EP. 110 — Niagara, Pt 2

Niagara Pt 2.mp3

Jenna [00:00:04] I’m Jenna Fischer. 

Angela [00:00:05] And I’m Angela Kinsey. 

Jenna [00:00:06] We were on The Office together. 

Angela [00:00:07] And we’re best friends. 

Jenna [00:00:08] And now we’re doing the ultimate Office rewatch podcast just for you. 

Angela [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 [00:00:19] We’re the Office Ladies. Angela, Angela! 

Angela [00:00:26] Jenna, Jenna! 

Jenna [00:00:28] Today is Jim and Pam’s wedding day! 

Angela [00:00:31] And we are celebrating! 

Jenna [00:00:33] Cheers. That’s my drink. Can you hear it?

Angela [00:00:36] Cheers. I sure can. I’m taking a picture of you. 

Jenna [00:00:40] OK, well, if you take a picture, we can post this on Office Ladies pod because I’m drinking out of a very special champagne flute. 

Angela [00:00:47] Tell them all about it. It is- Jenna, can I say it’s crap tastic? 

Jenna [00:00:52] It is the kitschiest thing you’ve ever seen in your life. It is a champagne flute, but the stem is a series of four glass hearts. 

Angela [00:01:05] That are like hollow in the middle. 

Jenna [00:01:08] Yes, and it’s a very large champagne flute. I didn’t have any champagne, so I’m actually drinking an old fashioned out of it. Is that weird? 

Angela [00:01:17] I think it’s flippin perfect. 

Jenna [00:01:19] Thank you. 

Angela [00:01:20] Cheers to you. I wish we were in the same room today. Dang it. 

Jenna [00:01:23] I know. You’ve got a glass of red wine, though, so. 

Angela [00:01:26] I came to Earwolf today. I said, Sam, Jenna is pouring an old fashioned into her Niagara champagne flute. What do we got here? And he goes, I think there’s some stuff over there. I found a bottle of red wine and a croissant. 

Jenna [00:01:40] Oh. 

Angela [00:01:40] So I’m feeling very fancy. 

Jenna [00:01:44] You’re very European, I think. Red wine and a croissant. 

Angela [00:01:47] I feel like I am. 

Jenna [00:01:50] Well, let me tell you where I got the champagne flute. When we traveled to Niagara Falls to shoot this episode, the hotel put a basket in my hotel room with these two champagne flutes, champagne, chocolates, candies, nuts, like a whole welcome basket. And they were just so delighted that The Office had come to shoot there. And I was so charmed by that. I thought it was the sweetest gesture and so I ate all the food. I actually shared it with the hair and makeup ladies. And I took the champagne glasses home and now here they are in all their glory. Yum.

Angela [00:02:29] Jenna, I love this story so much. You are truly my BFF because I would have done the same thing. I would have been like, um these glasses are going home with me. 

Jenna [00:02:38] Oh yeah, lady, I wrapped these up in a T-shirt and I packed them in my suitcase. 

Angela [00:02:42] It’s amazing. We have to post it in stories. You guys, Niagara Part two. We’re here to break it down for you. 

Jenna [00:02:48] That’s right, this is season six, episode five. It was written by Greg Daniels and Mindy Kaling and directed by Paul Feig. Let me give you a summary of what we’ll be going over today. Last night, Andy slept on Pam’s floor because he was recovering from his torn scrotum. 

Angela [00:03:06] Mm-Hmm. 

Jenna [00:03:07] Michael slept by the vending machines. Dwight hooked up with Pam’s friend, and Kevin is about to lose his shoes. How’s that for? Like a headline? 

Angela [00:03:21] That’s good. 

Jenna [00:03:22] The wedding, which is happening today, is becoming even more hectic than enjoyable for Pam and Jim, and ultimately, they’re going to take matters into their own hands. Meanwhile, Michael makes an unlikely love connection, and the office gang surprised Jim and Pam with a celebratory dance. 

Angela [00:03:39] I love this episode so much. I know we both have said that, but this second part of Niagara is when all all the like heart strings are pulled. I mean, it’s so beautiful and cringey. It’s fantastic. We had Greg Daniels on for Niagara Part one. We talked about the whole entire episode. So if you guys haven’t heard that interview, listen to it. Now we’re going to break down the second part. We have lots of fun stuff to share. 

Jenna [00:04:04] The second part of Niagara also features the part where Jim and Pam sneak off and have a wedding ceremony on Maid of the Mist. That is my fast fact number one. We got a fan question from Ashlyn M in Windsor, Canada. Did everyone get to go on location to Niagara Falls or was it just Jenna and John? Did you stay on the American side or did you get to go to the Canadian side as well? Well, like we said last week, Ashlyn, we shot the rehearsal dinner and the church wedding and the bulk of this episode in Los Angeles. The only people who went to Niagara Falls were me, John Krasinski, Mindy, Randy Cordray, who was our line producer, our cinematographer Randall Einhorn, our director Paul Feig and then a handful of crew members. And we went to the American side of Niagara Falls. And we only had, Angela, one day to shoot. One day. 

Angela [00:05:04] One day to get all of that? 

Jenna [00:05:04] That’s right. Yes. And I’m going to tell you now a little bit about how it all went down because Randy had to do an insane amount of preparation to get us there. 

Angela [00:05:14] He sure did. And he shared with us, You guys, we’re going to break it down for you. 

Jenna [00:05:18] You know, originally the network said that they wanted John and I to shoot this on a green screen at like a fake water tank on like a fakey boat in Los Angeles. 

Angela [00:05:32] Boo. Boo. 

Jenna [00:05:32] Right? 

Angela [00:05:33] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:05:34] Randy was like, No, no. So-

Angela [00:05:37] Good for Randy. 

Jenna [00:05:40] Yeah. So Randy set out to create a budget that the network would approve for me and John to actually go. Now, Greg told Randy that he would like us to shoot on the Canadian side of the falls because that’s the side that has all the fun kind of kitschy wax museums and the water park. And it had the look that Greg was going for. 

Angela [00:06:03] On the Canadian side. 

Jenna [00:06:05] On the Canadian side. 

Angela [00:06:06] OK. 

Jenna [00:06:07] But Randy found out that Canada has this very strict one for one staffing rule. And what that means is for every person that he brought from our crew, he would have to hire a Canadian to do a job. So if we wanted to bring our regular makeup artist, we would have to hire someone locally, you know, for a different job. It didn’t have to be another makeup artist, but just there had to be like a one for one representation on this crew. We did not have the budget for that. 

Angela [00:06:39] Got it. 

Jenna [00:06:40] He also said that Canada has a 14 day embargo on all equipment, so any costumes, cameras, props, we would have to send it 14 days ahead of time. Well, we couldn’t do that because we were using all that stuff in Los Angeles. So Randy got this approved. Great. We had the budget to shoot on the American side of the falls. But then there was a problem. The Maid of the Mist, it’s in like dual waters. Also, The Maid of the Mist is owned by a Canadian company, so that was a whole thing that Randy had to work out. 

Angela [00:07:17] That’s right, because he said they leave Canada and then cross over into American waters. But then they go back to Canada. 

Jenna [00:07:25] Right. But then they do have a boat that will start on the American side or will pick up Americans and go back to the Canadian side so you can ride it from the American side. But there’s limited access to those rides. Most of the rides start on the Canadian side. It was a whole thing. 

Angela [00:07:43] This is so complicated for a boat ride. 

Jenna [00:07:46] I mean, while I was in my hotel room with my fancy champagne glasses, I had no idea everything that had gone on to get me there to that gift basket. Wow. 

Angela [00:07:59] Randy shared with us that there were a lot of people that made this amazing moment happen for Jim and Pam. We promised him we would give them a shout out. He said first he was in touch with the film commissioner there, Tim Clark. Randy described him as a fountain of resources. Tim put Randy in touch with the location manager Michelle Barone. Randy was also in touch with Tim Ruddy. He was the vice president of marketing for the Maid of the Mist Steamboat Company. Angela Byrdie, the media director of Niagara State Park. She was a huge fan of the show, and Randy said she helped a lot. Randy even had to write a proposal to the New York governor’s office, and there was a film liaison there named Pat Kaufman, who helped Randy get it all done. He said This was the nicest group of people and they just really made it happen. Without them, this scene would not have happened. 

Jenna [00:08:51] Wow. Well, listen, I have even more stories to tell about our adventures getting on this boat. I’ll save them for the break down, but it was incredible. So let’s move on to fast fact number two, which is a follow up on that horse going over the Falls deleted storyline that Greg told us about in his interview last week. Remember that? 

Angela [00:09:16] Not only do I remember, I’m so excited. I brought the table draft script to our recording session so I could read the scene. 

Jenna [00:09:24] What? 

Angela [00:09:25] Yes!

Jenna [00:09:26] Oh my gosh, this is perfect! I was just going to say, Do you want to remind people what the story was? But you have it. You have it. 

Angela [00:09:33] I have it. I have what we read at the table read. 

Jenna [00:09:37] Oh my god, this is an exclusive. 

Angela [00:09:40] OK, here it goes. So in the table draft, Jim and Pam are saying their wedding vows. Jim is saying, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health as long as we both shall live. Suddenly, gasps raced through the audience. The minister looks up and stops. The camera whips over to see a man leading a horse into the space. On top of the horse is Roy dressed in a suit. I have to point out, Roy didn’t even ride the horse into the church. 

Jenna [00:10:11] He had like a guy, bring him in. 

Angela [00:10:14] He has a guy leading him, like he’s- someone is holding the reins, walking him in. Roy yells, Wait! Pam has a horrified expression. Everyone is staring, shocked at Roy, who tries to keep the horse pointed at Pam. But the handler struggles to keep it pointed the right way. So, like, Roy, has no command over this horse at all. The horse’s tail whisks by Stanley’s face, who looks annoyed. Jim whispers to himself. Holy (BLEEP). 

Jenna [00:10:45] What? They had an F-bomb? 

Angela [00:10:48] They had an f bomb. Roy says, Pammy. We lived together for nine years and did everything a man and wife do. Camera pans over to Meemaw. Pam is horribly uncomfortable. Roy: you loved me once. And can you imagine ever seeing me again as your knight on a white horse or a brown horse? People change, and I have too. If you have any second thoughts, any at all, don’t do this thing. Pam: I don’t have any second thoughts, Roy. I love Jim, not you. I wish you had just called first. Long, awkward pause. Then, Roy says, Then I will leave you with this thought. You’re making a mistake. Jim: seriously, man? Roy: get me out of here. That’s what he says to the handler of the horse. Jim: you could’ve learned to ride it, you know. That would have been a little less- and then Pam goes, Jim, Jim, Jim. The handler walks the horse away as Roy tries to keep his dignity. Oscar boo’s. Boo. Then the minister says, OK, where were we? He starts them back into their vows, but the camera pans over to Dwight. Dwight is seated next to a wedding guest and says, that is a powerful looking horse. Excuse me. He gets an idea. He gets up and follows Roy out. 

Jenna [00:12:16] Wow. Wow. 

Angela [00:12:19] Yeah, and then the other scenes are the ones Greg talked about where Dwight convinces Roy to let him return the horse. But then, because he’s seen all of this like historical footage of animals that can go over the falls and survive, Dwight then tries to ride the horse over the falls. But then he bails. EMS like, rescues Dwight. But the horse goes over, but the horse survives. 

Jenna [00:12:41] Yeah, it was a crazy storyline, and Greg shared that they did end up cutting this. But one thing Greg said in his interview really piqued my curiosity. I mean, there were so many things, but he said that, you know, this storyline wasn’t cut until the table read, which is about one week before we started shooting. 

Angela [00:13:01] Oh yeah. 

Jenna [00:13:03] So we were very close to shooting, and this entire time, Randy had been prepping this episode as if a horse was going to go over the falls. And Greg even said, like, they went to Universal Studios and they saw a demonstration of a water tank and how the horse might fall into the water tank. And I was like, what? So I reached out to Randy Cordray. Angela, I have to share with you how much prep he did on this horse scene that was cut. I find it fascinating. 

Angela [00:13:35] I still can’t get over the fact that this horse story was a go until about seven days before we shot. 

Jenna [00:13:42] I know. All right. Here’s the first thing that Randy said to me, and I’m going to quote him. He said, I have never been asked to create a scene of such complexity and magnitude. This was far beyond the scope of creating the rainy proposal rest stop or throwing a fake cat into the ceiling or adding a soccer ball careening off of Phyllis’ head or producing a Cloris Leachman Jack Black mini movie. I was fearful that our meager television budget was far too small to produce the needed quality to make this gag appear credible and, above all, funny. But he said, Nonetheless, he moved forward as that was what he had to do. So he said the first thing he had to do was find a church in Los Angeles that could fit a horse through its front doors. 

Angela [00:14:35] That’s how we picked the church? 

Jenna [00:14:38] Yeah, because Roy had to come in riding a horse. So not just big enough to fit a horse, but fit a man on a horse through the front doors. 

Angela [00:14:49] And I guess a man leading a horse? 

Jenna [00:14:51] Imagine that scout. Imagine that. Are you just measuring church doors? And then the people are like, What are you measuring for? 

Angela [00:15:01] This makes the church choice makes sense to me now because it was one level. There weren’t like multiple steps you had to go up to get to the front door, and they had two big doors. 

Jenna [00:15:11] Yeah, for the horse. 

Angela [00:15:13] For the horse. 

Jenna [00:15:15] All right. Then he went to Stargate International. They were our go-to effects company. He was going to have to create the element of rushing water. He was going to have to have Dwight on the horse riding into that rushing water. Dwight bailing off the horse and being rescued. And then like a series of the horse in various poses to simulate tumbling down the falls. 

Angela [00:15:43] Oh my gosh. 

Jenna [00:15:44] And then Stargate would have to be able to composite all of these and put them behind Jim and Pam in the waterfall as they’re getting married. Randy said the costs were astronomical. 

Angela [00:15:57] I was going to say, I think our ending had to have been cheaper. 

Jenna [00:16:03] He said he reached out to Universal Studios back lot because they have a location there called Lower Falls Lake, which is basically that tank that Greg was talking about. It has an enormous green screen. It can be filled with warm water to a depth of about eight feet. But in order to make the water churn, like to simulate the rushing water of the Niagara River, their plan was to chain four jet skis to the side of the tank, which would then run and create like a whitewater effect. So like, listen to everything. He’s like, I need four jet ski drivers. Then he had to contact the animal service company to talk about the horse. And get this. I did not know this. Randy learned that you need a special stunt horse because horses actually don’t like to walk in water on their own because they don’t like to walk or run anywhere where they can’t see their hooves. And he said, when you see horses in a Western movie like dashing across a river, those are specially trained horses. So they had to like, start that process immediately. 

Angela [00:17:11] Yeah, that makes sense. 

Jenna [00:17:13] So we’ve got our jetski drivers. We’re training the horse to go into water. But for the digital element of the horse tumbling, he said, they were going to have to put a horse into like a green screen harness and then lift the horse on a construction crane against a green screen and then have a camera crew like shoot like 360 degrees around the horse, so they could then make it look like it was tumbling, like it would be a visual effect. They would never tumble the horse, but they do have to suspend the horse. 

Angela [00:17:49] Sure. Sure, sure. 

Jenna [00:17:50] He said this also required like many weeks of training and preparation to make sure that the horse was not stressed, that it was OK being lifted up. 

Angela [00:17:59] So this whole time there was a horse actor learning how to get comfortable in water and being suspended in a harness from a crane. 

Jenna [00:18:11] Yeah, that horse was prepping. 

Angela [00:18:12] Oh, bless its heart. 

Jenna [00:18:13] Yes. Then Randy had to find a stunt double for Rainn because obviously Rainn did not want to ride a horse into a tank of rushing water and jump off of it. So they had to find a special stunt double for Rainn. But he said they still needed close ups of Rainn’s face, so they were going to have to do that facial replacement effect. 

Angela [00:18:35] Oh my gosh. 

Jenna [00:18:37] Where they replace the stunt man’s face with Rainn’s face. All right. In the end, Randy estimated that this two-part episode with the church and the hotel and the Niagara and the cast and the extras and animals and all the horse stuff, it was going to be about a million dollars more than our usual budget. 

Angela [00:18:59] Oh my gosh. 

Jenna [00:19:01] And NBC said you can only have half that. And he was like, I can’t do it all. Oh, on top of that, I forgot to tell you. Allison Jones told him, David Denman is not available. He’s shooting a movie in New Orleans. They will not let him leave. So they were also like trying to fight with this movie company to get David Denman out for a day so he could ride this horse into the church. Do you realize how happy Randy was when this gag got pulled? 

Angela [00:19:29] He must have like done a cartwheel down the hallway, like, I can’t even imagine. 

Jenna [00:19:34] It did not matter, all of the time wasted prepping this. He was so relieved because he said that freed up the budget so that he could get John and I to Niagra to actually shoot on Maid of the Mist, which was what he wanted more than anything. And so he went back to NBC and he said, Listen, if you had the budget for this horse business, you’ve got the budget to take these two and let them get married as they should on the boat with the real falls behind them. 

Angela [00:20:05] So this whole storyline gave him leverage, as it turns out, with NBC. 

Jenna [00:20:12] Yes! Completely. So I hope y’all liked that because I was just like, Oh my gosh, all this time, all I was doing was like trying on different wedding gowns. And, you know, that was my prep. 

Angela [00:20:24] It just goes to show how hard our team at The Office was always working every week. Unbelievable. 

Jenna [00:20:32] All right. Let’s move on to fast fact number three, which I’m calling wedding buzz. Lady, the Jim/ Pam wedding was such a crazy pop culture event. It was such a trip to be a part of it. Entertainment Weekly called and asked John and I to do a cover shoot. The cover of Entertainment Weekly. 

Angela [00:20:53] So fun. I remember those photos. They were so cute. 

Jenna [00:20:57] They had us in wedding attire. We’re like smashing cake on one another’s faces. It was crazy. Like when I was growing up, there was the General Hospital, the soap opera. 

Angela [00:21:09] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:21:11] Luke and Laura were finally going to get married, and it was like on the news, Luke and Laura from General Hospital. They’re getting together. That’s what this was like. This was like Jim and Pam were everywhere. 

Angela [00:21:24] You guys really were. And Jenna, when we were researching this episode, guess what I found? 

Jenna [00:21:28] What? 

Angela [00:21:30] I found on YouTube video they filmed while you and John were doing your photos for Entertainment Weekly. 

Jenna [00:21:37] Oh my gosh. 

Jenna Flashback [00:21:39] Is there anything we can say that is- that we’re not supposed to say? Can we tease anything? Something. 

John Krasinski [00:21:43] Jenna’s pregnant in real life because she’s helping the- oh, you mean about the show things I shouldn’t tell? Oh God. 

Jenna Flashback [00:21:50] John. 

John Krasinski [00:21:51] Oh man. 

Jenna Flashback [00:21:52] Gosh. 

John Krasinski [00:21:53] You’re not even showing yet. 

Jenna Flashback [00:21:54] No, I am. I’m wearing a really tight corset for this photo shoot. It’s my big secret, which is um-

John Krasinski [00:22:00] You’re that method of an actor. 

Jenna Flashback [00:22:01] Yeah. I’m that method of an actor. I’m also getting married. 

John Krasinski [00:22:04] But that was an internet dating situation. 

Jenna Flashback [00:22:07] I put out an ad. 

John Krasinski [00:22:09] As soon as she found out Pam was having a baby, she said, Who wants this? Which I thought was a little crass. 

Jenna Flashback [00:22:14] No, that was, who wants this? That was my-. 

John Krasinski [00:22:17] Who wants this? And then it showed you holding a baby. And a lot of dudes responded. 

Jenna Flashback [00:22:24] Yeah. I’ll say Kevin goes through quite an ordeal at our wedding. How about that? And Andy as well.

John Krasinski [00:22:31]  I’d say that Michael’s dating life has expanded beyond our wildest dreams. 

Jenna Flashback [00:22:36] That is very true. 

John Krasinski [00:22:38] Very true. 

Jenna Flashback [00:22:38] That’s a good one. 

John Krasinski [00:22:39] That’s a good one. It’s a good teasing. A tease. 

Jenna Flashback [00:22:42] Very good tease. 

John Krasinski [00:22:43] Teasing. I dont’ know that this is but. 

Jenna Flashback [00:22:45] That’s what you do when you tease. 

John Krasinski [00:22:49] Nice. 

Jenna [00:22:49] Aw, listen to that banter. 

Angela [00:22:51] I know I’m going to put it in stories because it’s so cute. You guys look so cute. 

Jenna [00:22:55] Well, it’s very funny to me because that is totally a representation of our personalities whenever we be interviewed, which is that John is just making wisecracks. And I’m like Midwesternly earnestly trying to answer the reporter’s question. Because the reporter had said, like, Is there anything you can tell us about this episode? And I’m like, Must answer question. And John’s just like having fun, and it’s so funny. That’s always how we were in interviews. 

Angela [00:23:23] And also, both of you had in your brain that you actually can’t say anything cuz Greg would have told you guys do not say a word about any major storyline. 

Jenna [00:23:32] I know. And so like John was so quick witted he could come up with a bunch of jokes on the spot. And I’m just like in my brain being like, What can I say? Is there something I can say?

Angela [00:23:41] Must compute. I also wanted to share that Joya Balfour, who worked at NBC Digital, once again came through for us here at Office Ladies because she shared with me, Jenna, that NBC had built a whole wedding website for Jim and Pam. You probably remember that. 

Jenna [00:23:57] Oh, I remember it because they created like a registry tab. And as a joke, they had like two household items that they said were fulfilled and then they had like a fancy sports car. 

Angela [00:24:11] Yeah. So the original website was called HalpertBeasley.com. That is no longer active, but Joya did send me all the archived images that they had for the website. I’m going to post it all in our stories. There was even a guestbook entry and Joya shared with us that the writers from the show, they are the ones that did all of the copy, all of the messaging on the website. But I wanted to read you a few of the website guestbook entries. 

Jenna [00:24:41] Oh, I love it. 

Angela [00:24:43] Congrats, you guys. Good to see Pam taking my sloppy seconds. Just kidding. Hehe. Guess who wrote that? 

Jenna [00:24:51] I believe that’s Meredith. 

Angela [00:24:54] That’s right, Meredith Palmer. You’re so lucky, Pam. Jim is going to be a very handsome groom. You’re very, very lucky. Any guesses? 

Jenna [00:25:07] OK, I think that would either be Kelly or Phyllis. 

Angela [00:25:12] Phyllis! OK, ready? I can’t believe you’re getting married before I am. I mean, I guess it makes sense. You are older. Congratulations! 

Jenna [00:25:22] Kelly. That’s Kelly. 

Angela [00:25:24] That’s right. Congratulations, what color dress are you going to wear down the aisle? 

Jenna [00:25:30] OK. That’s Angela. 

Angela [00:25:31] That’s right. OK. Some people think that buffets are cheap, but I actually prefer them over the small portions of a fancy sit down dinner. 

Jenna [00:25:43] Oh, I don’t know that one. Someone who’s into food, but that feels like um is that like uh… I don’t know.

Angela [00:25:52] That is Kevin. 

Jenna [00:25:54] Oh, Kevin. 

Angela [00:25:56] OK, one more. One more. 

Jenna [00:25:58] That could have been Creed. I feel like that could have been Creed. 

Angela [00:26:01] Food related could have been Creed. It also could have been Oscar because he’s kind of frugal, right? 

Jenna [00:26:06] True. True. 

Angela [00:26:07] All right. Here’s the last one. Pam, you are like a daughter to me, and Jim is like a son. I’m so proud that my son and daughter are to be wed. Tis a thing of beauty. Glory be! 

Jenna [00:26:20] I think that’s Michael Scott. 

Angela [00:26:21] That’s right. 

Jenna [00:26:23] Aw. 

Angela [00:26:23] You did really good. 

Jenna [00:26:25] I did. I know my wedding guests I guess. 

Angela [00:26:28] You really do. 

Jenna [00:26:30] Well, listen, lady, I think we should take a break and then we will really get into this part two of Niagara. I’ve got a lot of cool stuff, I think. 

Angela [00:26:38] Let’s do it. 

Jenna [00:26:42] We are back and we open with Andy writhing in pain in her hotel room because Pam’s the only sober person who can take him to the hospital for his torn scrotum. 

Angela [00:26:56] Yeah, she tries to call Jim to help her, but he’s clearly drunky Jim. Jenna, this was a much bigger storyline that would have really shown Jim’s night and where he was at. In fact, there was a talking head where he explained their night of drinking, and I think you need to hear it. 

Jenna [00:27:15] What? 

Angela [00:27:16] Yeah. In deleted scenes. Let’s hear it. 

Jim [00:27:19] Bunch of us decided to go over the border to Canada for one quick drink. So I’m in a car with Michael and Dwight. When we get to the border, Dwight refuses to relinquish his sidearm, so 40 minutes later, here we are. 

Jenna [00:27:34] Wow. 

Angela [00:27:35] Yeah, Greg said in the commentary there were more scenes of the guys night out. That they even like, get Oscar in and they’re going to go to a club, like it was a whole thing. But it ended up just being the scenes you see in the episode. 

Jenna [00:27:47] Oh, wow. Well, Pam does end up driving Andy to the hospital, and Angela, I just want to point out Pam’s glasses that she’s wearing. I thought this was a great callback to the fact that she wears glasses at all. And remember, we had the episode where she wears her backup glasses to work. 

Angela [00:28:06] Mm-Hmm. 

Jenna [00:28:07] But I think my question is, are these glasses better than her backup glasses? 

Angela [00:28:14]  I thought she was cute. Greg said in the commentary, this was like a big thing for Greg. He really, really wanted Pam when she wasn’t at work or somewhere out and about, that she wore glasses. And whenever you could see Pam with her glasses, Greg just loved it. 

Jenna [00:28:30] It’s so funny. I loved wearing them. Now I have to wear glasses all the time, but it was fun. 

Angela [00:28:36] I loved the scene between Andy and Pam. I thought it was hilarious when he was like, I was kind of doing your job, so… And she goes, My job? My job is to get married in the morning. That’s my job. Veda shared in the commentary that there were a lot of alternate takes where you guys didn’t reference balls and scrotums so much. But that you ultimately used most of the references. And then Randy and her talked about the fact that our show pushed the standards and practices limit almost weekly. So I counted, Jenna. 

Jenna [00:29:09] Oh my gosh. 

Angela [00:29:10] In this episode, we say scrotum five times, balls one time, and penis one time. 

Jenna [00:29:17] That’s not very many. 

Angela [00:29:18] I know, I was like, That’s not that bad. It’s not as bad as when Phyllis got flashed. 

Jenna [00:29:23] No. Well, ultimately, Andy is going to spend the night in Pam’s room on her floor, and Michael is going to spend the night in the vending machine area. 

Angela [00:29:34] Because Dwight has a lady, there’s a sock on the doorknob. 

Jenna [00:29:37] Location alert. If you can call it a location. That vending machine area was actually an unused office at the hotel. And Michael Gallenberg’s team had to dress it to look like like an ice machine vending machine nook. Here’s my question: where do you get an ice machine? Like a hotel ice machine? Like, who do you call? Where? What is that? How do you do that? 

Angela [00:30:05] I’ll tell you what. If anyone knows where to get an industrial sized ice machine, it’s our team at The Office. 

Jenna [00:30:11] Clearly, oh, I want to say I do believe that’s filled with fakey ice. 

Angela [00:30:17] Oh, it was. They said that on the commentary. It’s fakey ice. 

Jenna [00:30:20] Yeah. Well, now we’re coming up on one of my favorite scenes in this whole episode. 

Angela [00:30:26] Is it Kevin at the front desk? 

Jenna [00:30:28] Yes. 

Angela [00:30:29] Did you notice- and I know this was just Brian being Brian- how hard he hit that little ding bell? It scared the crap out of those ladies. 

Jenna [00:30:40] Kevin is looking for his shoes. He left them outside his hotel room to be polished. But the hotel manager, the amazing Nicholas Schaefer, who plays the hotel manager. 

Angela [00:30:52] He’s so good. 

Jenna [00:30:53] Informs Kevin that they were so smelly that they made the decision to incinerate them. 

Angela [00:31:00] It was a safety issue, Jenna. It was a safety issue. 

Jenna [00:31:02] That’s right. 

Angela [00:31:02]  The only thing missing to me in this scene is Angela Martin in the background smiling ear to ear feeling so affirmed. She’s been talking about Kevin’s smelly feet for years. 

Jenna [00:31:15] Oh, Angela is delighted. She is so happy. 

Angela [00:31:19] Somewhere, she’s so happy. 

Jenna [00:31:21] Well, the idea that they were going to have to burn Kevin’s shoes because they were so smelly was our writer, Charlie Grandy. And my friend Michelle Gunn, who played the front desk clerk, she told me that she improvised the line, We can offer you a complimentary breakfast. But get this, Angela, do you know how she got the idea to improvise that line? 

Angela [00:31:45] No. 

Jenna [00:31:45] This is very similar to how you created Sprinkles. She was doodling on a post-it note at the front desk as a bit of business, and she was writing “comp breakfasts to room” on the Post-it note and she said on one of the takes Paul Feig just let the camera keep rolling for a really long time after the manager 

Angela [00:32:10] That’s what they would do on our show. 

Jenna [00:32:12] Yes. So after the manager told Kevin that they burned his shoes, there was just this very long pause. And so Michelle saw her sticky note and said, We can offer you a complimentary breakfast. And then Brian improvised, OK. And she said it felt so good to be a guest actor on the show and get to contribute in such a fun way. She said our show was really special like that because she’s been on other things. And she was like, you know, at this point, she had done several scenes and she had been working with Paul Feig now for a couple of days, and she was like, I don’t know, I feel like this would be OK. 

Angela [00:32:53] I just love that. That just goes to show again how our show was so welcoming and such a creative collaboration. And I love it. Well, the next scene is Dwight wrapping things up with Isabel. She slept over in his room. Michael is waiting out the hallway. This made me laugh so hard, Jenna. I got so tickled. As he walks up, Michael says, It’s about damn time. I haven’t gone to the bathroom in a day and a half. 

Jenna [00:33:19] I know. I thought the same thing. I was like, You’ve been around a lot of restrooms. I mean, surely there’s one off the lobby. 

Angela [00:33:27] I think it meant he hadn’t gone gone. Do you know what I mean? 

Jenna [00:33:30] Oh, he hasn’t. Oh yeah. 

Angela [00:33:33] Yeah. He hasn’t gone number two. 

Jenna [00:33:34] Right. He hasn’t had a private space. 

Angela [00:33:37] He hasn’t. And that just cracks me up. He’s so grumpy about it. They then go to breakfast and Michael is so disgusted. Look at how Steve looks at Rainn as Dwight. It is so funny. Dwight is just shoveling all this food in his mouth. They shared in the DVD commentary that Phil Shea had like 100 pancakes ready to go. Because you know how Rainn was in those scenes as Dwight? 

Jenna [00:34:00] He eats. 

Angela [00:34:01] He was going to destroy it. 

Jenna [00:34:03] Yeah. Like he would eat a lot. That was part of his like character thing. Remember when he ate all those bananas, then he got sick? 

Angela [00:34:10] I do. But then they just sort of made it part of who Dwight was. Dwight even says he’s ravenous after a night of lovemaking. What about you? And then this is when we hear about Michael’s European girlfriend. 

Jenna [00:34:23] Yeah, exactly. I have some news. It’s time to go to the church. And I’ve got a location alert. If you are interested in getting married somewhere in Sherman Oaks, California, and you need doors big enough to fit a horse, you can head on over to the Church of the Chimes on Magnolia Boulevard. We shot at this church on two different Saturdays. I mentioned last week we had to shoot on Saturdays because that was the only day that we could get every single guest star together in the same room at the same time. The little ready room that I get ready with with my bridesmaids and my mom? That was one of the Sunday school classrooms at the church, and they just kind of redressed it to look like a bride’s ready room. And I don’t know if you remember this about the location. We kind of talked about this with Greg. We didn’t have trailers on site, so we just all kind of hung around on that patio and we talked about how Ed and Creed were playing music. 

Angela [00:35:26] Yeah. Ed brought his banjo. I think Creed had his mandolin. They had a little jam session and there was that grassy area. You see it in a few shots from the church scenes. And we just hung out there. It was really fun and it’s one of my fondest memories of the whole run of the show. 

Jenna [00:35:43] Now do you remember when the paparazzi showed up? 

Angela [00:35:47] Oh, yeah, I do. 

Jenna [00:35:49] Yeah. They were trying to take pictures of me and John in our wedding outfits. 

Angela [00:35:55] Yeah, they did. You know, the church is on a kind of a busy corner, and Randy talked about it that it was hard to make it private because it was on the corner of an intersection. So guess what, Jenna? They shared on the commentary, and you probably remember this, that you and Paul Lieberstein decided to stage a photo. 

Jenna [00:36:15] Yes! Oh my gosh. Yes, I remember that. Yeah, we thought, What if we do like a fakey- we are going to pretend like we were shooting a scene and we were going to have me and Paul dressed as Toby, run out of the church holding hands as if we had gotten married or as if he was stealing me from the wedding. We even had the camera guys pretend to shoot us, so it would look like we were shooting. And we wanted the paparazzi to take pictures of that so they wouldn’t get a real spoiler. 

Angela [00:36:51] Well, they did. You guys clearly ran out the front doors and you hugged. There’s like an embrace. I found the paparazzi photo that ended up in a tabloid. 

Jenna [00:37:01] No. 

Angela [00:37:01] Yes, I did. I’ll put it in stories. Fakey photo of Pam and Toby hugging. And it’s really funny, Jenna, because on the internet, people were like, I’m sorry, why? Why is Pam in a wedding dress? Why is she hugging Toby? What’s happening? 

Jenna [00:37:15] Oh my gosh, that is so funny. I did not remember that part. I did not remember that it worked. 

Angela [00:37:21] It did. At the church everyone is arriving. Phyllis’ outfit is amazing. 

Jenna [00:37:28] Giant hat. Many feathers. 

Angela [00:37:31] I mean, it’s a whole like pink suit hat the whole thing. Mindy, I guess, had really wanted the character of Phyllis to go all out. Like she wanted a huge like fashion statement outfit as if she was going to one of those big southern weddings. 

Jenna [00:37:46] Well, speaking of going all out, Kevin shows up with his hairpiece, but then he doesn’t have a shoes, and this is where we see that he has made shoes out of a couple of tissue boxes. 

Angela [00:38:00] When he walks in and sits down next to Oscar and Angela, Jenna, we had so much fun in this scene. It is such a small moment, but I want you to know it was so delicious when my character looks over at him and goes, Oh my God. And then Oscar looks at him. We just had a blast. 

Jenna [00:38:20] We got a fan question from Amy A in Louisiana, Who came up with the idea for Kevin to wear tissue boxes to replace his shoes? And what were they made of? How did they make them, basically? So it was Greg who came up with the idea of Kevin using the tissue boxes, and they were constructed using extra large Kleenex boxes. And Randy Cordray said that’s an actual thing. This was not a fakey construction. They just bought giant tissue boxes. 

Angela [00:38:53] Where do you buy tissue boxes that big? 

Jenna [00:38:55] I don’t know that, but they were fitted with flip flops inside. So that’s how they stayed on Bryan’s feet. He said we had to make about 10 pairs of them because they did get beat up pretty quickly. 

Angela [00:39:13] Now you’re going to see a bunch of little vignette scenes of everybody at the church. Michael has a talking head where he shares what he got Jim and Pam as their wedding gift. 

Jenna [00:39:22] It’s… It’s… Um, I am at a loss of words. It’s-

Angela [00:39:27] It’s a it’s a painting. 

Jenna [00:39:29] He made it himself. 

Angela [00:39:31] He did it from memory. Right. He also has another version of this painting where they’re nude. He’s keeping that for himself. 

Jenna [00:39:39] Right. 

Angela [00:39:39] Awesome. What? But here’s a little tidbit. If you go to seven minutes, 35 seconds during this talking head, you’ll notice that the stained glass window behind him is totally dark. There’s no light coming through it, but he’s lit up so bright. It’s because you guys, we filmed this at night, but it was made to look like daytime. But you can’t hide the stained glass, so if you look at the stained glass, there’s no light coming through it. 

Jenna [00:40:06] Wow. We got a fan question from Molly S in Bentonville, Arkansas, who is asking who painted Michael’s portrait of Jim and Pam? Well, it was created by an outside artist. Steve did not paint that. This was commissioned by Phil Shea and it was actually the same artist that made the clown painting that hung in Jim’s childhood home. 

Angela [00:40:30] Oh, really? 

Jenna [00:40:32] Yes, Randy said. He is really bummed because he looked through all of his records and he cannot find the artist’s name. So again, if you know the person or if you are the person who painted the clown painting and painted this portrait of Jim and Pam, we would love to hear from you. Randy also shared with me that there were 10 different versions of this painting that were made. All different. And then Greg picked this one. And after we used it in this episode, Greg hung it in his office until the end of the series, and now it hangs in his home office. 

Angela [00:41:09] Yes. 

Jenna [00:41:10] So Greg has it. 

Angela [00:41:12] I loved all the scenes between Pam and her mom and her sister. They felt so real. I mean, clearly, Pam’s mom is going through a thing. She’s like, You don’t have to go through with this. And then her sister’s like, Mom, you’re being a drag, you’re projecting. But it just felt so honest. 

Jenna [00:41:28] I know. And then her friend is like, You know what, if you’re good, I’m just going to go out and I’m just going to try to find Dwight. And Pam’s like, wait, what? 

Angela [00:41:39] Yeah Pam’s like, OK, wait, what? And then chases kind of after her to stop her and her veil gets caught on like like a door hinge thing. 

Jenna [00:41:48] Yes, we got a fan question about that. Rebecca R from Sydney, Australia said, How many veils did you go through? I just love a deep dive on these kinds of costuming things. 

Angela [00:42:00] Rebecca, so do we. 

Jenna [00:42:02] Well, I can tell you this was very complicated. Probably more complicated than I expected it to be even as the actor. 

Angela [00:42:10] It really was, they shared all the commentary that this was a three piece gag. OK, first of all, you have the moment before the tear with the veil, then you have the actual tear, then you have the after tear. So to create these three beats they had to use fishing line, special effects, a hook like thing on the door to snag the veil. It was weeks of figuring it out and timing it. Kelly Cantley, our assistant director, had to wear the veil twice as they tested it out. And they said Jenna, they were really thankful because you really sold it. You really played out that your head was sort of tugged in a different direction as you were moving the other way. 

Jenna [00:42:54] Yeah, it was crazy. We filmed the whole scene and I like didn’t tear my veil at all. And then they actually connected me to the thing, like-. 

Angela [00:43:05] The fishing line. 

Jenna [00:43:06] And the hook. So like, I’m connected to it, but I’m pretending like I’m not. And then they sort of like, pull the thing and I pull my head. And sometimes the veil wouldn’t tear. So then we had to do like what Randy said a third time where they replaced my good veil that wouldn’t tear with a torn veil to get like the after effect of the torn veil. It was a whole thing. It looks seamless and it’s sort of amazing how much effort it took to get that little moment. You know, we also got a fan question from Emily K in Hugo, Minnesota. She’s sort of asking me this question. Jenna, is the dress that Pam wore the style you would have picked out for her? I’m curious if there’s anything you’d change about her look for the big day. And how many meetings went down about what you would look like? Oh, Emily. So many things. 

Angela [00:44:01] So many meetings, Emily, so many. 

Jenna [00:44:04] So many. So originally, Alicia Raycraft, our wardrobe designer, and I, we had a little meeting and we were going to have her design Pam a wedding dress because Alicia is an amazing designer. But then we realized that Pam could never afford a custom wedding dress. So we stayed with the rule that our characters can only wear what they can afford to wear. So what we realized was that Pam would do what most brides would do. So Alicia and I went to David’s Bridal. And we had a budget because, you know, the consultant is always like, What’s your budget? We gave her a budget. She pulled a bunch of dresses, and I absolutely loved this one. I mean, I thought it was perfect for Pam. We really tried to approach it like the character would approach it. You know, she had this pregnancy that she’s trying to hide, also that she has to make room for. So we got like a-line dresses with a princess cut, and this had that little extra bit of like, what do you call that tulle or whatever in the front? 

Angela [00:45:12] Yeah. Like fabric to hide what you need to hide? 

Jenna [00:45:15] Yes, we were like, This is perfect. I tried the dresses on with my little pregnancy bump belly. And then I actually contributed something to Pam’s wedding outfit, which is her wedding necklace. There’s a really good shot of it at eight minutes and 14 seconds in this scene. I had gone to like a jewelry art show. You know, those? Like an art fair? And they sell jewelry and art and things. 

Angela [00:45:40] Are you kidding? I love an art fair in the park. Get out of town. 

Jenna [00:45:44] Yeah. And this woman was selling jewelry, and I loved this necklace and it was made out of these crystals and it had a meaning behind it where it was supposed to bring you like peace and good luck. And when I saw it, I was kind of like, would Pam wear this on her wedding day? And so I brought it into Alicia, and she approved it and the producers approved it. And then we bought two necklaces and I kept one. 

Angela [00:46:10] Oh that’s so sweet. 

Jenna [00:46:12] Because, you know, we always have to have a double. So, yeah, that’s the story behind Pam’s wedding dress. 

Angela [00:46:18] Well, I think we should take a break because when we come back, Jim and Pam are going to run off. 

Jenna [00:46:24] I know. It’s true. And we’ll have a lot to say about that. All right, we’re back, and Pam calls Jim on the phone, and she’s like, Will you come meet me in my dressing room? And he’s kind of like, Is that allowed? Is that OK? She’s like, I’m allowing it. You know, Lady, I got curious about this as this happens about this tradition of not seeing the bride before the wedding. 

Angela [00:46:55] Yeah. Did you look it up? 

Jenna [00:46:57] I did. It’s totally sexist. Do you want to hear it? 

Angela [00:47:02] Is it because there were arranged marriages and they didn’t want guys to bail if they didn’t find the person attractive? 

Jenna [00:47:08] That’s 100 percent right. 

Angela [00:47:09] That was just a guess. 

Jenna [00:47:11] Yes. 

Angela [00:47:12] I think that’s also why women had to wear a veil. 

Jenna [00:47:14] Yes. And that’s why you didn’t lift the veil until after they said you were married. OK. They also, like made up the whole like, you know what? We got it. We got it. It’s bad luck to see her before the wedding. It’s bad luck. It was just like it’s totally made up. So anyway, everyone who’s been worried about seeing your bride or groom before the wedding or being afraid that you’ve created some sort of bad luck, you’re off the hook. You’re fine. You can go ahead and take those pictures before the ceremony. 

Angela [00:47:49] It’s OK. 

Jenna [00:47:51] We also got a fan question about this little scene, Angela, because Jim is playing soccer. And Karen K from Pennsylvania would like to know, did Charles Miner’s soccer obsession rub off on Jim? Because I was very surprised to see him playing soccer with the little boy on his wedding day? 

Angela [00:48:11] I thought this was such a sweet scene, and Greg shared with us that Mindy really loves romantic comedies, and she wanted this moment. She wanted Jim in the courtyard with like a young wedding guest kicking the soccer ball around. You know, sort of that pre-wedding nerves and he’s out there just hanging out, and it was really important to Mindy. She wanted this moment. 

Jenna [00:48:32] Well, lady, when Jim gets to Pam’s room, she’s totally crying. Like she tore her veil. She thinks she looks terrible because she got no sleep. She’s five months pregnant. 

Angela [00:48:42] She knows way too much about Andy’s scrotum. 

Jenna [00:48:45] Yes, she feels like, I don’t know, this day is just not going how she wanted. I remember I had to really work myself up because I wanted this emotion to feel really genuine. And I mean, we filmed the scene so many times. I feel like I was crying for like two hours. It was like I had a headache afterwards. Like, it was really intense day of acting for me. 

Angela [00:49:11] This scene is so beautiful. I thought you and John both crushed it. 

Jenna [00:49:15] Well, it’s in this scene where Jim is going to try to make things better by cutting his tie to kind of prove to Pam that this day can be perfect without everything being perfect. 

Angela [00:49:29] Right. It doesn’t matter about the tie, doesn’t matter about the veil. It just matters they’re getting married. 

Jenna [00:49:34] And Greg shared in his interview that this was based on a kind of real life event of a friend of his. It’s really sweet. And like I said earlier, we did a lot of takes of this. We wanted to get it just right. We ended up doing like seven takes of the scene, but we ran out of ties. We didn’t have a ton of ties, Angela. And so what we did was John would snip just the bottom of the tie. And then on the next take, he would go more to the middle. 

Angela [00:50:05] Go a little higher? So he just kept climbing up the tie. 

Jenna [00:50:10] Yes. And if you look at 10 minutes, six seconds, you can see that the bottom of his tie is already cut off. It goes by really fast. But if you pause it, you can tell. 

Angela [00:50:24] Well, they decide to kind of elope in the middle of their wedding day. 

Jenna [00:50:28] They run off. It’s a beautiful shot. 

Angela [00:50:30] Beautiful shot. Greg said in the commentary that’s a nod to the movie The Graduate. 

Jenna [00:50:35] I can see it. 

Angela [00:50:36] And of course, right behind them is Meredith smoking a cigar. 

Jenna [00:50:40] Yes. Now everyone is inside the church and they’re just waiting. The ceremony isn’t starting. Everyone has opinions. 

Angela [00:50:49] There are so many little vignettes here. Little different clumping of people being chatty, being snarky. Wondering where Jim and Pam are. 

Jenna [00:50:59] The cutest, I think is Michael, who is very hungry, asks Pam’s mom for a snack. 

Angela [00:51:05] Well, there are a few I want to point out. Number one, at 13 minutes, nine seconds, when Dwight walks up to a sleeping Toby, he’s laying down, you know, in the church pew. Did you notice it looks like Toby is in a coffin the way it’s framed at the top? 

Jenna [00:51:20] I did not. Was that on purpose? 

Angela [00:51:22] I noticed that. And then when I listened to the commentary, that was on purpose. Paul Feig said that. So if you go back and look, I’ll put it in stories, it cracked me up. Also, there were more, Jenna. There were way more scenes while we all waited for Jim and Pam. Did you know that Angela tells a joke to Oscar and Kevin? 

Jenna [00:51:42] No! 

Angela [00:51:44] Oh yeah. She thinks she’s real funny, and she even talks about her inspiration for comedy. We have to hear it. 

Angela Martin [00:51:51] Wait, do you two want to sit next to each other? 

Kevin [00:51:56] Wait, was that you trying to be funny? 

Angela Martin [00:51:59] I saw the funniest comedian one morning. Her name is Kelly Ripa. She’s unrestrained. She will say anything. 

Jenna [00:52:07] Oh my gosh. Angela is a huge Kelly Ripa fan. Who knew? 

Angela [00:52:11] She’s a huge Kelly Ripa fan. And when, like, they had me talk about her at the end, they wanted me to laugh and then just wave the camera off like, I’m so tickled I can’t even talk anymore. 

Jenna [00:52:23] Oh, my gosh. I love that. 

Angela [00:52:26] I completely forgot that I had done that talking head. 

Jenna [00:52:30] Well, Pam and Jim are just going to arrive back at the church. They’re blissful. Pam’s veil is nowhere to be found. Her hair is up now. We’re going to start the wedding processional. 

Angela [00:52:42] That’s right. But all of a sudden, Jim’s brother looks to the back pew in the church where Michael’s seated. Michael gives him a nod. Jim’s brother then signals to the organ player to stop. Then Jim’s brother signals Dwight to get up. Dwight goes over to an iPod shuffle it looks like? Some kind of device like that. And hits play. 

Jenna [00:53:05] Yes. And now we are going to see all of Jim and Pam’s family and all of their coworkers from Dunder Mifflin dance down the aisle to Chris Brown’s song Forever. That is going to be intercut with footage of them getting married on the Maid of the Mist. We have this big, beautiful wedding montage. It’s so joyous. Let’s start by breaking down this dance number. 

Angela [00:53:30] Let’s do it. 

Jenna [00:53:32] This was the idea that they had to replace the horse, and I am so glad they did, because this is so cute. This dance was a remake of a viral YouTube video. This couple, Jill and Kevin, danced down the aisle at their real wedding along with their wedding party. And our writers saw it and they thought, This is what we should do. We should redo this dance video because they thought Michael would see this, and this would be something he would think is super cool to recreate. And I guess in real life, couples were recreating this viral video at their weddings. 

Angela [00:54:13] Oh yeah. Everybody knew about this video. Everyone had seen it. It never fails to make me smile. And Greg shared in the commentary that the cast in particular, really wanted to end on an up note for Jim and Pam. We wanted it to be a happy day. They had had so many things thrown their way, and this joyous moment really checked everyone’s boxes. 

Jenna [00:54:39] I found the original website for this wedding dance and the real couple. The woman, Jill, is now a forensic psychologist and associate professor of criminal justice. Her husband, Kevin, is an immigration attorney who owns his own firm in St. Paul, Minnesota. Their video has over 100 million views. They have a whole website dedicated to their video, and they said that when they did it on their wedding day, it was a total surprise to everyone in the church. The pastor knew, but no one else knew, and they only posted it on YouTube because they wanted to share it with the friends and family who couldn’t come to the wedding. They did not, like, intend for this to be shared widely. 

Angela [00:55:26] It was also during a time on the internet and YouTube in particular, before we understood how things could quote unquote go viral. 

Jenna [00:55:33] Yes, they said. Within 48 hours of posting their video, they were flying to New York to be on the Today show. That it was just a total wild ride. They also said that they had no idea that we were going to recreate it on The Office, and Randy Cordray said we did not like call them or tell them. They said they just saw it on TV. They said they nearly passed out when they saw the episode. They were fans of The Office. But after the episode aired, we did send them a big photo of the cast dancing down the aisle that we all autographed. And Jill has it in her office at work today, and I think the coolest thing about this couple, I have to say, you know, they’re still married. They have three kids now, two boys and a girl. And they used the popularity of this video to raise over $70000 for charity. And so if you go to their website, they have a place where you can donate. So we’re going to post all that because they are a pretty cool couple. 

Angela [00:56:37] They really are. We tried to find you guys. We tried to reach out. We wanted to talk to you today. 

Jenna [00:56:43] We sent you an email through your website. 

Angela [00:56:46] We did. 

Jenna [00:56:47] Maybe don’t check it that often, but we’re in there. 

Angela [00:56:49] We’re in there. We just wanted to say thank you for sharing such a special part of your wedding that brings joy to so many people, including Office fans. Paul Feig shared that the background performers that filled out the rest of everyone attending the wedding, you know the attendants in all the different pews, they were having so much fun watching us. He didn’t even give direction. It was just pure joy. They were laughing and cheering, and he just let everyone’s natural reactions play out. Veda shared that her and Paul Feig both began to cry when they watched us all dance down the aisle because there was just so much love and happiness in that moment. I feel it whenever we watch it. 

Jenna [00:57:31] You know, I have to say I was really bummed because Pam is at the back of the church the whole time. So I did not really get to see that until it aired. I could just see you guys from behind so I couldn’t see your faces. And I remember thinking, John is so lucky that he’s at the front of the church. 

Angela [00:57:52] Oh, I never thought about that lady. I remember standing back there with you before it was my turn. 

Jenna [00:57:58] Yeah, yeah. 

Angela [00:58:00] Well, Maryann Kellogg, who choreographed Cafe Disco, also helped choreograph the dancing down the aisle. Parts of it were choreographed and part was like freestyle, you know? A little bit of a combination. I remember talking to Paul Feig about Angela Martin, and we both sort of felt like she wouldn’t dance in a church. But yet she would want to participate if everyone was participating. She wouldn’t just be sitting in a pew watching. So I said to him, what if Angela Martin walks down clutching her purse? Because I also don’t think she’d leave her purse unattended. 

Jenna [00:58:37] These are great details. 

Angela [00:58:37] Yeah. So he really liked that. And so that’s why Angela Martin just walks down the aisle looking at everyone, holding her purse. 

Jenna [00:58:45] We got a fan question from Payton H in Vermont who said, How many takes did you do to get this right? You guys, it was one take. Randy Cordray shared with us that because this was such a last-minute idea and we had so little time at the church, we only had enough time to do this dance scene twice. We could do two takes of it, but everybody nailed it on the first take. So we moved on. I was also in touch, lady, with Tug Coker, who plays one of Jim’s brothers, and he has a crazy story about doing this dance sequence. So here’s the thing: we did one full take like one running long take of this, but within that we did several takes of each bit. 

Angela [00:59:38] Right. We would reset really quickly, depending on who was in the aisle. 

Jenna [00:59:42] Yes. So Paul Feig, I guess, told Tug. Here’s what I want you to do. I want you to dance down the aisle and then once you’re off camera, run around the back outside of the church, through the courtyard, back to the front of the church and go down the aisle again. 

Angela [01:00:00] That’s right, we had to do that. You guys, as soon as we did our individual pass, then we had to run back so we could do the group pass. 

Jenna [01:00:07] So Tug said he did a couple of laps where he just danced individually down the aisle and then they would hold and he would run and he would do his individual dance down the aisle and then he would run. And he said, and then he also had to run to get into the group formation. He said, well, one of the times when he turned the corner from the courtyard, he slipped in his dress shoes and he just wiped out in front of the whole cast. He said he almost took down Ed Helms. 

Angela [01:00:35] Oh no. 

Jenna [01:00:36] He said he was in a lot of pain. He went to the doctor and found out he had badly sprained his wrist. He had to get a splint after we wrapped the episode. 

Angela [01:00:47] He must have been really hurting. 

Jenna [01:00:50] Yes. He said. He fell and he did that thing, you know, like where you’re like, I’m fine, I’m fine, I’ll just continue dancing down the aisle. But like, as soon as the take was over, he like, went to the doctor and he was really hurt. So when we got back in touch, he was like, Jenna Jenna. When you get to the Niagara episode, I’ve got a story. You got to hear this story. And listen, Lady Tug wasn’t the only person who wanted to tell us a story about dancing down the aisle at a wedding. We also got some fan mail from Kate S in Virginia. Here is what she said. I have been waiting for this episode to tell you ladies this great story. I was a bridesmaid in a wedding where the bride wanted us to dance into the reception like The Office crew danced down the aisle at Jim and Pam’s wedding. The other bridesmaids were not really into it, but being the Office lover I am, I knew this was my moment to shine. I started by walking like Phyllis. Then I broke into Oscar’s pivot. Then I wanted to do the infamous Dwight kick, but my foot slipped and I fell immediately forward. My face broke my fall. 

Angela [01:01:58] Oh no! 

Jenna [01:02:00] She said, I was so embarrassed. I jumped right up, ran to the dance floor behind everyone, and as soon as the bride and groom came out, I ran to the bathroom because my face was covered in blood and I was missing my front tooth. 

Angela [01:02:14] Oh my gosh! 

Jenna [01:02:16] But she said it was all for the love of The Office. 

Angela [01:02:20] Oh my gosh. 

Jenna [01:02:22] Kate, you waited so long to send us that piece of mail. I just had to read it. I am so sorry, but thank you. Thank you for sharing with us. 

Angela [01:02:31] Jenna I feel like Kate needs an Office Ladies coffee mug. I mean, she lost her tooth. 

Jenna [01:02:37] Yes. Yes! We have to send Kate a mug. 

Angela [01:02:41] Kate, we’re sending you a mug. Thank you for your love of The Office. Big hugs. Well, while all of this dancing is happening at the church, they cut back and forth between the church and Jim and Pam getting married on Made of the Mist. It just makes the whole moment that much more special. I loved it. 

Jenna [01:03:01] I know. Lady, let me tell you now about the Maid of the Mist. We kind of covered this a little bit with Greg, which is that we could only rent out the front of the boat. The rest of the boat was filled with paying customers. The other thing was that we were in no way allowed to change the course of the boat or the length of the boat ride. So before we went out, Randy and Randall and Paul Feig had all scouted this boat trip. They rode the boat over and over again to see exactly when they wanted Jim and Pam to exchange vows to have the falls in the background, how long we had before the boat would turn, everything. They sort of estimated that to cover it all, we would have to take eight boat trips. So they also realized that depending on the time of day, there would be spray coming off the falls. Like some times of day, or depending on the wind, you got more spray. So when you get on the boat, everybody wears those like blue parkas. They give them to you with your ticket. 

Angela [01:04:14] Right, right. Like the ones you get at Disneyland. 

Jenna [01:04:16] Exactly. 

Angela [01:04:16] When it’s raining, everyone has their poncho on. 

Jenna [01:04:19] Exactly. So they were like, OK, we’ll have them wear their little ponchos. They’ll take them off to go get the boat captain. That’s super cute. They had it all figured out. Randall was like, Listen, I am going to need to shoot on a film camera because the white falls are like really white. I’m not going to be able to color balance on a digital camera. That was like a whole extra thing, you know, to shoot on film instead of digital. But anyway, we were so limited in the number of people we could have in the front of the boat that Greg asked Randy Cordray, our line producer, to play the minister, the boat captain. So that’s who you see marrying Jim and Pam. And it warms my heart to see him. I just love it so much. 

Angela [01:05:04] I know. I do, too. It makes me so happy. 

Jenna [01:05:06] But we also had a bunch of family members of our cast and crew in the front of the boat with us. Greg Daniels’ assistant, Mary Wall, is from the area and her family volunteered to come ride the boat. 

Angela [01:05:20] That’s right. If you listen to the DVD commentary, Mary is pointing out, she’s like, That’s my cousin, that’s so-and-so. Like, her whole family was in it. 

Jenna [01:05:29] Also, Kelly Hannon, who was one of our writers assistants, her family rode the boat. And then the craziest thing was that Brian Baumgartner’s parents, Bruce and Sherry, happened to be on vacation in Rochester, New York, and they told Brian they were going to visit Niagara Falls the same day we were shooting. 

Angela [01:05:48] This is so crazy. They actually just had this planned unknowing that we were going to be there filming. 

Jenna [01:05:53] Yes. And Brian was like, Well, you should stop by the set. So he texted us and we were like, Oh my gosh. And then Paul Feig talked them into coming on the boat with us. They did not know what they were getting into. 

Angela [01:06:06] They are directly behind Jim and Pam as you guys walk on the boat. 

Jenna [01:06:11] Yes. So let me just say, as we get out there, they warned us, you might get a little wet. Lady. Lady. As we took our first trip to the falls, we’re getting closer. Little bit of spray. All of a sudden, like, I don’t even know what to call it, like a tidal wave of water, like sheets of water hit me. Similar to the water cannon that hit me when I was an extra on the Universal Studios Jurassic Park ride. Just like so much water. 

Angela [01:06:49] Kelly Cantley said on the DVD commentary, Jenna, it looked like someone took an enormous full giant tub of water and just doused you with it. She said they could not believe how drenched you got in a matter of seconds. You were drenched. 

Jenna [01:07:10] I will never forget John Krasinski’s face after whatever that was hit me. That spray hit me. He- I knew how wet I was because of how he was looking at me. And he sort of turned to them like, Are we? I mean, can how can? 

Angela [01:07:31] Can we continue? She looks like someone just tossed her over the side of the boat. 

Jenna [01:07:35] Yes, my makeup was running down my face, so they just shot us from behind and actually- for that trip. And you know that beautiful shot at the very end of the montage where my head is on John’s shoulder? That is because I could not turn around. 

Angela [01:07:53] Because you were so soaked.

Jenna [01:07:54] I was so soaked. So they brought us back to shore and they dried me off the best they could like on the side of the shore. They sent us back out again. The same thing happened again. They were like, Oh no, I don’t know what to do. I guess this is what we have. Finally, in the afternoon, we went out again, hoping, like, maybe, you know, like, it’ll be drier this time. And Randy got to talking to the real boat captain who was like, your actors got pretty drenched this morning. And Randy was like, Yes, yes, but you know, we were told that you cannot change course at all. So we’re going to deal with it. And the boat captain said, who said that? I’m the captain of this ship and I’m a huge fan of The Office. I’ll take you anywhere you want. 

Angela [01:08:45] What?! 

Jenna [01:08:45] And Randy was like, Wait, what? And he was like, That’s right. He goes, I just won’t get so close this time. 

Angela [01:08:51] So he, he, like, stopped the boat. So you were out of like the splash zone? 

Jenna [01:08:56] Yes. And that is how we ultimately were able to get a dry take. So crazy, right? 

Angela [01:09:03] Well, it all worked out because it’s such beautiful footage. 

Jenna [01:09:07] You know, there’s one thing that did not work out. 

Angela [01:09:09] What? 

Jenna [01:09:10] We got a fan question from April N in South Bend, Indiana, who noticed, What’s with the cheek kiss after the Maid of the Mist ceremony? Did you notice that on Maid of the Mist, John kisses me on my cheek and not my lips? 

Angela [01:09:25] Yeah, I do. And I was like, What’s uh why? Why don’t Jim and Pam want to kiss? Why? What’s happening? 

Jenna [01:09:30] I will tell you. John Krasinski had a terrible flu. Like, truly you guys. He was running a fever. Like, he showed up in hair and makeup that morning and he was like, you know how like, you’re all clammy and glassy eyed when you’re really sick? That was John. He was having a hard time keeping food down. 

Angela [01:09:53] Oh my gosh, and I’m sure you guys were like, We only have one day here. What do you do? You have to rally. 

Jenna [01:09:59] We had to shoot it. First of all, to John’s credit, you would never know he was sick. He was so amazing. He was such a trooper, but he was really, really worried about giving me his flu. And he was kind of like, I am not going to kiss her on the lips and give her this flu. That is terrible. I won’t do it. 

Angela [01:10:18] And I’m sure you were like, Thank you. 

Jenna [01:10:19] I was. I was like, OK, but we didn’t know, like, what are we going to do? So in editing, Claire had the idea that she would cut from the kind of fakey cheek kiss to a really good real kiss back at the church ceremony. And we just kind of hoped no one would notice. 

Angela [01:10:41] It’s true, though, because everyone is waiting for that magical kiss after they say, I do. And the church went in such a good one. This all leads to this beautiful talking head by Jim. Greg shared with us that he assigned the talking head to Danny Chun. It’s so lovely. I think we should hear it. 

Jim [01:11:00] I bought those boat tickets the day I saw that YouTube video. I knew we’d need a backup plan. The boat was actually plan C. The church was plan B. And plan A was marrying her a long, long time ago… Pretty much the day I met her. 

Angela [01:11:17] And Claire Scanlon, our editor, shared that she fought really hard to keep this talking head in. And she’s shared maybe if it would have been one of the guys, it might have gotten cut. Because everyone did think the wedding ended on such a high note. But she just loved this talking head, and I think it’s so great that it stayed in. 

Jenna [01:11:36] I get goose bumps every time. I just absolutely love it. 

Angela [01:11:41] And once again, our writers did that amazing thing they do where you go from this incredibly sweet moment to Kevin putting his feet in the ice machine at the hotel. 

Jenna [01:11:52] And then to Michael and Pam’s mom sneaking into a hotel room together. 

Angela [01:11:59] Yes! 

Jenna [01:11:59] What? 

Angela [01:11:59] What? And that is how Niagara ends, you guys. 

Jenna [01:12:05] Oh, wow, what fun rewatching this episode. Thank you once again to Greg Daniels. Thank you, Tug Coker, for your wonderful stories. 

Angela [01:12:15] Yes, and as always, Randy Cordray. Oh my goodness. Thank you for all the details you shared with us. And Joya Balfour for hooking us up with Jim and Pam’s amazing wedding website. 

Jenna [01:12:26] And be sure to check our Office Ladies Pod Instagram account because we’re going to be posting a bunch of fun stories to go with this episode. And if you listened to this a little late, just a reminder there is an Instagram account called Office Ladies Stories. And the woman who runs the account will go and save our stories for us. We are so grateful. 

Angela [01:12:50] Yes. And that’s it for Niagara. We’ll see you next week. We hope you have a great one. Love ya. 

Jenna [01:12:55] See you then! Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is produced by Earwolf, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. Our show is executive produced by Codi Fischer. Our producer is Cassi Jerkins, our sound engineer is Sam Kieffer, and our associate producer is Aynsley Bubbico. 

Angela [01:13:17] Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton. For Ad free versions of Office Ladies, go to Stitcher Premium dot com. For a free one month trial of Stitcher Premium, use code Office.