Office Ladies - The Injury

Episode Date: March 4, 2020

Hold on to your George Foreman grills and watch your feet because this week we're breaking down The Injury episode of The Office. The ladies chat about Dwight and Pam's blossoming friendship, Michael's hilarious talking head, and what's with the sofa in the conference room?! Then Jenna reveals that yes, that really was Steve Carell's foot, and Angela reads from her journal about that Dwangela moment in the breakroom. Unfortunately, we cannot confirm if there are Yams at any Carbondale gas stations, but check out the reviews of Pam's Prism DuroSport-6000! https://durosport.com/ https://medialoper.com/prism-durosport-review/

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. Hi, everybody. Welcome today. We are talking about the injury. Good morning. And you know what? Angela has an injury. I do. I do, speaking of injuries. Guys, I was driving yesterday and I was chewing a piece of gum. I was popping my gum. And I bit the shiitake out of my tongue. It's so bad. Look at it. No, it's really bad. It's a Wraith bump.

I keep bumping it when I talk. So it's super intense. It's really painful. So if during this podcast, all of a sudden I go, it's because I've bonked it. Yeah. What's wrong with me? I can't chew gum and drive. I was like, I was on the phone with Josh. I was like, another thing. Oh my God. It's really bad. I know. It really hurts. Okay. This episode was written by Mindy Kaling and directed by Brian Gordon. It is season two, episode 12. Wow. Yeah. So we're on the second half of season two now. There were 22 episodes in season two. We've done 18 podcasts. Yeah. When we hit 20, let's have a party. Okay. Like I don't know. Like I'll bring cupcakes or something. Why 20? I don't know. I think we should have

a party one week for casino night. End of season two. Let's have a party for number 23. Let's have a party every time. Random numbers. I don't need a reason to have a party. That's right. Let me do a summary. I can't even, I just start to look at my summary that I've written and it makes me laugh. This is one of your very favorite episodes. People should know that. You bought a shirt, Jenna, because of this episode and you wore it all the time. I bought it off Etsy. It was a foot and a grill. And a grilled foot. It was like a comic book strip of a person grilling their foot. I mean, okay, here it is. Here's the summary. I can't even say it. It's so funny to me. Michael accidentally steps on his George Foreman grill,

injuring his foot. It's so funny. Dwight attempts to rescue Michael and crashes his car into a pool, causing what we will find out to be a concussion. During the workday, the staff does not do it on Michael as he had expected. And Dwight's concussion sparks an unexpected friendship with Pam. Aw, you guys must have had so much fun doing that. I loved it. I had so many scenes, just me and Rain, and we bonded so much. Whenever you get put in a scene with someone, that means you're going to work with them for about three or four hours that day exclusively. And whenever they're having their conversations about how the scene is going or in the breaks, you get to just chitty chat. You get to just hang out. So I got to chitty chat a lot with Rain,

but I just love working with Rain. I mean, you were so fortunate. You got to work with him all the time. All the time. All right. Should we get into the fast facts? All right. Fast fact number one, this script was originally going to be called My Grilled Foot. My Grilled Foot. But then they changed it. So this is a standalone comedic episode that does not forward the Jim Pam storyline in any way, which was a little bit controversial because our last episode was Boo's Cruise, which was a huge bombshell confession by Jim to Michael that he is in love or that he has feelings for Pam. And so everyone tuned in to see what was going to happen. And guess what? We did not answer that question in any way. In any way. So I'm sure like the fans were like,

what the heck? Yeah, it does move forward. Dwight and Angela a little bit. It does. I have that down. It contains references to the Dwight and Angela love story, which was nice. It was like this. I mean, we'll get to it, but there are some moments in here that I just love. Yeah, with Dwight Angela. I know, me too. This was also our highest rated episode so far. What? Yeah, I think a lot of people tuned in after Boo's Cruise. I think so. And what a great episode though. I mean, I know we didn't maybe give people what they were hoping to see with the cliffhanger, but we, I mean, comedy gold. We gave him comedy gold. Steve is so funny in this. Oh my gosh. He is the worst patient. The worst. And he made me laugh so hard. Fast fact number two,

guest star, Marcus York, played our building manager, Billy Merchant. Now I have to imagine this was a nod to creator of the British office, Steven Merchant. I think that's where we grabbed that last name. Oh yeah. I didn't think about that. Billy Merchant. Yeah. I feel like that's true. I got to talk to Marcus yesterday. Marcus, thanks so much for taking time out of your day. And here are a few things he shared with me. Okay. So he auditioned for Alison, Mindy, and Greg. And he said it went really, really well. He was really excited. You know that moment where you have a great meeting or a great audition. He said that's how it felt. He had been in LA as a working actor for a while. And he said, this is one that I was like, ooh, I think I, I think I

got it. And he said that Greg jumped up and shook his hand. And he was like, okay. And then he was running errands. He was at Home Depot and he got the call that he got it. And his agent was like, you got it. And he was like, wait a second, I'm in Home Depot. I have to call you back. So he said he'll always remember that. And then he said the night before he had to come in, he was nervous and he got like no sleep. He said, I got zero sleep. He said, so then the next day I was freaking out because I hadn't gotten any sleep. And you know, it's like hard to remember your lines or anything. So he was like, I was really trying to wing it. And I said, well, we couldn't tell at all. Like, you were just such a cool customer. You had your lines, you were like totally ready to

go. He said, Ang, I was like going on no sleep. Oh my God. That happens to me always before a shoot. Yeah, or a big day, right? Like whenever I have a big day, it's hard to sleep. And then he said the thing he wasn't prepared for, and this really made me laugh, he said, the conference room is so small. Yeah. He said it's so small. And he goes, and there were so many of you. It's such a small room. And like him and Steve were at the front of the room having, so we're all looking at them, you know? Yeah. And he said the room was so tiny. And he said, you guys had crammed so many people in there. And that actually really made me laugh. And then the one other thing he said he remembered from the set, A, he said we were all really nice. Oh, that's good. That's good. But he

also said the food was awesome. Yeah. He said, you guys know you had really good food, right? We did. I was like, yeah, that is true. My dad said the same thing after visiting. He was like, man, the food. We really did. We had really good food. Ah, that is so nice. It was a delight talking to him. And I have a few other things as the episode goes. Okay, I love that. I love that. All right, should we do Fast Facts number three? Do it. I feel like I need to tell you I ran out of Fast Facts for this episode. What? I ran out. This is one of your favorite episodes. I know. How can you, there's only three. There's only three. How do you run out? Well, I did. And you're gonna see, here is all I could come up with. Drum roll. Oh, I can't my tongue out. Oh, injury, injury. Go.

We filmed this episode November 2005. I know this because I saved the script and it's typed on the front. Okay, well, listen, as far as your delivery of that Fast Facts, you could have been like, guys, I saved the script. Oh, let me do it again. Are you ready? Here's me. Fast fact number three, I saved the script. Oh my God, that's amazing. Oh yeah, that's good. See you turned it around. That's better. Okay. Yeah. All right. Well, that's it. Let's get into it. Should we start breaking down the episode? We usually take a break first. Okay. We haven't been talking that long. Do you want to take a break? I don't know. It's just what we usually do. I could put some numbing stuff on my tongue. I don't know how that's going to work out for the rest of the episode though.

It'd be very interesting. All right, we'll be back to break down the episode. All right, we're back talking about the injury. Angela has an injury. Let's get started. This episode opens with what I believe is one of the greatest scenes ever in a television comedy. And I feel similarly about the opening scene of Fleabag season two as I feel about this. I haven't seen season two of Fleabag. Sorry, is this going to be a problem in your friendship? Wait, is this a Game of Thrones moment for you? Yeah, I told you to watch it. Okay, so I watched the first episode of Fleabag season one. Yeah. I told you to just start with season two. Well, I don't want to start out of order. I get that. I get that. I get that. But I just need you to watch season two of Fleabag

because I had like an epiphany while watching it, and it changed my life. And I think it's like the greatest season of television ever made. Okay, I will, I want to watch it. I will watch it. I don't believe you. I don't believe you. I think if you wanted to watch it, you would have watched it by now. When do you watch television? I fall asleep. Like I try to put the kids to bed. Okay, we're getting off track. I, we, Lee and I watch about 45 minutes of television each night after we get the kids down and after we, like, after I play freesale on my phone and he plays online poker. Oh, I'm getting, by the way, I am getting a real window. You are. Then we go downstairs and we watch either half of a movie or a TV show. That's my life, everybody.

It's very routine. I like, we'll go a long time without watching television. And then I will have some random day where I just like binge watch three hours of TV. Well, I'm going to clear your schedule for Fleabag season two. All right, it's going to change your life. Yeah, that's right. Sometimes you have to get bossy about things. And this is okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. Back to our show called The Office. This opening scene, it opens with just shots of general office life. Michael is not in the office. And apparently that has put all of us in a good mood because we're all just milling about chatting with one another when suddenly the phone rings. Pam answers the phone. And this is when Michael explains that he's hurt. He needs Pam to pick

him up. Jim puts him on speakerphone. The only person willing to rescue him is Dwight, who runs out of the building and crashes his car. So I have the script. And as I was watching this, I mean, I watched the scene, then I called Leon, he had just gotten out of the shower. I was like, I was like, he was dripping wet. And I'm like, you have to come in and watch the scene with me again, because it's so good. He's like, okay, can I try off first? Like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but you have to watch this brilliant bit of television comedy. So then I watched it again. I must have watched this five times. That whole insane conversation was totally scripted. Line for line. That opening scene is not improvised. It's awesome. That is crazy to me. The only thing

that wasn't in the script was when Michael said he had a protuberance on his elbow. In the script, it just said hurt my elbow. And that was the only improv. But that also shows that how ready John, as Jim was the minute Michael said that it wasn't in the script, John looked to camera like, okay. Yeah. I mean, what is happening there? It's great. It's fantastic. So good. Now listen, my folks who love the background at the very top where we're all just milling about before the phone call happens. Yeah. I am totally not in character. Oh, I saw it. I am just being me. You and Brian are in the background over Oscar's shoulder. We're goofing off. Brian, I remember did some silly like, and I swat him. Yeah. But as me, I laugh. I laugh and swat him.

I totally saw it. It's totally me. Well, the thing is, is that Oscars out of focus and you guys are in focus in the background, you probably thought you were safe. We probably thought the camera was on Oscar, but no, the focus was on you. Yeah. We didn't know we were on camera. I saw that. That's a really good one. That happens at five seconds. Jenna, I have a question for you. What? At 27 seconds. What? You're starting to break. I see you starting to break. Yes. I don't think so. Oh my God. Totally. And then later. What am I doing? What is happening at 27 seconds? It's got to be the phone call. I don't know. I didn't write it down. I should have written it down. How do you know I'm not acting? Everybody thought I was breaking when Dwight was in the

box. Well, I think you're starting to break, but guess what? What? Later on, you full-on break. I full-on break in the conference room. I know. Okay. But anyway, at 27 seconds, it looks like you're starting to break. Okay. I might be. At 47 seconds, we present the greatest talking head of all time, Michael's talking head explaining how he burned his foot. This too is word for word from the script. Sam, I am going to need you to pull this up. Michael explains that he loves to wake up to the smell of bacon, and then he explains how he makes that happen, and it involves a George Foreman grill on the floor of his bedroom. Six strips of bacon. It's brilliant, but Steve's delivery of it. He is so, it's like, I feel like his intention

is like, okay, let me explain it to you again. For everyone who can't seem to understand, one last time. Right. And then also that it's like the most normal thing ever. Yeah. Like, I don't, what is confusing about this? Do I need to tell you how, okay, this is how you shower. Yes. Okay, Sam, you have to find it. It's at 47 seconds. I enjoy having breakfast in bed. I like waking up to the smell of bacon. Sue me. And since I don't have a butler, I have to do it myself. So most nights before I go to bed, I will lay six strips of bacon out on my George Foreman grill. Then I go to sleep. When I wake up, I plug in the grill. I go back to sleep again. Then I wake up to the smell of crackling bacon. It is delicious. It's good for me. It's a perfect way to start

today. Today I got up, I stepped onto the grill and I clamped down on my foot. That's it. I don't see what's so hard to believe about that. It's so good. It's so good. It's so good. Since I don't have a butler. Since I don't have a butler, like everybody else who wants bacon in the morning, all of the eye rolling too that he's doing, it's just like, oh, well, he loves breakfast in bed. He loves it. This is what you have to do. Oh my gosh. I just think it's, I just think it's amazing. I have a- It's good for me. It's healthy. It's six strips of bacon every day. I don't know. Fan question from C. Was Steve actually on the other end of the line during the filming of the phone call? Yes. A lot of people wrote in to ask, how do we do these phone calls? We've talked a

little bit about it before. Usually they just would have someone very close off camera. Like in another room. Yeah. Like when we did scenes with Melora, she was usually just in the conference room calling in to Steve's office. I don't know where they put Steve here, but he was there. It was live. We could, you know, when he said protuberance, John could react. That is fantastic. I have a question for you. So during this whole exchange, we cut back to Pam's desk area. So at around 37 seconds, Jenna, there's an I heart you pillow. There's like a red Valentine's bear. What's up? What's up? This isn't the Valentine's episode. What's going on? I don't know. I had those same things. I noticed that, yes, at 37 seconds,

there's a really great shot on my desk. What's up with that? I also have a yoga card. Well, I gave that to you. You did? Yes. That's from you? That's from me. So I have, that's one of my cards for today. So I had written you a card. I had bought those little yoga cards at Target. You know, you can get like a pack of tin. Yeah. And she was had like a little pink outfit on. And so I had written you a card on that and you kept it and you had it on your desk. You know, that is so sweet. I noticed I had three post-it notes on my desk as well. And I kept trying to pause and zoom in because I just assumed that those were probably from you too, because you used to pass me post-it that I would put on my desk. The card is from me and you kept

it and you had it on your desk. That is too cute. And it wasn't for anything in particular. It was just, I just had written you a little card about like I was just, I had become a series regular and we were so excited and I just wrote a little card about just like I was so excited that we could have our lunches and all that stuff. You guys, this is an Angela thing you should know. You still do that to this day. You, you love these little cards. It's so cute. And you are very good at handwriting. Just messages of gratitude. Mostly like I'm so, I have so many from you. I'm so grateful for this friendship and it's the sweetest thing about you. Oh, thanks. Yeah, you're really good at that. I put a note in my daughter's lunch a lot and I made one this morning.

I drew a little palm tree and a beach because she loves the beach and I just have a great day. That's a very sweet thing about you, Angela. Well, thank you. But now looking back, I'm sure like the yoga card must have been weird, but I guess I probably just thought they were cute. No, I think because I did yoga. Didn't I do yoga? You did yoga and you brought me to a yoga class and it was one of the most painful experiences of my life, which is, wait, but to be fair, to be fair, I had brought you to what I thought was a beginner yoga class. Well, first of all, you're like, Angela, go to yoga with me. And I said, Jenna, I've never been to yoga. I don't really get it. I'm not, I don't understand it. I don't know what any of it means. I'd have to go

to a beginner beginner. Yeah. And you were like, I've got it. It's amazing. Yeah. There's this one on Tuesdays. We'll go to this beginner yoga class. It'll be terrific. We waited for a day off. You took me to that yoga class. It was not the beginner class. It was so not beginner. And there's woman was like militant. I thought yoga was like supposed to be like a peaceful stretch. She was like that. Like she was yelling and then she got mad at me. It was like an intermediate flow class for anyone who does yoga. And she was like basically speaking a different language. It was like shavasanas and stuff like that. I don't know what that means. I didn't know what that means. And she got really annoyed with me. Do you remember? I do. And I felt really protective of

you because and I was there. We started giggling. Yeah. Oh, and then she really didn't like that. No. But I was, I just kept thinking the whole time, what the heck? This is explain, explain. This is beginner. But if anyone knows like yoga flow, they just shout out the poses and it goes really fast. And they don't even explain what they are. And I kept raising my hand. And you're like, and I just, I was so mad. And afterwards I was, oh, I was so fired up to complain because here I had finally convinced you to go to a yoga class with me. I knew this would never happen again after this debacle. And it turns out I read the schedule wrong. And it was in fact an intermediate flow class. I mean, that's what it was. When you realized that, do you remember

what you did? No. You started laughing. You started laughing so hard. You were like, Oh, sorry. I was like, Oh my God. But then there was a pose. Wait, you guys have to do if you've never, ever, I'd never been to yoga. There was a pose where they all fricking stood on their head. They put their feet in the air and they rolled up on their shoulders, on their head and neck. I thought I was going to die. Well, I don't know if you remember Angela, but the next day you called me and you said, I can't put my hair in a ponytail because I can't put my arms above my head. I'm so sore. I was so sore. I've never been bent that way. I was so sore. And that's what she said. That's what she said. Oh dear. That was too much. Oh no. But I didn't go to yoga for years. It took

me years to go back to yoga. This is, by the way, I think a fitting tangent, another injury. I know. And might be why I gave you a card with a yoga lady on it. Maybe it was. So also on my desk, no one's going to care about this but me, but you can see this really odd plastic decoration behind my phone. And this decoration was on my desk for the whole nine years. And I don't know what it is. It's like a plastic base with wires coming out of it. And then on top of the wires, there are like these very colorful half spheres and they clang together if you flippity flop them. What is that for? I thought that I was supposed to hold photos. I thought the spheres you put little photos in. No, there's no slot in the spheres. There's no slot in the

spheres. No slot in the spheres. No. Okay. Well, I don't know what it is. If anyone wants to go to 37 seconds and look at the shot of my desk and write in and tell me what I was supposed to do with that thing on my desk, please. I thought maybe it held messages. I don't know. Why would anyone want that thing? It's the same as that click-clack thing that we talked about, the Newton's logic. What's it called? They're called the Newton's cradle. A Newton's cradle. Newton's ball. Newton's cradle. Well, it's the same as this weird plasticky thing if you ask me. Okay, let me break down the car crash for everybody. Okay. Fan question, Daly Burnin said, how did Dwight driving into the pole work? Was he driving or was it someone else? I reached out to Rainn Wilson to get the full

story on this. What did my tall geeky man love of my life say? Here's what he said. He said, if you notice, you never actually see the crash. No. You just hear it. So they just put the car there and he just staggered out of it. Later when he's driving away, that was a stunt driver, Rainn never actually drove the car. Another fan question from Nicholas Powell, what did Rainn Wilson use for his throw up on the car? Cream of potato soup. And Rainn told me it was actually his idea to throw up across the back windshield in the script and on the day he was directed to throw up on the pavement outside of the car, but he thought it would be funnier if he threw up across the back windshield. They only did about two takes, but he said he really hurt his

neck during the fake throw up. Yeah, because he said he had to like project. Yeah, he had to like propel his neck forward so that the vomit would really splatter. And he said it was sore for like two weeks afterwards. So he got Rainn Wilson got an injury filming the injury. Sorry, this is like the kind of stuff when I always felt like as a cast and as a show, we didn't travel well. Like we'd be like, safety meeting, right? We have a candle, we have fake throw up. And then there's other shows with like, you know, insane explosions and car chases, but we get an injury from fake vomiting. We did, he did. I'm sorry, Rainn. All right, so the next thing that happens is that Michael enters on crutches and he has his foot in bubble wrap. And fan question Nathan

Jasper asked, was John popping the bubble wrap cast scripted or was that John's idea? It was scripted. It was scripted. I have a question for you, Jenna, speaking of bubble wrap. Yeah. Not too long ago, you injured your foot. I did. Hiking, right? weren't you hiking and you hurt your foot? Yeah, I did. And then you started wearing this big boot around. But then the boot started rubbing your shin. And then one day you showed up and I could hear like yeah. And I said, what is that noise? And I looked down at your boot and sticking out from your boot is bubble wrap. Yeah. So these boots, they have these like metal rods in them, which are what keep your foot stable, right? And they was like pressing into my shin. And I complained about

it on Instagram. I just said, anyone who's ever worn these, like how did you make these comfortable? Because I'm, it's like my foot feels better. But now my shin, I feel like I'm bruising my bone of my shin. Someone jokingly wrote back and said you should wrap it in bubble wrap like Michael. And I was like, well, I mean, that's not a bad idea. And it worked. It was so effective. Hot tip. Anyone who has to wear a boot, just wrap your shin in bubble wrap. Thank you, Michael Scott. Thank you, Michael Scott. Thank you, the injury. Angela, I am very surprised that you are not calling out a PAMSAS moment. Um, what does this card say? No, I have a previous PAMSAS. Where? No, I didn't tell them you cooked your foot. That is really good.

I was going to say, there's some PAMSAS in this episode. I have a few. I have a few. Next up, Michael calls PAM into his office to ask for messages. Dwight is fanning Michael's foot with a tiny fan. And then it buzzes his foot. And that was not in the script. That we came up with that on the day. Well, I wrote, Jenna, so when that fan hits his toe, I laughed so hard because Steve's reaction was so hilarious. So good. And I, I, how did you keep a straight face? I didn't. Oh my God. I laughed through that entire scene. Oh my Lord. That made me laugh so hard. Don't give Rainn Wilson a tiny prop. Oh, no. Like, don't give him a keyboard at the dundies. They gave him that as an option to fan Michael's

foot. And then he just ran with it. It was so good. It's like one of my favorite things. At four minutes, 22 seconds, Michael says, your job is being my friend PAM. Yeah. And I think that's what he really thinks. It's true. And so today, I think one of the reasons he's so grumpy, that was really funny. I mean, grumpy PAM when he's talking about like how grumpy is, is because no one is being his friend in his mind. That's your job. Your job isn't to answer phones. Your job is to be my friend. Be friendly to me. I had a fan question from Tanya Colomarino. When PAM calls Michael fussy, was that scripted? Because it sounds like how I describe my teething babies. It was scripted. And it's perfect. It's perfect. Well, so now we're starting to see clues of Dwight's

concussion. Yeah. Right? He clearly hit his head really hard. Yeah. And there are going to be little things sprinkled throughout the episode. And one of them is he just loses his train of thought. He starts speaking. He doesn't finish his sentence. Yeah. Right? Then he just starts typing Dwight over and over and over and over again. Then he like raises his hand, but he doesn't know he's raising his hand. Yeah. He calls PAM PAN. Yeah. It's like one of my favorite things. I just thought it was so funny. He's also friendly. He's like really friendly and he's And helpful. Helpful. And then later on he's funny. He gets into like that's what she said joke. He calls Creed dad. Yes. He thinks Creed is his dad. At one point he gets weepy. Yeah.

This is what happens when Dwight gets a concussion. I have a fan question from Lucy. Was Rainn Wilson actually typing Dwight over and over? Ooh, was he? Yes. I asked Rainn. He said yes. He was really typing Dwight. But that made me think about how a lot of times we would have those prop computer document things that the props department would have some computer programmer coder come up with. So if you did have to type something specific that they were going to show on the screen, you could actually just press anything and then the sentence would come up. I always liked those. They were really fun. Yeah. Or if like PAM had to, I don't know, like if you clicked on certain things, websites would come up, but they were all fake

websites. And it was like a movie. It was just like a slide show of documents. And then you would hit escape and it would start over for the next take. Yeah. And it wouldn't matter what key you hit. Didn't matter. Didn't matter. But he was really typing Dwight. At five minutes, 44 seconds, you guys, there's now a sofa in the conference room. Yes. Where did this sofa come from? I have that. Okay. And then also, is it the only time there's a sofa ever in the conference room? That I don't know. Okay. But it is the sofa from front reception. And I read the script and this is a description from the script that I absolutely love. So I'm going to read it. It says, so Michael moves into the conference room and it says, Michael is splayed out on a sofa,

the one by PAM's desk, which has been moved and is cuddled up under a comforter with his leg elevated. It says, though he made the conference room his bedroom, it's unclear if he's wearing his pants under the comforter. That's something Mindy wrote. So however, I love that though, like however they set that scene, they had to make it so that it was unclear. Yeah, he did. He did walk in though with a duvet comforter and two pillows and then like a few like sort of it looked like aloe vera and like, yes, ointments that he had. All right. A ton of people wrote in about this conspiracy theory that Steve had a prop foot that he propped up on the pillow and they sent these pictures that seem to imply that his body is doing something that

a normal human body couldn't do. No, that's Steve's foot. That is Steve's foot. Yeah. But I got so many emails and so many comments about it. That's crazy. That I started, I mean, we were there. We know there was no fake foot on a pillow. No. But the pictures were so convincing and we'll post this on our website so you can see. They were so convincing that I reached out to Steve. Oh my God, Jenna. I bothered Steve, girl. You were like, Steve, is that your foot? And he's like, what are you talking about? I'm guessing. It was like 11 at night. He's like, first of all, hi, Jenna. I hope you're well. Yeah, that was my foot. I wrote Steve's e-mail message. It was like 11 p.m. I was like, Steve, I feel like I know the answer to this and I sort of explained it.

And also, I'm not drunk. And he wrote back and he was like, is this what it's come to? No. This is what we talk about on the podcast. And he was like, it was not a fake foot. It was my foot. It was his foot. I even remember him having to go special to hair and makeup because they put those divots on the bottom. The grill marks. The grill marks. That was special effects makeup. Yeah. A lot of people ask how they did that. There's this putty that they use to make those and they glue it on your foot with a special glue. Spearmint glue or something like that. It is called spearmint glue. But then they use this airbrush makeup machine and then to make it blend and then they'll stipple. It's pretty. Highlight on it. It's pretty amazing. Stipple?

Stipple. That is what it's called. A stipple sponge. It is. Yeah. Did you not take theater makeup 101? Watch yourself. Well, in my theater training, we had to buy a Ben Nye makeup kit, which included a stipple sponge. Well, I was doing comedy. I was doing improv on stage while you were playing with your sponge. Okay. All right. At five minutes, 50 seconds, the prism duro sport. Yeah. Pam's iPod knockoff gift from Roy. That Dwight says is chunkier and more solid than an iPod. Way to go. Way to go, Roy. You get her the cluster ring and then you get her a prism duro sport. Way to go, Roy. So I did a deep dive on the prism duro sport. Lady, me too. Lady, lady. What did you find? Not only what did I find because I know you found it too,

but I printed it out and I brought it. You brought the fake website for the prism duro sport? Okay. First of all, the fake website is called durosport.com. It's still up. You can still find it. These were. Who made it? Our writers. No, they did not. Yes, they did. Our writers took the time to make this. Yes. How? Clearly, they were just having some fun. We should probably talk to them. They made up durosport.com. Then they went one step further and they made a review site that reviewed the prism duro sport and it's called Medialoper. What? I printed out this. I did not find. I printed out the review of the duro sport. Oh, please. It's the prism duro sport 6,000 worst digital audio player ever and it goes on. You guys, this thing is, oh my gosh,

I printed out, it is 11 pages. Can we put links on our website? Yes, we're on our website. OfficeLadies.com. Look for all this stuff. Look, there's the photo of it. It looks ridiculous, but here's one of my favorite things. At the end of this horrible review, there is a comment board. And they made fake comments. They made fake comments, which is so funny. You have to read the fake comments. They're some of my favorites. And the very, very last fake comment, if you go all the way to the end, it says, it's by Shilkote. Okay. Why do I feel like that's Mike Schur? It says Shilkote says, to anyone who doesn't know, duro sport is in fact a joke. It was created by the writers of the office. Check the who is. It went up soon after the episode air. Wow.

Our writers were really having a good time with this. I guess so. I have a fan question from Steph. Was Pam's device a creative Zen MP3 player? She calls it something else, but it really looks like a creative Zen. So there is, I mean, Phil Shea had to hand me something, and it really worked. I could really scroll, and it really plugged into my computer. So I froze the image at five minutes, 47 seconds, and I compared it to an image of a creative Zen. I think stuff might be right. Nice catch stuff. I'm giving you applause. Yeah. So I guess if you want to own one, they have them on eBay. Also, fan comment from Jamie Garrett just said comment. This is not a question. I can verify that there was actually a Russian music website with 10 cent downloads.

I used it for years until sanctions against Russia shut it down. So Dwight is giving Pam some good advice. I totally believe that. At six minutes, 48 seconds, some major Pamsas. Pamsas. Pamsas. Michael's like, will you come in here? And she goes, tell me before I come there. No, that feels like such justified sass. It's justified sass, but it's also how I talk to my children when they're like, Mom, I'm like, what? Tell me if I come all the way upstairs. I want to know what this is about. But then he asked her to rub butter on his foot. Gross. Country Crock. And she just says no and hangs up on him. I had a question about that. Is Country Crock in the script because it sounded like an improv?

No. Country Crock was not in the script. What happens after Pam hangs up with him is that Meredith was supposed to come over and offer to do it. And Michael says something like, oh, no. And she says, I'm telling you, Michael, I have really soft hands. So there was a little extra little beat. That's what happened after he didn't say Country Crock. Well, when I watched it and Steve as Michael said, Country Crock, you sort of get to know each other and you can sort of tell when something, I was like, that is all Steve. That sounds like an improv to me. So at seven minutes, 31 seconds in the scene at reception when Dwight is showing Pam that she can throw her music thing and it won't break.

Did you notice at the end of the scene what Reign as Dwight does? He taps the desk the way Jim always does. Yes, as he walked off. Yeah, that was a little bit that Reign and I came up with on the day. That is so great. That's so subtle. I love it. Yeah, it's really cute. I love it. Well, I have at seven minutes, 38 seconds, is Jim jealous? Jim? So I can't believe it. Jim is a little bit jealous of Dwight because Dwight is having his Pam moments. Yeah, Pam and Dwight are friends now. And at seven minutes, 43 seconds, I have my very famous line that gets quoted to me a lot. Oh my God, Dwight is kind of my friend. How about the scene where Michael is in the conference room and he's on the phone with his mom? It's one of my favorite scenes. It is one of my

favorite scenes. It is so layered with so much. He's like, no one cares. And then he's sort of like clearly lied to his mom about Jim and Jan. And he's like, oh, she'll have to dry it. She'll worry. And then then he finds out that Pam and his mom have been chatting and Pam has filled in his mom on his relationship status. And he gets so ticked off. I love this whole conversation. It was so great. That was all scripted. Oh, it's so good, Mindy. But look at all the people milling around in the background of that. There were so many crosses. Are we ever up from our desks like that? Why? So much activity. I'm not even at reception. I'm like doing something. What am I doing in that corner? You know what that moment was when I watched it? That's Brian Gordon. I think that's

the director. And he wanted a bunch of us. Like he wanted movement in the back of the scene. Well, if I remember correctly, there was this idea that he had where because Steve was stuck, he wanted it to seem like that was like a FOMO. Like he wasn't out there with us. He wasn't walking around with us and like joking with us and that he couldn't be part of what that was happening out there. Look at you using the kids lingo. FOMO. FOMO. Is that the kids lingo? A little bit. All right, guys, I'm going to read to you from a journal. I wrote about the scene of Rain and I in the break room. So you're going to hear some journal thoughts from Angela. Journal thoughts after the break. Come on.

We're back, everyone, from our break and it's time for Angela's Diary. Every time you say that, she's been saying that during the break, you guys. Angela's Diary. It just sounds like something brought to you by PBS. Angela's Diary. So the scene in the break room with Dwight and Angela. Summed to Angela. Summed to Angela. Some weird love. Well, he tells her that she's sweeter than candy and then he pats her butt. He does. Angela wrote about it in her diary, you guys. I wrote about it in my journal. Your journal. So, all right, I say a few things about that break room scene. Between Dwight and Angela, we filmed a lot of different versions.

Pretty much they just wanted Rain to surprise me in some way and that I would have like this natural reaction. Sure. And we knew that he was going to do something and then kind of run off, right? So I have here, Rain spanked me, swatted me, tried to kiss me. One time he actually picked me up by my butt. Whoa. So I remember he like ran up behind me and kind of grabbed me and I sort of leaned back and he lifted up at the same time. We weren't planning this, guys. This was just like a kind of random accident, but it was so weird that he just sort of lifted me by my buttocks. So that one didn't make it in. Anyway, we did a bunch of takes and I said that I laughed so much. We were laughing so much that I was really surprised they found one they could use

because I didn't know what he was going to do. And you know, Rain, Rain is like going to throw you curveballs. He actually delights in that. Of course. He loves it. He loves to throw you off, but ultimately we use the one where he swatted me a bunch and just ran away. In the script it said he squeezes your butt. Did you do some squeezes? I'm sure. I'm sure there were squeezes swats. I mean, I did write that like I had a little bruise on my butt the next day. That was just too much touching your butt? Anyway, that's what I wrote there. Well, the next scene, Michael is trying to enter the kitchen. Ryan does not help him because he is busy eating string cheese with Toby, which I loved that interaction. I did too.

When Ryan's like, oh, you just go for it. You just, you know, you don't pull it apart. I love that. That was actually Toby says that to Ryan. I know you just go for it. Did I say Ryan? Yeah, you said Ryan. Oh, God, I'm so embarrassed. I'm embarrassed for myself. Please, we'll issue a correction. Angela, how do you eat string cheese? Do you go for it or do you string it? I go for it. I string it. Oh, this says everything about us. You probably methodically, you have a system of how you eat your string cheese. You know, I get so mad if my string is too thick. Like I like to really string it. Do you get mad at yourself, Jenna? Yeah, I like it to be like even strings. Okay, I open it and just bite it off.

This says everything about us. I feel like I don't have time to string it out. Guys, how do you eat your string cheese? Do you string it or do you bite it? Or do you bite it? Jenna's a stringer. I'm a biter. I'm going to do a poll and we'll tell you the results. Okay. So Michael eventually makes it into the bathroom and then you overhear him falling into the toilet, demanding that Pam help him, demanding that Ryan help him. This was all basically scripted except for, it was in the script that Michael is supposed to say, get Ryan. But then Steve improvised, he needs to lift me and he needs to clean me up a little bit,

bring a wet towel. And I think you can see Paul start to break at the end. Oh, no, you totally can. Right? For sure. I watched the scene a few times because I was like, Paul is breaking. Paul is breaking at nine minutes, 46 seconds. He starts to laugh and he turns away from camera and kind of leaves. He does. And then the camera, because our camera guys would do this quite often for us when they would see that we were starting to break, they'd whip away from us. They would. So he whipped, oh, the camera guy whipped to the door. But I think the thing that did him in was when you hear Michael fall for the second time, because that was also not in the script. And I think it was too much for Paul. Well, Steve was in there clanging around, like making noises and

stuff. It was very funny. All right. So next, Jim and Pam are out in the bullpen and they're discussing Dwight. And this is when Michael busts in and asks people if they know what it's like to have a disability. He's ticked off. I remember shooting that scene. He is so angry now that no one is taking care of him or treating him special. And a lot of fans mentioned that one of their favorite lines is Stanley's line when Michael says, what does this look like to you? And Stanley says mailboxes, et cetera. And then, and then Steve does that thing that I love where he's like, shut it. Yes. That's Steve right there. So, you know, at the end of that scene, Dwight turns to Creed and says, dad, that was added on the day. That was an improv on the day. It was

probably an alt. They would do that to us sometimes. They would have alternate endings to scenes. In the script, Dwight was supposed to pick up his phone and say hello, even though it didn't ring. Well, Creed being his dad is way better. Perfect. Perfect. All right. So this moves us into the conference room meeting where Michael has hung a bunch of photos of disabled people on the wall. Icons. Icons. Yes. Including two pictures of Tom Hanks. Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump and then Tom Hanks in Big. Yeah. But he thinks it's in Philadelphia. And then there's like a debate that it's definitely big. It's definitely big, but he says it still counts because he became a man overnight, which is a type of disability. 11 minutes, 56 seconds, tracking Mindy.

Her hair looks fantastic. Her hair is fantastic. I have it on a note card, but it is half up and half down. It is. It's not full down. Her sweater, she's got a little bit of a v-neck. Yeah. This is not, we're not up to her chin with these like turtleneck blouses anymore. Paisley tops. She does have a paisley skirt. Speaking of hairstyles, Jenna, I wrote about my hair in my journal for this episode. I'm just, what? Listen, lady, if you had had to wear a tight bun with a gazillion bobby pins poking you for like every day, if you're something change, you might write about it. And I did. So here we go. This is what I said on a small note. I for once like my hair in this episode. Angela always wears the crazy braids, the buns,

the ponytails, but I guess being in a relationship has made her step it up a little. Ooh. I like that backstory. I got to wear my hair down. You did. And I was really excited. It had a little bit of a bouffant. I actually thought your hair looked really pretty in this episode. I have to say, I'm now, I was teasing you about writing in your journal about it, but I mean, yeah. Well, it was journal worthy. Thank you. It was the first episode that I didn't have my hair up in any way. No. So I wrote about it. Yeah. It's very nice. So now at 12 minutes, 20 seconds, we meet Billy Merchant, who is played by Marcus York as we discussed. And he is the property

manager. Yes. And he's here to just tell us information, right? About the parking lot. Tell us not to block the loading dock. Even if we have our hazards on, she just wants to tell us some stuff about the building. Right. Some of the building rules. And you said Michael sees this as an opportunity. Yes. Because Billy is in a wheelchair, Michael has decided that he's pretty sure Billy is going to lecture us about the proper way to treat disabled people and back up the fact that Michael has been so wronged. Oh, Michael's been so wronged, right? Mm-hmm. So Marcus said that they really stuck to the script, him and Steve for the scene, but then Steve threw an improv at him. I think I know what it is. Yes. So he said that Steve said,

well, you know, we have a lot in common. And then he says, I'm going to stop you right there and leave. That's all scripted. Yeah. But then Steve improvise, who me? And Billy goes, no, me, right now. He like improvised that right back. And I was like, that was great, Marcus. That was so good. Marcus said that he wasn't like ready for that improv. Like he wasn't sure. He said, you know, when you guest star on a show, you don't know, did they stick to the script? Yeah. He had heard that we had a lot of improv background and things like that. But he said that Steve just kind of threw that and then he just reacted. And that's like something he remembers as being really fun. Well, when Steve says that line, you know what? We aren't that

different. When I clamp my foot on the George Forman grill, you see Mindy put her hand up to her mouth. And then you see me full on laughs and turn to rain and rain smiles at me. Yeah. No, the front row. The front row lost it. The front row lost it. I have both of those. I'm like, Jenna, you completely break. Mindy, I expect to. I expect to see Mindy's hand cover her mouth, but you don't even hide it. I don't. You just turn and start laughing. Well, Brian is staring at the floor. Brian is Kevin. You're having a hard time. He has got just like this laser focus onto the carpet, which seems also unnatural. And I think he's doing it. No, he's also probably biting the inside of his mouth or inflicting some kind of

pain on himself. So he doesn't laugh. I wanted to point out that I think it's really sweet how the director chose to put rain and I next to each other in that conference room scene. I would normally sit next to Jim, but I sat next to Dwight because Pam and Dwight are friends. Yes, they're friends now. Also in the scene, we learned that I guess Michael brushes his teeth for 10 seconds. 10 seconds. Wow. Okay. So next we go to a scene with Michael and Ryan, and Ryan is delivering him some pudding. Chocolate pudding. It's revealed that Ryan ground up some aspirin and put it in the pudding. And so there's been this runner where Michael really, really wants some fresh yams. And Ryan can't seem to find them anywhere. He asked them

if he found them in Carbondale, which is where he found the pudding at a gas station in Carbondale. Van question from Grelit, does a gas station in Carbondale always have fresh yams? I wanted to find out. I would think that no gas station had yams is I feel like Ryan isn't really trying that hard to look for these yams because I think if he just went to the grocery store. Carbondale is about 25 minutes outside of Scranton. Ryan hits a number of the sort of surrounding counties on his search for the yams. So I really looked hard and I could not find a gas station with yams in Carbondale. And most of them didn't even look like they had quick shops. Like maybe you could get gum, but some of them I felt like I couldn't even get a cup of coffee.

If you live in Carbondale, Pennsylvania, let me know. And if there's a gas station near you that sells yams, will you tell us? We'd love to know. Jenna, I have a question for you. What is it? How do I say this? Yeah. Did you ever think that you would stay up late looking for yams at gas stations in Carbondale? No. Also, you would Google map looking for yams in Carbondale? This is the kind of stuff we do for you guys. I'm allergic to yams and sweet potatoes, by the way. So even if I had found them, I could never do anything for myself with this information. This was all for you. All for you. Next in this episode, Dwight collapses. He needs to go to the hospital. And while we're walking to the elevator, Dwight says, it smells like chicken

soup. And Pam says, I know that was improvised. The amount of scripted words that they had for us did not get us to the elevator. So they told us just say some stuff. And I loved shooting the scene with rain. It was so much fun. It looked like it. It looked like you were having a good time. I really liked it. Also, I think he improvised that line where Jim says, what are you doing? And he says making Vietnam sounds or something like that as he's falling on the couch. Yes. But I did want to say something that was not improvised that's in the script is the water bottle that Jim picks up off of the plant and then is spraying him. That was in the scene. Well, I have a question. Yeah. At 15 minutes, 25 seconds. Yeah. Why? Why do they have to go in Meredith's van?

So many fans wrote in about that. Why couldn't they go in Jim's car? I get why Michael can't drive. I get that Dwight can't drive. But Jim, why didn't Jim say Meredith? That's fine. I don't want to ride in your gross van. I'll take my car. Here are his choices. Go in Meredith's van or put Dwight and Michael in his car. Dwight has already thrown up. I mean, I don't know. Would you put them in your car? Yes. I would rather drive my car, an injured person in my car, where I know my car. Meredith's van is a hot mess. But because they took Meredith's van, they had that great funny scene of Dwight trying to drink the rum in the backseat. Oh my gosh. So John has said in interviews that that was one of the hardest times he's ever laughed on the show was filming those Meredith

van scenes. Well, I think these three guys, whenever they get in a car together, they lose it. Have you seen all the outtakes of them laughing their butts off? Yes. Like in these cars? And also, I think that John, it wasn't Jim, that was John with that spray bottle. Oh, he had too much fun with that. He had too much fun with that. We can't end this episode without me talking about one of my favorite things that Michael does is when he explains something that we all know, but he explains it to you as if he's the person that invented it or he's the only one that knows it. Shotgun. Oh my gosh. So at 16 minutes, 38 seconds, he goes, the rules of shotgun are very simple and very clear. Whenever he does this stuff, I just live for it. I love it. I love it. In this episode,

we learn Dwight's middle name is not danger. It's Kurt. But fan question from Brianna, was Dwight saying his middle name danger scripted or improvised? It was scripted. We also learn in this episode, you guys, that Creed, as a teenager, was in an iron lung. He says he was in an iron lung. Not that he had an iron lung, but he was, what? Like he's in an iron lung. That's what they are. That's the thing. You went inside. Yeah, you went inside of a thing called an iron lung, I guess. I don't know how it works. I don't either. I did not deep dive on iron lungs. I loved it, though. I loved it. Jim's like, how old are you? Oh no, that was Michael. When Michael was like, how old are you? But anyway, we learned that Creed was in an iron lung as a teenager, which is hilarious.

I love in this episode that Michael takes off his microphone. Yes. This is the first time we go radio silent, right? I think so. That we point out that we're actually mic'd. We sort of break that fourth wall in that way. Yeah. I liked that. And then I love this scene. And this scene was not in the script. In our shooting draft of the script, they must have added this later. I mean, probably while we were shooting, but this scene where Jim calls Pam and Angela pops her head over to over here if there's any news about Dwight and Pam clocks it. And then Pam goes over to Oscar and tells Oscar, hey, Oscar, I thought you'd like to know Dwight's going to be okay. And it zooms in on your face. And you're so relieved. And you can tell your,

you can tell your own love. I'm in love. I was worried about my man. One of the things I did, and we all did this in different ways as characters, if something interesting was happening at reception, even if it wasn't in my script that my character clocked it, I would just pop up and look over the partition. And the first time one of the camera guys caught me doing it, the writers loved this and that kind of became a thing. So of course, if Pam is on the phone about Dwight, I'm going to pop my head over, but this one was scripted that my head's there, that I'm listening in. And I remember one of the things they told me is that they're going to catch my head at the top. It's not a ton of time. Pam's going to look back over

and then I need to like disappear, right? And so we were playing around with this. So in one take, when you look back over, I just dropped to my knees. Do you notice how quickly you really do? And that's the one I think they kept in because I just like dropped like a rock. And they thought that was really funny. The very end of this, it's the final shot of Dwight in the CT scan machine and Michael tries to put his foot in. That was not in the script. That was an improvisation by Mr. Steve Carell. Of course, of course. So we learned in this episode that Dwight with a concussion is actually really a likable guy. But he also steps out of his lane a little with Pam, he becomes a friend, Jim didn't like that. And then he gets

the jokes instead of Michael with the doctor and Michael didn't like that. And I don't know, I thought he was so adorable in this episode. Well, a lot of people pointed out that there are going to be some future episodes that follow the Pam and Dwight friendship and spoiler alert in the end Dwight calls Pam one of his best friends or his best friend. I know. And it's really sweet. And I absolutely loved these. I love whenever Pam and Dwight have to team up. I think something about Pam that's true is that for as much as Dwight and or Michael annoy her, she really loves them. Like she does. They're her crazy cousin or zany uncle or whatever. But she loves them. She does love them. I have to think that Angela does not. If Angela doesn't like you, she doesn't

like you. She doesn't like you. And I have to think that it was probably like a source of conflict for her and Dwight. If Dwight was like, well, you know, Pam was kind of, I'm like, oh, Pam, you know, I, I'm going to say I think the one person that Pam maybe didn't like was Angela. I know. Like I think she, you know, but she'll take that if you have nothing good to say, say nothing at all about Angela. Yeah, but I really don't think they liked each other. I don't think they did. We're just hilarious. If you have the DVDs and want to watch a really great deleted scene from this episode, my personal favorite is the scene where Jim and Michael, they are in the waiting room of the emergency room. They're Dwight is in the back. They're

waiting in this lobby. I watched this. They're watching a telenovela. And it just made me laugh. They're just stuck in this hospital waiting room watching a telenovela. And I loved it. Well, guys, that's the injury. That's the injury. Angela did this podcast with an injury. That's how method she is. Do you think you subconsciously gave yourself an injury for the injury? No, no. I think I can't. Mind melt? I think I can't chew gum when I'm having a sassy rant. I was vinting popping gum. It's probably karma. I don't know. I don't know. I think maybe you did it for the show. Well, listen. Thank you. Thank you. You're excellent today. You're welcome. Guys, next week we'll be back with the secret where we very much do propel the Jim Pam Storyline forward.

Ken Michael, keep the secret that Jim told him on the booze cruise. The secret. The secret. Secret. My side of my tongue is numb. Secret. Angela's tongue will be better next week. That's a good thing. See you then. Bye. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is produced by Earwolf, Jenna Fisher, and Angela Kinsey. Our producer is Cody Fisher, our sound engineer is Sam Peefer. And our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton. For ad-free versions of the show and our bonus episodes Candy Bag, go to StitcherPremium.com. For a free one-month trial of Stitcher Premium, use code OFFICE.