Welcome back to Second Drink The Fight, this one was my assignment.
I loved this episode, and I had a lot of fun digging in for some second drink tidbits.
I found some good stuff lady.
Well, I enjoyed this breakdown as well.
You know, these were the early days of the podcast and we were trying to find new things and one thing that I loved was when we decided to pick an office fan to read the weekly summary.
I know. This week was read by Alexis, so be on the lookout for that.
I feel like maybe we should bring that back, somehow.
I like this idea. We'll drink on it.
Well think on it. Mm -hmm.
Well, another thing that I loved about this episode is that Angela, you reconnected with Lance Khodal who plays Sensei Ira!
I did! And that brings me to some of the fun stuff I found in this week's second drink.
So you know the episode where we see Dwight doing the chores around the dojo?
Well, in the shooting draft, it listed a bunch of little moments that could fill out a montage.
There was no dialog.
Just Dwight cleaning answering phones, etc.
I think that Rain and Lance got to play around a little bit because there is a very funny deleted scene on the DVDs.
It is not in the shooting draft.
We didn't talk about it in our first rewatch, but it's in the superfan episode.
It's really funny. I think we should hear it.
Okay. Excellent. That's okay.
Whoa, hold on. Hold on.
Sorry. Do I can't use your During here.
I told you, OK? It's a sales call.
Ten push ups. Ten push up!
Yes yes yes. Trust me, I feel like they just turned on the camera and said, guys go for it.
Just mess around. Well, and Lance is such a talented guy.
You know, I talked about how much I budge Lance from the Joe Schmo Show.
And I talk about how I auditioned for it, I did not get the role.
And I was positive that this was an Alison Jones project.
and that's how she knew about Lance.
I know, but we got some fan mail.
We did. From guess who?
Rhett Reese, the co -creator of Jojen.
Who said Jenna your memory is a touch off.
Pat and Melton cast Jojen for us, not Alice and Jones, but thanks so much for the kind shout out.
Rhett thank you for writing in.
Yes, but Rhett why didn't I get apart?
What did it, what didn't I do right buddy?
You're stirring the pot.
I am. Well, you know, I think we should have Lance on, because we never got a chance to talk to him about being in Junior Salesman in Season Nine.
Well, I would love to get an insider's take on all those scenes of all those guys, right, together?
Doing their interview.
That would be fun. That would be fun.
Well, to wrap up my second drinks tidbit section here, I have a little scene in the accounting look I want to share, and then I have some really delicious candy bag alts.
First of all, there was a great scene over in accounting.
We did not discuss it.
It's in the deleted scenes and it's also in the super fan episode, but it's one of those moments over in accounting that really shows the dynamic between Oscar, Angela, and Kevin.
I always loved doing those scenes.
And in this one, Angela's a little hangry.
Oh yeah. She's waiting for Michael to sign all of the expense reports and she thinks that Oscar might have taken her snack.
It cracked me up. Let's hear it.
Do you think you signed them yet?
Signed what? Forget it.
Is that chocolate vanilla swirl?
Just chocolate. Angelo.
For the last time I did not eat your chocolate vanilla swirl.
Don't look at me. I don't know why I write my name on things.
Chocolate vanilla swirl pudding?
Putting, yes. Oscar is sitting there and he's just eating the putting and Angela's just glaring at him.
That's my favorite pudding.
Is it really? It's either chocolate vanilla swirl or tapioca.
Oh Yeah, well Angela is positive that he took her pudding.
Can you tell maybe I'm a little hangry right now because I'm really zeroing it on what the snack was yeah That was so cute I love that Oscar said for the last time like how many times says she brought it up exactly OK.
Lastly, there were a series of candy bag talking heads.
It's everyone reacting to having to stay late.
I wanted to share three of them.
First of all, Angela says, Michael Forces department heads to stay until all the forms are signed.
It's not so much a problem for me, as it is for my cats.
Cats are creatures of habit and they expect mommy home at 6 p .m sharp but they all call her mommy in her mind yes well what are your pets call you mommy I don't know I never thought about it well what oh my gosh clearly your pets have a name for you yeah what mother oh good Lord what mother you know
oh my gosh Jenna I know though oh my gosh that is hilarious I've never even even thought about it.
Wait, Cassey, you have cats.
Do they have a name for you?
They just called me Mama.
See? Does Ramen call you something?
No no no. He's indifferent to me at best.
I see. I've never thought of it.
I'm going to ask my kids what they think the pets called me.
I'll report back. All right, the next talking head is Toby.
He says, when I stay past five, I start counting the holes in the ceiling.
last year I got to 457 wall wall wall that sucks duck and the last one is a talking head from Stanley tonight is bridge night I hate canceling bridge night that's so tracks that he plays bridge.
I love it. I do too.
I actually love this detail!
Well those are my second drink tidbits for this episode.
Join us this Wednesday for all about Kevin Malone special guest, Bryan Baumgartner.
See you then! I'm Jenna Fischer.
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.
We are just rocking out to our own intro.
We were actually dancing and miming the words.
Hello, everyone. Today we are going to be talking about The Fight.
The Fight season two episode six, written by Jean Stupnitzky and Leigh Eisenberg, known to us as Gene and Leigh.
They're a duo. They're funny fellas.
This episode was directed by Ken Kwaepus.
We love Ken Kwaepus.
We love Ken Kwaepus.
Huh. I don't even know if it's possible for people to understand our love of Ken Kwa Pus.
I don't know guys. There are some directors that just are in our hearts Ken Kwa Pus, Paul Feig, Charles McDougal.
Charles McDougal. For yelling action at us.
For a different way though like Ken Kwa Pus is like a cozy blanket.
Paul Feig you want to hang out with all day.
And drink martinis.
Charles McDougal, you kind of want to get drunk in a pub with and yell at people.
It's so true, we'll talk about Charles McDougal when we get to him.
We haven't don't really have a chance to talk about him, but that was a little preview.
We have a special treat today.
Our summary of this episode is going to be read by Fan.
So here we go. Alexis is describing the fight.
Doiit becomes the assistant to the Sensei at his Dojo and spends the day bragging and telling everyone how tough he is.
Michael has a lot of papers to sign.
Jim and Pam use the opportunity to trick Michael by saying they think Doiit is stronger than Michael is so Michael agrees to duel Doiit at the Dojo to prove his manliness and procrastinate doing his work.
I thought that was very good.
That was really good.
I feel like she covered it.
She was very concise.
I feel like maybe she wrote it down on Reddit which is what I would do so, Alexis.
Alexis and Mae, you've made a friend.
That's right. All right, let's get into the fast facts for the fight.
Fast fact number one, this is the first episode from our new writing team of Jean and Lee.
I emailed with Lee.
Okay. And he told me that before getting hired on the office, Jean was a part -time nanny, and Lee was an assistant to a director.
They were over the moon, and they were particularly excited about the free lunches.
I can really relate to that.
I can, too. When I interned on Conan O 'Brien, I got free food and I was so excited.
Every time I got a job as When I was a struggling actor, I got excited about the free meals.
The free food at work, I kinda still get excited about it, I have to be honest.
The snack tables. I hate to break it to everyone at Earwolf, but I hit up that fruit bowl hard every morning when we come here.
Like apple, banana...
Earwolf has a basket of chips that's really good too.
When I worked in offices in real life, I used to get really excited to go in the break room And like, someone would bring in some Danish or some muffins or cookies.
I don't know. But if you were anything like me, I would eat ramen noodles because you could buy nine for a dollar.
Oh, man. You know, ramen noodles are really a great meal for family meals with kids.
You can spruce it up, you can saute some brown chicken, and put a bunch of veggies in with the noodles.
Mm -hmm. You can also not cook them at all, and crunch them up and put them in a salad instead of a crouton.
This has turned into a different show.
Okay. You can make a Chinese chicken salad, and you can use ramen noodles as your crunchies.
Well there you go. Some more information from Lee about this being his first episode.
He said they were terrified because remember we talked about how they break down the episodes as a group and then writers get assigned to write the episode.
He said that since their episode was episode six, they had very little in their outline.
He said they had fleshed out the other episodes much more than this one.
And he thought that they were being set up to fail.
I remember being tested.
Yes, exactly. Cause he was like, how do you give the staff writers with the least amount of experience the least worked on outline.
Yes, exactly. He said after they turned in their script and they had to get their notes on their script, Greg had pneumonia, and they had to go to Gregg's house in order to get their notes.
And he said he really stood out to him was that he explained the idea of the Jim Pams subtext to Jean and Lee.
They had written a really on the nose Jim Pams scene and Greg said sometimes just a look is enough.
And he said it kind of blew their minds and that Greg completely brought that idea to them.
And in the episode, something I remember is is when Pam is reading Jim's palm, that was a big deal.
There was always this discussion, how can Jim and Pam physically touch without it being inappropriate.
Well, lady, I think that was very intimate.
I even looked up online about hand touching, and it is considered physical intimacy.
That was some major flirting.
That's a note card I have for later.
All right. Should we move on to fast fact number two?
Let's do it. All right.
Fast fact number two - Sensei Iroh was played by Lance strip.
It's sensei or sensei?
Oh my God. Sensei Iroh was played by Lance Canaan, who is a friend of mine.
And I have five note cards on him because he and I talked on the phone yesterday.
You know that I was very star -struck by him when he was on our episode.
I know. Here even said, I think Jenna watched a lot of Joe Schmoe.
Yes. That cracks me up that he said, because I did corner with lunch one day and I made him tell me everything about the Joe Schmoe show.
If you guys have not seen this, please go look it up.
That Joe Schmoe show was a fake reality show contest where everybody on the show were actors, except for one person.
The Joe Shmoe guy was a real person and everyone around him was acting like they were in a reality show.
And they were locked in this house and they had to do competitions and vote each other off at the end.
By the way, Kristen Wiig is on that show with Lance.
A lot of great comedians and improvisers that I knew were on that show.
I auditioned for that.
It was cast by Alison Jones, and I was devastated when I did not get it, because I thought, But what an amazing acting experience to like live in a house and have to play this character 24 seven.
And by the way, the show is brilliant.
So yes, I am starstruck by Lance.
I can't believe you know him.
I can't believe I didn't know that you know him, so I emailed him yesterday and I was like, Lance, we're going to be talking about the fight.
Where are you? Can you hop on the phone?
And he was like, I'm actually an Atlanta.
He has moved to Atlanta and he set up his own production company because he's really talented.
He's an actor, comedian, writer.
And he has a production company in Atlanta called Picture It Productions.
How about that, and you can check it out at pictureitproductions .com.
All right Lance, so we met so long ago and I said Lance, did we meet doing improv?
I can't remember exactly how we met.
And he remembered exactly, and it made me laugh so hard.
What? Okay, so he was friends, we had mutual friends, and I went into an editing bay where a friend of ours worked and they were helping me with my acting reel.
And I said, Lance, was this before the office?
He said, no, Angela.
It was like after the pilot, but you really didn't think the show was gonna go.
So you were trying to put some of your office, like scene with Kevin in accounting in your reel?
Should we say what a reel is?
Yes, yes. So just for people who don't know, you know, actors have a headshot and on the back, is their resume, and you give that at auditions, but you also would send a link to clips of various performances you had been on, and that's your acting reel.
It helps you get jobs.
So eventually you were putting together your acting reel with some clips from the office.
Right, with some clips, and this really dates me and our show because it was all on VHS.
Oh my gosh. And there was a guy actually editing.
Yes, and I brought in a box of all of my footage, and they were putting together a montage of my scenes.
And Lance said, Angela, it was so cute and charming cause you turned to me and you said, Hey, will you watch this?
Will you, what do you think of my reel?
And he said, and it was every second you've ever been on screen.
He said it was so long.
And also in some of it, you didn't even have a dialogue.
You just walked by.
There was like a commercial like I did for Chrysler where I walked by.
And I just went and like, I did thumbs up at someone.
I was like, Oh my gosh, lads it's so embarrassing but that's the first time we met so it was after the pilot when I thought the office wasn't gonna go and I was trying to figure out how to get more work that's very funny that then he ends up being on the show I know and then he told me he said Ange
did you know I tested for the role of Jim he tested for Jim why so I must have done scenes with him he said you weren't in his group okay he had a different group and Bob Bob Odenkirk was in the Steve Carell Test Group.
Well, you know something that's funny – since you brought him up, I knew Bob Odenkirk when I was auditioning for the office, and we were both called to do Pam, and he was called to do Michael.
So we got together, and we practiced together.
Aw. But then I wasn't in his Test Group, and I thought – darn it!
We worked a bunch of bits together.
We were so excited to show them off, but he did this very funny audition where he brought in his guitar and he sang a song to Pam.
And we had worked it all out and we were going to ask if we could do it if we were paired together, but we never were.
So Lance told me this great story that the day that he was screen -testing, you know, he's in the lobby waiting.
They were all kind of giddy that Bob Odenkirk was in their group.
They're all really big fans of Bob's and Bob walked over to Lance and was like, hey, do you wanna run lines with me?
And Lance was like, oh, shh!
And he said it was really cool, and they like sorta went out in this lobby and ran lines like three or four times like the scenes all the way through.
He just thought it was a really cool moment.
So Lance said when he read For Jim, he was like, you know, I really felt like I just tried too hard.
And he said then when he got called back, when we were, once the show was up and going for the fight, he read that it was like a martial arts guy.
And he goes, Oh my gosh, Lance's background is actually martial arts.
He was in the martial arts community for 15 years.
He has a third degree black belt in Taekwondo.
He was the sixth in the nation in his weight category in 1992.
He trained junior Olympic gold medalists.
I don't know, but he said when he saw who the character was he was like oh my gosh he said, I am not going to try to go for the joke at all.
I'm just going to go in as if I'm working with one of my students and teaching a class." And that's what he did.
He put no pizzazz on it.
He went in and played it really straight and they loved it.
They always loved that.
Those are the people they always cast were the people who played it real.
This leads me to my third fast fact, Angela.
I know you might have more to say about Lance, but this is a fan question, is anyone on the cast trained in martial arts, that's from Will?
So yes, Lance and also, Raine Wilson studied Karate, his sophomore year in college, and is a yellow belt.
I didn't know that.
Yes, and I asked Raine if the writers knew that, and he said no.
Isn't it…what a weird coincidence that they wrote this whole Karate -themed episode, and Raine is a yellow belt, and Lance was a black belt.
Yes, that is so wild, okay.
Do you have more Lance stuff because I interrupted your Lance cards with my fast fact.
He actually actually had a really funny thing that made me laugh, he said that when they got to the actual fight and the choreography of the fight, he said that he was so surprised, because there was no choreography, there was no stunt guy.
He said literally, it was like, okay guys, just two idiots try to hit each other.
This was very early on, we did not have a budget.
That's what I told him, I told him!
I said Lance, this does not surprise me because because they put Filshay our prop guy in a box for hours.
There was no like stunt person.
In the early years of The Office I always felt like it was a show we were making in our garage for our neighborhood.
I always felt like it was a one act play we were doing like in someone's garage.
As a kid I used to do that.
I used to put on plays in my garage and the garage door was the curtain.
And I would put chairs out on my driveway for the neighborhood kids to come see my show.
It was like a puppet show or a variety show.
That's what the office always felt like to me, just like a bunch of us making a show in our garage.
Yeah. So this won't be the last time you see Sensei Ira.
He does come back in season nine, in the episode Junior Salesman.
He does? Yes. What does he do in that episode?
He was actually there to interview for a job.
Oh, I remember that.
Dwight brings in a bunch of his old friends and weirdos to interview.
In, like, family members.
Yes. Lance emailed me a great behind the scenes photo of him and the other people interviewing for jobs in the conference room.
And he has his karate outfit on over a business suit.
So its tie is like poking out.
It's like so odd. But yeah, he was on season one and then on season nine.
So, he sort of had this great perspective of being on the book ends of the show.
What a very, very cool thing.
Yeah. Thank you so much, Lance, for taking time out of your schedule in Atlanta to chat me up.
And we're going to call you again.
Come Junior Salesman.
Yeah! I love it. All right.
Let's take a break and we'll be back to break down the fight.
This show is sponsored by BetterHelp.
Every January is a time when I feel like we all reflect.
Mhm You know, you can really do it any time of the year.
But I think, you know, you do feel that reset.
You do. It's like you have three hundred and sixty -five blank pages ahead of you which is waiting to be filled and You can decide how to do that.
I'm so poetic Angela.
Oh really? Thanks 365 blank pages Well, I might have had some help all right well.
I'm going with your book metaphor Okay, you could think of therapy as your editorial partner Helping you to write these new chapters and create the meaningful story that you deserve to live How do you like that?
I really like it a lot.
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That's BetterHelp. And we're back.
Hello. This episode begins with a prank.
Jim pranks Dwight by putting his desk in the bathroom.
Poor Dwight. This was a good prank.
I like this one. You have to look for Kevin in the background at the end when he leaves one of the stalls, he has a lit candle and a newspaper and for all of you oft his geeks, this was the moment that led to Kevin's line in Office Olympics about the bathroom candle smelling like cookies.
Also, remember that in The Dundee's he did win the Don't Go In There After Me award.
Yes, and we see why.
Also, though, guys, who is lighting candles inside the stall?
Like, he doesn't come out and light the candle.
He exits the stall holding a candle, a lit candle.
And that candle really did smell like cookies, I wanna say that.
Did you notice that there is another door by the urinals?
Angelina, where does it go?
we don't know. I like to think - What is that door?
Is it a utility closet?
I think that's what I think.
I think there's like a mop in there or something.
And that's my guess.
Yeah. Those bathrooms did not work.
Nope. It was very deceiving we would have people come visit us on the set like guests, family members and they would go in their thinking that they were real bathrooms and they weren't.
In the next scene Dwight calls his sensei.
Jim asks if he's talking to his mother.
I love that. I think John is really good in that scene.
And then there is his whole talking head about being a sensei.
Assistant to the sensei?
What is it? Yeah, Dwight says he says he's the simpai, which is basically the assistant to the sensei.
Yeah. Yeah. All the — Not Assistant Sensei.
Right. And — but also, actually it's not him.
It's like the girl.
Remember? Because later in the episode Sensei Ira is like, there's my sim pie.
So we learned that it's actually not Dwight.
Oh my gosh, I missed that.
Yeah, the girl that walks through the scene.
Yeah. Is actually the sim pie.
Oh, I totally missed that.
All right, so next we have Pam's talking head.
And this is when we find out that today is the day that Michael has to sign time cards purchase order approvals, and expense reports, that they're all due at the end of the day.
And this happens a couple times a year, and he always procrastinates wildly on these days.
As a former secretary, I really relate to the dynamic between Pam and Michael in this episode.
Because during one of my early secretarial jobs, I had a boss that would take so long to do his end -of -the -month report, that I would have to drive to the airport because the FedEx at the airport had the latest drop time.
I'm saying LAX airport which anyone who lives in Los Angeles, if I drive to LAX now, it's about a two hour drive.
So I would have to drive to the airport for the seven PM...
It might have even been nine PM FedEx drop.
Also there's nowhere to park.
Nowhere to park. And people are blowing whistles at you, like move out of their way.
It's like chaos. I do love that Pam calls it the perfect storm.
I do too. Also, though, Michael isn't having even to do any work.
It's not like he is having to put together a report.
All he has to do is sign them.
No, that's right. It's just his signature.
It could take him like 20 minutes and he'd be done.
This is why I would get so mad at my boss, who couldn't managed to get his report done because I would think to myself, it's not new information, it's a boilerplate report that you have to do every month.
It wasn't a special project that sneaked up on us.
Yeah. Time management, dude.
You can see I'm still...
You're still annoying.
I'm still a little angry about it.
Well, if I had to drive to the airport to mail something, I'd be ticked off for a long time.
Alright, so next up in Michael's attempt to procrastinate, he tells Ryan to update the emergency contacts.
So I enter that scene where Michael is telling Ryan to do the emergency contact list.
I was so concentrated on not laughing at Steve who was being so funny in that scene.
It took everything I had.
That when B .J. would look at me and say the line updating emergency contacts, I lost it.
It became you know in the scenes where you can't stop laughing you have a trigger.
It was B .J. turning to me and very sadly saying updating emergency contacts.
I think I only got through one scene and I did it by not looking at B .J.
and the eye like I stared at his forehead.
I spent nine years looking at Steve Carell's forehead because if I made eye contact with Steve, I used to say he would just suck out your soul.
If you made eye contact with him through comedy I could not lock eyes with him or I would start laughing.
So I would. I would look at his forehead.
Every conference room scene?
I would have to do that or look at someone's ear.
Yes! Are there eyebrows?
Yeah, their neck. It's not in the eyes.
Not in the eyes. Well, I thought that was a major Pam sass moment.
I think you have two really good Pam s ass moments in this episode.
And one of them is where you just walk out while he's talking.
He's like, Oh, she just left and finished talking.
I was really channeling my real life experience working for that crazy guy.
Michael gets Ryan's phone number in this episode.
Oh, man, so delighted.
He keeps calling him and doing voices and Angela flip phone flip phone outdated phone is very featured in this episode as Is my favorite thing is when Steve is Michael Scott cracks himself up.
It's like one of my favorite things.
Yes We talked about this a little bit in the opening Pam reading Jim's Palm Yeah I have that's a note card.
I'm gonna reach for 6 minutes, 11 seconds you guys!
Major Pam and Jem flirt happening.
So touching someone's hand is actually how you were tracing his hand, is a sign of physical intimacy.
Yeah! I know. So that was like, what is happening?
Did you notice on my computer?
Yeah I saw it. That's like your decoy though.
That's your way in.
Yeah. Listen, these are two people who shouldn't be flirting, but so desperately want to be flirting, so they have to find ways around it.
So listen, out there, if you see someone at work who's trying to read your palm — Oh, they might have a crush on you.
They might have a crush on you.
But I thought it was really cool that the Set Deck people put the palm reading website on my computer.
Well they had to justify why Pam was doing it.
Yeah. So here she is, bored at front reception.
is her bonus edition, she says, Jim, let me read your palm.
Flirty flirt. Sneaky flirt.
I know. I see a note card that you have that is my next topic.
Do you want to say it?
Well, wait. Do you like that this note card only has one word?
Yeah. What's that word, Jenna?
Stacey. Stacey. It's six minutes, 17 seconds.
Oh my gosh, Brian. You would crack me up every time you said Stacey.
It's only one word, but it goes through like four or actives, and we used to, that was like we would, that was a bit on the set.
We would cheat him, we'd be like, Daisy.
At six minutes, 49 seconds, there's this whole scene with Jim and Dwight where they're talking, and Jim is talking to Dwight about humans versus robots.
Yeah. All right, in the background Phyllis is at her desk, Stanley is not.
Where's Stanley? Where is Stanley?
Stanley never leaves his desk.
He was never missing.
Never missing. He is actually one of the characters that is probably the most featured at his desk.
We used to joke about this.
We would say, why did we all have to be at our desks in the background of all the scenes?
Do none of us ever go to the bathroom?
Yeah. Do we never leave to go downstairs for a reason?
Yeah. None of us left our desk.
But in particular, Stanley was always at his desk.
He had to sit in the background of everyone's talking head.
He was always at his desk.
but then you, you see as they pull back the camera that Stanley's at the file cabinet, but he never filed anything that to me that was crazy.
That's how I knew it was early on in the show because after that, I think Leslie was probably like, Yeah, no I'm not.
I'm not filing. I'm sitting down, I'm sitting down at seven minutes, 40 seconds, Jenna.
It's one of my favorite Pam Sasse moments.
What is it? Okay. So Michael has a piece of paper and he's just like practicing his signature.
Oh Yeah. And Pam taps on the glass and goes, you could practice on the forms.
I mean that is some really good Pam sass.
Pam is... it's such a great relationship between Pam and comeical because she is his subordinate yet also his parent.
Yes. In many ways. Oh, yeah.
She has to corral him kind of like a sheepdog.
Might corral the sheep.
Yeah. Okay. At 8 minutes, 29 seconds.
Oh man, this made me laugh so hard.
We learned that Toby's emergency contact Is still his ex -wife.
even though her new last name is now Becker.
And he says, please don't put X.
You don't need to put X.
You don't need to put X.
Okay. I have a screen grab.
I'm going to show you.
I took it with my phone at nine minutes, 42 seconds.
Jim, when Jim is saying, you know a ton of 14 year old girls, to Michael, there is a brown object in the top left corner.
At first I thought, Oh, it's a boom.
and I froze the frame.
I don't know if it's a boom or like an elbow, I don't know what it is.
I'm gonna show you a picture of it.
All right, she's getting out her phone folks.
Okay, all right. Tell me what the heck this is.
And guys, I want you to look at it because it is what?
We'll put this on OfficeLadies .com.
Oh, okay, now I, and then I zoomed in.
Do you see it? Yeah.
Now look at it, close it up.
What is that? And it's only in that frame.
Is it Michael's shoulder or elbow or something?
Michael's not there yet?
Michael is standing here.
See his eyeline? This is here.
Michael's right here.
I don't know, it's a brown orb, everyone.
It's a brown orb and I am perplexed.
Okay. We've presented a mystery with no solution.
No, that's part of my superpower.
I'll notice things, I won't give you answers.
We have to talk about what happens at nine minutes, 48 seconds.
We have to... What happens?
happens. We learned that Michael and Dwight spent New Years Eve together.
Oh, yes. And that they watched, oh they rented, that even dates the show, they rented Armageddon.
Yes. And that Dwight cried at the end.
Yes. And I actually.
But it was because, why did Dwight cry at the end, it's such brilliant writing, it's because it wasn't just the movie, it was that it began to snow.
Yes, it began to snow at precisely midnight.
And it was the perfect moment.
I actually saw Armageddon with my dad, because my dad's a drilling engineer.
And so he was like, oh, this has drilling engineers in it.
And we went and saw it and all throughout the movie any time it was anything drilling related, my dad was like, nope, that's not how you do it.
It never happened, that's not, nope, not up to code.
That never happened.
I was like, okay dad.
But I went down the rabbit hole last night, like I do sometimes, like I went looking for the Joe Schmoe show.
I looked up Armageddon last night and I found a few different synopsis, of what the movie was about, and it's too good to not read Jenna.
It's so classic, 1998 Michael Bay, are you ready?
I'm ready. When an asteroid, the size of Texas, threatens to collide with earth in under a month, by the way, NASA honcho Dan Truman, played by Billy Bob Thornton, determines the only way to stop it, is to drill its surface and detonate a nuclear bomb inside an asteroid.
This leads him to renowned Driller Harry Stamper played by Bruce Willis, who agrees to helm the Dangerous Space Mission, provided he can bring along his own rag -tag crew.
Among them is Corksher, A .J.
played by Ben Affleck, who Harry thinks isn't good enough for his daughter, Liv Tyler, until the mission proves otherwise.
Wow. I mean, come on.
So your dad was Bruce Willis.
My dad was Bruce Willis.
The Drilling. The Drilling expert.
And he felt that everything Bruce Willis' character had to say was inaccurate.
Yes. I would say the two movies my dad got really mouthy about were Armageddon and Twister.
Twister. The tornado movie?
Yeah because we live in tornado alley and like they were like driving up in this tornado and like a truck flies in the air a like a giant semi -truck flies in the air cows are flying in the air and and the guy goes I think it's Bill Paxson goes, we've got some debris and my dad goes, debris my ass!
I don't know anyway.
We have to discuss the fact that Pam wants french onion chips.
I love french onion chips.
THE Environment I have a question for you.
Was that your personal pick or did Pam?
Was that scripted? I don't know.
But I feel like it could have been my personal pick because a lot of times … If you have to eat something, they ask you.
They do. They ask you if you have any food allergies.
The props person will call you at home and say, We're doing a dinner scene.
Is there anything you can't eat?
Yeah, I feel like Phil Shea would have been like Jenna, what bag of chips would you want in case you have to open them up and eat them.
Yeah, so you said French onion chips Yeah, this means you wouldn't have been flirting with anyone the rest of the day because your breath would be disgusting Well, that's a good point.
I didn't really think of that.
I also like a barbecue chip I love a barbecue chip.
Can I tell you a little bit of information about the chips?
Yeah, okay They are hers chips.
He are are are S and book and this is a local Pennsylvania Company, the hers chip.
I'm flipping my papers because I was gonna talk about this later.
Maybe you should have written it on a notecard.
Oh! I see. No, I'm just saying.
Look how easy it is for me to see my information.
Little bit of Angela Sass.
Little bit of Angela Sass.
All right. Here it is.
I found it. Okay. The hearse chips are also what we put in our vending machine.
So you can spy them in there.
And I just think it's cool that we used local stuff to fill out the world.
And it's kind of a cool story, the story of hers chips.
I went down a rabbit hole, Angela.
Well, listen, if I just read you the synopsis of Armageddon, you better tell me about hers.
Guys, James Hur broke with his family's history of chicken farming.
And in 1946, he bought a potato chip company.
He was only 21 years old and he bought it for $1 ,750.
Yeah. And now it's a huge successful company and you can even go there and tour it.
You would love that.
You can tour the facility.
You love a factory tour.
You know I love a factory tour.
Angela, we've been invited to tour the SAS factory in San Antonio.
They said they would send us some shoes.
I want them. I know.
I want some SAS shoes.
excited about that.
And then I mean, listen, if we're talking factory tours, Jenna, I don't even know how to tell you this you're gonna be so jealous.
But next week, I am going to the Tefshed factory - For your...
That's what she said?
For my... That's what she said!
I'm going to the Tefshed factory, I'm so excited.
You guys, this is a weird thing that happens to us.
I went and bought some tile.
I needed some tile because I was doing a renovation outside.
And I went to this tile showroom It's called Arto tile in Los Angeles and they gicked out and they recognized me and they gave me a factory tour.
This is a really cool perk.
Yes, if you like to see how things are made.
I love to see how things are made.
I do too. I do too.
I loved that show. How It's Made.
How It's Made. It's so good.
I know. And so, I've gone on quite a few factory tours as a result of my fame on the office.
You have. This is my first factory tour.
Tough Shed's my first one and I'm very excited, Jenna.
All right, I wish I could go with you.
So something I have to talk about, Angela, before we go to break is the scene at Michael and Jim's desk, when Michael talks about being in the dam rascals?
Yeah. His street gang.
This is the same scene where they talk about Armageddon.
Yeah. But when Dwight punches Michael in the stomach, he does the double punch and Steve gets hit and he's like, Fuuuup.
Oh, that was John's weak spot.
John would laugh so, so hard.
And I think that's why in that scene there is not a single shot of John's face.
If you watch it after he punches Michael in the stomach, he, you never see John's face.
Yes. Because he couldn't get through that.
He couldn't get through that.
He loved whenever Steve couldn't get a word out.
Yeah. Especially in pain.
Like, there's a scene later we'll talk about, But, you know, Kevin sits on Michael's lap when he's Santa.
Oh, yeah. And Steve let out like a -like a painful moan, and I didn't think Jon was gonna be able to get back from that.
So this reminds me of that bit that Steve did on the Dana Carvey Show, The Nauseasider.
It's one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
You guys have to look it up.
Steve did it for us one time when we were in the conference room together.
And John couldn't handle it.
I thought John was gonna die.
I thought John was gonna die, but we were weeping.
You know when you start laughing where all you do is shake and make no noise?
Yes. Because Steve would do this thing.
He's a waiter, but food makes him nauseous.
So he would walk up to the table and have to give the specials of the day.
So he'd be like, so ask me Jenna, what are the included specials of the day?
What are the special's of the day?
Well, we have brr, brr, brr, m foundation.
and He, like, he would start to puke as he listed off the specials.
Yes. He'd be like, we have a delicious chicken wiper cream sauce cream.
Sorry. Cream sauce.
It was hilarious. It's so good.
We are not doing it justice.
We are not doing justice to him at all.
Oh my gosh. If Steve ever comes on our podcast.
Do you think he would do that?
Yes. Oh, I need him to do it.
Oh, Steve come on and dour nauseous waiter for us.
Yes. Because we would, we would make him do that.
We loved that. Angela, I think we should go to a break.
I think we should. I would like to go eat some chips, maybe, maybe some sour cream and onion chips from the basket.
Clearly you just want to be the gift that keeps on giving in here.
Yes. All right. We'll see you in a second.
We're back from break.
Angela? Yes? I have a time code.
What yeah, I actually have three time codes.
I'm so proud of you Thank you I almost I almost wrote them on note cards and brought in three note cards But I didn't want to infringe on your note card thing First of all, I don't own note cards I encourage you I love it use it.
I mean Jenna you don't own a list I hate to break it to you I might come in some day with a list I I think that's fantastic.
What is your timecode?
Well, I was very excited.
It's 11 minutes, 50 seconds.
And it is the scene where Pam and Jim are walking to the kitchen.
Jon is snapping his fingers, like he's from West Side Story.
And we got tons of questions about these finger snaps, which I think is why I felt compelled to write down the time code.
The question was, was this scripted or improvised?
I remember it as being improvised.
And I remember being so tickled by it because I'm a huge movie musical fan.
And I asked Lee Eisenberg and he thinks it was also improvised.
He does not remember writing that.
I think it was improvised because it's just like John kind of playing around, because earlier in the show he had mentioned, oh, like a jet.
And Michael, I think thinks he's a jet.
He's like, oh, you're a jet?
That was the name of your actual gang.
Yeah, so I think John is just playing off of that reference.
It was so fun. So then they go into the kitchen, and I have to say, this scene in the kitchen between Michael and Dwight, when they face off, might be one of my favorite scenes from the entire second season of the Office.
In the kitchen, John and I almost started laughing about a million times, and if you notice, if you look at Mindy, she is constantly turning her back to the scene and looking into the annex.
I could see you and John almost break.
When I watched this, knowing you guys, I was like, oh, they were about to lose it.
But seriously watch Mindy through this because she can - she cannot face the scene.
It's amazing. Well when - when Rain like grabs her and is like, all right now from behind she's like, wait what?
Totally. I don't know how she got through that.
And there's all these great things in this.
This is the misuse of common phrases, like catch 22, tit for tit.
That's your favorite.
My favorite, this is the second time he has said it, tit for tit.
Also, two hits, me punching you and you hitting the floor.
So good. It was just so good.
This leads me into my second time code, Angela.
Okay. 13 minutes 27 seconds.
Well, I have one at 1325.
Alright, what's yours, let's see.
Well, this is at 1325, you see who actually goes to the dojo, cause you see everyone pile into the elevator and it is Phyllis, Pam, Meredith, Oscar, Creed, Kevin, Jim, Michael and Dwight.
And who does not go to the dojo, Angela, Stanley, Toby, Kelly and Ryan.
Is that true? So you did not go, did you not film that day when we went?
I had the day off. Oh my gosh.
Yeah, it was decadent.
Oh, my goodness. So, when I talk about being at the dojo, you re going to hear what you missed out on.
Yeah, I have no idea.
And you know, the thinking was that Angela and Stanley would not participate in this.
This is like shenanigans.
And they are literally there to do work and clock in and clock out.
Yes. And so Angela and Stanley are really two of the big bah hum bugs of the office.
Toby and Kelly wouldn t go.
R Ryan, because as you know and I know, they were rules.
And they needed to be in the writer's room.
And this was an opportunity for them to get some work done.
Yes. It's so true. Well, when we all pile in the elevator, I don't know why I'm so tickled by it.
But at 13 minutes and 27 seconds, just watch Kevin's face as the elevator doors close.
OK It just makes me laugh.
All right. He's got this little mischievous look on his face.
He's very excited to see what's going to happen.
Totally like a little kid who got to leave school.
Oh, that's so cute.
I love it. All right, well Angela, I'm gonna tell you some stuff the day that we shot at the dojo, it was really hot.
I was gonna say, were you guys all hot and sweaty?
Yes and the air conditioning in our trailers wasn't working.
Oh! So, remember on the Dundee's when they had ants, this time they had no air conditioning and they were they're metal.
So, it was kinda like changing your clothes in a sauna And we were just super sweaty, all of us, and gross.
And I had to wear a sweater because we had established my beige sweater earlier in the office.
And I remember thinking, oh my God, I am so sweaty and stinky, and John has to pick me up.
This is a thing that I think people don't think about.
Anytime I would have a scene where I would have to whisper at someone or you'd have to and kiss, I would brush my teeth like three times, and chew gum, and eat a mint before.
And any time when you have to be close to someone, I would be very aware of my potential body odor, and - At least our show was in a show with a bunch of close talkers, because you watch an episode of like the Sopranos, they get in each other's faces, they're like, listen here!
And they're right up to each other's face, at least we didn't have that!
That's true. But when I watch those scenes because we're actors and we know, I think like, Oh, my God, there's no way they don't know what they had for lunch, because that is some close talking.
Well, when Jim lifts Pam up at the dojo...
At 14 minutes, 11 seconds.
We got a lot of questions about this scene.
I have questions. So go.
Well, in Office Olympics, Angela has her bit about Pam Pong.
Yes. And that's kind of the first time that Pam is made aware that someone else is aware.
People are noticing.
Yes. And now, in this scene, Meredith clocks the interaction between Pam and Jim, and that is what freaks out Pam.
Also, your shirt came up.
And you could see your belly.
Now, I remember as your friend, that week, you sang to me, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, people are gonna see my belly.
Because it said, you know, it picks up and your shirt kind from comes up, and you were nervous about it.
Yeah. That was a fan question.
And Anthony asked, was it meant for your shirt to pull up when Jim lifted you or did it happen on accident and you went with it?
It was in the script that my shirt would come up a little bit and that was all to make it even more of a vulnerable thing for Pam that she was a literally exposed.
Yes, something that you were really embarrassed about.
Yes, and wow, I wish my stomach looked like that today.
I watched that scene.
I was like. Why was I not wearing midriff tops every day when I looked like that?
I know. I knew you were going to say that because, I mean— Listen, we've had babies and everything changes after that.
And you're— I mean you look phenomenal today, Jonah.
You look phenomenal then.
But I know— I remember our bellies before babies I remember.
Well, I am kind of glad that it was scripted, that you see my belly, cuz I've got it on film now, that at one time in my life I had a cute little belly and belly button.
So, thank you Jeannie Lee for that.
At 13 minutes 56 seconds that's my third time code, Angela.
There is a poster in the background of this interaction between Jim and Pam.
So we're all watching Jim and Pam, but in the background there's a poster on the wall and it is one of my favorite things.
It was a favorite thing of all of us when And when we got to the dojo, this was a set decoration poster that Gene and Lee wrote that set decoration had printed and put on the wall.
It is The Ten rules of karate.
OK. All right. According to this dojo and I'm going to read them to you.
They're amazing. Number one, obey your parents.
OK. Number two, no junk food.
Number three, do your homework.
number four keep your room clean number five maintain an indomitable spirit number six don't fight with your siblings seven practice practice practice eight treat others the way you would like to be treated nine be loyal to your country and 10 have fun so Lee told me he still has this poster.
He asked to have it.
He said they spent way too long writing these tools.
I was going to say, I bet they spent hours.
They did. Just cracking themselves up.
It's amazing to me because I feel like it is this little detail that really hammers home, that Dwight takes classes in a studio meant for children.
Children, do your homework!
These are kid -based rules.
And, of course, you see that.
You see that he's in a class with a bunch of eleven -year -olds, But I just think that is brilliant, brilliant writing that poster.
OK so that was their version of the rules of karate, right?
There's this thread on Reddit where people go back and forth.
They were like but Dwight says karate and then there's TaeKwon against this and there's this and this.
So a little bit that the martial arts didn't quite line up in that dojo.
Yeah, I think that makes sense too.
I mean Dwight is not maybe studying a pure form of anyone martial art.
Right. I have to talk about the fact that at 14 minutes 11 seconds.
I think that Pam is sending Jim mixed signals Of course She and I totally judged her a little bit I know Because she was being really flirty and then when Meredith noticed it wasn't until Meredith noticed That's right.
Then she like pushed him away and then the look on John's face He does such a fantastic job of looking – wounded and confused and not really— He was so happy, but now, he's, like, now what happened...
He did such a great job because Pam is sending him mixed signals.
She really is. But, I mean, that's complicated, unrequited love for you.
I know. What are you going to do?
She's conflicted. She's conflicted.
When Michael pins down Dwight at the dojo and is winning the fight, our director of photography, Randall Einhorn, who used to work on Survivor— So I want to say literally nothing surprises this man, he is a total pro, he never broke, he lost it.
He lost it. He was laughing so hard that he had to take the camera off his shoulder and hold it out with his arm so that it wouldn't shake.
He had tears like streaming down his face.
It's the hardest I have ever seen him laugh.
Yeah, that's saying something because he was like a statue.
Him and Oscar Nunez never break.
Yeah. I have a question for you.
Lance, when I was speaking to him, said to his Knowledge the fight was not choreographed and that he really believed that the stuff that Michael that Steve was doing to reign as Dwight like holding him down and trying to spit on him and all of that that that Steve improvised that I integration Lee about that his memory Is
that they did bring in a stunt coordinator to work with them on set one day during a break Yeah, so Lance wouldn't have been there for that.
That's right Really, and so...
But that person did not go to the dojo!
Did not go to the dojo!
The day that you actually did it, they were not present.
And so on the day, he said they just, like Steven Raine and Ken Quapis just came up with a bunch of stuff like the typewriter stuff, and he said, he doesn't remember how many takes they did, but it was a lot, he said, it was also really hot, and those guys got really tired, doing all the fake fighting...
You can tell because they're winded when they're speaking to each other.
They are! Yeah. It's true.
Did you clock Phyllis's disposable camera in the scene, where she's taking pictures And it's a disposable camera.
Don't you wish we had those pictures?
Who had those? Someone must, Phyll shay.
I don't know. All right, so after this humiliating defeat, we go back to the office, and we see a scene from Michael's office that goes down into the parking lot, and he tries to call Ryan on his cellphone.
that was a different office than the usual Michaels office.
You totally, it's completely different.
So we had two Michaels offices.
We had one Michaels office that was on our set and it had just like a scrim backdrop behind the window that was kind of blurry and it was just like an old fashioned, fake out the window kind of thing.
But whenever we had to shoot a scene where Michael was actually looking out of his window into the parking lot we would move over to the writers offices.
And they literally would shoot in a writers office.
Yes. And I was trying to remember, was it Mike Shears office or Paul Leiberstein's office.
One of the two of them worked in Michael's office and it was hallucly decorated as Michael's office.
And then when it was time to shoot they would get kicked out of their office and set dressing would come in and zhuzh it up and then they would have to use that to shoot.
And they couldn't write in their office that day.
But the walls are, like, kind of a green color.
Yes, that was lies.
They don't match, like I was like, guys, the walls are not the same.
Well, it's funny, too, because all the other writers could decorate their offices.
Oh, Mindy's office was so decorated.
Oh, for sure, of course.
Yeah, of course. But you could have, like, personal photos of and posters on the wall.
But they couldn't do it.
I think it was Paul's.
I think it was Paul's as well, because I remember that.
And that's my memory.
If it wasn't Paul's, them.
Paul just really didn't make a lot of effort to decorate.
Because I remember...
I remember his office being pretty bare.
So next up, Michael tells the rest of us to sign the forms.
He's given up. For sure.
At the end of the show, the people who actually signed the reports are Toby, Stanley, Angela, and Pam.
And we were all grouped together at the reception desk, and I loved shooting that scene, because everyone else had gone home for the day.
Except for Dwight. That's right.
He was at his desk.
But most of the office was gone and that group of us, We were very rarely in little scenes together.
Just us. And I have very fond memories of shooting that.
Me too, me too. That was really, really fun.
I have one thing that is a time code that was right before the end there at 17 minutes, 57 seconds.
People are packing up for the day.
Guess who's sitting across from Meredith?
Who? Ryan? Yeah, that was his desk.
But where was Creed?
Creed didn't really have a desk yet.
I don't know. When does Creed take over Ryan's desk, and when does Ryan move back to the annex?
These are good questions.
I know. Did Ryan...
Well, eventually remember we turned that closet in the hallway into Ryan's office, I feel like.
Yeah, for a little bit.
That desk was kind of the catch -all, right?
I feel like I've seen Devin there, I've seen Ryan there.
I've seen Creed there.
When does it become Creed'sMusic.
Creed's desk. Also, in this episode at the end, when people are filing out, we see an appearance of Luann.
Oh, there's LoAnne.
LoAnne. LoAnne was one of our stand -in slash extras.
Who would normally sit in the annex and people always say, who is that?
So LoAnne walks by.
That's right. I feel like the two things I want to tell you guys we're going to be dedicated to tracking in this rewatched is Mindy's hair, and when does Creed get his desk?
Okay, so just know that.
Someone out there probably already knows.
They're gonna write in and say, you guys Creed sits there in episode.
Tell us. Solve this mystery !" Okay, Michael takes Dwight into the conference room here at the end, and he says he's been testing them all day.
And he promotes Dwight to Assistant Regional Manager.
Right. He gets no announcement.
No raise and no new office, but Dwight is so happy.
He is so happy. He whites out to the, on all of his business cards.
It's so pure and sweet.
I know, it's so sweet, although Michael's like, It's not really a real thing and it doesn't really.
Dwight isn't hearing that part.
He doesn't hear any words except assistant regional manager.
And then this leads us to the famous Micheal talking headline.
Would I rather be feared or loved?
Easy. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me.
I have seen that stitched on pillows, I have seen that on shirts.
I want people to be afraid of how much they love me.
Good writers. Such good writing.
And that was the fight.
That was the fight.
So, next week, we will be back with the client.
The client. This is maybe my favorite Season 2 episode...
Although there's also the injury.
I love the injury but...
You love the injury, Jenna!
You wore a shirt. Like you've bought online of the injury.
I'd bought a shirt from Etsy have a grilled foot.
Yeah, that you would wear...
You would wear it a lot.
It was like one of your favorites.
Geez, did it bother you?
Did I wear it too often?
No, it didn't. but it just made me laugh.
There was a day that you showed up in your shirt with the grilled foot.
And I had a shirt that was like an inside joke on our show of Creed as an action figure in Hong Kong.
Do we realize we were to big a fans?
We're like, what are we, what are we doing?
We're just walking around in shirts from our show.
So next week, we will be talking about not the injury, but the client.
We'll see you then.
See you then. Thank you for listening to Office Lady's 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 Wise Berman and Leeairese Dennis.
Office Ladies, is mixed and mastered by Issue Basil, Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Craig Bratton.
