Office Ladies - The Deposition

Episode Date: March 10, 2021

This week we’re breaking down The Deposition. When Jan sues Dunder Mifflin, she brings in Michael as a witness which to no surprise, doesn’t go well. Back at the office, Kelly smack talks Pam when Jim loses to Darryl at ping pong. Angela shares how her kitchen table has been turned into a ping pong table, Jenna looks up the difference between “trash talk” and “smack talk” in the Merriam Webster dictionary and the ladies discuss a missed storyline simply labeled “Dwight gets stuck in the wall”. So grab your paddle Seemiller style ‘cause we’re serving up all the spin serves with this episode. Check out actress Valeri Ross’ bio: https://www.valeriross.com/bio

I'm Jenna Fisher. And I'm Angela Kinsey. We were on The Office together. And we're best friends. And now we're doing the Ultimate Office rewatch podcast just for you. Each week we will break down an episode of The Office and give exclusive behind-the-scenes stories that only two people who were there can tell you. We're The Office, ladies. Hello, everybody. Good morning. Today is very important. We have to do a very important legal procedure. Oh, Lord. I was like, wait, what's happening? And then I realized you're talking about the episode. The deposition. I was like, Jenna, what do we have to do? Did I miss an email? What's happening? No, we have a very important deposition today.

Angela, it's season four, episode 12, written by Lester Lewis, directed by Julian Farino. Hit me with a summary. Here it is. Michael and Jan go to corporate. And Michael is deposed as a witness in Jan's wrongful termination case against Dunder Mifflin. What was Jan thinking? Why would you ever put Michael on any kind of witness stand? I don't know. I'm so glad she did. Well, while they're gone, Jim and Daryl play ping-pong in the warehouse, which sparks a rivalry between Pam and Kelly. Fast fact number one this week, Angela is Lester Lewis, the writer of this episode. Before writing on The Office, Lester had worked on The Larry Sanders Show and Caroline in the City. He was one of the original members

of our writing team going back to season one. And this is a tough one for me. And for both of us, I know Lester passed away in 2013. And I don't even know where to start. I loved him. I loved this man. We bonded over our love of autobiographical comic books. We both loved those. And I just have such fond memories of being with him. And he was so funny and he was so just kind and warm. He was so kind and just a good, good person. And I miss him. Yeah. I mean, Lester was someone that made time for everyone. You know those people, they make time for everybody. And he was just a wonderful part of our show. I re-listened to the DVD commentary for this particular episode. Lester is in the commentary. And it

was so wonderful to hear his voice and also made me sad. It was bittersweet. But if you listen to the DVD commentary for this episode, you will just hear what a thoughtful person he was. And I'll share a few of the things that he said on the commentary as we record today, Jenna. I love that. Well, lady, what is your Fast Fact number two? You know, Ping Pong features very heavily in this episode. So I felt we needed a little history of Ping Pong. Oh, my gosh. Did someone do a deep dive on Ping Pong? I did. I want you to know it has two other names. Oh, Table Tennis or Wiff Waff. Wiff Waff. That sounds made up. Do you want to play some Wiff Waff? I'll play you some Wiffle Wiff Waff. Oh, dear. I'll chunk

it at you. What else you got about Ping Pong? Ping Pong began in Victorian England. I know you'll like the sound of that, Angela, in the 1880s, when lawn tennis players adapted their game to play indoors during the winter. Oh, where's my Netflix show about that? Right? Wiff Waff, Episode One. The Duke of Edinburgh comes to play Wiff Waff. The game quickly caught on in as early as 1901 tournaments were being conducted with over 300 participants. In 1902, a visiting Japanese university professor took the game back to Japan, where he introduced it to Japanese university students. The first world championships were held in London in 1927. They were won by a Hungarian, Dr. Jacobi. Congratulations. Dr. Jacobi. Go to see him

for a checkup, but little do you know, he's a Ping Pong master. That's right. The Olympic Games started featuring Ping Pong for the first time in 1988 in Seoul. The television coverage of the men's singles final attracted a worldwide audience of two billion. Wow. Yeah. Here was something I found very interesting. There are many different ways to grip the paddle, and all of those grips have names. Oh gosh. Here's how you can hold it. You can give it the old penhold, the shake hand, or the sea miller. The sea miller is actually named after an American table tennis champ, Danny sea miller, because that's how he held his paddle. He puts his little finger out. That's what she said. There are also a bunch of different

strokes. Oh gosh. That's what she said. Oh Lord. There are offensive strokes, the hit, the loop, the counter hit, the flip, the smash. Then there's defensive strokes called the push, the chop, the block, and the lob. And the biggest part of the game, the biggest thing that these guys work on is their spin. And you can do a top spin, a back spin, a side spin, and a cork spin. Do you remember how good Forrest Gump was at Ping Pong? Yeah. He was so good. I wonder if he was using the sea miller. Maybe the penhold. I don't know. I think you do know that my husband turned our beautiful dining table into a ping pong table. Lady, I know this. I watched this happen, and I knew you were going to regret it. You

guys were real excited, and I thought, hmm, that's going to come back. They haven't regretted it, Jenna. There's only one person that regrets it. Can we explain what Angela did, guys? Here's what her family did. They got one of these ping pong table tops that fits over her kitchen table. It's meant to go over a pool table, right? Oh. It's meant to set on top of a pool table. Josh got it because, you know, we've all been quarantining and at home, and so we're running out of things to do. Kids are bouncing off the walls. So we bought this thing because it's way less expensive than buying an actual ping pong table, and you just put it on top of your dining table. Of course, it doesn't fit our

dining table, so it hangs off. Well, also now, guys, she has nowhere to eat. Okay, Angela, this is now your dining table. It's just, it's so, I don't know. Josh and the kids love it. What I didn't factor in, I knew I'd be eating, like, awkwardly for the rest of our time, but what I didn't factor in was the bouncing ball sound. I'm talking at, like, 8 a.m. because they want to play a game before school starts, you know? So it's like, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. It is nonstop. Yeah. You come down the stairs, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. It doesn't matter what time.

You've got that, and then all your appliances are beeping. Oh, don't get me started. It's so much noise. Anyway, here's an interesting tidbit from the commentary. Jenna, I know how much you love the wall in the writer's room with all the note cards, right? Yeah. All the different possible story ideas. That's one of my favorite things to go look at at my lunch. Well, Lester shared, there was one for this episode that didn't get used. Simply written, it was Dwight gets stuck in the wall. So if we didn't have this ping-pong competition, the other thing that might have happened is that Dwight was going to get stuck in a wall. Yeah. That was going to be Dwight's storyline. Instead of helping Jim or the ping-pong, I

don't know how it would have played out. Ultimately, they couldn't make it work in this episode. So, oh man, I have to say, I love this ping-pong story. I also would have loved to have seen whatever about what's going to be. How would he have gotten in the wall? How would he have got stuck in there? I was laughing so hard when they were talking about it. That is some good stuff. All right. Fast fact number three is all about the writer's strike. Oh. Mm-hmm. This was the last episode of the office that we shot before the Writer's Guild of America went on strike and we had to shut down production. Now, this was really significant, guys, because NBC ordered 30 episodes for season four of The Office. 30. Wow. This was a huge episode

order. You know, typical seasons are like 22 to 24 episodes long, but then in November 2007, the Writer's Guild went on strike. So, if I remember correctly, Angela, we were allowed to shoot any outstanding scripts, but there could be no new writing done and we could not have a writer on set with us. Exactly. No writers were showing up to work, period. Well, we really relied on our writers to be on set with us while we were shooting. That was a big part of our process on the show is they would pitch alternates and they were so important to the show being great. And not only that, three of them were also actors. And Steve Carell was a member of the Writer's Guild Union and he would not cross

the picket line for work. That's right. And I know that meant a lot to our writers that he stood with them. Yes. So, we shut down and any unused scripts were just tabled and the strike lasted over three months. Yes. And for those of you that are on the old Prager's belly tracker, the Kinsey Prager's belly, this was really weird because I left work not really showing and just wait for dinner party. Well, Angela, you also went out with some of the other actors and you picketed, I remember. I did. I went over and I picketed with our writers and I remember Ed was there the day that I went and it was very bonding experience. The Writer's Guild wasn't asking for the moon. They were just

asking for really just basic, decent, fair treatment from studios. And I was really happy to help get their voices heard in any way that I could. Well, we always appreciated our writers, but I'll tell you, Angela, you and I are writing a book right now. And I will say there is nothing harder than staring at a blank piece of paper and putting something on it. Yeah, I know. I think that writers have the hardest job in our industry because all the rest of us, we get to start with something. We get to build on something that already exists, but the writers have to manifest it from nothing. Well, yeah, I know after the office, I went into development. As you know, Jenna, I wrote and I sold pilots and it was

so hard because not only do you write this thing that you love, it becomes your baby. Then you have to hand it over to like studio heads and network and they have all these notes and they just carve it up and you're like, my baby. Yeah, guys, we love our writers. Yep. And a lot of people always ask why was season four of the office so much shorter than the others? And that is why because of the writer strike. Yep. We made fewer episodes that year. Well, Jenna, we were very lucky because our show survived the writer strike. We both had many friends who are actors and writers and producers who were on shows and the strike went on for so long that they weren't able to resume. So we were actually really

fortunate. Yeah. Well, there you go, guys. Lady, that's all I got. I have a fun little thing. It's not a fast fact. Maybe it's a Kinsey tidbit. What is it? Jenna, do you remember that Ed would do an impression of Tom Brokaw? Yes. And it would make us laugh. It was so good. It would make us laugh so hard. Okay. So what he would do is, Ed, as Tom Brokaw, he would start out telling a news story and then he would tell us what our hot snack of the day was on set. And there was a particular time where we had albandaga soup and he made that into part of Tom Brokaw's news announcement. And on the DVD commentary, they were talking about it, and Ed did it. Sam, will you play it? Could you give us the Tom Brokaw and say

the magic word that makes Steve Giggle? The Israelis have once again launched an all-pounder song on albandaga soup. That's what keeps us going. Oh my gosh, what a gem. I'm so happy that has been recorded. I know, I know. So if you guys want to know what behind-the-scenes moments were like, Ed was doing Tom Brokaw and John was doing impressions and we were all watching them and just cracking up. Oh my gosh, Angela, that actually brought tears of joy to my eyes. I know I'm very tired today and maybe that's made me a little emotional. But oh my goodness. Wow, that took me back. It did me too, Jenna. It just made me laugh and it warmed my heart. These were the behind-the-scenes moments that I treasure. Oh, all right. I'm

going to let that take me into break. I'm going to pull myself together. We'll be right back. All right, guys, we are back and Michael is in a series of very important meetings. The first meeting is with the accounting department. Seems very serious. Pam comes in. Hands, Michael, post-it note. Yes, and Michael says with great authority after reading the note, you know what? I need to just call them back. I can't talk right now. Everyone is very perplexed when he does this, by the way. Well, Pam explains in her talking head that Michael does not get a lot of phone calls, but one time he got a phone call and she interrupted him during

a meeting with a post-it note. And he was so delighted by this gesture that now he has asked her to do it every time he's in a meeting, but he doesn't get any calls. So she just makes it up. Yeah. Jenna, I would like to point out at 35 seconds, I'm titling this happiness in the break room. Oh, I think this is the most functional moment we ever see Jan and Michael. They're eating lunch together. She is laughing at whatever he's saying. Pam brings in the note. He says, you know what? I'll have to call them back. She's impressed. I think this is peak Jan Michael happy moment. Yeah, you're right. They're being so functional. I know. Well, we had a fan question about this series of notes from Mariana W. Walter

P., Philippa J., and Corinna O. Did Jenna make the sticky notes that Pam hands to Michael or were they made for her? Guys, I did not make any of the sticky notes. None of the words, none of the drawings are mine. And the very famous hiya buddy with the little hot dog that was actually drawn by our showrunner, Greg Daniels. Yes. Lester talked about it in the commentary and he said that Greg drew it just freehand quickly on their white message board, you know, in the writer's room. And then he had the props department come up and look at the drawing on the message board and they had to copy it and make it look just like the one on the message board. But then I heard they were not successful. And so they

just handed Greg a sticky note and he redid it himself. No, that I don't know. They tried. I want to point out one thing though, as the scene is happening between Michael and Ryan and Pam is there, she's handed the note that says hiya buddy. And then Ryan's like, no, you should take the call. Take the call. Yes. And Michael's like, no, you are my friend. I will not. And he's saying, I'm telling you, it's a work call. Take it. Jenna, your looks back and forth to Michael and Ryan in this moment and then how you pick up the phone and you you hit the extension and hand it to him. It's so good. Your reactions made this scene for me. Oh, you're so nice. I love shooting that scene. It was so fun to watch them go

back and forth. I loved the scenes where I got to just watch. You know what? That's who the audience is relating to because the audience is like, oh my god, oh my god, what's going to happen? What's happening? Well, next up, we are in the car with Jan and Michael. They're going somewhere. We find out they're on their way to New York City because Michael is going to be deposed in Jan's wrongful termination lawsuit. And we had a fan catch from Veronica Wright at one minute 53 seconds. You can see that Jan has on flip flops while she's driving the car. Oh my god, really? Mm hmm. Now that's because guys, Milora was really driving that car. You can see out the front window, we had a camera operator in

the back, probably Randall Einhorn capturing this. And so Milora was actually driving and performing. And again, the PT Cruiser because Michael's car is still in the shop, the Seabring. From when he drove it in the lake. Does he ever get it back? I guess we'll find out. I don't know. This is our second episode where we see the PT Cruiser. Jan is coaching Michael on what to say. And Michael decides the best way to remember his testimony is to create very elaborate word associations. I wrote them all down. They're amazing. Here's Michael's shortcut to remembering things for this deposition. Jan says they displayed a pattern of disrespect and inappropriate behavior. Mm hmm. Michael says, Pat, turn.

Pat, earn. My friend Pat took a turn. Desiree. My friend Desiree got new specs. Desiree respect. My friend in a pro drives a Prius with his behind neighbor. Yeah. And then Jan is like, does this really help you? And he's like, Oh yeah. We find out that Jan might win $4 million. That's a lot of guacamole. It sure is. Michael, though, is getting overwhelmed with the information that Jan is trying to get him to learn. Jan has a line that I thought was really funny. She's like, the truth is very complicated. So we had to go over it a few times. And Jenna, Michael needs the top down because he's going to puke. He's going to vomit. He's just getting too hot and flustered. Yes. Jan obliges even though

it completely messes up her hair. So now we're in the lobby of corporate Dunder Mifflin. And we meet Jan's lawyer, Lester Schneider. He was played by Patrick O'Connor, who has also been in Christmas with the cranks, passions and Grey's Anatomy, among other things. Well, I have some very important plant alerts at corporate. Lay them on me. Three minutes, 33 seconds, a big bamboo plant, three minutes, 49 seconds, a white orchid, three minutes, 53 seconds, a tree plant outside the front door, three minutes, 55 seconds, a pink orchid. What the heck? They have so many plants. It's corporate. They're fancy. They do. We had a fan question from Gary K, Sophia A, Libby B and Marin B. Where were the corporate headquarters

scenes filmed? They were just right on our warehouse stages. They built what is called a swing set. It's a little lingo coming at you. A little set lingo. So a swing set is something they build that they can put up and take down. And every time we had characters go to Dunder Mifflin Corporate, they would bring out these walls and they had all their pictures to make sure they did it exactly the same every time. So they were just shooting right over in the Dunder Mifflin warehouse on a swing set. Lady, I have a little location breakdown for you about corporate. What is it? The corporate reception area with all the orchids and the plants also became the deposition room. Oh, yeah. They only made

one set. They set dressed it first for all the front reception scenes at corporate. And after all those scenes were done in the front reception area of corporate, they came in, set dressing, redid the whole room and made it into the deposition room. Well done. Mm-hmm. There you go. So good. Well, location breakdown for ya. Location breakdown with Kinsey. Oh, well, Kinseypedia. Kinsey, Kinsey, Kinseypedia. Well, Jenna, at 3 minutes 53 seconds, Ryan comes in flanked by two guys, right? Yep. Lester talks about this runner that the writers came up with that ultimately didn't get to be in an episode where Ryan only surrounds himself by guys that look like him but are shorter than him. I remember this. Now, listen,

Troy, he's the guy on the Blackberry. He's going to come back for a few other episodes. Mm-hmm. But this whole idea that he's surrounded by a posse of lookalikes but smaller but shorter that never made it in. But Troy stayed. Back at Dunder Mifflin Scranton, Jim and Daryl are playing ping-pong in the warehouse. Pam explains that the warehouse got a ping-pong table, Jim comes down to play Daryl, and she sometimes brings some juice. That's what's going on. Well, apparently there was a big debate about these ping-pong games. Should they CGI the ball, you know, in the game or should they let you guys really play? Yep. And they decided to let you guys really play. Mm-hmm. And they talked about it in the commentary

that this was kind of a disaster because you can't have continuity. Like, they couldn't be sure that, you know, Craig as Daryl would hit it the same way every time or that John would hit it back the same way. And this little scene that you guys had at that beginning establishing ping-pong game took like four hours. It was such a debacle. It was so insane. I also want to say Angela the ball makes noise. Mm-hmm. And it would ping and pong on the table through our dialogue. Oh my gosh, that must have been so hard for the sound department because you guys are talking and then there's like bank bank bank bank. And then it's probably bank banking at different times on different words every time, right? Oh, so anytime the

camera comes a little tighter on me and Mindy, there was no ball, right? Mm-hmm. You might see some gestures from the guys, but they would try to get that clean sound because ping-pong, ping-pong, ping-pong. Yeah. Yeah. It's going to ruin a scene. Well, Mindy has a line as Kelly that I loved when she said, I don't talk trash. I talk smack. They're totally different. I want to say I looked this up in Miriam Webster Dictionary. You looked up trash talk and smack talk. Mm-hmm. Oh gosh. Here's what it says. Trash talk is defined as disparaging, taunting, or boastful comments, especially between opponents trying to intimidate each other. But do you know what it says when you get to smack talk? No.

It says, see trash talk. No, it doesn't. Yes, it does. Which I kind of thought was a little bit of smack talk. I have to say. The dictionary is like throwing shade at trash talk. Yeah. Smack talk is trashing trash talk. Oh my gosh. Yes. I thought that was so funny. I also want to point out in this scene and throughout this episode, Jim's shirt, which he's untucked, it looks a lot like the one he wore to the convention. It also looks enormous. Yeah. It's like, I know this wasn't the 90s, but it could have been. Well, Jenna, there's going to be a moment where you get a real good shot of Pam's outfit. We'll get there. I have the time code. What's that supposed to mean? There's a lot of edge in your voice.

I know I had a lot of thoughts about this outfit. Jenna, did you know that this ping pong storyline was inspired by our writers real life? Yeah, they got a ping pong table town in the warehouse and those guys used to play all the time. Not only did they have a ping pong table in the warehouse, but the writers had made a ping pong table. Lee and Jean had made this ping pong table just using a regular table and kind of like what Pam does in the conference room. She makes this table. Well, the writers had done that before they got the actual ping pong table. So this is all inspired like that call of duty storyline by what was happening in our actual writers room. I totally remember that. Yes. And like

you said, Angela, Pam turns the conference room table into a ping pong table. She closes the blinds and she tells Jim, you have to practice. You have to practice so that you can beat Daryl. And she tells him about Kelly's smack talk. And he's like, all right, I'll do it. But I did love how Jim immediately was like, Oh, I can't beat Daryl. No, that's not happening. Back at corporate, Michael meets Diane Kelly, the corporate legal counsel who was played by Holly Maples. You might recognize her from the show in plain sight. She played Eleanor Prince. And he also finds out that Toby is going to be present for his deposition. Yeah. And he says, I want him gone. I don't talk until he leaves. And they're

like, Toby is here as your representative, Michael. Well, then Michael is sworn in. Jenna, I have to share this. I have to share. Right as he's sworn in, there was a deleted scene that didn't make it in. That is so good. Michael stands up to the room and says, I have an opening statement. Oh my God, are you serious? Yes, it's so good. He does this whole heartfelt opening statement to this room of just stoic faces. And they're like, what is he doing? And he does it as if he's in a legal drama, like television show, like all the movies he's ever watched about lawyers, every TV show, he makes an opening statement. A plea to the jury. Like it's so ridiculous. It's wonderful. It's in the deleted scenes. All

right, Angela, please tell me that you're going to play this clip. Sam, can you play Michael's opening statement? Continue. I would like to make an opening statement. Fine. Please be brief. Ladies and gentlemen of the table, I would just like to say what a joy it is for me to be here today. But frankly, at my age, it's a joy to be anywhere. I'm only 44, so I'm not old. And I guess that doesn't really play. But the point is, I have a sense of humor and I implore you all to have a sense of humor as well. Jan, David, my wonderful girlfriend, my gorgeous company. Why don't we all just take a big deep breath and just relax? Good. That feels good. Everybody feel better? I don't know where to begin.

He tries to do a joke. It doesn't land. Everyone is looking at him like, like they're dead inside. You know what I mean? They have that kind of gaze. And then he's like, okay, that didn't play. Then he implores them to have a sense of humor. It's a deposition. Should we talk about his testimony? One thing I would like to point out, as Jan does her talking head at six minutes, 35 seconds, you know, corporate has a name for their conference room. Jenna, did you know that? What? Yeah. Corporate's conference room has a plaque. It has a name. Do you want to hear it? What? It is the Robert Mifflin Memorial Conference Room. Is that hanging on a plaque over Jan's shoulder? Yes. Great catch. Thank you. I love

me the plaques on the walls, guys. As Michael's testimony begins, he very quickly gives a that's what she said joke. And it completely derails the deposition because the lawyers take everything literally. They're like, who said that? Who is she? Who is she? And what did she say? Here's the question the lawyer asked, and you were directly under her the entire time. Michael, that's what she said. It's so, so amazing. All of their line of questioning to Michael was so good. At seven minutes, eight seconds, the lawyer says, how long have you known the plaintiff? And Michael says, I haven't actually seen it, but I have seen the firm and I am planning on renting the Pelican brief. Oh my God. By the way,

I don't think John Grisham has a book called The Plaintiff. He should. It's called The Client. That's right. It's not. I read them all. I want you to know. I really appreciated in this whole episode, I really appreciated the callbacks. Yes, they were so well thought out. A big one comes up in this scene when Michael displays his document that he signed for HR, his love document. It's a callback from cocktails because it's in a frame. Michael said he was going to frame it and he did. There it is framed. And he didn't bother to take it out of the frame to bring it to the deposition. He brought it in the frame. Also, Angela, at eight minutes, 48 seconds, there is a super cool Dunder Mifflin mug on the

table in front of Michael. Did you see it? It's black with silver letters. I did see it and I thought, well, Fancy Corporate has fancy mugs. I want this mug. I don't think they ever did merch of this mug. What a missed opportunity. It's a classy mug. I loved it. Yeah, we never got one. No, we always got the white mug with the blue letters. I want the corporate mug with the silver letters, please. Michael has one line, Jenna, that I had to write down. Eight minutes, 28 seconds. To be delicate, the hang off my lady's chest. Oh, his whole description of Jan's breasts, you know, when he's trying to explain that he thinks she got fired because she got breast implants. But he won't just say that sentence.

He says it's because of the twins. The hang off my lady's chest. To be delicate. They make milk. And they're like, what is this guy talking about? All right, this deposition is going to continue, but I do think we need to check in on the folks back in Scranton. Pam has gone around and has been recruiting people to practice ping pong in the conference room with Jim. She gets Kevin to go in there by saying Jim needs help, processing his travel receipts. Well, this completely confuses Angela and Oscar because you would never ask Kevin to do this. At six minutes, 58 seconds, there is a shot of Angela and Oscar looking very suspicious. Why is Kevin being called to do anything? The shot is cropped so high, Jenna,

that you don't see my belly. And also, Baby Jazz Poster is there. Still there? Still there. Hmm. You and Oscar have worked something out in regard to the Baby Jazz Poster. We'll never know. We never know. But it's made it back on the wall. I love the scene with Kelly and Pam in the doorway to the bathroom. Pam's leaving the bathroom. Kelly's entering the bathroom and they meet in the doorway. Who is going to let the other go by? Now, of course, custom would have it that you let a person exit, right? Same with elevators. Let the people get off before you push on. Yes, that's social etiquette. Yeah. But there's a standoff. So Pam moves aside and Kelly's like, yeah, that's what I thought. Kelly is so like aggressive

in this whole episode. She's just like hardcore. She's working some stuff out. Clearly. Before we go back to the deposition and discuss my favorite moment from this entire episode, I think we should take a break. What is your favorite moment? I don't know. Okay, wait, I'll wait till after the break. Okay, okay. Let me just say the star of this episode is the stenographer. Oh, yeah. Okay, I know the one. All right, we'll be back. We are back. And Angela, during the break, I asked Sam to please pull this clip of the stenographer reading back some of Michael's testimony. Oh, so this happened right after a commercial break of the show. The first scene back was just the stenographer reading.

And it's so brilliant. Sam, will you play it? Mr Scott, do you realize you just contradicted yourself? I did. Yes, you did. Can I go to the bathroom? No, I really have to. I've been drinking lots of water. You went five minutes ago. That wasn't to go to the bathroom. That was to get out of a question. You still have to answer it. First, can I go to the bathroom? No. She is perfection. Lady, we got so much mail about her. Caitlyn F, Brittany T, Lindsay H, Sarah C. Who is the stenographer? She is fantastic. How in the world did she repeat those lines back to the room with a straight face? And her cadence is so perfect. Guys, her name is Valerie Ross. She most recently

played the role of Eunice Simpson, OJ Simpson's mom in American Crime Story. But let me tell you, she has done a ton of work as a dramatic actor. But I went to her webpage and in her biography on her website, which is amazing, by the way, guys, I'm going to put a swipe up to it in the stories because her life is amazing. But I discovered that she completed the two-year program at Second City in Chicago, famous improv comedy. That's the same place that Steve studied. She also did improv with eight pieces of gold in San Francisco. She did comedy at the comedy store. She worked all over Los Angeles and improv theater. And yet her resume is like all dramatic work. It was so fascinating to me. I also have a

connection with her. We both had guest starring roles on the TV drama Cold Case, not in the same episode, but I found that interesting, Valerie and I. I really felt like in my deep dive of Valerie Ross that it pointed to something that our show was so great at, which was hiring people for the realism, which made it funnier than if someone played it for comedy. That is right. That's why it's so funny is because when you hear her read off the testimony, it's like every courtroom you've ever gotten to look at, right? I don't know. I did jury duty. Have you done jury duty? I did jury selection. I was not ultimately picked, but you sat on a jury. I sat on a jury. What was your case? Can you say? First of all, I always

get called for jury duty. And I don't know, Jenna. What is it? I always get picked. There's only been one time that I haven't been picked. I sat on a case and it was a car theft case. Okay. I was the alternate and you still have to go every day, but you actually cannot weigh in when you go to deliberate the case. You're only there if someone doesn't show up and then you can say something. So I just had to sit there quietly as they deliberate it. I couldn't say any of my opinions. It was very hard for me. Would they vote to convict or acquit? Equit. Would that have been your choice? Yes. Alright.

So I maybe was making a lot of facial like responses as they talked. You know, I don't have a poker face, but while I was in this case, they did have the stenographer read back some testimony and this is exactly what it is. It's no nonsense. They just read it right back. There's no intonation. It's just exactly how Val did it. Do you know the famous story of Steve Carell showing up for jury duty? No. At the height of all of it, like 40 year old Virgin, Steve's blowing up his faces on billboards everywhere. He got called for jury duty. And you know, when you go to jury duty, they ask you questions. You get a sort of interview in the court. What is your profession?

Do you have anything about your life that might make you unable to deliberate this case fairly? All that kind of stuff. Right. Well, they asked Steve what his job was and he said, I am an actor. And the judge who did not recognize Steve said, do you do any other work as a day job? And he said, no, just the acting. And then he got placed on the jury. And he deliberated this, I believe it was some sort of civil case. Well, Jenna, the last time I went for jury duty, I think it's when Netflix had really kicked it into high gear for the office. And they went around and asked us each those questions. What is your occupation? And I said, I'm an actor. And he said, Have you ever acted on a law drama? The judge said this to me. I said, No, he said,

just, you just stick to workplace comedies. That's very funny. I said, Yes. And the whole courtroom started laughing. Clearly, the judge had watched the office. I know a lot of people always are trying to do these tricks to get out of jury duty, but I would love to be on a jury. I think the whole thing is fascinating. Sign me up. You know, it seems great. I think that's why I've been picked so many times before the office, because I actually show up with a notepad and a pin. I'm taking notes. And I think one side, either the prosecution or defense is like, we need her. She's taken notes. Yeah. Well, in summary, Valerie Ross is the star of this episode. She's incredible. She's so good. I wanted more stenographer. You know what I could listen to? I

could listen to her read all of Michael Scott's testimony. That would be a wonderful extra feature. Imagine if Val had read back his opening statement. Oh my gosh. Oh, I want to contact her and see if she'll do it. That's amazing. Should we go back to Scranton, Angela? Jim has just beaten Meredith at Ping Pong in the conference room and Dwight Busson and he demands to know what is going on in here. Well, Jim says he's got a big client that plays Ping Pong and he needs to like impress him. So Dwight's like, I'll help you, right? Yes. And he's got this talking head where Dwight says all of his heroes are table tennis players. Who knew? And he lists all of these names of actual people. And in the commentary, Rain shared that they actually put those names on a cue card

for him, a big cue card, so that he didn't have to memorize them. And he was able to read them off. Well, I'll tell you what, Angela, we had a fan catch. What? From Macy Gessler, who said, you can see a white square in the reflection of Rain's glasses during that talking head. That is the reflection of the cue card. That is such a great catch. And I paused and I looked at it and sure enough, it's there. Really? Oh, dang, I got to go back and look at that. That's so good. Big moment happening over at corporate. The deposition is going off the rails because this is when there's a lot of questioning about when did Jan and Michael's relationship really begin. And Michael has testified to one thing and they try to prove him wrong by showing this picture of Jan on the beach

in Jamaica, call back to back from vacation that Michael accidentally sent to everyone as proof that their relationship started before the love document says it did. Jan's lawyer says that photo actually isn't proof. And we have Michael's journal to prove it. And Michael is like, what? Jan brought Michael's personal journal and they begin to read out of it. It's so embarrassing for Michael. Well, he's written all about his trip to Jamaica with Jan. And it's written like a 13 year old boy wrote it. It's written, Jenna, the way I would write in my journal, like when I was eight years old, Dear Diary. And then at the end, I'd be like XOXO. Like, what am I? Is the diary a person? Yeah, so it's like that or it's like me writing about

meeting Patrick Dempsey. Very similar. You know, Jenna and I journal, you guys, you know this, right? We shared the Patrick Dempsey journal on this podcast. Yes, we're big journalists. I counted actually how many journals I have. I don't even think I could count. I've got it over two dozen. I mean, so many. So many. I have 15. Oh, wow. Well, you know, lady, I did the artist's way. It's a 12 week self led creativity seminar in a book. It's amazing if you're an artist. But it requires you to journal three pages every single morning, first thing. So I have legal pads and legal pads of these handwritten journals from when I did the artist's way. And I did the artist's way twice because the first time I didn't finish it. So I have like so much journal.

Here is the journal entry that Jan's lawyer reads. I quote from an entry dated January 4 of this past year. Just got back from Jamaica. Tan almost everywhere. Jan almost everywhere. He, he. Oh, diary. What a week. I had sex with my boss. I don't know if it's going to go anywhere. Jan was very specific that it is not going anywhere, that it was a one time mistake. But we had sex with my boss. We had sex six times. So you tell me, I am definitely feeling very iry. But he says iry. And then Michael corrects him. Oh, more tomorrow. XOXO, Michael. Incredible. Angela, I looked up the definition of iry. You did? Yeah. The lawyer thinks he meant iry. But Michael's like it's iry. He's been in Jamaica. Yes. And it means nice, good or pleasing. And it is used as a general

term of approval in Jamaican English. So despite everything, he's feeling pretty iry. I have to say Michael is absolutely crushed and feels betrayed by this reading of his journal. It is embarrassing. And he is right to feel that way. Jan is horrible. This was horrible. And this was premeditated. Yeah. She brought it from their home. Now they decide we're going to make copies of the journal. We're going to make 10 copies. Toby's like actually make it 11. Michael is just sinking further and further into this like embarrassing spiral. And Lester talked on the DVD commentary about one of the challenges of writing this episode was taking Michael through these layers, right? At the beginning of the deposition, he's feeling confident. And slowly with each

layer, it's just all falling apart. It's hard to believe that it's going to get worse from here. And yet it does. It's so tragic. And now they go to lunch. And everyone in this corporate lunch room is reading his journal. All I could think of was corporate has a cafeteria. I believed it, Jenna, because you know those big buildings in New York. I do. They have cafeterias and food areas. Ladies, I love a corporate cafeteria. I'll tell you what, I only experienced it once when I worked at the Coca Cola bottling company in Los Angeles. It's where they bottle the soda. I worked on the complaint hotline there. You did? I did. I took all of the complaints. And basically the policy was anyone who called a complaint got free coupons for soda. I had to listen to all the complaints

and log all the complaints and then mail the coupons. That was my job. It's kind of off in a remote area. This factory, you get 30 minutes for lunch. There's nowhere to go. So you had to bring your lunch or they had a corporate cafeteria. And lady, all the soda was free. You could drink as much as you wanted all day. The fountain sodas were free. But I love a cafeteria. I don't know what it is about it. I liked it when I was in high school. I loved it in college. I love a cafeteria. This is going to melt your brain for a moment. About a year and a half ago, I met my friend, Derek Haas, who works on Chicago Fire, Chicago PD. He's like the showrunner creator. He's like amazing, talented writer. We went to college together. He's like, and come have lunch.

Let's catch up. I'm like, awesome. He's like, you know, our office is on Universal Studio lot. I said, yeah, he was like, so come meet me. We'll go to the NBC Universal Commissary. I said, what? He said, have you never been? You're on an NBC show. I was like, no, we filmed over in this little soundstage in the middle of nowhere. He said, oh yeah, NBC has an amazing commissary. What? Jenna, it looks like you're at the four seasons. I'm talking like fabric napkin, the water glasses that are the big glasses, you know, where your iced tea comes with like a lemon wedge. Yeah. Jenna, we never got the NBC Commissary treatment, but it was really good. I also went there years, years later to have lunch with Terry Weinberg, who is one of the executive

producers of the office. She works on the lot. She invited me for lunch at the commissary. And I thought the same thing. I thought, wow, Greg could have chosen to have our show on the lot, but he wanted us to be more independent and have our own space, which ultimately I loved and was the right decision. Except for that damn cafeteria. I mean, I would have really liked that. The cafeteria was legit. This is not to say that we didn't have the greatest food on our set because arcaders were amazing. I just really like a cafeteria experience. It's not the food necessarily. I love the tray and you go down the little thing with the silver bars. You know, I love a soup plantation. This is why I think Lady, you don't have to even talk about this with me. You've,

you've heard my thoughts on a Vegas buffet. I know. It's just things we like. Guess where we filmed these corporate cafeteria scenes. Angela, I know, but I'm not going to say you tell us at the Universal Studios Commissary. So crazy. We filmed them for one day. We rented the entire space. So everyone who is working there didn't get to eat lunch there that day because all the people in the background were hired by us for non-speaking roles. We had that cafeteria that day to shoot these lunch scenes. Well, Jenna, Michael is walking around the cafeteria and he doesn't know where to sit. Everyone's reading his journal. He's feeling a bit lost and you know he's at the bottom of the barrel when he goes and sits with Toby. And Toby tries. Toby is so kind. Yeah. He brings up his

parents' divorce and how it made him feel. Both of his parents wanted him to testify and he's like, but I just love them both so much. Yeah. And he's sort of saying, Michael, I know you love Jan and you love Dunder Mifflin. So I see how you're pulled in two directions too. That's the subtext. Michael responds by pushing Toby's tray onto the floor and his entire lunch goes with it. So Lester talked about this moment. He said in the script they had written where Michael just goes off on Toby, like makes a big speech and they filmed it that way. And then Paul Lieberstein pitched, hey, why don't we do one take where he just shoves my tray off the table and walks away and doesn't even respond to me. And they did it. It was just like in the moment,

idea in the moment. And that's what made it in. So good. So funny. When the deposition continues, they are still reading Michael's diary. They have some questions. They say, who is this other woman, Ryan, who you refer to? No, Toby cannot keep his composure. He is cracking up. Michael just so looks up to Ryan and his admiration of Ryan is one of my favorite little tidbits of the show. Well, he has a man crush on him. And you know, Ryan got to do all the things I think Michael had hoped for. He went to college. He got his MBA. He's at corporate now. He represents something to Michael that Michael always hoped to have. Yeah, that kind of status. And now they're going to start reading from Jan's performance review of Michael, which

we find out she wrote after they were together. Oh, and her comments are so harsh and mean. Really mean. She recommends that he be let go from the company. She's out of carrots. She's out of sticks. Yeah, nothing works with Michael and that he's best suited for sales, which by the way, Jenna, I don't think she's wrong. I don't think she's wrong either. But this guts Michael. Yeah. He said, you expect to get screwed by your company, but you don't expect to get screwed by your girlfriend. We got some mail. We did. This is from Lou Chen, who says, as a lawyer who's taken depositions, I felt that the Michael deposition as depicted in this episode was impressively true to life while still being hilarious. And Kate P and Peter W pointed out something I

thought was very interesting. Why didn't they use the documentary film footage for proof in the deposition? Oh, interesting. Yes. Interesting. They would have. They could have. Yeah. We could see a lot of stuff on tape. They didn't ask. But they agreed to have the cameras in the room. Yes. So interesting. Well, you know, Jenna, in the deleted scenes, there's a moment, you know, where Michael's like, listen, she didn't mean it. She was going through a divorce at the time. She was drinking a lot. And then Jan makes a face, right? And then Michael goes of water because she was taking all of those pills. He just keeps revealing all of the stuff that's making it worse and worse. And they had to trim some of that for time. But I just loved it.

Lady, speaking of water, do you know how much water Tom Brady drinks every day? What? Yeah. Tom Brady? Where is this coming from? It's coming from the fact that the Super Bowl was recently. Yeah. And Tom Brady won. Yeah. And he looks like he's still 24. And I became a little obsessed with his athletic ability. And I read, and this is common knowledge, apparently, Lee was like, welcome to Tom Brady. Jenna, thanks for... I don't know it. What is it? He has this very, very, very strict diet that he adheres to. He has a personal chef. And he eats this mostly plant-based diet, but it also involves drinking gallons and gallons and gallons of water a day, like half his body weight in water. And all I could think about was, number one, this is such a

great advertisement for drinking water. But number two, how does he make it through a whole football game without having to pee constantly? How does he do it? I drink eight glasses of water a day, and I feel like all I do is pee. How does he drink so much water? And every time now, ever since learning this, that anyone brings up water, I think of Tom Brady. Well, maybe he does peter in a game. Maybe it just goes down his leg. I mean, you would never know. Oh my God, Angela. Listen, I would have thought that was crazy until, you know, Josh, who played soccer. Josh was a big soccer player all through high school, and he played in college. And he said, listen to this, he said on a soccer field during a long game, sometimes you can just like, take a knee

and whip it out to the side and just pee for a second. So those soccer games, the guys are peeing. So when they're like, they're pretending to maybe lace their shoe or something. Yeah, yeah, they just flop it out and take a whiz. But football players wear super tight pants and stuff. I feel like you would see it. No, you wouldn't. It's all padded. You wouldn't see it. I bet they can pee in their pants. Oh my gosh, I need to know. Football players, someone right in. Have you ever peed during a game and did anyone know? Also, person who interviews Tom Brady next about his diet and about his water consumption, will you please ask him about this because I need to understand when and how often the man goes to the bathroom? I need to know. This seems unmanageable.

Here's my takeaway. Don't go on a road trip with Tom Brady unless you like making lots of stops. If we want to continue the Tom Brady tangent, I remember one time Lee and I read about the new house that he and Giselle purchased and it was humongous and it had like a gazillion rooms. And Lee said something that was so funny to me. He said, can you imagine if Tom Brady gets to the kitchen and he realizes he left his cell phone in the bedroom? How far he has to walk to get it? He's like, I get annoyed when I have to walk because I forgot something in another room. But think of how far they have to walk. And it's always stuck with me because it's true. You know what they do? They go like this and someone goes and gets it for them.

Oh, they have a staff. They have a staff. That's what it is. The butler gets it. Tom Brady doesn't walk back to his bedroom for his cell phone. He's too busy drinking water. He's too busy peeing. Speaking of outstanding feats of athleticism, back in the conference room Dwight is beating Jim at Ping Pong. Dwight, it looks like he's barely making any effort to beat Jim. He's on his phone. He can just hit the ball no matter what. And Pam comes in at 16 minutes 21 seconds. Jenna, I'm going to show you your outfit. I took a screen grab of it. Oh, is it time?

It's time because this is the moment. If you really want to see your outfit here, what is this outfit? What is your gripe about this outfit? We have black tights, a long black skirt just below your knee, a blue buttoned up sweater. I'm just saying, Pam went through this phase in the beginning of her courtship with Jim, where she was judging herself up a little. And I think this outfit says, I am now comfortable in my relationship. Do with that what you will. Well, I take it as an insult. It seems phrase that way. I think maybe Pam is just a little cold. It's winter. She has exchanged her pantyhose for tights,

which is something we did for her in the winter months. But I don't think she has gotten comfortable in any way. She just had a day where maybe she didn't pair the right things together. That is all. I think you'll see in dinner party coming up. She's going to wear an adorable little cocktail dress. So don't worry. All right, I will back off Pam's attire. It did crack me up. I have an observation about this scene. Jim keeps saying spin serve, spin serve. That is not a thing. I looked it up. Spin is not reserved for a serve. And of the top five table tennis serves, only three of the five involve any spin. And I'll tell you what they are. Number one, the short side spin pendulum serve. Number two, the short side spin reverse pendulum

serve. Number three is the fast no spin cross serve. Number four is the fast no spin down the line serve. And number five is the long side spin serve. So there's no such thing as just spin serve. You have to be more specific, Jim. Is it a short side spin? Is it a pendulum? Is it a long side spin? And by the way, just because you're putting spin on it, doesn't mean you're mastering the game because there's a couple of great serves that involve no spin at all. I don't know why I felt the need to put Jim in his place about this spin serve, but he was just saying it was such authority. And it's not a thing, Jim. It's not a thing. Well, don't tell my husband that because he thinks a spin serve is where it's at. He's going to spin it on over. Listen, it's just that

it's just that there needs to be more specificity. Well, I'm going to tell him that next time he's playing while I'm trying to eat at the ping-pong table. Please do you put him in his place? Josh, that's not the long spin. Side spin. Short spin. That's a short spin. There you go. Well, Jim says he's ready. I'm going to go play Daryl. Pam's so excited they go down to the warehouse. And right away, it's not going Jim's way. And Kelly starts doing all of her smack talk, trash talk. She's making up a song. Hey, hey, you, you. I don't like your boyfriend. She's doing a whole thing. Pam has had it. Yeah. She's like, you and me right now, we're going to play. And they are both horrible. We had a fan question from Corinna Oh, Naomi Y and Lizzie M. Are you and Mindy actually bad

at ping-pong or did you have to pretend? Let me say this. Mindy and I were not great at ping-pong, but we weren't that bad at ping-pong. So we were pretending to be that bad. And the point was that we would never get past a certain number of volleys. Are they called volleys in ping-pong? You should know. Oh, I didn't get that far in my research. And also, I know that John was actually good at ping-pong and he had to pretend to be not as good as he was. Yes. And by the way, we played a lot of ping-pong while we were just waiting for various camera setups and things like that. This was a really fun day of shooting, actually, because we had this toy, which then stayed in the warehouse and we would play. Well, and there are a lot of deleted scenes of all the

other office members playing ping-pong that didn't make it in. Phyllis and Stanley play at the makeshift ping-pong table up in the conference room. Meredith has a turn. I yell off camera. I'm next. So it's like everyone is getting in there to play ping-pong. Lady, the deposition is almost over. And it's so sad because they've read David Wallace's testimony about whether or not he was ever really going to hire Michael for this corporate position. And you can tell in the testimony that David is really struggling to admit this, but the truth is Michael was never a real contender. Yeah, David says, listen, come on, he's a nice guy. Yeah. And he didn't want to have to go on record saying truthfully, Michael isn't anyone he considered. But you know what's interesting is of all of that crushing

information. What Michael heard was that David Wallace called him a nice guy. Yeah. And when Jan's lawyer says, wouldn't you agree with Ms. Levinson that the company exhibits a pattern of disrespect towards its employees, Michael says, absolutely not. Yeah. He tanks her lawsuit. There goes the $4 million. Now they're only going to be able to get Chinese food for dinner. Oh, it's going to be a rough car ride home. But there is a very sweet scene where David Wallace goes up to Michael and is like, hey, I'm really sorry that you got drug into this. I never wanted that. And Michael's like, it's okay. There is this moment though, Jenna, where David is like the father Michael never had. And it looks like Michael is trying not to cry. Yeah. Like when

your dad comes up to you and says, I'm sorry, buddy, you okay? It's like that moment. Yeah. And Michael's like, for the record, I think you're a nice guy too. It's a really sweet scene. It is. I have a great little behind the scenes trivia for you for that car ride home with Michael and Jan. Oh, tell me. Lester said that they had put lipstick cameras in the PT Cruiser for that car ride home. And when they got the footage back, it was all just completely dark. The little light that they had put in the car, like on the dashboard where you couldn't see it, it was going to illuminate Melora and Steve's faces. I guess there was something wrong with the light and it clicked off and all the footage was dark. Oh, no. So the only footage they had of that car ride scene

was from the follow car that was in front of them, right? Yes. So they had a car in front of them filming them. And that's the only camera that worked. And I actually really like it. And they talked about this a little bit in the commentary that it, it made it seem just way more real that there was this distance between the camera and what was happening. Kind of like what Randall talked about when he was on, the further away you were, the more intimate the moment feels to the viewer. Absolutely. This episode ends with an epic ping pong match between Dwight and Mose, who has left Shroot Farms, I believe for the first time we're seeing him off the farm. They are playing ping pong in the warehouse. It's clearly after hours it's dark, not all the lights

are on, and they are amazing. We had a fan question, Angela, from Ben S, Keith N, Bethany M, and Kai B were Rain and Mike Schur actually playing ping pong in this scene? Are they that good? No. No. This was all CGI. I think by this time they had learned how hard it was to actually film actors playing ping pong. So that was CGI. Yeah, those guys were just moving their arms and they put the ball in digitally in post. Before we wrap up this episode, you guys, there is a deleted scene that is delicious. It's Creed's turn to practice ping pong with Jim in the conference room at Dunder Mifflin. And Creed's like, yeah, I played, I learned to play in Cambodia. Jim's like, great, they start playing. Creed loses a point right out of the gate, starts taking off

his shirt. Jim's like, hold up, what's happening? And Creed's like, but this isn't strip pong. And Jim's like, no, no, no. Creed's like, okay. Wow. Creed thought when you play ping pong, you have to strip when you lose a point. Oh, that's funny. I wish that stayed in. I know. That's what she said. Guys, that is the deposition. I hope you will join us next week for some Osobuko dinner party. Oh my God. Next week is dinner party. Yep. Holy crap sticks. Dinner party. We're here, Jenna. We'll show up for it, guys. I can't wait. I can't wait. All right, we'll see you then. Bye. Have a great 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 Bubakow. Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton. For ad-free versions of Office Ladies, go to StitcherPremium.com. For a free one-month trial of StitcherPremium, use code Office.