compass stepped over a line. I think for Jim, now look guys, I'm a huge Jim and Pam fan. And I wanted them together from the beginning. But I would think as a guy, like I was talking to my husband about this, and he goes, this is kind of a move Jim's doing. You know, he knows she has a fiance, but he makes a grilled cheese sandwich, takes her up on the roof. Like,

he knows, he knows this is his moment. He's going for it. Ultimately, they end up together. So it's great. But that's not that kind of breaks guy code of what you do with someone else's fiance. Well, and then I think for him to call it out so clearly out in the open, I think Pam is willing to pretend like none of that is happening. And they're just friends while it's happening. But for you to just look at her and say, Hey, you were kind of unfaithful last night, was very shocking for her. And she had to shut that down. She had to be like, I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about. You're just my friend. And we were hanging out after work. So I don't know what you thought that was, but uncool. Right. That was her way of trying to get her

boundary back. And also just being defensive, knowing that she did something she shouldn't have, I think. Well, I think whenever like, there's a moment when Angela catches her with Pampong, then Meredith catches the shirt coming up, right? And then this moment when he calls it out, all of those moments are when Pam gets a mirror held up to her behavior. And it makes her uncomfortable because she knows the right thing to do is say, Roy, I'm in love with Jim and we should break up. Yeah. But she's got all of these layers like you do in a relationship and feelings probably of guilt and obligation and all of that all wrapped up into it. So she doesn't know how to make that break. Yeah. And I think this is one of those moments where a mirror is held up and she feels

bad and she bristles at it. And then it all ends with that final look between Michael and Jim, the little shrug. Eh, women. Ah, what are you going to do? Yeah. Too lonely, guys. Well, guys, that was the client. That's the client. Thank you so much, Melora Hardin and Tim Meadows, for making this episode that much more special. And I want to say thank you to Brian Baumgartner and Phil Shea and Greg Daniels, all of whom I reached out to for this episode. Thanks, guys, for your help. Thanks, everybody. All right, we'll see you next week. We're going to be chunk and performance review your way. Oh boy. Oh boy. Hey, I'm proud of us for pulling it back together. We were really on the edge at the beginning of this one. I got a little giddy. I have a little

punchy. So thanks for sticking it out. That's what she said. Ooh, good ending. Thank you. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is produced by Earwolf, Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey. Our producer is Cody Fisher. Our sound engineer is Sam Peefer. And our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Gratton. For ad-free versions of the show and our bonus episodes, Candy Bag, go to StitcherPremium.com. For a free one-month trial of StitcherPremium, use code OFFICE.