Second Drink: Branch Closing with Charles Esten｜Office Ladies

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Uber, on our way. Hello, and welcome to our second drink of Season 3, Episode 7, Branch Closing.

This is a great breakdown.

We got to talk with Charles Esten, who played Josh, you know, the manager of the Stanford branch. Yes.

And he's just such a great guy.

He really is. Well, I thought I'd kick off our second drink with a letter from Yusef A., who said, is Josh wearing the same suit Michael wore in his birthday episode?

Is he? Did you go check?

Well, you know I love a side -by -side photo.

I don't know anyone that loves them more.

I went to both episodes.

I grabbed photos. Let me see.

And I'll tell you what, I see why Yousef is asking this question.

They are both wearing dark blue pinstriped suits with like white pinstripes.

They are both wearing like bright blue shirts and they're both wearing a tie that has like white, blue, and kind of black in it.

So very sort of similar looks.

Very similar, but here's my side -by -side and they are not the same.

They are not identical, but wow.

The shirt looks the same, it's the tie that looks different, right?

And the suit as well, I think is slightly different.

And the pinstripes in Michael's suit are more prominent, whereas Josh's suit, they're a little more subtle.

But that's the same shirt.

It's the same idea.

And you know how Michael always admires people he thinks are cool?

Do you think there's a chance he saw Josh and Stanford wearing this ensemble and he went out and bought something similar and then wore it on his birthday?

For sure. I think so too.

Well, a fun part of this episode are all of the reactions from people when they find out that the branch is closing.

There's a series of talking heads and the writers must have really liked writing these because there were a ton of candy bag alts for them.

Yes, I found mine for Pam.

Same, I found mine for Angela.

Okay, so the Angela one that made it into the episode was the one in the original script.

This is Angela's reaction to the branch closing.

Let's hear it. I don't want to blame anyone in particular.

I think everyone's to blame.

It's very on brand for Angela to point fingers at everyone.

So here was the candy bag alt for that talking head.

Some of these people are in for a rough time.

Not me. The world always needs accountants.

But the stage direction says she doesn't look so sure of that.

Mm -hmm. Okay, so here is the Pam talking head that made it into the episode.

It's a blessing in disguise.

Actually, not even in disguise.

In my fantasy, I always thought I would slap someone, make a big speech, and storm out forever.

But this is good, too.

Hmm. All right. So that was actually my candy bag alt.

My candy bag alt made it into the episode.

The original Talking Head that was in the shooting draft actually said this, it's a blessing in disguise, or actually it's not even in disguise.

Sometimes when I'm home, I answer my phone, Dunder Mifflin, this is Pam.

So I'm hoping that'll stop now.

I like that. Me too.

too. So finally, we got this letter from Harshita V.

that said, not a question, but something I thought you might like.

Over the course of the entire nine seasons, Stanley and Creed only talk to each other once, and they only say four words to each other.

And that happens during this episode branch closing.

Lady, did you know that was a thing?

I Googled it. I looked everywhere.

There There are threads on Reddit that are all about how Stanley and Creed never speak to one another.

I did not realize that.

But now I'm trying to play scenes in my head.

And even though sometimes they're sort of in proximity to one another, they're not really interacting.

You're right. Yeah.

So there is a scene in Fun Run where they're interacting.

They have gone off the course with Oscar, and they're having lunch together, Oscar, Creed, and Stanley.

They don't have any lines to one another.

So they're all seated at the table, but they don't share any dialogue.

So I thought that in honor of their only time saying words to one another, maybe we should hear it.

Yeah. It's from this episode.

Stanley has a talking head where he says he's excited about the branch closing and how he's going to take an early retirement package.

Creed is walking around the bullpen taking photos of people.

And here's what they say to one another.

Feeling nostalgic? yeah nostalgic that's it wow four words we have to ask them about that i feel like we need to it's really funny i was trying to think if there were other characters that just never really seemed to interact or have dialogue together and for a very long time it was pam and meredith well also jim and angela they hardly ever speak to each other yeah very Very rarely.

I would get paired with Kate for background work.

So you would see our characters together, but we never really talked.

Right. So interesting.

Well, I love it when people write in with these observations.

I know. The show keeps on giving, lady.

It's pretty cool. All right, everyone, please enjoy our breakdown of Branch Closing.

I'm Jenna Fisher. And I'm Angela Kinsey.

We were on The Office together.

And we're best friends.

And now we're doing the Ultimate Office rewatch podcast just for you.

Each week, we will break down an episode of The Office and give exclusive behind -the -scenes stories that only two people who were there can tell you.

We're The Office Ladies.

Hi, folks. Hello, everybody.

I'm sorry. I feel like I just shouted.

I won't do that again.

If you shouted, then what did I do?

I don't know. I don't know.

I'll pull back. We're a little amped up today, guys.

We're excited about this episode.

We're amped up. We're excited about this episode.

Also, seeing my BFF's face and Sam and Cody, like the four of us, is kind of just like one of the highlights of my week.

Every week. It's one of the highlights of my week.

Yeah, it's true. Let's talk about The Office.

This week's episode is branch closing.

It is season three, episode seven, written by Mike Schur and directed by Tucker Gates.

Gates. Yes. Tucker Gates directed four episodes, one of which people like absolutely flip out over is the threat level midnight.

We'll get there. Yes.

Oh, yes. All right.

Here's a summary for this episode.

Jumping right in. Jan tells Michael that the Dunder Mifflin Scranton branch is shutting down.

Michael, of course, shares this news with the rest of the office, even though No, Jan told him not to.

I mean, what are you going to tell Michael something and expect him not to just blurt it out?

He's like emotion driven.

The guy cannot hold anything in.

No, he can. He can hold nothing, basically.

Yeah. So everyone is wondering what their new life will be like.

They're talking about it.

They're thinking about it.

Meanwhile, Michael and Dwight drive to David Wallace's house in hopes of ambushing him and saving the branch. They're going to they're going to save us, guys.

even if they have to be aggressive, like, what, they're going to show up at this guy's house?

What are they thinking?

Thank God he didn't come home.

Well, we eventually learned that Josh from Stanford leveraged his position to get a new job at Staples, and the Stanford branch will now be closing.

The Scranton branch will absorb some of their employees, which means, means guys jim is coming back oh jim is coming back it's a big episode that's a lot of information we find out in this episode so much information and it sets up the rest of the season really it really does yeah we're gonna and this is we're gonna get our new characters now ed helms rashida jones angela we're finally next week gonna be able to interact with those Stanford people.

Yeah. And they really, they really get under people's skin.

It's so fun. All right.

But we're getting ahead.

We're getting ahead of ourself.

Jenna, now you and I were being chatty on the phone yesterday.

Jenna, you were a little, I don't know, braggy to me on the phone yesterday.

You said you had fantastic fast facts.

You wouldn't tell me.

So what do you got?

What do you got? You were a little braggy.

I was a little braggy because I am actually really proud of these these fast facts.

The first one is a little soft. I'm going to just preface it now that we've built it up.

But fast fact number one is that this episode of Branch Closing, it now streams as a supersized episode.

It's longer than a regular episode.

It runs about 30 minutes.

But when it first aired, it was a regular episode.

This ran on NBC as a shorter episode.

But immediately Immediately following the airing on television, NBC released what they called a producer's cut, where they put back some deleted scenes.

And that is the version that now streams today, this producer's cut.

Lady, that's a very solid first fast fact.

Oh, well, thank you so much. Yeah, that's really good.

I forgot that. I forgot that.

And when I watched it, I noticed it was longer.

And I was like, we always had the big announcement about our supersized episodes, remember?

It was always usually at the end of the season.

in. And I was like, how did this one get in there?

That's how. Okay. First of all, I think that this really speaks to how much stuff we used to cut from episodes.

Because when you watch this episode, it feels awesome.

You're like, oh, yes.

And it kind of shows all the things that we used to have to cut out.

And as we go along, I'll point out some of the things that only got to stay in because of this added time.

I'll mention the things that were cut for the network airing.

But I think this This also speaks to a time historically when websites and the idea of web traffic or exclusive web content, it was just blowing up.

This is the very first kind of exclusive web content of The Office that NBC put out this producer's cut.

And it was because NBC wanted to drive traffic to their website.

Yes, which is also why we did those webisodes.

we started doing more and more content for nbc .com i started doing a thing called adventures with angela where i would yeah go around the set and make these videos and they put it on nbc .com because they were really starting to see hey this internet thing is probably gonna be the way to go and this was still before social media this was still before instagram twitter was around but it It was very much just starting and it wasn't what it is today.

But yeah, this now you almost expect it.

I feel like now you watch a television program and you're like, where's my extra content?

Where's my behind the scenes?

Where's my extended cuts?

But this was like just the very beginning and branch closing was part of that.

I find that fascinating, Jenna.

And also, yeah, you're right.

This is a timestamp, right?

If we're tracking old tech, our show started before there was streaming.

Oh, Angela, fast fact number two is a major old tech tracking.

You're going to love this.

What? All right. On January 9th, 2007, Apple introduced the first iPhone.

I don't know if you remember this, but it was unveiled during a presentation by Steve Jobs.

We got some mail from Aaron McDonald with what might be my favorite tip off ever.

He said that the cold open from this episode was the first ever piece of video played on the iPhone, and it was done during that presentation by Steve Jobs.

Wow. We were part of this global moment, like without even knowing it.

It blew my mind. Here is something even more crazy.

I watched the whole presentation.

Also during the presentation, Steve Jobs, when he's showing you how the music stuff Stuff Works, he plays the Green Day song Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Angela, in season six of The Office, Dwight and Andy sing Boulevard of Broken Dreams in the Secret Santa episode.

What are you trying to tell me, Jenna?

What is happening? Is this an episode of Lost?

Is this an episode of Lost?

Group Mind. Group Minds, Time Portal, what's happening?

I don't know. Don't you think it's crazy that both a video of The Office and that Green Day song.

We're both part of this presentation and then later that same Green Day song shows up on the office.

It's so many coincidences.

What's happening? I think it's a collective of amazing creative minds.

It's a group mind of great stuff.

You've got an iPhone.

You've got the office.

You've got Green Day.

It's group mind. I don't know.

Okay. All right. What's next, Jenna?

Fast fact number three.

There are a ton of talking heads in this episode.

Did you notice? Well, yeah, Yeah, because everyone's reacting.

I did notice that. Everyone's talking about, oh, what am I going to do now that the branch is closing?

And then when we find out the branch is not closing, everybody talks about, oh, here's my reaction to that news.

Do you remember when we talked about how our cinematographer, Randall Einhorn, chose the placement of a talking head based on whether or not people had a future outside of Dunder Mifflin?

Yes. To refresh everyone's memories, we learned that most characters have the office of Dunder Mifflin behind them, behind them in that window as they're giving their talking heads.

And the reason behind this was that that meant people were stuck.

They didn't really have a future.

They were kind of stuck in the world of Dunder Mifflin.

However, very often Jim would have a Talking Head all the time.

And his talking heads had a window to the world behind him.

Yes. The point of that was because he had a future outside of this company.

Yes. He was going places.

Yes. Angela, in this episode, after the employees get the news that Dunder Mifflin Scranton is closing, every single one of the talking heads have a window to the outside world behind them.

No, they don't. Oh, yes, they do.

Wait. When they find out that the branch isn't closing, all of the talking heads switch back to having the bullpen behind them.

I did not catch that.

You have to watch it.

I have to go back and watch it.

Angela, you have a talking head where you're talking about Dunder Mifflin closing and outside world behind you.

Same with Pam, same with Ryan, same with Phyllis, same with Stanley.

And then when we find out that we're still stuck at Dunder Mifflin, Dunder Mifflin is behind us.

That is so wild because I really don't think I ever had talking heads on that wall ever.

I mean, I I'm, I'm trying to think back.

I think maybe one time when I was sitting next to you and we were both pregnant, right?

Yeah. Like, wow, Jenna, that is a fantastic fast fact.

It's subtle, but it's layered and it's there.

Everybody watched branch closing again, just for the talking head.

That's it. That's what I got.

I'm giving you some claps all around.

I was really proud of that one because I tracked that one myself.

So I'm giving myself a real pat on the back for that.

I'm raising my glass to myself.

I don't know if you can see.

I'm raising my coffee mug to myself.

I'm raising mine back to you.

You do, as you raise your coffee mug, I notice you have a tattoo on your wrist that you normally don't have. I was fascinated and fixated on it.

Did your kids give you a sticky tattoo?

You know, Angela, in this pandemic, we have brought back some real oldies, but goodies at our house.

And one of them has been the temporary tattoos.

Yeah, this is something my kids were interested in when they were like two or three years old.

And they're now eight and six.

And we found this drawer of temporary tattoos and we're tatting up.

You know what we found as exciting as your tattoos?

We found in the shed a bin of unopened Play -Doh and it was still good.

Our kids are 12, 12 and 10.

They're not, you know, that's when you sort of phase out a Play -Doh.

They brought it back.

There's a chicken that poops Play -Doh.

It's made a comeback.

Lady, those fast facts were so good.

I mean, where do we go from there?

We should probably take a break.

Let's take a break and then we'll dive into this episode.

It sounds great. I think you're on mute.

Workday is starting to sound the same.

I think you're on mute.

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Hey, what's up flies?

This is David Spade.

Dana Carvey. I know we never actually left, but I'll just say it.

We are back with another season of Fly on the Wall.

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He has found a way to prank Dwight even from the Stanford branch. He is sending a fax very early in the morning.

Karen enters. She's a little curious, like, what are you doing?

And he's like, it's too hard to explain.

And we see a talking head where Jim says that he stole some of Dwight's stationery before he left. And he occasionally sends Dwight a fax from Dwight's future self.

It's so good. It's so perfect.

It's so perfect. And that morning, he said, don't drink the coffee.

Might be poisoned, right?

Something to that effect.

So Dwight's like, oh, my God.

And he sees Stanley about to take a sip of coffee.

And he, you know, practically tackles him to the ground.

He's like, you'll thank me later.

So Dwight thinks he is getting faxes from his future self.

This is classic Jim.

It's so good. The first thing I thought after I watched this cold open was, did Mike Schur write this episode?

He did, because that's Mike Schur.

This is 100 % from the brain of Mike Schur.

He did such a good job of writing these Jim Dwight pranks.

Oh, he's so smart, Jenna.

He's so smart. I know.

He's smarty. Yeah. All right.

So then we move into the episode and Michael is at his desk.

Jan enters. Oh, Michael.

Again, like three hellos.

Just call me Levinson in the morning.

In the morning, Levinsons.

And, you know, Jan has news to deliver.

But first she has to sit through this barrage of awkward hellos from Michael.

And she finally tells him Dunder Mifflin Scranton is closing.

You are a severance package person.

Yeah. You're not going to make it.

Michael starts crying.

And then he starts like moaning.

Like how, Jenna, could you imagine like in this moment?

No. And of course, it's so loud.

everyone from outside the office can see and hear that something is going down in his office.

Everyone's very curious.

Yes, because he's like, like he's moaning.

Kevin comes over to Pam's desk, wants to know what's going on.

We had a fan question.

Okay, I'm gonna let this fan question go.

And then I have a card that just says, What?

Is it what Hadley Horton is wondering?

Why is Pam's hair different?

What's up with the low pony?

Oh, that's a separate card called low pony question mark.

Okay. Where should we start?

Should we start with what or low pony?

Let's start with what and then go into low pony.

Great. Pam calls Kevin Kev and then Buddy and they fist bump.

What is happening? What is happening?

The fist bump was a reluctant fist bump though, Ange.

I know, but Kev, Buddy, fist bump.

She's being condescending.

She's being totally condescending.

She's trying to put him off.

She's like, Kev, Buddy, fist bump, leave my desk.

I mean, she's trying to get through it.

That's my interpretation.

My interpretation was that he's like a little kid.

Yeah. Yeah. So she's like, okay, Kev.

She's patronizing him, for sure.

Sure. But you just don't often hear Pam sort of become that casual with Kevin or, you know, I feel like she saves that part of herself for Jim and everyone else.

She's sort of just aloof to a little bit.

So it just kind of was startling to me that in your low ponytail.

I mean, what the heck?

Here's the deal with the low pony.

I think it was a swing and a miss.

I wasn't crazy about about it when I saw it.

We were trying to change things up.

You might notice as well, Pam has got a little bit of like a pinkier, sparklier eyeshadow on in this episode as well.

And a little lip gloss.

There's so much pink.

She has pink eyeshadow, pink lipstick, pink sweater, but then the low pony with the clip, not even a ponytail holder.

I can't wait. Wait.

I sound it so Southern.

It's very hard for me.

Holder. Anyway, it's a clip holding your hair, not even even a ponytail holder.

Yeah, well, the clip is humongous.

Here's the thing. The conversation in Hair and Makeup was that Pam would be experimenting a little bit because she's going to her art classes.

She's living on her own.

We needed to see some physical representation of the fact that she's attempting even in small ways to break out of her shell right now, to break out of her routines.

So there you go. We offer the low pony.

I'm going to say I think you never see it again, because it wasn't great.

Can we just say it wasn't great?

It's a clip low pony.

Yeah, low pony. I now I kind of wish they'd really gone for it.

Next week, you would have had a banana clip.

Remember those? Oh, God, they gave you like a mohawk.

yeah yeah all right well it was a moment in time it was something we tried unfortunately it's there for us all to see again and again okay don't don't say unfortunately to me do you see how many low ponies my character has like all the crazy I don't have a problem with a low pony I don't have a problem with a low pony in general I'm just saying this particular low pony was was because of the giant clip it was odd.

We're back in Michael's office and Jenna I don't know if you've ever had to fire someone I have or if you've ever been fired but I couldn't imagine getting the news Michael got and Jan's like well you know they believe that Josh Porter is gonna have a big role in the future of the company and Michael goes what kind of role the king of the this stupid universe.

Could you imagine like firing someone basically who's who's having this kind of a spiral?

I mean, could you imagine firing someone or being fired and then having their wind up mechanical teeth was the script?

It was an accident.

And by the way, this points to what amazing actors Steve and Melora are because they just stayed in the moment and reacted to it as if that was meant to happen.

It was not meant to happen.

And could it be more brilliant that you're firing this guy who's so incompetent on so many levels and his clacky teeth go off?

Yes, amazing. All right, I'm going to move us along.

Michael has a talking head where he says, let's see Josh find another Stanley, Phyllis, or Kevin.

Show me that farm. Show me that farm.

charm and during that talking head we kind of um we see creed eating his mung beans at his desk we see phyllis knitting and we had a fan question from stephanie miller in this episode when we see phyllis knitting can she knit in real life did she knit that whole scarf her character is working on you guys she is a hundred percent fake knitting phyllis cannot knit didn't she do so good they had a basket full of knitting stuff they'd made it part of her character it's set next to her desk all nine seasons.

And it just sat there.

And sometimes if she had to do background stuff, but this was a great panning shot because, you know, Michael says there is no Stanley tree and he's napping.

And then they say, do you think the world is crawling with Phyllis's and she's knitting?

So it was this great visual.

But no, Phyllis can't knit.

Yeah. No, no. That's one of my favorite talking heads, though.

I love that one. I do, too.

I do, too. So then Michael is walking around the office Dwight can tell something's wrong but Michael isn't spilling and this is my other favorite talking head from this episode which is Dwight's talking head where he says when you're close to someone you can read them like a book and he says Michael's book is titled something weird is going on colon what did Jan say the Michael Scott story story by Michael Scott with Dwight Schrute.

All right, that last part is not in the script, and I could kind of tell that there was an improv there because whenever Rain improvs at the end of a talking head or the end of a scene, I feel like you can see him smile just a little bit in the corners of his mouth and his eyes.

So I reached out to Mike Schur, and he told me that he and Reign expanded on the book title on the day, on set.

They kept throwing out ideas.

The original was just supposed to be something weird is going on, colon, what did Jan say?

And Mike threw out the Michael Scott story and then Reign added with Dwight Schrute.

Yeah, for sure. I mean, I feel like we all have tells and Reign, when he has an improv that I think he's really happy with, has a little bit of a smirk.

He's kind of proud of the moment.

He amuses himself in the moment while saying it.

Now things are really getting heightened over at the Stanford branch because Karen breaks the news that the Scranton branch is closing to Jim and oh my God, Jim's face.

He's like, what? You notice he doesn't reach out to Pam.

Pam and Jim never call one another or text one another in this whole day.

It's kind of weird because in Diwali, we see that Pam was texting Jim and they had that phone call at the end of grief counseling.

But what's going on?

Why no communication?

It makes perfect sense to me.

You know, they're both sort of struggling with where do we go from here?

And I'm sure Pam's first instinct is to reach out to him, but she doesn't feel like she has that kind of access to him anymore.

She rejected him. So no, it makes perfect sense to me that they don't communicate.

What I thought was weirder, and we're going to get to it, is that Roy finds out from accounting.

So Pam didn't even tell Roy.

That's right. Right.

So now Michael approaches Pam at front reception.

He's acting really strange.

She clearly knows something is up because he was moaning in his office and Jan visited.

So Pam's like, what's going on, Michael?

Yeah, I have a fan catch from this moment.

Okay. At six minutes, 21 seconds, Celeste Dimas says, if you freeze and look closely on that big board that's hanging by a counting?

On Tuesday the 5th, it says, one of many Emmys, Steve was robbed.

Oh, that's a great fan catch. I promise I didn't write it.

We shot this episode about two weeks after the Emmys.

And I guess someone had written up on the board a little congratulations to us.

And we also needed to say that Steve was robbed because he did did not win that year for Michael Scott.

He never won for Michael Scott, which is ridiculous.

Yeah. Well, I have a Jenna catch because since Celeste turned me on to looking at this whiteboard, I found something else on the whiteboard on the top line written under Thursday, written in multiple colors.

It says, in case you haven't noticed, there is a lot of colorful who we on this board. Anyway, guys, for the future, I think it could be very fun to freeze on this whiteboard because they did change what they wrote all the time.

Well, I love that. I love the little subtle shade towards the television Academy about Steve not getting the Emmy.

Totally. Coming up next, Michael has a talking head, and then he does something immediately after.

And it's one of these classic Michael moments that I live for.

It always makes me laugh so hard. Michael says that all he can do is put on a brave face and be our leader.

And then he says to the whole bullpen, it's over.

We are screwed. Yeah.

Really, buddy? That's the brave face you're putting on for us?

OK, thanks. Yeah, I mean, he really he offers no comfort.

He he sort of begins to ugly cry.

Angela is asking about the employees asking about their jobs.

I have two catches here.

I have something I need to say, Angela.

OK, go. At seven minutes, 18 seconds, your sweater.

It's a sweater vest. Okay.

So I actually have some photos of this sweater from a wardrobe fitting that I saved.

So I have a button down shirt and then over it I have a sweater vest, but it's like a tank.

It's like a teeny tiny, very odd sweater vest. It's like another one of those failed project runway contests.

Oh, a hundred percent.

And then our wardrobe designer, Carrie Bennett, took the buttons off the sweater vest and replaced them with those cat faces.

It's really a work of art.

It really is. All right.

Well, I have a catch at 7 minutes, 27 seconds.

This is one of the most famous Michael Scott memes.

It's Steve making that face like he's about to cry or maybe he smells dog poop.

You know the face. And he says, this is the worst. And people use it a ton to respond to other people.

Like when they get some news that they're like, no way, all of a sudden I see in my feed, Steve's face.

Okay, on Office Ladies Pod, will you please post the pictures of your cat buttons and of this meme?

Yes, of course, of course.

Okay, good, because I want everyone to have these visuals.

Okay, I think it's important.

I have a script question, Jenna, because I know you have the scripts.

scripts. So Toby admits that he knows that this was going to happen.

Michael calls him a traitor, says he wants to see him in his office.

They start to walk in and Michael says, oh my God, you walk so slowly.

I feel like that was Steve improvising.

I had that same feeling and I did look at the script.

None of that part of him calling Toby into his office was scripted.

So him, that whole bit of him calling Toby in his office, say he's walking slowly and then And Dwight guarding the door and putting his hand up to the camera.

None of that was in the script.

Amazing. Yeah. Amazing.

And I love that everyone just went with it.

They just like, oh, Steve's doing his thing.

We're going to let this play out and participate.

Because I looked, I was like, wait, is there a lost scene of Toby in Michael's office?

Is there a conversation that didn't make it?

No, no. That was just Steve on the day.

Wow. And, you know, speaking of how Rain gets the little smirk when he improvises.

At seven minutes, 52 seconds, when he won't let the camera crew in and he shuts the door, he has the smirk.

I noticed it too. Well, we had a fan question from Mary Poulton and actually a lot of people wrote in with a similar question.

She wanted to know, when we got the script for this episode, did any of us worry that the show was being canceled or did we know that this was just an idea for an episode?

episode. And she was asking and a lot of people were asking because we've said before, sometimes plots are revealed to us at these table reads and they were shocking.

And they wanted to know as we sat down and got the script, as we were reading it, were we thinking, wait a second, what?

Scranton's closing.

Are we all out of jobs?

No, guys, we knew that this was a plot point.

None of us were worried.

We had all had our contracts renewed for all of season three.

Yeah. And so we knew that we we would be producing 24 episodes in season three.

And we also had been tipped off to the fact that eventually there would be a merger episode and that those people from Stanford would be coming to join us.

So we didn't have any kind of surprise or anxiety when we got this script.

No, we were just excited because it meant finally after this episode, we could all be in one room together.

So we were excited, at least the Scranton branch, we were excited.

I don't know, maybe Stanford was like, we like our schedule, but we were excited to have everyone back.

All right, so now, Angela, we move into a Ryan talking head and he's holding up his business cards, right?

Are they his calling cards?

Oh, boy. He's holding up his business slash calling card. Eight minutes.

Notice, here it is.

Talking head exterior window behind him.

This is the beginning of the exterior window talking heads because next up, Angela has a talking head and Kelly has a talking head with the mascara on her face, all exterior windows.

She's going to track it.

All right. So now we're going back to Stanford and Andy is leading everyone in a chant.

Stanford, Connecticut.

Right. He's getting everyone worked up.

So while everyone's chanting at eight minutes, 23 seconds, you will see someone who is beloved by our office cast and crew.

Her name is Lori Sox.

She was our stand in her and her husband.

husband, Steven. They were like a stand -in duo team and she's in the background in the scene and it just made me so happy to see her.

I saw her too. I saw her too and I loved it.

Well, maybe we should explain what a stand -in is if we haven't before.

So after you rehearse a scene with the actors, you bring in people to stand in for the actors while the crew sets the lights and the camera angles.

And this is an opportunity for the cast to go and get their makeup fixed or change their outfit or any number of things, rehearse their lines.

And then when we're ready to start rolling, the actors come back in and stand in their positions or sit at their desks.

So Lori would stand in for all the women.

And Stephen, her husband, would stand in for the men.

But every once in a while, you'll see them pop up in the background of scenes.

And that's what happened here.

Yeah, they're wonderful.

And we all became came very close.

And anyway, I was very excited to see her there.

I know. They were the loveliest, and they had two kids.

Lori got pregnant twice over the course of the show.

Everybody who worked on our show became part of the family, and they were part of our family.

Yes, absolutely. Well, back in Scranton, Meredith goes into Michael's office to let him know that she is still down to sleep together.

She's still down to get down.

Yeah, because, you know, they made a pact years years ago that they would sleep together on the last day of work.

And Michael is like, I have no idea what you're talking about.

OK, this storyline, which is going to keep playing out of Meredith trying to figure out who she agreed to have sex with on her last day of work.

This was an example of one of the storylines that got cut from the original NBC airing.

Oh, we were able to keep this storyline in because we got the extra time with the producers cut.

Oh, my gosh. And see, see, I love it.

I feel like it fills out the picture.

Yes, completely. Well, Jenna, your character has a pretty big talking head coming up.

You know, it's interesting to see how the branch closing is affecting everyone.

I mean, Stanley is elated, right?

He's going to retire early.

Oh, yeah. Stanley's elated.

Ryan says this worked out great.

And Pam is really happy.

be. Oh, yeah. And we express all of those emotions with an exterior window behind us, Angela.

Well, Pam says that she always thought that maybe she would make a big speech and slap someone and storm out.

So dramatic. I know.

Who would she slap?

It would have been me.

She would have slapped me.

Well, she's eventually going to slap Michael.

So maybe that's who she means.

But it's definitely Either you or Michael, right?

Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent.

Okay. So now, Angela, we're over in accounting and Angela and Kevin break the news to Roy.

Yeah. Why? Why do Angela and Kevin break the news?

Huh? Why hasn't Pam said anything?

I think this really shows how disconnected Roy and Pam are, by the way.

Well, he seems very concerned that Pam might be one of the Connecticut transfers, but Angela kind of misreads his concern and thinks that he's worrying about himself.

And she's like, oh, Roy, you'll be fine.

You're so strong and capable.

Yeah, don't worry, Roy.

Kevin finds this hilarious.

Angela tells him to grow up.

Yeah, he totally storms off.

We got a fan question from Patricia Kennedy.

Patricia wants to to know, Angela, when you're talking to Roy, it seems like Angela has a thing for Roy.

Did she? Patricia, this is a fantastic question.

All right. Many of you out there have speculated about Angela and Roy.

Jenna, I have been asked this question a lot and there's all of these threads online about it.

So the answer, Patricia, is yes.

It seems like Angela always had a thing for Roy.

I love this question, Patricia, because this has given us an opportunity to track it.

We're going to track this Angela Roy flirtation because it is real and it is happening.

All right. Early on, there are a few episodes that kind of hint at this Roy Angela flirtation.

I believe it starts in the fire.

This is season two.

Remember when the members of the office are playing the game, who would you do?

And Michael asked Roy, who would you do?

And Roy says, what's the name of that tight ass Christian chick?

The blonde. Yeah. Sort of referring to Angela.

Right. And I'm standing right there.

And I'm like, my name is Angela.

And he's like, hey, Angela.

So definitely it starts there.

And then in the secret, when Angela and Phyllis are in the kitchen and they're cleaning out the fridge, Phyllis asked Angela who she'd pick if she were in Pam's shoes, Jim or Roy.

Roy. And Angela's like, oh, I don't want to participate in this.

Right. But then she gets this kind of weird look on her face and she goes, Roy, weird. Look, it's like a confession.

It's like, well, Roy.

Yeah. But then this just keeps building.

Right. And it's further fleshed out in the first ever The Office webisodes, Jenna.

Yeah. So the webisodes were called The Books don't balance it featured the accounting department and if you watch it go to episode five titled someone in the warehouse the accountants are wondering if maybe roy took the missing money angela says absolutely not that he has too much character and kevin asked angela if she has a crush on roy and angela gets very very flustered oh whoa she gets so flustered she She like she like sort of messes up her words and then she sort of storms off.

And you can find this on the DVD set.

It's on season two, disc four as a bonus feature.

But yeah, so that happens in the webisodes.

OK, well, then in season two, Casino Night, there's a scene where Michael addresses the crowd in the casino and he says, old friends, new lovers.

And if you look in the background, Angela and Roy are sitting next to each other at the bar.

And you guys kind of exchange a look.

I know. This is one of the things that's been pointed out on the message boards.

What's the look between Angela and Roy at casino night when Michael says new lovers?

And why are they sitting next to each other?

Why are they? I don't know.

And then, of course, in this episode, Branch Closing, we have the scene at 10 minutes, 33 seconds, where Angela, like we said, is trying to confront Roy, tells him he's strong and incapable.

Yes. And then also, if we skip forward to the cocktails episode in season three, you will briefly hear audio of Roy asking everybody at the bar if they want to drink.

And you can hear Angela say something like, Oh, no, thank you, Roy.

I'm and everybody thinks that maybe that's your character kind of coyly talking to Roy.

Yeah, it's kind of odd that it's left in if you watch it, because I'm it's off camera.

And I'm like, Oh, no, Roy, I'm and it just kind kind of trails off.

So it's like, what is that about?

And then my personal favorite in the episode, The Negotiation, this is also season three, Roy is coming in to get his very last paycheck and Angela keeps having everyone in the office retell her about the moment Roy tried to attack Jim and Dwight intervened.

I mean, there's a scuffle and she just keeps wanting to hear about the scuffle.

And it seems like she's just as turned on by Dwight's like being a hero as by Roy sort of being this aggressive dude.

Well, this is Angela the character's fascination with a sort of alpha male display of, I don't know what you would call it, just testosterone.

She loves a big display of testosterone.

Yes, don't forget she mentions that she has had two men have duels over her.

Yes, she loves all of this.

Yes, she loves all Roy is 100 % in her wheelhouse.

Okay, so we've tracked it.

But Angela, you went to Greg and to Paul, the writers to get their intentions behind this whole thing.

What did they tell you?

Okay, yes, I went to Paul because he wrote the webisodes.

And it is so plainly spelled out that Angela has a thing for him in those.

And I went to Greg as well, because I just felt like he had this overall view of everyone's relationships.

This is what Paul said.

We never really entertained it going anywhere.

We just thought it was funny that Angela liked this rougher, less tolerant guy when the rest of the world was thinking he's kind of a jerk and they're all rooting for Jim.

So they sort of liked that foil, right?

That I was team Roy.

And then this is what Greg said.

Greg said, Roy and Pam were more of a traditional relationship and Pam needed a more modern, an equal relationship, but it made sense that Angela would be attracted to Roy.

It could have turned into something, but Roy had to get in line behind Dwight and Andy.

I love it. Oh, I love it.

All right. So then Michael is down in the warehouse.

He's talking to Daryl.

He finds out that Bob Vance has bought the warehouse and Michael really starts to spin been out and he tells the office he is not going to take this lying down.

He and Dwight, they are going to go confront the CFO and they're going to save the branch. How?

What do they think they're going to do?

But I do have an old tech alert, old tech track.

What is it? 12 minutes, 50 seconds.

Dwight says, hey, he's, you know, David Wallace isn't in the office.

Don't worry. I have his home address and he goes to his flip phone.

Jenna, do you see how he has to toggle to find the addresses?

Do you remember that?

Yes. And then he says, don't worry, he's on my Christmas card list. I loved this so much, Jenna.

I love to think about what is Dwight's Christmas card?

What is he sending out?

It must be a picture of the beet farm.

I feel like it's in some way also a piece of advertising.

Maybe it's Moe's holding up a bunch of beets.

I have a fan catch from Nico Martin, when Michael and Dwight are driving to David Wallace's house, the temperature in the car says it's 80 degrees outside.

Why are Michael and Dwight wearing trench coats?

Well, Nico, that's because we shot this episode in August, but it aired on November 9th.

And we always tried to match the season in which the episode would air.

So that is also why you're going to see pumpkins outside at David Wallace's house.

We placed them there, even though it it was August to make it seem like it was fall.

Yeah. We placed them there and hope they wouldn't explode from the heat.

Well, let's talk a little bit about the CFO's house because we got a lot of questions about it.

It's a very nice house.

We filmed there. I was I did a few episodes there and it's a really beautiful home.

Well, well, well, I'm rubbing off on you.

I know. No. Charlene Guevara asked, was that someone's actual house or was it random?

And Dixie Heidrich said whose home was used as David Wallace's house and where was it located?

Well, of course, I went to Kentopedia and he told me that David Wallace's house is located on Lomita Drive in Pasadena, California.

It's a beautiful neighborhood.

Oh, it's a beautiful neighborhood.

It was three houses away from the house used on the TV show Benson.

That's just a little bit of trivia for it.

So just a little bit more about this house.

Jennifer Hodge and Whitney Grasick wrote in and said, at 14 minutes, 13 seconds, why does David Wallace have an H monogrammed welcome mat?

Shouldn't it be a W?

And Anna Worthington said, are they at the wrong house?

Is that part of the joke?

Did Dwight and Michael go to the wrong house and that's why there's an H instead of a W?

you? Well, Kent told me that it was the doormat of the people who owned the house and no one noticed the mistake until after they were in the editing room.

And you'll see in the future, this is David Wallace's house.

They just forgot to replace the welcome mat, the welcome mat, and also the Golden Retriever that's in the backyard. Oh, no, that's a whole story.

That Golden Retriever was placed there.

I'll get to it. OK, well, I am intrigued, Jenna.

So wrong doormat, but real dog we'll get to it maybe we should take a little break right now and when we come back guys we have a really fun guest yeah all right we'll see you in a second reese's peanut butter cups are the greatest but let me play devil's advocate here let's see so no that's a good thing that's definitely not a problem Reese's, you did it You stumped this charming devil Calling hard seltzer lovers Searching for the tastiest seltzer?

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That's why you see them in class, at the grocery store, and in the park.

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and tanks and body suit with the line's iconic stretch you won't want to take it off and with endless style options you don't have to shop in store or online at lululemon .com all right guys we are back and we are in stampford and jan has called jim and josh into josh's office and she announces that josh will be heading up what is now called dunder mifflin northeast Northeast Jim will be his number two this is exciting news Jim is excited until Josh says Jan I have actually accepted an offer from Staples yeah and he's gonna take it senior management position at Staples Jan is ticked off she's like

you leveraged this new position to get the Staples job when we orchestrated this whole merger just so we could keep you Yeah.

So, guys, this is it.

This is the last time we see Josh Porter.

This character has been with us for three seasons.

He first came up in the pilot.

We don't see him, but he's mentioned in a scene where Jan and Michael are talking about downsizing.

We finally meet him on Valentine's Day.

And now he's leaving.

And, guys, Josh Porter, we've talked about this before, was played by Charles Esten.

He appeared in eight episodes of the show.

He did a weird pilot with Rainn Wilson.

Yes. We never got to work with him, but he's an awesome guy.

And to commemorate his time on the show, we reached out to him and we got to chat with him a little bit.

All right. We're so excited to have him here.

Let's play the interview.

Hey, it's Chip. Hey, Chip.

Ain't no party like a Scranton party.

Because a Scranton party don't stop.

It's so great to see you.

Thank you so much. much are you kidding me it is so great to see you guys um you know how it is you do a show with somebody and then there's just you don't overlap again and i'm in nashville now so i haven't been able to see you guys ever since then and all i can say quickly is you could not have been kinder both of you were sincerely the only two nice people there we know yeah it's unfortunate a bunch of germs and then us everybody was nice but you two were remarkably so considering we We had no scenes at all together.

You were very, very kind and I appreciated it.

We were so excited to have you guys.

And we, you know, Jen and I were talking about this, that we had major FOMO because it seemed like all these great stories were coming out of the Stanford branch and funny inside jokes.

And we're like, dang it, we want to go to Stanford. Well, picture it from the other direction where you're the guy that gets to go be on the office, but you don't get to go in the office.

You're on another branch somewhere and you don't get to be with everybody, but you do get to be with Jim.

He was awesome. John was fantastic.

And you got to wear fancy biker shorts.

Those are mine. I just showed up to work in those.

And no, yeah, I played the good boss.

Well, you know, we've been trying to get ahold of you.

Jenna was trying to slide into your DMs, but she must have DMed some other stranger.

So you are not Chip Esten from Germany.

No, I am not, no. Charles underscore Esten.

And I have so many famous leading ladies from classic sitcoms trying to talk to me on Instagram.

Oh, yeah. It's so many.

I know. Okay, so we usually ask people on the show their origin story about how they came to be on The Office, like what was their audition process, and we would love to hear yours.

First of all, I was a British Office fan, like so many from the very beginning.

So I recall very, very well watching it, loving it all.

And then I heard they were trying to the United States and like a lot of people went, Oh, wow.

OK, good luck. But then I had known.

Then I heard about Steve and Rain that they had been cast. And I was like, hmm, that's that's a heck of a good start.

They might have a shot at this.

Now, Steve, I don't know how I knew.

We just knew each other from being in L .A.

for a while. I think improv circles, maybe something like that.

I don't think we've ever worked together, but he's somebody I'd see at the mall.

I love that you would see him at the mall.

That tracks. That tracks for Steve.

That tracks. Steve used to, like, talk to Jenna and I about, like, really good buys that he found over the weekend.

Well, he was working at Brookstone at the time.

No, I'm kidding. He wasn't.

I was going to be shocked.

I was like, this is a piece of trivia I didn't know.

Holy moly. He was trying to sell me a massage chair.

No, he never worked there.

As far as I know, he never worked there.

Anyway, I would see him.

But the way I knew Rain is the interesting part that got me to the show.

Rain and I, I'm going to say six or seven years, it's all a blur, before that, had been at an audition at NBC.

You know, right across from the main place in Burbank was that little casting hut across the street there by the park.

And we were reading for this thing called The Expendables.

And The Expendables were androids that solved crimes, these two guys.

That's why they were expendable, because who cares if they get, you know, you can't beat them.

You can't defeat them.

chip chip I did read about this I did read about this and I got so tickled so go on go on so um I remember it was pure chance because they literally said you with you you read with you because it was it's two guys and so they they paired us up and somehow just kismet rain and I got chosen to be together and I remember forget we went outside and we had the script there was some things to say but we went outside and said let's just have fun with this and by the time we we came back in first of all i had fallen in love with the guy that is rain wilson instantly we just clipped like that i was like

what an incredible guy what a mind and so we went in there and basically improvised on top of the script and ended up getting the job and then we all had a table read at nbc right across the street in the big building i'll never forget there's this long conference table and we're all just reading the script and we're still messing around we're still just being these two androids and just looking each other and so um somehow we made it funny enough that they uh they ended up shooting a pilot of it and that's where i really got to hang with them the most so in any event we shoot that we have a ball it

does not get picked up shocker shocker so i get to the audition and it's going well i'm doing well enough i guess but i think the separating factor was one of them says uh so i hear you're um i think it was michael i I hear you're friends with Rain.

And I was like, yes, I am.

And I said, did Rain ever tell you how we met?

And they were like, no. I bet he didn't.

And I said, we met playing naked androids on a detective show.

And they were both like, they're on.

And I said, and on top of that, if you give me this job, I show up day one with a DVD of that pilot.

Oh, nice. I'm not even to my car.

are and i'm like hello oh cool all right that's the fastest i ever got a job so i had it had nothing to do with my abilities or acting otherwise it was purely that i had i had this on rain and um so that's that's my origin story and uh and uh it's kind of special to me because it's who could imagine by that point i was already a fan it was it was like being on it was like winning a radio contest to be on a show that i already loved um i was very uncool about it because I was just so happy to be there.

But you guys were all very cool about it.

So, Chip, after you got the job and you started working on the show, we said, like, it looked like you guys were having so much fun.

What was it like to get to do these scenes with, like, Ed Helms and Steve Carell and Rashida Jones?

Like, do you have any episodes in particular that you have fond memories of?

There is the one episode where Josh gets very mad at Jim because Jim is playing Call of Duty and uses a sniper rifle rifle, and he starts screaming at him, and of course, it was amazing, and that scene goes off, and so what I didn't realize is that everybody was playing that game for real on the breaks.

Did you have that same thing in yours, I believe, right?

Yeah. Your computers were actually hooked up, and everybody was playing Call of Duty, so they just wrote it into the show.

I hadn't played that much. I was like, now, what rifle were they using?

They explained everything to me, and then we went and we did it, and it was so much fun.

Yeah, our writers and editors were really into that.

We didn't get to do that on set.

We were always a little bummed, but they were playing it all the time.

And on the DVD commentary, they did mention that John mentioned that's like one of the hardest times he had to work not to laugh was in that scene with you and Ed.

And you guys were just going off on him about Call of Duty.

That's the thing is you're in this business so long and you're in things that are pretty good.

You're in things that are not good at all.

And you're always this funny thing after the show is I remember people would walk up to me and go, I saw you on The Office.

You're very funny. And I knew that what it really was, is I didn't say that many.

I wasn't the funny part of I was more of the situation than the comedy.

But I did get some great, very, very funny lines here.

I was just in a room with Ed and John and Rashida and trying not to laugh or or just watching Michael Scott when he says, I love inside jokes, like to be a part of one someday.

That's just as good a line as anybody can write.

And all I had to do was stand there and just do the thing where you don't laugh and you're kind of, you know, the cringe.

And I couldn't believe I was.

It was thrilling. Well, so what is it like for you now?

Like The Office has had this new life on Netflix and it's everywhere.

Do you get stopped?

Do you get recognized for being on the show?

What it mostly is on social media is that I was on other things since then.

like when i was on nashville um i played a character called deacon and i was people would watch and it was a very dramatic very sort of he was uh he was uh an aa and he was he was trying not to drink anymore and he loved this woman so it was always very dramatic very heartfelt played music did all these things so inevitably i would see a tweet that would say just realized that deacon from nashville is josh from stanford and then it always had that hashtag tech mind blown.

Um, so that's mostly where it happened.

It used to be that the office was a little bit more niche.

Like somebody go, I know you're from the office, but now it's you're right.

There's just a resurgence.

There's a second thing.

The best evidence of that is my own kids.

When I was doing this show, they were in, they were in junior high, elementary, maybe one of them was in high school.

No, they weren't. They're all in junior high.

So they didn't know what the office was really.

They didn't watch it television.

But, um, now going back, how many years has it been that this resurgence three years more whatever it is oh gosh it feels like in the last three or four years yeah the last three years I think it was always on in our house I think I told Angela it was on in the summer more than the air conditioning it was just and they fell in love with it they knew it so well so that was maybe the first time when it was really cool that they they were cool chill about it like yeah you're on it but I could tell it meant a lot and And it means a lot to me.

Aw, that is so cool.

The other rabbit hole I fall down with you guys is the, what do you call it?

The bloopers. The bloopers on Netflix.

If I start watching one, I'm there all the time.

And I think that's because it's the best of remembering the parts of the show you love so much. But then getting to see how authentically funny it struck you guys.

Like, sometimes you'd be watching, you'd go, this is insane.

They don't seem to think this is funny.

I mean, I'm an actor, and I would think that.

And then you come away and you would see where everybody did break up at that line or where there would be lines that you just could not get out to save your life.

And those always killed me.

And also the scenes that never made it.

I had a great scene with Melora that didn't make it in.

We were at the convention.

And at the end of the night, all this stuff is going on.

I'm walking. Jan and Josh are walking towards the elevators.

And basically Jan stops and invites Josh on up for the night.

That's on the DVD set.

She totally hits on you.

and you're like nah I'm good nah I'm good I'm good I'm gonna go to Staples exactly I know you talked about how you were the good boss but in this episode at the end you sort of serve up the ultimate betrayal and you leverage your job for a position at Staples what did you think when you read that were you disappointed at all in Josh or were you like I get it I mean who wants to work with this group of loonies at that point I was just more disappointed pointed for chip that i was disappointed because i knew that ed and rashida were moving on over and i knew it i always knew that it wouldn't work

to have the other boss there with him i just saw something the other day janet that look i've done a lot of drama there are moments the moment where he admires your painting so much and he says that's our office and you're just looking at him and you hug him that's to me as emotional and as real and as heartbreaking as any drama anywhere So that's another thing I've always loved about it.

And you guys. Oh, yeah, for sure.

I mean, Steve broke my heart many times on the show, just his sort of childlike innocence as Michael, even though he was a lot of times just a real like, I don't know, like idiot.

Like he was also this very pure hearted person and complicated.

Yeah. And I look now and I know how hard that is for writers.

We've seen out things on different shows that go another season and another season.

and it's like how do they keep it all together because that's always the tension when you have the fool when you have the moron or people what makes them funny is how out there they are what makes them human is the grounding of that and giving up the other side that tension between those two things it's so hard to ride where you don't make them not funny anymore because now they're just super human and kind and don't we love them or other times you just leave them like they don't have any arc at all they're just that same person they always were the way that they They did that over the seasons

with you guys. It's just, it's very unusual and special.

Well, your character of Josh had a great arc.

Yeah, I did. You thought I was the perfect guy.

That is the other thing is that I always thought this is charismatic.

It all comes very easy to him.

And in the end, he does that.

Oh, I had one other fun thing.

When Ed was on my final episode, Josh is the reason that branch is essentially going to be shutting down.

so at that point uh he doesn't think he has a job anymore he's just flipping out andy is um so there's that there's a scene in the kitchen they had and all the scene was was andy walks in there he's pouring some coffee or something and all sudden we get that first hint of that andy bernard anger that he later has to do it and he just flips out and sort of destroys everything and stops and that was the scene and i was real proud because i said what if if Josh, the guy that's the cause of all it walked in right after that.

And just to say goodbye, my guess is that Andy is not strong enough or brave enough to do anything, but go great.

Nice. It was awesome.

Great. And just, you know, he would have to cover his fury immediately and be sort of the worst that he was in that moment.

And, and they said, yeah, let's try that.

So that was a lot of fun.

He destroys that room.

And I walked in there and I go, listen, Andy, it's been great.

And he's like, yeah, awesome, man.

Good luck and everything like that.

So that was very cool.

That was your pitch. I love that.

I love that. You know, Chip, we talk about this a lot that we had this creative collaboration that we could in the moment pitch something to the writer on set and we were heard and that is so rare, truly.

And we were so lucky to have that relationship with our writers.

And I love that. We didn't know that.

We didn't know that was your pitch. That's so cool.

Cool. And also furthers the Andy character, because Andy was always just white knuckling his anger, you know, and suppressing it until eventually, you know, he's going to punch the wall.

But you love seeing him try to contain that such an Andy thing, too.

So that's kind of cool that I get to see that and get to see.

And also the other thing, how cool is it when you have an idea, a little pitch and you're surrounded by people that are going to make your pitch amazing?

he's I've been in other places where you make a pitch and they try it and it just doesn't get sold the way that you had it in your head but that got sold out and beyond anything I could imagine what he did with this so that totally did and it absolutely just crystallized who Andy was you know just all of that moment says who he is that is fantastic I love that story oh chip thank you so much thank you for coming on here and sharing about your time on the office we are so So glad that we got a hold of you.

Thank you, guys. Where can we find you?

Tell us where you are on Instagram.

I'm at Charles underscore Esten.

I'm also Charles Esten on Twitter and Facebook.

And Chip, you're also you're on a show right now called Outer Banks on Netflix.

Yeah, we were number one on Netflix, including a little show called The Office.

For a quick minute there.

Yeah, it's something else.

It's really kind of amazing.

We shot it last summer.

It's sort of a young adult, thrilling adventure.

adventure, has this amazing life all its own.

As I said, we knocked Tiger King out of first place.

Tiger King, that says something.

And then I have one more thing to share with everyone.

You do a weekly Saturday Facebook live stream, and it's called Quarantine Livestream.

Is that right? Yeah.

Because of the show Nashville, I have to play a lot of music on that.

So that's why I'm still here in Nashville.

I get to do very cool things.

I play at the Grand Ole operate or the bluebird or the rhyming oh wow and tour around and make music so i'm on spotify too but in any event um so i just play a couple songs on the show on the quarantine live stream and then i do another thing where i do a duet with somebody i send them a video of me singing they listen and sing along and we put them together in a video so there's always a duet and then i do interviews as well um just like you're doing right here uh oh this was it last week yeah last week was old dominion either the band old dominion interview well chip thank you so much this was such

a delight oh thank you guys very much for having me i love that you're doing this everybody loves that you're doing this this thing is on fire this podcast because what would they want more than discuss these things with you guys so well done and hopefully i get to see you down the road in some other situation um but thanks for having me thank you we love you love you love you too bye All right.

So that was amazing.

Thank you so much, Chip.

That was really cool.

I'm glad we were able to commemorate his time on the show.

And to all of you other Chips slash Charles's out there that Jenna slid into your DMs, we apologize.

That's right. Okay, Jenna, where are we?

So Dwight and Michael are still outside of David Wallace's house and they've decided that that they're going to practice.

They're going to role play what Michael is going to say when he sees David walking up, right?

Yeah, they got to be prepared.

Yes. So I traded some messages with Mike Schur and he told me that there was an element of the scene that was improvised and it made everyone laugh so hard that they were able to keep it in, but they had to cut at this one moment because right after that moment, like one second after that moment, everyone started breaking.

So during this scene, when they're role playing, Dwight is pretending to be David Wallace, and he's doing a good job.

He's making good arguments.

So Michael gets frustrated, and he has this line where he says something like, just go back and start over and be more intimidated by me.

Okay, that's where it was supposed to end.

That was the scripted ending of the scene.

But when they shot it, Rain walks back in, and Steve says, Mr. Wallace?

Rain goes, ah, kind of like he's terrified.

Terrified. That was the moment Mike said it was amazing.

And we literally couldn't go one frame later because they both started laughing hysterically.

Yes, I love that. Because because Steve is Michael's like, be more scared of me and don't touch me.

Yeah. It was so good.

It was so good. All right.

So now lady, do you want me to tell you about this dog?

Yes, I want you to tell me about the dog.

Because I saw the doormat.

And I was like, Like, oh, yeah, they just forgot.

They forgot. And then I saw the dog and I was like, well, then that's that's those people's dog, right?

No, it's crazy. All right.

So there's a scene where Dwight is sifting through the garbage.

And by the way, this scene of him looking through the garbage, this was another one of those scenes that had been cut for the regular network airing of this episode.

We got a ton of questions about this scene.

Jocelyn Beecher wrote in and said at 19 minutes at David Wallace's house, there's a dog in the yard. Did they specifically cast for a dog or did that dog belong to the people who own the house?

All right. The dog in the backyard was something that they added.

And they added it because they thought that there might be more of a feeling of jeopardy involved if there was like this guard dog or this watchdog standing behind Dwight as he sifted through the garbage.

That was the friendliest looking dog ever.

That dog was wagging its tail.

It looked like it just wanted wanted to play fetch. That dog made me want to get another dog.

And we already have two dogs and two cats.

I mean, I know Kent told me they hired a dog trainer.

They hired this dog and he was so sweet.

He just wanted to play.

He just wanted to like lick your hand.

That's what it looks like in no way.

Intimidating. Just like you said.

Yeah. But they, they stuck with it.

They stuck dog with her like this dog is going to be in the shot.

We paid for this dog.

Well, the dog looks so friendly to me.

I just thought the owner's dog got out in the back of the shot and they left it in.

That's what it looked like.

Totally. All right.

Well, listen, back in Scranton, Phyllis is bummed out.

She's trying to organize a group lunch. Yeah.

Yeah. And of course, you know, she goes to the fun stopper, Angela Martin, and they're throwing out some things.

DJs, which by the way, DJs is a a hoagie shop and then there's cugino's italian family cuisine right and angela's like i don't want to drive to dunmore jenna i looked it up scranton to dunmore nine minutes oh you don't want to drive nine minutes nine minutes and then kevin's like what about cooper's and she's like no seafood and i want you to know brian and i have been to cooper's when we went went to Scranton and they gave us like a little hat that looks like lobster.

What do you call them?

Claws. Yeah. They gave us each hat.

I have photos of Brian and I like drinking beers with these lobster claw hats on.

It was really fun. But yeah, Angela Martin's very against seafood.

And then I can't even believe Kevin suggests Hooters to her.

Are you kidding me?

I know in the middle of all this, Phyllis just walks away.

She's like, never mind.

Yeah. You guys are the worst. Forget it.

Yeah. At the same time, Creed is walking around.

He's dealing with this by selling everything in the office.

He's selling the equipment, the fax machine, his personal computer.

And I think if you look on the wall behind him, the dust buster off the wall, it's gone.

I have a hair catch for Creed.

I think this episode debuts a new hairstyle for Creed.

It's poofy. It's like they blow dried it straight up in the air and then like used a rolling brush.

I want you to look at his hair.

it is so poofy it made me laugh lady i noticed the same thing i had the same note creed hair yeah i wrote down what's up with creed's hair did they use the rolling brush on him like what's happening we're gonna have to track it because i want to see if that continues in future episodes this new way of doing creed's hair the poofy it's so poofy yes by the way that whole storyline of creed selling stuff that was the other thing that was cut out originally and and was added back for the extended cut.

So the three main things were the Meredith storyline, this Creed storyline, and Dwight going through the trash.

Got it, with the friendly dog.

Yes, with the friendly dog.

All right, so now Jan enters.

She's looking for Michael because things have changed.

Josh Porter threw them for a loop.

They've had to reorganize, restructure, and she wants to let him know that now Scranton is staying and Stanford is going to be merging into Scranton, right?

Yes. But Michael has been ignoring phone calls.

And lady, we have some major Phyllis sass.

What's the Phyllis sass?

Well, it is at 20 minutes, 40 seconds.

She looks at Jan and she goes, we know the branch is closing.

And she gives Jan the snarkiest look.

It's so amazing. It cracked me up.

And I was looking online for like sassy office moments.

I just wanted to see if this had been clocked, Jenna.

On May 16th, 2020, which is just a few days ago from this recording, right?

Yes. There is a new YouTube video collage that someone made called Sassiest Moments on YouTube.

Sassiest Moments from the Office.

I think they have been listening to the podcast because all of a sudden there's the sassiest moments collage on YouTube.

Angela, you 100 % started Sass.

You started it early with Angela Sass.

And if anyone is out there using Sass or Sassing or referring to something as Sass, I want everyone to know that you started it.

well 100 % you trade you should have trademarked it well I just couldn't believe there's now just now like just this week there's a youtube collage called sassiest moments of the office anyway there's major phyllis sass here so yes jan tells everyone the scranton branch is safe for now there's a lot of mixed emotions some people are really happy some people are sad kevin and angela have a huge hug.

Oh, lady, we got a fan question about that from Phoebe Tomac.

When Kevin hugs Angela and picks her up, it looks like Angela got crushed a little bit and she wants to know if you got hurt.

No, I did not get hurt.

That was just I think Brian having a little bit of fun because he is such a big guy and he can pick me up really easily.

And when would our characters ever hug or be this happy together?

So that was just something he added.

It wasn't in the script and he and I cracked up.

I think you see me, like, I think I'm genuinely laughing because it made us laugh.

So also in the scene, Angela, Pam asks Jan, is anyone coming back to Scranton?

We know who she's thinking about.

And over in Stamford, Andy is asking Jim if he's going to go back to Scranton.

And he sort of says he doesn't know yet.

He's not sure. He's thinking about it.

And then Ryan in the kitchen is like, Like, I'm a little, you know, nervous about Jim coming back.

I just hope it's not weird. Pam, of course, totally internalizes this.

Like, oh my God, he knows, he knows.

And he's like, I took his job.

I sit at his desk. It's more about, it's all about him, right?

Yeah. And so Pam's kind of relieved in that moment.

Next, Ryan's going to have his talking head where he knows he'll be staying at Scranton.

Here's the moment. 23 minutes, six seconds from here on out, all of the talking heads are facing back into the office.

this. Oh lady, this is your proudest podcast deep dive moment.

Maybe next to, I think, I think it is.

I think this ranks right up there with your alpha womb deep dive.

Oh, I did enjoy alpha womb.

Yes, you did. Then over in Stanford, Karen is saying, you know, she would move to Scranton if they offered it to her.

Jim gives this poor woman so many mixed messages.

Okay. I had some beef with Jim.

Cause he's like, why would you do that?

Just go to New York.

I mean, you're 45 minutes from New York.

Why would you go to Scranton, right?

And then he pivots back the other way at the end and tells her to take the job.

I feel bad. I feel bad for her.

I feel like these mixed messages are going to play out through the whole Jim -Karen relationship, actually.

Yeah. Jim is very wishy -washy with her, in my opinion.

In this scene at 23 minutes, 17 seconds, I have a Lee catch. Your husband, Lee?

My husband, Lee. You're like, what other Lee am I talking King about like, yes, my husband, Lee.

Okay. My husband, Lee, we watched this episode together and he said, oh my gosh, look at the sign behind Karen's head during this conversation about whether or not she should move to Scranton.

Do you know what it says?

No, it says window of opportunity.

An obstacle to one is an opportunity to another.

Whoa. I just thought, we thought this was interesting because I was showing him all all the talking heads.

And he was like, oh, look at what's behind Karen.

It's a window of opportunity.

Layers, layers. Well, back in Scranton, Meredith is congratulating Creed on his business venture.

He's made twelve hundred dollars.

And finally, Gary Trendle calls.

He calls Meredith. Do you know why?

He used to work at the Scranton branch, and he says, I heard the branch was closing.

Do you still want to make good on our agreement?

Meredith found her guy.

She did make a sex pact with someone.

She almost confesses the branch isn't closing.

And then she's like, can you meet me at my place in 20 minutes?

We had a fan question from Bailey Aspenson at 24 minutes, 30 seconds when Meredith is talking on the phone.

Who is Who is she talking to?

Do you know? Of course I don't know.

Kent Sabornak! Finally!

Kent! Kent -opedia! Finally, Kent!

Kent Sabornak played the voice of Gary Trundle.

He was going to be my first guest. Yes.

Yes. So, Dwight and Michael are in the car, and they're reminiscing now about their favorite memories of Dunder Mifflin, because they've ignored phone calls, you know, and they don't know that their jobs are safe.

And Dwight says to Michael, what's your favorite memory?

You know, and he goes, all of it, all of it.

And then Dwight goes, even the part where the branch was closed.

And he's like, Dwight, was that part scripted?

When Rain said it was?

Yes, that scene in the car is almost word for word scripted.

All right. I didn't know if that was like Rain tagging the the end of the scene.

So I love that. It's so funny, Angela, because the reason I know that is because I had the same thought when I watched it and I checked.

I wanted to know, is that scripted?

Well, here's the thing.

We often could add a line at the end of a scene.

That's the easiest place to improvise because it doesn't really mess up the context of the scene.

So whenever I see these little throwaways at the end, especially by Steve and Rain, I always wonder.

her. Yep. Nope. That one was totally, totally scripted.

Well, now we're back at Scranton and the gang is going out for shots.

Creed is buying because Creed made some money today.

Jenna, did you notice as Angela leaves what a big wave she gives to Roy?

No, this is more, more of more of Angela and Roy.

Oh my gosh, it's almost awkward. It's almost awkward. At 26 minutes, 35 seconds, she walks by and literally goes like this.

You guys can't see me, but I'm going to do it for Jenna.

Oh, that's a big wave. Yes, it's a really big wave. So she for sure is like, bye, handsome.

Well, Pam now has her talking head facing into the office, I will say.

And she is giddy. She's giddy.

She's saying stuff like, oh, you know, it's good because finding another job is kind of a pain and there are reasons to stay.

But underneath, all she is thinking is, Jim is coming back, Jim is coming back, Jim is coming back, Jim is coming back.

That's everything, everything.

And you're so excited for her.

And then we go to Stanford and Jim tells Karen he thinks she should take a job in Scranton too.

And Karen just lays it all out for the camera crew.

She's just like, hey, I'm happy you said that.

I don't think he's into me.

but I'm kind of into him.

So there's that. Wow.

This is like someone who's sort of unapologetically into this guy.

I dig it about her.

I like it. Jim doesn't even tell her apparently about what went on with Pam.

So she's walking into Scranton and she has no idea that he kissed the receptionist. She has no idea that there was this four -year flirtation.

She's just like, I like this guy.

I'm going to go to Scranton and see what happens.

I'm going to take it one step more and say, she has no idea that he said, I love you.

Hello. I love you to the receptionist. We are being very Team Karen Filippelli right now.

We are. Because Jim, Jim is spiraling.

Let's be honest. I mean, listen, I can justify Jim's choices and his behavior.

He has a broken heart.

He's confused. He's crushed.

we've all been wishy washy we've all you know we've all kind of done versions of this in our life and had versions of it done to us all right so moving on Dwight and Michael are still outside David Wallace's house he's never come home it's dark they're hungry but Dwight won't let them leave but finally he says yes we can go and as they're leaving Dwight checks his phone clearly gets a message that their jobs are safe, and this is delightful.

They're like, we did it!

We did it! They start bumping chests.

Yeah, but they literally are like, we did it.

Like, what did they do?

And even at the end, I think Steve as Michael is like, wait, what did we do?

Yeah, how did this happen?

I'm so confused. But I love it.

I love it, too. They're so happy.

And then and then the whole episode ends with Toby saying, well, I guess I won't go to Costa Rica.

I'll just it'll be there when I'm 65.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Oh, guys, there you have it.

That's branch closing.

That is branch closing.

Guys, next week, we have a very special episode of Office Ladies.

We are going to revisit our Casino Night episode with special guest Ken Kwapis.

Yes, the director is coming on to give us all of the behind the scenes stuff.

This was such a big episode.

And so many of you wrote in that we thought, let's revisit it with the director, answer some of your questions and talk a little bit more about it.

Thank you so much for calling in, Chip.

And thank you guys for tuning in.

We'll see you next week.

Thank you for listening to Office Ladies Second Drink.

This episode was initially created in collaboration with Earwolf.

Office Ladies is a presentation of Odyssey and is produced by Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey.

Our executive producer is Cassie Jerkins and our audio engineer and associate producer is Daniela Silva.

Odyssey's executive producers are Jenna Weisberman and Leah Reese Dennis.

Office Ladies is mixed and mastered by Chris Basil.

Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.

[오피스 레이디스(Office Ladies) 팟캐스트: 시즌 3 에피소드 7 'Branch Closing' 요약]-[Second Drink: Branch Closing with Charles Esten]

📋 Summary

'Branch Closing' 에피소드 요약 및 분석

1. 제작 비하인드와 '프로듀서 컷'

2. 기술적 타임스탬프: 아이폰의 탄생

3. 캐릭터 심리학: 'Talking Head'의 비밀

4. 찰스 에스틴(Charles Esten) 인터뷰

5. 안젤라와 로이의 묘한 관계

결론

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript