Second Drink: Dinner Party

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Dinner party? This is such a great breakdown. We got so many audio clips from our cast for this episode. We got Steve Corell, John Krasinski, Rain Wilson, Ed Helms, Malora Hardin, Beth Grant. Plus, we got tidbits from the director Paul Feag. and writers Jean Stepninsky and Lee Eisenberg. It's an epic episode. And we also discussed more about the dinner party episode in our Office Ladies Six Po episode Dinner Party Horror Stories.

I was a little stumped as to what we might be able to add to the discussion in this second drink. But then I thought, why don't we read more of the fan letters from our submissions from dinner party horror stories? Yes, there were so many good ones. If you remember, we asked you all to send in your own dinner party horror stories and you guys really delivered.

I'm gonna start us off with one from Becca J in Tennessee. Okay. Becca says, when applying for medical residencies, it's common to have a dinner with current residents. This way everyone gets a sense of the culture and if you like them and vice versa. Like many of the group, I ordered a glass of wine. Then I quoted Michael Scott and said I was getting an oaky afterbirth. Unfortunately, my dinner companions were not familiar with the

office, including an Ozzy who complained about the show after I explained my weird phrase. Ultimately I matched at that program and I made great friends and I introduced the office to many residents. I mean Could you imagine the crickets if you said your wine had an oaky afterbirth to people who didn't get the inside joke? The office reference? I mean, it's what if this is a room full of residents? What if some of them are like OBGYNs and they're like, What is happening?

Well, I liked this one from Madeline O, who said, one time my husband and I were invited to our neighbor's house for dinner. She is single and mid-sixties. And she had invited us and a few other neighbors our age to come. She provided all the food, had the best dishes out. It was a very fancy and proper occasion. Everyone was chatting quietly while we were just finishing our dinner in her dining room and there was a knock. She said, Oh.

The entertainment is here. It was a clown. She had hired a clown to come entertain us millennials. The cringe for me right now is I I can barely handle it. Madeline said, we were all very weirded out, but we sat politely in the living room while the clown gave us a performance clearly made for a fourth grader's birthday party. Oh my gosh. Eventually the clown left. Needless to say, we never had another dinner party with her.

Oh, there's so much about this. There's so much about this. First of all, clown's just doing his or her job. Right. That's what they do. They do clown parties for fourth graders. Yes. So imagine the clown guy, like you have a real choice in this moment. Do I go so hard and fully commit? Right. Or do I back off a little'cause I realize maybe I'm not the clown they wanted to hire?

Or am I like, fuck you guys, are you pranking me? Here's m the thing I know about clowns is that they take clowning very seriously. I mean, there's like clown colleges. Oh, I know. So I I have to imagine that this clown It just committed. Yeah. I would go so hard. Yeah, I feel bad for this woman because it sounds like this dinner party started out nice. She got out her fancy dishes. She provided all the food.

Something happened. What was the misstep here? Well, it was the clown. Well, I know, but how did we get there? I don't know. What what's uh what's our train of thought? This whole thing with this clown, like do they commit, do they not commit, right? It's making me think. of this interview I just saw Jack Black do on Seth Myers. Well I'll let I'll let him explain it. But Jack Black was in an S N L sketch that bombed but he didn't take his foot off the g the gas.

He just He he went he fully committed. He did. He said, I only have one gear. You gotta hear this. This is a tangent, but that's what this is making me think of. This Talk about dinner parties gone wrong. This kind of vibe. You had a sketch that did not air that is still incredibly beloved.

Among uh my cohort from that era, which was uh written by Amy Poehler and Emily Spivey, Boys Night Out. Oh yeah. Boys Night Out was a guy who was very excited because his wife was going out for the day and he was gonna have a boys night out. I pitched it to Amy and Amy wrote it up for me. Yeah. Bespoke for me. And it was uh just a little song. I was like, I think it'd be really fun to come out and sing a song. Boys Night Out.

Boys night L really recognition and the fixing rollers talking as well talk about it. And she wrote it, God bless her. And uh I thought it was funny. But then yeah, in the dress it really took a dumpsky. And it was like, it's out. And I agreed with Lauren. I was like, No, yeah, don't let's not do it. I do I will say, like, it took a dumpsky not and you never took your foot off the gas. No, I w

We all knew it wasn't gonna go to air and we're like look at Jack trying his hardest. I've al I've only got one gear. As a clown, he was he'd go all in. That's how I pictured this moment at this woman's dinner party. Oh, well, thank you everybody for sending in your letters. We hope you enjoy this breakdown of dinner party. And I'm Angela Kinsey. We were on the office together. And we're best friends. And now we're doing

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 later. I have tears in my eyes. Because I am so excited, you know what that song means. It means It's time for a dinner party. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. You and I watched this episode so many times over and over this week. And I'm telling you, I loved it every single time. Angela, my husband Lee, had never seen this episode.

How is that possible? That is crazy! I got to watch it with a person who's never seen it. I thought he was gonna choke. He was laughing so hard especially during the condo tour. I he couldn't catch his breath. Well my whole family had to wash it over and over, but each one of them washed it with me once. Guys, it is season four, episode 13, written by Gene Stepnitsky and Lee Eisenberg, directed by Paul Feig. Arguably, maybe the best episode of The Office.

Definitely one of the most memorable. Every time Jenna and I are, you know, doing interviews or talking about the show, this is an episode we are always asked about. I feel so honored that I got to be at that awkward dinner table. What a great lifelong memory. And we have some really special things for you today. Starting with the summary.

I'm not reading the summary today, Angela. Oh no, no, no, no. You know who needs to read the summary. The host of the dinner party himself mister Steve Carell. You are cordially invited to Michael and Jan's condo for a last-minute couples-only dinner party. Attendance is limited. We only have six wine glasses, and

Join Jim and Pam, Angela and Andy, and eventually Dwight and his former babysitter for an evening of drinks, games, music, candles, osobuko, and a home tour like no other. Snip snap, snip snap. Let's get to it. Yeah! Woohoo! Thank you, Steve Corell, for reading our summary. So guys, we were a little nervous about this one because it is such a big episode. We wanted to really do a good job.

And there is so much to cover, so Jenna and I reached out to all of the guests of the dinner party and also to our writers and our director Paul Feig. And everyone is sending in audio clips. Let's get started.

Fast fact number one, this episode was written by Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg. I spoke with both of them, Angela. Jean told me that the inspiration for this episode was the Edward Albee play, Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf? Now, if you guys don't know this play, it is amazing and it is about a crazy older married couple who invites a younger couple from their work over for a dinner party. And it's just this insane evening. It completely goes off the rails.

There's a movie version starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton that is crazy good. You can check it out. If you liked this episode, you'll like that movie. Here's a little fun fact from Lee Eisenberg. The original working title for this episode was Who's afraid of Jan Levinson Gould?

Which makes total sense to me because Jan Levinson Gould really brings it. She scared the bejesus out of me in this episode. There are a few moments where she looks at Pam where I was like, I would not want to be Pam today. For sure. Jean told me that they were assigned this script.

right before the writers went on their summer hiatus in June of two thousand seven. So guys, we would go on this little hiatus every summer and the writers could go off and write episodes Normally, writers only got one week to write an episode, but because they were on hiatus, they had three weeks. to work on this episode. I mean they only got paid for one, but they said they couldn't put it down. They just kept adding details and details. They used their whole hiatus to write it.

I mean, I think it shows. I don't want to change the whole structure of how we do television. Maybe we should all get three weeks for a script, just saying. So we had a fan question from Megan W. and Meredith H. who want to know what everyone's initial reaction to this episode was when we did the table read. Oh guys. One of the first people I reached out to was Melora, and she responded immediately. Here is Melora's reaction to getting the script.

When I read the dinner party episode I was definitely just blown away. I was on the floor laughing and really felt like it was gonna be so much fun. I just couldn't wait to sink my teeth into it. It just felt like, you know, all of the wonderful unhealthy and completely dysfunctional elements of Jan and Michael kind of coming to a head and I couldn't really wait to dive in and get going.

Angela Gene told me that during the table read of this, he sweated through his shirt. He said it started off a little quiet because the episode is pretty dark. But that by the end, when the cop says, not now, Dwight, the whole room just erupted into laughter. And afterwards, Greg Daniels came up to him and Lee and said, this script was perfect.

Wow. So Gene reminded me that before he and Lee got their jobs on the office, Gene had been working part time as Harold Ramus's nanny and Lee was a temp at HBO. And he just said, Greg changed our lives. So hearing from this man who was our mentor telling us we nailed it, it was the highest compliment he ever received as a writer. I bet that means so much to them. You know, Jenna, here's what I remember about this table read. I do remember this build.

It started and it just took over the room. People were laughing and then laughing and then really laughing. And by the end, that final line of the script. Everyone started applauding. And I remember the applause lasted for like a minute. Yeah. It must have felt so amazing for Gene and Lee to see their hard work just have that kind of adoration in the moment. We'll get this, guys. I guess the folks at NBC did not love this script.

Oh no. After the table read, Greg had a phone call with NBC. Uh oh. When we asked Rain Wilson about this episode, he talks about that phone call. Dinner party, it is one of the top three all time great office episodes. It's absolutely extraordinary. It's a pretty dark episode. And after the table read, I heard a story from Greg Daniels that the network was like, um, that's a very dark episode. And Greg was like, Yes.

Yes it is. They're like, are we sure we want it so dark? And Greg was like Yep. And they were like OK. And then we proceeded. You know, I feel like if this episode had come earlier in our run. Maybe it wouldn't have happened, right? Maybe NBC would have given notes and Greg would have maybe had to sort of pick his battles. But at this point, our show was so established and critically acclaimed and had won awards. I feel like Greg was able to confidently say to them, like, Yeah.

This is the show. This is how it's written and we're gonna do it. Gene and Lee told me that they did not do a rewrite on the script. Wow. You guys, all of our episodes, as amazing as they were, would go through several rewrites. That's just kind of how a script comes to be. So for this to not have a single rewrite, that is amazing. Yeah.

So we had this amazing script. We're all ready to shoot this amazing episode. And then we got shut down because of the writer's strike. Yeah. For four months. We had to wait. It was just a very surreal time because So many shows that shut down did not come back. They weren't able to survive the strike. And the fact that we were able to come back and we knew we had scripts waiting for us was huge. But it was really important for us as a cast that we stand with our writers and support them.

Gene and Lee said it was really surreal because they went from writing this episode, having this table read, to picketing their own set. Yeah. And it was so, so bizarre. But we shut down.

This leads me to Fast Fact Number Two. Mm-hmm. Fast fact number two is that Paul Feig directed this episode, but he almost did not direct this episode. I couldn't even imagine if it wasn't him. I know. I know. Well, when we reached out to him, he told us how this came about.

I had been brought on I I directed a lot of episodes of the office, but in that season I had been given Survivor Man, which I was really excited about and actually am very, very proud of that episode. But I remember reading the script for the dinner party and uh it was given to some other director and I was

so jealous'cause I thought, like, if only I could do this episode. This is like everything I want to do. It's so uncomfortable and cringy and hilarious. But another director was assigned to it. But then the writer strike happened and so it all fell apart because I did Survivor Man and then the register strike stopped everything. And so we were off for months and months and months for however long the register strike went. And my great joy was at the end of that

Everything shifted so much that that director who was supposed to do the dinner party wasn't able to and so it came back around to me. And so I was so excited to do that episode. I just saw it so clearly in my head and it was just So funny to me. But the crazy thing about that episode was once we did it and we knew it was so funny, the audience the loyal office audiences hated it. It was a really a very divisive episode because I think it was so uncomfortable and so cringy.

that people couldn't deal with it. And I remember like we were so excited, all of us, all the writers, everybody, we were so excited because we really thought this was kind of like one of the best things the show could do. And we were kind of all bummed out that people were so weird about it. But I think the whole thing was it was so uncomfortable that the first time you watch it You almost can't handle it in the way.

But once you watch it a second and third and fourth and however many times you watch it, then it becomes fun'cause you know it's coming. You know it's gonna be terrible and you just can enjoy the cringiness. And so um I could not be prouder of that episode. It's really you know, I I I won a a DGA directing award for it, which is the only time I'll ever get an award for anything. But I I just think it's the funniest thing in the world.

I remember the fan response to this episode was not overwhelmingly positive when this show first aired. Yeah, I remember even within my own extended family. They either loved it or they hated it! Yes, very strong reactions. It has grown to be beloved. It was not beloved when it first aired. You know, I don't know who this other director was that was supposed to direct this episode, but Gene told me that this person had never directed a single camera comedy ever.

that this episode would have been their first one. Oh my lord. Now maybe it was a big time movie person, you know, and they'd just never done half hour TV before. I am so glad that we got palfy. Yeah. I mean, you don't want the dinner party script to be your first time at single camera comedy. If I were that person, I wouldn't sleep. Yeah. No.

Fast fact number three, Angela, we know that the writer strike provided us with Paul Feag. It also provided us with a problem. In the form of your giant belly. I was wondering when you were gonna bring that up. I'm not the only person bringing up your belly, Angela, because when we asked Paul Feig about his memories of shooting this episode, he discussed it. Oh no. One of my favorites is how we had to desperately hide Angela's pregnancy.

uh during it'cause she was um very late late stages and um so you'll notice a lot of her carrying flowers and things in the foreground and then A pillow on her lap when she's sitting on the couch. I think we had her in a big giant overcoat too. So um so that was fun. It was very challenging, uh doing special effects with no special effects. So Angela, we also got mail about your belly. From Susie S., Alex G, and Emma O. Oh no, ladies!

They wanna know how far along were you in your pregnancy and what kind of meeting was there for hiding Angela's baby bump in this episode. Please tell us everything. Well, ladies, if memory serves me, we filmed this episode in early March. Now you have to remember when we did the deposition, I was barely showing. Four months have gone by into my pregnancy. I had my baby early May. So it was a belly. It was a full-on baby belly.

And I do remember poor Paul Feek. He's the sweetest person coming up to me and being like, Hey Angela. So uh we're gonna have you stand behind the copier.

We're gonna have you hold this pillow, we're gonna have you hold a purse, we're gonna have flowers, we're gonna have a wall you stand behind. There were like all of these things. There were actual meetings about how to hide my belly. And then when we started filming I remember tucking behind the copier and Matt Sohn, our camera operator, saying,

I can still see it, Ange. I was like, what? So now there was this new dialogue I had with the camera operators where they'd be like, back it up a little, pivot, pivot, like duck, hold it higher. We had this whole language of the belly hide. Am I correct that in that scene when you first enter the condo and Michael and Jan are trying to take your coats, you don't take off your coat'cause you needed it to hide your belly?

Oh yeah. And my coat was enormous. It's like not a coat I would ever wear. It was so big. But yeah, I have a lot of track the belly moments for this episode that I can sprinkle in as we go, but we had to get creative. It was a big belly. One day no belly, next day big belly. That's what happened during the writer's strike.

Well guys, those are my fast facts. I think we should take a break and we will be back with a dinner party and more audio clips from our dinner guests. Light your candles. Get your osobuko going. We're about to have a dinner.

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We are back. We are at the office. It's a Friday night. We're working late. Oh, there's a special assignment from corporate, which we never find out what the special assignment is. Like, really and truly, how creative did Michael Scott have to get that he was able to con the whole bullpen? Yeah, everyone's shuffling papers. They're looking at things. What are we doing? What do we think the assignment is? It seems like we're doing stuff.

I feel like this is Michael's smartest moment that he came up with a special assignment that everyone believed. Yeah. At 36 seconds, Jenna, is when Jim knows. I believe this is when Jim knows because Michael gets on the phone to corporate and he's like It's not fair to these people. These people are my friends and I care about them. Like, who talks like that to corporate? I know. Jim knows, but people are grumbling, they're griping.

And there is a great deleted scene. It's a whole runner with Toby. Toby is sharing that he's so bummed out because he had tickets to Tom Petty. What? Yeah, and Toby had to give them to his ex-wife and her new boyfriend. Oh no. So yeah, everyone is kind of like, they're bummed out. Why are they staying so late? And then Michael proudly walks in because he's had this phone call and he's like, you know what?

You don't have to stay late. I told corporate we're not doing it. Everyone can go home. And they're like, Wow, thank you, Michael. Yeah. And then he turns to Jim and he says, Hey, you wanna come have dinner? At our place tonight? I know you have no plans. Oh. And Jim's like, He got me. Yep. Yeah. Well, there's a series of deleted talking heads where people talk about their ideal dinner party, and there's one

By Michael Scott that really cracked me up. Sam, can we play that? My ideal dinner party, easy. Jim Pam, Ryan, the mayor, Barack Obama. Shiloh Jolie Pitt because at the end of the night Brad or Angelina would have to come and pick him up and I would get to meet them. Shiloh Beef, because of Disturbia. Um All of the children of the world. Val Kilmer, but he probably wouldn't come. Too famous. Obviously George Clooney. Um And Jan, definitely. If there was room.

Michael would invite all of the children of the world, Val Kilmer, definitely George Clooney, but only Jan if there was room. Oh, that tells you everything you need to know. Right. And I feel like they deleted that because it was tipping his hand too soon, right? Well now we have a very sad talking head from Dwight that ends with just crying. He's so sad he hasn't been invited. Yeah. I thought Rain was so funny in this talking head. He really made me laugh. Bless his heart.

All right, lady. It's time to go to the condo. All right, so Pam and Jim arrive to the condo. It's already awkward, and this is gonna be a comedy sprint to the end. It's just gonna be one joke after the next. Well, it starts with both Michael and Jan trying to hug Jim at the same time. And then I don't know if you noticed, but only Michael hugs Pam. Jan does not even go in for a hug. Oh, I noticed.

And then she throws you some serious shade about the wine you brought. She's like, Oh, thank you so much. This will be great to cook with, which you guys know is code for thanks for the crappy wine. Exactly. Angela Jean told me that one of their goals in this episode was that it would just be loaded with a ton of subtle passive aggressive comments and coded language, and that this dig it pam about the wine. was the first.

Jean also told me that this moment was inspired by the fact that he and Lee were roommates when they first started writing on the show, and that Lee Isenberg is an amazing cook. He referred to him as a gourmand. What? Yeah! And one time Gene saw Lee cooking with some wine, which was something that Gene did not know you could do. His actual words were, It blew my mind.

He's such a dude. Of course you can cook with wine. Well, I guess Lee explained to him that it has to be a cheap wine. And that always stuck in his head that you cook with cheap wine. And that's why he gave that line to Jan.

Well, it's perfect. Babe, should we take a tour, babe? Yeah, babe. Oh, I'm so sorry about this horrendous carpet. We're a work in progress. I call this the mask wall, babe. Oh, we watch this episode a lot, but it's so good. This home tour really kicks off all of the Jan and Michael dynamics in this episode. And when we asked John Krasinski about his memories of this episode, he talked about this scene of Jim and Pam arriving and then starting the tour.

That episode was without a doubt one of my favorite to ever shoot because there was this incredible energy on set, this idea that we were finally getting to pull the curtain back on the world of Michael Scott. And I think that for me, I was already almost laughing in every scene because of how Steve was playing his character. there was this unbelievable beaming of pride and joy to have these two people

finally in his home after what I imagined to be a lifetime of hoping and wishing that it could be possible one day, and here they were. And not only were they in his home, he was able to give them a tour. And then the battling dichotomy of Michael's excitement and Jan's sort of weighty judgment of his house and his excitement was all loaded into every scene.

It's so true. So true. So well said, JK. We got a fan question, Angela, from Cameron W, Linda M, and Monica J. Did you guys actually film in someone's house? Oh yeah, there was a man that owned this condo. Yeah, it was a condo in Woodland Hills, California, and I remember they told me they had to take out all of that man's furniture and repaint his walls. And then they had to put it all back the way he had it. And that blew my mind.

I know. In the deposition DVD commentary, Ed talked about this for a minute. He said when they filmed in the garage, this man's belongings, there were some of them that they just shoved all into one corner. And they were like, what? What is this guy about? Because guess what he had? What? He had all of these professional ping pong player posters. What? Yes.

And they had just had all this ping pong in the deposition, so they were like, oh my gosh. And they recognized some of the names because of Dwight's talking head. And he said, in addition to all the professional ping pong posters. He had a professional ping pong table that was folded up and sort of wedged in the corner. Wow. So this guy obviously was a ping pong enthusiast. We know that. Maybe he was a amateur, uprising professional ping pong player. Maybe he was a champion. We don't know.

We don't know. But yes, he had to move all of his stuff out and cram a bunch of stuff into the corner of the garage, and then we had to put it all back for him. Well, we asked Paul Feag. about designing the condo for Michael and Jan. And here is what he had to say.

For Michael and Jan's condo, I had had the benefit of being the person the director who got to do uh Office Olympics, which was where we um established Michael and Jan's condo when he bought it. And so, you know, found this very kind of stark. Normal. cookie cutter kind of condo that he would have with very stark white walls and all that. And that was really fun. So when I was lucky enough to get to do this episode and go back to there, the whole concept of what Jan would have done

with that place was really fun to play with. And I remember Lee and Jean and I got really hung up on the idea that she had a war hall. I think they even put it into the script, but that she had done a like a war hall esque print of herself, which you only see briefly when they're in the hallway, I think when uh uh Jim and Pam first arrive.

And you see it in the stairwell when they go up to the infamous candle room and it's like this quad Warhol style uh picture of Jan. But I I just love the idea that we had to show off how Jan had fixed up the place, but also the idea that Jan had done it, even though she tried to warm it up, it was kind of very cold. So we were hung up on the idea of like really like dark grey walls.

And what art she would have put up. And I was very, very hung up on the idea of them putting up a that Jan put up a kimono on the wall. Which I had seen somewhere and thought, Oh, that's kind of a cool decoration, but it's also not terribly warm at the same time. And so that made me laugh. I have to add another little tidbit, Angela, is that I guess they put up a bunch of photos.

You can't really tell when you're watching, but they are all photos of Jan and other men. There are no photos of Jan and Michael. And then there's a lot of photos I remember of just Jan by herself. Yes, like in a frame. Like she has made it the Jan shrine. But I love that she has given it her touch, but it's in no way homey. No, it's just really kind of cold. And Michael has no space that is his own, except maybe where all of his rejected furniture items have gone into the garage.

Yeah. They take Pam and Jim on this tour, and we learn that Jan has both an office space. And a workspace because she can't create in her office space. And her desk in her office space looked like no one had ever sat there. It's so sparse. Oh, at three minutes thirty-two seconds, you can see that her desk chair still has the plastic cover on the arms. Oh my gosh, fantastic. That was a little detail that Paul Feag had. He thought that would be funny. So he made them leave it on.

That's great. They put so much thought into every little nook and cranny of that condo. Should we talk about the candle room? Yes. I can't imagine what that smelled like. It must have been so strong.

Oh lady, we got a lot of mail about it. From Ross C, Sierra S, Allie E, and Emily D, did the candle room actually smell like candles? Oh yeah, it was a room full of multiple scented candles. Well, I didn't have to go in the candle room, and thank goodness, because I was pregnant and so sensitive to smell, I probably would have been like, Bah. But Paul Feag spoke about the candle room, and here's the audio clip.

The candle room. We just knew that we wanted the candle room to be insane. And the big thing was like when you're in there it smelled crazy. And it's like how do we do that? How do we put that across to an audience?'Cause one thing an audience can't take in, two things, they can't take in the temperature of what's happening and they can't take in the smell of what's happening.

And so that's why you have that shot of John Krasinski like kind of like looking out the door and going, Oh, like you can't breathe because you just know it just stinks in there. But I really just loved how dense and uh terrible we made that room. I loved John's look to camera when he was gasping for air. I it was so believable and funny. And I don't think that was probably an easy thing to convey, but he did it so well. So well.

John and I talked with Paul before we shot that scene and he said I want it to look like you guys are doing that thing when you walk into a stinky public restroom. and you've taken like a deep breath before you walk in, you're trying to hold it for as long as you can. And then you need air, so you're just trying to take in the smallest amount of air that will get you through. Yeah.

So that's what we were trying to do in that scene. Well, now they move into the master bedroom. Oh my gosh, there are so many delicious moments in this. I do not know how you guys got through this. Well, I'm gonna say that a lot through this episode because there are scenes that were just the four of you that are

some of the funniest scenes I've ever seen and I don't know how you got through this one. This is the scene where for the longest time there's just a camera on a tripod pointed at the bed. Yeah. Which Jim and Pam clock immediately and so does the audience. And then Jan says, Michael, I told you to put that away. And then she swats him on the butt. It's so uncomfortable. She swats him on the butt. Yeah. And then we learn that Michael Sleeps on a bench at the foot of the bed, and Angela

I can't even tell you how hard we laughed every time Steve Carell curled up on that bench. When he was like, no, I fit. Look. It's actually pretty comfortable. And he just curls up like a baby on it. Well, Paul shared with us the inspiration behind the bench, and it's so great. Here it is.

So the whole thing with um Michael and Jan and that weird bench that he sleeps on at the end of the bed came from when I was working as a script reader, um, in the early eighties for a uh Hollywood big Hollywood producer. And I befriended this woman who worked in this company and um at one point we were hanging out and and we went by her house to pick something up.

And I went in to there and I s they had this open bedroom plan and I looked and there's there was this giant bed, like a king size bed, but then next to the bed was this little tiny cot. And I remember saying like, Oh, what's that? And she got very serious and said, Like, look, when you get in a relationship, you have to make sure that you're able to um be intimate with somebody and and share things with them. And what it turned out was that

Uh-huh. When once they were done with their time together in bed, she had to roll off onto this cot and sleep by herself because this guy couldn't handle having anybody else in his bed with him. And I just thought that was the saddest thing I've ever seen in my life. And so I remember when we were scouting that location and there was that little spot. stool at the end or that bench at the end of the bed. I I can't remember if it was in the script or if we we took it and and ran with it.

But I remember saying to Lee and Jean, like, we ha I told them that story. I said like how funny, we have to have this thing where Michael can't sleep on the bed. Um and so that's what we did. And I just remember when we were shooting it It w made me laugh so much because, you know, the way that Steve Carrell would curl up on that bench. And my whole thing was like, Okay, we gotta have to hang on this as long as we can and so

You know, we have Jan going like, you know, oh he fits perfectly, ha ha ha. And the I just tried to get every last frame out of everyone just staring at Michael on this bench st and it's silent and it's just a completely uncomfortable and it makes me laugh. Still to this day. Now, lady, that clip suggests that maybe this was the condo guys. Bed and bench. Because he said when they scouted the location, they saw the bench, or maybe just a bench, and then we recreated it.

But I have a bench at the end of my bed. No one sleeps on it. But this is a very popular thing. I have an upholstered bench at the foot of my bed as well. It's where I like sort of lay my robe at night, you know. I like kick off my slippers, I put my robe on the bench. Yeah. And it's all there for me in the morning. My bench could not fit a grown man.

It's a tiny little bench. I actually really looked at that bench and I was like, oh, they found a wide bench. That's a substantial bench. Yes, exactly. It's just big enough. that you believe it, but still small enough that it's just so sad. Yeah. And also just again, Michael has no space in his own home. She has both guest rooms she's using, and now he doesn't even get to sleep in his bed. It's so sad. It's tragic. And now I've got a fun fact.

This scene of the bedroom tour specifically, this scene is John McCain's favorite scene from the office. And I can tell you why. Yeah, how do you know that? That's such a random tidbit to know. BJ Novak was at a dinner party with John McCain. I would love to hear that story, how that came about. That's fascinating to me. That's very on brand though for BJ. BJ finds himself in these eclectic groups of people all the time. So he's at a dinner party, John McCain's there.

Yeah, you wanna be BJ's plus one to a dinner party because he's gonna take you to a cool group. Yeah. He was at this dinner party and someone walked up to him and said John McCain is a huge fan of the office. Would you like me to make an introduction? Now, I've experienced this too with politicians. A lot of times politicians, they have a person whose job it is to whisper things in their ears that are really specific about the other guests at a party because they vetted everyone at the party.

So that when the politician meets you, they can say something really specific and personal. It's like the scene you guys in Devil Wears Prada, right? Anne Hathaway's next to Merrill Street. They're at that big shindig in Paris. And she's telling her every little person that walks up, some little tidbit. Yes. So BJ was like, Oh, he's probably been told I work on this show called The Office and yada yada. So BJ was like, I'm gonna put him to the test.

And I'm gonna ask him specifically, John McCain, tell me one of your favorite scenes from the office. BJ. Right? My gosh. Okay. So when he met him, he did it. He said, What's one of your favorite scenes? And John McCain said I love that scene in the dinner party when they're given the house tour and they walk into the bedroom and the video cameras up in the background and the bench and he just went on and on with such great detail that BJ knew.

Oh, this is for real. This guy does love the office. It's so specific. Yeah. It's such a specific scene. It was. Well, he picked a good episode and he picked a good scene because when I was re-watching this with my husband Lee, this was the scene where I thought We were gonna have to pause because he couldn't catch his breath. He was like laughing so hard. Hmm.

All right. Well, speaking of having to like pause to catch your breath'cause you're laughing so hard. Jenna, up next is the scene with the tiny TV. Oh my god. The tiny plasma TV that only comes out two inches from the wall. There are two times when I laughed so hard on our show that I thought I wasn't going to ever recover. This was one of them. Tears streaming down our face. We had a fan question from Maddie S. Paula T Kennedy H.

How many takes did you guys have to do when Michael was showing off his plasma TV? Guys, John Krasinski talks about this. I'm gonna turn it over to him. When we got to the moment with the television, I think there was an energy in the room that was overwhelming. I was already quaking with laughter. It wouldn't have taken much for me to laugh. and then throw in maybe one of my favorite jokes in the entire show.

And I remember at the table Reed laughing, but then to see Steve again with that beaming face of pride. Just turn to us and say you won't believe what what I have and also look what it can do when company comes over. I can just do this. And I'm pretty sure that the distance between the T V and the wall W was like an inch and a half. And he was so proud that it comes out to watch TV in the comfort of your own home and then you push it back.

a good inch and a half to hide it away when com when company comes. Luckily, the uh outtakes are out there in the world and so you can see I mean, Jenna can tell you, but I I think that it took probably nineteen or twenty takes before I was even able to stand up vertically. in that scene without doubling over. And again, as I've always said, I'm a crier laugher, so when I laugh that hard my entire face turns red with tears and the pressure that's filling in my face for trying not to laugh.

And to no avail. I I I don't know why I even try not to laugh. I should just let it out and then my face wouldn't turn beat red in every scene. That is without a doubt One of my favorite scenes and I will cherish that memory for the rest of my career. You can hear him losing it just retelling it, you know? Yes. Well, Jenna, one of my daughter's favorite things since we've been doing Office Ladies is watching the bloopers.

My daughter Isabel absolutely loves them. She watches them over and over. I think it's so fun for her to see you and I laughing and and these people that she's known, you know, since she was born, cracking up. So she actually helped me gather all the bloopers for this episode. She knew right where they were. She even knew time codes, Jenna.

I love it. You're passing along the love of time codes to Isabel. I am. So I feel like we have to hear the blooper of this scene because it's so wonderful. Sam, can you play that? I guess what surround sound means is that right over here Jim. Two speakers. Damn. We have two speakers. What? Honey? Oh Jesus. This is terrible. We'll never finish this episode. Um check this out. Falls. Sorry. Oh my God.

Lady, it makes me laugh just hearing it. It makes me crack up. Lady Steve did a whole runner where they just let him go with this TV and he tries to explain. That the TV has surround sound. And what he means by that is that the screen is surrounded by a speaker. The whole thing was

You've gone to someone's house when they've just gotten their new TV system with their new sound speakers and they're so excited to show it off. Maybe they even like play part of a movie for you, right? Yes. That was the inspiration for this. And so Steve was gonna bring that energy of like we were sitting in a professionally done home theater, right? Yes.

But instead he's just talking about this tiny TV, which by the way is not even a plasma TV. It's just a flat screen TV, but he keeps referring to it as a plasma TV. Oh my God. Jenna, do you know what I love is that how this is still a joke. With the cast. So a few years ago, you guys, we've talked about this before. We have a cast text thread where we will text and check in, say hello, little clips, pictures of our kids.

Creed usually sings us a song at Christmas and he'll text us, you know, him at home with his like elf hat on. And Jenna sent a photo to all of us. You were on a job. And you walked into like a little dressing room they had for you and there was the tiniest TV mounted on the wall, Jenna, and you sent us a picture and we all started cracking up. Yes. I walked into this dressing room and I thought to myself You could hold this in your hand. Why have they mounted it on the wall? It was

So reminiscent of the dinner party episode. I was so excited to send that text and people were loving it. It will never get old to me, that scene. I can watch it and watch it and watch it. But there are so many things in this living room that made me laugh on a second watch, Jenna. And I also remembered it the day we were filming because I was seated by it, that janky side table that Michael made. It is the saddest looking table, and he's so proud of it. It looks like

Crapwood. Like if you got a crate of firewood that he used the crate to make the table and the dialogue cracked me up too. Jim is like, Is that chestnut? And he's like, I think it's either pine or Nordic cherry. It's like

Angela, it's time for you to arrive at this dinner party. Oh, Andy and Angela, here we come. We had a fan question from Haley M. Angela, are you starting to break when Michael goes in for the hug, which you refuse? Yes. I pretty much, like John said, the minute I walked in that room and saw everything, just the minute we started those scenes, I was already tickled and everything from then on was just me trying not to laugh.

I have a fun catch at 6 minutes 34 seconds. When Andy takes off his coat. Underneath his coat, he is wearing a turtleneck with a shirt over it and then a sweater tied around his neck. Oh yeah, he's in prime preppy mode. This was a bit that Gene, our writer, came up with. He just thought it would be really, really funny to have a person who has tied a sweater around their neck. Take their coat off. Yeah. They had that ready to go underneath.

Well, you know, I said I would let you guys know when we had some belly hiding. It's happening all through the episode, but one of my favorites is this giant bouquet of flowers. That was to hide my belly. Yes. That's how big my belly is. Look at that bouquet of flowers. They had to make the bouquet that big because the point of it was for Andy to give his hostess some flowers, but the reason they're so large was because they were a belly height.

There's a great blooper from this as well, if you guys go back and rewatch them. But I have a little catch I want to point out. What is it? At six minutes forty-four seconds, I'm standing next to Jan. While Andy's doing the tuna, tuna. Bet you get a lot of tuna, you eat a lot of tuna, that whole bit. Yep. I just as an actor, just my own little prep that I decided to do.

was I just stared at Jan's boobs. I mean, I was eye-level to them. She's in heels. She's taller than me. They're right there. And I decided to throw her a little judgy shade, Angela Martin sass look. And Paul Feed came up to me and was like, Oh my gosh, Angela, I just caught in camera that you're giving chance boobs, that judgy look. He was like, You gotta do that every time. So I did and it made it in the show. And it's just one of those little moments that wasn't scripted.

that ends up on the screen and it's always fun to relive those. But that is a big, of course Angela would do that moment. Like, of course, right? I'm so glad they caught it. This is also when we find out, Angela, that the Osabuko will not be ready for at least three hours. And I love Pam's line when she says, Do you mean three hours from now or like three hours from four o'clock when you started it?

Jenna, when I rewatch this scene, that is one of the lines that you say that is most like you in real life. It is. It just felt like in that moment Jenna was saying it as your friend. I was like, that would be Jenna. She'd be like, no, but you you planned ahead. Surely. If you know it takes three hours, surely you had already estimated the time that you'd be serving it. I feel like that is something I could possibly say. Yes. In response to a host. Sometimes in Spain they eat at midnight.

So when in Rome. When in Rome. I guess we're gonna sit around and drink some wine now. Michael makes a toast. He notes the oaky afterbirth. of the wine, Jean told me that Steve improvised that line. You're kidding. Oakie afterbirth. Oh my gosh. Steve Carell. Well now Jan needs to relax. She wants to put some music on. Yeah. And I don't know if you know this, but her former assistant Hunter is a fabulous musician. And so she's gonna put on his CD. It's called The Hunted.

Yeah, and then she's gonna dance by herself in front of all of us. We got some fan mail about that. Amanda B, Ileana B, and Gabe G said, please tell us everything about Jan's Dam. Well, I'll start with this. Jean told me that after we did a few takes of Malora dancing on her own, he had the idea that she should try to pull Jim into the dance. So he got her aside and he gave her that note privately. John did not know that was gonna happen. Malora just ran with it. And we didn't know either.

And Jenna, when I re-watched that now, knowing that, right? Because Gene shared that with you and then Melora talked to me about it. I watched our faces, not only John's, but I watched yours and mine because it was a surprise to all three of us. And you can really see a look on both of our faces of like, what, what, what, what's happening? It was perfect. Well, like Angela said, we did ask Melora about this and she told us the inspiration behind her dancing. One of the most fun moments in the

to play was the um dancing with John Krasinski for the the song that Hunter had written. It just felt like s such a wonderful sort of jab at Michael, you know, so passive aggressive. And also I'm a dancer, so I really wanted to just be a little like

like off the beat. I wanted to make sure that I really tried hard to just be so inappropriate, but also just like a little bit off the beat, a little drunk, you know, kind of a little tipsy. And I felt like that would be even a better, you know, even a better jab. to Michael'cause Jen and Michael are like at war at that point in the episode.

I love that she's a little off the beat. Oh yeah. Jan just doesn't give a sh It's so like crazy to think, if you really think it through, that she would get up at this awkward dinner party and play a song Her former lover wrote about her and him in front of all of them. Yes. Angela, we got so much mail about this song. Hannah H. Bree P, Brandy R, Miles W, and Reagan C. They want to know who wrote and performed Hunter's song on the CD and is it evidence? that Jan and Hunter had a love affair.

Yes, and do we think that Michael knew when she played the song? I'll tell you guys, Gene and Lee wrote the words to the song. It was not sung by the actor who played Hunter. It was actually recorded and sung by Todd Fancy of the New Pornographers, who wrote the music as well. But get this.

Gene told me that he and Lee wrote a much longer version of the song with really cheesy lyrics. He said they worked on it for way too long, but they were just having so much fun writing this cheesy love song. And they had three weeks, so they kept tinkering. Well, I guess Todd also recorded that extended version of the song and Jean sent me a link.

And in the extended version, it is very clear that this song is about Jan. It is very clear that they have had sex at least once. So I had Sam pull a clip so we can hear this verse. Angela, he says corporate rules F em. And also apparently his parents did not like this relationship because he also says he doesn't care what his parents have to say about it either. It's hilarious. That version is also very produced with all the other instruments.

I like the one that they picked'cause it was more simple. Yes. You know? And then I also love of course Andy has to go, Ha Yeah. That gets me every time. And that's Ed, you guys. That was just Ed throwing that in there. As this scene continues, my character throws you under the bus about the faxes.

Jan is again not happy with you. I mean, I have to say, Angela Martin is really happy to have someone to judge Pam with. I know. To judge anyone with. Anytime someone's being judged, that's the only time you speak. That's what I bond. Yes. Well, Pam is gonna sneak away to the bathroom, and she has a talking head. She does not care what people say about her. She just wants to eat, and she doesn't think it's a lot to ask at a dinner party. Is she talking in the bathroom?

Yeah, here's the crazy thing, Angela. So Pam has this talking head in the bathroom and then Jim is gonna have a talking head in the bathroom where he says the hosts are playing their own separate game of making their guests uncomfortable and they're both winning. Mm-hmm. It's great. John and I are in a real, very tiny guest bathroom. That's what I was gonna ask. You know what it looks like, Jenna? It looks like that hall bathroom that a lot of homes have. It's like the half bath.

You know, it's just like a toilet and a sink and that's it. It was a half bath and it's funny to me because I feel like This could have been something where you just put up like little fake walls around us, but no, we were in a real bathroom. It was so tiny in there. Paul Feag actually talks about this. Sam, will you play the clip? I'll never forget being jammed into that tiny bathroom with Jenna and with John shooting those talking heads about them being uncomfortable. And we were all

Literally I was up on a sink, I think it was uh Randall Einhorn was in there with a camera. Then he or Matt, Matt Soan, and we were just jammed into this tiny thing shooting these talking heads. I never laughed so hard. I mean, my God. Well, between these two talking heads in the tiny bathroom, there is a scene that got deleted. It's between Jim and Pam. They are tucked in the hallway outside the bathroom door.

And Jenna, Pam is eating a granola bar that she has like stashed away in her purse or something. And then Jan busts you guys. She's like, what are you guys eating? It's so funny. And Jenna, you guys were cracking up. We could not get through it. And by the way, I ate so much granola bar because Paul Feag was like, Jenna, we have to believe that this is like the meal you've been waiting hours for. You're so hungry. So I was so full of granola bar.

And we kept breaking. Being confronted by Mallora with her intense eyes.

It did me in, I couldn't do it. You were both like genuinely startled and scared each time and then it just is hilarious. Well, in the living room, we've got this painfully realistic game of charades going on. A game of celebrity, really, if you know that game. My, my, my turn, my, my, my turn. You will learn so much about a couple if you play any kind of charade or board game where you have to like give clues out loud.

You really learn a couple. Jenna, when I rewatched this, I thought about a game of taboo I played with another couple years ago. And the guy turned to his wife and goes, Oh, oh, I call you this all the time And she goes, Oh, stupid. No, Angela. And the room was silent. And then when she got it, he was like, Yes. And they were like, Woohoo. And they were celebrating. And we were all like, What uh what? What did we just learn?

But this is that moment. This is what is happening. We see Michael and Jan trying to play a game and it is just So cringy. The amount of passive-aggressive comments is incredible. And then Jim is totally messing with Michael. Oh, I know. He knows that Michael is trying to give the clue Tom Cruise. But he refuses to say it. It's so, so, so good. And of course Angela Martin knows no pop culture, so she's no help. And Andy is horrible at giving clues.

Terrible. Now we have a moment coming up that was very controversial. Is it when Jim tried to ditch you at the party? Yeah. Jim fakes a phone call from his landlord, saying that his apartment is flooded, I guess. And he tries to get Pam to come with him to escape the party. He's like, We gotta go. We're so sorry. But Michael is like, Well, you guys don't both need to go check on the apartment. And Jim is like

Okay, great. Well I'll see you at home later then Pam. Yeah, and Pam is like, um, excuse me, you can buy new stuff, but you can't buy a new party. Yeah. We got a lot of mail about this moment, and Lee Eisenberg actually spoke about this in an interview with Office Tally back when the episode aired, because I guess after this

aired on the East Coast. The message boards blew up with fan comments online. People were really, really mad that Jim would consider leaving Pam behind at this party. But Gene and Lee said They thought it was a really sweet, playful scene and it sort of was like like a mental chess match between Jim and Pam, and that Pam ends up winning. And they thought Pam was the victor of this scene, but people could not get past the fact.

that for a moment Jim was willing to leave her there. Well, that should tell you how bad the night was going.

It didn't really bump me because he included you in the beginning. It's only when he was challenged that he was like, okay, well, I'm gone. Well, the evening has now dissolved into just silence. It's just everyone sitting around saying nothing. And how long have they been sitting there just in silence? I don't know. I mean Jan is fully reclined with her head back and her eyes closed. Well, Pam gets a little chilly, so Michael offers her his jacket.

And this sets off Jam. This scene is so brilliant. Mallora and Steve are so amazing, but her look the look Mallora gives you and this Slowly glances back over to Michael and then glances back to Pam. And then you see her thinking. and planning to say something embarrassing about him. The story Jan tells is that she's very sorry it's so chilly, but they're having to have their sliding door replaced and you can see a big blue tarp over the door.

And the reason is because Michael ran through the glass when he heard the ice cream truck. Yeah! Jan's like, it's a cute story. Michael ran through the sliding glass doors because he thought he heard the ice cream truck. And Michael's like, stop it. I don't like the story. Okay, fine. Look, I like ice cream. So sue me. And then he's like, wait, I shouldn't say that, because she will sue you because she loves lawsuits.

And then he said, the glass was extremely clean. And I it was like it was invisible. And she You roughly. She's like, You're so right, you're so right, because before I lived here the glass was always covered in smudges, and then I moved in and I cleaned it, so I guess that makes me the devil. And then they're both like crazy laughing with like crazy eyes. And and he's like, ha ha ha, yeah, yeah, she is the devil. And it is, oh my God, it's two people unhinged.

Here is what Jean told me about this scene, Angela. He told me that the theme of this episode was, quote, dinner party from hell, and the idea was that Michael is in hell and Jan is the devil. Oh. And so They did a lot of things toward this theme. For example, they designed Melora's wardrobe so that she was dressed in red. And for this scene where they wrote that line, I guess I'm the devil, and then, you know, Michael responds, and I'm in hell. Mm-hmm.

They purposely placed her in front of a roaring fire, and then in the room they have all of her candles lit all around Michael, so that he does appear to be in the flames of hell. But Malora improvised that moment where she made little devil horns on her head, which is so, so funny. But yeah, if you look around this apartment, there's a ton of red stuff. There is. And you know, I caught at 11 minutes.

five seconds, that red pot like thing that she took when she was fired in the job and it dropped out of the box and they had to put it back in the box. It's seated next to her on the little table. Amazing detail. We're about to go into the kitchen for some girls' time, and in the kitchen, all of her cookware is red. All of that was on purpose.

Well, let's talk about this kitchen scene. Pam has wanted to break up the tension in the room. She's like, Is there more wine? And Jan's like, No, no, no, I'll get it. No, actually, let's have some girl time. Angela, come on. And she takes them into the kitchen. Well, Jenna, there were a few scenes that we filmed us three gals in this kitchen. Only one made it into the episode, but there is another one, and it's great. Sam, can you play it?

So this girl that I basically grew up with becomes Miss West Virginia. And then suddenly all the boys start paying attention to me. And it was funny because you know I never even considered myself beautiful until people started pointing it out to me. They're like, Jan, wow, you are so- So much more beautiful than Miss West Virginia. Wait, uh Pam, what was your what was your question? Where did you grow up?

It's incredible. Isn't it so good? Yeah. She just goes off about Miss West Virginia and we're just sitting there in silence as she's chopping things. She clearly hates this woman. My question was where did you grow up? Yeah. And in the kitchen scene, you'll notice I'm standing behind a little ledge by the counter and I remember Paul Feag and I were so excited that there was a ledge in the kitchen. They didn't have to build that and I fit perfectly tucked into it so we could hide my belly.

Well while the ladies are having their time in the kitchen, Michael gives the guys a tour of the garage. He also uses this time to try to get them to invest in Serenity by Jan, and he's in. You don't need to say more than a sentence to him. This is my daughter's favorite line in the whole episode is when he goes, Thought about it. I'm in. Yeah. Michael's like, do you want to invest$10,000 into this candle business? Think about it, thought about it. I'm in.

Well when we asked Ed about his memories from shooting the dinner party, he talked about the first time he saw this garage. Sam, can you play that clip? At some point while we were shooting, I stepped off the set. I I don't I think I was probably just going to get a snack or something at craft service, and I walked through the garage.

of the condo where we were shooting. And the garage was also a location in the episode. They had done all the set decoration for the garage, and I noticed this amazing detail in there, which is that all of the items in Michael Scott's garage were things that he had bought from infomercials, like late night infomercials. And this was just like a background joke in the show. Like I remember seeing like a bow flex.

And like a meat dehydrator, like all this random stuff. And it just made me laugh so hard and was such a reminder of how incredible the office team was. Everyone at every level from production design set decoration, all those details, all of those people that worked on the show were so creative and contributing to the comedy of that show in very big and very small ways. And it all made such a difference. Anyway, that's one of my favorite details about that episode.

Angela, I looked it up. So currently a Bow Flex system starts around$1,500, but Michael had both a Bow Flex and a Solo Flex. And a solo flex is like twenty four hundred dollars. And then like Ed said, like meat dehydrator, just any as seen on TV item was shoved into this space. And really pricey stuff. There's two boxes of La Coussette like Dutch ovens.

Those are so expensive. They're like at William Sonoma. And it just kinda is that reminder of when Oscar sat down with him and said, What are you buying? What are you spending your money on? And I don't know if you noticed, but there's also just boxes labeled Michael's stuff. Yeah. So clearly Jan went through and just boxed up a bunch of his stuff and it's out there living in the garage. So sad. Oh yeah. You know the two chairs by that fireplace were those two hand seats.

That's right. But those aren't in in the living room anymore. Lady, I think we should take a break. We still have so much more to talk about. Oh my gosh, Dwight and the babysitter haven't even showed up yet. Well we will get to that right after the

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Ding dong! Oh, there's two more guests. Jan is confused. Her whole dinner party is here. Michael is not. He knows who's at the door. It's Dwight and Melvina. his older babysitter from when he was a child. Oh, and don't worry, they've brought two wine glasses and a cooler of food. Yeah. Since they're unexpected, they've got it covered. Don't worry. And two lawn chairs. So they have a place to sit.

The wine glasses are the biggest ones you'll ever see. Yes, they are. This sets off an argument. Jan wants Michael to send them away, but Michael stands his ground. Yeah. Michael's like, listen. You said he couldn't come'cause he didn't have a plus one. Or we didn't have enough wine glasses. Well, he brought the wine glasses and he brought another human. I know, I love that. He's brought a person. A person. So here we go. And Jan is like, fine, have it your way. And Michael's like,

Have it my way. When do things ever go my way? Yeah. When he wanted to see Stomp and she wanted to see Wicked, what did they see? Wicked. When she said she wasn't ready to have children. What did Michael do? He had a vasectomy. Then she decided I want kids. He had the vasectomy reversed. But then she changed her mind again. He had another vasectomy. Snip snap, sip, snap, sip, snap. Do you know the physical toll that three vasectomies takes on a person? Ugh all of this.

happens in front of all of us. There is so much to unpack about this scene, guys. So buckle in. I mean, when we saw the bench, we thought it can't get weirder than the bench. And then we played celebrity and now we're standing in the hallway of the condo yelling about vasectomies? Where can it go? Let's start with Dwight's date, his former babysitter Melvina. Angela Jean told me that they thought it would be really fun to offer this role to our longtime casting director, Alison Jones.

But she said no. She refused. Greg wanted the incredible Beth Grant to play the role. Well, yes, Greg had worked with Beth before and knew her very well. You guys might recognize her from the film No Country for Old Men. I mean she has a huge filmography, but at this time that film had just come out. We reached out to Beth. And she told us the story of exactly how she was cast on the show. I was thrilled when I got the call to do this part and to be Rain's babysitter.

and girlfriend. It's demented. And I love it. And uh I had worked with uh Steve Carell fairly recently in Little Miss Sunshine. So I was already completely in love with him and did love the show. And I had worked with Greg Daniels on King of the Hill. And we ran into each other during the writer's guild strike and I think he saw me in my strike mode. I guess he knew I was right to be able to be that demented woman.

Well, then Beth shares with us what it was like to do the scene at the front door. She's holding a cooler the whole time. This is all happening. It's her first scene of the episode. Here's what she had to say. Coming to the door to that dinner party was so thrilling for me. It was so hard not to laugh. I felt that since I knew Steve he was out to get me, he wanted me to break and here I was a guest star nervous with all you regulars, you fabulous comedians.

you brilliant comic minds and here I am the guest star with rain and opening the door is Steve Carell just going for it and I started this riff and improvising to the point that I was Determined not to laugh, so I started almost grunting and crying. I don't know if you can hear it in the episode, but and tears in my eyes and he said, Oh great, now she's crying or something and I leaned over. I was holding that cooler, you know, bringing our own food.

Since we weren't invited, holding that cooler and I leaned over, just shaking all over and came back up and somehow I think I managed not to break. But that was the only time I met.

Because you guys were just so hilarious. Jenna, we should share w with everyone what line Steve improvised that sent us all to the floor. Yeah. Guys, Steve improvised the line, Snip Snap, Snip Snap. You have no idea the physical toll three vasectomies has on a person. I mean, you try not laughing with Steve Corell in front of you improvising stuff like that. We were all a goner.

Well, it's interesting because Paul Fieg sent in an audio clip about this and I'll let him explain it, but there's a reason why Steve improvised that line. Here you go. There's so many great things to think about and and remember from this episode, but the one that makes me just realize how genius Steve Carell is, in case anybody didn't realize that already, um, is when the whole snip snap

run was it was a pretty dramatic scene of of them like talking about having kids and and all this and and so we did a several takes of it. It was really good, but it was very dramatic. And I remember kind of s saying to Steve, Maybe let's do a take or just kinda find a little more humor in it. I know it's kinda hard because it's a it's kind of a serious subject. And he's like, Oh, okay, yeah, I get it, I get it And that's when he did it went off on the the um

the old snip snap snip snap, which is just brilliant. I mean that scene is so funny'cause it's so heartbreaking and cringy but also hilarious. I remember that, Angela. I remember doing takes and takes of that scene. where they were just going back and forth and you could just see the pain and Michael that he wasn't a father and that Jan had been so manipulative of him and it was it was like a drama. And then Paul came over and talked to Steve.

And they were like, How can we make this a comedy again? How can we keep the dark elements of this scene, but not let it get too heavy? Brilliant Steve Carell. Yeah, he so saves the moment and it's hilarious. I mean, you're cringing, it's horrible, it's but he makes it funny.

Yeah. Well now, guys, we're gonna sit down at the table. I guess dinner is ready. Near ready? Finally. Can I point something out? Yeah. If you look at the table, we all have wine glasses, right? Mm-hmm. We also all have water glasses, which are wine glasses. So clearly Jan had more than six wine glasses because she is using them for water as well. She just didn't want Dwight to come, you guys, to her fancy party. He did not make the list.

Well, Dwight has started eating. I mean, they brought their own food. They're wasting no time. They're the only ones eating. Jan is still upset over what happened at the door. She's so upset she has to excuse herself she goes to the kitchen. Yeah. I mean, the last thing she said before she sat at that dining table was, I hate my life.

Yeah. She's not in a good place. Jenna, there's a deleted scene that is so fantastic where you kind of whisper to Michael, go to Jan. Go go comfort her. You kind of do this little motion, like, go, go say something. So he gets up and he walks over to her. Again, he's comforting her, but we're all witness to it. And and it's so clumsy and awkward. And Sam, can you play the first part of that? Hey, no no no, don't be sad. Don't be sad. Look, I care about you and I support you.

And you are smart and beautiful. And you have beautiful bosoms and you Can't even tell they're fake unless you're naked. And I believe that with my support and your constant calls to Dr. Perry on my phone plan which a little bit of a strain because I only have twenty any time minutes. A month. Every minute after that is 75 cents. You should look at some other plans. Okay, thanks, weirdo. But you know what? I'm month to month because I don't want to do your commitment.

I remember when he turned to Beth and goes, shh oh thanks, weirdo. We all lost it. Yeah. Jean said that's one of his favorite lines that got cut. Oh really? Mhm. He loves that moment. Michael continues to try to comfort Jan and it doesn't get any better, but it really paints a picture of how he feels about his home life with her. What were you saying to Jan? Honey, nobody in the complex likes you. But you have made this place look great. It's like a museum. You can't touch anything.

Which is a really strange way to feel. And it the place that you live, you have made this home a house. It's just what Paul Fee said about their design of the house. Yes. Like a museum. You have made this warm, cozy home a house. Oh Michael. I think they were right to leave those out because Otherwise, I think we might have felt too badly for Jan when Michael is about to do what he's about to do. But before we get there, Angela, I have to talk about this moment when Dwight offers you

some of his beet salad, and you respond by saying the thought of popping one of his beets into your mouth makes you want to vomit. Because I remember something else that was happening during this scene. Will you share it with us? Yeah, it was actually really hard for me to focus in this scene and say my dialogue because Jenna, my daughter in my belly, just decided in that moment she was gonna run a full marathon. She was like digg-a dick, digg-dick, digga-dy, dig-gig.

kicking so much. I don't know, maybe it's the sound of Rain Wilson's voice. Maybe Rain's voice awokened my child in my womb and she was ready to fight. But it was so surreal to me to be thinking about the timing of the scene and everyone's dialogue and when I was supposed to come in and trying not to laugh. In the meantime, having this like wrestling match happening in my belly.

I think there are a lot of women who can relate to that, Angela. I have a friend who is a lawyer and she was very, very pregnant and she was having to take a deposition. And she told me at the end of the day, she was like, I could barely focus on what I was doing because I was having to give very carefully worded questions and comments'cause it was all going on the record, but all the while her kid in her belly was just tossing and turning. Yeah.

So much so, and I have shared this story before and it's one of my favorite memories. While the scene was going on, I'm talking, everyone is saying their lines, and there's the rapid cadence of the dialogue. I, off camera, grabbed Ed's hand. And under the table put it on my belly, and he turned to me with his eyes wide, and all of a sudden he wasn't Andy, he was Ed, and he mouthed to me Oh my

I needed someone else to know and to witness like what I was like going through in the moment. And it's such a special memory to me. And when I rewatched the episode with my daughter, I said, Isabel. You are running a marathon in mommy's belly right now. And she was like, What? It's so special to me. Guys, women are warriors. We go to work and we focus on our work as if we don't have that going on. Try to imagine

How I could put it to a man like, okay, you're trying to give the most important presentation of your life and imagine a puppy is jumping at your leg the whole time. Like Just the most distracting thing. Jumping at your leg, but it's inside you, which is even weirder. It's like it's like the alien. What is happening? Women are warriors. Way to go, Ange. Beth Grant also shared her memories about shooting this dinner table scene. Let's have a listen.

Sitting at that table and, you know, sucking on those beats. The reason I was sucking on those beats was to keep from laughing. And Rain's over there eating and going, Mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm. There's so much Subtle humor in this episode. and then of course the demented relationship that they have. I love you all so much. I'm so honored to be part of this very popular and respected episode. Each of you doing such beautiful, subtle

hilarious comedy and I was so thrilled to see that all of you broke up too. Once we got inside and we sat down at the table and someone would break and say, sorry, sorry. And then someone else would break. Sorry, sorry. And then we keep going. The last thing I'll say is when I came home, I said, I do not know how Paul is going to edit this.

It's too hilarious. Every moment is a three hour episode. I don't understand how he's gonna do it. But by golly, you did it. And uh it is just an honor to have been part of this amazing and as I say again, demented. Episode. Amazing and demented. That sums it up. Yeah. Gene told me that he and Lee actually begged NBC to make this a supersized episode, but I guess the schedule had already been set. But he also told me that they did end up releasing a twenty nine minute producer's cut on iTunes.

That included a bunch of deleted scenes, including some of the ones we talked about, like the granola bar scene. Maybe NBC didn't supersize it because they were holding a grudge because Greg wanted it to go as is. Ooh. Wow, I love that speculation. They're like, no, you can have your weirdo episode, but it's only gonna be twenty two minutes. We're not gonna make it big. That's what she said. Oh that's what she said. One other little detail from this dinner party is how enormous

the glasses were that Dwight was drinking from. To me they look like glasses you buy at Spencer's Gifts. Remember that place in the mall where you could get like kind of joke size stuff? Well, Paul really loved these glasses and there was one detail about them he wanted to share with us. One of my favorite gags in the show is when Dwight comes over with his babysitter and they're at dinner with the wine glasses. I had them filled the wine.

all the way to the top because I figured that's what Dwight would think you would do with a big wine glass is you would fill it right to the rim. So that's a little wine lovers uh joke for everybody. You know what they look like to me, Angela? They look like those wine glasses that I see a lot of moms post on Instagram about getting through their day. Wine weekend with the ladies and the wine glasses like the size of your head? Yes. That's what they remind me of.

Oh my god, lady, guess what? What? The food is ready. The food is ready, but it might be poisoned. Oh no Oh my gosh, yes. Michael whispers to Pam, he thinks that Jan has maybe been trying to poison him. He can't prove it, but he thinks He just hopes she didn't do anything to the food tonight. Like what has been happening to Michael? Has he been having violent diarrhea? Stomach cramping after he eats with her? Like what is making him think this?

Pam has a talking head. Poor Pam is so hungry. She says she knows that Jan did not poison the food. But if she were going to poison the food, wouldn't she have poisoned Pam's since she is Michael's former lover? And now you know Pam is not gonna be able to eat. You guys, Michael has soft teeth. We learned that in this episode. And because of his soft teeth, he has to dip his meat into his wine or probably whatever beverage is in front of him. And Jan hates it.

This has clearly come up before. And she doesn't want him to do it. She's like, Could you stop doing it? It's disgusting.

Lady, can I tell you a story about a guy I dated? Oh God, I was so worried you were about to tell me you dipped meat into your beverages, but it's about a different it's a guy. Angela, how long have you known me? You thought maybe I dip my meat and beverages. Well, you made a face. You guys can't see her. But she made a face. You did the thing with your shoulders that you do, Jenna, when you're about to share something with me that you haven't shared before.

And so I thought, oh my God, I've eaten with her, but have I ever eaten red meat with her? Oh my god. No, I eat meat normally. I can't believe that's a sentence I had to say. Well, but I did. No, what I was gonna share was I dated a guy who first of all had to drink milk with every meal, not water. Gross. He was a grown man, but he had to have a big tall glass of milk. I mean, maybe no judgment, but I'm just saying

I I don't know. I judge. Okay, go on. We're at a restaurant. Orders a tall glass of milk. But he had this thing where He would take a bite of food. Mm-hmm. And then immediately take a sip of milk and then chew the food with the milk in his mouth and then swallow it. Oh God. And you had to sit and watch that through a whole meal? This was his preferred way of eating. He liked the taste of his food mixed with a sip of milk. All food?

Every meal, every food. A bite of sandwich, sip of milk. A fork full of spaghetti, sip of milk. That is disgusting. That's a deal breaker for me. I can't spend the rest of my life watching you take one bite, a swig of milk, and slosh it around. I can't do it. I'm out. I dated him a long time. How long? I don't wanna say. Oh no. Oh no. But it was a lot of meals. A lot of milk meals. Yeah. Well listen, Michael is really offended that Jan has pointed out this quirk in front of the dinner party.

And she is so evil. She goes, oops.

And that's it. Michael has had it. He is going to take back his space. He marches off. We don't know where he's going or what he's getting. While he's gone, I got a little glimpse of your plate, Angela. Yeah. Will you please tell people what you did? You guys, it was one of those little actory moments and it might also have been because I was really pregnant and everything was smelling so strong to me. But I took my napkin, my fancy napkin that Jan had laid out for all of us.

And I just gently covered my meat with it so I didn't have to look at it. And I thought Angela Martin would do that because she's a vegetarian. She wouldn't have eaten the meat or wanted to look at it. But she wasn't gonna say anything because this is clearly not the dinner party where you want to voice up about the food. So I covered my meat with the napkin. So brilliant. I love that choice.

Well, Michael comes back to the table and he has brought with him his neon beer sign and he takes a painting off the wall, which by the way I wanna point out is red. Mm-hmm. And he hangs up his beer sign and when the neon light goes on, you hear the hum and we are just bathed in this glow from this sign. Well, listen. It's a Saint Pauli girl beer sign and it's outlined in blue. So when he turned it on, it was like a cascade of blue light filled the whole room.

It's just so incredible. And you see the blue on Melora's face. That's how bright the light is. Jan is furious. She gets up, she turns on Hunter's CD, and now we are going to have the argument. Yeah. We thought we had the argument, but now the showdown is about to happen. Yeah. They start arguing about talent. about creativity. Michael's like, I don't think he's a good singer. I don't think he's very good at all, but Jan seems to love him. It's one of my favorite lines.

Jan says, at least he's an artist. And Michael says, BFD, I'm a screenwriter. And this is my favorite line. Jan says, and I'm a candle maker, but you don't hear me bragging about it. Yeah. It's one of my favorite lines of the whole episode. I also like this couplet. You burn it, you buy it. And then Michael says, Great, I'll be your first customer. You're hardly my first.

Oh my god! Angela, I cannot believe we got to sit in that room. I know. I mean, we got front row seats to this live show. It was Mind-blowing. Just the two of them were doing this dance. And we got to watch it. I I am still blown away that we got to be there. Well, when we asked Rain Wilson about this episode, this is what he talked about. I think the true hero of dinner party is the magnificent Mallora Hardin, who is insanely brilliant.

All through the series, but especially in that episode. I mean Steve Corell being one of the all time greats on the planet Earth comedic actors and Malora Hardin stands toe to toe with him all the way through it, being just as funny, just as specific, just as weird. And it's where you kind of see that Jan has turned a corner and that there is underneath this kind of external uh facade of blonde efficiency.

There is a very, very weird, egotistical, messed up human being under there. Her candles on and on. But uh her performance is just magnificent. It's so dry. It stands the test of time as just one of the great all-time performances all throughout the series, but especially in that episode. When I rewatched it recently with my son, I was blown away by how great She was in the Mallora is the star of this episode. She just is.

Yeah. We were so lucky to have her. I mean, back on the pilot when we cast her, could we have known that this is what was gonna happen? Well, Jenna Malora has shared with us that she felt like they knew The chemistry these characters could have if they really got room to run. Way back on the pilot, here's what she had to say. The whole Jan and Michael arc.

Started when we were having lunch at the pilot episode, me and Steve and Greg were all having lunch together and and somehow Steve and I both said like there was just some spark and some weird dysfunctional attraction between Michael and Jan that if we ever got so lucky to make the series

we would hope that we could get them to hook up somehow, some way at some conference or something. So that was the beginning of it. So I think going into it I was always aware of what the potential for sort of showing this This wonderfully complicated and dysfunctional relationship was the hilarity of that. It was just so funny and so kind of dark, darkly funny.

Which just really appeals to my personal sensibilities. I really loved that the dinner party took it to that next step of implosion. Yeah, was just thrilled. was just thrilled that we had a chance to really implode on screen in front of everybody and hopefully get a lot of laughs out of it, which we did. Well, speaking of implosion.

This whole thing is about to crescendo when Jan picks up a dundy and smashes Michael's beloved plasma screen TV. Yeah, I mean he's like, that was two hundred dollars! Good luck paying me back on your zero dollar salary, babe. Ugh. My favorite moment after that, there's the silence of like, Oh my God, what just happened? And the the person that calls it for the night that's like, Yeah, I'm done here is Melvina. She's like, Yeah, I'm gonna go.

Well, Melvina's the only person who doesn't work for this guy. So she could be like, Yeah, I'm out of here. Yeah, this is taking a turn for me. Well, we had a fan question, Angela, from Meg, Emily, Ethan, and Emma. How many plasma screen TVs? were broken by a dundee, and how many takes did this actually require? Well I reached out to good old Kentipedia who told me that those little TVs were actually kind of expensive. He said They bought five of them and we broke four. Oh.

Now I remember doing a bunch of takes with Malora where she missed at first and they would have us react as if she hit it. They could always use our reaction. But then she only had those five chances to actually land the Dundee when she was on camera. And you know, I mean th the sorta comical thing is It wasn't a big target. It was it's a small thing to hit square in the middle with a Dundee. It's true.

Well, we're all gonna follow Melvina out the door, right? Everyone gets up from the table. They're gonna leave. I was actually asked not to get up from the table, if you notice. And it's because you would have seen my belly. So I'm the last to uh leave the dining room. Well, not only do we leave, but the police arrive. There are two moments that are so delicious in the scene.

Well, one of my first things is right away the police officers are like, Hey Dwight'cause they know him because he's always hanging around them. He like wants to be part of the club. And the other thing is, is when Michael says to them, as if they know what he's talking about, he says, My girlfriend threw a dundee at my TV. Yeah. Can you imagine? Well, they ask if he wants to press charges because some neighbors heard a lot of yelling, a big domestic disturbance.

And Michael says, I'll take the fall and they're like, No, I f there's You're actually you're actually not in fault. You don't have to take the fall. Is there anywhere you can go tonight? Yeah. And Dwight offers to take Michael home with him. Which Michael refuses until he sees Jan come out of the condo and then he's like, Yeah, yeah, okay, no, I'll go home with you.

Well, Jenna, as everyone is leaving, there was a Dwight and Angela deleted scene, and Angela is very sassy with Dwight. I want to play it. I noticed you're wearing open-toed shoes. Since when did you become a whore? There might be a lot of things about me that shock you. Now, if you excuse me, I have to get back to my date. Hmm, there might be a lot of things about me that shock you. And then I look'em up and down and I coily kind of smile and I walk away.

Mm-hmm. And now there's this series of scenes, right? That kind of wrap up the episode. There's a montage of Jan. She's trying to fix the Dundee. You can tell she's she's sad. She she knows this night went horrible. clearly knows this is a night they might not come back from, right?

You see Jim and Pam having this really cute scene. They finally got food. They're having a hamburger. Yes. We got a fan question about this from Reagan Colliner who wants to know what burger place did Jim and Pam eat at the end because the burgers looked amazing.

I'll tell you what, the burgers were amazing. I don't know if it was just because I'd spent four days saying I was hungry, but when I got that burger, I'm really eating it in that scene. I think you can tell. I think you were happy to eat anything other than that granola bar. I think I was. Well, we filmed that scene at the home plate burger joint. And it was this little mom and pop hamburger stand, which eventually sadly went out of business. It's now a smog shop.

And in that same strip mall, there was a car wash that they turned into a Coldstone creamery. And that is where Andy and Angela are sitting in the car having their ice cream. Yes. Ed and I have a very funny story about this moment. And I asked Ed, I texted him, I said, Ed, can I share about the car scene? And he's like, Yes, you can tell everyone I farted in the car. So we're in the car and he's supposed to lick a little bit of my ice cream and then I have to squish it on the side, right?

It took a few tries to get that squish just right. And in between setting up they'd have to clean the door and we're in between setups and Ed had a little toot. And I was really pregnant, as you guys know, and it's it smelled and I was like, oh no, oh no. And we were rolling when it happened. And so it's in the bloopers. Here it is. Oh god! Oh god! Oh no. If Angela's coming out of the car, I think I know what it is. I'm sorry! I'll just look though. It's not that bad. Ha ha ha.

He drove you from the car. You had to get out. I had to get out of the car. And our crew was listening the whole time and they were cracking up. Ed is hitting the dashboard like, no, no, come back. I'm sorry. It cracks us up. It makes me laugh. Oh my gosh. Years later, Jenna, when the show wrapped, Ed gave me the sweetest card. He wrote all of these lovely things and he ended it with, and I farted in a car with you, so we'll always have that. Love Ed.

It happens, guys. It happens. But that one made the blooper real. Well the very last scene is Dwight and Michael pulling up to this bus stop and as they pass by we can see that Dwight's babysitter is waiting for the bus with her cooler. And they do not offer her a ride. It's terrible. But Beth Grant sent in a little memory of shooting this as well.

I must say, at the end, when I'm standing at the bus stop, waiting for the bus 'cause he hasn't even had the decency to drive me home and his car pulls up and we have this moment of looking at each other, to me, is so esoteric and Brilliant and wonderful and Rains looked to me and then he drives off, leaving me at the bus stop. He's a free man. I just love how tickled she is by her whole storyline in this. She was so game for all of it, and I loved having her on set. She was an absolute delight.

Yes, and Beth, oh my goodness, thank you so much for sending in these audio clips. And thank you to Melora and Rain and John and Ed and Paul Feag. Gene and Lee, Kintopedia, Jenna, everyone really showed up for us for this episode. And Steve read the summary.

Guys, that's dinner party. We hope you liked it. Angela and I worked extra long on this episode because we wanted to get everything we could and share it with you. This is one of our favorite memories of shooting the show, and we hope we did it justice. We love you guys so much. Thanks for listening. Go light your candles. Take a minute for yourself. And find some serenity. Sam, will you take us out with just one? Thank you for listening to Office Live.

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 Jorkins, and our audio engineer and associate producer is Molly North. Odyssey's executive producer. Learhese Dennis. Office Ladies was mixed and mastered by Bill Schultz. Our theme song is Rubber Tree by