I'm Jenna Fisher.

And I'm Angela Kinsey.

We were on the office together, and we're best friends. And now we're doing the ultimate Office rewatch podcast just for you.

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

We're the office ladies. Hello, everyone.

Hi.

Guess what we're talking about today.

I would do an impression, but it would be horrible. I was going to do, like, bad. Really bad. That was me trying to be, like, one of the background singers in Acapella. Like, the people that don't say words, the people that their sole job is.

Like.

How do you get that job?

I don't know.

I wouldn't get it because I can't carry a tune.

Well, today, everybody, we're talking about here comes treble. It is season nine, episode five, written by Owen Elickson, directed by Claire Scanlon. Here's what I learned when I watched this episode.

Yeah.

I found the acapella singing delightful. I just loved every time they sang.

I mean, I love Acapella. My husband was in an acapella group. Yeah, we had to dig out some old videos.

Oh, really?

Yeah. I watched a bunch of his group in the buff from University of Colorado.

Naked in the what?

No, that's their name. In the buff is their name. They're the Buffaloes. It's like a play on words.

You know, it really sounds like I'm going to watch naked Singer.

I know.

Did they think this through?

But I'm going to save this. I did look up a bunch of college Acapella group names, and a lot.

Of them are a little racy.

Really? Well, why don't we start now with a summary? Here it is. Andy brings his college Acapella group to the office for a Halloween party performance. However, this is going to reignite his rivalry with Broccoli Rob.

I mean, broccoli Rob is kind of sneaky.

Yeah.

And I have some thoughts on his apartment, but we'll get to it.

Oh, yeah.

Meanwhile, in this episode, Pam and Jim struggle to agree on their level of financial participation in the sports marketing startup that Jim is now a part of. And Dwight starts an investigation to find the owner of an anti anxiety pill he found on the floor. Fast fact number one, the storyline with Andy and his college Acapella group was inspired by our writer Halstead Sullivan's real life.

Once again, Halstead's real life made it into an episode, but this one is fantastic. We reached out to Halstead and we asked him, how did this Andy storyline come about? He shares about his true life story. You gotta hear it.

Hey, Angela and Jenna, thanks so much for asking me to tell your listeners about yet another office story that was loosely based on something that actually happened to me. Though in this case, it's not so loose. To give you some brief history, when I was a student at the University of Virginia, I started an acapella group called the Virginia Hullabahoos, and the group is still going strong today. Over the years, the Hullaboos have sung all across the country. They've sung in Europe and the Philippines. They've sung at the White House for a couple different presidents. And they were even in the first pitch perfect movie where you can see them singing in the final countdown at.

The end of the movie.

Now, needless to say, I'm extremely proud of all they've accomplished since I founded the group, oh so very many years ago. And a couple of years before I was on the office, the current group of guys at the time came out to LA to sing the national anthem at a Lakers game. They asked if they could stay with me for a couple of days, and of course I said yes, even though it meant 14 college students staying in our house and was at hell. Well, absolutely. But since they were coming to LA, I decided to set up a concert for them as well. I invited alumni and a ton of my friends, and it was a nice event. I even paid for the whole bar. To give you a little more backstory, since I was the founder of the group, historically, pretty much anytime I showed up at a concert, the guys would invite me on stage to sing the song that I sang when I was in the group, which was a song called Run around Sue. So before this concert, and I don't know what got into me, before the guys went on stage, I was like, guys, I know you're going to pull me up there to sing my signature song, but you really don't have to.

This night is yours.

Just go have fun.

Fully knowing in my heart of hearts that of course they would invite me up to sing my song. I mean, it had never not happened before. So as I'm in the audience enjoying the concert and silently warming up my vocal cords, the guys are singing song after song after song. The audience is loving it, and I'm getting more and more nervous to be about to sing in front of all of my la friends. And then suddenly the concert's over, and they didn't invite me up to sing my song, I was livid. And was that a rational feeling for an adult man to have? No. But if you think any man who sings four part harmony without instruments and thinks that it's actually entertaining to people is rational, you are sorely mistaken, my friends. But the story doesn't end there. A few years after that, when we were trying to think of a story for Andy Bernard and here comes trouble, I told the story in the writer's room, and it became an episode. And as we were writing, of course, I suggested to Greg that the actual hullabahoos play the group here comes trouble, and lo and behold, six of them got cast.

But the story doesn't end there. When they came out, I hosted all 14 guys in the group, and the guys who didn't get cast came out to set to watch. And on the last day of shooting, it was actually my birthday. And there on the set, the hull, who's brought out a huge cake for me and sang happy birthday to me. And then in front of the whole cast and crew of the office, they invited me up to sing my signature song. So I guess if there's a moral to this story, it's that when life gives you lemons and you don't get asked to sing your signature song, you make lemonade and turn it into an office episode where you get to sing your song in front of your whole office family. But if you want to hear more, you can listen to Hub, who's on Spotify, and apple music. Sorry, I couldn't help it. I'm just so damn proud of them. Okay, I'm really done now.

Thanks.

Oh, and I love that story. I remember them singing on the stages.

I do too. And, you know, as I remember it, it was Claire's idea to have the happy birthday song to Halstead on set.

Yes, it know. We reached out to Claire for this episode, and one of the things she said was that this moment of them singing and Halstead singing was one of her favorite memories from this episode, and mine too.

I also love that she shared that she has a copy of it and she gave it to Halstead, and he's the only one that has the copy no one else has, so. Halstead.

Well.

Well, we asked Halstead if we could.

Share it, and he said no, because they sang it in a key too high.

Well, Hallstead, we would like to invite you, the office ladies, to sing run around sue with the hullabahoos, and we will play it on office ladies.

Oh, that would be a treat.

We have a whole season left.

Halstead all right, moving on to fast fact number two. You know the guy in the acapella group who ends up serenading Pam?

Oh, yes. While Jim and Pam fight.

Yes. It's such a fun scene. So that singer is named Nick Cafero. He was not an actor at the time when they did this. He was just a member of the hullabahoos. Halstead suggested that we reach out to him to hear a little bit more about what it was like for all these guys to suddenly be invited to be on the office. And Nick sent in an audio clip.

We got to hear it.

Office ladies. Oh, my goodness. I cannot believe I am recording this right now. This is such a thrill, such an honor. I'm so excited that you asked me to be part of this. I am a huge fan of the two of you, of this podcast, and, of course, of the office. And this is like a dream come true. Thank you so much for asking me to be part of this. So I was a junior in college. I was at the University of Virginia. So I remember I was the president of the group at the time. I got an email saying that they wanted us to audition for the office. I thought it was a prank, but once I kind of got my heart rate down and figured out it was real, I got the group together. There were 18 members of us, and I put all of us on tape, and looking back on it, I had zero idea what I was doing. So these auditions are. They were all done in my dorm room. They have the worst lighting in background you could possibly imagine, and probably some of the worst acting you could possibly imagine.

But we all did the scene one by one and sang a song because the role required us to sing. And we sang I'll be by Edwin McCain, which is actually what I ended up singing on the show to you, Jenna. And I remember sending all the auditions into Halstead first before I sent them into the producers and casting. And Halstead was like, you need to redo these. These are terrible. So we ended up redoing all of them, which was for the best, obviously. And then I sent them in, and a few days later, I got a call saying that we've been cast on an episode of the Office, and I was cast in the role that would be speaking and singing, and I almost threw up. Unfortunately, only seven of the 18 members in the Hullabahoos were asked to be on the show. But what we did is we took all the money that we were going to get paid, the seven of us, and we used that to buy plane tickets. So that the rest of the group could come out and experience this, too and have fun in LA.

Nick, that story is bonkers. I cannot imagine getting that email. But here's what I have to say. Why did we not fly these guys out?

What? I don't know.

I mean, I guess maybe we flew out the guys that got cast and then they spent their money to fly out the other people.

That's what it sounds like.

Well, thank God, Angela, because when I first listened to that, I thought, what?

No, I think they used their salaries to fly out the people.

The rest of the group.

Yes. Which was very classy move. Very classy.

Well, in addition to meeting the entire office cast while they were there, another thing that Nick shared with us was that Brian Cranston was also walking around because he was there doing post production on work bus.

And that really threw them.

Yes.

They were like, wait, I thought we were coming to work on the office. What is happening? Why is Walter White here?

Yeah, well, Nick shared a few more stories from his time on the set. We'll sprinkle those throughout this episode.

And now I'm going to move us on to fast. Fact number three, Angela. Stephen Colbert as Broccoli Rob.

I so believed Andy and broccoli Rob's rivalry. I really believed it.

Oh, broccoli Rob is insidious. He's so gaslighty, isn't he? Yeah. We had a fan question from Hannah Ellen Arizona, who said, did you guys get to meet Stephen Colbert, or was he only on the video call? Well, first of all, Hannah, I'll say that Ed was our connection to Stephen Colbert from their time on the Daily show. And unfortunately, we did not get to meet him. He filmed all his stuff in New York. They did it really early in the morning. Steve Burgess said they set Rob up on a set in New York. They had a camera filming him there. They also put him on a video call. It was very elaborate.

Right, the conference room scenes. Yeah.

And in the break room. For anyone who doesn't know, Stephen Colbert is a great singer. He was in the glee club in high school. Did you know that he's also won a Grammy for singing?

Yes, that I did not know.

Well, in 2008, he released a CD and had a tv special called a Colbert Christmas, the greatest gift of all, which won a Grammy award for best comedy album. And at 2011, he performed the role of Harry in the musical company in concert with the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln center. At Lincoln center.

Wow.

I couldn't do it.

That's big time, guys.

I mean, I couldn't do it because also, I can't sing. And they would never have.

I couldn't do it because, again, can't carry a tune.

You really can't carry a tune. Not really. Know that about you.

I can if I'm singing with other people. But then if you say, take it, Ange, I'll get, like, the first few, and then I'm like, where am I going? Where are we going? Where is this going?

What happens if you have to start happy birthday?

Well, I can do.

Do you start it? Okay. But some people start it terribly.

How do you start it terribly?

Happy birthday.

Do you start too high or you're like, happy birthday to you. And you're like, people. People do it. I'm like, just start it neutral for the whole.

Yeah, yeah.

Happy birthday to you. Start it there. Everyone can sing it there.

I can sing. And clearly, pet peeve warning, if you sing happy birthday around Jenna. I can sing if I'm doing a character. And also, there's some songs from church that I feel like I can carry the tune just because I've sung them so many times.

My favorite part of church was the singing. Yeah. And I would sing out, me too. And he will raise you up on eagle's wings.

Yes. There was a song. Of course, my family is, like, southern. I would belt out so hard, and it was at Easter, and it would be like, there ain't no grave going.

To hold my body down. Yeah.

It was about the resurrection, and I went for it. We were at church recently when I went back home and I started to belt out a song, and my daughter looked at me like, what? Can you dial down the volume?

I mean, most of church is boring, let's be honest.

Jenna. It is. Come on.

Why can't I say stuff?

We all know you can and you do.

I'm going to be 50. I'm moments away from 50. And it's all coming out.

All coming out.

Well, are we going to take a.

Break and then get into this episode, or what are we doing?

Let's take a break. Let's take a break.

Break me off a piece of that podcast show.

We are back. And before we start breaking down this episode, I've got some tidbits from the call sheet.

Oh, yeah.

Thanks to Steve Burgess, we started filming this episode on Monday, September 10, 2012. Are you curious what we filmed on that very first day of here comes trouble?

Yes.

Good.

I hope you are, because I'm going to tell you. It was all talking heads all morning. All the talking heads you see, in the episode, we were filming on the first day, and then towards the end of the day, we did have two big group scenes in the bullpen, and it was a very, very busy production week for our show. They were prepping the farm and the boat. There was a dirt test for the farm. So someone was getting dirt thrown in their face.

Yeah.

To see how it would look. They were scouting locations for the boat. We had an NBC EPK crew doing interviews with all the cast this week.

Yes. Well, that is because this was our last Halloween episode ever, and we all did interviews about it and how we were feeling about it.

Yeah.

And basically, we were all feeling sad that it was our last one, but also grateful that we got to do a full Halloween episode. I remember being excited that we got to be in costume the whole week.

Yeah.

Well, lastly, the high was 89 degrees. Thank you. It was in the.

That's nice.

It's an improvement.

Well, like we said, this is our Halloween episode, and Dwight is going to enter the office with a giant pumpkin on his head. He scares Aaron.

Oh, my gosh. Every Halloween I see this picture of rain with the pumpkin head everywhere. It's like, on t shirts, on stickers. It's everywhere.

Well, there's a problem. He can't get the pumpkin head off.

He cannot.

We had a fan question from Olivia H. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, who said, the Dwight pumpkin head cold open is my single favorite cold open in the entire series. I watch it whenever I'm feeling down, and it never fails to brighten my day. Please tell me everything. Were there any scenes cut out? I must know. And Mia o. A middle schooler from Cedar Park, Texas, wanted to know if the pumpkin was real.

We have the answers, Mia.

I'll tell you this. We used a real pumpkin to fit rain. We carved out a pumpkin just like that. But about a week before the episode, the costumers took that real pumpkin to a molder who made a fiberglass version because we didn't want it to rot or break. Right. And Steve Burgess sent us a very funny photo of rain with the fiberglass pumpkin on his head, trying to read his sides through the eye hole. So rain really did walk around with.

That thing for a while, I should say. Steve sends us great pictures. He also sent me a photo I had never seen of myself and the senator as Nancy and Ronald Reagan. I'll put all of these in stories. Claire sent us a ton of great pictures, too.

We're going to have a lot of pictures for Instagram this week.

Yes. A lot of behind the scenes, photos, and Olivia, to answer your question, there were several more scenes with Dwight with this pumpkin on his head. Ultimately, what happens in deleted scenes is Dwight is backing out of the parking lot with the big pumpkin head, and his car hits the row of hedges. His head kind of slams into the side of the car's interior, and the pumpkin starts to break in half, and he's able to free himself.

Oh, so we got to see him freed.

Yes. And he throws the pumpkin pieces out the window and is like, ha. And he drives off. And Claire, our director, shared with us that this scene was actually really difficult to shoot. She said that pumpkin head was so big that they had to pull the driver's seat out of the car so rain could physically get in the car and they could film him with the pumpkin head getting in the car.

Yeah.

And then after all that trouble, they never used any of the footage of him getting in the car.

Claire also shared that when they were shooting rain's talking head with the pumpkin head on, that at first they thought that they could just put any words in his mouth because the pumpkin kind of covered everything. But then they realized when they got in editing that you could still see his mouth kind of moving. And she said, if you look close enough, it's a little bit out of sync. When he says, the pumpkin should rot off my head in a month or two.

It doesn't totally match exactly. I will tell you that I looked up people wearing pumpkin heads at, like, our people doing this. I did find some people did this. They carved out a pumpkin like Dwight.

Really?

Yes. And they took photos of themselves, the TikTokers, the talkers did it. And then I was curious if you could buy a pumpkin head like the one Dwight wore and make your own Halloween costume. I did find a plushie version on Amazon.

I'm surprised this isn't a costume.

Yeah.

Well, we got an interesting fan question from Ayla R in Norway, Angela, that I thought maybe we could discuss.

Okay.

Ayla notes that in order to make his costume, Dwight had to carve out the bottom of the pumpkin. He had to put the hole in.

The bottom of the pumpkin, pull all the stuff out.

Yes. And Ayla said that this reminded her of the big debate over the best way to carve a pumpkin. Do you cut a hole in the top and scoop it out from the top, or do you put a hole in the bottom and scoop it out from the bottom? Ayla wanted to know, how do we do our pumpkins, Ayla?

I did not know there was a great pumpkin debate. I always do the top and then make a little hat.

Yep.

Well, growing up, my family cut off the top of the pumpkin. Yeah, that was our way. I continued to do it that way in my adult life.

Where is this going? I feel like someone changed you.

I'll tell you who changed me.

Who?

Brunch with babs.

Brunch with babs.

You don't follow brunch with babs on Instagram.

Well, now I feel like I'm getting shade, because I don't know who brunch with babs is.

Brunch with babs is like your mom, who's giving you all the hacks on everything in life. All the best mom hacks. Okay. Brunch with babs.

Great.

I saw a video of hers two years ago where she teaches you how to carve a pumpkin, and she cuts out a circle on the bottom, and then she uses a mixer.

Oh, and she gets all the guts.

Out with the mixer. It loosens it up. And then what's great about it is when you do the candle, you just set your pumpkin on top of the candle. You don't have to dip your hand down through the top and try to light it through the top and all that business. Also, you're not setting the candle on top of any pumpkin. You just set the candle on the ground.

Brunch with babs.

Wow.

Anyway, Ayla, in the great Pumpkin carving debate, I'm announcing I might have to try it this next Halloween. You might be a bottom.

Oh, my God.

Okay.

Where are we?

Jim and Pam are now going to arrive to work. Jim, once again, doesn't have a costume.

Yeah, well, he's men in black.

I did love under his breath when he was like, give me your sunglasses. To Pam, anytime there's, like, a little under your breath line, those always got me.

Pam is dressed as Dr. Cinderella, and they mistake Erin's costume for a dog. She's a puppy.

She's a puppy.

Like we said, this was our last Halloween episode, our last time wearing costumes. Lady, I've got a costume breakdown for us.

You want to hear it? You know I do. I love a costume breakdown.

All right, Andy, is George Michael mistaken for american idol alum Adam Lambert? Pam, I said Dr. Cinderella. Jim, maybe a men and black agent. Kevin is Charlie Brown. Stanley is Usain Bolt. Dwight is Cerebus the ardvark. I thought he just had a pig nose on. Oh, Daryl is a cowboy. Meredith is black widow. Angela is Nancy Reagan. The senator is Ronald Reagan. Oscar is a dinosaur, aka the electoral college. Aaron is a puppy. Phyllis is a cheerleader. Nellie is sexy. Toby, Pete Clark. And Toby didn't dress up. And creed murdered someone. He just showed up.

He didn't even know it was Halloween. That worked out well.

That is one of my favorite bits.

I don't know why that is a funny joke. I don't know which writer is responsible for that, but that's a funny joke.

Jim and Pam are now going to have a joint talking head. We find out there's a big investment meeting for the sports marketing job.

This is why Jim didn't dress up.

Yes.

As if he was going to dress up anyway.

He wasn't going to. There is a lot of sass in this talking head from mean. You know, she kind of keeps going back to that thing. Like, unless you told everyone, but know, kind of like that thing. And I thought, if Pam is saying.

This at work, what kind of shiitake.

Is being said at home? She is pissed. She is still pissed.

Pam is handling her feelings with Sarcasm and humor. But I put that in quotes.

Yeah, I think it's more just like angry sarcasm.

Yes. All right, everybody, George Michael is about to arrive.

Woohoo.

Woo. Angela shares that the senator will be joining them later. I loved it when Andy was like, was that a question? She goes, no, it was, no, no.

And then Andy is going to introduce some treble.

Yeah. They come into the bullpen singing and I really want you guys to hear it.

Oh, ladies and gentlemen, here comes treble. I'm a man without conviction. You come and go, you come and go chameleon. You come and go, you come and go. Love will be the if your colors were like my dream. Red, gold and green. Red, gold and green.

So my favorite thing is when acapella groups end a song with like a little button like that comma.

Come on. Yeah.

It's like the best.

Angela, we got a fan question for you from Daniel G in Quebec, Canada, who said, my favorite Angela moment is in this episode. You are also his favorite character, Daniel.

Thank you.

Daniel said, please talk about the look you give Oscar when he is singing along to Karma Chameleon. It is so funny. I saw it, too.

I know. I was surprised it made it in even when I saw the episode. So here's the thing, Daniel. That was not scripted. I just made the choice to give Oscar a really long, judgy look. And at the time, I didn't even know the camera operators caught it. And I didn't see it until it aired. And it cracked me up, too.

It was perfect. I so loved it.

I do want to share with you guys about that Nancy Reagan wig.

Oh, yeah.

When they put it on, they couldn't take it off for the whole day. So I had had that.

Yeah.

I had tucked so much hair up into a wig cap, and then there were all these bobby pins. So basically, they were like, ange, you have to be Nancy Reagan from the waist up all day. I had this suit on, and under the jacket was this, like, tank top.

That was part of the suit, which.

I couldn't get over my head with the wig on. And so it's 89 degrees out, and I have this wool vest sort of tank top and my jeans and flip flops. And that's how I walked around at lunch. But this wig messed with everyone's brain. I would come around the corner and be like, hey. And they'd be like, oh, my God. It just freaked everyone out. And one day for lunch, my daughter came to set, and she was like, no, mama. No, mama. She was like, get rid of that wig. But I couldn't take it off all day.

Yeah.

I had to wear wigs for walk hard, and it was the same thing. They do the little pin curls of your hair to your head. They put on this bald cap, and then they stick it on you, and it takes a long time.

Yeah. And then you're in it. You're in it, you're in it, and.

You'Re in whatever clothes you were in before you got it on, too.

Yeah.

And you, Janet in particular, this wig really tickled you. You could barely look at me. I remember I walked up to you just, like, on a break, eating a cheese stick, and you're like, I can't. I can't look at you in that wig. You're eating cheese.

Well, Andy's going to go on to explain that these guys are from the Cornell Acapella group. Here comes trouble, and they will be performing for all of us at the Halloween party today. Meredith would like to know a little bit more about the sleeping arrangement.

Oh, Meredith.

For all these guys while they're in.

Town, Stanley just says he's not interested. I'm not interested in sitting here.

And he's going to have a talking head where he says, you know what he just realized? He just realized they might call him up to sing his signature song, faith.

Oh, my gosh. I'm dressed as George Michael. And they might call me up to sing. Faith, come on.

He's not prepared.

Oh, he's not prepared at all. He hasn't even really thought that through. Jim is now going to leave for his big meeting and he just double checks with Pam. You still good that I'm going to invest?

And she's like, yeah, right.

We got to do this. We're going to do it.

Let's do it. So it's important for me to share with everyone that this scene was scripted a little differently than how it ended up in the episode. And this is going to affect the storyline as we go on. The scene was originally scripted like this. Pam says, it's almost noon, don't you need to go blow a hole in our savings? There's a little of her angry sarcasm. And Jim says, that's right. I knew I was forgetting to do something. And then he pauses and he said, was that an all in good fun thing? And Pam says, yes. And then Jim says, you sure you're cool with putting in 5000?

Yeah.

And she says, yeah, I mean, if we're going to do this thing, we should do it right. And Jim says, you're the best. And Pam says, seriously, I am. It's crazy. So I just want to say that in this story, Pam said that Jim could invest 5000. Well, it's what they agreed on. Yes, they had a conversation. So later in the episode when he puts in 10,000, that is again not what they agreed on when they talked at home. And that is why Pam is going to get so mad. And I think it's kind of a bummer that that little tidbit got cut out, right? Because otherwise it just seems like Pam is angry that Jim did something that they agreed to. But the truth is, the way it was originally written, he didn't.

Right?

As Jim leaves, Dwight is going to hold up a little box of nerds candy and he's like, look, I'm eating a Jim.

Get it?

Because it's a nerd. Aaron finds this hilarious.

Yes. We had a fan question from Nick R in Peoria, Illinois, who said Erin's loud laugh in this scene seemed to generate a genuine reaction for both her and Dwight. Was it scripted or left in as a happy little accident? Either way, it's so great.

Nick.

It was scripted. It says, dwight says, jim is a nerd. This is a box of gems. And Erin laughs. And then it says in all caps, really loud and covers her mouth. And then it says, erin keeps laughing, keeps laughing until she has to run towards the bathroom.

Well, we also had a fan question from Barb B in WisconsIn who said when Dwight makes Erin laugh so hard, she has to pee. Was this a nod to the work bus episode when Ellie as Erin actually peed from laughing so hard.

I wondered that I did, too. I mean, it had literally just happened. This episode comes right after work. Yes. And we all had this collective story.

I feel like it must have.

I know.

Well, Ellie was a good sport about all of it, so no doubt she was, like, fine with it.

Well, Dwight drops a bunch of gems on the ground. He's picking them up, and while doing so, he finds a little yellow pill. Yeah, he has a talking head where he says, it's Dumatrill. It treats anxiety symptoms such as panic attacks, excessive worrying, and fear. Translation, there's a madman in our midst.

This is now going to be his storyline for the rest of the episode. He has got to find out whose pill this is.

He's going to mom detective it.

Yes.

Fyi, Dumatrill does not exist. It's made up.

It's a made up.

Yeah.

We now see Nellie. She is dressed as sexy Toby, and she shares in a talking head that the anxiety pill is hers. She's not ashamed of it, but she doesn't love the idea of Dwight having that information about her, since he once yelled at Phyllis for sneezing.

Wrong.

Nellie agrees with, you know, the person who owns this pill needs to be apprehended. So Dwight is going to go get his apprehension kit. Yeah.

And now he's got a partner to help solve this mystery.

Lady, do we need an apprehension kit for mom? Detectives. In case we have to apprehend someone or if we have to go on a stakeout, like, I feel like it would all be in the same kit. We need snacks and water.

Flashlight.

Flashlights. Good. I think we should have the ones that go on our head so that we can be.

Yes.

Headlamp. Headlamp.

Snacks. A blanket. I'll be cold.

Yeah.

Megaphone. Smart megaphone. Yes. Yeah. Rather than sneak up, let's go in hot.

Be like we see you.

Yeah, we should get one of those things that makes things bigger.

A magnifying glass.

Yes.

In case we have to look at tiny evidence.

Yes.

Well, it will all be tiny for us, for the most part.

Lady, I have another case. What?

In your neighborhood?

In my neighborhood.

Okay.

So I walk Maggie in the neighborhood, and someone keeps taking their plastic water bottles or their used coffee cups, and they either stick them in some bushes, like someone's bushes, or they put them on top of the little library. Oh. So it's just. That's not cool. I know. And I want to stake it out. Okay. And see if we can figure out who's doing it. Is it multiple people? I don't get it.

No.

Oh, you know what I just realized? What? I took a picture of it in the bushes. I was going to send it to you. I took a picture of it on top of the little library. One of them was a Starbucks cup. It would be so easy. We could at least get a first name.

Oh, good point.

Next time it happens, maybe. Look at me. Already solving the case in our apprehension kit.

We could have, like, some silly putty.

What's that for?

Can't you get a fingerprint off with.

Silly putty off of the cup?

Yeah.

Well, what do we do with it after we get it? Who's running that fingerprint for us?

Who do you send your silly putty fingerprint to?

I mean, good idea, but where do we go with that?

Help us. Doesn't really help us.

Listen, we'll figure it out.

We'll figure it out.

And when we see the person, we're.

Just going, we have the megaphone.

We have the megaphone to be like, stop leaving your trash in the bushes.

Yeah.

By the way, I want to say this is coming full circle. Maybe we'll hide in the bushes and pop out of them. We'll be bush hiders again.

Yes.

Right.

Oh, you know what would be so great? When they put the water bottle in the bush, a hand just came out.

Yes. What if they threw it back at them?

Threw them back? Yes.

All right, I think we have a plan.

Well, we have something.

Well, lady, if we ever have some extra time and we want to take that case, I already have some photographic evidence for, so.

Okay, step one. Done.

Step two is find the time.

Well, let's take a break. And when we come back, we're going to find out how Andy got the nickname Boner champ.

Yeah.

It's not how I thought.

No, it's not how anyone would think.

We'll be back. We are back. Andy is going to go join. Here comes treble hanging out in the break room. Before Andy is hanging out in the break room, I wanted to share with you guys some of these college acapella names I found. They all have puns. There are hundreds. I'm just going to share a few. Ready?

Yes.

Pitch slapped.

Okay, get it. I got it.

Berkeley College of Music. Ransom notes. University of Chicago. Sexy pitches. Alfred University. Shirley tempos. Brandeis University. Noteworthy. Brigham Young University. Sedoctaves.

Get it?

Octaves, but they're sadocaves. University of Intercourus. I know.

Racy.

St. Mary's College of Maryland treble threat, University of San Diego.

So a pun is like a prerequisite for being an acapella group name?

Not necessarily, but it is definitely very popular.

Well, I got curious. What is the oldest acapella group? What is it? According to Wikipedia, Peter Lutkin, the dean of Northwestern University School of Music, founded the northwestern Acapella Choir in 1906, and it is considered the first permanent acapella group of its kind in America. However, the continuously longest running group is thought to be the whiff and poofs of Yale, which formed in 1909.

I'm telling you, the names are fascinating.

No pun in whiff and poofs.

No.

Andy's going to have a talking head and he's going to say, you know, I know it's pathetic to relive your college years, but I was a freaking rock star in college when I joined here comes trouble. When he got the name boner champ, that's when he became.

Yeah, yeah.

Andy's going to ask the here comes trouble guys, if they want know, do A-Q-A little question and answer. It's apparent very quickly that they don't even realize he was in the group. Broccoli Rob is rewriting history. They didn't even know he was the boner champ. Andy is so ticked off, he, like.

Storms out of the room when he realizes that they didn't know he was the boner champ. I loved Ed's performance so much.

Ed is so good in this whole episode.

So good.

I did want to point out, did anyone else out there catch how squeaky Andy's jacket is? Yes. In every scene, it makes noise.

Oh, my gosh. The sound department must have been dying. So I'll have you know, a few of the guys speak, but there was one member of this here comes treble Acapella group who was not a member of the Hullabahoos.

That's right.

And this was actor Daniel Ammerman. They did feel it was important that we cast an actor from this group who would kind of have maybe the bulk of the lines. We'll see him again in the conference room. And he's done a ton of stuff. He had a big recurring role on Arrested development. He can also sing. He had a guest star role on Glee, and he just had to show up. He was a one member of this group, and he had to rehearse with them and sing along with them and just sort of became an honorary hullaboo for the week.

Well, I will let you know on the call sheets. They were having daily rehearsals over in the warehouse.

I remember that. I went over to the warehouse to watch them rehearse.

Yeah.

Well, Andy is going to video call Broccoli Rob.

Yeah. He wants to get to the bottom of this boner champ thing.

Yeah. And Broccoli Rob is gaslighting him appropriately. And he's like, I just don't know how that could have happened. Yeah, I don't know.

Wine coolers were flowing. Yeah, I was know talking about the old days.

Well, Andy says, I would like you to call the guys and set the record straight. It's very important. Broccoli Rob says, sure, I'd be happy to do that. Meanwhile, Pete is standing with his coworkers. He's the only person not in costume. He tells Creed, I didn't realize that everyone dressed up. Creed splattered in blood. Says, I didn't either.

Yeah, I looked in the shooting draft for what it said about Creed's costume. It just says this Creed is dressed.

Normally, but covered in blood. Yeah, Creed has a talking head. He said, it's Halloween. Wow, that's really good timing.

Yeah. I mean, was he going to come.

To work like that? I know. Never explain himself.

I know.

Next up is a scene where Jim is going to cause some problems in his marriage.

Yeah, he is. He's just going to go all in. He's going to offer the full ten k. They welcome him aboard. I would like to shout out one of the athlete investors, sam Richardson.

Sam.

Yes.

He ends up doing a big arc on the show. We're going to see him for six episodes.

That's right.

He plays Colin, jim's buddy.

Sam is so funny, you guys. I was lucky enough to work with him in a little indie movie about girls softball called All Stars. But he's been in two of my.

Favorite shows, veep and the.

After party. Yes. Okay.

Well, we were really lucky to have.

Sam, and I'm so excited that his character is going to come back for a few more episodes, and I want to reach out to him. I want to hear about his time on the show.

I would love that.

Sam, get ready.

One thing I think we should point out during this meeting is that the investors tell Jim they have all the money they need. Yeah, we don't need your investment. And he's like, but maybe I want to invest.

I feel like Jim is so worried that he's going to get left out of his own idea that he's just like, I got to make sure that I'm fully equal here.

Yeah.

And he starts by floating 5000, maybe.

Ten, because 5000 is what he and Pam had talked about.

Yes.

So I just want you to know that this little story beat was a pitch of mine. I found my old pitch notes, my emails to everybody. And I had written that when Jim shows up to lunch that the guys should say, you don't have to put any money in, blah, blah, blah. But then Jim showboats and invests more than they agreed on. He invests 10,000.

Well, I like it. I thought it showed sort of how desperate Jim is to make this happen. Nellie and Dwight are still on the case of the search for this anxiety pill owner. They find Daryl in the kitchen, and I guess Dwight is going to smear his whole face with peanut butter. And if this seems like normal, appropriate behavior to Daryl, then he's got to be the person with the pill.

Claire sent us a very funny photo from on set.

A behind the scenes photo.

Yes. Of rain with all of the peanut butter on his face.

It was so much.

It was a lot. It was a lot. So now Andy's going to go back, he's going to revisit the acapella guys. And guess what? Broccoli Rob did set the record straight. Yeah, but Andy is like, you probably want to know how I got the name Boner champ. Right? Like you're dying to know. You want me to tell you?

Spring sing 95. We got completely ripped on Bud Dry's. I had sex with a snowman, you guys. The room turns. The room turns. Andy is so proud of this memory. I did look it up, according to the Internet.

What did you look up?

Well, I was just curious about how a man's business might work if it's that cold.

What'd you find out?

It says this.

The body tries to preserve heat and energy by funneling blood flow to vital organs in the middle of the body. Getting erections is also more challenging as the cold desensitizes the penis, which becomes less responsive to stimulation. Cold weather can even cause men to take longer to get an orgasm.

So this is really impressive that Andy was able to do this. I guess.

I guess that's why he's so proud.

Yeah. Well, if you thought that this storyline was crazy, writer Owen Ellicson had a different pitch for this episode. That is even more crazy than boner.

Champ and the snowman.

Yeah. What? Owen was quoted in Andy Green's book about the office saying that early in the pitches for this episode, it was going to be Andy was going to host his here comes treble alumni. So all the guys like broccoli Rob was going to actually come into the office and that they were going to sing and all of that sort of thing, and that they would start talking, know, the good old days back in school, and the guys were going to talk about one of the members who had died in the group. And it was going to slowly become clear to Andy that the guys in the group, including himself, had actually killed this other member, and they had covered it up all these years, basically, that Andy was part of, like, a murder silence pact.

Oh, my gosh.

I know. Because it was also. Because it was like a Halloween theme.

Right, right.

So there was going to be this Murder thing. Andy was going to realize. Owen said he was really just trying to find a way to differentiate Andy from Michael. And he was like, well, that's something Michael's never know. Michael's never killed a guy and covered up a murder. And then Owen said, we obviously cut this idea. We went with Halstead's idea instead.

And years later, it became yellow jacket.

Yes, exactly.

Angela is now going to bring the senator in. He is wearing a Ronald Reagan mask, and she reintroduces him to Oscar and then sees that the food table is all messed up. The desserts aren't where they're supposed to be.

The sweets are with the savory.

I know. And she is so ticked off at.

Phyllis, and she's like, I'm sorry, I have to go talk to Phyllis.

Well, this scene was longer. Angela does find Phyllis. They have it out, but all in the background, the senator and Oscar are flirting.

I want you to hear the scene.

Brownies and ginger snaps on the same plate. Where was the logic mean? What was going through your mind? I just thought it was a party and people wouldn't think too much about it. Ridiculous. This is what happens when I give you a long leash. But you are not getting within a mile of the snacks table for the Christmas party. Yeah, I understand.

I feel bad about this.

Good. Maybe the cupcakes with the ginger snaps. No, nothing should be with the ginger snaps. Ginger snaps are off putting to some people. Maybe you shouldn't be in charge of arranging the snacks.

Don't go there, sweetie.

Don't you go there.

Do your job.

Phyllis goes. Don't you go there, sweetie. And then under her breath, Angela says, do your job. It is so layered with tension.

And you know what?

If you get a sweetie out of Phyllis, get ready.

Yeah.

She's about to throw down.

Erin is trying to make Andy feel better about the group. Not really. Maybe being super excited about his boner champ story. Erin is like, what is wrong with these turkeys?

Yeah. She marches into the break room and says, hey, you have to sing faith. Learn it.

Yeah, just do it.

And the guy's like, but she goes, butts are for pooping. Make it work and make it a surprise.

Meanwhile, Dwight and Nellie are camped out in the kitchen. The pill is on a plate on the counter, and they're doing a steakout lady.

I know.

Toby is going to enter the out, and he sees Nellie in her costume, and he recognizes himself. He seems very transfixed. I was curious what the shooting draft had to say about this moment, so I looked it up.

What does it say?

Per the shooting draft, it says, toby enters. Nellie nods at him. Toby looks at her with embarrassment, then anger, then lust. He briefly moves towards her as if to kiss her, then hurries.

Hmm.

It's a lot happening in that moment.

Yeah. A lot of, I guess, self loathing and then self love from Toby.

Yeah.

I thought it was weird.

I know. I did, too.

I didn't get it.

I didn't get it.

Guess who's gonna come in and try to claim that pill. Meredith. She sees it as a free upper, and Dwight is gonna net her. He gets out a giant net. Is this something we need for our stakeout bag?

I guess so.

What? Could you imagine if we netted the guy who's.

Or a raccoon.

You think a raccoon is putting the bottles in the bushes?

No, but if we go digging in the bushes, we're going to find a varmint.

A varmint?

That's what my mom says. She'll be like, there's varmints out there.

It is a thick bush.

Oh, Lord. There are so many in this episode, I can't even. That's what she said. All of them.

Wow.

Kate has one of her famous lines in this episode where she says to Dwight, stop bagging my head.

Yes. This is the second time he's bagged her. He had to bag her when she had the bat on her head, and now he's bagging her again.

Listen to you, lady.

Listen.

I know what you're doing.

I'm not doing anything. It's a callback to a previous episode.

Previous episode? Yes. I think it's time for a get to know your cast and crew. Thanks to the call sheet.

Who are we going to learn about today?

Nick Carbone.

Hey, Nick Carbone. My favorite boom operator of all boom operators.

That's right. It says, nick loves music. Exclamation point in parentheses. Like you didn't know that his love of music came from his father, who took him to a Janice Joplin concert when he was eight years old. The house that he grew up in is next door to where Ben currently lives. Ben, our sound designer. This is how they met. One of his first shows was the classic golden girls, and that's where he met Kent Zabornak.

Wow.

There you go. Well, now we're in the conference room, and everyone is seated. They are ready for this acapella concert. We did get a fan catch from Allison H. In Louisville, Kentucky, who said, did they really clear out all of the conference room chairs for the party and then move all the food out and put all the chairs back in for the Acapella concert? This would really be a great opportunity for the b roll we never see of people moving the tables and chairs in and out of the conference room.

Allison, you were reading from my personal journal because I wrote gonna play a bull card here. Where's all the table of desserts? Where'd it all go?

Who moved it?

This is when Jim is going to get back from his lunch. He's going to have a seat next to Pam. Pam wants to know how to go.

How to go.

He just very quickly is able to say that he pledged the full 10,000. Yeah, he says, they said they were good on investing, but he still went all in.

Pam is having an out of body experience. She's like, wait, what? $10,000? And she's processing all of it, right as the acapella group starts to sing, and she's being serenaded and pulled into the circle, they roll her chair. While Jim and Pam were having this fight, I thought we should hear it. They said they were done with the investing.

And then you volunteered $10,000?

No, I had to look.

I needed to look like a team player.

So you invested $10,000 to look like a team player?

Look, that was most.

And I'll be better when I'm older. I'll be the greatest man of your life.

This is a really big fight, and it's playing out underneath this acapella song. But you hear Pam say, wait, that's all of our savings.

First of all, I want to say I'm very impressed that as a newly married couple with two young children, that they have saved $10,000. Well done, guys.

They clearly, I've been working at that.

This is something that doesn't happen by itself. And so now it's all gone.

It's gone.

This scene was so much fun to shoot. I absolutely loved being serenaded, it was very hard for me to stay angry. This is very similar to early in the show when I'm being serenaded by Andy on the banjo, but to act like I'm annoyed when I love the banjo. So this was very funny.

Well, Nick Caffaro shared about this moment in singing to you. Here's what he had to say.

One of the scenes that we did, my biggest scene was I had to sing I'll be to Jenna. And the first thing was, the conference room was so small. It was so tiny. I mean, I'm used to seeing it on tv, and I thought it was huge. But to be in there with all of you staring at me was terrifying. You were like, literally. And I'm not just, again, not just saying this because I'm here. You were all my favorite actors. This was my favorite show, and you're all staring at me. I was so scared. I remember I was on my knees singing to you, I'll be your crying. And at the end of it, they asked me to kiss your hand, and I was so nervous that actually, if you go back and watch the episode, you'll see I didn't actually kiss your hand. I missed your hand and kissed my thumb, which I get made fun of for a lot. There's also a part in that scene, and this made the final cut where we did that scene about 20 times, because I remember them saying, this is the first time Jim and Pam have actually gotten to a fight on camera.

So it was, like, a big deal. And the writers were extremely particular about how the fight should sound, so they ended up, like, rewriting it on the spot several different times. We did several different versions, which meant I had to keep singing that song, which wasn't great for my voice and probably became progressively worse and worse as we went. But for the very last take, I remember we had done it so many times, and I was just like, you know what? Screw it. And I was singing to you, and you were arguing with Jim while I was singing. So I took my finger, my index finger, and put it towards your mouth. The shush you, and you broke. You laughed, but it was so funny. We were all laughing. I'll never forget that moment. It was the best of my life. And you said, that was so brilliant. And luckily, it made the cut. You see in the video, me raising my finger to shush you. But, yeah, that was so fun. And that's something I'll never forget.

So, lady, I remember when he did that. I remember when he put his finger up to my face to shush me. I can't believe we had enough footage to keep it in the episode because I felt like I immediately broke because I thought that was so funny. But the whole thing was like he was so earnestly, sweetly singing, right?

Yeah.

It was hard to keep a straight face. The whole know. After we filmed this conference room scene, Nick shared that he had a very interesting encounter with Rain Wilson.

Yeah.

He sent in an audio clip about it. I want you to hear it, because rain was not the cremudgeon we know him to be. He was the other part of rain.

He was. And he changed Nick's life. He did.

Here's the clip.

Another moment I'll never forget and actually had a huge impact on my life. And my life trajectory was after the conference room scene or during the conference room scene. In between takes, rain Wilson was sitting right next to where me and my acapella group were standing, and he started conversation, and he said, hey, so are you guys actors? And we were like, no, we're from University of Virginia. We're just know to play the acapella group. We're acapella group singers. And he pointed to me and he said, you should be an actor. You should consider doing this. And this was after I had a scene with a few lines and sang, and I was, like, so starstruck and taken aback by that. But it really meant a lot to me, and truly is one of the reasons I decided to move out to los Angeles after I graduated and to pursue this career. So thank you to rain Wilson for saying that to me and for giving me a vote of confidence. And you've really had a big impact on my life, and I hope that I get to meet him again one day so I can thank him in person, because it really meant a lot to me.

So there you go. Nick had his Molly Shannon moment with Rain.

Oh, yes. This is your Molly Shannon moment, where she told you to stick with it.

Yes. I met her right when I first got to LA. And so Nick took Rain's advice. He moved to LA. He's been in a bunch of commercials. He's been on Blackish and 911, and he is currently in the Sunday company at groundlings. He's also teamed up with Halstead again and Claire again on different projects. He's now a working actor. This is so crazy. All from this random email that he got. One day he was in know Nixon.

And one last clip for us, you guys. And it's about. Well, it's about things you learn on set. And one of the guys in the Acapella group learned that, well, he didn't understand how the toilet worked in the trailer that they were using. And I think for anyone coming to LA wants to be an actor, this is an important lesson to learn. Let's hear it.

Okay, so this story is one that you would probably never share, but I have to tell you because it's just too outrageous to not. When we were there, there were eight of us, and so we all got trailers on set and we shared them with each other, at least little honey wagons. There were two per each trailer. And the trailers are small. They have like a little couch and a little closet to put your costumes in and a tiny little bathroom. And I remember I shared my trailer with one of my fellow Acapella group members whose name I will not mention for reasons that will soon become obvious. And I remember he was in the trailer. I was going to go get fitted when my fitting was done. I came back to walk up the stairs to our trailer, and as I did, he burst through the door carrying a giant wad of paper towels and kind of like rushing down the stairs past me. And I was like, okay, that's strange. And he went and threw them in a trash can. I was like, okay, cool, that was a lot of paper towels. I get back in the trailer, I'm sitting there, he comes in and I'm like, oh, it smells off in here.

Did you pass gas or use the bathroom? And he's like, no. I was like, dude, are you sure? It smells like somebody went to the bathroom and took a poop. And I was like, are you sure? He's like, okay, yes, I did. I went to the bathroom in the toilet, and it doesn't work, it doesn't flush. So I had to take all the paper towels and pick it up and throw it out in the trash. And I was like, oh, my God, are you kidding me? It turned out the toilet was one of the ones that had a foot pedal. There's a pedal underneath the toilet that you push down with your foot and it flushes. And he didn't know that and couldn't find it. He just thought it was a broken toilet. So he panicked, wrapped his hands in paper towels and picked up his own mess, ran it through the door and threw it away in a trash can. I was mortified to hear this. I have never heard of more unhinged behavior. I was like, dude, it's just a foot pedal. You have ruined Dunder mifflin to anybody who emptied the trash over there.

I apologize on his behalf. Yeah, I know that's disgusting, but, I mean, it's just so outrageous. You can't make that stuff up. I had to share it.

Sorry.

Here's my question after hearing that story. What is that guy's nickname now?

Oh, my gosh.

What is his nickname full.

I don't know.

I do have to say this is something that I struggled with the first time I was in a trailer. It is a very long time to figure out how to flush the toilet.

Yes.

I should maybe put this in my book next.

Book.

Yeah. My acting advice book.

Sometimes toilets have a foot pedal.

Look for the foot. Don't panic. Don't panic because you're already a little panicked just because you're, you know, you should know how to flush your toilet. Well, Nick, thank you so much for sharing all of your stories with us. Guys, you can follow Nick over on instagram at ncafero. Nicest guy. Thank you so much.

Yes, Nick. Those were so fun. Well, there's a time cut now in the conference room. It's a little bit later. The acapella group is still singing. They're singing the song car wash Clark is really into it. The senator nods to Oscar. Looks like they're going to maybe go find a place to meet up.

Now. The acapella guys are going to say, we've got a special treat for you. They start singing Andy's signature song, faith. He pops up. He's shaking his tush. But guess who appears on the television behind them? Broccoli Rob.

And he's singing it, too.

Yeah.

And Andy's like, what the hell? And they're like, well, this is Broccoli Rob's signature song.

We thought you wanted to hear it.

This is too much for Andy. First of all, broccoli Rob took boner champ from him. And now his signature song.

We got a fan question from Sophie H. In England, who said, please tell us how much you had to pay for all of the songs. Sophie, Steve Burgess said, our music people did a lot of negotiating for these songs. I bet Faith was the most expensive. We paid $30,000 for faith. All of the other songs were negotiated for 20,000, and car wash was free. Oh, you know, Claire said that when she was prepping this episode, the most difficult part was prepping all these songs. Like you said, angela, they did a ton of rehearsal. But she said, in particular, anytime people were singing and there was dialog, it was really tricky because they had to be able to get all of it. And it gets really hard to cut.

To edit around that.

Yeah. Jim and I weren't always fighting or saying our lines at the exact same time as other takes. It's hard to do. So she said, as a director, that was probably the most challenging part about shooting this episode.

Well, we got a fan question from Cecia Z in London, Ontario, Canada. Cecia says, when here comes trouble, starts singing faith and broccoli Rob comes in singing. He doesn't stop singing, even when Andy stops the group. It made it seem like it was a recording of broccoli Rob. But in the next scene, Andy is having a whole conversation with him like it's a video chat. I see the camera, but I'm wondering if there was a missing scene that explained this transition. Well, there was some missing dialog that.

Would have explained it.

Per the script, Rob finally stops singing, and then he says, oh, I had the audio off on my end, fellas, but it felt like I hit that one out of the park, right?

Yes.

But great catch, Cecia.

Well, like you said, andy is going to confront broccoli Rob now.

Yeah.

And what is up with broccoli Rob's apartment? I mean, he says he still lives close to campus. Does he live in a dorm room? I'm very confused. What has happened to broccoli Rob?

Oh, you know what? I bet he's like the ra.

Maybe. I don't know. It was like, he looks like he's living in a frat house or something. Maybe he has just, like, a leather couch. It's not filled out in any way. It looks like a lamp is sitting on the. It's very, very college looking, is what I'll say.

Their fight escalates to this crazy challenge where they're going to have a sing off for the rights to the song. Faith and Erin has had enough. She just unplugs the tv because the guys are just yelling at each other.

Andy and Erin then have a big.

Talk in the conference room. And Erin is losing respect for Andy in all of, like, she's like, this is kind of ridiculous, right?

Well, yeah. She had a talking head earlier where she's, know when you're with someone, you just have to put up with the stuff that makes you lose respect for them.

That's love.

Yeah. Andy is now going to suggest that, know, just maybe if he were closer to Cornell, sharing his stories, he'd be the one all the guys remember. You know what? Oh, my God. Maybe they should move there.

And Aaron's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. But then he has another idea. I know. What if I made a big donation from the Bernard family Foundation to the group. Yes. Yeah. Then he would get the respect he.

Deserves, because, and I quote, if I'm not boner Champ, I don't know who I am.

Yeah.

Now at front reception, a group has gathered. They're eating some candy, they're chatting about the concert. Kevin really liked it. Angela said, you know what? They lost me when they sang monster mash. It just glorifies the occult. And Jim's like, hey, you know what, angela? Relax. It's Halloween. It's a Halloween song. They have to sing it. They have to.

And Pam is like, oh, they have to. They have to. Jim.

Oh, he should have never said have to.

That was it. That's right. What would happen if they didn't sing it, Jim? Would someone go to jail? Would they be shot? I'm generally interested in knowing. Your definition of have to is basically what she's saying.

One of the funniest things during the scene to me is Brian as Kevin. His performance, he looks at you. He's trying to sort out Pam's rationale in this argument. And then he looks at Jim and he's just, huh.

I'll have you know that as producer, I would get scripts very early. And when I read this monster mash scene, I was unsure about it. I turned in my notes and I said, I really felt like Jim and Pam should have, like a spy shot. Real fight about this. I didn't think it should be played comedically.

Right.

This was my note. I'm going to say, I stand corrected. I really like this scene. I love how it came out. But I had sent back in my notes a whole pitch for what I thought the dialog should have been between Jim and Pam. In terms of this argument. I clearly was writing for a drama, but here's how I thought it should have played out. I wanted them to find us in the middle of a fight in a spy shot. And here's how it would have gone. Jim would say, you have to let me make judgment calls. This is a new business. You weren't in the room. I really felt like in order to be taken seriously, I had to invest. You can't micromanage this, Pam. And then Pam would have said, I'm not telling you what office to get or what clients to take, but I must get a say in what happens with our money. If it's about our family, I have a say. And Jim said, exactly. And you agreed we could invest. And Pam would have said, that's when I thought we had to invest. And Jim said, you're acting like I'm doing this for something other than our family.

That's the whole point. And Pam would have said, really? Because part of me feels like you're just doing it for you.

Well, that's a real fight. I know that's, like, taken out of almost every marriage fight out there versions of that.

And I put in parentheses in my notes, maybe that last part is too far and better saved for later in.

The season, but I still want it to.

You know, what I was going for was I wanted to get into the nitty gritty of this situation. I wanted Jim to stand up for himself a little bit, because in the way that this is happening, I can tell you right now, I could never be married to Jim. The hemming and the hawing, the wishy washy, and then the big swings into impulsive behavior, this would drive me absolutely nuts. Like, I couldn't handle it. And so I think know I wanted to handle it how Jenna would handle it.

Right. Not how Pam.

Luckily, there was a room full of writers who made sure that Pam handled it. How Pam would handle it.

Well, Claire shared with us that this scene leads to one of her favorite Kevin talking heads. It's also one of my favorites.

Also one of my favorites. And I thought we should hear it.

It turns out Pam really, really hates monster mash. I mean, like, never bring that song up in front of her. Even though Jim was making great points, like, in favor of the song, pam was like, no, hate it.

Stupid.

You know, this is the moment where a lot of people turn on Pam, too, because they think she's being irrationally angry at Jim because he did something that she agreed to. But you're missing, when we originally wrote this episode, he did do something without asking her, which was investing more than they agreed on.

Yeah. When he didn't have to at all.

When he didn't have to at all. I want you to know, in the original script, there was a beat that I did successfully argue should be cut. And I stand by it. When Jim and Pam are leaving for the day, and they get in their car, Jim turns on monster mash and looks at Pam as a way of trying to smooth things over.

Oh, my gosh.

And I was like, that's kind of a dick move. I was like, I don't think Pam's going to have a real sense of humor for that.

Yeah. You know what? Kevin could tell you not to do that. It was pitched.

Maybe it would make Pam laugh. And I said, I think we need to leave the tension.

Yeah.

No, she wouldn't move on that quickly.

I didn't think so.

Well, back to this Dwight Nellie, mom detective moment. Nellie eventually says, dwight, look, it's my pill, all right? I deal with some anxiety. It's not a big deal.

And I think this kind of puts.

Life in perspective for Dwight.

He says, you know what?

I might want some of those pills.

For my cousin, because he's had a.

Tough time being wifeless with a high pressure job. And also, he has a crazy cousin named Moe's. And Nellie says, you know what? He's a good man, and she hopes he feels better.

Yes, he's clearly talking about himself. And we got a fan question from Jade O in Los Angeles, who said, dwight talks to Nellie about getting a prescription for anxiety medicine. And then later, he reveals in the Christmas episode that he has been taking them. Is this the reason why he seemed so much calmer in the rest of the series? It felt like there was a shift in his personality, and he went through a lot of character growth. He seemed much happier and friendlier to everyone for the rest of the series after this episode. Jade, I am going to track that now. Yeah, I'm going to pay attention.

This is a great observation. I mean, I know they were setting up Dwight for a possible spinoff in the farm, and they needed him to be able to leave Dunder Mifflin, so they were setting up Dwight to sort of have some big life realization moments. His job there is stressful. He is wifeless. Like these things that might make him move on to another place.

This episode wraps up with a bit of a montage, during which several things happen. We find out that Andy's parents are broke.

Yeah.

Toby tries to bring some flowers to Nellie, but when she takes her Toby wig off, he's no longer interested.

I looked what it said in the shooting draft for that.

What did it say?

Says Nellie is packing up to leave for the day. Toby appears from the annex, approaches her holding some flowers. He looks nervous. Nellie, not noticing him, pulls off her Toby wig, releasing her normal hair. Something in Toby dies. Nellie notices him. Hi, Toby. Who are the flowers for?

Toby?

Nobody. He throws the flowers in a trash can and crosses.

Hmm.

It's over for him.

Toby just wanted Toby.

And finally, we have a spy shot of the senator and Oscar outside. And they are making out.

They are making out. And then as they part ways, Oscar sees the camera.

Yeah.

Busted.

Well, everyone that was here comes treble. A big thank you to Halstead Sullivan, Claire Scanlon, Nick Caferro, Steve Burgess. What an episode.

And thanks you guys for sending in your questions and comments. We love hearing from you.

See you next week. Thank you for listening to office ladies.

Office ladies is produced by Earwolf, Jenna Fisher, and Angela Kinsey.

Our senior producer is Kathy Jerkins. Our in studio engineer is Sam Keefer. Our editing and mixing engineer is Jordan Duffy. And our associate producer is Ainsley Bubbaco.

Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.