Office Ladies - The Job Part 2
Episode Date: November 18, 2020This week we finish breaking down The Job. We start off on the streets of New York with Jim and Karen and get some great background catches, and Angela does a fun deep dive on the "bar that used to be... a Church" mentioned by Jim. Then, we discuss the very funny scene's back in Scranton where Pam accepts Dwight's offer to be the Secret Assistant to the Regional Manager and we get the introduction of the Schrute Bucks. Finally, we chat about those hilarious scenes with Jan leaving corporate, that iconic moment when Jim interrupts Pam's talking head, and Jenna reveals there was an alternate ending of this episode. Thank you for finishing season three with us, you served the podcast with great dignity.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
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 and welcome
back to Office Ladies. This week we are breaking down the job part two. It's the season three
finale second half written by Paul Lieberstein and Mike Shore, directed by Ken Quapas. Last week,
we interviewed Paul Lieberstein, aka Toby, about this episode. It was great. So fun. So fun to talk
to him. Well, this week we're going to break down the second half. And I've got a summary to catch
us up. Well, Jenna, you know, I can't wait to hear it. So I know. Now, do you really like my
summaries, Angela? Or is this? I actually really do. Now, that probably sounded like I was being
some BFF sass to you. But I actually really do because you're so good at summarizing them. I
think you might have missed your calling as like someone who writes the caption for movies, you
know, like the little slogan comes up on your TV guide. Yes. Yes. I think you could have been
that person, except for look who's talking.
That made me laugh out loud.
I know, I got you. Okay, so give us a summary.
All right. Last week, we discussed how Michael got back together with Jan after she revealed her
breast enhancement. He named Dwight as his successor to Dunder Mifflin, because he was so
sure he was going to get this job at corporate. But I have just pause one second here. Is that even
Michael's decision to make? We did not talk about this. I mean, if Michael gets the job at
corporate, is he allowed to just say who gets the manager job at Dunder Mifflin Scranton?
No, no, absolutely not. I'm sure that's like a corporate decision, where they like have an
overview of all and you know, all the employees, I'm sure Michael gets to put in his recommendation
as someone that worked in that branch. But ultimately, that would be David Wallace's
decision.
Thank you. I feel like we failed to discuss that last week and I needed to bring it up.
Well, I got you.
Done and done. All right. So also last week, Dwight interviewed Andy to be his number two and
Jim and Karen left for New York.
Mm hmm. This week, Ham is going to become Dwight's secret assistant to the regional manager. We
will see Michael, Jim and Karen all interview for the position at corporate, and we will
ultimately find out who gets the job.
Yes, there's some relationship stuff thrown in there, too. But you know,
there's a little bit isn't there a relationship stuff.
All right. Fast fact number one, fan question from Maddie Jensen. I noticed that Ken
Quapas directed the finale for season three, along with the finale of season two. Both
episodes are crucial to the Jim Pam plotline of the show. Was this an intentional decision
to have the same director in charge of these important episodes? Or was it just a happy
accident? Well, this was very intentional.
I'm so glad you said that because I was sitting here and I wasn't sure I was I was like,
what is she going to say? And I was like, I hope it was thought out because Ken was so
caring about the different dynamics and relationships on the show. He had been with us
since the pilot. We had such a trust for his vision. And if you were about to say, it was
just a scheduling thing, I was going to be like, no.
No, I traded some emails with Kent Zabornak, and he told me that he and Greg always wanted
Ken Quapas to direct milestone episodes. So season openers, season closers, or any episodes
with big story movement, especially if they involve Jim and Pam, he wasn't always available.
But that was the intention. And if you look back, and you'll see that oftentimes it was
Ken Quapas, Greg Daniels, Paul Feig or Paul Lieberstein, who would direct these big milestone
episodes, which makes sense because those guys were kind of the original team of visionaries
for the show. And they were with us since the first season.
Yeah. So they knew every character's journey. And I think that was super important.
That was sometimes a learning curve for new directors. If they hadn't seen every single
episode, they would come in and maybe not understand why a character was making a certain
choice. And I remember the cast would sometimes just bring them up to speed. Oh, I did. I
remember I was in the scene. I forget who the director was, but they were like, so let's
have Angela over there like cutting the meat or something. It was like a party episode.
And I was like, oh, she wouldn't touch that meat. She's vegetarian. She wouldn't. She wouldn't
go near it. Yes. And they're like, oh, okay, I guess I'll put you over there by the bag of
chips. I'm like, yes, that's better. Exactly. So this created a really nice sense of consistency
for those big episodes to bring people back who knew us all so well. All right. Fast fact.
Number two, this is a fan question from Beatrix Smith, Brooke B, Amelia C, Erica P, and
Supa Nanduri. Did the conversation at the beach between Jim and Pam that we see throughout
this episode? Did it have to be recreated like the kiss on Casino Night? Or was it a
deleted scene that was added later without audio? What's the story? Well, guys, this was
a new scene. But we knew about it when we were shooting beach games. So we shot this during
the beach games shoot. We did not have to go back to the dam. Oh, yeah, we couldn't get
that location again. So they shot it while we were there. And Jenna, I remember that
they brought Ken Quapas to direct that. So and that was actually very common. That wasn't
like anything weird to Harold Ramis. That was really common on a show if you had a crossboard
moment where you had a scene that was in another episode, the director of that episode would
come and direct that to sort of complete their story. So Ken came back and Jenna, I read
that this was supposed to be in the beginning of the show, like the cold open. Yes, just
like that jump from Casino Night to Gay Witch Hunt, we were going to originally open this
episode. The cold open was going to be watching this scene between Jim and Pam on the beach.
I'm so glad it wasn't that way. I think it creates so much more tension. Yeah. To leave
it until later as a flashback. And you know, Jenna, it really did add to the tension because
now we know as the audience that they had had this moment. And so when Pam is saying
goodbye and good luck and all of that, it's layered with this moment that they shared
at Beach Games. And I love that our show did this. Our show didn't always just spoon feed
the audience. It just had them like sort of pick up in the middle. And I just loved it.
Me too. Me too. It was during the editing process that they decided to take it out of
the cold open and put it later. Dave Rogers said in the DVD commentary that it was Mike
Scher's idea to make it a flashback later in the episode. I love that. I know. He's
so smart. He's such a smarty. Fast fact number three, Angela, I'm staying consistent today.
It is a fan question from Faye B, Kayla Moffitt, Tiffany L, Breanna K, and Rowena C. Did John
and Rashida actually film in New York and how much of the crew was with them? Yeah, guys.
Yeah. They went to New York for one day of filming. We were so envious whenever anyone
got to go anywhere because we, we never got to go on big trips, but this was a skeleton
crew. And they went to New York. Yeah, we actually wrapped filming in Los Angeles on
March 28th, 2007. They did not go to New York to pick up the Jim and Karen scenes until
April 19th of 2007. So we had been wrapped for the season for a little while. Wow, I
didn't know that. That was from Kentopedia. Of course, he's going to give us those details.
He's Kentopedia. Well, the people who went were Greg, Paul, Mike, Sher, Kent, Randall,
RDP, our camera assistant, Chris Workman, and our sound mixer, Ben. Now, they talked
about this a little bit on the DVD commentary about how they had to sort of do that gorilla
shooting, you know, like they were sort of sneaking around filming in little spots where
they could. And John jokingly called Greg, covert Greg, because like Greg, Greg would
have a note, but he wouldn't want to talk directly to him. So he'd be like, like he
would act like he was passing by, or he would send Kent Sabornak with his kid. Kent's kid
was with them. And they would walk across the street and nonchalantly kind of tell John
a note. And then so it looked like they were just people, pedestrians in Manhattan. Amazing.
Because they, I guess they didn't want people to notice that they were filming because all
those people became background people. They didn't want to draw attention to John and
Rashida, I guess.
They had seen what happened when people like realized Steve was being filmed, right?
Yeah. Well, they had a tight day. Kent told me they filmed in nine different locations
around New York City, all in that one day. And they hired a local crew to fill out the
production for hair, makeup, wardrobe grips, electric drivers, craft service and set production
assistance. They had to come up with a little mini New York crew. But that's how we did
it.
I love it. I love it. Here's one other little piece of trivia. Rashida and John said that
they wore their own clothes for all the scenes in New York City.
That makes sense to me.
Yeah. I also thought they looked really cute. And I was like, oh, I like Rashida has great
taste and John is cute. They look like normal people, not like, you know, the Dundramiflin
folks.
Here's some tidbits. Ready?
Okay. Kinsey tidbits.
Kinsey tidbit from the DVD commentary. John said that there was like this kind of drunk
guy while they were filming in the restaurant. And he kept coming up to them and he's in
a white shirt. So if you see it in 1934, there's a guy standing there sort of next to John.
And he was like, what are you guys doing? And John sort of was like trying to keep it
like, you know, he didn't want to draw attention to it because they were filming from like
across the street, you know?
Yeah. Through the window.
Yeah. So he was like, oh, you know, man, we're just doing a scene. He's like, oh, you're
doing a scene. You're doing a scene. He was like, buddy, come on.
Oh my gosh.
So they were, and he said that he like, this guy like heckled them through that whole moment.
That is crazy.
I know.
Listen, lady, should we take a quick break? And then when we come back, we can start breaking
down the job part two.
Yeah, let's do it.
All right, we'll be right back.
Okay, we are back. And Jim and Karen are arriving in New York. They're getting off the subway.
And oh my God, Angela.
What? Do you have a story about Astor Place?
I do not.
I want to know, did you see the lady with the baby stroller who gives major side eye to
John and Rashida?
No. Is she by as they come out of the subway station?
As they come out of the subway station, there is a woman with a baby stroller. She is clearly
not with us.
Yeah.
She's just a lady walking her kid.
Living her life.
It's at 18 minutes, 29 seconds. I need to know who this woman is. I need to hear her
story.
I need to see her face. I need to see it.
I took a picture.
Oh, good. Show me. Show me. We'll put it in our Insta stories, guys. Office ladies pod.
Office ladies pod.
Okay, lady. I found it. Here she is.
She's so annoyed. I love her. She's so over it.
She is so over it.
Oh my gosh.
So over it. Lady with stroller. Please contact us at office ladies pod.
Lady with stroller. We're sorry.
Yes. Please email us at officeladiesatearwolf.com.
What is she going to say?
She's prominently featured in an episode of the office. Is she an office fan? What does
she remember about that day? Did she recognize them? Because her response is like, who are
these guys?
Well, Jenna, she wasn't the only one who was ticked off that day because at 20 minutes,
34 seconds, there is a girl and clearly like a party dress and she's hailing a cab. She
was not an extra. And I guess they had to make her stop hailing her cab because she
was so featured and sign a release and she was really annoyed because she like Mr. Cab
or something.
They talk about it on the DVD commentary. She was like, I just, you know, I'm sure she's
like, I just want to go to my party. What are these forms? Maybe she's like me, Jenna,
she doesn't like a lot of forms. Okay. Woman with baby stroller, woman hailing a cab, email
us and party dress in a party dress. We want to hear from you. Okay.
Before we move on, I have a little mini deep dive. Please. Okay. So Jenna, at 1943, Jim
mentions that he went to a bar that used to be a church and I was like, I know exactly
what they're talking about.
What?
The limelight.
Remember?
I don't know the limelight. No, I don't know this place.
It's on 6th Avenue. Okay. So when I was interning on Conan O'Brien, you guys, I was, you know,
I was a bit of a sad sack. I never went out. New York was so expensive. I didn't know anyone.
And a gal I worked with, Debbie Wunder, kind of took me under her wing and she was like,
Angela, you got to get out. I was like, wha. And she said, there's a great band we're
going to go listen to tonight.
Jen, I'm pretty sure I wore my gap denim dress on some kids because I knew what New York fashion
looks like.
Oh, yeah. We show up. By the way, I went with Debbie and her boyfriend, So High Third Wheel.
We show up to where the band is playing and it is inside a Gothic cathedral that is a
bar. And Debbie's like, this is a famous New York bar. And I'm like, lady, that's a church.
I can't go inside it because I'll get in trouble with my mom. You can't have a bar in a church.
Yes you can. And this church has the most cool, amazing story. Okay. I'm going to walk
you through it really quickly. So it was built in 1844. It was this Gothic revival church.
Huge, beautiful structure. It looked like a medieval church, like from England, you know.
And it has the main big church, right? I'm talking cathedral ceilings, the big stained
glass. Oh, yeah.
It's got a rectory. It's got a sister's house for the nuns. It's got a parish house, a chapel
and a garden courtyard. This is huge.
Wait, wait. Is this the one on 6th Avenue with the red door?
Yes. Yes. I do know what you're talking about.
Okay. It's beautiful, right? It's beautiful. Okay. So I guess, you know, it was a very
happening church for a long time. But then in the 60s, the neighborhood kind of took
a turn. People started moving out to the suburbs. All of a sudden, this big, gothic structure,
you know, it was hard to maintain the heating and the repairs and all of that. So they had
to sort of repurpose it. At first, they made it into a cultural center and that sort of
went on for a bit. That makes sense, right? Cultural center.
Yeah. Yeah.
They couldn't keep up with the cost of running the place. So this famous sort of New York
like bar owner bought it and people were furious. They were like, you cannot make this church
a bar. You can't.
Well, he did. And he like tricked it all out. Like he made the sister's house, I guess,
into like the shampoo room, you know, like where you get shampoo room.
I didn't know what it was either. But I guess that's like a party where you get sprayed
with foam. I don't know. It sounds horrible. I know. I would get it in my eyes. How can
you not? But he made it this big, big, like hipster bar scene. Andy Warhol opened it up
on the opening weekend. It was like this big place for music and events from the 80s through
the 90s. Then in the 90s, I guess things took a turn. I think crime got bad again. And lady,
this party promoter named Michael Alec murdered and dismembered this guy at the limelight.
What?
Yeah. He murdered a guy. And so then they're like, okay, they close it down. Then they
try to like give it a new reopening. They call it the Avalon in 2003. That doesn't really
work. People are like, done. They're like, you know, get your bar out of the church.
We're done. 2007, it permanently closed its doors, which is interesting to me because
we filmed this in 2007.
Wow. Yeah.
Them mentioning that they went to this bar, if we had filmed the following year, they
couldn't have done it.
Yeah. I think the writers all knew about this bar, right? It was famous, a bar inside of
a gothic church, right? All the writers knew about it, I think. But here's the interesting
thing. Guess what it is today?
Not a bar. You're not going to be able to guess. What is it?
Well, first of all, the people that bought it restored all of it. It really meant a lot
to them to restore the integrity of the structure, the stained glass, but it is partly a gym
called the Complete Body Limelight, so you can lift weights inside the church. And then
the chapel is a modern dim sum restaurant called Julan Club. So you can go work out
and then get some dim sum.
Let's do it. Let's do it. I love that. I just found it fascinating because as soon as he
said that, Jenna, what do I ever know about any bars or pop culture stuff? Never.
Never.
Never.
You know nothing about them.
Not only did I know, but I had been there.
That's pretty badass.
I know. I went with Debbie and her boyfriend at the time who was a exterminator.
Oh.
Yeah. And Debbie, it's okay if I say this right. In the cab ride home, you and him started
making out and I had to sit awkwardly looking out the window.
That sounds like they had a good time.
They had a great time. Mom, I'm sorry I went to a bar that was inside a church. Mom, I'm
sorry.
Well, listen, Ange, also during this talking head, Jim says that they think they saw Lorne
Michaels.
Yeah.
And we got a lot of fan questions about that from Angela A. Alley S. Kirsten O. Tyler N.
Heather C. And many more all want to know is the man that walks behind Jim Lorne Michaels?
Was that a little cameo joke?
No.
No.
It's not Lorne Michaels. I zoomed in. It's definitely, definitely not Lorne Michaels.
I like to think that Jim is someone who thinks he recognizes famous people places, but they're
just, just normal folks.
I feel like, I feel like my sister Tina does that. You know, she'd be like, that's Angelina
Jolie. I'm like, why would Angelina Jolie be in the mall in our hometown right now?
Yes, exactly.
You know, another thing that happens here is that Karen kind of confronts Jim. Yeah.
And she says, what is going to happen to our relationship if one of us gets this job? If
I get this job, will you move to New York to be with me? And Jim is clearly uncomfortable.
He's making jokes. He's trying to make jokes. Yeah. But Karen brings it around and she's
like, actually I'm, I'm kind of serious. Like after what happened on the beach, do I have
a future with you? Because I don't feel like I have a future in Scranton, but I'd like
to have a future with you.
Well, she just says there's one too many people in Scranton. Yeah. You know, she was
like, I was at the beach and I don't know. He just sort of jokes it off and then grabs
her hand and they cross the street and I'm sure deep down she knows that, that he's
on the fence. She's got to know it.
She's trying to practice good self-care. She is trying to take care of herself here. She's
being assertive, but then she's not really reading the signals, which I think are super
clear.
You don't ever read them when you don't want to see them though. That's true. Put that
on a t-shirt. All right. So now it's the next morning and it's interview time. Karen, Jim
and Michael are waiting in the lobby. I should own the fact since I was snarky about the
lobby, just having a bunch of brown sticks, that there is also a big plant on the other
side of it, a big potted plant, everyone. Hey, a little bit of green in the corner.
There you go. Well, that is nice. It is nice. And I'm sorry. I was so snarky about your
big brown sticks.
Well, back at Dunder Mifflin, Dwight has appointed Andy as his number two officially
and Andy has accepted.
And Jenna, we do that really cool thing, except now it's Dwight where we start on him and
we reveal Andy in the corner.
Yes. You know that's my favorite thing.
I know. I know. Andy has this talking head and it's at 21 minutes, 54 seconds. He's
saying, you know, three months ago I was a Cornell grad in anger management, but look
at me now and he's washing out, you know, Dwight's mug. Jenna, can you hear that sink?
Yeah.
I couldn't not laugh because you and I know it's a fake sink and it had that weird tinny
sound because the water was going underneath into a bucket.
Yes. They had a little pump that would pump water through that faucet, but then it just
came down the drain into a bucket.
Yeah. There's no plumbing there.
And then it would recycle. There's no plumbing.
That's right.
They would set it up and take it away. So something you could not do is improvise turning on the
sink because nothing would come out or pour anything down the drain because it would just
hit the ground.
Correct.
Correct. Well, now we have the scene where Dwight pulls Pam aside. He explains he's very
impressed by her co-walk and he would like her to be his secret assistant to the regional
manager and she accepts everything about the scene was delightful. I loved every single
thing about it. I loved Dwight's bravado and Pam's just like, uh-huh, uh-huh, like what
an idiot, but I'm going to go along with it.
Well, I think this is her way of staying connected to Jim. He's all the way in New York,
but she has this talking head where she says she learned from Jim, if Dwight ever asks
you to accept something in secret, you reply, absolutely I do.
So I think throughout this whole episode when Pam is doing this little bit with Dwight,
she is imagining how she's going to get to tell Jim all about it.
Oh, for sure. For sure. Well, here's Dwight's team as he sees it. Dwight is the regional
manager. Dwight is also the assistant regional manager. Andy is his number two because it's
political. Pam is the secret assistant to their regional manager. And guess what? In
a deleted scene, we find out that Angela is the spy in charge of the secret assistant
to the regional manager.
Oh, and what does that mean?
Well, as soon as Pam says, yeah, absolutely I do and agrees to be the secret assistant
to the regional manager, she leaves. And when she does, the scene plays out. Dwight calls
Angela and says, keep an eye on Pam. And Angela's like, done. And then immediately, my little
head pops over the partition between accounting and reception. And I just start spying on
you. Oh, that's amazing. I'm watching you. I'm watching you. Oh, I wish they'd left that
in. I know. It's a fun detail, right? I love that detail. Well, now, lady, we go back to
corporate and Michael's interview has begun.
Andy Buckley is so fantastic in this scene. I mean, Steve is always fantastic. But to
watch Steve as Michael because Michael's so ridiculous, play off someone who's so believably
a corporate person. It just was so fun to watch.
So my favorite part of this scene with David and Michael is when he asks Michael where
he sees room for improvement. And Michael's suggestion is that they rename the company
altogether.
Here, do you know his three names, right? His three suggestions?
I wrote them down. Yeah.
Here are the names. Paper great. Great papers are passion. We're great. Super duper paper
or just super duper. Yeah. Any of those. Any of those could work.
Well, we had a fan question from Rebecca W. She said, were the suggestions Michael gave
for a change of name of the company improvised? I checked the script. They were all in there
with the exception of super duper paper and super duper. Those were.
But there was also way more to this interview scene. And I have to ask you, Angela, are
they in the deleted scenes because they were so funny?
There are so many deleted scenes for this particular episode. And this scene has several
and they are hilarious. One of my favorite ones is that David says, what do you see in
the future? But he's meaning about the company. Where do you see the future going here?
And Michael goes, he goes on about all this stuff. He goes on about how many kids he's
going to have and all this stuff. But then he says, also, I think there could be one
vitamin that you take for all of these other vitamins, but it's just one. I don't know.
And David Wallace goes, you mean a multivitamin? And Michael's like, I don't know what they're
going to call it. I don't know. It is so funny, but they're great deleted scenes for this
episode. That multivitamin thing was in the script
and it made me laugh out loud when I read it. It is hilarious.
He's like, I don't know what they're going to call it, but that's the idea.
And David Wallace's look to him is just like, okay. And he's like, thanks for coming in,
Michael. So, you know, Michael feels like he's had
a pretty great interview. He's on his way out and he says, oh, you should know that
Jan and I are dating again. So I'm going to need to fill out one of those love documents.
And David Wallace is like, well, you should know that this job you're interviewing for
is to replace Jan. And all I could think of was like, no, you can't tell Michael this
kind of information. There is no way this man can hold on to that.
You know what it made me think of Angela is when he says I need to sign another one of
those love documents, I was like, it reminded me in dinner party when Michael explains he's
had a vasectomy but then had it reversed and then had a vasectomy and reversed. I was like,
how many of these documents have they been signing? It's like, we're on, we're off, we're
on, we're off.
And I wonder also if they had dramatic ripping in half of the document.
Yes.
I have so many questions about the love document, but I agree with you. This news to Michael
that the job he's applying for is Jan's job and she doesn't know yet that she's going
to be let go. This is a secret that you should not allow Michael to hold.
You can't tell Michael any secret. You couldn't say, hey, don't tell anyone, but I have toe
fungus. Forget it. The next thing out of his mouth would be, I'm so sorry you have toe
fungus in front of everyone.
Yes.
Yes.
I don't have toe fungus. I was just trying to think of something.
I have fungus on my toenails.
I know, but you treated it and it's all better.
It came back.
It did.
Yeah.
You know, if you wear nail polish long enough and your toenails don't get a good amount
of oxygen, you can get, you know, by the way, everyone, toe fungus is just like on your
toenail. It's just like a little white spot.
Yeah.
That's what those white spots are, everyone. If you're like, what are these white spots
on my toenails when I take off my nail polish? That's toe fungus, y'all. And you can get
a special like oil and polish to put on there to get rid of it if you care.
Well, my mom always would say, everyone's will just take your toenail polish off and
let your toenails breathe.
It's good advice.
It's not pretty. You're going to have a week of like funky looking yellow toes. Sorry.
All right. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Where are we?
Well, we need to go back to Dunder Mithlin because Dwight would like everyone to gather
in the conference room. He needs to discuss and introduce the Shrewtbuck reward system.
That was so funny to me.
You know what I loved about this? First of all, at 25 minutes, three seconds, Angela's
so proud. She's so proud. She has this look.
Yes. Dwight is calling his first conference room meeting. She is, can't believe it.
But I love how he leads everyone in. He's like, no more meetings, right? Michael had
all these useless meetings. Instead, we're going to have lectures. Yes. And Pam, Pam
can't wait. She's like, what is he going to do? I can't wait. I can't wait to see what's
about to happen.
Well, we get in there and we start getting our first lecture. And it is about the origin
of papermaking. Yeah. He starts with a bunch of Tupperware tins full of soil, different
types of soil.
And he asked the question, what would you say is the most important element in the production
of above ground leafy growth? You probably think it's phosphorus.
And then Angela secretly shakes her head. No, I improvise that. And our camera operator
caught it and was like, Oh, that's so good. Ken loved it. And he told me to keep doing
it.
Like I loved it.
Like I obviously knew this speech that Dwight had practiced it for me. I used to love having
those moments.
I'm sure he practiced it for you. And he's killing it. According to you, you're like,
he's killing it, crushing it.
By the way, the answer is nitrogen per Dwight. Lady, I had to know.
Did you look it up? Did you look up phosphorus?
You know that website Quora? Yeah, it's where you you post a question about something and
then experts on that subject weigh in.
Did you post the question?
I didn't post the question. I got real excited.
But years ago, someone posted that exact question. The wording was exact. Exactly what Dwight
says.
There was an office fan years ago that was like, Wait, is this true?
So it's really amazing, the back and forth from all the people who are not realizing
that this is a direct quote from an office episode. It is just soil scientists weighing
in. There's charts. There's pages and pages of these scientists debating what is the most
important element in the production of above ground leafy growth. And the consensus is
nitrogen.
How nitrogen way to go Dwight way to go.
Jenna, do you remember filming the scene because I remember the smell? Can we talk about it
for a second?
We can.
There was an earthy smell. Now, you know, this room had no real windows. So it's like
sitting in a box. Now, it didn't didn't have a full ceiling, but we were sort of trapped
in there with smells.
Oh, yeah.
And there was a real dirt smell. And then it's in the deleted scenes. You guys don't get
to see it. But Dwight actually starts by dumping a whole bunch of trash on the table.
I remember that.
To talk to everyone about recycling. So we had some earthy trashy smells going.
Yeah, it was intense. We also have the great moment, which is one of my favorite moments
where Stanley does not want to participate.
He won a Shrewt book, but he doesn't want it.
No, he doesn't want it. He does not want to participate in any of this. And Dwight is
like, you don't want your Shrewt book. And he's like, no. And then he offers him like
a thousand Stanley Nichols to leave him alone.
A billion, a billion Stanley Nichols. If you never speak to me again.
Yes, thank you.
It's brilliant.
And Dwight's response is he would like to know the conversion rate between Stanley
Nichols and Shrewt books.
And it's the same as leprechauns to unicorns.
Yeah.
And then, Jenna, you must have had so much fun because then everyone starts to be like,
I'm out of here. I don't want to do this. And Pam is like, hey, pay attention.
Lady, when I heard that delivery, now this was before I had children. But when I heard
my voice, I was like, oh my gosh, that's the voice when I have to lay down the law with
the kids. When I'm like, listen to me, I've asked three times to brush our teeth. It's
time to brush teeth now. Hustle, go to the bathroom. I was like, oh my gosh, that is
my mom voice.
That's my mom voice.
My mom getting line voice.
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah.
For sure.
I was shocked.
You had it in you all along.
I did. It was meant to be.
Well, there's a nice little moment that I think Phyllis just improvised. And we often
did things like this in the background. We just sort of made up our own story if we didn't
have dialogue of how we would react to these moments. And she's sleeping.
I know.
27 minutes, 29 seconds.
I thought that was an amazing choice.
Yeah.
An amazing choice.
Well, listen, lady, we're about to go back to corporate. We're going to see Karen interview
with David, but I think we should take a break.
I think we should take a break and come back because Karen is crushing her interview. We
need to get to it.
She's doing really well.
Yeah.
All right, we'll be right back.
Okay, we are back from break. Karen is being interviewed before we get into that. Jenna,
I had to look up the limelight one more time because I was pretty sure. And in fact, this
is correct. There is a documentary about the history of the limelight, this huge part
of New York's culture. I'm sorry to go on and on about it, but I think I want to watch
this documentary.
Number one, I will be watching that documentary tonight. Number two, you do not need to apologize
for your interest in the limelight or for the interesting facts that you shared with
us because lady, I want to say something. We got this really nice letter from a fan.
And in it, she said, I just need to tell you that you guys do not need to apologize for
going off subject. You guys always apologize for it. And I love it. It's a great part of
the podcast. And you know what, lady? It got me thinking. That is a thing. Hold on. Soapbox
coming out. That is a very common thing that women do. Women apologize all the time for
things they don't need to apologize about. And I think we do not need to apologize for
our deep dives. We do not need to apologize for the things that interest us or for our
banter that comes to us in the moment while making this podcast. I don't apologize. I
like how by the end of that speech, you had like an affected way of talking. You're like,
I don't apologize. I don't apologize for that either. Well, you know, that has been something
I've sort of struggled with, I guess my whole life. I don't know. I think I used to say
I'm sorry about everything. I don't know. Like I would say I'm sorry about the most
ridiculous things. Like my chair would squeak. I'd be like, Oh, I'm sorry. Or I'd reach
for a glass of water at the same time someone else would. I'd be like, Oh, I'm sorry. And
um, yes, or like how many times have you been walking down the street and someone bumps
into you and you say, Oh, sorry. What? I'm sorry for taking up the space. My body requires
to walk down the street. You walked into me. Why am I apologizing? It's a thing that women
do. We do. I mean, it's not just women, but there's this. I just I noticed it when we
got that nice letter. I thought, This is the coaching I needed. This is good. Well, I appreciate
that letter. I think, I think I probably had read a comment that probably wasn't healthy
where this guy said we talked about appetizers for eight minutes. Anyone to drive his car
into a pole. And I was like, Oh, no, but you know what, you know what I want to say to
that man? Listen, mister, I'm sorry. Sometimes we're going to talk about appetizers and we're
going to talk about bars that used to be in a church and pockets and Clementine Paddleford.
And you know what? I really want to encourage you to do with love. Hit fast forward.
Angela, you are right. You don't have to listen to anything you don't want to, but we also
get to talk about what we want. Right? Yeah. Without apology. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.
And good day to you. And now Karen is crushing her interview. 28 minutes, 58 seconds. I thought
she was going to get the job. Well, she should get the job. I mean, really, it was between
her and Jim. I think it was theirs to lose. And David Wallace clearly has like a man crush
on Jim. Well, we noticed this back when David threw his party and he wanted to go shoot
hoops with Jim. I mean, I'm I don't want to get my soapbox out again so soon. But this
happens in the male corporate culture. There's all these ways and activities that men have
to bond between men. And it's been difficult for women to, you know, get in there. They've
got their golfing and they're shooting of the hoops. And, you know, yeah. Well, while
this is going on, these interviews, I just said I was sorry to get out my soapbox. Oh
my God, I did it again. I just apologized. I can't stop it. We can't stop it. We will
stop. We'll try. We'll try. Okay. So listen, while Karen is interviewing, Michael goes
to Jan's office. Nope. Nope. He should have just kept on walking. He immediately tells
her that she's going to be fired. She's being replaced. So of course, Jan storms in to Karen's
interview and starts yelling at him. She says, Hey, you son of a bitch. Like just right away.
And David is so calm. We talked about this last week with Paul, where Paul really admired
David for being so pointed and calm during this moment. And he says, Jan, this is long
overdue. Long overdue. You've shown no interest in your job lately. We can never get a hold
of you. Very erratic behavior. Like, like your head's not here. You're not here. He
calls her unstable. Yeah. And then Michael's like, you're unstable. And then David's like,
I'm, I'm sorry. What? And Michael's like, never mind. We're all unstable. What's happening?
Michael also insists he didn't tell her. Yeah. It wasn't me. While hiding behind the
partition. I didn't say anything. Well, Jan asks if this is because of her new boobs.
Because Michael loves them. And she doesn't care. Yeah. He loves them. That's all that
matters to her. Well, then she's being escorted out of the office. She's got a bunch of stuff.
She hugs Hunter. Her whole scene with Hunter is brilliant. She's like, good luck with the
band. Don't let them change you here. It's so good. Well, she drops a bunch of her stuff
on the ground and Hunter and Michael are trying to help her pick it up. And lady, did you
know that was not supposed to happen? I did know that. I did know that because they talked
about it in the DVD commentary. Malora said she had this box full of like, what was Jan's
belongings, right? And it was sort of a awkward, different shaped items and a few things spilled
out. And Ken did not yell cut. He just let the scene play out. And Michael and Hunter,
everyone just stayed in the moment. They're trying to help her put things back. And Malora
said they actually had a hard time getting everything to fit back in. And that's why
that played out so long. But everyone's reactions are perfect. David's like, what's happening?
And then you have Jim and Karen. That was all unscripted. I love stuff like that. I
love that. And you know, it reminds me, Angela, when I've had to do scenes where I have to
carry a lot of stuff. A lot of times they'll give you like a suitcase that's empty, or they'll
give you a bag and it doesn't really have much in it. And I had to shoot this scene
where I was coming through the door and I had all this junk. And I said, will you make
it real? Because I think that if I'm really struggling with it, if I'm not pretending
to struggle with it, it'll just be better. And I swear every time I would do the scene,
some other insane thing would happen. And it was so much better than if I was faking
it. And so because these are the moments, right? This was a real life moment and everyone
enrolled with it. And it was so funny. It's so funny. But you're right. Those real moments
that the camera captures when we're playing make believe. I always think about that famous
scene on Friends where they're trying to get that sofa up the stairwell. And Ross is yelling
pivot, pivot. And they're all holding the sofa. Like these are these moments I love
because it's like real life. But Milora did say one thing. She said, if you notice, if
you watch the scene, the whole time we're picking up items and putting them back in
the box, you do not see my face because I bent over as far as I could. So my hair would
hide my face because I am laughing so hard.
I love that. I'm going to go back and look at that. Yeah. Well, Michael then tells David,
hey, just let me know about the job. Let me know when you know. David is like, you're
not getting the job. Yeah. And so then, of course, Michael is like, I withdraw myself
from consideration.
Do you accept my withdrawal? David's like, yeah. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. And then Michael's
like, but do I get to keep my job at Scranton? And David's like, yes. And he goes, good,
because that's all I ever really wanted. Well, speaking of Scranton, Michael's going to be
in for a surprise because Andy and Dwight are painting Dwight's new office, Michael's
old office, soon to be office again, black. They're painting all the walls black. Well,
Michael's going to be really surprised because he also in a deleted scene told Dwight, don't
do anything to my office for one month out of sort of like mourning, like don't touch
anything for one month to honor my absence. And Dwight immediately starts painting it
black.
We had a lot of questions about how we did this. They did not paint the real walls. They
brought in other fake walls that were black. Yeah. So we did not paint the walls that were
Michael's office. They made dummy walls. And then they could take them down. Yes. And the
walls were right behind. Yes, very easily. But they were really painting. Yeah. And they
had different panels of these fake walls that they would paint throughout this scene. But
yeah, it was very easy to reset it back to the original Michael's office. Well, Jenna,
back in New York, one of the things we didn't talk about was Jim and Karen's reaction to
Jan's big meltdown. I mean, Karen's like, wow, that was really self-destructive. And
Jim is like, I kind of feel bad for her.
Yeah. Karen does not feel bad for her. Yeah. Karen's like, I don't know. I think she's
not having any sympathy for Jim. No. Karen is done. She is done with these folks.
Well, speaking of done, Jim still has to go into his interview. And I thought this was
interesting. Jim was like, hey, you know, if you want to take off, I can just, you know,
meet you later. And Karen kind of jumps on it. She's like, yeah, actually, I wanted to
meet some friends downtown for lunch. Do you mind? Bye.
Now I didn't, I didn't see that as like weird. But that seemed like what, you know, if she's
just sitting in a lobby, just waiting for him and she does have friends who are eating,
like, couldn't she go meet them? And then he come after?
I don't know. I'm just imagining, like, if Lee and I had gone to New York and we were
both going for an important meeting in the same building and my meeting was first and
he had to wait for me, I would just be like, I'll wait for you so that I'm the first face
you see after your meeting. And you can tell me all about it.
That's so sweet. That's so sweet. That's so sweet. That's so sweet. Clearly, I'm like,
okay, meet me for lunch. I'll be having my moussins. Bye. Good luck, babe. See you on
the bed.
I don't know. I just sort of like, if I don't have anywhere that I have to be. Now listen,
I do get it. She's in New York for a brief period of time. Maybe this is her only chance
to see these friends.
That's what I thought. I thought, you know, she had friends there if she never gets to
see and they're like, when you're done with your interview, meet us for lunch. And she's
like, Oh my God, yeah. But now, now Jan has had this whole meltdown and maybe things,
the timing of the interview has got pushed back a little and she's going to miss lunch.
And I,
Maybe.
I don't know.
But I mean, think about that. I'm like thinking forward. Like, so now when Jim gets out of
this big interview, he's not going to have Karen alone. He has to walk into a restaurant
with her and all her friends. And how'd your interview go? Good. We can't talk about it
right now, though.
I don't know. This is a big deal. It's a big interview. I think there's, there's room
for like intimate support. I don't know.
Well, they're clearly not meant to be together.
Well, I don't know. I think Pam would have waited.
I think Pam would have waited too.
I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
And I think Jenna Fisher would have waited.
I would have waited too.
Angela's on the fence.
Angela's on the fence.
It depends on the restaurant and how bad you want the job.
Well, listen, now we cut to the car ride back to Scranton with Jan and Michael.
And lady, this reminded me of Jan's car moment in cocktails.
She falls apart in a car ride, guys.
What is it about car rides and Jan? They're, you know what? Is it because the cameras are
tiny and Jan forgets that she's on camera and she, this is like her confessional is
the car? Best stuff comes from Jan in a car.
I think it's a couples thing. I really do. Cause I think you hold it together while you're
at the party or the school assembly or the soccer match or shopping at IKEA, wherever
you are and something goes down.
You hold it in and then you get in the car and then you either let each other have it
or you start laughing or one of you cries. Like that's the moment where you're like,
oh my God.
You are right.
We used to.
Yes.
I had a group of friends when I was like starting out here in comedy and like if we were out
somewhere and we saw a couple kind of have a little tiff moment, like at a bar or something,
we'd all whisper car ride home, car ride home. Like it is not going to go well.
Well I love it. I can't get enough of Jan in the car.
I can't get enough. She starts crying. She's like, it's these painkillers. They gave me
after my boob job and then she's like, oh wait, this could work. Like her emotions are
going up and down.
She's like, I could wear stretch pants and wait for you to come home at five 15.
Yes.
She invites herself to move in with Michael. Yeah.
And Michael is like, what? Oh, well he, come on. He walked himself into that. He's like,
I guess you could move in with me and my condo. I guess I could get it back. I'd probably get
a negative review on my eBay account.
But it's like at the beginning of this episode, he asks all of the ladies to help him not get
back together with Jan and it ends with them moving in together.
Yeah.
And she doesn't have a job and she's spiraling.
That's a lot. Well, Michael comes back into the office. He announces he has withdrawn
his name from contention. He notices that his office is now painted black.
I liked this bit. He tells Ryan to go get him a coffee and Ryan said he doesn't do that
stuff anymore.
And he says, no, it's for me. Bimbo. Kids.
Yeah.
I know.
Oh, Ryan is about to have his moment.
And this is when Pam asks, did Karen get the job?
Hmm.
Yeah.
I don't know.
Someone's real curious. Michael has a whole speech here that is sort of heartbreaking.
He says, yeah, so I'm going nowhere, never going to leave. This place is going to be
the hospital where I was born, my house, my old age home, my graveyard for my bones and
the camera pans across everyone's faces. Like, this isn't good news for anybody.
Yeah, it's true. And then Dwight's back at his desk. This is a sweet moment. I love
these sweet moments between Pam and Dwight where he thanks Pam for serving with great
dignity and she salutes him and he salutes her back.
Yeah.
It's kind of their version of the air high five.
Well, you know, Dwight goes on to say eventually that Pam is his best friend.
Yeah.
You know, it's so sweet.
Well, this is something that probably most people didn't catch, but at 35 minutes, 34
seconds in the background and accounting, Brian is Kevin sort of improvises this moment
when Michael's saying that he's back and he's like doing all that weird stuff. He's like,
I'm back.
Right.
Yes.
Yes.
It's good.
I'm back.
Anyway, Kevin sort of leans over to Angela and Brian improvised this. He was like, so wait,
I need to get the job and I just shake my head. No. And you can't hear what he's saying.
I just remembered these little moments like that. And we just were having our own scene
back there.
I love those. We're always acting. You never know what the camera is getting.
You never know.
Well now we go to Jim's interview.
He's a shoe in. David Wallace is like falling all over him.
Yeah.
I mean, David Wallace should have started the interview by saying you're hired.
David Wallace should have started the interview by saying, will you be my best friend?
It's so true. Everybody wants Jim to be their best friend.
He's a very likable guy.
He's a good best friend.
Yeah.
He's a great guy.
Yeah.
So David's asking him a few questions and he says, what is your favorite thing? What
do you like most about the Scranton office? And it's right at this moment that Jim opens
up his little folder and there is like a note of encouragement from Pam along with a little
yogurt lid that she has saved since office Olympics.
You know what that note says to me?
What?
I would have waited for you until after your interview.
I wouldn't have gone and met my friends for a boozy lunch somewhere.
Exactly.
Thank you. Angela, thank you.
You matter and what happens to you matters to me.
Yeah.
And Jim looks at that and he says his favorite thing about the Scranton office were the friendships.
And that's when David asks him, where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Well, Jim is rattled now. He had all these answers ready to go. I'm sure he had prepared
for this interview, but now Pam is there with him.
Yeah. And we flash back to the beach. And we hear Jim tells Pam why he left Scranton.
He acknowledges he's never really come back.
And then Pam, talk about some PAM sass. I thought this was super ballsy. She's like,
well, I wish you would.
Yeah. Well, now we sort of hear Jim's interview. We hear like he's distracted. He's making
jokes.
We cut to a PAM talking head where she explains she hasn't really heard anything. Jim probably
got the job. You know, there's no reason for him not to get the job.
And she's she's really like, you can see her trying to process it and stay really positive.
She's all day. She's been trying to stay really positive about this and convincing herself
that her and Jim are friends. This is in the past. The beach was just closure. That was
closure. And, you know, she says, we just never got the timing right. And that's okay.
And then Jim walks in the room. I mean, she's so surprised to see him.
Yeah. He interrupts the talking head and asks her if she wants to have dinner. She says,
yeah. And then he's like, it's a date. Jenna, many, many people have talked about how great
you are in that moment. And you are, you are, you are so good in that moment. So many emotions
go across your face and your eyes tear up. Ken Quapas said you made him cry.
Well, here's the thing. I owe that moment to Ken Quapas. And I'll tell you why. A lot
of people wrote in and wanted to know what was going through my head during that scene
when Jim finally asked him out. It's, it's crazy because Ken Quapas, he was a type of
father figure to us, right? Angela, when he was on the podcast, he explained that his
technique is to love people into their best work.
He's just a very gentle, kind soul. He's so, so kind.
I'm going to cry just thinking about it. I think, and I don't know, but I think we got
that on the first take. I think what you are watching is the first take because we had
kind of planned it out with the camera when it was going to swish over and when it was
going to come back to me. So in that moment, when the camera swishes back to me, I was
actually looking at Ken Quapas and he had tears in his eyes and that made me tear up.
And we just shared this moment, this, this private moment of acknowledgement for this
journey of this character and he smiled at me in a way that a parent smiles at you when
they're proud of you. Listen, if Ken Quapas looked at me with
tears in his eyes smiling, I would disintegrate because he's just, it's like your dad looking
at you like that. Yes. Yes. Like you did it, kiddo. You did it. Yes. Yes. And I don't
even know if that performance could have been there with any other director. Oh, I don't
think so. I mean, that was a moment between Ken and I. That was about so much about my
personal Jenna journey with Ken Quapas on this show. From the very first day. Yeah.
Well, it was a beautiful, beautiful moment. And I have one question for you and all the
fans out there. What? Did Jim freaking leave Karen in New York? They rode together. He
drove back alone. What the F? Well, I'll tell you. So first of all, there were actually
two versions in the script for the ending of this episode. There was this version with
Jim interrupting my talking head. And then there was a second version, which we shot.
And in the script, it says shoot both versions. It's not in the deleted scenes. What is it?
Okay, it's not in the deleted scenes, but we shot it. So in the second version, you
hear voiceover of Jim throwing his interview with David, but it's even more. It's like
he's really cracking jokes. He's not taking it seriously at all to the point that David
actually says, do you even want this job? Oh, that would have made me uncomfortable.
Yeah, it really tips it a little bit more than what you see. Meanwhile, while all that's
happening, you see Pam leaving for the day. She doesn't do a talking head. She's just
leaving for the day. She gets in the elevator. She goes down the elevator. And then when
the elevator doors open, Jim is standing there. And she says, you're back. And he says, yeah,
do you want to go to dinner? And Pam says, yeah, I do. And she walks out of the elevator
and Jim pushes the camera back into the elevator. And as the doors are closing, they walk off
together and he puts his arm around her and they smile at each other. Oh, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, I don't like it. I don't like it. I like the way it is.
Well, I touched base with Dave Rogers, who said that that scene exists, that alternate.
He's like, I have that in an archive. He's like, I think we should throw that up sometime.
You could see it if you want. But he also said that it was never ever part of the cut
of the show. They always had the one in that you see now. And then they would play the
alternate for people. Everyone voted for what you see. But they also shot in New York, an
ending where you see Karen crying because Jim broke up with her.
And I'm sure Dave Rogers has that. I picture Dave Rogers having this hard drive and a vault
and it's like Mission Impossible. It's like ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding,
ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. With all these codes and traps, because he's holding on to
some serious office footage.
Well, listen, now we find out who does get the job. We know it's not Jim. We know it's
not Michael. We're assuming it's Karen. But guess what? Someone else interviewed and they
had an MBA.
Yes, an unknown MBA.
Masters of Business Administration, is that right?
Don't know.
Not sure.
Masters of Business, something with an A.
Guys, it's Ryan.
Ryan the temp will not be getting your coffee anymore.
He's going to corporate.
Well we talked about this last week with Paul because a lot of people wanted to know why
does Ryan get the job?
And you know lady, Dave Rogers told me they did shoot an alternate scene where Karen gets
the job.
Where she's crying in New York and then the phone rings and they offer her the job.
So I just think it's a very, very interesting how they left options on the table for this
big finale.
I think maybe in some cases they were still debating who gets the job, how do Jim and
Pam get together?
Well yeah, it seems like they wanted to give themselves some choices but we also know what
was going on at this time which is that Rashida booked her role on Parks and Rec.
And she was going to be starting that job so A, they needed you know, finally Jim and
Pam to be together without any kind of distraction and also Rashida just got a great new job.
Yeah, so she can't be Michael's boss at corporate.
No.
She's going to be over at Parks and Rec and I think there were a lot of story endings
that had wrap ups that didn't make it to air because it was such a big episode.
One of them I loved was there's a scene where Jan is moving in.
It's moving in day, there's a moving truck, there's like guys and she's barking orders
at them in front of the condo and Michael's just watching it all in horror.
He's like, oh crap, what have I done?
And it's such a good scene.
Oh my gosh.
They had to rent that location and shoot that scene and then it didn't even make it in the
episode.
Yeah, I know, I know but boy is it going to set up some good stuff like dinner party.
Oh yes, dinner party.
I am so excited for that episode.
I'm so excited for season four.
I just watched the dinner party bloopers and it got me so excited because we laughed our
butts off.
Oh I can't wait to talk about it.
Well guys, this rounds out season three and we will see you soon with season four, empat.
That's four in Indonesian, katra.
That's four in French.
Do you want me to say four in Spanish?
Sure.
Quatro.
Empat, quatro, katra.
Did I say it right in French?
You did.
That's four in Roman numerals.
See you in season empat.
Bye guys.
Thank you for listening to Office Ladies.
Office Ladies is produced by Irwin, Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey.
Our producer is Cody Fisher.
Our sound engineer is Sam Kiefer and our associate producer is Ainsley Bubakow.
Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.
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