Office Ladies - The Coup

Episode Date: June 10, 2020

This week we're breaking down The Coup, so you better get ready for a fashion show, fashion show, fashion show at lunch! We start off with Movie Monday, Rainn Wilson shares a few memories about this episode, and a fan submits an interesting theory about Jim's shirt sleeves. Then we talk about Stamford and Call of Duty, we get Outlet Mall deep dives, and of course we couldn't forget Crentist the Dentist. Finally we wrap up with Michael and Dwight hugging it out, and Angela shares a journal entry and a couple deleted scenes.

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. Are you ready for some conniving and some backstabbing? It's the coup.

It's a little bit McBethy. I think that's a term. Look it up, McBethy. Season 3, Episode 3, written by Paul Lieberstein and directed by Greg Daniels. You know what I would really love? What? A summary? Guess what, Angela?

I have a summary. By the way, why did I say that almost like Cookie Monster? A summary? I don't know. Here is my summary. It's a little bit like Stacey. Oh, it is. It's got some Stacey undertones.

We're all Kevin. It's a little Cookie Monster mixed with Kevin. Here's my summary. Michael gets into hot water with Jan after she catches him throwing a movie Monday in The Office neglecting work. So egged on by Angela, aka Lady McBeth. She convinces Dwight to undermine Michael by meeting up with Jan in an attempt to steal the manager position.

You're going to see a whole new side of Steve Carell that is almost in this episode. At the same time, Kelly convinces Pam to have a fashion show, fashion show, fashion show at lunch. Fastback number one. So this is a very, very big Rainn Wilson, Dwight, Angela, Michael episode. When you say this is like the three of you are really driving this episode. I mean, we have this weird love triangle, if you will. I feel like.

Yes. I mean, it's true. I feel like I'm in love with Dwight. He's in love with Michael. Yeah. It's weird. Well, we really wanted Rainn Wilson to come on the podcast this week and Rainn Wilson wanted to come on the podcast this week.

But guess what? If you can believe it, we had some technical issues that kept us from being able to make that happen. However, Rainn Wilson did send in some audio clips and we're going to sprinkle those in throughout. So he will be making an appearance, although very soon he will be making like an appearance appearance. I'm so bummed about the dang Wi-Fi of it all.

You guys, it gets glitchy, it gets glitchy up in here. I don't know, what am I even talking like? Am I 21 in the club? What am I doing? Glitchy up in here? Oh, baby, that's not 21 in the club. It's not. I mean, I hope it's not.

Is it? Is it? It's getting glitchy up. You think when you're 21 in the club, you talk about glitchy Wi-Fi? Glitchy up in here. That could be your undies in a wad. It could be anything. All right, all right.

You know what I'm saying? Fair enough. Glitchy up in here could mean a lot of things. But apparently, when you're 48 in your converted tough shed that you made into an office, you say, is glitchy up in here? We are so sorry that it's hashtag glitchy up in here, but we're going to figure it out. We're going to figure it out. So listen, my fast fact number one is that even though this episode is the love triangle

of Michael Dwight and Angela, there was a big internet stir. As the kids would say. Do they say that? Do they say there's a stir? Pretty much. Pretty much you and I have our finger on the pulse of the hip lingo. Do they say the internet, the internet was a stir? The internet was a stir with the fact that this episode has the first Jim Caron flirt.

Oh. Oh, I know. Oh, Angela, the internet was a buzz. Was it a buzz? Well, you know what? I like the internet was a stir. All right. What I'm going to say now is glitchy up in here and the internet was a stir about it.

Oh, dull face. Oh, dull face. So yes, the flirt begins the distance between Jim and Pam is growing. They are not in touch. Even though Jim does bring Pam up a couple of times in this episode, the message boards blew up. Do you remember that after this episode came out? A lot of strong feelings.

A lot of strong feelings. A lot of strong feelings. Remember Rashida? Jim and Karen. Rashida was like, I'm going to go into hiding. People hate me. Except that she's so cute in this episode. She's so stinking cute.

And you know what? She doesn't know about Pam. It's not her fault. That's right. She's not doing anything wrong. People were like, just hating on Karen, but it's not, Karen's not doing anything wrong. Yeah. I mean, do you think Jim ever told Karen about Pam?

Probably not. Why would he bring that up? Why would he bring that up also for some weird reason the only person Jim ever really confides into is Michael? Yeah. So no, he did not tell Karen about Pam. No way. All right.

Well, this is leading me into fast fact number two, Angela, you have a fast fact for us today about Karen. I do. I have a fast fact about Karen. So Karen's name, Karen Filippelli, was based off an NBC exec named Rachel Filippelli. And this is just a classic Greg Daniels move that he loved to use people's names that he actually knew. I feel like all of our writers would probably pitch names of people they already knew.

But Rachel Filippelli wasn't an exec and Rashida said she actually met her. So Karen Filippelli was based off Rachel Filippelli. Greg did that all the time. If you knew Greg, you better bet your name is going to end up in one of his shows. Also part of fast fact two, Jenna, I don't know if you remember this, but Rashida would sometimes spill things on set. And she got the nickname of Spillipelli. I don't remember that.

Spillipelli. Oh, that's amazing. That's amazing. All right. I'm going to move us to fast fact number three because this is a huge fast fact. Angela, I don't know if it's that people are spending a lot of time at home, but this week we got a lot of mail from people that was very long, very involved, a lot of deep dives, a lot of conspiracies.

And I'm going to go into this conspiracy sent in by Susie Kowalski. This is the Jim Halpert sleeve conspiracy. You got my attention, Susie. Here is what Susie says, guys, I took a deep dive on Jim's sleeves. As you have done on Kelly's hair and shirts, someone please tell me why for all of season three, Jim's sleeves are not rolled up. He is famously known for rolling up his sleeves, yet in season three they are not rolled and he is even sometimes wearing a blazer.

Here's what Susie says. I believe it's love, stay with me for a second. Oh, gosh. She wrote, stay with me for a second. Go on. She says, Jim's iconic look is him with his dress shirt sleeves rolled up and never wearing a blazer, even though the rest of the men in the office do. However, when Jim moves to Stanford, he's either wearing his blazer or his dress shirt

with his sleeves not rolled up, which is weird because also Andy does not wear a blazer. But after the merger, Andy wears a blazer every day in Scranton. Oh, Susie. Oh, Susie. All right. Susie also says, this is also seen in season three, episode three and four, not two because that's the convention, five, six, seven and eight. Eight is the merger where Andy suddenly starts wearing a blazer all the time and Jim keeps

not rolling his sleeves. But since he's quote unquote home now, you would think he would go back to his old ways, but he doesn't. It's not fancy Stanford, Angela. It's not. Okay. He keeps not rolling his sleeves even when he gets back to Scranton. She says, even in episodes nine, 10 and 11, even when in 11, he's in the warehouse handing

Karen the lease, he's back in a blazer. But why? It continues in episodes 12 through 21, not 22 because that's beach day and episode 23. Guess what? Season four, episode one, no blazer, his sleeves are rolled up. I repeat, the sleeves are rolled up, people. Jim is back, baby. And this is her conclusion.

I believe Jim's sleeves are directly correlated with his dating of Karen and not dating Pam. I think when he moved to Connecticut, the sleeves were his way of starting a new chapter. Maybe it's symbolic that he was never comfortable with Karen. He couldn't be his real self and roll up his sleeves. But in season four, episode one's cold open, he's comfortable again. He rolls up his sleeves and we know at this point, he's dating Pam. Let's give her a clap. Susie, that is some serious sleeve tracking.

I applaud you on your attention to detail. Susie asked if this was intentional or an accident. Susie, this was intentional. Susie, I'm telling you, you are making some ladies in wardrobe really, really happy. They did a lot of things like that. They would change our wardrobe depending on what our characters were going through. And wow, Susie, I am so impressed. We're going to see a lot of moments from Pam where her wardrobe changes or her hair

changes because of who she's dating or what she's up to. Some work, some don't. We do that in life, right? We try on new looks. They're not all winners, guys. They're not all winners. Well, listen, we're all stuck inside. We're wondering what are we going to do?

Maybe something you could do is re-watch season three of The Office and look at Jim's sleeves. See what Susie saw. Let me tell you something, Susie. From here out, I'm going to be looking at his sleeves. Yeah. All right. Fantastic, fast facts, lady. All right, guys.

We're going to take a break. And when we come back, we're going to break down the coup and get ready for some sweet audio clips from Mr. Rainwilson. Okay, we're back. We've got our cold open. Michael and Pam are popping some popcorn in the microwave because guess what? It's Movie Monday. I guess that means we find out in this episode that Michael makes everybody go in and watch

a movie or maybe a medical video or maybe an episode of Entourage. I have to tell you at 42 seconds, Jenna, your look to camera, when you said that they ran out of like instructional videos and you watched a medical video, your pause and look to camera is absolute genius. Oh, lady. It was so good. You know, we got a lot of mail of people asking, why did I pause and look at camera? Because he made you watch a medical video.

Okay. So I watched this with my daughter and she was like, mom, what is, what's the deal with the medical video? I was like, imagine they ran out of like videos related to paper supply or work related videos. And then he just found one on how do you give someone a root canal? And you had to watch that. She was like, ugh. And I was like, exactly.

Exactly. Also, that look to camera that you're talking about, that is in the script. It says Pam looks at, gives camera a look like, can you believe it? Oh my Lord. It was so good. Well, you know, Michael says this is the only cure for the Monday blues. And then he goes into his cabinet lady at 13 seconds. He goes into his cabinet into his safe to get a copy of varsity blues.

Do we need to revisit all of the things in his cabinet? You know, I saw Pringles, I saw the rubber chicken that has to be in the safe. You know. Yeah. There's a blue pack of gum. Here's the thing, his silver tea set that was in there during Dwight's speech. Where did it go? I don't know.

He had to move it for his movie stash. There's more than one movie in there. There's also a new photo of Jan taped over the old photo. The old photo was a picture of Jan like from a newsletter when her last name was still Levinson Gould, and now there's some other photo, but I couldn't, I couldn't catch it exactly what it was. I like to think that it's a photo he took of her that she didn't want him to take. Oh, 100%.

Well, I have a little something about this cold open. Sam, will you play Mustang? What's going on? And now it's time for Kinsey tidbit. Hey, look who got her kids in on it. All three of them. We had to make a sentence so they could all have an equal amount of time, so it was fair. You guys know how it is with multiple children, it all has to be fair or somebody gets their

feelings hurt. So we got a Kinsey tidbit. I have a Kinsey tidbit about this cold open. Jennifer, did you know that in 1999, I auditioned for Varsity Blues? What? Oh, yeah. Yeah. What?

I did. I auditioned for the part that Allie Larder got of Darcy Spears, the cheerleading captain. She was known famously in this movie as the character who comes out in a whipped cream bikini. Oh, my gosh, whipped cream bikini to Mox, who was played by James Vanderbeek. Yeah. She seduces him in a whipped cream bikini. That's the role I auditioned for.

I did not get it. So there you go. Lady, I have questions. Yeah. Go. Did you have to do any cheerleading as part of your audition? Or the fact that you had been a cheerleader, was that a plus? That was a plus.

Did it come up in your audition? It came up in my audition, yes, that I had had cheerleading experience. I think it's probably, I was such an unknown nobody. I think it's probably how I got the audition because I was, I could imagine my agent at the time who was like, she's from Texas because it takes place in Texas. She's blonde. She was a cheerleader. Yeah.

So I got the audition and I had like my Texas accent and everything. I did not get the part. It's okay. But I had read the sides and I remember being like, whipped cream bikini, how does that stay on? Like, how does that, how does that work? And this movie, Varsity Blues, I had to go see it because I had to see, you know, the role I didn't get.

And there are so many things that if you're from Texas, you're like, okay, whatever. That's a, that's a bit much. But one of my favorite lines that my friends and I used to say to each other was by James Vanderbeek and his Southern accent. As the character mocks, he gets into a fight with the football coach who's played by John Voight. They had some like big names in this movie and he looks at him and goes, I don't want your life.

Yeah. We would say it to each other all the time. All the time. Hey, what's up? I don't want your life. Okay. All right. Relax.

How did you feel when you did not get the part? Were you super bummed or were you relieved that you didn't have to wear a whipped cream bikini or both? Was it a mix? I think it was a mix. It was a mix. I was like, oh, I think this is going to be a big movie. You know?

Yeah. And I never. This is a game. That would have been a game changer. Game changer. I never got to audition for movies. I was just really just going in on commercials. That was my big success as I had done a commercial about potato chips that gave you anal leakage.

So this would have been a big deal. Pretty much on camera, all I had said was, wow, and then took a bite of a potato chip. So it would have been a really big deal. But I didn't get it and that's okay. And that is my Kinsey tidbit from the cold open. I love your Kinsey tidbit. I thought that was very, very good, Kinsey tidbit. Thank you.

Thank you. We also had a fan question about this cold open Angela. We had a lot of people ask, what did we do with all the extra popcorn? Because Pam pops a bunch of popcorn and then no one takes it. You guys, we ate it. And we also just put it out on the snack table for the crew. We did eat all that popcorn. It was great.

I'll never forget it. Yeah, we were excited about popcorn. We had a lot of snacks all the time, but all of our snacks, they had to be very quiet snacks because the snack table was behind the walls of the set. So our crafty people, they couldn't pop microwave popcorn because we were shooting and it would make noise. Remember, we had that one cappuccino machine for like a hot second Angela, but it was so loud and it kept ruining takes because people would go back and fix themselves like a frothy

cappuccino while we were trying to shoot and they were like, get that machine out of here. So this was, I mean, to say we were tickled to have some like microwave popcorn, we actually really were because it was usually all things that made no noise. Yeah. Like a lot of our snacks were like cheese, a lot of cheese, a lot of cheese. Guys, don't worry, Angela did not string it who had time for it. I don't have time for that. So I guess Pam also shares that they watched an episode of entourage six times, which episode

I wish we knew. And Jenna, did you know that our lovable curmudgeon, Rainn Wilson, was a guest star on entourage? No he was not. Oh yeah, he was Rainn. This delighted me so much. Rainn was in season two, episode nine, the episode is called, I love you too. He played RJ Spencer, who was an internet comic expert and he interviews Vincent Chase at basically the San Diego Comic Con because get this, Vincent just got the big role of

Aquaman. Okay. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And so RJ Spencer is going to interview him. But during the interview, Jenna, he starts talking about, I heard that you were engaged to Mandy Moore and she broke up with you, you know? And guess what?

This pisses Vincent off. Oh yeah. Then he calls him an a-hole. This is not the interview he was expecting. No. He calls him an a-hole and he storms off. And RJ is like, I will ruin you, I will write horrible reviews of Aquaman. You know, you had your chance and I'm going to destroy you on the internet.

Okay. So now, E, Vincent's manager, right? Yeah. He's got to fix this. He's like, what do you want? You know, he's like trying to bribe them. What happens? And he says, I want $350,000 or I'm going to destroy Aquaman online.

So, meanwhile, Johnny Drama is at Comic-Con and he has a really good friend, an adult film star, Jesse Jane, played by Jesse Jane. She's promoting her fake comic series titled F*** Patrol. So E says, hey, will you guys visit, quote, RJ in his hotel room and convince him not to write a bad review of Aquaman? And because of her love of Vincent, she's like, yeah. And her and two of her pals in very, very interesting outfits go and knock on the door and RJ is like, blah, blah, blah.

And guess what? Does Rain have a love scene with three women? I need to ask him about it. On entourage? I need to ask him about it because they go in there. They shut the door. We don't know what happens. But I wonder if there was ever a scene of anything happening.

Like, was there a scene that didn't make the episode? I don't know. But then, of course, he writes, you know, Aquaman Glowing Review. So there you go. Rain. Rain, I have questions. I have questions for you. I will be texting you later.

I really wish I knew this before Rain sent in his audio clips because I feel like the audio clips would have more, more. They would have anything to say about this. Here's when I was listening to your description of this episode, it became very clear to me why I didn't watch entourage that. And I feel good about that. I feel good that I didn't watch it. And I feel like, yeah, that good call.

Here you go, Rainn Wilson as RJ Spencer on entourage. I kind of want to see just that episode, maybe just Rainn's scenes. I just fast forwarded to Rainn's scenes. You don't really need to see anything else from it. That was some shade. And so now we can get into the episode. Jan is visiting unexpectedly and discovering Movie Monday. Yeah.

And guess what? Not everyone approves of Movie Monday, Jenna. No, Angela, you do not approve. I do not approve. It is me. I will own it. I do not approve. And then Angela is so sneaky.

When Jan comes in, she like points to the conference room like, mm-hmm, tattle tail. She is. But Angela, at one minute, 49 seconds, where are you sitting for this talking head? You're by a window and there's a plant. Oh. Where are you? I know where I am because there's a- Where?

There's a deleted scene that's not in here where Dwight has to come find me. Michael's like, go get Angela, right? And Dwight's like, why me? He plays this really coy. It's like a sort of a hilarious performance of like, well, I don't know where she is. So- Yeah. That's why are you asking me for Angela?

Yeah. And then he goes and finds her and he knows exactly where she is. I am sitting behind the vending machine sort of squished up in the wall behind the plant on a chair and I am needle pointing a fo- like a cat. I'm needle pointing a cat. And that's where this talking head is. Oh. Yes.

And there is that window that goes from the break room into that little hallway. Into the hallway. And there's a big plant there. Yeah. And that's where I'm sitting. Oh. Because there was a- It was driving me nuts.

There's a whole scene that happens there that didn't make it in the episode where I start plotting. That's the first seed I plant is that you wouldn't do this as a manager. You wouldn't waste everyone's time like this. I see. All while needle pointing a face of a cat. I love that. All right.

We have a fan catch. Angela, Beth Boss says, when Jan walks in she puts her bag and coat down on the chair in front of Michael's office. But when Angela points to the conference room and the camera cuts back to Jan, she's holding her coat and she's just now putting it down in the chair. Good catch, Beth Boss. Way to go. There's some Dwayangela sass in this episode, as we know.

And two of my favorite Dwayangela sass lines are coming up around two minutes 39. Angela is telling Dwight to meet her in the kitchen. And she says that Jan is going to be peeved off. Jan is peeved off. And then Dwight in his talking head said, yeah, Jan's really been bitching out on him ever since he broke up with her. I'm like, what is up with Dwayangela? They're like kind of cursing.

They're being a little tacky, Jenna. Oh. You think so? I think they're being a little tacky. They've hit their limit, Angela. They can't take it anymore. They can't take the inefficiency. They can't take, you know what happens?

It's like for all these years they've been separately stewing over all of this. But now that they're together. You know how that happens in a couple? Yeah. Now they're kind of like mind melding. Yeah. Well, Ange, I love this scene with Dwight and Angela in the kitchen. It's around two minutes 42 seconds.

You guys are back to back again, not facing one another. Angela is telling Dwight that he's the one who she's been writing the office and he should talk to Jan about it. We had a fan question from Evan Warburton. He says, Angela, did it make it easier or more difficult to film a scene when the characters are back to back? Because I know that Rain and Angela did quite a few scenes like this. Did it make it easier to stay in character because you didn't have to make eye contact?

What was it like? Tell us, Angela. Well, I'll tell you this. The biggest thing about these scenes that I remember was timing because you cannot see the other person speaking. So you don't respond quite the same way because you want to make sure they finish their sentence or whatever they're doing, they're emoting, whatever their thing is. So I remember the first time we did it, there were probably more pauses because we wanted

to make sure we had the give and take because naturally when you talk to someone, you're reading their face. And so it was just acting off of someone's voice as well. All of my reacting was in listening. I think in some ways it made us more thoughtful performers because we couldn't face the other person and we had to really listen to them and react off the last thing they said. Did it make it hard to improvise? Oh, for sure.

I remember really being conscious of not improvising any lines within a written scene and anything that I did improvise came at the very end when I knew I wouldn't be stepping on anything Rain said. So most of my improv in these scenes, if it made it in, was something I said as I was leaving or at the very beginning. That makes sense. So, yeah, so they have this scene in the kitchen, Angela storms out, she's furious. She tells Dwight he needs to grow a pair, right, and a talking head.

See what I mean? Jenna, she has had it. And on growing a pair, let's move to Stanford. Let's grow a pair and move to Stanford. All right, so what's happening in fancy Stanford, Jenna? They're playing Call of Duty. Jim explains that what started as a team building exercise has now turned into this super competitive game of Call of Duty, which keeps interrupting their workday.

He mentions this is where Jim brings up Pam. He's like, yeah, we didn't really play video games and Scranton, but, you know, we did other things like Pam and I would hum a high-pitched tone and try to convince Dwight that he needed to see an ear doctor. Pam called it pretendinitis. Oh, Jim, Jim, Jim, Jim, Jim, Jim. Thinking of Pam. Oh, Lordy.

But then back in Scranton, Angela, Pam is not talking about Jim. She's signing for a package. She's gotten a delivery. Listen, she went on a date last the week before, right? Yeah. Now she's getting some new clothes. With the help of Kelly Kapoor, before we really dive into this scene, you guys, four minutes, 36 seconds, is Mindy wearing a side ponytail?

Come on. You're bringing up her side ponytail. What about her bangs? I mean, she has bangs. She has bangs, but she has an extension filled side ponytail. There's a lot happening with her hair. I don't have a sting for it, but it would go full Mindy. Yeah.

Why don't we have a full Mindy sting? We really need to get on that. I don't know. Someone make this a full Mindy sting. Someone do it. Well, this leads to a very famous office line, fashion show, fashion show, fashion show at lunch. Yes.

Yes. Guys, that is 100% scripted. That was in the script. That was not an improv. It was written exactly like that. Mindy delivers it perfectly. We had a lot of fan questions about this scene. People mostly wanted to know, did I get to pick out the outfits that Pam gets in her

online shopping spree? And also, were there more things in the box besides that single shirt that she gets out and wears later in the kitchen? Okay. Yes. We had a big wardrobe fitting about what would these outfits be? And there were more things in the box, but I'll have to tell you, they were basically that same shirt, but there was a turquoise one.

It was a lot of jewel-toned shirts that looked almost identical to that one shirt that you see. And that was kind of part of the joke, because have you done that when you're shopping? You're like, I'm going to get a whole new wardrobe. And then you just kind of go to the store and buy the same pair of pants and three colors. Oh my gosh. I always do that. I find like one shirt I like and then buy it in three colors.

And people are like, hey, I, oh, have you worn that? I, is that it? And I'm like, no, it's the same shirt. It's the same shirt. Yeah. That was kind of what happened with Pam's like redesign of her wardrobe was that she managed to find one thing that she was willing to take a chance on and then bought it in different colors.

Here's what I remember about that, Jenna. Because all of us saw each other every day pretty much in the same wardrobe, right? Yeah. Whenever one of our characters did get anything slightly different, we were like, hey. So I remember our reactions to your red fancy blouse so similar to our characters minus the gross pervy stuff, but we were all like, oh my God, you look so great. Oh my God, you look amazing. And you're like, oh, it's just the wardrobe or the scene.

It did feel like that whenever we got a slightly fancier hairdo or a slightly cooler outfit. Yeah. Everyone noticed. Casting crew. We all talked about it. We were like, wow, look at that. So now we're back at Stanford, my lady. Back at Stanford.

Andy is getting ticked off at Jim for killing the wrong soldiers in Call of Duty. Yes. And did you notice that four minutes and 59 seconds, there is still a blue sticky note on Jim's computer that says smile? No, I didn't notice. That was a great catch. Yeah. It's still there.

Fan question from Shelby Hagan. How was Call of Duty chosen as the game that was played in the Stanford branch? Thank you so much for your question, Shelby. We actually got so many questions about Call of Duty, and this seemed like the perfect one to get us started. As you guys know, Jen and I were not in those scenes at Stanford. That's right. So Shelby, I reached out to a lot of people to get you the real deal on all things Call

of Duty. Angela, I got all the scoop from our line producer, Kent Sabornak. I texted with our editor, Dean Holland and Andy Bernard himself, Ed Helms. Lainey, that is a serious deep dive. I like it. I like it. I deep dived. I really did.

Okay. So what did you find out? All right. So Kent told me that after we wrapped season one of the show, the post production guys moved to some offices in Venice to edit the episodes. And while they were there, Kent just for whatever reason, just on a whim installed Call of Duty on everyone's computers, just so they could blow off steam during edit sessions. And then when we moved to our new stages for season two, he did it again, but this time

he also installed it on all of the writer's computers. And that is when the editors and the writers started playing one another. I remember this because our editors and writers were in the same building. They were over where the warehouse is, right? Yeah. And the writers were upstairs and the editors were downstairs. And sometimes I would go over there at lunch because I was friends with Claire Scanlon, one of our editors at the time.

And I would walk in the editing bay and they were all like, get down over here. I was like, what is happening? I remember going up to the writer's room and seeing the same thing. They had this big conference table in the writer's room and they would have all their computers in a circle. And then some people had little offices and then some people would be around this conference room table and it was the same thing. They did exactly like what Stanford did.

They would turn off the lights and they would have this elaborate match going on. Oh my gosh, they were so into it. Well I guess Greg Daniels was particularly obsessed. In fact, our editor Dean Holland told me that the very first time he met with Greg to start editing an episode, within about 10 minutes, Greg said, have you ever played Call of Duty? And Dean was like, yeah. And he said, Greg left the room and started a 20 person game, like within 10 minutes. How perfect that Greg was the person that directed this episode because he loves Call

of Duty. I know. He loves it. I don't think that was a mistake. No. No. All right. Well, I have a little runner up question for you, Jenna.

Okay. So Evan Warburton wrote in and said, hey, I need to point this out. Jim is apparently horrible at Call of Duty at the Stanford branch in this episode. But in the episode email surveillance, you can see in the background of the scene at 20 minutes, eight seconds, that Toby is playing Call of Duty on Jim's TV. Remember at the barbecue, Jenna? Yes. Okay.

Yes. So and then also in Jim's bedroom at 15 minutes, 52 seconds, you can see an expansion pack of Call of Duty on Jim's desk. Come on, someone please explain. All right. Yes. We actually had a lot of people write in about this glitch. I went to that timecode 15 minutes, 52 seconds.

There it is. There is an expansion pack Call of Duty. Here's how this went down, guys. Okay. Kent told me that the writers had a card up on the wall in the writer's room all through season two about a possible Call of Duty storyline, but they couldn't really ever figure out how to put it in. And they had originally thought about doing something in email surveillance.

And if you remember, Angela, we did actually shoot some scenes where people were playing Call of Duty during Jim's party. Yeah. But it wasn't a storyline. Yeah. It wasn't a storyline. It was just something people were doing at the party kind of in the background, but that was there in the script.

Yeah. And it didn't really though go anywhere. So finally, when they went to Stanford, they wrote this full plot line and they had to just live with the fact that there had been this tiny appearance of Call of Duty earlier, but they so wanted a full Call of Duty story that they just went with it. It was like, it's worth it. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Whatever, whatever email surveillance, we've got to have a real episode that features Call of Duty. You know what I did for myself, the way I made it make sense is that Jim had roommates. Yeah. He had roommates who probably played it. Maybe it was never his thing. You know? He had to put it in his mansion pack and put it in his room to make his roommate stop

playing. Maybe that's why it's in his room. All right. Along with his guitar that he never plays. Okay. Jenna and Susie. Come on. Come on.

So I listened to the DVD commentary for this episode and Jenna Rashida said that she got lessons on how to play Call of Duty from the writers. As soon as she got the job, they started teaching her how to play Call of Duty, which cracks me up. And John actually had something really sweet to say in the commentary. He said that going to the Stanford branch, all of those actors had never worked together before, right? And that playing Call of Duty with one another was actually a really fun icebreaker to get

to know everyone. You know, Ed and I traded some messages and he said the same thing. He said they all played with the writers and it was really, really fun. And he told me that they also played for real on set. Yeah. They were really playing during those scenes. And then when they would cut, they would just keep playing. He said it was a lot of fun and people got super, super into it.

I have a little FOMO. I have a little FOMO about it because I feel like we would have had fun with that at Scranton. I mean, all we... See, we knew they were having fun over there without us. We knew us. Dang it. All we were doing was playing Solitaire. Exactly.

Oh, Jenna, did you get any scoop in your deep dive on who was the best player? Who was our best player? Well, I don't think any of the actors were very good. Oh, really? Ed said he didn't remember anyone being particularly great, including himself. Kent told me that he was the best player when they started, but that during the editing phase of season one, when they were in Venice, co-producer Angie Hamilton was the best. Wow.

But then, see, it sort of depends on who you ask because Dean told me that during season two, he and writer Mike Scher were the best. They were at the top of the leaderboard. He said they got so into it that they took it over to Parks and Rec when they moved over there and they played it every day on Parks and Rec. And Kent did concur that Mike and Dean left as champions, but he also said that their assistant editor, Mike Zurer, was pretty great. All right.

All right. Well, I think those were fantastic questions. Thank you so much, Shelby and Evan. All right. So now, at five minutes, 12 seconds, we're in the parking lot, Dwight, you know, he's kind of psyching himself up. Like he does that. We've seen him do this before, like in the stairwell.

And in the DVD commentary, Rain mentioned that that run that he does in the parking lot that Paul Lieberstein showed him exactly how he wanted that run done. Really? I picture these two guys just running back and forth. It makes me laugh thinking about it. And then Dwight calls Jan and he says, hey, I need to talk to you. It's not safe here. He's crouching down.

People are walking about. Kevin's around and he tells her to go to the Liz Claiborne outlet at Exit 40 because he knows that she likes buying those blouses from Liz Claiborne. Yeah. He says he'll meet her there. Yeah. I'll meet you at the Liz Claiborne outlet. He says, go in and shop.

I'll meet you there. And she says, how do you know I like their blouses? And he says, it's part of my job to know. And then she has that great line where she's like, it literally is not part of your job. Yeah. It's absolutely not part of your job to know this. And then Dwight's like, noted, how long has Dwight been tracking her clothes? I feel like Dwight is the tracker, the way we track things on the podcast.

That's what Dwight was doing of like everyone in the office. He's got some real creepy notebooks. Oh, he has meticulous creepy notes. Lady, I had to do a deep dive the minute he said Exit 40. I had to know, are there Liz Claiborne outlets at Exit 40? So I can tell you all the outlets in Pennsylvania. Did you go there, lady? Did you go there?

Okay. I did not go there, Angela, because remember when I said earlier that our fans got real into some deep dives on this? We had multiple people write in about Liz Claiborne outlets and Exit 40. Jenny Aguirre wrote in to say, there is no Exit 40 according to three Google map suggestions from Scranton to New York. Did you find that, Angela? No Exit 40?

Yeah. I couldn't find an Exit 40 either. Okay, well, McKayla Brock said that the only Liz Claiborne store near Scranton is in Ramsey, New Jersey, which is about an hour and 45 minutes away on the quickest route. But Elizabeth M said that Jan has said she's been driving an hour supposedly to New York City, which would not be on the way to this Liz Claiborne outlet that is in New Jersey, and it would actually add 25 miles to her drive. Well, I want you to know when I was in junior high, my favorite perfume was the Liz Claiborne

perfume. Oh! It came in a little like triangle, you know, and you took the top off. I loved Liz Claiborne perfume. So I would have been very excited about this Liz Claiborne outlets. And my mom loves the outlets. We had to pull off on the side of the road like she would say to my dad, Bill, there's the outlets.

Here we go. Oh! My mom loves the outlets, there is a Carter's outlet, there's a baby gap outlet. My mom shops the outlet and she sends just like bags of clothes to me for my kids from these outlets. It's the best. Guys, loving on the outlets. So you can go to outletlocator.com and type in your state and find out your outlets.

So this is what I found. There are three outlets in Pennsylvania for Liz Claiborne. There's one in Lancaster, one in Hershey, and one in Reading. And then, lady, when we get to it later, I'll let you know what outletlocator.com says about Ann Taylor. I'll hold on to that. I'll hold on to it. Oh, yes.

Many people wrote in about Ann Taylor. So we'll put a pin in that. So and then, you know, Dwight gets off the phone and he tells Michael he has an emergency crown that he has to get put in. Michael's like, oh, that, you know, that sucks. And he said, yeah, it's a new dentist that is three hours away. And off Dwight goes. Well, Michaela Brock wants you to know that if Dwight goes to a Liz Claiborne store in

New Jersey, he would have been gone longer than three hours because driving time alone would have been three hours. He wouldn't have even had time to meet with Jan. Guys, we did not think this through. Our writers did not go to outletlocator.com when they wrote this scene. They did not. Well, at wherever he went, Dwight is now in a parking lot with Jan. And she has done some shopping.

She's got some bags. She's got some bags. I have a question for you, Janice, since I know you have the scripts. There is this line that Dwight says to Jan, and I feel like it's rain improving when he said, did you get a new blouse, halter top, camisole, Teddy? Is that rain improvising? All of that was scripted except for Teddy. Teddy.

There you go. I knew one of them. He threw in Teddy at the end. I knew one of them had to be rain. You would be friends with Kate Launergen who wrote in that same question, lady. Oh, hi, Kate. All right. Dwight and Jan have a meeting at a nearby restaurant, and this is where Dwight really

turns on Michael, and he starts to campaign to take over the office. He campaigns and grosses me out at the same time. I mean, I am impressed with his no-look poor, and no-look poor of syrup is no joke. Lady, that was scripted. I mean, that was amazing. I thought the same thing. I looked it up in the script, and there is a stage direction that says, here's what it says, Dwight takes the syrup as he talks without breaking eye contact with Jan and

pours it over everything on his plate. Amazing. Amazing. We did get some questions, lady, about his eating of the waffles and pancakes, which is also delightful. That was not scripted. Rain just ate how he wanted to eat. Casey helped and asked, how much of those waffles and pancakes did Rain have to eat

in that scene? Was he really eating them, or did he have a spit bucket? Well, guess what? Rain Wilson answers this eating question. All right. Let's play the clip, Sam. Here's what Rain has to say. Here's my deal about eating scenes.

I love to eat during eating scenes. I love, and if you'll see Dwight, he'll always, when there's an eating scene, he's got a mouth full of food. To me, it's really funny. He's just wolfing down big bites of food and talking while eating, and it's disgusting, but it just felt really, really right for the character, and I also like it as an actor. This was a joy to cover, and I love that stage direction of Dwight's eyes never leave jams as he covers his plate entirely in syrup, and Melora Hardin is such a joy to act with

because she's so specific and so underplayed, and no matter what you throw at her, she's right there. She's totally game and always in character. All right. So there you have it, guys. Rain was really eating. He was really eating, not spitting them out. Rain did not use a spit bucket.

I have done a lot of scenes with Rain Wilson, and I can tell you, the guy goes for it. He goes for it across the board, whatever it is. So if he was going to eat a waffle by Golly, he's going to eat that waffle. Well, thank you, Rain. Thank you for sitting in that clip. We've got more guys coming up. This is also the scene, lady, where at the end of the scene, he tells Jan there's an Anne Taylor store nearby, and he knows that she likes the earrings.

Melora's performance as Jan is so great. She's like, where is it? Yeah, she's like, yeah, where is it? I do actually. I do want to look at the earrings. Well, Michaela Brock wants you to know that while there are 20 Anne Taylor stores around the Scranton area, the nearest one to a Liz Claiborne is about 16 minutes away. Now Jenny added, Angela, I told you, everyone deep dived on this.

There is an outlet mall roughly an hour away from Scranton. I think this is the one you're talking about. It's on the I-80 East route. It's called the Crossings Premium Outlet. Did you find this one? Well, I can tell you on outletlocator.com, there is an Anne Taylor outlet in Lancaster as well, and also one in Hershey as well. So if you were at Liz Claiborne, you could hit Anne Taylor at both of those outlets.

And then there's another one in Tannersville and Pottstown. But there's no Liz Claiborne at those. No, but you have a Liz Claiborne crossover at Hershey and Lancaster. Well, Jenny was noting that at the Crossings Premium Outlet, there is also Billy's Pocono Diner. So they serve breakfast, and it is possible that that's where they were eating. And then Jan could pop over to that Anne Taylor. According to Kentopedia, however, for anyone who wants to know, this was shot in Tlucalate,

California at Patty Steiner, famous Patty Steiner. All right. I've eaten there. And so I can tell you with great authority that Rainn Wilson was eating delicious pancakes and waffles at Patty's. All right. Well, we've got to get back to the Scranton branch because the shiitake is about to hit the fan.

Yeah. But before we do that, let's take a little break. Yeah, let's take a break. I'm going to refill my coffee. You refill your coffee. Is that cool? I'm probably going to go pee. Overshare?

Maybe. That's where I'm at. You always pee during our breaks. It's kind of like, remember when you gave me grief about saying, do you want to hear a summary? Do you want to hear a fast fact when you know I'm going to say them anyway? It's kind of like, you don't have to tell us that you're going to pee on the breaks anymore because we all just know.

Listen. We just know. Okay, fine. You have a tiny bladder. I have a tiny bladder. I'm a tiny person. I do as well. Listen.

I pee on every break too. I just haven't been talking about it. Well, I am hell on a road trip. If we can have a road trip again, you don't want me in the car with you because I need to know where I can pee. I'm that person. Where am I going to pee? Yeah.

Where am I going to pee? Where am I going to pee? Get me an iced tea. Where am I going to pee? I know. I drink my way through a road trip just sodas and water and snacks and then also pee seven times. Maybe we are perfect partners for road tripping because we would just know we're going to

pee and we're going to- Yeah, but we'd have to sync up. We would need someone to be the alpha bladder and someone to be the beta bladder. Now you do sound like Dwight. All right. Let's take a break. All right. We're back.

Jan has called Michael to tell him he needs to get a hold of his employees. And do a better job because they are going behind his back to her. Right? Yes. And Michael cannot believe that Dwight would try to turn his ex-lover-ish against him. One of my favorite lines, and it's probably because of how earnestly Steve says it as Michael, is when Jan calls him and he says, you were at the dentist. Oh, yes.

Michael thinks that she randomly ran into Dwight where he was getting his crown removed. And they were like, no, Michael, it's all a lie. Yes. Oh, yes. I love it so much. Well, Angela, then we move into the kitchen where Pam is modeling her new top for Kelly and Phyllis. This is the fashion show.

And then Roy walks in with a soda and he is, oh, Pam's like taking his breath away right here. Poor Roy. Is there not a vending machine in the warehouse? Come on. In that whole warehouse, there's not a vending machine. You've got to come up to the office three times for a soda. Well, you know what?

That line was improved by Mindy. Oh, way to go, Mindy. Isn't that so good? Yes, she had that same thought, right? Like, oh, third soda of the day. In the script, as he's walking out the kitchen door, she was just supposed to say, awkward. Oh, nice. All right, so when we go back to Stanford, Josh puts the game on hold.

He calls Andy and Jim into the conference room. Jim is like, oh, finally we're doing work. No, no. He wants to devise a strategy for the game. So speaking of improvisation, Ed had a bunch of improv at the end of the scene. So when he calls Jim a saboteur, that was improvised, that was not in the script. And then when he says all that stuff where he's like, I am going to kill you for real. This game is over.

I am really going to shoot you. Like all of that, that was Ed improv. Well, in the DVD commentary, John said that this scene was maybe one of the hardest that he had to work not to break. He said that Chip and Ed, Chip who plays Josh, were just crushing it. And he said he was having the toughest time. So I kind of want to rewatch it to watch his face. But lady, I have a little trivia about Rain and Chip, Chip who plays Josh.

Oh, what is it? OK, so did you know that Rain and Chip were in an NBC pilot in 1999? It was called The Expendables. Now Rain mentioned this in the DVD commentary, and I had to do a deep dive. I was like, what? It sounds like a superhero fantasy type show. Ready? I looked it up online.

This is what IMDb had to say about it. The Expendables was an NBC pilot. It was about a scientist who creates two indestructible, lifelike robots. They have an affinity for television, particularly Starsky and Hutch. Their unexpected development of emotions prompts a need for them to help people. Chuck played the character Ram, Rain played the character Newman. Now are those characters both the robots who developed feelings? The robots.

OK. Yeah, and Rain said it was so bad, but that he and Chip became friends, and Rain was one of the people that suggested Chip for the role of Josh. That is some good. I would call that a tidbit and a deep dive. That's a deep tidbit. Can we go to Scranton now? We probably should.

This is one of my favorite all time scenes of all time on any television show ever made ever. This is one of my favorite bits ever. Crentist the dentist. Your dentist's name is Crentist. Maybe that's why he became a dentist. There is a deleted scene. There is a deleted scene where Michael Scott, Michael, he's like Scott, and he starts seeing

what all would name with Scott, but he said none of them are occupations. OK, so in the script, the Crentist dentist scene is word for word, you guys. There is nothing improvised about this scene. This was all written by Paul Lieberstein. Paul, you are a genius. It is perfection. And you're right. There's a deleted talking head, and then there is even more to this scene in the script

that is deleted. So if you want to see like an extended version of this genius, please visit the deleted scenes. I love it so much. We asked Rain about it and he sent in this clip. All righty then, Office Ladies podcast, Jenna, Angela, hi, it's me, Rainn Wilson. Remember me? Vaguely. Everyone talks about the Crentist scene as being so spectacular and I know that it's

some of the funniest writing. I think Paul Lieberstein wrote it in all of the Office, the dentist, Crentist, and that jousting between me and Michael, but the scene afterwards where Dwight and Michael play this chess game and Michael pretends to give up his position to Dwight is absolutely masterful. And I think Steve is, I mean, he's great in everything, but he just kills it. And it's so subtle and underplayed. And I love how Game of Thrones it is. I forgot that this whole episode is like these power plays and power ploys and who's going

behind who's back. It's like little finger and Valeris in Highgarden or whatever. I think I'm getting all the Game of Thrones names wrong. But in the Red Keep, all the maneuvering, you know, the Lannisters and backstabbing and loyalty and you don't know whose side who's on. And it's so fantastic. But the thing that gets me every time is that the reason it all falls apart is that Dwight insults the sea brain.

And ultimately, the sea brain is the hinge is the lynch pin, and it all falls apart because of the sea brain. But this episode was so well written, I remember there's sometimes when you just are like, it's just best to sit back and play the lines and have fun with them as much as possible. And I think this was one of those and I often felt that way about Paul Lieberstein's writing. It's very specific and it was made worse through improvisation, not better. Sometimes the writing could benefit from some kind of actors bringing their mojo. But it was not that way with the coup.

There you have it. You know, I was screaming back at him even though he couldn't hear me because it was recorded audio clip. I love that you brought up Littlefinger and Cersei. Because Reign, I love Game of Thrones too, and I am Cersei. Angela is Cersei. In this episode, she's Cersei. All right.

Well, Reign brought up the scene where they're in Michael's office and Michael turns the tables on Dwight and it all falls apart. And I have to agree in rewatching this, Crentist is so funny, but this dance between Steve and Reign and how they perform this scene, I think Reign is right. This is just like amazing acting and performance in writing that scene. It's all genius. It is all amazing. I watched this episode three times and I could watch it again just for that scene.

It is so good. And one of the things they talked about in the DVD commentary, and I actually remember this, is Greg really wanted to live in the pauses. He wasn't afraid at all to let them take their time because he wanted it to have that kind of weight to it. And it just played so beautifully. We had a lot of questions about improvisation, I think because these scenes are so well-performed. People think that they were improvised.

So we had Carolyn Tuft wrote in about Michael's talking head, where he's talking about businesses like a jungle and he's the tiger. She wanted to know if Steve improvised any of that, nope, all scripted. Jerry Shoe wrote in to say, around 14 minutes, 40 seconds, Dwight calls Michael Mike as they're getting ready to go out to the bullpen. And he said, I think this is the only time that Dwight ever called Michael Mike in the entire show, would you happen to know why? That was scripted.

And it's scripted because Dwight thinks he has all the power now. So he is calling him Mike as a way to kind of demote him. Oh yeah, no, he's doing that thing where you give people nicknames to sort of put them in their place. And it is so brilliant because, you know, he's also taking the power away. And Michael's like, should we go out there and he goes, when I'm ready, Mike? Yeah, it's brilliant. Well, when Michael does break the news to everyone, oh, Angela, you are so pleased.

So pleased. Stanley has a lot of questions. Phyllis asked Michael what he plans to do. And Kevin is very concerned that Michael's going to lose his condo. Rain had a little something to say about this scene too, Angela. Let's play this clip. Angela, your reaction, the tiniest hint of the smile of the Lady Macbeth smile that you give Dwight during when he's announcing the few of you that will be left during my reign.

I'm going to lead you into the black with ferocity. Your little look there is fantastic. And Jenna, I love your line about the vacuum cleaner being as capable a manager as Dwight. It was so much fun to shoot. It's so much fun to relive this with you guys. Maybe one day you'll have me actually back on the show again. Maybe the global pandemic has gotten in the way of that a little bit. I'm so glad for what you're doing with this show.

I'm so happy, even though I haven't heard any of the episodes. And I probably never will, but I'm really happy for you because I like you both and you seem like you're having fun. That's all I have to say. I love you both. Goodbye. Oh, rain. That made me laugh.

You guys, that is rain in a nutshell. He is our curmudgeon with a big heart and I love him so much. I love him so much. We're going to figure this out and we're going to get him on. Yes, rain. I love you. You tall, geeky, man you. But this is true, Angela.

I love how delighted your character is by this new shift in power. I love that when you're alone and you guys talk about it, he tells you that you can be in control of the women and you're very pleased about that as well. Well, this now starts a series of talking heads, right? Because everyone is reacting to this news. I am, of course, delighted. My character's delighted. So Phyllis has a talking head that I love so much, right?

She says, maybe I'll quit. But if you look at the deleted scenes, this goes on for a bit and this is such a great line. Oh, yes, Angela. Yes, yes. Share this, share this. Okay, so she says that her fiance says after they get married, she doesn't even need to work anymore, that her new job is going to be being Mrs. Bob Vance, the first lady of

Vance's refrigeration. Yes, I love that so much. It was so, so cute. And by the way, you see her play that role, like you see her take on being the first lady of Vance's refrigeration as this relationship plays out over the series. Yeah, absolutely. It's really fun to watch. And at 15 minutes, 50 seconds now, we have that Dwight tells Angela that she can be in

charge of the women. Yes. She's a little annoyed because I think she was like, we can do so many great things here. And he's like, there can only be one person in charge. But then as soon as he gives her a job, that she gets to have control over people, she's okay with it. Okay, fine. Yeah, fine.

She accepts that. I'll be in charge of the women. I remember doing the scene and I was kind of struggling with that final look and of what my expression was and Greg gave me direction. He said, Angela, I want you to imagine what you'll do to the other women. Oh my God. That was the look I had. That's amazing.

That is amazing. So now we're back at Fancy Stamford and Karen is making fun of Jim's lack of call of duty skills, right? He's not very good at it, but she's just sort of smiling through it and just, she's clearly a little smitten, Sam. Blurty Karen. Yeah. I talked to my mom about it.

I talked to Birdie Kinsey. Birdie said, that's Flurty Karen. Oh, Angela, I love it so much. I love it that you made your mom say Flurty Karen. It took a minute. I had to explain everything. She was like, what am I doing? And then I told her what Karen was up to and she said, well, she is being flirty.

So this is Flurty Karen, guys. Karen is putting on the flirt. Yes. This is what I was talking about in my fast fact. This is what got everybody very, very, very upset. Yes. And then on a side note, Rashida said in the DVD commentary that this was her audition scene.

Oh, really? This was a scene she had to audition with. So she really knew this scene well. Well, I want you to know something. This is jumping ahead a little bit, but I just want to say to wrap up this storyline of the Jim Karen flirt. You know, at the end of this, when Jim is packing up for the night and Karen's watching and he throws the fake grenade at her, this is now kind of like their first inside joke.

That scene was not in the script. That was added later. We saw that Karen is kind of sweet on Jim a little bit, right? In the scene you're talking about. But they wanted to see Jim give her a little helper. Yeah. They wanted to see a little bit go her way. And so they added that scene to show that there was a real connection between them.

A playfulness, if you will. Well, it worked. We have to talk about the most uncomfortable groveling I've ever witnessed. And rain in true rain fashion, 18 minutes, 25 seconds begins to beg. Beg Michael. And Michael is just watching him. He gets on the ground. He kind of shoves his butt in the air, then he lays flat on the ground.

And then at 19 minutes, 11 seconds, Jenna, Jenna, the drool. Yeah. We got letters about the drool, Angela. Letters about the drool. It is so disgusting. It comes out, then he sucks it back in, then he kind of swallows it, then he hugs Michael hard. Yeah.

So all that stuff on the ground and the hugging and all of that, that was all scripted. The drool was just on the day. That was... Yeah. There was no scripted drool. All rain. But rain is right in his little clip when he said it's the seabring that breaks Michael. It is so brilliant when he's like, take it back.

That's my car. Yes. Yes. Oh my gosh, well, you know when Michael tells Dwight to stand up and hug it out, bitch? We had a fan question from Kristen Bauer. She said, that line, hug it out, bitch, is one of my favorite lines in the whole show and it cracks me up. Who came up with that line?

Well, Kristen, this is a famous line from the show Entourage, which we set up earlier that Michael loves, Jeremy Piven's character Ari Gold would say it all the time. This was in the script. This was a callback and I got curious about it though, Angela, and I watched an interview last night with Jeremy Piven and he said he was talking about improvisation on the set of Entourage and he said, we really did not improvise. We really didn't. He said it was very, very, very, very rare to improvise.

But he said, occasionally they did and the thing about improvisation he was saying was like, if you are in your character, then you will say something that your character would say. It's not about necessarily trying to be funny or clever. It's just about saying that next thing that your character would honestly say in the moment. He said that the line, hug it out, bitch, was an improvisation. This famous line, he said it was crazy because we rarely did it, but there was this scene that he was in and his character was trying to comfort another character and so he just

improvised, let's hug it out, bitch. Isn't that crazy? I love that that was an improvised line because it sums up his character Ari just perfectly. This is an amazing callback which I love as an improviser. I know, Rain, if you're listening, you're making fun of me right now. But as an improviser, I live for a callback. So I love that they set up Entourage at the beginning and they bring this subtle reference back at the end.

Well, now the episode really wraps up with Michael and Dwight. They're back in the conference room. They're watching a movie together. Angela, you walk by, you're not pleased. But listen, this is how it had to be. He chose Michael once again. I feel like Dwight is torn between Angela and Michael for years. And then finally it goes her way because he leaves.

Well, Michael has his final talking head where he says they hugged it out. He's still angry, so he did make Dwight stand in the middle of the office with a sign around his neck that says Liar. And Dwight has to do Michael's laundry for a year. And that's where we leave it. Before we wrap up, I have two little things to share with you guys. I did write in my journal about this episode and I only wrote about one thing. All right, so Jenna, I wrote that I did a different talking head that didn't make it

in the show. And I said, I thought it was so funny, but maybe it was just too long. But Angela Martin says that she has a friend who has introduced her to a show called Star Trek. And in Star Trek, there is a guy named Spock and he's very honorable and brave. And he stands up for what he thinks is right. And she just wishes that someone in the office could be more like Spock. And I just thought it was really cute that it's a window into their lives that Dwight

is teaching her about Star Trek and what she'd never heard of Star Trek. Yeah. But it's this little show you probably have not heard of it called Star Trek. Here it is. So that deleted scene is not on the DVD extras, guys. I don't know where that lives, but I did a whole talking head about Star Trek. But there is a deleted scene I have to share with you and I will leave you with this, Jenna. This is on the DVD extras.

We find out that Creed sleeps under his desk four nights a week and then he goes to his place in Toronto. Yeah. What? I love that. What? When I was rereading the script, I read that and I actually remember Creed shooting that and it was so funny.

And I remember Paul cracking up while they were shooting that because he was so tickled by the idea that Creed slept under his desk. Yeah. So this is why he doesn't have a refrigerator. Oh my God. He's never had his own. He's never had his own refrigerator. He's never had his own refrigerator because he sleeps under his desk four nights a week.

I love it. And then what is his whole second life in Toronto? I am so intrigued. Guys, that was the coup. We love that you are sticking with us and continuing to listen to this podcast. It is a joy for us to make it. Thank you again to Rainn Wilson for sending us your audio. If you want to hear more of Rainn's sexy voice, you can listen to his podcast Metaphysical

Milkshake with Rainn and Reza Aslan. Yes, they are discussing life's big human questions with heart, humor and curiosity. Stuff like life, death, love, fate, beauty, you name it. It is available on the Luminary Podcast platform. Rainn, we're going to get you back on here. We're going to get glitchy up in here, Rainn. We're going to get glitchy up in here, Rainn. Thank you so much for sending in your questions and your comments and your deep dives.

We love you guys so much. We'll see you next week. 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 Bubaco. Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.

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