Fun Run Pt 2
Office Ladies- 2,071 views
- 9 Dec 2020
This week we finish breaking down Fun Run. We start off with Jenna giving us the inside scoop on why we got so many big one hour episodes to start off Season 4, we get a Jenna and Angela BFF story for the books, and an amazing Fun Run wardrobe breakdown from wardrobe designer Carey Bennet. Then, we chat rabies quilts, answer everything you wanted to know about nipple chafing, and we get a 'fan soapbox' with an interesting take on who's responsible for the death of Sprinkles. Finally, Angela does a deep dive into how to properly carbo-load before a race and no, it’s not downing fettuccine Alfredo seconds before a race. On your marks, get set, go! Or hop into a cab.
Check out some amazing quilted art from Bisa Butler on instagram @bisabutler
If you have questions for upcoming Office Ladies episodes, go to officeladies.com and file your questions there, or email officeladies@earwolf.com with the episode title in the subject line.
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 Watch 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 where the office ladies. On your mark, get set, go. Angela. It's a fun run. Wait, I got a car, blowed a bunch of fettuccini three seconds before I run.
Good idea. That's not going to turn on you. Give me the creamy carbs seconds before I take off on a huge adventure.
Guys, it is fun. Run part two. This is the very beginning of season four, written by Greg Daniels, directed by Greg Daniels. Let me hit you up with a summary. Last week, Michael hit Meridith with his car breaking her pelvis. And we discovered, though, that Meredith's trip to the hospital may have saved her life since it was revealed she had possibly been exposed to rabies and has now received a vaccine. We also found out that Sprinkles died on Dwights watch, on Dwights watch.
Well, this week, this week, Michael organises a fun run to raise money for rabies in honor of Merideth. And we find out what really happened to Sprinkles.
Do you see what I'm wearing in honor of this episode? You're wearing your office Lady Sprinkles sweatshirt.
I am wearing my sprinkles sweatshirt. Well, lady, I did not wear anything in honor of sprinkles you.
Sorry, that tracks for Pam and this episode guest house like Angela. Let's say zero amount. Zero amount.
Sorry, she's distracted because in this episode it's also going to be revealed that Jim and Pam are dating. Listen, one thing I thought of when I watched this episode was, wow, happy Pam is a sassy Pam. She gives zero F's about what's going on around her.
She's totally different person. Happy says happy, something happy. Pam says Happy Pam Sass. Well, let's get into these fast facts fast. Fact number one, you know, this episode is technically the second part of the episode that we broke down last week. Right, because these episodes were an hour long. But if you notice, I feel like these episodes really stand on their own. They kind of both had their own little plots. Right, for sure.
Well, I talked to Greg about that and he told me that Kevin Reilly requested four hour long episodes to kick off Season four. So the first four episodes of this season are all an hour long.
Kevin loved our show, but was there any other reason? Besides, he was like, I want more office. I think it was just that would be a big announcement in the press, the return of the office for hour long episodes, maybe also they didn't have something for the other time slot. So we were filling two time slots. I'm speculating. I don't know.
I like you're speculating face and tone, because my husband does this sometimes when he wants to let the kids down easy, like, it's like, hey, guys.
So about those pumpkins that we were gonna get, they they explode it from the heat. But yeah, well, I was excited that we got these big super sized episodes that meant that for the supporting cast, some of our storylines would definitely stay in. And that was exciting.
Yes. Well, Greg also told me that Kevin Riley told him they're only going to run in this hour long length once at the beginning of the season. Then we're going to have to rerun them later as half hours, and that's really why they stand alone. Greg said it was a challenge because he had to wrap up the first episode in a way that would make it satisfying for a future viewer to watch it in a half hour form. But he couldn't wrap it up too much for the people who were watching it as a one hour episode, he said it was kind of a writing challenge.
That sounds like a challenge. I think he did it, though.
I think he crushed it. Greg, that shows. Yeah, crushed dead.
Suspect number two lady is a wardrobe breakdown with Carrie Bennett.
I love me some Carrie Bennett. Let's hear it.
We got so much mail about the wardrobe in this episode, which makes sense because we're seeing everybody out of their office attire, which Carrie said was always a challenge because she had created these office uniforms for people. So any time we wore our quote unquote, street clothes, she was like, who are these people in their street clothes? Here are some of the mail we got. Alicia W and Amanda mentioned, Felder said, Did you get to keep your shirts from fun run?
And Emily Thomas wants to know, did you get to keep a support, the rabid wristband?
Yeah, I kept both I kept my shirt and I kept my wristband. I had my wrist band for a long time. It's probably somewhere in my scrapbook been my T-shirt. I did not keep Kerry kept it in case we ever needed Angela Martin to wear it again because we weren't sure how long this morning process was going to go, you know?
Well, we should remind people, Angela, you did not wear one of the famous Blue Fondren T-shirts. You wore a shirt with a picture of sprinkles on it. Yeah, because people wrote in about this shirt to Angela Morrissey and Isaiah Johnson asked, where did Angela's Sprinkel shirt come from and did you get to keep it? You said you did not keep it. I did not keep it.
And Carrie made that shirt. She had that shirt made. And also when I had my wardrobe fitting for this, Carrie and I talked and Angela would not be in shorts. She would not wear shorts.
So that's why I have sort of those little cropped pants. And then at first they had kids for me. And I was like, I can't run and kids and I have to actually run. So, yeah, I need an actual sneaker. There you go. There you go.
Well, Carrie told me about those blue shirts, the famous blue shirts with all the writing on them. So she designed those. We made them ourselves. She said that she just tried to imagine Michael getting on the phone and ordering those T-shirts with the ridiculously long name and insisting that all the words be on the shirt, which I think is a very funny way to approach that design.
I mean, I thought it was perfect. And honestly, we're we're talking about the shirt. What the heck kind of budget did they have for this? Not only did they have bracelets and those t shirts, they had flyers and banners. They had a giant meridith photo poster and a giant check. What budget?
I mean, we're going to see when we get to that scene in the conference room that we spent quite a bit of our donation money just throwing the fun run. Kerry also told me that she chose the color blue for the shirts because everybody had to wear it. And Blue looks good on everyone. She said she always applies the same logic for photo shoots and promo shoots.
Blue just looks best. That's right. Well, let's talk about Dwight Van question from Ella Lewis. Why isn't Dwight wearing a red shirt? I feel like he would have been the most likely to support Michael's ideas, yet he's wearing a Schrute Farms shirt instead. I think it makes perfect sense that he would self advertise. I agree with Ella.
I was surprised that Dwight would not just champion Michael the way he does. Kerry told me that she made this shirt. She literally just used a standard stencil and she spray painted it in that parking lot right before we started shooting. But after the episode aired, NBC marketing department got so many requests for that shirt that they called her and asked her for her art files so that they could mass produce it and sell it. And Carrie was like, don't have an art file.
Have us just have a spray painting thing that I made in the parking lot. You did. If you want to come get my spray paint stencil. Yeah, she was like, OK. All right, well, our final question about the clothing comes from Ian MPLX and Marina Blank, they're asking, is Michael wearing women's shorts for fun? Run. Oh, man, there definitely some kind of, like, biker shirt with, like, the little windbreaker short over it.
Yeah, Kerry says, no, they were not women's shorts.
She said the thing was, Steve, was that he's actually really fit. And Angela, you and I know this. He was really, really into fitness.
Well, he got into great shape. We've talked about that for 40 year old Virgin. And then he has just made that part of his lifestyle. And I think in this episode, when he gets in his shorts and his T-shirt, you can see how fit he is. There's no hiding how fit he is. He has like zero percent body fat.
And it's very clear, Kerry said it was a really a challenge to make him look like Michael any time he was out of his sort of frumpy Michael suit because he just was in such great shape. She said it was just kind of difficult. So there you go. Yeah, that is a costume breakdown. I like it much. I like it. All right, fast fact number three. As you know in this episode, Jim and Pam do not run, a lot of people run.
But Jim and Pam do not they walk, they go to an estate sale. Jim and Pam don't run and Oscar and Stanley and Crede take a cab. But Jim and Pam do not run. They walk in the back. They hold hands.
Well, there was a reason for this. I know the reason for this is because in May of 2007, we shot this in August. In May, I fell down a set of stairs in New York City and I fractured four bones in my back. And I was not allowed to run, so the writers had to. Right, a reason for me to only walk through this episode that was such a scary night, I was with you. I know you were.
I was so scary. Yeah. So here's what happened. It was May and we were in New York and we were promoting the office. We were promoting the season finale. And they threw this big party in quotes party. It was a work event at this club called Budokan. Yeah.
It was our job to kind of hobnob with advertisers and stuff.
It was we were at work, but it was a fancy work. Yes. So we're all dressed up and this club is two floors. So you enter on the upper floor. They had this little bar with drinks and they were serving these like pineapple daiquiri things. And it was sweet. And I was like, this seems great. So I grabbed one. But then to get to kind of the main part of the event, you had to go down this long set of stairs that were marble and they were steep.
You guys, they had a really deep pitch to them. Yeah, they're still there. This club is still there.
So I'm walking down these stairs. I've basically just arrived. I've taken one sip of my little daiquiri and something happens. My foot slips out from underneath me and I go crashing down on the edge of these stairs. Hard to add insult to injury, I also threw my drink in my own face. So that was fun.
So I'm sitting on the ground, I'm half covered in daiquiri, and I immediately start to feel like I'm going to vomit or everything gets dizzy and. I remember this bouncer comes over and picked me up and he was treating me like I was like a boozy drunk in Hollywood starlet, like he was in no way regarding me with much care. It was like, get her out of there, get the booze out. And I was like, I'm not I don't.
But I was all disoriented, you know? So I remember they took me back to the store room. Angela And you were there. And I told you I didn't feel good, and I remember you lifted up the back of my shirt and you said, call an ambulance while I was behind you on that staircase and I saw you go down.
It happened in slow motion. Someone had spilt their drink or something on those stairs, and they were marble and they were slick.
And you you had these wedge shoes on. You turned your ankle and you went down so hard. And, you know, when you're the person watching something happen, how you're like not like I didn't know how to stop it.
It was all in motion. And yeah, I'll never forget that night because your back was it looked bad. And yeah, I was I was scared.
Well I don't remember much else after that. I don't remember the ambulance ride. But I know you were with me and and I remember going in and out at the hospital and you were by my side the whole time. Lady, I know you were there and I remember they x rayed me. I remember you told me the guy in the bed next to me was handcuffed to his bed, there was a guy in a chair next to your bed and they brought him in.
He was real surly and they handcuffed him to the chair. And I shut the little curtain around your head.
And also, I was staying with you and I was really adamant about it. You know, I was like, she has no family here. You I am not like going anywhere.
She's in an emergency room in a city that's not her own. She has no family. And I hear you are stuck with me, buddy. So they they didn't mess with me. And I stayed with you till 4:00 in the morning. We got you a hospital room and we knew more details then. And once we got you set up in your room, I went I was supposed to be on the Today show that morning with Rainn Wilson. We are supposed to be interviewed for the office.
And they had a whole piece about Dwight and Angela. And I asked NBC, you know, I was like, I'm supposed to be on the air in an hour, but I'm in a hospital room with my friend. I can't I can't be there.
And they said, don't worry, we'll let the Today Show no.
So years later, I'm at the White House Correspondents Dinner. I'm sitting at the NBC Today show table. And we talk about we're just talking about, oh, when was the last time we saw you? And they were like, you were supposed to do the Today Show with Rainn Wilson. You were a no show. And I was like, what?
No show I was with Jimmy Spittle, didn't they tell you that they never told them? I just never told them why you didn't show up. They just thought you were like a flaky actress this night. Branded me in this bouncer's eyes as some boozed up actress. And then the Today Show the next day, I thought, you are a flake. And we were like, no tragedy. Tragedy happened. And I've done the Today Show now since. But I was like, how many years did they just think I didn't show up?
Oh, my gosh. Well, you know, I'll never forget the doctor coming in and he said the good news is you're going to walk again. Oh my God.
And I was like, that's the I mean, that is good news. But that sounds like there's a lot of bad news coming. So, as it turns out, I had fractured four of the transverse vertebrae in my back.
If you're going to have a back injury, I guess this is the best one because they heal on their own, similar to a broken rib. And motion is the best thing for you. So even though walking and moving was really difficult for me, I was encouraged to do it. Here's a crazy twist to the story. NBC had put us up at the Ritz Carlton. For these two days that we were going to do press, they had a deal with the hotel and the entire cast was put up at the Ritz Carlton.
And remember, lady, we asked for adjoining rooms and we were so excited to talk about country mouse come to town. We are at the Ritz facing Central Park the whole night. We were so excited.
Well, I couldn't go home. I couldn't leave. So NBC had to pay for me to live at the Ritz Carlton for two weeks. And guess what, but for the first week, I was with you the whole time, I know you didn't leave my side.
I didn't leave your side because you had family on the way. But, you know, they needed a few days to get there. And so I was there and I just remember that time. And, you know, I think every friendship has these milestone moments that you're forever bonded by. And we've certainly had a few and best friends listening to this out there. You know, those moments this was one of those moments when you're helping your friend get on the toilet.
Yeah. And Jenna, you did this for me after my C-section. You helped me like I remember this.
These were this was one of those brief moments.
We have both. Ben with the other. While one has had a catheter, yeah, do you need your friend to step out while I give you this catheter?
No, I actually prefer to hold her hand. Yes, I'd I'd like someone here with me. So anybody out there, if you're wondering why Angela and I are best friends and will be best friends forever, friends who gather together stay together.
All right. Oh, man. My final piece of this story is simply that I couldn't shower for several days and my hair was so smelly. I'm sorry you had to live with that. And that pineapple, it really turned real gross.
And I did what I did, wet a wash rag and try to dampen your hair with the wash. You did. You did. But anyway, guys, that's why Pam doesn't run in this episode. I was healed. But I don't think at this point I was driving myself yet and I wasn't allowed to run.
Your doctor had you on a very specific sort of recovery plan because you do not mess with the back.
You don't mess around.
But I'm fully healed now. No problems? No, no residual problems. Well, I loved the storyline for Jim and Pam, I thought it made it just really sweet, like they just they were just going to hang out, they weren't going to participate.
And then they had this sort of lovely walk and they got to hold hands. And I thought it worked out great.
It worked. It worked. Well, guys, thanks for listening to us go down that memory lane. We'll take a break and we'll be back to really dive into this episode.
OK, we are back. This episode opens with Pam answering the phone, Michael Scott, Dunder Mifflin Scranton, Meredith Palmer Memorial, Celebrity Rabies Awareness, Fun Run, Race for the Cure. But it's you know, it's the pro-am Race for the Cure.
My favorite thing about that whole moment was how you delivered. They hung up.
It's so good. It's so good.
Well, we got some fan questions about this from Gabriel. Be frank. S Carlos de Alberto R. and Camil, why, Jenna, did you have to memorize that long title for the fun run Race for the Cure? Or did you look at a piece of paper every time you said it? No, you guys, I had to memorize that, but I did have it sitting on a piece of paper in front of me, like, I would look at it intensely because that is a mouthful.
That is a lot to have to say. Yeah, but I did memorize it for that scene and and it's a mouthful that doesn't make sense. Like for me, I can memorize something. If it makes sense, my brain will piece it together for me. But if it's just like a list you have to work at it.
Yeah. That is more difficult for sure.
Like there's no way I could have ever been one of those doctors on E.R. or whatever, like on Grey's Anatomy where they're running down the hallway and they got someone on the stretcher and they're like, we need three use and the get the suture sewn up. I think that all the time when I watch those shows all the time, I think, like they're just yelling out jargon. They have no idea what they're saying. Yes. Yeah.
Well, then Michael has an amazing talking head that I really love where he lets us know that a woman should not have to be hit by a car to learn that she has rabies.
But here we are. Well, you know what, Michael is there fighting for women once again. Yes, exactly. Well, then we go out into the bullpen.
We're panning around. People are, I guess, on the phones kind of phone banking, trying to get donations for this cause he has the whole office doing this.
It's unbelievable that any of us had a job after this day. And I love that he walked up and said, hi, stokeley. I'm like, when is Michael going to learn? You can't do bits for Stanley. Stanley doesn't want your bits.
He doesn't. He is. Stanley is a bit free person.
Yeah. Don't bring your bits to Stanley. Well, Phyllis is hard at work on the rabies quilt. She holds it up.
Quilts. Does this company make I felt like this was a callback to the Depression quilt from safety training and I wondered why it was like should we do a depression quilt? And Michael was like, no, no time to sew the quilt, because clearly it's a thing.
It's a thing. But focus on it. Well, we had a fan question from Mary Halsy, who made the rabies quilt, well, guys, it was Phil Shea. I mean, he didn't personally make it, but he had to get someone to make those squares. And if you want to buy it, there is a full sized version of the quill online. Get it, get rabies quilt. The office people are making them. You can buy them.
I've got a Google that I want to see it. You know, my mom's a quilter, you know. Yes. Angela, in my notes for today, I literally wrote Angela, your mom quilts. I have several pieces of your mom's quilting.
My mom is old school type of quilts are where, you know, machine. She cuts out all the pieces and then she, like, makes her her pattern. She'll use like one of the bedrooms in the house and then she sews that all by hand and she'll do the backing sometimes, you know, with the machine. But she actually purchased in Pennsylvania years and years ago from an Amish family, a wooden quilt rack. And every peg, everything is wooden.
There's no metal screws or anything. And she puts her quilt top on there and quilts. And I feel like every single one is a piece of art.
Since we're talking about quilting, I want to bring up this artist that I love, Bisa Butler. She makes these huge Life-Size quilted portraits that I'm slightly obsessed with. Go to her Instagram page. It's at Bisa Butler. They look like paintings, but they're not. I'm going to look at it right now. OK, look at it.
Oh, my gosh. They're beautiful.
Yeah, I just love her work, lady. I love it. I can't wait to see it in person one day.
It's beautiful. It's art, it's gorgeous. And she was featured in the New York Times as well. She had this I mean, she's all over the place. She's a big deal. But check it out of Butler on Instagram.
Well, you know, we're about to move on to an Andy talking head here about nipple shaving.
But did you notice Andy is now sitting at Karen's desk? I did. And also we didn't mention this last week. But when Karen cleared out, did she take the company phone and the computer? Everything was gone. Everything. It was all gone. Yeah, well, we had a fan question about Andy's nipple chafing from Lindsey L. who said who came up with the nipple chafing idea, was it based off of a personal experience? Well, Greg told me that this was an idea from Justin Spitzer, so I asked him about it and he said, yes, this was his idea and that he had once handed out water and blankets to runners who were finishing the Chicago Marathon.
And he could not believe how many men were crossing the finish line with blotches of blood on their shirts over their nipples from nipple chafing.
He said it sort of it shocked him and haunted him. And he had been obsessed with it ever since. And he was finally able to ride it into an episode. Well, I think this is very healing for him, it's a real able to take this experience and turn it into art. Well, it's a real thing. And of course, I looked it up.
It's also called Jogger's Nipple.
Oh, I had no idea it was such a thing and it's more common in the winter because nipples are erect then, huh? But there's many ways to prevent it. And one of them is sort of like covering them like this. And there are all kinds of companies that make these. And now there's nipple covers for women, like when you don't want your nipples to show and clothing. You know, we've had wardrobe fittings where sometimes they're like, oh, we might need to put something there.
Yes, there's a whole other industry for men. And, you know, I love I love a good name for businesses. I love it. So we've got a few that I found were ease Mr. Nip Nip strips.
Wow. Well, I imagine I guess because men have hairier chests, like what I noticed when Ed was like covering his nipples was I just kept thinking, what happens when he tries to take that off because of the hair? Will these companies solve that problem? For me? I guess if I'm a man, I don't know. I don't. Mr. Nip, was that one about Mr. Nip and nip strips nipping, maybe the nip strips?
Well, I remember talking to Ed about, like those that tape and cotton ball thing that he had to do and he said I was really uncomfortable. This is not a comfortable episode for him. I don't doubt it. I don't doubt it well, lady, now and. Is going to tell Angela how very sorry he is that her cat passed away. This might be leading her maybe toward Andy.
Yeah, you know, there's a deleted scene where Dwight and Angela are exchanging instant messages and Dwight's trying to make amends and Angela is not having it. And she's getting fed up and she looks over her shoulder towards Dwight. And Andy is directly behind him and he thinks Angela is looking at him. Oh, so I think they're planting little seeds here. Well, now you have a talking head, Angela, where you are crying and you're talking about how Sprinkles was your best friend and you're sharing pictures of sprinkles.
Because you're including one from the last Halloween, yeah, where you're just a couple of kittens out on the town with kittens out on the town.
Well, lady, we got some mail about this. Yes, about the photos. Yes. From Kate Sieber, Mandy Pascale and Anne Marie Morrison. Did you have to do a photo shoot or did they just Photoshop a cat into your arms?
I did a little bit of both. So if you'll notice a few of the photos, like in particular, there's the picnic blanket one. I'm laying on a picnic blanket. There's a bowl of grapes and I'm holding the cat.
If you notice, I'm wearing my outfit from beach games. Oh, yeah, right. So, yeah, there's a few photos of me in my beach games outfit. Well, Phil, she pulled me aside and was like, well, we're we're going to need some photos of you with sprinkles for an upcoming episode. So that day where we started out for beach games on the bus. In the parking lot. Mm hmm.
Phil, she just said, Angela, I'm gonna grab you when I can and we'll just quickly take these. OK, so the day that we started beach games, before we went to the beach, you know, when we were still leaving Dunder Mifflin, I snuck off with Phil Shea and we took a bunch of those. And I walked over in my own flip flops and you can see them in the photo.
That's why I'm barefoot. Isn't that weird that Angela Martin would be barefoot with a pair of flip flops and you can see a little eagle on the flip flops because they're American Eagle. They're my American Eagle flip flops.
That is incredible. Well, I loved you in this talking heads so much.
You're so good in this whole episode and. Oh, thanks. Thanks so much. Well, up next, Jenna, we have the scene. It starts at 24 02. And I titled the scene the moment the crew turned on us. Sam, can you play this?
I'm having relationship problems. And since you're always having relationship problems, I thought you'd be able to give me some advice. What's wrong? I have this crazy vibe, but I know it's crazy that maybe Dwight killed my cat when I got home. Sprinkles Bonnie was in the freezer for Dwight, so he left her. But all my bags of frozen French fries had been called to shroud. So something's not right. That's doing an autopsy. I'm sorry to cry.
Ever killed one of your cats? I'm a dog person.
I'm. Jonah, do you remember us doing that scene? Yes, we got to break it down for people because literally the director came over and was like, I'm just going to stop you right now.
It was Greg, you know. I know. So I had to pop up over the partition and I start off with like this. And then you got me right there. I was done. I just started laughing just from your head popping over the partition, started laughing. No words have come out yet.
And every single time you started laughing, then I would start laughing. And then there were times I would get it together and I'd come up over the partition and you'd already be laughing.
Yeah, because I knew what was I knew there.
Angela, you have to imagine from my point of view what it's like to have your tiny blond head pop up suddenly. It's very funny. And we should also mention this scene was scheduled right before lunch. Yes. And everyone was really hungry. You're always really hungry before lunch because you get called in to work at 5:00 a.m., 6:00 a.m. but lunch is not until 1:00.
So you are hungry at 12 40. Everybody on a set is super hungry at twelve forty, even though there snacks.
You want to sit down, you want your 30 minute break, you want to eat a hot meal. And here you have these two actresses. You cannot even get one line out, these two girls who are literally laughing so hard they can't speak.
And Greg was like, why don't we take a break?
Why don't we give you guys a minute to get it together? And I said, oh, no, they're turning on us.
And like, I felt so bad because normally when we would break in a scene, the crew was laughing with you and other actors would laugh, too, and be like, you guys.
No one was laughing. No, it was just us. We were so tickled to have a scene together. We always were. And this was a comedic scene we got to do. This was funny. Yeah.
And I'm surprised we even have one take that's usable because we were laughing so hard. And now let's just take a minute to talk about Happy Pam Sass, because Happy Pam doesn't give Angela anything.
She's like, oh, can you imagine Angela finally reaching out to Pam? And all she gets is, oh, well, I'm more of a dog person. Are you flippin kidding me? Well, Angela, what do you expect any time Pam has ever tried to comfort or help Angela? Angela just insulter. I think Pam is being self protective. She's having good boundaries, in my opinion. She's got good boundaries and she's getting laid. And she didn't have time for anybody anymore.
Gonad. My God, that is private. Well, Angela, I will say this, we have a fan soapbox and I think you're going to like it.
Oh, I want to hear it. This is from Amy Wagner, Rivka Wasserman, Kayla Kelley, Kaitlyn White and Christina Chadbourne. They all wrote in to say this. I hate to break it to you, but Pam is actually responsible for the death of sprinkles and the breakup of D'Angela Pam Gilt's Angela into seeing Meredith at lunch instead of taking care of sprinkles, which is why Angela has to ask Dwight to do it and why sprinkles ends up dead.
Oh, my gosh, ladies, I had put together you are right. He killed Sprinkles. Well, that's going a little far. Pamela, Pam killed Sprinkles. Oh, my gosh, you were so mad at Pam. Right now Pam is just happy. Why wouldn't it? Pam gets happy. Does everyone turn on her? That's something I've noticed. By the way, when Pam becomes assertive, there in particular are a bunch of men on Twitter who tweet about how they don't like Pam Sassy.
Nobody likes assertive Pam. Well, everyone, you're going to have to live with it. I don't give a crap about assertive Pam. It's sassy Pam guilt trip, Pam. I don't give a shit Pam, that I have issue with.
Well, I thought you'd like that fancy soapbox. I very much like it. Ladies, thank you. I feel sane. Well, speaking of Jim and Pam, they're flirting in the break room right now.
Oh, I titled the scene. Ready? What is it? Part two of our country song Ain't No More Heartbreak in the break room, baby. Oh, yes, yes.
Happy times in the break room every night.
Well, the camera crew breaks the fourth wall and they bring Jim and Pam into the conference room and show them footage of them kissing and driving away. This is huge. Why is the documentary crew getting involved? Remember, they left Andy floating in a lake. But they pulled Jim and Pam aside to show them this footage, they didn't say, Meredith, get out of the way. I don't think they saw Meredith. They were focused on Michael. I don't think the documentary crew could have stopped that.
Yeah, I mean, there's been many times where they probably should have stepped in and they didn't. Why now? I don't know, but they get Pam to admit that she and Jim were dating. This is another Pam Souse moment where she doesn't care. She's like, you know what we're dating.
This is such a cute scene. It's so cute. It has all the feels. It's really cute.
And you and John are so good in it. It's a really great jam jam moment. Well, we had a fan question from Linnear Bee who said, what was it like coming back from the break between season three and four to a new relationship between Jim and Pam? You guys, it was awesome. I had a great time in season four, Pam was happy. I was happy. I just spent all day being happy in a comedy, basically, because I don't know about you, Angela, but.
I was going to ask you, you have to play this season in a lot of emotional turmoil and mourning and it takes a toll when you have to play jealousy or you have to play sad like it does take a toll.
Well, it does. Playing sad takes a toll. Playing angry is fun. Yeah, I will say that because I loved the juxtaposition from this very sweet, cute moment with Jim and Pam to me, body checking Dwight by the file cabinet. It's so great. And that whole scene that I have with rain over by accounting where I'm backing my chair into him. We had such a great time with that. That was so much fun. Well, that is a really good scene, Dwight seems to think you're going to feel better after you run the five K because exercise helps with depression and you're just like you're not getting it.
I'm not depressed. I'm pissed off. You're grieving. I'm grieving and I'm angry. Yes.
So now we go into the conference room, Angela, Jim, Michael, Pam and Dwight are putting sort of the finishing touches on the fun run plans. And Michael wants a giant check.
What is this thing with giant checks? He got a giant check and product recall.
Yeah, I don't know.
I think I swear, I think it goes back to when he was a little kid and that owl came to his assembly in a costume with props. This is how you get people's attention, how you get them to care about things. You have big props and costumes and outfits.
Why have we not explored Michael's feelings about Carrot Top? The most famous prop comic, I think he loves Carrot Top and I think he loves who's the guy that hit all the watermelon? Gallagher. Gallagher. Yeah, I think you're right. Well, here's what he wants. He wants a giant check, even though it will eat up twenty five percent of their funds. He wants a rabies doctor to present the check. Yeah. Jim suggests maybe they hire a nurse like by the hour, like you would for a party, Michael's like, sounds great.
Dwight suggests they just donate the money to Meredith's son's college fund. Dwight is the only person making sense in this meeting. Yes, surprisingly, Dwight has the best idea. Jim and Pam are just egging Michael on.
But Michael's like, have you seen that kid? He's not going to college. Exactly. Well, I think we should take a break here, Jenna. And when we come back, we might need to talk about a dangling participle. It's an accidental flashing. He did say come in. I agree. Yes. All right. We'll be back.
All right, we are back and Pam's about to get the shock of her life. How did you film this? How did OK, so so Pam is, you know, like going in to tell Michael something, right?
She knocks on the door.
You want to tell him that five K means five kilometers, not five thousand miles. Right. Right.
And and he says, come in and she opens the door and he's decided to change into his running outfit in his office. Yeah. And he is nude from the waist down. And Pam is shocked. Well, this was a really interesting scene to film. We had a fan question from Tara Nunez. When Pam walks in on Michael Naked, what was Steve actually wearing? Steve was actually wearing like a flesh colored Speedo.
It's still not pleasant to look at guys. Those reactions are on us. Whenever anyone has to wear a flesh covered anything, it's just off putting.
Yeah, you kind of look like a like a Ken doll or a Barbie doll or something very weird. You still are seeing outlines, right? Anyway, the thing that was difficult here when we were shooting it and we shot this several times because Pam has to get far enough into the room and open the door wide enough that the camera can see Michael, because in my early takes of this, I can see him. But the camera wasn't catching it because I was reacting too quickly.
You're pulling the door shut too fast. Yeah. Yeah. So the first thing that we did was Greg said, why don't you be looking at the paper longer and like, give a look to camera as you're opening the door. Like, can you believe he thinks it's five thousand miles so that I can get the door open wider?
For camera to see him almost before I see him, so that's how we ended up fixing that problem, but it was very, very funny. We were laughing a lot during this scene.
Lady, after this aired, a friend of mine and I were talking about this episode, and I'll never forget it because I heard a term I'd never heard before in my life. And they said, this is this is a thing sometimes guys will do. I don't know where they do it, but it's called shirt cocking. Oh, and it's a thing. OK, and if you look it up, it says it's a shirt cocking is a verb and it's when a man wears a T-shirt shirt but goes naked from the waist down.
Oh, listen to this. This practice is a natural outgrowth of Burning Man events which value radical self-expression but are held in clothing optional environments. Oh. I've never been to Burning Man. Well, neither have I, but apparently this happens there, guys. Well, I've never been sure cocked either. I've never I I've never been short cocked, but. Beware, it's happening. It's a thing, I guess it's a thing, and in the desert, guys, where people get together to have radical experiences.
Well, Michael Cox, Pam. And Pam tells Jim that the incident is now burned into her brain back in the break room. Jim and Pam don't hang out at front reception anymore. They just go to the break room to hang out and have their little conversations. Yeah, happiness in the break room.
The break room is a great place now. Well, Michael Knox on the break room door and enters. He's trying to teach them how to properly enter a room in.
Yeah, yeah.
Because like you said, come in. You said come in.
Well, Pam has a Major Pam Sass moment. She says, I didn't see where it started, but I saw where it ended.
Wow. I can't believe that line. Wow.
Here is really just saying anything on her mind. Now, you're really. I think you're right. Yeah. She's looking up celebrity porn on the computer.
She's sassing Anjali's. She's sassing Michael.
She's not going to run in your stupid fun run. It's true. Let's get to the fun run lady. Let's do it. We're in the parking lot. Jan is checking people in Crede Registers. He's very disappointed. There's no prize money.
We find out, by the way, that Creed's birthday is November 1st and he's going to be eighty two.
Tequila's. That was so ridiculous. Jan tells Pam to stay away from her man. Heard she was peeping in on him. I know.
Oh, that was so fun to do. I love doing that scene with Molaro where she's just putting Pam in her place and Pam is like I that. But you know guys, Jan is no longer our boss. Yeah. She holds no authority over us. She is just there as Michael's girlfriend. Well, I have to tell you something. So all of this is happening while you have this scene between Pam and Jan going on.
There is a scene between Bob Vance, Phyllis and Angela. So in the background where Toby is stretching, Angela standing there and Phyllis and Bob Walkup and Bob points to her shirt and says, oh, oh, is that is that the cat? And he turns to Phyllis and says, is that the one that Meredith and Phyllis quickly cut some off and goes, No, no, no. And then Angela spits, Oh, Bob, what?
And storms off. What is happening in that scene? Did Meredith do something to one of your other cat? I have so many questions. What has Meredith done to one of her cats?
It certainly might explain why Angela really does not like Meredith, but, man, Angela is talk about angry.
She spits at Bob. Wow, yeah. Well, now Michael welcomes everyone and he gives a speech where he sort of warns everybody of the dangers of rabies in the background, then Darrell is feeding a peanut to a squirrel.
It was such that is such a random, funny joke. That's a very Simpsons esque joke, if you ask me.
I loved it and I love Michael is like, stop. And he's, like, so happy.
Well, then we have Elizabeth, the stripper is back, Jackie de Botton, she walks in and this little nurse's outfit to present Michael with the giant check made out to science. Just science. Yeah. Three hundred and forty dollars to science.
Just a piece of cardboard that cost two hundred dollars for nothing. And when Michael sees Elizabeth in her outfit, he's like, oh, my gosh, she went back for your degree. Yeah. Amazing. Well, I have a little wardrobe tidbit. I think I know your tidbit. Oh, really? Go. Right.
Kerry told me that this nurse's outfit was custom made. And if you notice, she had to make it a red circle with a white cross in the middle. And this is because the Red Cross does not like their symbol to be used for fictional content, so she could not have a Red Cross in a white circle. She had to invert it.
Yes, lady. Well, do you know that that is the same costume that Angela Martin wore in season seven? They saved that costume season seven, the Halloween episode where we have a costume contest. I wore that outfit. What? Yep, I wore that outfit, the exact same one, and it was a little too big for me, so I had to wear a little lace tank top underneath it and, you know, well, we'll get to season seven.
But they gave me the chicken cutlets to make everything a little bigger. Yep.
Same costume. Wow, I guess an hour, Dunder Mifflin world, this is like a little costume that you could buy, I guess, but Carrie Bennett told me that she made it. There it is. You're wearing it.
And you can see it's the same white cross, the same hat. I just have a tank top because it's a little big. That is crazy. I know. I cry so well. Speaking of crazy, Michael is now downing some fettuccini Alfredo just downing it. He's carbo loading before the run. Oh, is that a thing? Do people carbo load. They do, but like not moments before they run. Right. I looked it up. There's two things happening in this moment.
First of all, we have a fakie bag catch fakey bag, fakie bag. That bag that Dwight is holding is not a real bag. It's one of the ones that doesn't make noise. And here's the thing about carbo loading. So, guys, this this is something that people will do, but it's recommended that you do it the week before, a week before, a week before a high endurance activity.
Yeah. The reason why you do this carb load the week before is to boost the glycogen that started your muscles. Right. So you can sort of burn on that while you're doing your high endurance activity.
You don't do it minutes before it's so gross, so great. It's so gross. A lot of people wrote in asking how much fettuccini Steve had to eat. Pretty much none. I don't know if you noticed, but we cut away before. He has to really swallow the fettuccini. They had a bucket there so he would shove a bunch in his mouth and he would spit it out, thank God, because it was almost 100 hundred degrees that week every day.
And we were outside hot outside eating fettuccini.
But can we talk about the ginormous gun that Dwight shoots off to start the race? Not a starter's pistol, an actual gun with actual bullets in it. Obviously, we shot off blanks, but what the heck?
I know. So according to Dunder Pedia, Dwight uses a six inch Colt Anakonda, and it's the same caliber gun used by Dirty Harry.
Well, it's ridiculous, I believe, though, that he would have some gun that Clint Eastwood fired like a Dirty Harry gun that tracks, it's perfect for his character. Well, the race is underway. We fired this gun Crede Stanley and Oscar immediately get into a cab. Yeah. Which is amazing, brilliantly says he will work out today, he will work out a way to avoid running for a stupid cause. Yeah, they all three have talking heads and deleted scenes that talk about why they're not doing it.
Stanley had an alt that said when he runs, his feet swell up to the size of a pot roast. And you don't want to see that. Oh, well, Angela Martin certainly would not. She does not like crow's feet. No. Well, we sort of see everybody's approach, right? Like Andy's going to run. Michael's going really fast. And this is when we find out that Pam and Jim are happily in last place together, just strolling.
Andy's going to draft behind Kevin. Well, now we have a scene that I love so much where Jan is handing out water to the runners. She's somehow moved from the starting line where she was checking people in to a new table where she's handing out water and people haven't even gotten to her yet. I found that interesting. Yeah, she obviously drove. I guess she's obviously drunk.
Yeah, well, Michael refuses to take the water. He explains that rabies victims have to live with an irrational hatred of water. So it's really the least he can do to refuse the water. Well, I looked it up and, you know, last week I told you a lot about rabies and the importance of getting a shot if you're ever bitten by an animal.
Hey, I did not look it up. In fact, I wrote myself a note, asked Jenah, rabies expert, is this true?
No, he did not. I have to say, I do know a lot more about rabies than I ever thought. I would think so this podcast.
But this condition is called hydrophobia, and it is an irrational fear of water. And it does present itself in the advanced stages of the disease of rabies. But here's why. Basically, patients start to fear liquids because it is so painful to swallow. Oh, like they don't want to drink or eat anything. So it's not like having water touch them would bother them.
But ingesting anything becomes so painful that that's why this is horrible, this horrible.
Rabies is a horrible disease, I cannot stress enough how important it is to get that shot if you are bitten by an animal.
Well, we also didn't mention that Toby ran by and took a swig of water, but through most of it on Jan. Yes, this is true.
Well, Toby is doing great and we're about to find out why Michael is not doing well. Because of the fettuccini. Yeah, but Dwight tells them he's going to be fine, you'll probably still win because he put Imodium in Toby's coffee.
Michael so excited he's like egg salad and then goes, wait, don't you mean.
Yes, Dwight has helped Toby. Yeah. I want to point something out about this scene during this scene. I swear Michael and Dwight run past Oscar's house or at least the location that we used for Oscar's house. So I looked it up. And yes, we are filming on the same street in Sherman Oaks that has Oscar's house. We filmed there a lot. It was really close to our set. And yeah, I think we run past the location of Oscar's house.
We film there a lot for all those reasons. And also this particular neighborhood in Sherman Oaks has really great old, old, huge trees that might resemble the East Coast more than normally what L.A. would look like.
Yeah. Meanwhile, Andy's nipples are starting to chafe and Crede Stanley and Oscar are at like an outside cafe. They've ordered another round of drinks.
I like their style. Yes. And Pam and Jim are now going to stop at an estate sale. I love estate sales.
My mom. This makes me think of my mom whenever we went anywhere, any kind of road trip.
If we saw a sign that said yard sale, garage sale, estate sale, my mom would literally pull off the road. Well, in my sophomore year of college, I got my own apartment. And the summer before I went back to school, my mom took me around to a state sales and garage sales. And that's where I bought all of my dishes and my pots and pans and all the stuff I was going to need for my kitchen. And I still have some of that stuff.
I still have a baking dish from one of the garage sales that we went to in order to get all my stuff for college.
I still have a little piece of like kitchen art. It's like a pair and some grapes. And it's like someone made this, someone made the image and then got a piece of wood and then shellacked over it. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, this is sort of kitschy little piece of kitchen art.
And I got it at a garage sale. I love that I did that, too.
I love estate sales and garage sales because I think there's such a great way to recycle and reuse. You know, you don't have to buy everything new when someone's done with it, use it. I love that, I love that, too, I always love the idea of what that story was like. What what did that Green Bowl with that one little chip, what was that about? Now I'm going to have it. Yes, I agree. Well, now I love that Ryan and fancy corporate calls, Dunder Mifflin, and no one is answering.
And he gets this message that says you've reached the offices of Dunder Mifflin Scranton. Currently, the entire staff is out doing the Michael Scott DMC P emcee rabies awareness program, Fun Run Race. And Michael chimes in. That's all your voice. And Michael chimes in and goes for the cure. And then Pam says, Leave a message.
Valeria's I thought it was so Buddy and Ryan is like, well, you know, Michael is just hovering over Pym's shoulder as she created that outgoing message.
Oh my goodness. I would love to have seen how many ways that he made her say it until they got it right.
Well, now Lady Dwight is going to try to sweet talk Angela, he is he runs up next to her, tells her she looks cute as a button. She's not she's not into it. She doesn't want to hear it. And there were a lot of things that made this scene a little trickier than it looks.
We had to deliver all of our dialogue while running, but we couldn't run so fast that you would never see Steve who was positioned just behind us in between us. We couldn't run too close to one another and we had to pace this out because the camera was getting us in the foreground. And Michael, in the background, I imagine it was difficult also.
We only had so much sidewalk. Well, we had a specific place we had to stop to on the sidewalk and we had to try to hit that same mark every time, because then we see the neighbor and we have this great moment that I love where where we're like, it's nothing. And Dwight's like, I'm robbing her. And I'm like, it's fine. And then at the same time, we're like, it's nothing. And then we go right back to our conversation we were having.
Well, we had a fan question from Steph Bailey and Debbie K.. Kind of more of a statement, Angela, for not being a runner, you have really great form. Do I? I thought so too. I thought you were a very cute runner. Well, thank you. I mean, I ran cross-country in high school, you guys maybe somewhere in the back of my brain, it was still there.
Well, there you go. When were you running cross-country while also playing basketball and trombone? I don't understand tennis.
And I was a cheerleader. I was busy in high school. This was my mom's attitude was if you're busy, you don't have time for trouble.
While you were busy, I was very busy. I also want to read you this letter from Patrick, right, because I agree with Patrick.
Here's what Patrick had to say. I really wanted to express my respect for Angela as an actress, especially in this episode. She is a mixture of tragically funny and also just heartbreaking. She gives such a fabulous, nuanced performance throughout this entire episode. We as an audience truly feel for her hurt and anger throughout the story. And my heart broke as she runs away from Dwight with her adoration of the man she loves, but at the same time shattered.
The performances from everyone in the cast was brilliant, as always, but I felt compelled to single out Angela for her marvelous acting.
Oh, that is so nice. Thank you. I so appreciate that. We really feel Angela being torn here because Dwight admits he killed sprinkles, he Mersea killed sprinkles.
And, you know, Dwight tried to do it in the kindest way and for all the right reasons in his mind, right? Yeah. In his perspective. And gave her an histamines until she fell asleep and in the Angeles like.
But then she threw them up and she tried to claw her way out. And she's like, why didn't you talk to me about this first? Like, this is not a conversation. If this was the solution you thought needed to happen, why not talk to me about this? And there are sad moments to the scene. And then there's these moments where obviously there's a joke written. But I have to say it really earnestly, like the cat, heaven is a beautiful place.
But you don't get there if you're euthanized, you know? Yeah. And but one of the notes Greg gave me was as you run away, you know, Dwight's like reaching out for you. And I say, you don't understand. And I kind of start to cry as I run away, and he's he said, you know, what Dwight isn't getting is that this is unforgivable for you. Yeah. And you love this man. But he has severed this bond.
You don't think you can be with him anymore, but Dwight doesn't know that yet, but you know it. Well, I've had this happen in relationships where you're dating and you're so in love and the relationship is just all promise and optimism, and then something happens and the person reacts or acts in such a way that you realize there is a fundamental difference of values. Yeah.
And she knows it and she knows she can't see him the same way. And it will take a very, very, very long time, as we know, for her to forgive him. Yeah. Well, guess what. Jim and Pam bought a lamp, just the base of a lamp. Yeah, it was eight dollars and now Jim gets to carry it. It's an odd choice, the screen lamp. It looks like two octopus tentacles are holding hands or something, I don't know what's happening with it.
How does Jim feel about Pam's taste if this is the lamp she wanted to buy?
Is he concerned about moving in together one day, maybe sharing a house? This lamp is not great. But also, Michael is really struggling. Phyllis and Bob passed him up.
I mean, he's laying on the ground. His lips are all white.
He doesn't look good. He doesn't look like he's going to make it. In the meantime, Toby wins the race. Yeah.
And I thought it was so perfect that Kelly is at the finish line, like on her phone. Yes.
And he's like, where are we? And she's like, we're about five kilometers from the office.
And Toby's like, why didn't Michael make it a circle? So we couldn't have made it easy, made it a straight line. Well, it's interesting. So that spot where they are is pretty much right outside of our real office. Actually, that was on Sadequee Street where we shot. So we actually were very, very close. Like we we just walked back to set at the end. Yeah. So we actually did and very close to our office.
You know, I guess it's interesting because Pam, like, I think she's going to give Michael a pep talk, but she's like, now you don't got this.
Like it's more like Pam sets of like there's other people that are better at helping people. Why don't you just let this one go and then Michael's like, you don't know me, you've just seen my penis. And somehow Pam not cheering him on makes him cheer himself on. And he has this talking head where he's like finishing that five K was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I ate more fettuccini Alfredo and drink less water than he ever has in his entire life.
This was so funny to me, he slowly makes his way across the finish line and I caught a palm tree. Yeah, did you see it? Yes, I did, yeah. Thirty nine minutes, 46 seconds, palm tree alert.
We did not I guess we didn't paint that one out. Yeah, I'm sure there are others along the way because, you know, we're filming outside so much. But he finally makes it across the finish line and Jim gives him the lamp as a trophy. Any pukes? Yeah. Probably some kind of mushroom soup. Oh, it looks it looked gross, it looked it was so gross. It looks so gross. And he let it just dribble down his chin.
I'm like, wipe that off your face. So gross.
Well, this episode ends with Michael in the hospital, and Meredith has wheeled herself in to his room to visit him. Yes, there is a deleted scene that Michael checked himself into the hospital for dehydration and he requested his childhood pediatrician come visit him. And his pediatrician is a very elderly man. And he's saying, you know, Michael doesn't really need to be in the hospital.
He got a little dehydrated, really. This all could have been solved with a bottle of water. But and then as he's talking, Michael is like, where's my lollipop?
He's like, give them. Oh, my God. So is that why he has a lollipop in this scene with Meredith?
Yes, because his pediatrician stopped by and checked in on him and gave him a lollipop. Well, the lollipop leads us to a very Cringely final moment, yes, which is that Michael is sucking on a lollipop.
And he suggests that they share it. So he hands it to Meredith, who? Then sort of puts it in her mouth and then she offers it back to Michael and he says, no, I'm good, good, good.
Well, we had some mail from Eliza Jarvis and Natalie Ben-Ari. Please tell me the lollipop Michael shares with Meredith is switched out before they share it. Did they really share it? Guys, I wondered the same thing when I watched this scene. There is no cut, it's it's a one hour shot. Of Steve taking the lollipop out of his mouth and handing it to Kate. So we asked Kate about it. We had to ask her about it.
And she said they did not rinse it off. She also said Steve improvised that in the moment and she just went with it. Yeah. And I think I think that's why you see her pause a second. I think you are watching Kate the person decide if she's going to do this. She's like, am I going to do this? But brilliant ending. Good for you, Kate. Way to way to really go for it. On the show, she said she got a thrill out of doing your own sort of stunts.
So, yeah, well, she's brave. And, you know, there was a Dwight deleted talking head that I think would have come after this where it's really it kind of broke my heart where he talks about forgiveness and what it is to forgive someone and that he hopes that his friend will forgive him, because if Meredith can forgive Michael for hitting her with the car, maybe his friend will be able to forgive him and he's hopeful.
I know it made me sad.
Yeah, well, I think that finishes out fun. Run. We did a fun run. Thank you guys so much for joining us. For the Michael Scott D.M. SMP emcee rabies awareness program. Fun Run. Race for the Cure. He'll be back next week. Thank you for listening to office ladies Office Ladies is produced by Airball Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. Our producer is Cody Fischer, our sound engineer is Sam Kiffer, and our associate producer is Ainsley Boubakeur.
Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton. For ad free versions of Office Ladies, go to Stitcher Premium Dotcom for a free one month trial of Stitcher Premium Use Code Officer.