EP. 51 — Women’s Appreciation 

OFFICE-051-20201001-WomensAppreciation-SKv03.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 we’re best friends.

JENNA FISCHER [00:00:08] And now we’re doing the ultimate “Office” rewatch 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”. Hello.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:00:25] Hi there.

JENNA FISCHER [00:00:26] Today is “Women’s Appreciation”. Everyone start right now. Think of a woman you appreciate.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:00:33] Appreciate that lady.

JENNA FISCHER [00:00:35] Appreciate her. Maybe pause. Give her a text message. But appreciate a woman. Because Michael is going to appreciate women today.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:00:43] He knows the crap out of women. And he has-.

JENNA FISCHER [00:00:47] He does.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:00:47] He’s gonna appreciate them.

JENNA FISCHER [00:00:49] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:00:49] And I’m excited. I loved this episode. I loved filming this episode. I wrote about it in my journal.

JENNA FISCHER [00:00:56] Oh, lady, I can’t wait. This is Season 3, Episode 21, written by Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg, directed by Tucker Gates.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:01:06] Let’s get right to it.

JENNA FISCHER [00:01:08] After Phyllis is flashed in the parking lot, Michael decides to take the women to the mall to bond and unwind.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:01:16] The workplace was too masculine.

JENNA FISCHER [00:01:19] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:01:19] So he wanted to take them somewhere where they could really relax. And that’s the mall.

JENNA FISCHER [00:01:24] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:01:26] Oh, Michael.

JENNA FISCHER [00:01:26] Well, while at the mall, Michael reveals how distressing his relationship with Jan is.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:01:34] “Distressing” is a word.

JENNA FISCHER [00:01:36] Yeah. I had to come up with a word for the summary. I picked “distressing”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:01:39] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:01:39] And with the support of the women, he decides to break up with her. Meanwhile, Andy and Dwight try to hang up sketches of the flasher. They’re trying to find this guy.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:01:50] Right. The pervert. Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:01:52] Yep. The sketch was drawn by Pam and it heavily resembles Dwight.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:01:59] It’s exactly Dwight. It’s Dwight with a mustache.

JENNA FISCHER [00:02:02] And no glasses.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:02:03] Oh, yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:02:04] Finally, Kevin and the rest of the men in the office enjoy hanging out in the ladies bathroom.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:02:10] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:02:10] That is a crazy episode description.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:02:13] And that really is just, just barely touching the surface.

JENNA FISCHER [00:02:17] It really is. It really is.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:02:18] I mean Meredith’s van isn’t in that summary. And that’s a whole, that, Meredith’s van could be a whole episode itself.

JENNA FISCHER [00:02:26] Oh, I wish we’d done an episode called “Meredith’s Van”. Wouldn’t you like to see that?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:02:31] Yeah, exactly.

JENNA FISCHER [00:02:32] Or that’s a spin off right there. “Meredith’s Van”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:02:35] Just Meredith living out of her van.

JENNA FISCHER [00:02:37] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:02:39] What are your Fast Facts, lady?

JENNA FISCHER [00:02:42] Well, Ang, my first Fast Fact is about you.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:02:47] What is it?

JENNA FISCHER [00:02:49] Is it true that you once had a flasher at one of your jobs?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:02:54] OK, this is true and I told the story in the writers’ room. So I was talking to Greg on set one day about just different things that happened when I worked at 1-800-DENTIST as an operator and he was like, “Oh, you got to go up to the writers’ room. You got to tell everybody these stories”. So I did. And I’m not sure that this episode is 100 percent from this story, but I like to think it was a little bit inspired. So I was working at 1-800-DENTIST in my early 20s, which was just yesterday, Jenna, really. Right?

JENNA FISCHER [00:03:23] Yeah, it really was, it was.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:03:24] Just yesterday.

JENNA FISCHER [00:03:25] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:03:27] And we had a man. He went into the women’s restroom and kind of hid out in the women’s restroom, and then when women would go in there, he would flash them. And-.

JENNA FISCHER [00:03:36] Who was he?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:03:37] We don’t know. He was like some guy from the street. He was like, went in the women’s restroom-.

JENNA FISCHER [00:03:42] But I don’t. OK, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. How did he? Where were your? Did 1-800-DENTIST not have their own dedicated bathroom? Was it like a-.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:03:51] No.

JENNA FISCHER [00:03:52] Whole building bathroom?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:03:52] It was a whole building. Yes, it was a whole building and several businesses. You know, the bathrooms were in the hallway. You know what I mean?

JENNA FISCHER [00:03:59] Shared bathroom. Yep.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:03:59] Yeah, yeah. OK.

JENNA FISCHER [00:04:00] Like when I go to a doctor’s office.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:04:02] Exactly. Exactly. OK? Yeah. This guy, he came in off the street and he flashed one of the ladies when she went into the bathroom. And she came running out and came in the office and was like, “I just got flashed”. And oh my gosh. 1-800-DENTIST obviously took this very seriously and they implemented a whole new security system for our office. OK. We are talking to people about their teeth. That’s all we are doing. We’re talking to people about their teeth. But guess what our security system was? Guess what the upgrade was?

JENNA FISCHER [00:04:35] What?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:04:36] They scanned all of our fingerprints. And when we got to work, there was a scanner that you put your hand on that opened up to our hallway.

JENNA FISCHER [00:04:47] Oh.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:04:47] I put my hand there. And it would go blink, blink, “Angela Kinsey admitted”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:04:54] Wow.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:04:55] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:04:56] All because of the flasher.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:04:57] Yeah, but anyway, I told the writers that we had a flasher at work and it caused all this big hullabaloo. And, you know, I just like to think that went on a notecard on the wall somewhere.

JENNA FISCHER [00:05:09] I want to give you credit for that.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:05:11] Oh, well, thanks.

JENNA FISCHER [00:05:12] I like it. All right. Well, are you ready for Fast Fact Number Two?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:05:17] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:05:17] Fast Fact Number Two. This episode originally aired in May of 2007, and it is a supersized episode.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:05:25] Yes.

JENNA FISCHER [00:05:26] However, when it reran in August, they cut it down.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:05:31] I know, they trimmed out a bunch of stuff. Why was that?

JENNA FISCHER [00:05:34] The reason this was originally a supersized episode is because this was our 50th episode of “The Office”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:05:41] Oh, wow. So it was like a little celebration.

JENNA FISCHER [00:05:45] But, you know, then when shows rerun, they have to be regular size.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:05:49] Oh, I see.

JENNA FISCHER [00:05:50] Well, to celebrate our 50th anniversary, we invited two superfan “Office” bloggers to the set for a full day of filming so they could have a sneak peek. And do you remember who they were?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:06:04] Was it definitely Jennie Tan from “Office Tally”?

JENNA FISCHER [00:06:09] Yes. And Kath Skerry from “Give Me My Remote”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:06:12] Oh, nice. Oh, they were so supportive of the show. I feel like they really were some of the first people organizing an online fan site where fans could go and share.

JENNA FISCHER [00:06:23] Yeah. And the writers would read their sites and gather feedback, like they were a big part of formulating the show.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:06:31] I still go to OfficeTally.com, Jenna. Like when I’m looking up quotes, when we’re doing our podcast document and I’m like, “Oh, I want to get that exactly right”. I will go to “Office Tally” because they usually have quotes up there.

JENNA FISCHER [00:06:43] Yeah, well, I went and looked at both of their blogs that they did after visiting the set and I’m going to sprinkle in some of their observations as we go along in this episode.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:06:53] Oh, that’s so fun. This is like old time capsule.

JENNA FISCHER [00:06:56] Yes. It was so cool. And by the way. OK, wait. Here is one of the things that Jennie Tan wrote about her visit. This was just sort of an overview.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:07:05] OK.

JENNA FISCHER [00:07:05] She wrote, “Everybody works together really well. The actors are just incredible. And they are so well-prepared, knew their lines, and I didn’t hear any of them once ask for a line”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:07:18] That’s true, though. That’s true. We were, we were pros. We came up ready to play. But you know what? Steve set the bar for that. We’ve said that many times.

JENNA FISCHER [00:07:27] She also probably couldn’t see that we had our scripts hidden in our desks and we would sometimes have to sneak a look.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:07:34] Well, yes.

JENNA FISCHER [00:07:34] We would have sneak a look between takes.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:07:36] We did do that. We did sort of like, just look over them really quickly. But that’s all right.

JENNA FISCHER [00:07:42] That’s all right. We didn’t, we were never like, “Line”. “Can I get my line”? “What’s my line”?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:07:46] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:07:47] So, yeah. And then, Angela, another thing I thought was really interesting. She noted that you had a 4:30 a.m. call time that day.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:07:56] Those first few seasons. I was al, almost always at 4:30 because we didn’t have, you know, the budget that we, we then ultimately gained and we hired more hair and makeup people. So they would stack up super early in the morning. Kate Flannery and I always were there at 4:30.

JENNA FISCHER [00:08:12] I remember that. And then this also, I thought was kind of funny. She wrote this, “Jenna mentioned more than once on her MySpace blog that she sometimes wear sweat pants and her Uggs when she knows she’s only being shot from the waist up. And it’s true”. She wanted to, she confirmed-.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:08:28] Yes.

JENNA FISCHER [00:08:29] That I only got half dressed.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:08:30] Our set was so cold.

JENNA FISCHER [00:08:32] I know. I know. So anyway, I am really excited because I’m going to sprinkle some of their observations in throughout the episode.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:08:41] All right. So what’s Fast Fact Number Three?

JENNA FISCHER [00:08:44] Fast Fact Number Three is a location breakdown based on this fan question from Deva Crane, Sophia Behenna, Cassandra Iracheta, Mary Roth, and Jocelyn Isaguire. They all ask, “Did you film in a real mall? Where was it? Did you have to close it down or did you film with real patrons”? Now, Ang, I usually go to Kentapedia.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:09:10] But you didn’t need to this time, lady. You didn’t.

JENNA FISCHER [00:09:16] I sure did not.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:09:17] Because this was our mall.

JENNA FISCHER [00:09:20] This was our mall, you guys. Literally this is the mall in our neighborhood where we lived. Angela and I have been to this mall in real life 90 gazillion times.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:09:29] Many, many times. Together, separately. Sometimes we would have a BFF date.

JENNA FISCHER [00:09:35] Yes. This was Fashion Square Mall in Studio City. It was like three miles from my house.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:09:41] Oh, yeah. We went all the time. We knew, we knew the layout. We knew when they said, “OK, ladies, we’re going to start the morning in the food court”. You and I were like, “I wonder where they’re gonna seat us. Maybe over by Panda Express or are they gonna put us over in the corner? I bet they put us in the corner”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:09:56] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:09:56] We knew the layout.

JENNA FISCHER [00:09:57] We knew the layout, of course. And guys, we did not close down the whole mall for filming.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:10:03] No, no. People were there. We started crazy early, though.

JENNA FISCHER [00:10:09] In the food court.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:10:10] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:10:10] And we started upstairs. There was like an upper level of the food court and we had that whole upper level to ourself. And it didn’t open until like 11:00 a.m., but we had to be done so they could open the food court on time. I remember that.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:10:24] Yeah. I wrote that we were seated in the food court filming at 7:00 a.m..

JENNA FISCHER [00:10:31] Yeah. Yes, and all the people in that food court were hired background performers. But later when we went into the mall, all the people sort of passing behind us, like behind your talking head, behind Steve’s talking head. Those were just people in the mall.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:10:47] Yeah, they, they couldn’t close that main part of the mall. Right? So we were just navigating around them and we were filming and that, this is a thing I wrote my journal, Jenna, is that we really realized what a big star Steve was. Like, we knew, we knew he had become a big star. You know, he had these movies coming out and they were big hits. But being at that shopping mall to him, we really got a window into what his life was like now because no one yelled our names.

JENNA FISCHER [00:11:14] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:11:15] No one. Jenna, no, people were walking right past us, but they would see Steve and they would start to yell at him, “Steve! Steve”! I wrote that someone yelled, “I love lamp”!

JENNA FISCHER [00:11:26] Oh, yeah. That line from “Anchorman”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:11:30] Yes. And we were like, “Oh my God, Steve. That guy’s yelling at you about the lamp” and he goes, “I know, yeah”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:11:36] Yeah. That was crazy.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:11:38] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:11:38] That was crazy. I do remember though that they shut down the Victoria’s Secret for us. We had the whole store.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:11:45] Yeah. We, we felt very fancy about that. That was very exciting to have a whole store to yourself. That was so cool.

JENNA FISCHER [00:11:51] And then we also had one level of the parking garage and they put all our trailers there. We ate lunch there. They set up the catering. And then we also were able to bring in our own cars to do that scene with Meredith.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:12:05] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:12:06] Parking. Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:12:08] But we really, we really just spent the whole day at the mall. We really did.

JENNA FISCHER [00:12:12] We really did. And lady, by the way, I’m going to point it out, but there, oftentimes, you can see you and I walking in the background together.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:12:23] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:12:23] Of different shots. And our characters should not be walking together.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:12:27] No.

JENNA FISCHER [00:12:28] In the background shopping.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:12:29] No, we are just kind of, we were just hanging out.

JENNA FISCHER [00:12:33] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:12:33] We were probably saying this, “Listen, we should come back tomorrow because did you see the sale”?

JENNA FISCHER [00:12:38] We were 100 percent doing that. We were Kelly at the mall.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:12:41] Yeah. If we have a break, maybe we can sneak in there.

JENNA FISCHER [00:12:45] Yeah, I, I, I mean.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:12:47] I feel like we did some shopping that day.

JENNA FISCHER [00:12:50] I’m, I was just going to say I swear I came home with something from Macy’s.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:12:54] I know. I know. I’m pretty sure.

JENNA FISCHER [00:12:57] All right, well, ladies, should we take a break and then we come back, we will really, really break down this episode?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:13:04] I might have tracked something. We might need to discuss it.

JENNA FISCHER [00:13:08] That is the best news I’ve heard all day.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:13:10] Well-.

JENNA FISCHER [00:13:11] I can’t wait to track something with you.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:13:11] You might change your mind.

JENNA FISCHER [00:13:13] Oh, no. Alright. We’ll be back.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:13:19] And we’re back. We start with a cold open, Jenna, that was originally written for the “Business School” episode.

JENNA FISCHER [00:13:27] What?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:13:28] Yes, the cold open where Jim comes in and he’s tardy and Dwight is gonna write him up. That was originally for the “Business School” episode and the Dwight and Jim dressing like each other was supposed to be for this episode, but they switched them for time.

JENNA FISCHER [00:13:43] Wow.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:13:44] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:13:45] Well, you know, they would do these cold opens and they were meant to be stand alone. They were meant to be their own encapsulated joke that really didn’t interfere with the main plot of an episode. So I guess they were kind of interchangeable in a way. Now, sometimes the cold open did affect the plot, but, you know, two stand alone, cold opens, I guess you can put ’em wherever you want.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:14:06] And I feel like the tag in this episode is plot related. So I think it was for the best.

JENNA FISCHER [00:14:12] Yes, I agree.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:14:13] All right. So, Jenna, here’s the thing. Do you know that if you’re tardy, you will get three demerits?

JENNA FISCHER [00:14:19] Yep.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:14:20] And then you’ll receive a citation?

JENNA FISCHER [00:14:21] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:14:22] Yeah. And then five citations and you’re going to get a violation.

JENNA FISCHER [00:14:26] Which is bad because tell us what happens after that.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:14:29] Four violations and you’re going to get a verbal warning.

JENNA FISCHER [00:14:33] Oh no.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:14:33] Yeah. Keep it up, you’re gonna get a written warning.

JENNA FISCHER [00:14:36] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:14:36] Two written warnings and you’re gonna be in a world of hurt in the form of a disciplinary review.

JENNA FISCHER [00:14:42] And that disciplinary review is gonna be written by Dwight and placed on the desk of his immediate superior, who, by the way, is Jim.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:14:49] Who is tardy.

JENNA FISCHER [00:14:51] Right. Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:14:52] It’s going to take a week worth of like paperwork. I mean, this just made me laugh so hard. I just feel like I know these people. I feel like I know a Dwight. I feel like I worked with a Dwight. Like someone who has such a small amount of control and takes it so seriously. It’s just so ridiculously perfect.

JENNA FISCHER [00:15:11] I love it. This episode opens with Phyllis arriving to work and she is clearly upset. And by the way, I really like how all of us are genuinely kind to Phyllis and concerned for her.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:15:25] Yeah. Yes, she’s shaken up and we’re worried about her. And Jenna, before we get into the scene. I have to share something with you that has become part of our family. It’s like a family story. You know, those stories in your family that you retell over and over, you know?

JENNA FISCHER [00:15:41] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:15:41] Well, this episode inspired one of those family stories for me, that we get together and retell at family reunions and everyone just cracks up.

JENNA FISCHER [00:15:50] What is it?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:15:51] All right. Jenna, you know, my grandmother, Lena Mae Kinsey, she was a very, very proper, classy Southern lady.

JENNA FISCHER [00:16:00] Yes.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:16:01] And, you know, she was not a fan of “The Office”. She thought that Michael Scott was vulgar. And she would say to me, “Angela, we are so proud of you, but I don’t care for it. And I do not watch it. But we are so proud of you”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:16:18] I remember.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:16:19] So my parents were really getting into the show and they were like, “Lena Mae, you got to give it another shot. We gave it another shot and now we like it. You got to watch this week’s episode”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:16:31] Oh, no.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:16:31] I call home. I’m like, “Hey, Mom, are you going to watch this week”? “We are. And we told your grandmother to watch. We got it on right now”. I said, “Oh, no, Mom, not this week. Not this week for Grandmother”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:16:46] Oh, no.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:16:46] She was like, “Why not”? And I said, “Because Phyllis gets flashed and it’s all we talk about”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:16:52] What did your grandma say when she watched this episode?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:16:54] Well.

JENNA FISCHER [00:16:55] She never watched another episode, did she?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:16:57] I, I called home the next day. And I said, “Hey, Mom, did you talk to grandmother? Did she watch it”? She said, “I did. And this is what she said”. And I wrote it down. And I had it, I have it my journal. This is what my grandmother said. “I watched it right up until they started talking about penises and then I turned it off”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:17:18] That was probably good she turned it off because, I mean, we didn’t want her to be subjected to that scene in the mall when Michael describes his sex life with Jan.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:17:28] Oh my God, when he’s like, “What is a pap smear”? I’m glad my grandmother didn’t make it that far. Do you want to know when she turned it off?

JENNA FISCHER [00:17:37] Yes.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:17:38] 4 minutes, 25 seconds, is the first time we say the word “penis”. Click. Buh-bye.

JENNA FISCHER [00:17:45] She checked out. She was done.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:17:47] And I mean, up until that point, you know, we’re talking about how Phyllis has been flashed and where he put it on the map. Oh my God, Jenna. Do you remember that Phyllis could not get through that? Do you remember that?

JENNA FISCHER [00:17:59] No. Which part?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:18:01] She broke every time she said, “He had it out on the map”. She could not get through it. She was laughing so hard.

JENNA FISCHER [00:18:10] Well, I remember it was very difficult to get through Creed saying, “What’s the big deal is hanging brain”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:18:18] I know.

JENNA FISCHER [00:18:18] That like, that phrase, “hanging brain” was really tough.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:18:21] It’s so gross. It’s so gross.

JENNA FISCHER [00:18:23] But then Michael comes in and he finds out what happens and he is like completely not sympathetic at all. And Phyllis isn’t even there anymore. Phyllis has gone off with Bob Vance. He’s taking her for a walk to calm her down. But Michael comes in and he is just making a joke of it, and he puts his finger in his pants through the zipper of his pants to look like a penis. And I remember we all thought, there’s no way this is making this on TV.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:18:59] Well, Jenna, I was super curious about how we were able to get this on the air. So I went to the DVD commentary to see if they said anything. And they did say there was one specific thing we had to do by Standards and Practices rules.

JENNA FISCHER [00:19:14] Oh, really? This went all the way to Standards and Practices?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:19:18] Should we tell them what Standards and Practices is?

JENNA FISCHER [00:19:20] Yeah. Well, there’s like, there’s certain rules about what you can and cannot broadcast on network television.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:19:25] Well, according to the DVD commentary, this was the one thing we had to do by Standards and Practices. Before Michael turns around with his finger in his, the fly of his pants.

JENNA FISCHER [00:19:38] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:19:39] Camera has to see him fully extend his hand outside of his pants and then watch his hand go in his pants through his fly. So, you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that is Michael’s hand. You’ll see Michael turns around and you have a close up of his hand. And what, and he’s kind of fidgeting so that we all know it’s his hand. And that was because Standards and Practices said, “That’s the only way we’ll let the scene play”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:20:07] Wow.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:20:08] I know. I still can’t believe that we got away with it. And then what I really can’t believe is that when Toby walks in, the finger goes down.

JENNA FISCHER [00:20:17] Yes. Well, Fan Catch from Brianne, Katherine, Julie, Elizabeth and Christina. Everyone noticed that in the background of this exchange between Michael and Toby. It’s sort of near the end after Toby’s walked away and Michael is apologizing, John Krasinski is visibly red in the face and laughing into his hand.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:20:41] He is flat out breaking. And not only that, I love this Fan Catch because I wrote a timecode down between 4 minutes and 36 seconds and 4 minutes, 40 seconds. I see John, not Jim, look right to Randall, our camera operator.

JENNA FISCHER [00:21:01] Yes, I thought the same thing. I thought that is not Jim glancing to camera. That is John glancing at Randall.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:21:08] Yes. Because it’s just above camera. You know? It’s not right down the barrel, which is where he would normally glance.

JENNA FISCHER [00:21:14] Yep.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:21:14] He is looking at Randall trying not to break. And Randall was probably breaking too. But they’re having a moment. And the line that really made him go is when Michael says, “As that was coming out of my mouth, I knew that it was wrong”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:21:28] Well, now Michael has a talking head where he explains that in all of the excitement, he forgot that his primary concern is keeping the people in his office safe and that women just can’t have fun if they don’t feel safe. And he knows this because, you know, he and Jan have a safe word, which is “foliage”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:21:49] What is happening in that bedroom?

JENNA FISCHER [00:21:52] I don’t know. I don’t know.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:21:54] What is happening that he has a safe word that she doesn’t pay attention to? I. What is happening?

JENNA FISCHER [00:22:00] I don’t know.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:22:01] Oh, Lord. Oh. And then Jan’s phone call. She, like wants his body. She’s going to leave him 200 dollars, 300 dollars. She’ll get more vodka. “Hunter, are you on the call”? Like everything about this is horrifying.

JENNA FISCHER [00:22:15] Lady, I have to say that that thing of like “Hunter, are you on the call”?, that has happened to me in business calls. Where I’ll be talking to my agent or to my manager and I’m having what I think is like a private, candid conversation. And all of a sudden, like 20 minutes in, they’ll ask their assistant, “Did you get that? Can you go ahead and set that meeting”? And the assistant is like, “No problem. I’ll put it in the calendar”. And I’m like, “Wait, what”?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:22:44] How long have you been there?

JENNA FISCHER [00:22:44] Is that a thing? You’re just, your assistant just listens to our phone calls. That’s a thing?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:22:50] Man, oh, man. I couldn’t be an assistant. I couldn’t handle that information. It would be so hard for me not to interject. Like if I had to listen in and my boss was having a conversation with someone and it got like sort of personal or heated. It’d be so hard for me, you know, to not be like, “You know, you might try just taking a minute, take a breath before you, you know, don’t say something you’re going to regret”. They’d be like, “Who is that”? Well, we have a nice callback at 5 minutes. 47 seconds.

JENNA FISCHER [00:23:24] Yes. We had some fans catch this as well, Angela. Dwight is down in the parking lot and he is stabbing the shrubbery with that pointed, carved out broom handle.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:23:37] Uh huh.

JENNA FISCHER [00:23:37] That he made for “Business School” when he was worried that Jim was becoming a vampire.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:23:43] Yeah, he kept it. Of course he kept it. He probably duct taped it under his desk.

JENNA FISCHER [00:23:50] Well, that was caught also by René Brown, Anne Stevens, Bethany A, Phoebe Tomac, and Jacob Hirsch, among others.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:23:58] All right. So Jenna, now at 6 minutes, 29 seconds, Michael and Dwight have decided they are going to form a new anti-flashing task force. They come out and announce this. And I want you to know, Rainn Wilson broke so hard throughout this scene, Jenna, I think we, I think we did like 15 or 16 takes.

JENNA FISCHER [00:24:23] Do you remember what line he could not get through? Because I will never forget it.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:24:27] I’ll never forget it. And it’s on the bloopers.

JENNA FISCHER [00:24:30] Oh.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:24:30] It’s so good. Say it, Jenna.

JENNA FISCHER [00:24:33] So he says that we should install floodlights in the parking lot.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:24:38] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:24:40] And then he says-.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:24:42] I know.

JENNA FISCHER [00:24:42] “I know what you’re thinking. Won’t that just shed more light on the penises”?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:24:48] “Won’t that just shed more light on the penises”?

JENNA FISCHER [00:24:48] We could not get through that line. When I was rewatching and I heard him say it again.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:24:53] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:24:54] I was like, we could, that line is so genius and absurd.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:24:59] I know. Sorry, it just cracks me up. And all of it, all of it was so perfect. And then him having to say, “Pam, you can draw it with phallus? And you’re like, “Phallus” “Phyllis, sorry, I just had penises on the brain”. And then Jim’s look to camera. This whole moment is just so beautifully written and performed.

JENNA FISCHER [00:25:20] Yes. And the other thing that led to the absurdity of it is that you’re expecting Dwight to have horrible ideas, but his ideas start off really good.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:25:34] Smart.

JENNA FISCHER [00:25:34] This idea of floodlights, this idea of extra security cameras. And I remember being directed to give a look to Phyllis, like reassuring, like, “Hey, they’re not going to totally mess this up”. And then it just gets weird and so funny.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:25:52] Yeah. He starts out so well.

JENNA FISCHER [00:25:55] Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Well, so Pam is going to meet up with Phyllis and she’s going to make a sketch. Except that Phyllis can’t really remember any details, and Pam’s like, “It’s fine. I just don’t feel like answering the phone”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:26:10] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:26:10] But then Karen enters and now we get Dwight’s weird list of ideas. So like what he was announcing originally is what the business park was planning to do to help the situation. And now we’re getting Dwight’s mandate.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:26:26] Yeah, Dwight’s mandate is basically lock up the women.

JENNA FISCHER [00:26:29] And get rid of all the bananas.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:26:31] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:26:32] What is happening? Yes. He starts saying that, like, the women have to dress a certain way. They have to wear sleeves down to their wrists, muted colors. And Pam is like, “No one dresses like that”. And then the camera swings over to Angela, which is a very funny moment, that was in the script.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:26:54] I remember this was one of those moments, Jenna, that it looks simple, but it was very choreographed because the B camera had to find me and zoom in. Right? And it’s a quick, it’s a very quick whip over. And I had to, you know, be in focus. So that’s a really tiny moment. But it was very thought out exactly where I would stand. And it was all timed off of your line. And I want you to know, since we’re talking about what I have on, that 8 minutes, 28 seconds is when you see my outfit that our wardrobe designer, Carey Bennett, and I had so much fun. We were giddy when she got the script and it said I would be wearing this, like, cat sweater and this outfit. We just couldn’t wait. And I tried on all these different sweaters. This is the one we picked and you can’t really tell. But each of the cat is very different and distinct. And one of the cats on the sweater had a beaded purse that it was carrying.

JENNA FISCHER [00:27:52] Wow.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:27:52] One of the other cats had, like, earmuffs. But the the earmuffs were like poofy, you know?

JENNA FISCHER [00:27:59] Wow.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:28:00] Yeah. I wish I still had that sweater.

JENNA FISCHER [00:28:03] I talked to Carey about where did she shop for you. Where did she find this stuff? And you know what she told me?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:28:09] What?

JENNA FISCHER [00:28:11] She said, that a lot of your sweaters and your fluffy blouses were vintage.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:28:16] That’s true. That is true.

JENNA FISCHER [00:28:17] And there was no double for them. There was just one.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:28:21] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:28:22] And it would make her a little nervous because if you spilled coffee on it or something. She was going to be in trouble. But that was how she found these weird little items. And also, she said vintage clothing usually runs smaller. And so it was fewer alterations for her, actually.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:28:39] Yes, that is true. And she would let me know when whatever sweater or blouse I had didn’t have a double. And I always made sure, Jenna, to change at lunch. I never ate in my clothes because we often didn’t have a match for it.

JENNA FISCHER [00:28:54] I remember that. I also remember you sometimes, Angela, if we were rushing, you would do this really elaborate like napkin bib thing on the front of you.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:29:06] Yes! I would, I would take-.

JENNA FISCHER [00:29:07] Because you were so worried.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:29:08] I would take, sometimes we were rushing for whatever reason. And I didn’t have time to run to my trailer and change. I would get like eight napkins and tuck them around my collar all the way to my armpit.

JENNA FISCHER [00:29:20] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:29:22] I looked insane. So now the women in the office, they’re really upset with Dwight. Right? These rules are ridiculous.

JENNA FISCHER [00:29:28] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:29:28] And Michael comes out. He is upset with Dwight. He’s like, “You know what? Women’s appreciating meeting in the conference room”. He’s qualified to appreciate women.

JENNA FISCHER [00:29:38] Because he came from a woman.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:29:41] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:29:41] He has slept with more than one woman.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:29:43] Less than three.

JENNA FISCHER [00:29:45] Well, that’s not accurate information.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:29:47] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:29:48] He says.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:29:49] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:29:49] But also he just knows the crap out of women, Angela.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:29:53] I know.

JENNA FISCHER [00:29:54] “What women need is R-e-s-p-c-t”. That’s what they need.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:29:59] Phyllis’ face when he says that is so amazing. She gets this little look that washes over her face like, huh?

JENNA FISCHER [00:30:06] Fan question from Taylor Seagraves and Jenna Aldridge, “When Michaels spells out respect. Was that improv or scripted”? It was scripted that he spelled it out correctly. And then every take, he would do it differently. We couldn’t get through it. This was another moment.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:30:24] That’s what Steve would do, though. You know, he was like the comedy assassin. He would like take it as it was written and then he would play around with it. You could never know what he was going to do. And it made it so hard to keep a straight face.

JENNA FISCHER [00:30:38] Yes. Also during the scene, Angela, Dwight is eating a banana.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:30:42] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:30:43] And this is one of the ones he’s taken from the kitchen, Kath, from GiveMeMyRemote.com noted in her blog that Rainn had to eat a new banana every time we started over a new take. And we did a lot of takes of this scene. She asked Rainn on set that day how it was to eat all the bananas. And he said it was making him sick and he may never eat another banana again.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:31:07] It turned on him. That would happen.

JENNA FISCHER [00:31:11] Yeah, and he made a big choice early on, which was to devour the banana, which was a very, very funny choice. And he had to repeat it then.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:31:18] But that is how he made Dwight eat. Rainn, you did this to yourself. Let’s not forget the pancakes. And then we have a candy bar coming up. Dwight does nothing half assed. If he’s gonna eat something, he eats it.

JENNA FISCHER [00:31:32] Yeah, that’s true.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:31:36] Sorry, I’m yelling at you.

JENNA FISCHER [00:31:39] I like it. Bring it on.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:31:41] I’m getting very worked up by how Dwight eats.

JENNA FISCHER [00:31:46] Well, now the meeting is underway in the conference room. Michael is perched on his chair like a bird.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:31:54] Perched. 9 minutes, 36 seconds. How does Steve sit like this?

JENNA FISCHER [00:31:59] I don’t know.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:32:00] How does he do it? He just finds the most awkward ways to sit and stand. And it’s so funny.

JENNA FISCHER [00:32:08] Well, he apologizes for all of the men who didn’t take this seriously. Creed still doesn’t understand what the big deal is. But Michael explains, “No one likes being flashed. It’s not just women”. When Meredith flashed him during the Christmas party. He, he was sick. He hated it.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:32:26] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:32:28] But listen, he also wants us to know that a penis in the right context is the most wonderful sight for a woman. But in the wrong context, it’s like a monster movie.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:32:41] I have a question for you. When Dwight goes, “Alien, blah!”, and Michael’s like, “Shut it, shut up”, was that improvised?

JENNA FISCHER [00:32:49] Oh, my God. I don’t know. Do you want me to look it up?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:32:52] I do, because I remember Rainn as Dwight messing around and I just didn’t know if that was him being an idiot. And it got to stay in.

JENNA FISCHER [00:33:04] Well, let me see. How should I find us in this document? I’m thinking I should put in the word “penis”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:33:09] Oh God.

JENNA FISCHER [00:33:10] And see. Oh there’s so many. So many. Oh, boy. OK.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:33:19] I’m opening up some snacks.

JENNA FISCHER [00:33:20] Your grandma would not have liked this word search right now.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:33:24] No.

JENNA FISCHER [00:33:26] Oh, all right, OK. I found it so after Michael said that, Dwight was supposed to say “Freddy Krueger”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:33:35] OK. I remember this. I remember that Rainn kept doing these alts that he was kind of making up in the moment. And that alien one was not one that was scripted. I was pretty sure. But I wanted to see.

JENNA FISCHER [00:33:48] Yep. You were right.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:33:49] This is a random tangent.

JENNA FISCHER [00:33:51] OK.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:33:51] Have you ever been flashed?

JENNA FISCHER [00:33:54] Well, I’ve spent a lot of time in New York City and I’ve seen a lot of penises on the street.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:34:01] Oh god.

JENNA FISCHER [00:34:01] And on the subway.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:34:02] Oh my lord.

JENNA FISCHER [00:34:03] But I’ve never been directly flashed. What about you?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:34:07] Oh, I, I mean, listen, women out there listening. They’re just creepers, and it, I mean, I have been flashed. One, I was waiting for the tube in London. I was in college and doing a semester abroad. And my friend and I were standing there and this old man, I’m talking in his 70s. It was like if you saw it in a movie, you’d be like, “Oh, it’s too on the nose”. He literally had on a khaki trench coat. He was 70.

JENNA FISCHER [00:34:41] Oh.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:34:41] And he opened up his trench coat and was totally naked and wiggled around his old man penis. And we were like, “Oh my God”! It was so crazy to me because it looked like something out of a cartoon. I was like, “This can’t be real. Old dude, khaki coat, flasher in a subway. Come on”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:35:04] You know, flashing is considered a sexual assault. And statistically, many young and underage women, that is their sort of first experience with a sexual assault, is flashing. Is men flashing their penises. And it’s horrible. It’s freaking horrible.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:35:20] I was young, so I just went, “Ah”! And then years later, I was flashed and I literally yelled, “Knock it off”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:35:28] But why do we have to deal with that?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:35:30] I don’t know.

JENNA FISCHER [00:35:31] Why? Why do women have to deal with that? Like, I don’t have enough to do in my day, I also have to tell you not to flash me? I mean, I’m busy.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:35:41] Yeah. I have to tell you to get your penis out of my face?

JENNA FISCHER [00:35:45] I’m busy. I don’t have time for that shit.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:35:48] I don’t have time for your old man penis.

JENNA FISCHER [00:35:51] No, I don’t. For reals. You know what I mean?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:35:56] My grandmother would have turned us off, Jenna.

JENNA FISCHER [00:35:59] This podcast? I feel like your grandma would be on my side on this one.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:36:05] Oh, for sure.

JENNA FISCHER [00:36:07] I’d like your grandma and I to go around and talk to some flashers.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:36:11] Oh, she would let them have it.

JENNA FISCHER [00:36:14] Well, let’s see.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:36:14] Sorry, I got us off on a tangent, but I was just like, “Hey, I’ve been flashed. I wonder if Jenna has”. Most women have.

JENNA FISCHER [00:36:20] Most women have been flashed.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:36:22] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:36:22] That’s the problem.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:36:23] Yep.

JENNA FISCHER [00:36:23] And you know what? By the way, I just want to say the unsolicited dick pic text is the modern day flashing.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:36:32] Oh yes.

JENNA FISCHER [00:36:33] Guys, if a woman doesn’t ask to see your dick, don’t send a pic.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:36:37] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:36:38] It’s not difficult.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:36:40] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:36:41] Truly.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:36:41] Truly.

JENNA FISCHER [00:36:44] It’s like, why does it need to be said? Oh, my God. You got me all amped up.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:36:50] I’m sorry. I just am realizing I’ve never gotten a dick pic.

JENNA FISCHER [00:36:58] What? I, honestly, I’ve never gotten a dick pic either.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:37:01] We’re old. We’re old, but-.

JENNA FISCHER [00:37:03] We’ve been flashed. We haven’t had dick pics.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:37:05] We’ve been flashed, but young ladies get dick pics. OK, where were we?

JENNA FISCHER [00:37:10] Where we are is that Michael’s angry at society. He says that the problem is that the media portrays women as being skinny, tall goddesses, which if you look around the office, they clearly are not in real life.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:37:25] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:37:26] You know, even the prettiest ones are, what does he say?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:37:31] Not that thin or something.

JENNA FISCHER [00:37:32] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:37:32] Jenna, were you just like, “Hey, what the heck”?

JENNA FISCHER [00:37:37] No. People ask us that all the time if we were personally offended by jokes at our expense. And no, I don’t know, is it just because in comedy you’re so often asked to be self-deprecating or you just have a good sense of humor, I don’t know. I thought it was funny.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:37:52] Yeah. I mean, same with me. I’m, I’m always like some size joke, you know?

JENNA FISCHER [00:37:58] And it also just never really felt personal. I don’t know.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:38:01] Yeah, it didn’t.

JENNA FISCHER [00:38:01] But the joke is that he’s saying something he shouldn’t say, right?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:38:05] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:38:06] Well, Karen tells Michael he’s being misogynistic. And Michael is like, “Thank you. Thank you. Yes”. And she’s like, “No, I’m saying you’re being sexist”. He’s like, “No, I’m not. I’m being misogynistic”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:38:19] “I’m being misogynistic”. And she’s like, “Oh my God”. And then, and then the women just start to really call him out. Phyllis is like, “Michael, when I got my hair cut short, you said I look like a lesbian”. And Angela’s like, “Yeah. And you always think we’re on our periods if we get upset”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:38:36] But that’s because he needs to know if he should take you seriously or not.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:38:40] I know, there’s a lot of issues. There’s a lot of issues.

JENNA FISCHER [00:38:46] Well, Karen and Angela want to get back to work, but Michael says he knows what the problem is. The problem is they’re in too masculine of an environment to really bond and heal. He needs to take them to the mall.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:38:59] Yeah. He needs to take the women to a place where they can heal. And that’s a shopping mall.

JENNA FISCHER [00:39:04] Yes.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:39:04] We see a series of talking heads. Karen, she still thinks all of this idea of going to the mall is insulting, but she had some items to return. I have a talking head that I say that malls are just awful and humiliating. They’re just store after store of these horrible sales people making a big fuss out of an adult shopping in a junior section. And I improvised the last line of this talking head.

JENNA FISCHER [00:39:29] You did?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:39:30] I did. I did. I said, “There are petite adults who are sort of smaller who need to wear maybe a kid size 10”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:39:37] Lady, I’ve been to Target with you and gone shopping.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:39:40] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:39:41] And you shop in the junior section.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:39:43] I do, I shop in the kids section. And for a long time I was a kid size 10.

JENNA FISCHER [00:39:50] I remember you couldn’t find a pair of jeans that didn’t have like a rainbow applicator on the pocket.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:39:55] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:39:56] All your clothes.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:39:57] All my clothes had a butterfly or something on it. I am no longer a kid size 10, so.

JENNA FISCHER [00:40:03] Well, there you go. Thank you, Pandemic, for that.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:40:06] Yeah. Thank you, Quarantine 15. But I am a kid size 14.

JENNA FISCHER [00:40:11] Oh, I see. The Quarantine 15 is like a real thing. And as the holidays approach, I am concerned because I’ve, I’ve already, I’m already tipping the scales into my holiday clothes. I don’t, what is going to happen after the holidays?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:40:27] I am in what I used to call my baggy jeans, and they’re like so tight. Like I had to suck in to button them.

JENNA FISCHER [00:40:36] What are we gonna do?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:40:37] I don’t know.

JENNA FISCHER [00:40:38] What are we gonna do when the pies and Christmas cookies start?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:40:41] Thanksgiving is going to push me over.

JENNA FISCHER [00:40:44] I don’t know what is going to happen.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:40:46] OK. So Pam has now finished her sketch of the flasher and hands it over to Dwight.

JENNA FISCHER [00:40:53] Yes, and he is thrilled. She’s like, “Listen, Phyllis got a go look. This is accurate”. Dwight starts making copies of this flier, which reads, “This man is a pervert”. And the picture is very clearly Dwight with no glasses and a mustache.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:41:12] Lady, I saved one of these fliers from that week and I have it. I have the original, one of the original ones that Rainn is holding up as Dwight, and I love it. It makes me laugh. I have it in my scrapbook bin. Speaking of, I’ve started scrapbooking.

JENNA FISCHER [00:41:32] I saw on your Instagram stories.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:41:35] Yes.

JENNA FISCHER [00:41:35] You put your kids to work on that.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:41:37] They were very excited. They loved it. It made me happy.

JENNA FISCHER [00:41:41] I think it’s a great idea. Well, listen, if you look on this poster, there is a phone number, a 1-800 number for the anti-flashing task force. This was a real phone number.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:41:53] Yes.

JENNA FISCHER [00:41:53] And after the episode. You could call it and you would get a message from Dwight. And I have what the message said.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:42:00] I love this. Read it, Jenna.

JENNA FISCHER [00:42:03] “You have reached Dwight K. Schrute, commander of the Lackawanna County, Anti-Flashing Task Force and Regional Manager of Dunder Mifflin. If you have information leading to the capture and, or castration of this pervert, press 1. If this is the flasher, let’s talk. You need a friend right now and I can help you. Just tell me where you want to meet and I promise to help you with whatever it is you need. Thank you. And have a nice day. Oh, and if you are inquiring about any of our paper products and would like a catalog, please press 2. Finally, if anyone, not the flasher, is interested in a kick ass 1985 Maroon Firebird, I could be persuaded to sell mine. Please press 1 for that too”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:42:49] And people called it. A lot of people called that number. Here’s an interesting trivia tidbit. That is the same phone number as Vance Refrigeration.

JENNA FISCHER [00:42:59] Oh, yes. Yes. When we’ve seen the Vance refrigeration phone number.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:43:03] Yep.

JENNA FISCHER [00:43:04] Well, listen, lady, before we head out to the mall, maybe we should take a break.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:43:09] Let’s take a break, because then we’re getting into Meredith’s van and we’re going to need to, we’re going to need to talk about it.

JENNA FISCHER [00:43:16] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:43:19] OK. We’re back and all the ladies are off to the mall with Michael in Meredith’s really fantastic van.

JENNA FISCHER [00:43:28] Yeah, she’s driving, but also eating potato chips and littering.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:43:32] I do want you all to know that we had a van following behind us and their job was to pick up the bag. It would go out the car and they had to pick up the bag. So we, in fact, did not litter.

JENNA FISCHER [00:43:44] That is incredible.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:43:45] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:43:46] We had a fan question about the van from Nikki Lawrence. How did they decide the order in which you all sat in Meredith’s van? Was it planned out or did you just sit wherever? Well. I know that I sat in the front seat because I get carsick and I know that they planned it that way, but I went to the script. And here is what it said about the van.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:44:07] OK.

JENNA FISCHER [00:44:08] It said, “The van is strewn with takeout containers and the dashboard is lit with every warning light imaginable. Michael sits in the middle seat of the middle row between Kelly and Phyllis. Karen and Angela are in the back row. Michael watches the girls talk as if he’s Jane Goodall observing apes”. That is, that was the script direction for our van placement. So it was planned. But lady, when I read this, you can’t see it in the episode. But do you remember how filthy the inside of that van was?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:44:46] Jenna, it was so crazy. The props department went all out. You could not see the floorboard. That’s how much stuff they threw into that van. It literally looked like someone had lived in there for years. There were takeout containers. There were like food items that had been half eaten, are made to look half eaten. Sitting next to me in the seat was a half eaten chocolate chip cookie. On, on the seat next to me. And when we would get in, we would step and like kind of turn our ankles on all these weird things, pieces of clothing, like a, like a, a broken, like old phone, like just everything you could imagine. It looked like someone dumped a trashcan on the floorboard.

JENNA FISCHER [00:45:32] Well, another thing they did and I don’t know if you remember this, Ang, but as a joke, they thought it would be really funny if they put all of these air fresheners.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:45:42] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:45:42] In front of her car. So, like, Meredith wouldn’t clean out her car, she would just add another air freshener. And they were dangling from the rearview mirror. They were all over the dashboard.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:45:53] Yes, they were all over the front of the car.

JENNA FISCHER [00:45:55] Just the front, where Kate and I were sitting, and the fumes from these air fresheners were making us sick.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:46:05] You were getting a headache and you kept being like, gosh, “Guys, I keep getting a headache”, you know, while we were filming in the van. I was on the way back with half eaten food. I couldn’t smell the air fresheners. I remember there was all of a sudden this moment where you and Kate were like, “Oh, my God, it’s these air fresheners. There’s like 15 of them”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:46:24] And here’s the thing. You couldn’t even see them. So they were like, “Oh, we don’t even see those in the shot. We can just take those out”. So they took them out and then we were fine.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:46:36] It’s too bad you couldn’t see the hard work that the crew did to make that van look so junky inside.

JENNA FISCHER [00:46:43] Yeah, it was, it was a work of art.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:46:45] Jenna, there’s one thing in the DVD commentary about the scene where Meredith is eating the potato chips, like, just, she just dumps them on her face from the bag and throws the bag out. In the DVD commentary, you said you kept laughing and laughing and laughing. You couldn’t keep a straight face. And they actually used a different reaction shot of you from a different moment in the van because they never got a clean one of you.

JENNA FISCHER [00:47:12] I was probably jealous too because I really like those sour cream and onion chips.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:47:16] You do love sour cream and onion. You and my daughter. Isabelle loves them.

JENNA FISCHER [00:47:20] I do too. I can’t keep them in the house. It’ll just be cheddar bunnies all over again.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:47:25] Oh, no.

JENNA FISCHER [00:47:27] Quarantine 15.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:47:28] I know.

JENNA FISCHER [00:47:29] So now we’re back at Dunder Mifflin. And this is such a quirky little storyline where Kevin comes up to Jim and says, “Would you like to join me in the women’s bathroom”?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:47:41] I thought this was so funny because I just so believe this curiosity of like, what’s it like on the other side over there? You know, I mean, I’ve been in a men’s room and like, it’s disgusting.

JENNA FISCHER [00:47:53] Disgusting.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:47:55] So gross. Like, I, I’ve been like somewhere like a Starbucks, like a year ago or so. And there’s a line for the women’s room. And like I, my daughter really, really had to go. And there was no one in the men’s room. So I was like, “Listen, we’ll just go quickly”. And you go in the men’s room and it’s like, eck, what is going on in there?

JENNA FISCHER [00:48:12] Another thing I’d like to say is that, you know, there are a lot of fathers with daughters and they are actively parenting their children and they go places and their kids need to use the bathroom. And by the way, their little boys need to sit down too. Can we keep our bathrooms clean, guys? Can we keep them a little cleaner so that dads can take their kids to the bathroom and it’s not totally disgusting?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:48:38] Jenna, is just asking two things, guys. No dick pics.

JENNA FISCHER [00:48:43] No, unless solicited.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:48:45] Unless asked.

JENNA FISCHER [00:48:45] If a lady asks for your dick pic, send away.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:48:48] Fire away.

JENNA FISCHER [00:48:49] Go for it.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:48:50] Fire away. Fire away. I don’t know why that’s making me laugh. But yeah. And keep your toilets tidy. So, yes, Kevin is curious. He wants to go in the women’s room. And he goes in and he’s like, “Oh, my God, you’ve got to see this”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:49:07] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:49:07] There’s like a sofa. There’s potpourri. There’s candles. There’s like a nice lamp, you know, magazines.

JENNA FISCHER [00:49:16] Do you blame us? This is our only sanctuary away from Michael. We’ve had to do this in this office. It’s the one place he cannot come speak to us. So we’ve created, I believe, a sanctuary.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:49:30] Oh, yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:49:31] Well, I have to tell you, this bathroom, the woman’s bathroom set, this is a non-working bathroom. None of the sinks and toilets actually worked, when we weren’t using them.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:49:42] I was always bummed about that, by the way.

JENNA FISCHER [00:49:44] Because they were so conveniently located to our set. But they weren’t real.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:49:48] The actual bathrooms were much further away. And I always wished our fake toilets and sinks worked.

JENNA FISCHER [00:49:54] You know, they used to put signs on the toilets warning visitors that they were fake and not hooked up to any plumbing.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:49:59] Yes. And I feel like those signs were made because someone didn’t know. They had to deal with that moment.

JENNA FISCHER [00:50:07] They did.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:50:08] Yuck.

JENNA FISCHER [00:50:09] That’s true. A visitor used our fake toilet.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:50:12] Can you imagine if you’re a big fan of “The Office” and you get to come to set and get a tour and you’re just giddy. You’re so happy to see all these characters that you love and you’re the visitor that took a dump in the fake toilet on set. Who is that person? That person knows who they are. And that’s why we had to make signs and tape up the toilets.

JENNA FISCHER [00:50:38] Oh.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:50:38] OK. Sorry.

JENNA FISCHER [00:50:41] Well, also, I want to say that the bathroom didn’t look like this before this episode. They had to build this little set.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:50:50] They did. I mean, pretty much these fake bathrooms were really small. And when they weren’t being used, they were storage. They were like closets.

JENNA FISCHER [00:50:57] Yeah. The crew would keep like their stands and lights and things behind those bathroom doors.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:51:03] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:51:05] Well, this scene that they have in the bathroom, they’re kind of just chitchatting and Jim says that he’s going out to dinner for his six month anniversary with Karen. And I have a question. Do we celebrate our six month anniversary of dating?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:51:22] I think-.

JENNA FISCHER [00:51:22] Are we doing that?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:51:23] I think you do if things aren’t going well.

JENNA FISCHER [00:51:26] That’s what I was gonna say.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:51:27] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:51:28] You mark the occasion of your six month dating anniversary when you need something to celebrate because it’s been difficult.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:51:35] Yeah. Because you’re like we made it six months. And this will mean a lot to her. So let’s celebrate it.

JENNA FISCHER [00:51:41] I had that same thought.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:51:43] I was cracking up in the scene because Ryan clearly doesn’t know what potpourri is. Is he gonna eat it? He’s playing with it. He’s fidgeting. And it’s also awkward. He sent Karen this email. And Jim’s like, yes, she read it to me, it is so cringey and just so well done. But I couldn’t help but watch B.J. playing with that potpourri.

JENNA FISCHER [00:52:04] I agree. Well, back at the mall, Meredith is parking the van and she is just, she’s just crashing into a car next to her.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:52:14] Jenna, in the DVD commentary, they said we really did that. We really, really scraped up an actual car.

JENNA FISCHER [00:52:22] No, not a-.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:52:24] Yes.

JENNA FISCHER [00:52:24] Not one that we didn’t own.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:52:25] No. We owned it. But still they were, they were going to see if they could cheat it. Where it looked really tight. And, but you can’t cheat that shot.

JENNA FISCHER [00:52:33] Oh, right, right. And just put in like a sound effect or something.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:52:35] Yes. They were gonna put in a sound effect and see if maybe we could just cheat. But you couldn’t. You could see it too clearly. So they just let Kate actually do that. Kate Flannery, there was no stunt driver, wedge that van and scraped up that car.

JENNA FISCHER [00:52:52] And then we had to pay for the damages.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:52:54] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:52:54] But it was our car. It was, it was like a picture car.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:52:57] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:52:57] As they call it.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:52:58] Our sort of prop car.

JENNA FISCHER [00:53:00] Well, when we get into the mall, we’re up in the food court, and you remember, lady, it was like 7:00 a.m.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:53:07] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:53:07] And I, it was so early and I just watched this scene. You talk about Ryan playing with the potpourri, and I was just watching this being so impressed that Rashida committed to eating those chips at 7:00 a.m. I was like, you go.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:53:22] Yeah, I remember really wishing we had soda. Like, I was like, oh, I’d give anything for a Coca-Cola or something because it was so early. But those cups just had water in them. And I was like, ah, dang it, I could use some caffeine.

JENNA FISCHER [00:53:37] I remember being very jealous of Mindy’s Cinnabon.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:53:40] Yes. And I’m just reading “The Electric City” the whole time, which is an actual Scranton newspaper.

JENNA FISCHER [00:53:47] Yes. Well, I also want to note that in this scene, Michael says, “Ladies, let’s dish about anything on your mind”. And then I counted. There is a 15 second moment of silence.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:54:02] I love that. I love when our show does that.

JENNA FISCHER [00:54:06] I know. And he breaks the silence by asking what a pap smear is. And then also, is it schmear? Growing up as a young woman, it was a little unclear to me if it was smear or schmear.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:54:21] I had no idea.

JENNA FISCHER [00:54:23] It’s smear.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:54:25] Pap smear.

JENNA FISCHER [00:54:26] Pap smear.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:54:27] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:54:27] Just if, and if this has been haunting anyone else, it is not “schmear” like the cream cheese on a bagel.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:54:34] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:54:34] They smear it.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:54:36] OK.

JENNA FISCHER [00:54:36] After they pap it.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:54:37] That’s right.

JENNA FISCHER [00:54:38] Pam changes the subject to Kelly and Ryan, but that doesn’t really go anywhere. And then Michael starts asking them about role play. And this is when he, I guess it becomes clear that he and Jan do role play where he is, the school girl.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:54:55] But also apparently so does Phyllis. Phyllis is like, “Yeah. It can be fun”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:54:59] Phyllis is very, she is, she’s certainly not disapproving of the idea.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:55:03] No. She said-.

JENNA FISCHER [00:55:04] Angela, however, is like, I’m out of here. I’m going to the doll store.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:55:08] Yeah. She’s like, I don’t need to sit here and listen to Michael talk about his sex life with Jan. I’m out.

JENNA FISCHER [00:55:13] Yeah. Now, Angela, there is a big scene coming up now and then you’re not in it. What were you doing? Were you just back in your trailer?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:55:23] I kind of remember sitting by the, the pretzel place, the Auntie Anne’s, like pretzel place.

JENNA FISCHER [00:55:30] I thought it was a Wetzel’s Pretzel.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:55:31] Yes.

JENNA FISCHER [00:55:32] Is it an Auntie Anne’s?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:55:33] It’s one of those.

JENNA FISCHER [00:55:34] Well, in this scene, we ask Michael to make a list of pros and cons for why he is with Jan. And one of his cons is, “I’m not happy when I’m with her”. And we, we all kind of like help him hear that, right?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:55:51] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:55:51] We’re like, “Michael, I think you should break up with Jan”, and he’s not sure. And Phyllis is like, “No thinking. What do you want to do”? And Michael says, “I want a breakup with Jan. I want to break up with Jan”.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:56:04] Yeah. I mean, I feel like this is like a great little moment that Phyllis has. And I’ve done stuff like this. Jenna, haven’t you? Haven’t you’ve like had a moment where you’re, like you have a lot of feelings about something and you’re trying to make sense of them and you just are like, OK, quiet my mind. How does this make me feel?

JENNA FISCHER [00:56:23] If I’m having a hard time making a decision, it could be a big thing or a small thing. I’ll get out a coin and let’s make it a small thing. Let’s be like, I want to buy this new couch.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:56:34] OK.

JENNA FISCHER [00:56:34] But I can’t decide.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:56:35] OK.

JENNA FISCHER [00:56:36] So heads is buy the couch and tails is don’t buy the couch. I don’t let the coin decide. But what I do is I flip it.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:56:45] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:56:46] And then I note my reaction to the answer. Because usually you kind of do care, yes or no. So if I flip it and it says, no, don’t buy the couch. And I feel relieved, then I have my answer. But if it says, no, don’t buy the couch. And I’m disappointed. And I’m like, oh. Two out of three. That means I want to buy the couch.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:57:07] Right.

JENNA FISCHER [00:57:09] Did that make sense?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:57:10] It does make sense. I feel like I always know. I always know pretty much how I feel about something in the moment. I don’t have to, like, break down how I feel about it. It’s very clear to me. And-.

JENNA FISCHER [00:57:23] It’s easy for you to make decisions?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:57:25] Yes.

JENNA FISCHER [00:57:26] Even with breakups? And relationships?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:57:31] Well, here’s the thing about relationships, sometimes, you know, but it takes you a while before you can say it out loud because of the ramifications.

JENNA FISCHER [00:57:39] Right.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:57:40] But I think you always know.

JENNA FISCHER [00:57:43] Well, I think the women really help Michael know, and he is very excited and to thank them for helping him, he is going to buy each one of them an item from Victoria’s Secret. It’s what we all wanted.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:57:58] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [00:57:59] And then there is a talking head that Lee Eisenberg, the writer of this episode, said is one of his favorite things he got to write for Steve because Steve’s delivery is so great. It’s the one where he says most guys want their women in high heels with cleavage and wearing skimpy little outfits. I’m paraphrasing, obviously, but that he thinks a woman looks best absolutely naked. He just said when he heard Steve deliver the end of that talking head, he so nailed it. It was like it was like a gymnast sticking the landing.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:58:39] Yeah, totally. Well, Jenna, here’s one quick thing. There are deleted scenes for this episode and there’s some really great ones. But one that I found sort of curious and fun is that all the women go into the Victoria’s Secrets except for Pam and Angela. They hang back outside in the mall and there’s a beat where you and I look at each other and we don’t really say anything. And we’re like, “Eh, I guess”. And then we both walk in.

JENNA FISCHER [00:59:08] Well, that’s very interesting because we had a Fan Catch.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:59:12] Oh.

JENNA FISCHER [00:59:12] From Sophia Lee. And this is one of those moments, Ang, at 20 minutes, 10 seconds, you and I are way back in the background of Steve’s talking head. And we’re just walking together through Victoria’s Secret. I feel like we didn’t know we were on camera and we’re just that shopping.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:59:33] We’re just sort of being chatty in the background.

JENNA FISCHER [00:59:36] Totally.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:59:36] That tracks.

JENNA FISCHER [00:59:38] Should we go back to the ladies lounge at Dunder Mifflin?

ANGELA KINSEY [00:59:41] Yes. And I have one of my favorite lines from this episode, and it’s Toby, and Paul Lieberstein totally crushes it. Yes.

JENNA FISCHER [00:59:49] Kevin’s like we should do this more often, guys. This is great.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:59:54] And Toby goes, “I think we hang out an appropriate amount of time”.

JENNA FISCHER [00:59:59] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [00:59:59] It’s so good. It’s so good.

JENNA FISCHER [01:00:03] And then at 20 minutes, 35 seconds, we have a major Old Tech Alert. When Creed enters the bathroom with a Walkman.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:00:11] With a yellow waterproof Walkman. Do you remember those?

JENNA FISCHER [01:00:16] I owned one.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:00:17] I owned one.

JENNA FISCHER [01:00:18] I had one. They were the best.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:00:19] Do you remember the little gray buttons, though, would pop off?

JENNA FISCHER [01:00:23] Yep.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:00:23] Yep.

JENNA FISCHER [01:00:23] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:00:23] And you’d have to wedge them back in?

JENNA FISCHER [01:00:26] But it was fun.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:00:27] And why did we need a waterproof Walkman?

JENNA FISCHER [01:00:29] Well, the idea was that you were gonna get so sweaty while you were working out. But I mean, really? No.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:00:35] OK.

JENNA FISCHER [01:00:36] Well, I guess also Brian Baumgartner told me that when Creed would enter the bathroom with that Walkman and be completely stunned and horrified that other people were in there, it would make everyone crack up. And they had a really, really hard time just getting that, just getting Creed in the room. They could not get Creed in.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:00:56] I loved Creed’s talking head too because he’s listening to music while he’s doing the talking heads. It’s sort of like yelling over the music he’s listening to.

JENNA FISCHER [01:01:05] Yes.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:01:06] And I think it’s pretty on brand that Creed would go poo in the women’s restroom. You know, those people, Jenna, you know those people.

JENNA FISCHER [01:01:15] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:01:16] We’ve had roommates, the roommate that goes and takes a dump in your bathroom instead of theirs. That’s Creed.

JENNA FISCHER [01:01:23] Well now, Ang, we go back to the mall. Angela and Michael are sitting, and I love this scene so much. Michael is dying for Angela to pick something out that he can buy her. He has a line where he says, “Can I please buy you some underwear”?

ANGELA KINSEY [01:01:43] Yeah, so, so you guys, Steve wanted me to break. He was one hundred percent messing with me and I’d been given a very strict note from Tucker Gates and Lee and Gene that they really did not want Angela to entertain him at all. So I had to sit there, very stoic as Steve as Michael just got to throw these lines at me. And there’s, there’s a few in the bloopers because it was really hard to keep it together. And Steve was just having a great time.

JENNA FISCHER [01:02:13] I watched the bloopers for this and there is a great line that didn’t make it.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:02:18] Is it because I started laughing?

JENNA FISCHER [01:02:20] Yeah, but Steve went on to improvise something along the lines of, like, “Pretend it’s Christmas and I’m Santa. Santa would like to buy you some panties”.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:02:34] Yes. I started laughing so hard. Oh, that was very hard for me to get through. And I feel like Steve just started making up things. He’s like, “Want a T back” and I was like, “I don’t even know what that is”.

JENNA FISCHER [01:02:45] Well, Pam has the talking head where she explains that she’s between boyfriends right now. She doesn’t need anything sexy. So she’s going to buy a robe and just turn it into some hand towels. I thought that was really industrious of her.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:02:59] I thought, I thought it was ridiculous. I’m like, Pam, just get a pair of comfy sweat pants.

JENNA FISCHER [01:03:04] Right. That’s true.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:03:06] Right? And, you know, just go buy some wash rags.

JENNA FISCHER [01:03:09] Wow. We had very different responses to this talking head.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:03:14] I was offended. I love a good bathrobe. Come on, Pam. Don’t cut it up. All right.

JENNA FISCHER [01:03:22] Well, now Meredith is driving everyone home from the mall and her tire blows out.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:03:27] Probably because she was going too fast. I mean, how many times is my character, like, “Slower. Slower, Meredith”?

JENNA FISCHER [01:03:37] It’s true.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:03:37] Yeah. Meredith doesn’t take care of her car. That tire blows out. Michael has no idea what to do. He is like, “Pam, maybe we need a crescent allen”.

JENNA FISCHER [01:03:44] Yes.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:03:44] That’s not a thing.

JENNA FISCHER [01:03:47] And Pam is like, “I’ll do it”. And she starts to change the tire. We had a fan question from Meghan Keel, Ciara Begley, Bethany A, Victoria Nash and Jamie Hahn. “Does Jenna really know how to change a tire”? Yes, I do.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:04:04] So do I. And I’ve changed one on the side of the road with a friend of mine.

JENNA FISCHER [01:04:08] Same. Yes. My dad taught me how to change a tire. He would make me practice and he would not let me get a car until I knew how to change a tire, check the oil and replace the fluids.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:04:20] I love that our dads taught us how to handle our cars. I just think that’s so sweet. OK. So now we’re back at the office. And you guys, Jim goes to grab a yogurt and he sees Pam’s sketch of Dwight. And he knows it’s Pam.

JENNA FISCHER [01:04:38] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:04:38] And I feel like this is just a little moment between the two of them, even though they’re not together.

JENNA FISCHER [01:04:45] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:04:45] I just thought it was really sweet.

JENNA FISCHER [01:04:48] Well, they’ve purposely not had much Jim Pam interaction for the last three episodes because, you know, next week is “Beach Games”.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:04:57] Ooh.

JENNA FISCHER [01:04:57] And we’re going to have a big moment.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:04:59] Oh, are we?

JENNA FISCHER [01:05:00] And they really wanted that to be a surprise.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:05:03] Man, I rewatch “Beach Games”. I know we’ll get there, but I was like, whoa! Pam.

JENNA FISCHER [01:05:09] Yeah, yeah. But even still, they did want some little moment where you were reminded of the affection of these two characters and this was it. Just him seeing the poster. That’s all you got.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:05:19] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [01:05:19] In this episode.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:05:20] And it inspired him for the tag and we’ll get to that.

JENNA FISCHER [01:05:24] I think so too.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:05:25] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [01:05:25] Well, something we haven’t talked much about is the Andy Dwight storyline in this episode where they’re going around and they’re hanging up these posters. And Dwight is just being so condescending to Andy the whole time. But it’s very clear to Andy that this is a drawing of Dwight. So he’s going along with it.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:05:42] Yeah. And he takes extra fliers, says he’s going to put them up all over the town. And there is a great deleted scene, Jenna. It’s a quick moment, but as Michael and the ladies are driving back, they come to a red light. And Michael looks out the window and sees one of the fliers on a tree. And he looks at it and then looks to camera and goes, “Idiot”.

JENNA FISCHER [01:06:06] That’s brilliant.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:06:07] So Andy is having some fun at Dwight’s expense because he’s gonna just plaster these everywhere. And there is a great scene when, at 23 minutes, 40 seconds, Andy shows Dwight a Three Musketeers and goes “Halfsies”? And Dwight’s like, “No, wholesies”, and he takes the whole thing in true Dwight fashion, just starts chomping down on it. Well, in one of the takes as Rainn ate this candy bar this way he choked and-.

JENNA FISCHER [01:06:35] I remember that.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:06:35] He choked and coughed and they loved it so much. They were like, “Will you do it in every take”?

JENNA FISCHER [01:06:41] That’s amazing. Well, when Michael and the women get back to the office, Michael asks Phyllis, Karen and Pam to come into his office while he calls Jan to break up with her.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:06:55] Yeah. He’s like, “I need my girls. I love you guys”.

JENNA FISCHER [01:06:59] Well, he gets her voicemail and he leaves a breakup message.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:07:03] Oh, and Jenna, your performance as Pam is so great. You’re like, “Don’t leave a mess- Oh”. ‘Cause like, you don’t want him to leave a message. But he does.

JENNA FISCHER [01:07:14] And then before he can finish it, Jan walks in. She walks in.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:07:20] Can you imagine? I, I can’t imagine. And then he’s just like, “All right, buddy, talk to you later”. Ooh.

JENNA FISCHER [01:07:28] Yeah, someone just walked in.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:07:32] Ooh. And the wom-, and Phyllis and Karen and Pam, they clear the heck out of there. They’re like, we’re getting out of here.

JENNA FISCHER [01:07:38] Yes. And Jan then apologizes. She says, “I don’t like how that phone call went earlier. So I drove all the way here to say I’m sorry. Can we get some dinner”?

ANGELA KINSEY [01:07:49] They awkwardly hold hands.

JENNA FISCHER [01:07:52] It’s such a weird moment.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:07:53] It’s so weird. Steve’s performance in this scene is so brilliant when she starts listening to the message and he’s kind of looking off, he has this expression on his face, it’s just brilliant. And he’s just saying things like, “Maybe we could get Italian, Chinese, uh”.

JENNA FISCHER [01:08:13] Yes. Jan hears the breakup message. And she leaves without saying a word.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:08:19] Yeah.

JENNA FISCHER [01:08:19] But I went to the blogs of Jennie Tan and Kath.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:08:24] What’d they have?

JENNA FISCHER [01:08:25] Well, first of all, Kath said that when they started shooting the scene, Melora had on dark colored nail polish. And Greg stopped the scene because he didn’t think that it fit her character and he had them change it.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:08:38] Oh, wow.

JENNA FISCHER [01:08:39] And she noted how impressed she was at his attention to detail. That everything mattered. The smallest details mattered. And I can imagine if that nail polish was distracting to Greg. It might be distracting to an audience member and it would take you out of the scene. And being in this scene with these two characters was so important.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:08:57] Yeah, that would have been weird to me to see Jan with dark nail polish. I would have been thrown by that.

JENNA FISCHER [01:09:02] Well, Jennie Tan said that while they were shooting the scene, they gave Melora and Steve the option of doing alternate endings and that in one Melora threw something. And in another one, she growled at him. She just growled at the end.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:09:18] Growled.

JENNA FISCHER [01:09:19] Growled. And then in another one, she broke down crying. And they were watching the taping with Gene and Lee, the writers, and Gene and Lee asked them their opinion and that she and Kath said that they both felt that Jan would be more mad than sad. And they were so excited when they saw the final cut because they felt like they had a little part in picking the ending of the scene.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:09:42] Well, I thought it was the perfect ending. I also think that Jan is not going to spiral out in an office where she is everyone’s superior.

JENNA FISCHER [01:09:54] Yeah. And in front of the cameras.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:09:55] Oh, yeah. I feel like the part, like once she got in her car, maybe it was a different story, but.

JENNA FISCHER [01:10:02] Yes.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:10:03] But she wasn’t going to let them see too much. So the episode is wrapping up. We have Michael’s talking head. And Gene and Lee said this was actually a series of three talking heads that they meshed together. And then they had all this B roll when he’s like he wished for Jan to get over him and Phyllis to get a plasma TV, for Pam to get courage and Angela to get a heart and Kelly to get a brain.

JENNA FISCHER [01:10:28] Yeah.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:10:28] All of these moments, I just loved it. I thought it was like such a great way to wrap up the episode. And now Jenna, let’s discuss the tag.

JENNA FISCHER [01:10:39] This is amazing. Lee Eisenberg told me that it was actually Randall Einhorn who pitched this tag.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:10:45] Yes. Who, who pitched the idea of the Sharpie on the mirror. Right?

JENNA FISCHER [01:10:50] Yes. So in this tag, Jim calls the Sex Predator hotline. He has information. Dwight answers the phone. And Kath noted in her blog that it took Rainn six takes to get out the line, “Dunder Mifflin, slash, Sex Predator Hotline, this is Dwight Schrute”. He had a really hard time saying it, like, because it was making them laugh. And Jim tells Dwight that he saw the perp in the woman’s bathroom above the sink.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:11:18] And this is Jim. This is Jim and Pam having a prank with each other, without even knowing it, they’re just missing each other.

JENNA FISCHER [01:11:27] Because Dwight runs in the bathroom. He looks in the mirror. And this was Randall’s pitch that there would be a little Sharpie mustache and Dwight would take off his glasses and realize that he is the person on the flier.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:11:41] It’s so great. It’s so great. You know, I think it would have been funny without the Sharpie, but the Sharpie nails it. The Sharpie makes it. So that was a phenomenal idea by Randall Einhorn.

JENNA FISCHER [01:11:51] Well, that was “Women’s Appreciation”. Do you guys feel like you appreciate women more?

ANGELA KINSEY [01:11:56] I hope so. I had two things I was tracking Jenna, and I feel like I should share them with you now.

JENNA FISCHER [01:12:01] Please.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:12:01] First of all, Pam’s plant at reception.

JENNA FISCHER [01:12:06] There’s not.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:12:07] It’s not a new container. I’m sure the plant is new, but we have recycled a container.

JENNA FISCHER [01:12:14] Which one is it this week?

ANGELA KINSEY [01:12:15] It is the indigo purple one with polka dots.

JENNA FISCHER [01:12:19] Oh, alright.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:12:20] Callback with plant container. I know, riveting, you guys, but I’m obsessed. The other thing I tracked, sorry to parents with children listening, maybe earmuffs. Here is our penis count.

JENNA FISCHER [01:12:32] Oh, great.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:12:33] So this is the actual times we say the word “penis”. Not all of the other ways we talk about it, because we talk about it in a lot of different ways in this episode.

JENNA FISCHER [01:12:43] OK.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:12:44] Michael says “penis” twice and Dwight says “penis” four times. We actually only say the word “penis” six times in the whole episode.

JENNA FISCHER [01:12:54] See? So if your grandma hadn’t turned this off, she would have only had to hear it five more times.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:12:59] Didn’t matter. Didn’t want to hear it one time. Click. Off. Finished.

JENNA FISCHER [01:13:05] Well, and now we’re finished. But we’ll be back next week with “Beach Games”.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:13:12] “Beach Games” is so great. And Jen Celotta is going to send in some audio clips. She had some phenomenal stories. I can’t wait.

JENNA FISCHER [01:13:20] Can’t wait. We’ll see you then.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:13:22] See you guys. Have a great one. Thank you for listening to “Office Ladies”. “Office Ladies” is produced by Earwolf, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey.

JENNA FISCHER [01:13:33] Our producer is Codi Fischer, our sound engineer is Sam Kieffer and our associate producer is Aynsely Bubbico.

ANGELA KINSEY [01:13:39] Our theme song is “Rubber Tree” by Creed Bratton.

JENNA FISCHER [01:13:42] For ad free versions of “Office Ladies”, go to StitcherPremium.com. For a free one month trial of Stitcher Premium, use code “Office”.