EP. 25 — Michael’s Birthday

OFFICE-025-20200326-MichaelsBirthday-SKv05-DYN.mp3

JENNA FISCHER [00:00:04] I’m Jenna Fischer.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:00:05] I’m Angela Kinsey.

JENNA FISCHER [00:00:06] We were on “The Office” together.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:00:07] And were best friends.

JENNA FISCHER [00:00:08] And now we’re doing the Ultimate Office re-watch podcast just for you.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:00:12] 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.

JENNA FISCHER [00:00:19] We’re the “Office Ladies”. Happy birthday, everybody. It is Michael’s birthday.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:00:27] Michael. It’s your b-day. Oh, my gosh.

JENNA FISCHER [00:00:31] Oh, Angela. He would be so happy if anyone responded to his birthday like that.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:00:36] Yeah. This guy needs a party like nobody else. He needs the party.

JENNA FISCHER [00:00:41] It’s so true. Guys, it’s Season 2, Episode 19, “Michael’s Birthday”. Written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, directed by Ken Whittingham. Guys, I’m in my closet right now.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:00:54] I am in my “that’s what she shed”. This morning my husband figured out how to try to soundproof it, Sam. I don’t know if we did it. We tried, but we got a shower curtain out of the guest room and Josh put it across the shed and hung some blankets on it. We took, you know, the clamps that our kids have a fort building kit.

JENNA FISCHER [00:01:14] Wow.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:01:15] And we took all of their clamps so I hope, the kids don’t get to do it fort this week because mom is trying to podcast from home.

JENNA FISCHER [00:01:21] The best part of seeing you right now on this video chat while we do this is that you are wearing a set of gamer headphones.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:01:32] Yes, I am. I have a giant microphone, but I’ve pointed it up to the sky.

JENNA FISCHER [00:01:36] Like an antenna coming out of your ear.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:01:40] Yeah, that’s true.

JENNA FISCHER [00:01:40] And we’re going to put a photo of this on the pod. Should I do a summary? Here it is.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:01:45] Do a summary, babe. I don’t know why I called you, babe. I don’t know.

JENNA FISCHER [00:01:50] I don’t either either.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:01:51] Do a summary, babe.

JENNA FISCHER [00:01:53] It’s Michael’s birthday, and he is desperate to be the center of attention. Meanwhile, we learn that Kevin is waiting for the results of a mole biopsy.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:02:05] Yes.

JENNA FISCHER [00:02:06] Kevin is very worried, he might have skin cancer. And this is causing a distraction to Michael’s birthday that he is unhappy with.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:02:14] Oh, my gosh. Michael’s like today is a day for celebration. And you guys are all worried about Kevin. And I am grumpy about it.

JENNA FISCHER [00:02:21] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:02:21] There’s my summary.

JENNA FISCHER [00:02:23] I like it, babe. Babe. I like it.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:02:28] Babe! OK, wait. Are we just going to jump right in? Should we jump right in?

JENNA FISCHER [00:02:30] No, there’s more there’s more summary and Fast Facts. You’ve forgotten everything.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:02:36] Well.

JENNA FISCHER [00:02:36] There’s more summary.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:02:37] What is happening?

JENNA FISCHER [00:02:38] Also in this episode, Dwight and Angela really bicker over who exactly is in charge of planning Michael’s birthday party. Is it Dwight as his right hand man? Or is it Angela, head of the PPC? This is the first time we’re going to see a little tension going on between Dwangela.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:02:59] Well, I mean, there was tension in season one over who was the security officer. You know? That was pre them dating. So they, they have some issues about who gets to have control of what. They had that going into this relationship. And I have a note card, guys, that says “Dwangela Sass”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:03:17] Ooh, Dwangela Sass.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:03:21] All through this episode.

JENNA FISCHER [00:03:22] We’re going to track it. Also in this episode, Jim and Pam, they sneak out of the office together and in the end, the entire office gang is going to go ice skating.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:03:34] Who saw that coming? I didn’t see that coming.

JENNA FISCHER [00:03:36] Well, the writers knew that we were gonna end up at an ice skating rink. That leads me into, Sam, please play my special audio clip.

STING [00:03:45] Fast facts.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:03:47] What is that? What is happening?

JENNA FISCHER [00:03:50] We had a fan submit some little, they’re called “stings”, Angela.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:03:55] I love that so much. I didn’t even know there was such a thing.

JENNA FISCHER [00:03:58] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:03:58] Thank you. So more stings, please.

JENNA FISCHER [00:04:02] More stings, guys. Send us your stings. I didn’t even know that was the term. We’re learning so much.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:04:08] We’re 100. But thank you for making us stings.

JENNA FISCHER [00:04:11] So Fast Fact Number One is that Steve Carell is a very, very good ice skater. He played hockey growing up. He played pickup hockey every week as an adult. Fan question from Matt Loveless, “Was the plot built around Steve’s ability to ice skate”? Yes.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:04:32] He’s so good. He’s really good.

JENNA FISCHER [00:04:36] Yes. The writers had on one of their cards up on the wall this fact about Steve being a good ice skater and they had been looking for ever for a way to incorporate it. And you guys might remember that later when we film the “Threat Level Midnight”, that again, that plot of “Threat Level Midnight”, the movie takes place in an ice skating rink. And that was just like another opportunity to feature Steve’s ice skating ability.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:05:05] I was at the carwash one time waiting for my car to get washed. Right? You know, the one you kind of, you can drive through part of it and then you wait on the other side. Right?

JENNA FISCHER [00:05:13] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:05:13] So I’m at the car wash and this guy walks up to me and goes, “I ice skate with Steve, just you know, sometimes I ice skate with Steve”. And I was like, “Oh, what? Oh, okay. Way to go. You’re probably very good because Steve is good. Have a nice day”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:05:30] Well, you know, Angela, my husband, Lee, ice skates. He’s on several pickup hockey teams. And my son as well is a hockey player. And my husband now plays on the pickup team that Steve used to play on. I wonder if he plays with the guy from the carwash. Steve does not play pickup hockey anymore. He told me he kind of retired from that. But back when we shot this episode, he was really into it.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:05:55] He was really into it. And Jenna, you’re like a hockey mom. I have been on the ice with you now, and I’ve met your hockey mom friends and I am into it. I don’t have a kid that plays hockey, but they told me you can drink beer at like 10 a.m. hockey matches. And I’m like-.

JENNA FISCHER [00:06:09] Oh yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:06:10] I think this is the crowd I should be in. I mean, I’m over at the soccer field. They got nothing at that concession stand. Maybe some pretzels.

JENNA FISCHER [00:06:18] I mean, we’re at these hockey rink sometimes at 7:00 in the morning or 8:00 in the morning and they open up that concession stand and they go for it. I am not a beer drinker, but I am amazed at people’s ability to to have a glass of beer-.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:06:32] Have a beer in the morning?

JENNA FISCHER [00:06:34] In the morning. I’m like that would do me in. But yeah. Oh, God, I love the hockey community. It’s a great, it’s a great, great community. I love being a part of it. All right. Fast Fact Number Two: this is a fan question from Renata. She said, “This episode has several external locations. Did it take longer to produce this episode because of that”? So we usually would take five days to shoot an episode. And we were still able to shoot this episode in five days, even with our multiple locations. And guess what I did, Angela? What? I got some scoop from “Kentopedia” about our locations.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:07:13] Kent Zbornakh. Let’s hear it.

JENNA FISCHER [00:07:15] All right. So first up, this store that Jim and Pam go to was a Rite Aid at Woodman and Sherman Way. Do you remember that Rite Aid, Angela?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:07:24] I do. I do.

JENNA FISCHER [00:07:26] I passed by it every day on the way to work. And I would shop there constantly.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:07:30] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:07:31] I would always, like pick up some milk on the way home. One time I bought some socks. I was low on socks. Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:07:38] Oh, I remember setting up my trailer. You know, we would sort of decorate. And I got a few different little things. I got like a doormat.

JENNA FISCHER [00:07:46] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:07:46] At that Rite Aid. OK. So cute. You’re at the Rite Aid by us.

JENNA FISCHER [00:07:50] He said that we shot there for a half a day, but we started very, very early. I think my hair and makeup started around 4 a.m. or 4:30 a.m.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:07:57] I believe it.

JENNA FISCHER [00:07:58] Because, yeah, we had to start shooting on camera by 6:00. And The Rite Aid said we could only shoot there until 11:00 a.m. with the store closed after 11:00 a.m. We could keep shooting, but they were gonna let customers in. And Kent said that we finished by 10:00 a.m. We finished an hour early and that all the customers that you see in those scenes are hired background performers. None of them are real customers. All right.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:08:28] Good job, team. Good job. You got in. You got out.

JENNA FISCHER [00:08:32] That’s the scoop on the Rite Aid. So the ice skating. We shot that at Pickwick Ice Rink in Burbank. I know this rink well. And we had the whole place to ourselves for one full day. We were there from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Again we started our hair and makeup very early around 5:00 a.m. and we were all shooting by 7:00. The other skaters in the background were background actors. We shut that place down. It was all ours. So Kent also told me that luckily both Randall Einhorn and Matt Stone, they were our camera operators, that they could ice skate. And so they were skating around with cameras. Do you remember that, Angela? Because I did-, I did not remember that those guys were skating with us.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:09:18] I remember Randall on the ice. I do, because I have a little funny backstory about. There was a stunt ice skater, Jenna. Do you remember the stunt ice skater?

JENNA FISCHER [00:09:27] Oh, yeah. The guy who filled in for Oscar.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:09:30] Yes. So you’ll see later in the episode as we watch it, that Oscar is like a very good ice skater who does like a kind of a pir-, like pirouette and spins around. Well, that’s because there was a stunt guy that looks like him. That was a really great figure skater. And I have a little story about that. I don’t know if you remember this, Jenna, but Randall was filming the stunt guy getting all of the moves. Right?

JENNA FISCHER [00:09:54] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:09:54] And I, they wanted us skating in the background. And I sort of skated in the background and I did a big circle. Like I kind of opened my legs and did a big circle. And the guy said to me, in between takes, he goes, “Hey”. He said, “Can you skate”? And I was like, “Well, I can roller skate. So I’m just trying to do what I do on roller skates”. And he said, “Come here”. And he spun me around. And then Randall was like, “Oh, wait, I’ll get this just in case. Maybe it will be funny that Oscar spins Angela or something”, you know?

JENNA FISCHER [00:10:22] OK. Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:10:23] And so the stunt ice skater started doing all these things with me, Jenna. He spun me. He picked me up and twirled me, he had me stick one leg out and one leg up, like, like, and then like, spun me and set me down. And we like, somewhere there is footage of this stunt ice skater lifting me in the air and spinning me around. And we never-.

JENNA FISCHER [00:10:43] Where is this footage?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:10:45] We never use the footage. But it really made me laugh to think that maybe there is a world where Angela and Oscar figure skate together.

JENNA FISCHER [00:10:55] OK, two things. Number one, NBC release this footage immediately. Number two, Angela, do you know who that guy was? I looked him up.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:11:06] Tell me, tell me.

JENNA FISCHER [00:11:07] OK. His name is Burt Jude Lancon.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:11:09] OK.

JENNA FISCHER [00:11:09] And he was a pair skater, a famous pair skater who won the silver medal at the 1982 United States figure skating championships and then later placed sixth at the 1984 Winter Olympic Games.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:11:26] Wow!

JENNA FISCHER [00:11:27] You were figure skating with an Olympic pairs figure skater. Where is this footage?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:11:33] That is amazing. That is so cool. Well, you know, I’m not very good, but he was very good, so.

JENNA FISCHER [00:11:40] Well, I’m going to find the footage for you. I’m going to surprise you with it at some milestone birthday in the future.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:11:47] You’ll have to ask Randall Einhorn. Say, “Randall, did any of that, like, end up somewhere”?

JENNA FISCHER [00:11:53] Oh, my gosh. OK. Well, next up is Fast Fact Number Three. But I don’t even know how to follow that because that was good stuff.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:12:04] Picture me and Oscar right now in your mind, guys. Close your eyes. Picture me and Oscar right now as a figure skating couple on the ice and go. Oscar makes all of our costumes.

JENNA FISCHER [00:12:19] Well, Angela, that is a good segway for me into Fast Fact Number Three because you mentioned costumes. We got a fan question from Alyssa and this is not specific to this episode, but a general fan question. And I thought it was a good one, so I thought we would include it. Alyssa wants to know, “What do you do with your clothes after you’ve been shooting in the same outfit for 12 to 15 hours at a time”? She says, “I imagine they would get stretched out and wrinkly and dirty. Do you have multiple sets of the same outfits for each day of shooting? Or does someone wash them for you”?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:12:56] First of all, I like where her head’s at.

JENNA FISCHER [00:12:58] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:12:59] I like this person.

JENNA FISCHER [00:13:00] I know.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:13:00] This person is a planner. She probably packs very well for a trip. I like it. I like your train of thought.

JENNA FISCHER [00:13:06] These are things I wonder about when I watch movies, especially if I see a movie where like it’s a flood or they’re submerged in water somehow. I think, “Oh my gosh, how many hours that day did they have to stand like waist deep in water”? Probably like twelve hours.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:13:26] So here’s the thing. We often had, well we always had duplicates. They wanted to make sure that you had two of every outfit so they could wash and have the next set ready the next day. Also, if you were to spill something on it or get a tear or whatever, they would have the duplicate ready to go.

JENNA FISCHER [00:13:45] Yes. And if you did have to do some sort of a stunt or something in that particular outfit, then they might have even more than two. You know, they they might have seven shirts if part of the scene involves you purposely dripping ketchup on your shirt or something. So yeah, they always had multiples and they, part of the wardrobe department’s job is to launder and prepare your outfit for the next day. So that’s how that worked.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:14:15] I like the question, though. I like the question. All right.

JENNA FISCHER [00:14:18] That’s the end of my Fast Facts. Oh, I’m so sorry, guys. My-.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:14:25] What the **** was that?

JENNA FISCHER [00:14:27] Well, I think my bread is done. I have some bread in the oven.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:14:31] I thought that was like an alert. Like they always say, you can tell something about the person by which alarm they pick. And by they, I mean, me. This is my theory. So like your alarm is like “gang, gang, gang” like “Mayday, mayday” and like-.

JENNA FISCHER [00:14:49] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:14:50] My alarm, my alarm is like two banjos playing “dahling, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:14:56] Angela, this is saying everything about us. That’s 100 percent true, everybody. What is your alarm on your phone and what does it say about you? Lee is telling me that the internal temperature of my bread is only one hundred and fifty four degrees. Do you mind if we take a break?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:15:12] I do want to take a break because my “that’s what she shed” is really cold. And I turned my heater off when we podcast. And I want to warm it back up. So you take care of your bread. You heat up your bread. I want to heat up my she shed.

JENNA FISCHER [00:15:26] And we’ll be right back. Well, I just oversaw the bread. We’re still not at the right internal temperature. I had to leave it for Lee to make a judgment call, I hope it turns out. I hope we can make some sandwiches today. Time will tell.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:15:47] Let’s get back on track, Jenna. And let’s jump into this episode.

JENNA FISCHER [00:15:50] Yes, the cold open. Michael is trying to sell the employees some calling cards.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:15:55] Mmhmm. Did you notice something about this scene, Jenna? It’s in the conference room, right?

JENNA FISCHER [00:15:59] Yep. Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:16:00] Who all is in attendance?

JENNA FISCHER [00:16:04] Who?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:16:04] It is.

JENNA FISCHER [00:16:04] Jim ,Dwight.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:16:07] Jim, Dwight, Toby, Creed, Oscar, Ryan and Stanley. Not a single woman.

JENNA FISCHER [00:16:14] Hey.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:16:16] Hey. Now, do you think A, Michael thinks the women will say this is a load of crap?

JENNA FISCHER [00:16:23] Hey.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:16:23] But he thinks the guys will go along with it? Why aren’t there any women? Hmm.

JENNA FISCHER [00:16:28] Hmm.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:16:28] Hmm.

JENNA FISCHER [00:16:29] Jim convinces Michael that this is a pyramid scheme. Michael draws a chart and then Jim turns it into a literal pyramid. Do you remember in the fire episode when Michael said he lost all of his money in a pyramid scheme and that’s why he couldn’t go to business school?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:16:45] Yeah. Toby brings it up in the scene.

JENNA FISCHER [00:16:47] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:16:47] Toby’s like, “Remember”?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:16:48] Well, Toby brings up an email scam that Michael also participated in.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:16:53] Yes. And Michael’s like, “Hey, when the son of the deposed king of Nigeria emails you directly asking you for help. Okay. His father ran the freaking country. Okay”?

JENNA FISCHER [00:17:05] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:17:06] Michael, Michael.

JENNA FISCHER [00:17:07] Michael. All right. So that’s our cold open. And then when the episode begins, that was one of those standalone cold opens that did not end up applying.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:17:18] I have one more question about the cold open, you might know the answer.

JENNA FISCHER [00:17:21] Oh, go ahead.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:17:21] Is a calling card the same as a business card?

JENNA FISCHER [00:17:24] What, Angela?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:17:26] What’s a calling card? I never knew what a calling card is.

JENNA FISCHER [00:17:27] Wait, no. You’re not asking this question. Do you not remember the 80s?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:17:31] Honey, I was in India-, oh, I just called you honey.

JENNA FISCHER [00:17:36] I’m a babe, I’m a honey.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:17:37] Honey. I was in Jakarta, Indonesia until 1984. What happened? What’s the calling card?

JENNA FISCHER [00:17:43] OK. Gosh, how do I describe it? You know how long distance phone calls they would cost money? Like so much money per minute. If you wanted to call someone and you would usually just use your home phone. And then I can’t believe I’m describing this right now. Ok.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:17:59] Wait, so, oh, so it’s like a card with the number on it and you enter it or something? And then you use the minutes.

JENNA FISCHER [00:18:05] Yes. It’s like a prepaid credit card that you could apply to the price of a phone call.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:18:13] OK. I know what it is now. I got it. I remember that for whatever reason in my mind, I thought this whole scene was about business cards and I thought it was really funny.

JENNA FISCHER [00:18:22] Oh, Ang. That’s funny.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:18:25] So, anyway. And I was like, “Oh, look, they’re making their own business cards. That’s kind of cute”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:18:29] No. No.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:18:31] You don’t need Phil in his Corvette for that. Now, this makes sense.

JENNA FISCHER [00:18:35] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:18:36] OK. I hear the tone in your voice, Jenna. I hear it.

JENNA FISCHER [00:18:39] Well, I don’t know how to end this.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:18:40] I hear it. It’s like you pity me, but you love me. But you’re perplexed that a grown woman doesn’t know what a calling card is. I hear it all. It’s all there. But I love you. OK. So they weren’t business cards. They were calling cards.

JENNA FISCHER [00:18:59] All right. I love you, babe. I love you, babe.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:19:02] I love you, honey. Go.

JENNA FISCHER [00:19:03] That was the cold open. It was a stand alone cold open, right? It doesn’t apply to the rest of the episode because after the credits, we’re going to learn the real plot of this episode when Michael enters and Pam, while handing him his messages for the day, says, “Happy Birthday, Michael”. And when he enters, he’s carrying like his own box of donuts for his birthday. Is he carrying the balloons that we’re going to see later in his office?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:19:32] Probably.

JENNA FISCHER [00:19:33] I couldn’t, I couldn’t track where the balloons came from. But then Michael has a talking head where he tells us that people go crazy for his birthday. They just go all out.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:19:45] They go nuts. They go all out. And it’s just just a boring, like shot of the office. Just everyone doing work.

JENNA FISCHER [00:19:50] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:19:51] No one paying attention. And then, Jenna, he says that he shares a birthday with Eva Longoria. And I looked up her birthday. It’s March 15th. Jenna yours is March 7th.

JENNA FISCHER [00:20:02] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:20:02] That means you and Michael Scott are both Pisces.

JENNA FISCHER [00:20:04] We’re both Pisces.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:20:07] Which I also looked up and this was what I found on the Internets about Pisces. You, Jenna Fischer and Michael Scott. Are you ready?

JENNA FISCHER [00:20:16] I’m ready.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:20:16] In all matters of life, you bring intensity and passion. This explains why you will devote an endless amount of time and effort into anything that you feel is worthwhile, especially family and loved ones.

JENNA FISCHER [00:20:30] Hey!

ANGELA KINSEY [00:20:31] I know.

JENNA FISCHER [00:20:31] That sounds like a compliment.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:20:33] I think it is.

JENNA FISCHER [00:20:34] You are giving me a compliment.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:20:36] I am giving you a compliment.

JENNA FISCHER [00:20:37] Thank you. So now Jim has a talking head.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:20:41] Well, wait, wait, wait. Before we get to that, I think something really important happens here, which is Kevin is late for work. Now, we don’t know why yet, but he’s late. He seems a little preoccupied. And when he walks in, Michael’s like, “You’re late, but you’re forgiven because doth it is my birthday”.  That made me laugh. Micahel But is such an idiot. I love him. But yes, Kevin is late. So and then we go to Jim’s talking head.

JENNA FISCHER [00:21:08] Well, here’s something I want to say about Jim’s talking head. So the, the meat of the talking head, is he’s just kind of describing what Michael is like on his birthday. But look at the winter backdrop behind him. So you know how we-.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:21:20] You love this. You love this so much.

JENNA FISCHER [00:21:22] You know, I love our backdrops. OK. So that’s not a real window to the outside. That’s just a window to a printed backdrop that we would change seasonally. And I just noticed that the backdrop is winter. It looks like it’s maybe snowy. And I’m going to bring this up later. So put a pin in that. But I just want to say winter backdrop behind Jim.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:21:46] I am rivoted. I am rivoted.

JENNA FISCHER [00:21:48] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:21:48] I cannot wait.

JENNA FISCHER [00:21:49] Oh, it’s going to pay off later big time.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:21:51] I cannot wait for this payoff. Of the winter backdrop.

JENNA FISCHER [00:21:54] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:21:55] Alright, so then we see Meredith and Kevin in the break room. And she says, “Did you hear anything yet”? And so we start to see, like, what, what’s happening with Kevin. Right? That he might have a skin cancer scare.

JENNA FISCHER [00:22:06] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:22:06] And the storyline starts.

JENNA FISCHER [00:22:08] And then we go to Dwight in Michael’s office.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:22:12] There is no one more excited for Michael’s birthday than Dwight. Really. Like I mean, it is, it is such a special day for him. It is a huge day.

JENNA FISCHER [00:22:21] If only everyone were reacting like Dwight, Michael would be happy. Michael reveals he’s wearing a new suit. He says it’s from Italy.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:22:30] No. Bulgaria.

JENNA FISCHER [00:22:32] Right.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:22:33] New suit. And Dwight said maybe he’ll have to get one. And Michael’s like, “Good luck”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:22:38] It’s pin striped, I noticed. And the tie is insane. It’s a crazy tie as well. This is also the scene where Michael tells Dwight that he’s not worried about his birthday because the PPC has been working 24/7 since yesterday.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:22:54] But also, it’s in the scene that Dwight actually begs Michael if he can be in charge of Michael’s birthday. So this is setting up like what’s going to be a big source of tension between Angela and Dwight. And I think Angela, you know, thinks that Michael’s an idiot and thinks that Dwight is loyal to someone who doesn’t deserve, like, his loyalty. And so she’s just already, she already is like annoyed that it’s Michael’s birthday. And now on top of the fact her boyfriend wants to be the Party Planning Committee chairman.

JENNA FISCHER [00:23:26] Well, Angela must be very conflicted because as Party Planning Committee head, she is obligated to celebrate this birthday.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:23:34] Yes. Yes.

JENNA FISCHER [00:23:35] Even though she feels that Michael is kind of going a little bit over the top, right?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:23:43] Yes.

JENNA FISCHER [00:23:43] Well, Ang, the next scene is the Party Planning Committee scene.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:23:46] One more thing before we move on. There is a famous meme that came out of this Dwight and Michael scene. It is the “Raise the roof”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:23:55] Oh, the “raise the roof”. Yes.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:23:56] Yes.

JENNA FISCHER [00:23:57] Yes. Super famous meme.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:23:59] It’s even longer in the deleted scenes, you guys. So if you check out the deleted scenes, it’s really funny because when Dwight starts to do it, Michael’s like, “No, that’s not how I taught you. I taught you like-“. Like, clearly they’ve practiced this move.

JENNA FISCHER [00:24:10] Oh, I love that. I love that there’s an extra deleted scene of that “raise the roof”. Well, next up is the Party Planning Committee meeting.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:24:18] Lady, it’s the OG. It’s the OG. It is Phyllis, Angela and Pam. That’s it.

JENNA FISCHER [00:24:25] Baby, I don’t know what an “OG” is.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:24:29] Did you call me “baby”?

JENNA FISCHER [00:24:30] I did. That’s what it is today.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:24:31] It’s. OG, Jenna. OK, get on the Internet, lady.

JENNA FISCHER [00:24:34] What is it?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:24:35] You might know what a calling card is, but let me tell you what OG is. It means “original gangster”. Original gangster. It’s like you are the, their, the first person of this thing. Whatever. I don’t know. Look it up on Urban Dictionary.

JENNA FISCHER [00:24:47] So it’s the OG.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:24:49] Of the PPC.

JENNA FISCHER [00:24:49] Of the PPC. Oh, I want a hoodie that says “OG of the PPC”. Note to self.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:24:55] That’d be great. Oh, look. Look at the coffee mug I’m using. I’m using the OG PPC.

JENNA FISCHER [00:25:00] Oh! You’re using the PPC coffee mug today.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:25:04] Yay!

JENNA FISCHER [00:25:04] That’s apropos. That’s another word, Angela. Apropos.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:25:08] I know what that means.

JENNA FISCHER [00:25:08] It means appropriate.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:25:10] Yeah, I got it.

JENNA FISCHER [00:25:11] OK. All right. So they’re having a riveting conversation in this meeting. They want to know what time we should bring out the cake.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:25:20] 1:00 or 1:30.

JENNA FISCHER [00:25:21] And Pam yawns.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:25:22] Oh wait.

JENNA FISCHER [00:25:23] Yeah. Pam yawns.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:25:24] Pam says 1 o’clock, to which Angela immediately says 1:30. And then Pam yawns.

JENNA FISCHER [00:25:31] Yeah. And then Angela sasses her.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:25:33] Yeah. She’s like, “Oh, I’m sorry. Are we boring you”?

JENNA FISCHER [00:25:36] Well, you know, there’s in a deleted scene. I improvised the line where I said, “Not Phyllis”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:25:42] Yes.

JENNA FISCHER [00:25:43] Do you remember that?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:25:44] I do. I do.

JENNA FISCHER [00:25:45] And then we all laughed. We used to laugh a lot when we did these PPC scenes.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:25:51] Well, they would let us go. They would give us a few lines and then they would just let us go and we would improvise the most boring like conversations. Like on purpose, we’d be like, “Well, I don’t know, guys, how I feel about paper plates. I mean, which size should we get? Should we get the large oval one? No one gets oval. Who gets an oval paper plate? No one. I think we get the square one. Square paper plate”. We would like, we would do this for like so long.

JENNA FISCHER [00:26:22] That’s because Greg Daniels loved the PPC.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:26:26] I know.

JENNA FISCHER [00:26:26] He loved our mundane banter so much. He loved the dynamic of it. And so he would let us just go on forever. I loved it.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:26:35] Yes. It was so fun.

JENNA FISCHER [00:26:37] Well, then Dwight enters and he tells us that Michael wants trick candles for his cake.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:26:43] Yeah. He gives us a list. A list of surprises that Michael would like.

JENNA FISCHER [00:26:47] And this is when Angela tells Dwight that this is a closed door meeting.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:26:51] Well, yeah, Michael wants tricked candles. He wants a stripper gram and Angela’s like, “No, no. It’s a closed door meeting”. And then there’s this sort of odd like stare off between Dwight and Angela. And Pam is like, “What is happening”?

JENNA FISCHER [00:27:04] Yes, I have a fan catch as well.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:27:08] What?

JENNA FISCHER [00:27:08] This is a fan catch from Sexually Woke. This person wrote in to say, “Phyllis is breaking at 4 minutes, 19 seconds when you talk about the stripper gram”. I did not notice this the first time I watched it and I saw it. She gets a little smirk and I think you could think it was Phyllis the character. But Angela, we know Phyllis and I think this was a real Phyllis smile.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:27:35] I’m sure it was. We laughed a lot in those scenes. So, aw, I love that. I’m going to go back and look for that. That’s so cute.

JENNA FISCHER [00:27:41] I also want to note that when Rainn comes in and out of the door, John is not at his desk in the background. So he bailed on some background work.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:27:50] Way to go, John Way to be sneaky and get out of that scene.

JENNA FISCHER [00:27:54] I know. I guess, what was he? He was probably playing Madden football in his trailer with Brian or something.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:27:58] Yes. They were playing Madden football.

JENNA FISCHER [00:27:58] ‘Cause that’s what they would do in their downtime, when they had scenes.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:28:02] And they would yell.

JENNA FISCHER [00:28:03] They were so loud.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:28:05] Do you remember? They were so loud. They’d be like, “Get it! Get ’em”. All right. So at 4 minutes, 35 seconds, we now have this phone call between Michael and Jan in Michael’s office.

JENNA FISCHER [00:28:15] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:28:16] And Jenna, did you catch who is in the room with Michael?

JENNA FISCHER [00:28:21] Ryan.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:28:21] Ryan is sitting there for the whole phone call. And the call is so awkward. He’s like, “Hey, I called to wish you happy birthday”. And she’s like, “It’s not my birthday”. And he’s like, “Oh, I thought we had the same birthday”. And she’s like, “No”. And then she’s like, “Happy birthday, Michael”. And then she’s like, “Are we being filmed”? And he’s like, “Nope, not at all”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:28:40] And then he says, “Jan, just feel free to say whatever is in your heart”. And then doesn’t she just, like, hang up?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:28:47] Click. Dial tone. And the whole time Ryan is sitting here and I have a little something to point out if you go and watch the deleted scenes. There is a beginning to this scene and that is that Ryan, the temp, has been given the task to tie those balloons in Michael’s office. And so-.

JENNA FISCHER [00:29:07] Oh, this is where the balloons come from.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:29:09] Yeah. So him and Michael are in his office. Ryan is tying a balloon to like his chair. And then he’s like, “Can I leave”? And Michael’s like, “Nope”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:29:19] Thank you so much for telling me this, because I was wondering, where did those dang balloons come from? Because Michael did not walk in with them. He must have somehow ordered Ryan,  the temp, to get them.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:29:30] Yes. And then he make him-.

JENNA FISCHER [00:29:31] And this deleted scene is the proof.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:29:33] He makes them stay in for the phone call. Oh, God, it’s so miserable. I feel so bad for Ryan in that scene.

JENNA FISCHER [00:29:40] Well, the next scene is very cringy as well, because Michael’s in the kitchen and he is just hovering over this box of donuts waiting for someone. And then when Stanley comes in, he’s like, “Oh, my gosh, somebody must have brought in donuts for my birthday”. “Michael, we saw you carry that box in when you arrived”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:30:01] Michael.

JENNA FISCHER [00:30:02] Somebody. Michael.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:30:04] Michael. Michael, Michael. I have something to point out here. So, you know, in “Booze Cruise”. You and Jim look at each other for 27 seconds of silence, right?

JENNA FISCHER [00:30:15] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:30:15] 27 seconds. Is that right?

JENNA FISCHER [00:30:17] 27 seconds. That’s right.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:30:18] Okay. I want you to know how long Michael stood with his hand on that coffee pot, waiting for someone to come in so he could act like he was pouring himself a cup of coffee, act surprised there were donuts for his birthday. He stood there for 10 seconds of pure silence.

JENNA FISCHER [00:30:36] Wow.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:30:37] Now, if you think about a TV show, you guys. That’s a long time to leave a character just sitting there waiting for someone to notice him.

JENNA FISCHER [00:30:45] That is so true. That’s amazing. 10 seconds.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:30:48] 10 seconds. He stood there looking around, waiting for someone to walk in and then.

JENNA FISCHER [00:30:53] Well. And then later when Toby comes in. It’s so sad. Toby sees the donuts and he finds out it’s Michael’s birthday and he gives the most just upbeat.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:31:04] Geniune.

JENNA FISCHER [00:31:04] And warm.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:31:05] Genuine. Happy birthday.

JENNA FISCHER [00:31:09] “Oh, Happy Birthday, Michael”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:31:09] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:31:10] And then Michael is so mean. Michael’s like-.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:31:13] You didn’t remember?

JENNA FISCHER [00:31:14] He’s like, “Well”. Yeah. “I guess I’m not going to remember to give you a donut”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:31:19] I know, he’s such a turd to Toby and Toby was being so nice to him.

JENNA FISCHER [00:31:24] I know. I know. So also happening in this episode, is everyone kind of learning about the fact that Kevin’s waiting for these skin test results. So like Jim’s in the in the break room and they’re talking about it and Kelly overhears.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:31:41] Yeah. Kelly? You mean Mindy. Mindy overhears. That is a Mindy Kaling talking head when she’s like, “Oh, my gosh, I never thought about death until Princess Diana’s funeral, which was so sad”. And then she pauses and she’s like, “That. And my sister’s”. Like-.

JENNA FISCHER [00:31:57] Oh, it’s such a dark. It’s such a dark talking heads.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:32:01] What?

JENNA FISCHER [00:32:01] It’s so dark.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:32:02] What? What is that?

JENNA FISCHER [00:32:02] I don’t know how Mindy got through that.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:32:04] She almost didn’t. I want you to know. Look at 6 minutes, 5 seconds. Mindy is so about to laugh. She’s-.

JENNA FISCHER [00:32:12] She is.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:32:13] Barely holding it together.

JENNA FISCHER [00:32:14] Well, then the accounting department is discussing Kevin’s possible skin cancer, Angela, and you are, I mean, Angela Martin is a real downer.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:32:25] She’s a little bit of Debbie Toner. I mean, Oscar’s like, “You know what? I’m sure it’s gonna be fine”. I’m like, “Don’t give him false hope. You don’t know that”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:32:32] Is that pragmatic?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:32:33] I think she is. You know, I yeah, she’s pragmatic. She doesn’t need to see the rosy picture. She’s like, just give me the stats.

JENNA FISCHER [00:32:42] Yeah. What are the stats on this? The stats are you should be worried.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:32:45] Yeah. That’s what the stats say.

JENNA FISCHER [00:32:48] So next up, Michael gets a delivery.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:32:52] Oh, man.

JENNA FISCHER [00:32:53] But he thinks that the woman is his stripper gram.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:32:57] He’s so excited. He’s giddy. He literally says, “Here we go”. And then he has a line that made me laugh so hard. He’s like, “Oh, this chair has arms. Is that going to be all right”? Ew!

JENNA FISCHER [00:33:07] I love that line. That made me laugh so hard. He’s like, “It will be fine. It’ll probably, you’ll work around it. It’s fine”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:33:12] I feel like Steve improvised that. I feel like he improvised that. I don’t know. I don’t know. But-.

JENNA FISCHER [00:33:17] I bet you’re right. I do. I wish I had the script for this one because I would look it up. But I feel like that feels like, that feels like something you notice in the moment.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:33:26] Right. Because they just pulled the chair aside and it had arms. And I think he saw it in the moment and he said it. That’s that’s what I, it feels very much like a Steve improv moment.

JENNA FISCHER [00:33:35] Well, I do want to just give a shout out to this guest, actor Susan Foley, who played the delivery woman. I thought she was great.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:33:41] She was fantastic.

JENNA FISCHER [00:33:42] She played it super straight, super real, made it very, very funny. Her confusion was not overplayed. It was perfection.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:33:51] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:33:51] Well done, Susan.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:33:52] And then we just find out some sad backstory of Michael’s childhood. Jenna, his childhood breaks my heart.

JENNA FISCHER [00:33:59] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:33:59] It breaks my heart. So we had this birthday party when he was 7. He was so excited. He said they got a pony and a cart and the pony gave him a rash and his mom rubbed cream on him for three hours.

JENNA FISCHER [00:34:11] And then he missed the party.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:34:12] He said it was his worst birthday. Well, this is a runner and some of them got cut out. But Michael had this runner throughout this episode of all of his worst birthdays comparing it to this one. So this guy has had a lot of bad birthdays.

JENNA FISCHER [00:34:25] Well, he’s going to get a pick me up from Dwight. Who’s going to play the recorder for him while he eats donuts. Dwight is playing Billy Joel, which is a runner on our show. We’re constantly going to the Billy Joel music Library on “The Office”. I don’t know why that is.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:34:44] “For the longest time. Oooh”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:34:47] But of course, Dwight calls him William Joel. And then Michael is just sort of lamenting how he’s being tried in the office. And he says, “I bet Luke Perry’s friends don’t treat him like this”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:34:59] Wait.

JENNA FISCHER [00:34:59] And he references this poster that, this is what the delivery woman was delivering. It is a poster of James Dean, not of Luke Perry, that his mom sent him for his birthday. That’s what his mom sent him. Now, do you think that his mom meant to send him Luke Perry or she meant to send him James Dean and Michael just mistook it for Luke Perry? Which, which one is Michael a fan of? Or neither. Is it just Michael’s mom was like, “I don’t know what to give him”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:35:29] I think Michael’s probably a fan of Luke Perry and that’s who his mom thought it was. That’s what I think. I think-.

JENNA FISCHER [00:35:38] I like that story.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:35:39] I don’t know. But I, I mean, I feel like that’s something my mom would do or my sister. When you’re at Christmas, my sister got me a Green Bay Packers baseball hat.

JENNA FISCHER [00:35:49] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:35:49] And I was like, “I don’t, I don’t get it”. And she was like, “Well, you went to Baylor. Green and gold”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:35:55] Same colors.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:35:56] I was like, “What”? Same colors.

JENNA FISCHER [00:35:59] Right.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:35:59] Same colors.

JENNA FISCHER [00:36:00] Right.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:36:00] So I feel like that could be sort of a mom moment.

JENNA FISCHER [00:36:03] Angela, one year for Christmas, my mom got me from, I guess, a local art fair in St. Louis, a drawing of a woman and her cat. She got it for me because she knows I love cats. I’m going to post this on OfficeLadiesPod Instagram.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:36:24] Is she going to get upset with you? Is she going to say something?

JENNA FISCHER [00:36:26] No. This is a running joke in our family now. It is, Angela, it is a, it is a dr-, I don’t know how to describe it. It is a drawing of a woman on all fours.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:36:38] What?

JENNA FISCHER [00:36:38] In lingerie.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:36:40] Nope.

JENNA FISCHER [00:36:41] With her tush in the air.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:36:43] No.

JENNA FISCHER [00:36:43] And the cat is rubbing seductively on the woman’s tush.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:36:47] And your mom missed all that? She just thought it was a lady and her cat?

JENNA FISCHER [00:36:51] Yes. So, Angela, imagine me on Christmas morning. She hands me, I’m in like college when she gives me this. I come home from college, I unwrap this box and I’m looking at like a semi pornographic drawing of a woman and her cat. I was like, “Mom. What is this present”? And she goes, “What do you mean”?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:37:17] It’s a lady who loves her cat. She loves that pussy so much.

JENNA FISCHER [00:37:23] That’s what she said. She’s like, “She loves, you love cats”. And I like, “Mom, I do love cats. But what is this happening”? And I. She didn’t even, she still like didn’t see it. She’s like, I don’t get it. My sister died laughing. I don’t know if we’ve ever laughed so hard on Christmas ever in my family. So now here’s, I, I, I still have it.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:37:45] Where is it?

JENNA FISCHER [00:37:47] I’ll tell you. I keep it in a drawer, but every time my parents come to my house and stay in my guest room, I get it out and I put it on the nightstand. And then, there it is. And I’m like, “Mom, here’s your gift you gave me”. And she knows that I do that. She knows that I don’t keep it out all the time. But I like religiously, I put it out whenever they visit.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:38:11] I-.

JENNA FISCHER [00:38:11] And I will post a picture of it. I’ll post a picture of it.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:38:15] I love that story so much. I love it so much.

JENNA FISCHER [00:38:19] It’s insane.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:38:19] That is something one hundred percent that my dad would do. I have a story I will save for another one, that my dad did. My dad bought a painting from a man on the side of the road. I’m going to save it.

JENNA FISCHER [00:38:30] Oh, oh.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:38:30] ‘Cause it was. It was, it was a Valentine’s gift. I’m going to save it. OK. Where are we? Where are we?

JENNA FISCHER [00:38:38] Dwight goes into the bullpen and he announces that it is 11:23 a.m., the exact time of Michael’s birth. And he suggests that everyone lift him up in his chair.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:38:51] Yes. It’s a tradition. They’re gonna hoist him up in the air.

JENNA FISCHER [00:38:55] It’s a tradition. Well, I caught something here.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:38:58] What?

JENNA FISCHER [00:38:58] I want you to look at Phyllis in the background of this scene at the very beginning of the scene. She is behind Dwight at her computer. And I think that they said “Action” before she had a chance to clear her computer screen.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:39:16] Is it gates?

JENNA FISCHER [00:39:17] Because-.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:39:17] Is she looking at gates?

JENNA FISCHER [00:39:20] I don’t know. Because she was, she did go on a a long, deep dive where she would look for gates for a long time.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:39:25] She wanted a gate for her driveway.

JENNA FISCHER [00:39:28] I don’t know. I really tried to zoom in and see what it was. But what you have to see is that right at the top of the scene, she puts her hand up to cover up whatever is on her screen. And then at 8 minutes, 53 seconds, when Michael comes out of his office, it’s like, it’s a continuous shot. When you come back to Phyllis, the Dunder Mifflin screensaver is up.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:39:53] Oh, she was quick. She was quick.

JENNA FISCHER [00:39:55] Yeah. She she puts her hand up and with her left hand, she’s like closing out of whatever she was doing.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:40:01] I have such a vivid memory of our camera, guys. Randall or Matt saying, “Hey, Phyllis, we can see the gates on your screen”. ‘Cause like for a year she looked at gates for her driveway. Aw, I love, that makes me laugh.

JENNA FISCHER [00:40:15] Well, it’s at this point that Pam and Jim are in the kitchen. They are not participating in the hoisting of Michael. And Pam suggests to Jim that they sneak out and buy something for Kevin.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:40:28] Yeah, at 10 minutes, 33 seconds, you guys, we learn who Dwight tips and who he doesn’t. And let me tell you, he tips his urologist.

JENNA FISCHER [00:40:37] He can’t pulverize his own kidney stones and he only tips people who do jobs that he couldn’t do himself. So when the sub delivery guy who was played by Justin Malony, by the way, delivers a bunch of sub sandwiches. Dwight gives him exact change because he could have delivered his own subs.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:40:57] He could have.

JENNA FISCHER [00:40:58] He didn’t, but he could have.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:40:59] And then in the break room, we find out that these sub sandwiches are bologna, tomato and ketchup.

JENNA FISCHER [00:41:06] Yes.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:41:07] That’s it. There’s no other options. It’s bologna, tomato and ketchup. What is that? Whta kind of sandwich is that?

JENNA FISCHER [00:41:15] Angela, we had a fan question. This is a fan question from Old Man David.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:41:20] OK.

JENNA FISCHER [00:41:20] He wanted to know, “Did any of you guys actually eat any of that horrible sub sandwich”? I was at Rite Aid. Do you remember? Did anyone eat them and were they actually bologna and ketchup.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:41:33] Old Man David, whatever those sandwiches were, were maybe set out by craft services and people could maybe snack on them. But I don’t remember the cast or crew eating them, but they never let things go to waste. If they had food that was in a scene that was edible. They would set it out over by where all the snacks were. Anything that wasn’t used or they would give them to crew members. So like if we had a scene where we had a bunch of birthday cakes, if they didn’t use those birthday cakes, they would give them to people to take home.

JENNA FISCHER [00:42:03] That’s true. Maybe we set them out. And who knows what they really were. We don’t know.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:42:07] Yeah. Maybe they were normal sandwiches. But my character kaboshes anyone eating because she’s got a really crappy attitude about these sandwiches and she just makes Michael really mad and he packs them up and he’s like, “Fine, choke on it”, and he walks right out.

JENNA FISCHER [00:42:21] Well, then, Angela, we have another one of Michael’s sad birthday talking heads about his childhood. This time he talks about being 16 years old and how he was supposed to go out on a date with a classmate named Julie. But she went out with a different Michael from his class instead. Because she didn’t realize which Michael she was supposed to go out with.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:42:46] He just has had a whole, yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:42:48] Here’s an interesting catch, Angela, in this talking head, he says he had to hear all about it the next day at school. Well, you mentioned that his birthday was March 15th. I have a Dunderpedia catch for you.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:43:02] OK.

JENNA FISCHER [00:43:03] They figured out that Michael’s 16th birthday would have been March 15th, 1980. That was a Saturday. So the next day would have been Sunday. And Michael wouldn’t have been at school to hear all about it.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:43:17] What the heck?

JENNA FISCHER [00:43:19] What? That’s a crazy catch.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:43:22] Get it together. Get it together, writer’s room.

JENNA FISCHER [00:43:24] I feel like a kinship with whoever figured out this fact because of the 45 minutes I spent trying to find yams in Carbondale.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:43:34] Oh yeah, you did. You looked for them for a long, long time.

JENNA FISCHER [00:43:37] I did.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:43:37] Well, lady, you’re a Pisces. You’re intense and you’re passionate.

JENNA FISCHER [00:43:42] When, when the subject moves me like “are there yams in Carbondale”?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:43:47] Now we’re at the Rite Aid with Jim and Pam.

JENNA FISCHER [00:43:49] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:43:50] Extra flirty. You really had an episode in a bit where you two got to be just like flirty, flirty. And so I feel like probably for fans, they were all so excited to be like, “Oh, they’re back at it again. They’re in, in cahoots”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:44:03] Yes. They’ve bought 69 cup of noodles for Kevin. Some M&M’s and his favorite movie, “American Pie 2”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:44:11] Oh man.

JENNA FISCHER [00:44:12] And then Pam even teases Jim for buying some fabric softener.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:44:16] Oh, she’s like, “You use fabric softener”? And I feel like her internal monologue is like, “Oh, it’s so cute. He does his laundry and he makes sure his clothes are soft. He’s going to be a great husband. I love him”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:44:27] Well, you know, Roy isn’t using any fabric softener.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:44:30] Roy’s not doing laundry.

JENNA FISCHER [00:44:32] Exactly. Well, now, next up, Angela is my favorite scene from this whole episode. No Cookie.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:44:40] No cookie. You know, we talk about things that people will say to us when they meet us. I get Saved bandit” and I get “No cookie”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:44:50] Well, Dwight and Ryan are in the kitchen and Angela enters and tries to take the cake. The birthday cake from Dwight. But Dwight won’t let go of it.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:45:02] But she’s the head of the Party Planning Committee. It’s her job to bring out the cake.

JENNA FISCHER [00:45:07] That’s right. Yes. And they get in a little tiff about it. And then Dwight says, “Hey, is that meeting to discuss finances still on for later”? And Angela’s like-.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:45:22] “Fine”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:45:23] “Fine”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:45:24] “But don’t expect any cookie”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:45:27] And Dwight says, “But what if I’m hungry”?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:45:32] “No cookie”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:45:33] And then she leaves.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:45:35] And then Ryan’s, Ryan’s expression. Ryan. Oh, B.J., your look is so fantastic. Of like, “What the F did I just witness? What is happening”?

JENNA FISCHER [00:45:49] But then he has that silent talking head. All of that. Whatever that minute and a half of television is, from the time that scene starts until the end of his talking head is just my favorite from this episode. I loved it.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:46:04] It’s so good. B.J., so good. It like makes it. It makes it, you know.

JENNA FISCHER [00:46:09] So now it’s happy birthday to Michael. The cake is out. The candles are lit. Michael is going to blow out his candles. And at the same time, Kevin gets his phone call. Is it? Is it the phone call?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:46:24] No, it’s Stacy.

JENNA FISCHER [00:46:26] “Stacy”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:46:26] He says, “It’s Stacy”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:46:28] Michael is pissed because his candles aren’t trick candles. And this is when everyone’s kind of hugging Kevin. And Michael’s like, “You guys, stop. What is going on”? Angela says very pointedly.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:46:42] “No one cares about your birthday, Michael”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:46:44] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:46:45] “Kevin’s waiting to hear of your skin cancer, Michael. This is like, this is more important”. She just, like, flattens it. She, I mean, she just destroys whatever good mood he was hoping to have.

JENNA FISCHER [00:46:57] Well, lady, fan comments from Delaney and Kathy O’Dell, they both said, “I feel like everyone was really hard on Michael. He didn’t know about Kevin. And it was his birthday. Is his reaction like really that out of line”?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:47:15] Well, here’s the thing. He’s being a little bit of a baby, but I think if any of us really cared about him, the way we should as his coworkers, someone should have pulled him aside early in the morning and said, “Hey, listen, Kevin had this biopsy. Here’s what’s going on. We just want you to know. We don’t know if you know”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:47:33] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:47:33] Right?

JENNA FISCHER [00:47:34] Right.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:47:34] So that in the moment he wouldn’t be such a jerk because someone would have let him in on it. Now, listen, he still would have been bummed. He still would have spent a ton of energy trying to make everyone like somehow find a way to be OK celebrating his birthday.

JENNA FISCHER [00:47:49] Yeah. Which he’s going to do later. OK. Remember earlier when I told you that behind Jim’s talking head there was a winter scene?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:47:58] Oh, is this the payoff? Give it to me.

JENNA FISCHER [00:48:02] I want you to notice that in the background of this birthday candle scene, my cardigan is draped on the back of my chair.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:48:12] Ok.

JENNA FISCHER [00:48:12] It’s a really nice detail because if you notice at the store, I’m not wearing it. I also want you to know that on the coat rack, in a little bit, you’re going to see Pam’s giant puffy coat that you’re going to see her wearing later at the ice rink is hanging up and Jim’s big, heavy winter coat are on the coat rack.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:48:36] I see what’s happening here. Why didn’t they take their coats if it’s snowing out?

JENNA FISCHER [00:48:41] If it’s so freakin cold that they wore their heavy coats to work that day. Why is Pam leaving her cardigan behind and going shopping in just a button down shirt? What’s up? Is it cold out or not cold out?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:48:55] It’s cold out.

JENNA FISCHER [00:48:56] Which one?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:48:57] Someone slipping on the job there.

JENNA FISCHER [00:48:59] I don’t know. I don’t know. I’m just saying.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:49:03] OK, well, I have a big thing to point out, everyone.

JENNA FISCHER [00:49:08] What?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:49:08] OK at 14 minutes, 44 seconds, Jim dares Pam, to make an announcement over the store intercom because these two are like teenagers. They played “Jinx, Buy Me a Coke”. Now they’re daring each other to do stupid things in public. Jim and Pam, what’s going on? But guess what happens? What does Pam do?

JENNA FISCHER [00:49:30] I know.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:49:31] What does she do, Jenna?

JENNA FISCHER [00:49:33] She, I know, Angela. She says, “Luke, this is your father”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:49:40] Star Wars!

JENNA FISCHER [00:49:42] Star Wars.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:49:43] She makes a Star Wars reference. Jenna, did you know what you were doing when you did it?

JENNA FISCHER [00:49:49] I did, because I knew from just, you know, pop culture knowledge that there was a movie from the Star Wars movies. Is it “Empire Strikes Back”? That-.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:50:05] Yes. Where they’re fighting each other.

JENNA FISCHER [00:50:07] Yes. And it is revealed that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker’s father.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:50:13] He says, “I am your father”. And Luke’s like, “No, that’s not true”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:50:15] I knew the reference, but I did get a fan question from KaySlackish1 who wanted to know if that bit where I make the announcement was improvised. So the Luke line was scripted. However, I did improvise a little bit. So when I say “I’m sorry”, into the mic. That was my fun idea. And it was a little nod to the movie “When Harry Met Sally”. So do you remember the scene in “When Harry Met Sally”, when Harry and Sally, they’re singing karaoke in the store. They’re singing Surrey with a Fringe on Top”. And Harry’s ex-wife starts to walk up and he stops singing. And Meg Ryan is like-.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:50:58] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:50:58] “Oh, my gosh, it’s my voice. I have the worst voice”. And she’s saying it all in the microphone. And Harry is like, “No. I think I see Helen” and then really loudly into the microphone, Meg Ryan goes “Helen”? And it like goes out over the store. I always thought that was such a funny bit. So I thought, I’m going to say, “I’m sorry” into the mic really loudly. And I don’t know it. It, I mean, probably no one would ever think about it, but-.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:51:29] About your inspiration for that moment?

JENNA FISCHER [00:51:31] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:51:31] I love that. I think that’s so sweet. I also know how much you love “When Harry Met Sally” is one of your favorite movies.

JENNA FISCHER [00:51:38] Lady, when I was in college, I had a three and a half hour drive between Saint Louis, which is where my parents still lived. And Kirksville, Missouri, which is a little rural town in Missouri where I went to college at Truman State University. And what I did to pass the time was I recorded “When Harry Met Sally” onto an audiotape. And then I played the movie back for myself in my car on my drive. I have that entire movie memorized from beginning to end. I love it.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:52:13] Aw lady, I love that. That is the sweetest thing.

JENNA FISCHER [00:52:16] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:52:17] I recorded on my tape recorder David Letterman’s opening monologues and I would play them back and listen to his opening monologues.

JENNA FISCHER [00:52:26] Oh, my gosh. Well you said you wanted to work for a late night talk show.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:52:32] I wanted to work in comedy.

JENNA FISCHER [00:52:33] You love, yeah, comedy, late night. Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:52:37] Yeah. Lady Look, we were meant to be BFFs. We’re both driving our cars. Listening to things we recorded off of our TVs because we’re one hundred on our tape decks.

JENNA FISCHER [00:52:51] We were. Lady, I just got a text from Lee. He sent me a photo of-.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:52:54] Is this about your bread?

JENNA FISCHER [00:52:55] Yeah. Can I go down and check it out? Can we take a break? He made sandwiches for the kids. I want to see if they like it.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:53:01] Oh, my God, he did it. Way to go, Lee.

JENNA FISCHER [00:53:03] But did they eat it? That’s the question. We’ll find out. All right. We’ll be right back. We’re back. Bread report for everyone who’s curious. It’s freakin delicious. I just ate a slice.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:53:20] Is it?

JENNA FISCHER [00:53:21] It’s good. I don’t know if the kids are gonna eat it.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:53:23] What is their deal?

JENNA FISCHER [00:53:24] You know what, Angela? They love all of my other breads. They love my sour dough bread. They love when I make rolls. They love when I make popovers. For whatever reason, I cannot get them to like my sandwich bread. They just want store-bought sandwich bread. I’ve tried three different recipes. Today will have been my third sandwich bread recipe. I don’t know. Or they will like it the day it comes out of the oven. But the next day it’s a no go for them. They only want it warm out of the oven. I don’t know.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:53:53] Shall we get back into this episode, my lady?

JENNA FISCHER [00:53:57] I think we should. Where are we? I believe that we are back in human resources. 15 minutes, 15 seconds, Kevin is talking to Toby about his skin cancer.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:54:12] Yeah, and this is a nice callback to season one’s “Healthcare” episode because Toby is like, “Can you get on your fiance’s health care plan? Because honestly, ours is horrible”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:54:23] That’s right.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:54:23] So to me, to me, it was a nice callback to the “Healthcare” episode.

JENNA FISCHER [00:54:27] Well, Michael comes over with a bunch of facts that are about why Kevin shouldn’t be worried. He’s got some statistics. The subtext is why we can still celebrate Michael’s birthday without any problem. But he’s presenting it as why Kevin shouldn’t be worried.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:54:43] Yeah. And then Toby’s like, you know, kind of gives him some Toby sass. And Michael’s like, “Why are you here”? And Toby’s like, “I work here”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:54:53] Well, now Michael is going to announce that they’re going somewhere and it’s to make Kevin feel better. There’s an outing for the whole office. But, of course, if you remember in an earlier scene. Michael asked Dwight if he’s made all the plans for later. So this is clearly been in the works.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:55:12] Oh, there’s a big banner when we walk in, it says “Happy Birthday, Michael”. Like this was planned, for sure. Not by the Party Planning Committee, by the way. Angela would not allocate funds to this.

JENNA FISCHER [00:55:20] No.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:55:21] But Dwight had this, he had planned it.

JENNA FISCHER [00:55:23] We had a fan question from Noelle, Angela, because we’re about to go to the ice skating rink now. And that’s the big surprise that he’s taking us all ice skating. And Noelle wanted to know, “Did you have a safety meeting about ice skating”? ‘Member? Safety meeting, lit candle.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:55:41] I’m sure we did. I’m sure there was a safety meeting about we have heavy things being held on the ice. I’m sure there was all kinds of safety meetings.

JENNA FISCHER [00:55:51] Well, I know we had a medic there. And the reason that I know this is because I don’t know if you remember Angela, but Mindy fell while we were shooting.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:56:01] I don’t remember that.

JENNA FISCHER [00:56:02] And she hurt her knee. So, you know, there’s that little bit at the ice skating rink where Kelly is helping Ryan.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:56:07] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:56:07] Well, she fell and she hurt her knee. And the medic had to give her some ice, but she was able to finish filming. Her knee was OK.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:56:15] I thought it was interesting when you saw the different couplings of people ice skating in the beginning. You see Kelly and Ryan, you see Pam and Jim, I sort of just kind of go around solo.

JENNA FISCHER [00:56:25] Yes.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:56:26] So does Dwight. We just kind of, we don’t, you know,  want anyone to know we’re seeing each other, so we skate alone. And then later you see Ryan and Phyllis holding hands and ice skating.

JENNA FISCHER [00:56:37] Yes. At 19 minutes. We had a fan catch by KP who said, “I love when you see Ryan and Phyllis at the skating rink holding hands so Ryan won’t fall”. It’s such a random glimpse into their friendship. I think, Angela, they did that because Mindy was icing her knee.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:56:53] And what’s really cute if you watch it, is Phyllis is so tickled. She’s so tickled. It’s just really cute.

JENNA FISCHER [00:56:59] It’s very, very sweet. And I actually I went back after I read that comment and I watched it. And it’s really very sweet to see the two of them skating together. So that was that an accident. I had another fan question from Livelong California. “Did you and John know how to ice skate? Or did you have to learn for this episode”? So here is something interesting in this episode Jim is kind of helping Pam on the ice. But right before we filmed this episode, I had actually been in some intense ice skating training because I was filming a movie with Will Ferrell called “Blades of Glory”. And yeah, every Saturday morning for a few months, I had to go early in the morning and spend about three hours learning to ice skate. And the crazy thing is, my character didn’t even ice skate in the movie. I am completely pretending to not know how to ice skate in this scene on “The Office”, because I had actually just, I mean, kind of learned how to ice skate quite well thanks to this movie training.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:58:00] You’re describing my fantasy. But all I ever wanted was to be cast in something where they’re like, “Listen, Angela, you’re gonna have to learn kung fu. You’re gonna go every Saturday. You’re gonna become a kung fu master”. Or “You’re gonna have to learn how to throw an ax. You’re gonna get really good at throwing axes”. Like I wanted to learn something like that, but it’s never happened.

JENNA FISCHER [00:58:25] Well, speaking of skating, Michael is zipping around in his hockey gear. So in the background of Michael’s talking head, it’s around 17 minutes, 42 seconds, there’s a really great shot of that professional ice skater Burt Lancon, whose stands in for Oscar. He’s doing a bunch of twirls. It’s just sort of fun.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:58:44] You realize-.

JENNA FISCHER [00:58:45] Nothing with you, though, Ang.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:58:45] I know nothing with me. But do you realize one of the office members who’s not on the ice is Creed and it’s because he’s in the arcade playing a shoot ’em up game with a bunch of kids.

JENNA FISCHER [00:58:57] Oh, yes, that’s right. That’s right. Well, there’s also that scene where Michael checks Toby into the wall.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:59:04] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:59:05] We had a fan question from Cardinals’ Fan. “Was Toby harmed in the making of that scene”? No. And if you watch closely, Steve’s body never really touches Toby. Like he, he, he really, like Steve, I think, because he’s so good. He kind of slams into the wall and makes a noise with his arms. And then Paul just sort of falls to the ground himself.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:59:31] No, Steve had total control, but it’s because he’s such a good skater. And so he could definitely sort of show off a little bit and do all that stuff.

JENNA FISCHER [00:59:39] Oh, this was for sure, one of Steve’s favorite film days, I think. I mean he loved being on the ice.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:59:44] It had to be, it had to be. Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:59:46] He was having the best time.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:59:47] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:59:48] And also he had the best time because Nancy Carell, his wife in real life, shows up in this episode. Again, as Carol Stills, the real estate agent.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:00:00] I know.

JENNA FISCHER [01:00:00] She’s at the ice rink. But Michael’s so innocent. He’s like, “Oh, was this for sale”? And she’s like, “No, Michael”. Like I can go places that aren’t for sale. You know, like my kids are here to ice skate and then he’s so sweet with the kids. He’s so sweet. And we sort of learn like Michael probably could have tried to play professional hockey, but he didn’t think it was a great job to have if you want a family and that’s all he wants. So it’s just this theme again that Michael just wants a family. That’s what he wants.

JENNA FISCHER [01:00:33] Well, you know, when he offers to pull the kids around the ice rink with his hockey stick, he’s skating backwards and he’s pulling the kids. Lee does that all the time with our kids.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:00:44] Aw.

JENNA FISCHER [01:00:45] So when I saw that, I was like, “Oh, I think that’s like a hockey guy thing to do”. You pull your kids around as they hold on to the hockey stick.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:00:53] You just turned into like a 16 year old girl with googly eyes. You just thought about your husband.

JENNA FISCHER [01:00:59] I know.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:00:59] I wish you could have seen Jenna just now. She just literally did this weird thing with her shoulder and she kind of tossed her hair and she’s like, “I think it’s a hockey guy thing” like it was, what just happened to you?

JENNA FISCHER [01:01:11] I get smittened.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:01:13] Clearly when you saw your husband do that you were like, “Yes. Yes, Baby”.

JENNA FISCHER [01:01:19] I get real smitten with him sometimes, especially when he does, you know.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:01:23] When he’s on the ice.

JENNA FISCHER [01:01:24] Great fathering. Yeah, on the ice being a great dad.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:01:28] OK. Now Kevin gets the phone call. Everyone skates around him. Jenna, I remember filming this because we had to time it out and there were a bunch of us on the ice that skate up to where he is. Do you remember this?

JENNA FISCHER [01:01:43] Yes. And we have to all be able to stop.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:01:45] I didn’t know how to stop.

JENNA FISCHER [01:01:47] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:01:48] That was my one problem. I didn’t know how to stop. So I remember trying to, like push really hard to slow myself down. So I didn’t run into people, but I was like stressed out.

JENNA FISCHER [01:01:57] Well, guess what? His results are negative.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:02:03] Which is a good thing. You want your results to be negative.

JENNA FISCHER [01:02:06] But Michael doesn’t understand that.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:02:08] No, Michael’s like, “damnit”.

JENNA FISCHER [01:02:09] Michael is gutted. He’s like, “Oh, no, this is horrible”.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:02:14] “We’re going to beat this”.

JENNA FISCHER [01:02:16] And he has that amazing talking head where he’s like, it turns out that in the medical field, negative is a good thing. Now, in the real world, negative means bad, but when it comes to test results. It was that, it was it was one of those that you love, Angela, where he’s describing things to us that the rest of us all know.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:02:38] And one of my favorite things is when Michael is like, “I’m going to break this down for you”.

JENNA FISCHER [01:02:43] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:02:43] This is what, it’s like information we all know.

JENNA FISCHER [01:02:46] This is probably coming as a surprise to you, too.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:02:48] Yeah, I know. I’m gonna fill you i.

JENNA FISCHER [01:02:49] It turns out.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:02:50] Yeah. Yes.

JENNA FISCHER [01:02:52] Well now we’re opening gifts, lady.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:02:54] I know. I love this scene. We’re opening gifts. I have actually been in the room where we filmed. I’d been there before because I’d been to a kid’s birthday party. And if you have a kid’s birthday party at this particular rink. Number one, your birthday child gets to ride the Zamboni around the ice one time.

JENNA FISCHER [01:03:13] Oh yes.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:03:13] And then you get to have all of your birthday cake and presents in this room where we were. So it kind of cracked me up that this is where Michael’s birthday would be because he’s so childlike. So we’re sitting at this table. Kevin gets a card that says “Get well soon” or something like that, but it’s got a lady in a bikini. This clearly made his day. He’s gonna save that.

JENNA FISCHER [01:03:33] Yeah, he loved it.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:03:34] Maybe he’ll put it with some of the things he keeps on his computer. Because he’s a little pervy. He’s very happy about this card.

JENNA FISCHER [01:03:41] He loves it. And then Michael gets a Wilkes-Barre Penguins hockey jersey from Dwight. This is a real team. It actually well, and it says from Dwight.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:03:52] From Dwight. Number one, I have been to their rink. Me and Craig Robinson and Brian Baumgartner, Kate Flannery for the first ever office convention. We got to go. We got to go on the ice. We all got a jersey. I still have my jersey.

JENNA FISCHER [01:04:06] That’s amazing. So they’re the AHL team. So they’re not the NHL team there. They’re the AHL team. And that’s. Yeah. Real hockey team.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:04:15] Real hockey team. And their mascot is Tucks the pinguin. Everyone there was really, really nice. That was that was super fun.

JENNA FISCHER [01:04:22] Well then Pam gives Michael “Night Swept”.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:04:25] From everyone.

JENNA FISCHER [01:04:26] A big.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:04:26] Says it’s from everyone.

JENNA FISCHER [01:04:28] Yes.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:04:28] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [01:04:28] Yes. From everyone in the office. We had a fan question from Boss Lady. “Is there really a cologne called Night Swept”?

ANGELA KINSEY [01:04:38] Wel this-.

JENNA FISCHER [01:04:40] No.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:04:40] There’s not. But Jenna, did you know this is a callback? Did you catch this?

JENNA FISCHER [01:04:45] Yes. Yes, from-.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:04:46] “Hot Girl”.

JENNA FISCHER [01:04:47] When they’e cleaning out his car?

ANGELA KINSEY [01:04:49] Yes. In Season 1, Episode 6, “Hot Girl”, Ryan and Michael are cleaning out his car. And Michael says, “That’s my Drakkar noir”? right? Is that how you see that?

JENNA FISCHER [01:05:00] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:05:00] And Ryan’s like, “No, it’s Rite Aid ‘Night Swept’”. And Michael’s like, “It’s a perfect smell alike. I’m not paying for the label”. So he’s probably very excited. He likes Night Swept and he already is a buyer of Night Swept, and here he gets a four pack. He got lotion, cologne, some kind of body spray, maybe.

JENNA FISCHER [01:05:21] Yes. That was all packaged and created by Phil Shea. That is a fictional cologne line. However, I just want to let you know. That I did Google “Night Swept” and there is a Christian based mystery novel by writer Marvin Reme.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:05:43] OK.

JENNA FISCHER [01:05:43] Called “Night Swept”. It’s available on Amazon.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:05:47] OK. There you have it.

JENNA FISCHER [01:05:50] For super fans out there who might want to read a book called “Night Swept”. It doesn’t smell like anything from what I would assume, since it’s a book and it’s not a cologne. There you go.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:06:02] There you go. Where are we?

JENNA FISCHER [01:06:05] It’s the end of the episode. Pam ends this episode with a talking head. She says it was a good day, Angela, because of what you said earlier, which is that, you know, finally we get a little flirty flirt for her and Jim. They got to go shopping.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:06:20] She got to learn he uses fabric softener. I mean, this was a good day for Pam. She got to pretend what it would be like maybe to be Jim’s girlfriend for a day and-.

JENNA FISCHER [01:06:30] Yeah, run an errand.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:06:32] Run errands together. And she loved it. She loved it. So it was a good day. And Michael had a great birthday. As it turns out, he got to ice skate. He got a present he liked. Kevin was gonna be okay. So it all ended well.

JENNA FISCHER [01:06:46] It did.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:06:47] But before we say goodbye to Michael’s birthday, there is a deleted scene that I have to read. I’m not going to tell you anything about it. It’s a Dwight talking head. I’m gonna read it and then I’m going to just watch your reaction. OK?

JENNA FISCHER [01:07:02] All right.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:07:02] OK.

JENNA FISCHER [01:07:03] This is-. OK.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:07:04] Deleted scene of Dwight talking head from Michael’s birthday. “Michael’s birthday is hard for me because he gets very excited, but he’s also under a lot of pressure, which builds up until he’s ready to explode. As his right hand man, it’s my job to release that pressure so that he can enjoy himself, if only for a moment”.

JENNA FISCHER [01:07:28] Wow. That is brilliant. That is brilliant. That is a delightful, delightful talking head written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:07:40] Right? That’s right in their wheelhouse. But, you know, it probably was hard for Rainn to get through that.

JENNA FISCHER [01:07:47] For sure. Guys, that that’s it. That’s Michael birth-, we celebrated Michael’s birthday.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:07:51] Happy Birthday, Michael. We hope you had a good time.

JENNA FISCHER [01:07:55] Thanks for coming along for the ride. Next week, we’re going to do some drug testing. Dwight, why is your urine green? We’ll find out.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:08:07] Ooh.

JENNA FISCHER [01:08:07] Thank you for listening to “Office Ladies”. “Office Ladies” is produced by Earwolf, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. Our producer is Codi Fischer, our sound engineer is Sam Kieffer.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:08:16] And our theme song is “Rubber Tree” by Creed Bratton.

JENNA FISCHER [01:08:20] For ad free versions of the show and our bonus episodes “Candy Bag”. Go to StitcherPremium.com.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:08:26] For a free one month trial of Stitcher Premium use code “Office”.