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That Stitcher premium dot com promo code office. I'm Jenna Fischer. I'm Angela Kinsey. We were on the office together and we're best friends and now we're doing the ultimate office rewash 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. Hello, everyone. Hi, you guys. Welcome to Diwali. I'm so excited for this episode, Jonah.

Me too. It's a great episode and we have a great special guest. I just want to get to it. All right. Well, this is Season three, Episode six. It was directed by Miguel Arteta and written by our special guest, Mindy Kaling. Very, very exciting. Well, let's get to it. We are going to waste no time. I'm starting with a summary. Do it in this episode. Everyone from Dunder Mifflin attends a traditional Indian celebration of Diwali in honor of Kelly.

Now, Ryan is going to meet Kelly's parents who are really less than impressed with his commitment to their daughter.

Well, to be fair, he says with extra money, he wants to travel and get like an X box or something.

So, you know, yes, I think I would also be less than impressed. Meanwhile, Michael proposes to his girlfriend, Carol. Oh, my. Wow. Oh, Michael. Michael takes a big step in front of a lot of strangers.

Yeah. So a bit of a crash and burn. So awkward. Pam enjoys herself for the first time as a single person. And Angela guards the shoes while eating some dry, non, very dry non.

And over at the Stamford office gym, Andy and Karen work late into the night and booze it up.

Yeah. Yagur by store. Salgueiro, like Andy is a maniac. I'm going to give you Fastback number one. This is a really special episode because The Office was the first American television comedy series to depict the Hindu festival of Diwali. I love that. Way to go. The Office. It aired November 2nd, 2006, and it was seen by eight point eight million people on the night that it first aired. And now it's been seen by how many people?

I don't even know.

Did you know what Diwali was? When we got the script, shelbie be asked the same question. And I did not know about Diwali. Did you know about Diwali? I did. But I grew up overseas. You know, I grew up in Indonesia. Bali has a very big Hindu population. So I had heard of Diwali. And I thought it was awesome that we were going to do an episode about it.

Had you ever celebrated Diwali? I had never celebrated it by myself. I went to an international school. They did recognize, you know, many holidays. And there was like a Diwali day. Yeah, well, they do that at my kids school now. They have a day where they celebrate Diwali, which I think is really cool, especially since I grew up not knowing about it. It is so beautiful and it was so fun. I remember we were all really giddy.

Of course, this meant we got to leave the office. That brings me to fast. Fact number two, Angela Fand question from Juliet Jee and Phoebe Tomac. Where did you shoot the scenes when you were celebrating Diwali? Well, guess who I went to for the answer. Does it rhyme with Schmendrick Medio? It does. And we have a sting for it.

You do up.

Yes. Angela, that was sent in by Tyler Beckwith. And we love it. Tyler, thank you for our Kenta P.D.A.

State is really great. It sounds like something out of like a 1980s action kind of movie. Kind of.

Exactly. Well, Canta P.D.A told us that Diwali was shot at Grant High School. We shot most of the scenes in their gym, which is called Grant Hall, and we shot there at the end of August. And school was in session. They had just started up the school year. He said that we shot there for three full days and we had to work around the school schedule because like school was happening in the hallways.

I have such fond memory of our time shooting there because they they parked our trailers facing sort of like a little field with some trees. And normally they were just in a asphalt parking lot. And so I would open my door and there'd be trees and grass. And Brian brought a football and we like tossed the football out in the grass. And I have such fond memories of this whole week. I remember it, too, for those exact same reasons.

Well, this school is host to a lot of filmmaking, including Freaks and Geeks, Blackish Malcolm in the Middle and Trueblood. And I've got a little bit trivia for ya ya Melera hard and went to Grant High Get out of town. Yeah, we shot at her alma mater. Oh, I love that. She's like a true sort of like Hollywood kid, you know. Like there's she things from her life, like right here to me it's still all sort of like I still feel like a transplant in some ways.

And in Los Angeles, like still to this day, if I'm ever out and about and I see the Hollywood sign, I'm like, holy with her.

Well, we used to play with. But if I drive by and I see like a film crew filming something on the street, I get as excited as if they pulled up in my neighborhood in St. Louis as a kid. I'm like, what are they filming? Oh, look, I wonder what it is. I wonder if we can find out who's the star. I look like I get that same reaction, you know, two hour drive by and I try to see who's like.

Is there someone famous over there?

Exactly. So true.

Well, I'm going to move us along, Angela, because I know we want to get to our interview with Mindy fast. Fact number three, I said earlier this was directed by Margalla Teda. Angela, I was such a huge fan of McGowan when I found out he was going to direct this episode, this is the only episode he directed. I completely geek it out. OK.

We had directed this little go up to him. Were you dorky? What you do. Oh, Angela, I followed him around the entire week. We bonded at the end of this week. I thought we were best friends and would work together forever on every future project. And I'm not going to lie. Every time there was like a script that I was sent or when I was trying to produce a movie myself, he was the first person I would go to because I was like, I am literally like, this guy is a genius.

I love him.

I love that. I didn't know you were like following him around everywhere. Her. Oh, yeah. I wanted everything about him to rub off on me, so he had directed this little indie movie called Chuck and Buck written by and starring Mike White, who, by the way, you're so upset, have stocked. Yeah, I know that. I know that you stalked him. I got to work with him. And then that made me feel one step closer to Mike White, who I eventually managed to stalk and become.

I became friends with Mike White. And then I eventually got to be in a Mike White movie starring Ben Stiller. And then after that happened, I was like, well, I can I can now retire because I have worked with my my idol. I wrote in my journal about this week. Do you wanna hear what I wrote later? Of course. I always want to hear about your journal. Your journal delights me. That's tough. That's going to be your autobiography.

A journal delights me. Jonah Fisher. I wrote that and I wrote this. Me and the adorable Mindy Kaling are gonna be doing really early morning interviews together on all the local NBC stations. We are gonna talk to 16 cities and we have to get up at five a.m.. Oh, my gosh.

You guys did a little press junket. I think this is my very first one. Well, what's crazy about that, Angeles? You probably then after you were done, had to come to work. Oh, yeah. Because they we had to. I remember we had to be on stage. We actually did them on the set with the set as the background. And we got there and. Well, yeah. Met this satellite media tour is what they called it.

And we met their crew and we had to be there at 4:00 a.m. to go through hair and makeup. And then we started doing interviews at five a.m. and we talked to a new city every 15 minutes for three hours. Wow. Yeah. And now you did it with Mindy. Mindy was my first press junket. Well, this is a wonderful Segway into our upcoming segment. We'll take a break. But when we come back, we're going to play our interview with Mindy Kaling.

She came and talked to us. It was amazing. It was such a joy to have her here. And I am so excited for you guys to listen to this. And then afterwards, we're going to fully break down the episode. We'll get to that right after the break. We'll see you with Mindy.

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Ladies get help today. Go to better help dot com slash office, ladies. Mindy Kaling. Hi. Hi, guys. Hi. I'm so happy to be here. Welcome to office, lady. I'm giving you a hug through the Zami. Thank you.

Congrats, you guys, on the massive success of this. This is like this is awesome. This is everyone in my life is obviously such a fan. And I'm like, I'm so proud of you guys. This is so great.

Thank you. Thanks, Mindy. Yeah, of course. Love it. We're having a good time. It's fun to hear the way that the show was through your guys, his eyes, because it's so loving and fun and super accurate. And I like I'm really enjoying it. So this is great. Thanks for having me.

Thank you. So nice. I feel like this is all just pure joy. I'm just so delighted to see you and talk to you and each of you on episodes. So we just get to reminisce a little bit. Love it.

Well, before we get into Diwali, we always like to ask all of our guests their office origin story. So how did you come to be on the show?

Well, it was 2004 and I had I was off doing a play off off Broadway in New York called Mantin Ben, which was a play that I wrote with my writing partner and friend at the time, Brenda Wither's, where it's like an hour long short play where I play Ben Affleck and she plays Matt Damon. It's so hard to tell this story without being like just being like, oh, these are just ignore that kind of interesting fact and move on.

But so we did that one. The Fringe Festival got some attention and sort of was our entree to L.A. And when we were in L.A., I had like an Arrested Development spec and then that play and I had very few meetings. The climate for a pirate writers. If you were like an untested Indian American woman, it was very different 16 years ago than it is now. And the only place that I got an interview at. I got two interviews.

One was at Nevermind Nirvana, which was a pilot about an Indian family. And I was like, yes, I can guess I could write about that show. And the other one was the office. And I remember Joey was like because we were how huge Joey was when we started shooting. Yeah. Oh, yeah. The friend's spin off, it was like the NBC think they put all their money on that. And then father of the Pride.

Do you guys remember that one? No. The father the pride was a cartoon. Jeffrey Katzenberg produced cartoon about from the point of view of two tigers that worked with Siegfried and Roy.

Oh, yes. What? Yes, it's coming back. Tomato's an animated show. Sounds like a bit on Saturday Night Live. Yes, it's like a TV show. Not only was it a real show, it was like the hottest show. Like you could not get an interview. So I didn't get an injury. And Will and Grace, I didn't get an interview at Joey and I didn't get an interview at Father the Pride. And you can imagine, like just to show how things have become so different from then I can imagine like now like a minority woman who won the Fringe Festival coming out to L.A., not getting a meeting on like two shows.

So these are changed a lot. So that's great. But the two people who I got interviews with never Nirvana and I went into their offices in Burbank. This has never happened to me before. But I sat in the office and as I was there waiting to meet the showrunner, they got the call that the pilot hadn't been picked up to series. So I sat there and then the assistant came out. It's like you should go home like there's no jobs.

It's just like got up and left. And then the second one was at the office with Greg Daniels. And so I met with him and just, you know, my agent at the time who I won't mention was really like, yeah, the show doesn't have a lot of heat. Like, I don't think it's really going to do anything. Everyone likes the British one better. So it's just like, you know, it's good to meet Greg Daniels.

He's like done a lot of good stuff, but like, it just good it's just good to, like, have a general. So I went in there and there was not a lot of stakes. And I had a very a really fun interview with Greg that lasted two hours. But you guys know Greg. So it was actually probably my 15 minutes of talking in two hours. And and then I he hired me and he didn't he didn't hire me in the meeting like they still had to do up friends and everything.

But we had a great meeting and I heard it went well. And then like a month and a half later, I was told I was coming back for six episodes, such a small first season. But I was so new. And I think you guys were, you know, new enough to that. It was just like, oh, my gosh, any episodes. That's fantastic. Not knowing that that was kind of an unusually small number of episodes.

But that was that was how I got on the office. And how did you end up then playing a role on the show?

You know, he had put great have put into the contract these acting, these writing contract, these acting clauses for, I think a number of the writers, at least it was in mine and I think Paul Lieberstein. So I guess in the back of his mind, he was thinking in those terms. But the first season, classic episode, Diversity Day. The great B.J. Novak. I remember in the room he loved this idea. Greg loved this idea of Michael Scott defending all these people.

But it's like it it's it's kind of the funniest version of it when there's like some minority people there, too, who can get extra offended. So at that time, I think it just made sense to have another minority person. And I was like, I'll do it. I actually I did volunteer. He's like, he's I had two lines in that episode. And he said, Do you want to be in it? I was like, of course.

And so Diversity Day. Yeah. Thank heavens that was the second episode, because then that guest starred then. And I think maybe once or twice that first season, I wasn't in it very much. And then second season was like I sort of saw I have more lines and that's how it happened.

What blew me away, Mindy, is when I think back on that and I was I was sort of reading Backo on Wikipedia about all of us and where we were at in our lives at that time. And you were twenty. And that blows my mind. Your you had your act together. First to me for someone at 24, you you you were amazing because at twenty four I was. I think I was doing takeout at tensions. I wasn't a waiter.

I was just doing a hostess job.

Do you know what it is. If it will. Thank you for saying that. I mean I love to feel like I was a wonder again, but you know, what it is, is that it's just the life of a writer. Comedy writer and the life of an actor. They're just so. They're so different. Right. It's so it's very hard to break into comedy writing. But I do think that is easier than breaking into acting, because if you can write, you can write your own opportunities and write a spec script that, you know, then you can use and send out words like when you're a young actor, you're like.

I just hope someone calls me in to see something. So thank you for saying that. But, you know, it also it felt less special because B.J. is there and he was the same age and he'd already written on a show at 24. So it's just what I was like, oh, I guess I'm like young and cool. He was like, oh yeah, I've already worked on. He was on a Bob Saget sitcom and make sure was like twenty eight and it already had like an Emmy and been at SNL for nine years or something crazy to go because there was no sense of like you could ever think you were special or like ahead of the curve or anything like that with that group of people.

Well I always thought you were special. Thank you so. Thanks, Angela.

All right. Shall we get into this episode, Jonah? Yeah. Yeah. Did you get a chance to re watch it? Yes, I did.

What was it like for you to go to.

I, I have to say, I feel really lucky that Greg wanted to do this episode because it feels like now, you know, we Angela was on my most recent show. We did an episode about Ganesh Puja. And there's so much more you know, there's so many mark shows on the air with, like, diverse cast in everything. But the fact that on primetime television and I don't know what year to come out, 2007, maybe it aired November 2nd, 2006, seen by eight point eight million people.

And it was the first American television comedy series to depict the Hindu festival of Diwali. It was the very first one.

That's cool. That's amazing. Go us for doing that.

And you know, the show Mendis referring to is never have I ever. Mindy, I do want to give it a little plug here because it's so great. And in the cast is great. And you're with them from the beginning. The young actors you got I felt 100 years old on that set.

So did I did it. So did everyone who wasn't 17. I know you. And they were so cute. And I love the office so much. Oh, my gosh.

They were so star struck by you, Angela. It was so special that you got to be there.

Oh, my. Mindy, what is the name of the lead actress on that show? Maitri Ramakrishnan. I adore her. Oh, I. Because when you watch the show, you are so immediately in with her. Join me immediately. She is so like effervescent and open and just. Wow, what a find. What are you. She's going to flip out. She Jenna. She's an office. Is her number one favorite show of you. Go on her social media for more than two days.

There's like an office meme or there's like. Yeah. I bet you've been on her Instagram, like with the black guys are like, please don't throw trash at me. Like, she's like some like famous Pamela. Okay, so.

So here we go. So now we have Diwali, the Festival of Lights. It's on network TV. Mindy, you have been so amazing. I just really I feel like representing all different sides of culture and hour on television. It's just you should know what it's meant to people. We had a lot of people write in about having their community seen and heard in this mainstream way what it meant to them. It's it's really.

Wow, that's so nice. I mean, you know, the one of the harder things about when you write the Diwali episode is like, we couldn't believe that, Greg said. Yes, because normally we would do like a Halloween episode of that time of year, because it's the end of October. But then I when he said yes, I had to kind of confront the fact that I'm Indian American. I don't know very much about the holiday and that that experience of being Indian American.

And talking about how you don't know very much. But the holiday kind of became a big part of the episode, which I loved. I didn't I liked that. Greg thought that was just as interesting, if not more interesting than me going and pretending that, like my family and I were these experts at Hindu holidays and everything. So I really like that. Kelly, is is has this defiant attitude about it that it's really important while also not knowing anything about it at all.

Yes. Except that she gets to wear like an outfit that has some sparkles on it. Yes. Yeah, exactly. And the music part, she's really excited about that. Yeah.

And Michael in the cold open. I mean, Mindy, I love whenever Steve would do an impression of us as our characters.

And so Michael's like, well, if you ask Kelly, it's like super fine.

Yes. That that I do. We need to get to do that that much. Right. Like, I felt like that he didn't do impressions of of us too too much when he did.

I just it just got me so tickled. I know. It was so funny. I have a gazillion things I want to say. Donna. Go. Go. There you go. One of my favorite lines in this whole episode is this. How long have you been married to the cheerleader?

And that was your dad. Oh, my gosh. To this day, my dad gets checks from. He gets residual checks. It's like, here's the thing he's the most proud of. Oh, from the office. Yeah. The other. Yeah. And one time he was with my step mom at Erawan and they got stopped and someone is like, you are in the office weren't you. And that was like early when they were dating before they got married.

And my dad was like felt so cool about it. So yeah. Yeah. I was like some good. Like street crowd right there. Yeah. Recognized. Yeah. Completely. I just remember that that was like those episodes, you know, at the beginning of the season and felt like one thing we did a lot. Was somehow we pulled out someone from the main cast and they were somebody somewhere else. And that was Stamford for that season.

Yes. It it was one of those ones where I really like the Stamford episodes. I think sometimes when we do that, it worked really well. Sometimes when he pulled them out, we were like, I just come back. We just like want you back in the main guys. But that was a time where I felt like it. It worked pretty well. And I remember thinking because I was like at the beginning, I was like, well, I was like, well, looks like Ed and John doing.

And I was like, oh, they weren't there yet. So it was it was fun to just forget about the whole thing. And I remember what I really liked about Stanford was like that was a really funny group of people there, even the people that didn't have big parts like in the Stanford branch. Yes, those. I just thought we nailed those prototypes or whatever. Like, I was never bored when I had to go over there.

No, it was so well done. We talked a little bit about having over on the Scranton set, like Angela and I, having a little bit of like Thommo and jealousy of how much fun they were having over on Stamford because everybody was so funny. And also they would only have to work like one and a half days a week. Right. Super relaxed and just like having the best time.

And then they got four days off and we weren't we were just like, hey, I forgot about that. Your. Well, will Jenna, the best example of that was the Michael Scott paper company, which was. Oh, yeah. Which was like to me that one of my favorite arcs we've ever done. And I don't think I wrote any of the episodes for you guys there. But like it has, I think that pairing of people, that group of people on their mission was like one of the times I was like, wow, this is just like equally, if not more funny than like anything that's guy.

And that's when his elbow was. Was that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, I guess if if you cut back to Idris Elba, you're doing fine. Yeah.

I loved being in Michael Scott Paper Company. Oh my God. I kind of didn't want that arc to end. And Vikram, the four of you together. Oh, my God. Yeah. Amazing.

It was so it was like it could have been its own movie. Like, no, we're not together. The Michael Scott Paper Company right now. We're talked about for a while, but it felt like it was his own bad news Bears type movie.

But you're you're right, Mandy. There were these pairings that would happen that were just as pure and beautiful as what was happening in Scranton. And, you know, I got the DVD box set and I watched the deleted scenes. And there are so many scenes at Stanford that never made it in. And like, there's that really character that's like, oh, it was always breastfeeding. Oh, yeah. Can I. Yeah, that would make Jim really uncomfortable.

And then as far as this episode, I do have a question for you, because I was texting with Washita and she was like, this is the episode. I was so worried everyone was going to hate me because Jim and Karen have this sloppy make out out in the parking lot. Yeah. Tipsy make out. It's not in the deleted scenes. It didn't even make that cut. And yet we are in the shooting draft.

Oh, yeah. Did Rasheeda did you guys end up shooting that because I was going to ask about that too. When I was going. I have the shooting draw from this episode. And I went back and I read it and I was like, wait, wait.

Jim and Karen kiss. Yeah, they're kind. Why are they making out? But then it's nowhere in the episode and it's not in the deleted scenes. Well, I have a memory, even though I was the writer onset obviously for the episode, I have like zero memory of that. But I will say that one thing that we used to do, I felt a lot, was to write scripts that advance story and then what we'd notice when we only had twenty one and a half minutes to air an episode that such a little one, such a long way.

Like if there is an attractive woman who is working in the new environment and she seems to have some kind of rapport with Jim or together they're making fun of Andy, you're like, oh, that's interesting. Like that might be something. And so it felt like we were always like pulling back that stuff, like Jonah. Don't you feel like you shot a lot of stuff with with John? That was like Natalie, because you guys weren't, like, super flirty in those early seasons, like overtly flirty, but like that you watch it.

You're like, oh, this was like they they used, like less than I thought they would in terms of like showing your guys is like budding romance. Yes. Then I would also add that there were some scenes where we would get in. I don't know if I would call it fights, but there were some like disagreements in certain episodes and they would pull back on those two and they they would make them smaller.

I wonder if it's it's interesting. It's just like for so much of the show in terms of romance, it was always like less is more. Whereas for comedy it was like, let's hoist up Tony Gardner onto the table like I like.

But for all that stuff, it was, yeah, just a little goes a long way.

But the relationships were so finessed. I thought they were so smartly done.

One of the things I remember really well about this episode was, again, like it's such a time capsule of like two thousand six or whatever, because the love interest, he wasn't really love interest. But there is an Indian character who my parents preferred to Ryan, that was like a very small part of it and was played by this writer Volley Hendershott Gron, who was kind of a friend of the writers on the show, but not an actor, just a guy like a guy.

We knew there was a real sort of casualness to our show of like we're just kind of putting it together.

Yeah, we probably shot this. This is season three, right? The dub for Diwali. It was. We knew that season two had done well. I don't. We'd been nominated probably at this point. We had we been nominated, but we didn't know. So I felt like now I felt like at the beginning of season three, we started shooting. We started feeling like a little bit more like, OK, we're not going to just get canceled or something because, yeah, I remember so much stress earlier on thinking like it's hard to enjoy a show as much when you're like, is this even going to last?

And I do remember being able to enjoy things a little bit more starting like at the beginning of season three. Sorry, I just keep going off of because I'm I don't get to talking with the office that much. I just I'm talking really like, like holistically about the show instead of just about this episode. But don't worry, we're gonna break down this whole episode and like get into the nitty gritty of it so this can be your office memories.

There's no prescription for what we talk about. Yeah. OK, cool.

Greg was on to talk about booze cruise and we just we went everywhere. You know, it's it's such a special chapter in all of our lives. I think it's hard to compartmentalize it to one episode. It's such a big part of us.

You know, one of the things I remember a lot about doing the office was that we didn't realize as writers how rare it was for Greg to just say, OK, well, I'm just gonna give one person from the writer's world on set, and that's just gonna be the writer of the episode, something we'll do that now. But it's usually like an upper level writer. So it's your job to make sure that the intention of alliance is being crafted.

Give Alz answered questions from the actors. And I was the story editor when I did this. And I remember like that was pretty stressful. I think like I remember being on the set because Miguel Arteta was not one of our directors that we had all the time. And so I remember feeling like, is this like, am I being too late onset because we're on location a lot for this episode. I was like, am I too much? And his hair is you gonna yell at me?

Cause I think season one, I was never alone for a hot girl. Like, I think Howard and Greg were there for almost all the shooting because there's a lot I think one of the lessons we shot, but for this one, it was just like go manage, set, answer all Indian questions and make sure it's hilarious and do Alz.

It's so funny you say that, Mindy, because my impression of you as the writer on set was just always that you were one of my favorites. Really? That's so. Yes. Mostly because you were so up to laugh like you found. I always felt like you found everyone hilarious. I seem to like everything. You had the best Alz, so you would sort of throw out ideas. Maybe based on something you watched us do, you'd be like, oh, my gosh.

Oh, my gosh. Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You have to do that again. Do that again. And then what do you think about saying this? And it was like, oh, my gosh, it was just like this. Uplifting. Exciting. Oh, nice. Oh, I loved it. I loved it. We we've talked a lot about that. And Jentz Lotto was very similar as well, like.

Well, Jen, you couldn't get. She would just would laugh the whole time. Like we'd actually have to throw her off because she was laughing. Too many would ruin takes. But yeah. Yeah I, I thought we, you know, there's this, this thing that we would do on the show where when a cut would come out, the director's cut. And I've never seen it on any other show. We would all gather and watch it together in the writers room and director's cuts famously and other shows like Make You Want to Kill Yourself.

They're usually so bad, but the quality was so good because the cast was so good. And so I remember it was like my favorite time. We could interrupt all of our work and just go into the little living room area of our writers room and watch. I mean, I was such a fan of the show, I, I watched almost every kind of every episode and then I would watch it lies to like I and I didn't realize how unusual that is for somebody who works on a show.

Most people do it and then they do. A lot of actors don't even watch it when it airs. But I, I really was such a huge fan of the show. And a lot of times in those conference room scenes, like I'd have like no lines or one line or something in these four page scenes. And to me, it was like going to Second City and just watching everyone just be so funny and it just be for free. And you'd be in this, like, freezing cold room and there'd be snacks every two hours.

There's like what? How could this be better?

It felt like such an abundance of riches. I just loved sitting and watching everyone in character just reacting. Yeah. Mindy, I remember one time you were onstage and B.J. and you guys were at reception by Jenna and you guys were talking and I walked up and you're having a conversation about some type of, like, economics.

It was like some kind of like you'd you'd expanded economics. And I walked up and I was like. I'm going to go over here and just sit there, two of the smartest people we ever met. And I'm with a hard pivot and wait, beat it. And we're talking about economics. We weren't fighting. I'm so surprised.

Oh, no, you were. It was a heated discussion. I was on opposite sides of that over that. I just.

I remember you and Paul and B.J. as a little trio, probably because you were the writers who were with the actor. So between takes, you guys would always kind of huddle up and talk like story ideas and like what's happening in the writers room. And so you were having to kind of manage two jobs at once. And I used to, like, hover around you guys and eavesdrop and just like hope you would invite me in to your lately convert.

Yes.

Some of my favorite memories are listening to you guys discuss story and character and pitch jokes to each other in between scenes. Well, that's so funny, because I felt like when we were in the annex, we know we were the writers were in the annex. I'm sure you're sure you guys have talked about this many times. But we were in the annex, obviously, because then we could go be the writers room and we wouldn't have to be in some of the big group scenes.

But I remember also thinking, like, I want to be in the big group scenes, like I think those were the funnest scenes to watch when, like, you know, Dwight would run in and be like everyone to the roof. Like, I think we just were left out of those scenes, like about Deuel. So here's a couple things that I felt were maybe interesting to say, which was that we only cast my parents in it, which seems just like a complete act of nepotism and favoritism, because we had auditioned the parts and Greg had felt that the actors we'd found in that age group like the late 50s, early 60s, were like a little bit too either theatrical for that style of acting on our show or too stilted because they had no acting experience.

Now I'm the first to say that my parents acting was also very stilted, but he was like, at least they bear some familial resemblance to you. So we'll just put them in there. And I don't know if you guys remember this, but I remember going into it. My mom was like had this energy of, like, how you I'm just like gonna be so much better than than your father. Like, I just know, like, neither of them did any acting.

She was a she was a doctor. He was an architect. But she had this sense like coming over that she's like, I just hope that you give me the most lines and just naturally better on camera, like it's gonna be good. But then McGill, like, fell in love with my dad. Like, he was like, we have to give him more lines, like he's killing it. And you use a river. Like this is a show where if anyone ever fell for anyone, Troy under bridge who is like just kind of like, yeah, if anyone was interesting to a director in the wrong reasons, like just because like oh my God.

Like I just love guys. Look, they could recur on the show up a lot of time. I remember being like, I cannot have my dad and my mom come back here, like, ever again to do this kind of thing. So I remember McGill, our teta was like, hey, do you think we can add your dad to the background of, like, another scene? And I was like, no, we can't.

I was going to ask you what it was like for you to have them on set. I was I don't know if you guys feel this way, but you don't really. And because, like your family, you guys are so tight. So I don't think you have this, but I did not feel so established on the show as a writer or an actor that I felt so comfortable having them there. Like I was really worried about it seeming unprofessional or just like that they would tell boring stories to people.

And like Jenna would be like, hey, can you get this guy for me? I can. Do you like I get here, I can hear this story. It's more like, can you please? So I think I was worried and I think I told them, like, don't like talk to people at craft services for too long, like just say hi and answer questions but don't like launch in to, you know, other stuff. But that was one thing.

I thought they were delightful. We were so excited to have them and they were so cute. Mindy they were so well they're both like five foot four.

They're just like balls like little. They're both they're like, yeah, they're my people. I remember your mom complimented my blouse and I remember it. That's nice, too, like the color on me.

And I was like, Oh, thanks so much. I don't know. I thought they were delightful. And by the way, I thought their acting was amazing. Were you watching them in that scene with Steven?

I was like, they are killing it. Oh, my God, Mom eight him up like that was amazing.

They were I mean, I cannot believe because I was at the time where I was like, I'd like to have a scene with Steve, you know, like it felt so special. And here they are. They're like, he's at a crossroads with Carol. And my dad is like, you should be with her. I forget exactly what he said, but I remember being like, this is kind of a juicy scene. Well, you know, there's a nice little story because like I feel like Pam stories had such an emotional impact, but they often didn't have, like, lots and lots of, like, lines to them, but they always were so.

Well, as I said, your little story and this one was pretty sweet, Jenna. Like, it was like, you know, you didn't really want to go and then you end up having, like, I don't know, I thought it was like a nice I like those kinds of Pam stories.

I liked it, too. I also I was really struck by how incredibly good looking David Letterman was in this episode.

I was. Wow. Pam, stop for a second. Open your eyes. See what's in front of you. And just maybe I mean, maybe just revisit that for one night, Pam. It's one night. That's what I that's what I was thinking the whole time. Yeah.

David, Denver is also really tan. He was really like, I don't know what David was doing in his real life, but he's super tan. Yeah.

It was good to show that Roy had good qualities and was good looking too. So that you were just like, what the hell? Like, why. Yeah. Why is it not. It's good that he was. Yeah. Dina Doeleman is a legitimate smoke show. He doesn't get enough credit. Yeah. Because this was so much fun. Now that I've done it and you guys made me feel so welcome. I would love to come back and do another one sometime.

We will have you back any time, Mindy. I really I'm sure you already did this and talked about it with somebody else in the show. But if we ever do branch, whereas Jenna. I have so many funny memories of it. One thing I remember really well was normally you'd sit in a conference room type scene and Michael would be the person that would just be so funny that you felt like I'm going to break and die and I'm over. I was not I was upset with you because I read an episode, but I was not obviously at the branch on like as an as a character.

I wasn't there. And I remember when you had to take over for Michael because he was had a breakdown that was like some of the funniest moments of any episode I'd ever seen, like you in front of, like just eating it and having to be like this valiante assistant and friend to Michael. I remember that. And I also remember Michael cutting a piece of her sweater off. Those were my two favorite moments of that episode.

Thank you, Mindy. I had a great time, Mindy. Thank you so much. It's such a joy to see you. Thank you so much. It was really fun. Great to see you. And. Yeah. Guys, good. I mean, I was going to say good luck, but you don't need good luck. You're already. This is the number one podcast ever. But drop it.

By the way, speaking of I can't believe Legally Blonde three also. Thank you. We love you so much, Mindy. Okay. Bye bye, Mindy. Bye.

And we are back. Mindy Kaling, so fun. Please come back. That was so great. We have to have her back. I know. All right, ladies, shall we break down this episode? We talked a little bit about this cold open with Mindy. We open in the office. Kelly is helping Ryan with his kurta. And Michael enters and he starts laughing at it. He calls it a dress. Right. But then Pam and Kelly gush about how handsome Ryan looks.

And Michael suddenly wishes that he had one, too. He's such a child.

He's like, how come you didn't get me one? I think you can see Mindy starting to break. When he says that, I wondered if that was an improvised line. Jenna. No, it's in the script cause I feel like you can see Mindy starting to do that. That break that she does, like she was taken by surprise. Yeah. You know, that's just Mindy breaking because you said words, which is what Mindy so likes to do.

Well, now we have a party planning committee scene.

You guys, we lived for these. We got so tickled whenever there was one in a script. I find it fascinating that in this party planning committee scene, it is Ryan, Merideth, Pam, Angela and Phyllis. And they are discussing who's going to carpool with who. There's a chart. Clearly, they couldn't plan this party. They were invited guests. So they had to have something to plan. So they're planning carpools. This is what Phyllis wrote on the Dry Erase Board and Bob's Yukon.

And she was very proud to say that he had a Yukon in Bob's. Your gun would be Phyllis, Stanley, Angela, Kevin and Pam. And Meredith's minivan would be. Darryl, Lonnie, Crede, Ryan and Kelly.

Now, who is missing from the carpool? Oscar. He's on leave. Michael and Dwight, who's riding with Michael and Dwight. They're on their own, I guess. Yeah. Good question. I guess Michael and Carol are gonna go together. But how did Dwight get there? His solo. His solo. But I want you guys to know there is a fantastic deleted scene. There is an extension of this party planning committee scene. And it's so funny because Angela doesn't want anyone to go in.

I actually have a talking head where it sort of sets up why I'm so against a and it's not really about Diwali. It's because I think Dwight might still have a thing for Kelly. Or maybe there'll be someone else there he might be interested in. So I really have this attitude that, listen, I actually have this line where I say certain people in this office are a little too obsessed with things from India. Yes. So she's jealous. And that's really her filter through all of this.

That's why she's so salty all the way through. And then, Jenna, what I love is she's trying to, like, talk people out of going. And Ryan was like, well, Kelly's kind of into it. I thought we could go. And then he's like, I don't care. Actually, we can bail.

I don't care. Ryan was like, you guys want me to bail? Fine. We actually got a lot of mail wondering why Angela was so salty about this festival. And so I'm really glad you shared that deleted scene because there was this whole extra storyline element that it's you. And I think you kind of see it a little bit in the scene where Pam is telling Kelly she might not go in this and that. And your head has popped up.

Oh, yeah. Behind that partition. And you are a little jealous when Dwight, with such authority says he's single. He's not seeing anyone. Yes. Because Kelly suggests maybe Pam go with Dwight if she doesn't want to go alone. And she's like, you're single, right, Dwight? And it's like, oh, yeah, I'm totally single. And I think that's you see that little jealousy right there from Angela? Like, oh, yeah.

Don't like it. There's deleted scenes that really sort of play out this Dwight Angela storyline and her jealousy and how it resolves itself, but that that's what was going on for Angela Martin.

So Michael gets aware of the fact that people might not be as enthusiastic about this Diwali festival as he would like. He says he thinks it's because, you know, people are just ignorant about other cultures and he really does not want to be embarrassed by everyone's ignorance in front of his girlfriend, Carol. Yeah. So he's got to educate everyone. So this means we're all going in the conference room. Yes. Once again, where does Michael get these posters?

It fills last minute, but yet he has all these posters. Does he said Dwight aren't like a mad dash. There's all kinds of posters. Once we get in the conference room, it's so true. And when he starts showing us the slide show, you notice how there's a photo of Michael and Carole kissing. Awkward. It accidentally makes its way into this presentation. Yeah. Well, then he passes out the Kamasutra. To the employees. And remember, Angela?

That was those were like little booklets that Phil Shay had to put together in print of all these Kamasutra positions. And they were blurred out for television, but they were not blurred out in real life. We're all like we're all sitting in the room as actors and we get these little booklets. And I remember being totally like, oh, oh, well, OK.

Of course, Kevin says this is the best meeting they've ever had. The best one. If you guys get a chance and we watch the scene at the end, Toby takes away the Kamasutra. And I want you to look at Phyllis's face because she bakes in an expression like she's really bummed out to lose the book.

Oh, my gosh, I missed that. Oh, I can't wait to go back and see that.

Yeah, well, Angela, should we talk a little bit about what's going on in Stampfer? You mean with Josh Porter's, like, biker shorts and his fancy bike and gym and his clunky bike with a big basket? What's happening, Jim? What's going on? Well, Jim has started biking to work just like Josh. He says, I'm going to save gas money. It keeps me in shape. He did not anticipate how sweaty he would be.

That talking head is so funny how much sweat they put on him. Angela, do you remember how they used to make us sweaty? When you have to be sweaty. They spray you. Yeah. They would either spray you with like a bottle that you would missed your plants with or they would spray you with, like those Evian mist sprays and they have to, like, spritz you under the arms. But then they'd have to come and do it like between every take because it would dry.

But then sometimes they would put like, baby oil around, like your hairline and then spray you so it would look especially sweaty. You have just given everybody a little inside info on how you make an act or sweaty. You can try it at home.

I'm just laughing at how many times you just said sweaty, sweaty.

All right. So now at four minutes. 23 seconds, Sam. Well, you play Mustang already care.

Flirty care. That's my mom. Burt Ganzi Florida. Karen.

Karen says, hey, nice basket. Ever since the whole chipps incident. She's Smith. Yep. So then Josh comes over and gives Karen the company credit card because they have to work late and they're allowed to buy dinner. But he says, you know, no more than 20 dollars a person this time, this time 20 dollars a person. We shot this in 2006. Is there a meal out there that you order that's more than 20 dollars a per day?

Maybe there's a reason Stanford doesn't make it.

I mean, my gosh, I don't know.

Maybe I just don't eat at very fancy places for my takeout. But I feel like I would be it would I would be challenged to order a meal for more than twenty dollars a person in 2006.

Yeah, especially like late at night in Scranton. Where are they getting, you know, like Thai food?

I know. Exactly. This is not difficult. Andy, though, bust out some Yagur meister. He's got other plans. He's ready to party. Ed Helms his face when he holds up that Yagur Meister bottle and the shot glasses is hilarious.

If you get a window into who Andy was in college and you're like, Oh, buddy.

Well, back in Scranton, things are getting exciting because everyone is showing up to Diwali. They're arriving there. Why? It's really, really like bright and colorful. And there's music playing. And Phyllis's like, isn't it fun to take our shoes off? And Angeles, like, I wish not everyone took their shoes off. And Kevin's like, stop it. I told you it was a condition. So you guys remember in grief counseling, we talked about a deleted scene that would have been in the episode where Angela and Kevin go off again about his sweaty feet.

Yes, this is a callback to a deleted scene. So if it's going to go unappreciated by most viewers, but those diehard viewers who watch those deleted scenes will know what this I feel like someone in the writer's room was really determined to make sure we had scenes about Kevin's feet.

I feel like it was a note card on the on the wall that said Kevin, sweaty feet. And someone loved it and kept wanting to get it in the episodes. Well, this is Angeles worst nightmare.

People taking off all their shoes, if even minus Kevin's sweaty feet. I mean, this is just not how she wants to be at a party. Oh, no. So now the party is in full swing.

Jenna, you know what that sound means? Oh, Angela. I do. We get a lot of questions about different behind the scenes moments on the office, and we always try our best to give you the real deal. Just like our friends at State Farm. If you want to know how much you can save on your auto insurance by bundling with your home policy, they'll always give you the answers you need when you need them. So we teamed up with State Farm to give you the real deal behind your favorite scenes on the office.

This week's question comes from Sarah Beth Miller. Sarah, let's play your question.

Hi, John and Angela, was there really a Diwali celebration happening in the filming of this episode? How did you get all those people in costume for this episode?

Well, this is a great question. I mean, there are so many people in this scene. So here's the thing. It was not a real Diwali festival. That was all put together by our amazing crew. Just specifically for this episode. Yes.

Set designer Michael Galán, Burge and his team. They decorated that whole gym. Michael had to do a lot of research in order to transform the gymnasium to feel like a real Diwali festival. So I think he would be very proud to know that. You wondered if this was real. Like, maybe we just stepped into an existing festival. No, they made the whole thing.

They did a fantastic job as far as costumes go. My character did not get to dress up Jonah. I was so bombed. Yeah, no, I mean, she actually is just wearing what she wore to work. She didn't even change out of her work clothes. I know, but some of the cast did get to dress up. B.J. Rain Mindy and I'm sure our wardrobe stylist was thrilled to do something other than just drab office attire.

They used to get so excited every time we got to wear anything other than our office attire. And Pam didn't really dress up, but she is not in her office attire, which was fun. I had a whole separate fitting for that.

We have to see casual Pam. And did you notice I got to wear my hair differently as well. But we did find out some interesting trivia about all the other background actors who were dressed up for this festival.

Yes, we went to Kinta P.D.A and he said our casting office worked with Central Casting. Now, Central Casting is a casting agency in Los Angeles. They specialize in sort of the background actors and filling out the picture, right? Yeah. Central casting reached out to a lot of the Indian community here in Los Angeles to hire those background players. All in all, Ken said we had one hundred extras working this episode and every single one of them brought their own very beautiful costuming for us to use and to kind of fill out the world.

Kent also hired a professional dance company to come and lead us in some of the dances. He found a company called End D.M. Dance Productions, and he hired their director, choreographer Dev Mahajan. And Dev hired eight dancers. He choreographed rehearse their dance in the morning of that day, four of shooting as when we shot all the dancing. And then we filmed it later in the afternoon and all the dancers wear their own costumes as well. I actually went to the Web site.

Of course you did, lady. You went to the dancers Web site. Would you find out? They have appeared on tons of shows. So you think you can dance? E live Oscar coverage. Good Morning America. Superstars of Dance and MTV is America's best dance crew. If you want to look them up, you can find them at FDM Dance dot com. It was super cool. It really did end up feeling like a real party, like a real celebration.

It really did. I wish my character wanted to participate more because me, Angela. That is me. Would have been right out there, like just having a great time. So it was always hard in these moments to not get to be in costume and not participate and be kind of the grump on the wall. You know, I do. And we'll talk a little bit about my dancing later. But I did get to dance a little bit and I was thrilled.

Yeah. So there you have it, guys. When you want the real deal on the office where your ladies when you want the real deal on insurance like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. If you want to submit a question about a future episode, just head over to office. Ladies, dot com slash real deal. And if we pick your question to be our real deal question on the show, we will send you a swag bag of fun stuff, including an office lady's hoodie and a signed office lady's mug.

All right. So, yeah. So there are people that got to dress up, people that didn't. Michael and Carol walk in with a whole different idea of what this party is. Michael has clearly told Carol that this is a costume party. So she arrives dressed as a cheerleader with pom poms, with pom poms. And Michael has his old Halloween costume on. He has this paper mâché head. We had a fan question from Melinda. O'Brien, Was Michael's costume the same one from the Halloween episode or did they have to make another one?

Oh, no, Melinda. We save everything. Everything that anyone wore or held or used or interacted with on the office goes into a giant warehouse. It's tagged. It's almost like an. Room. So when they wrote that into this episode, they just went to that warehouse and they picked up that paper mâché head and put it right on his shoulder again. That's right. It's like the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. It's like rows and rows of boxes with dates, tags, episode names.

So they went right to that box.

And, of course, Michael, you know, he can take the head off and then he just looks like he's in a suit. But Carol is stuck now as a cheerleader because Michael thought this was Indian Halloween. Yes, I know. For Carol, she is such a sport in this episode. She has to endure so much. And Nancy Crill just knocked it out of the park. She plays it so perfect of just sort of like quietly enduring this awkward evening.

While dressed like a cheerleader. Yeah, well, let's move over to the buffet. Angeles at the buffet. She asks if they have any vegetarian options. She doesn't even seem satisfied when she learns that everything is vegetarian. It's all vegetarian. He's just in full grump mode. She's like, just give me some bread. And then the guy hanser the bread with his hands. And Angela, you have a line here that I am fairly certain you improvised.

Oh, yeah. I see you used your hands as I walk away. And I did improvise that because the guy literally did hand it to me with his hands. And I thought, that's not good. You shouldn't use some tongs, some tongs. He just handed me with his hands. And so I improvised that line and it stayed in and it makes me laugh. Of course, she goes ahead and eats it. So I guess she's not too concerned, but it's clearly she's just like not having a good time.

And she's a little like grossed out because she's seeing a lot of feet. And now a guy just handed her bread with his hands, a stranger. Well, in the script, it says that you take a bite and say a garlic. We had some fan questions about the foods. Stacy and Rhett B both wrote in to say, Was any of that delicious looking buffet food real? Did you get to sample some of the cuisine while filming this episode?

Guys, it was all real food. It was all real. It was all delicious. Kent told me we hired a specialty food stylist to create the food, that it was authentically prepared. And we had it all three days of filming and we got to eat it. And I remember that it was delicious.

It was delicious. I only got to eat the non, but it was very good. Non.

Oh, I eat between takes. I just ate it. You don't even see Pam eating it on screen. I was like, I will eat this. Well, now we come to one of the moments in this episode that is one of my favorites. Angela, this is when Ryan meets Kelly's giggly sisters. Yeah, it's so, so cute. We got some fan questions from Lindsay, Bridget and Dan, who all want to know, do you know what Kelly's sister is saying when they're talking to Ryan?

They're saying something about Zach Braff. OK, here's what the three little girls say. They say, Kelly, like Zach Braff. That's what they're saying in Hindi. And they're sort of like teasing him. They were so cute. And they were played by Tambor, Atwal, Ananya Kepa and JCA Patel.

Well, the little girl who plays Kelly's sister that says the Zach Braff line. That's JCA. I found her on Instagram. And I reached out to her to ask her about what it was like to be on the show and she wrote back. I can't wait to share. She must be like a grown lady now. She is a grown woman now. She told me she was 13 years old when she shot this episode. She said she had not really heard about the show.

She was still watching Disney Channel. She said. But she said her dad took her to the audition and she remembers walking into the casting office and just seeing tons of other kids who were all there for the same role. And she said the audition was just her saying that one line in Hindi. And she said she didn't speak any Hindi. So her dad told her how to say it. About five seconds before she went into the audition room. And then she got the part.

So she said she was so excited. And I asked her what it was like to be on set. If she had any memories and she sent back the sweetest message. So we're going to play it for you now. I remember Rainn Wilson walking up to me and shoving a light saber in my hand and yelling light saber war. I also remember getting to know Mindy Kaling and B.J. Novak, who were so sweet to me. Meeting Mindy Kaling really meant a lot to me growing up because I didn't really see many Indian actresses in the entertainment industry at that time.

And I love what Mindy has done with her platform, and she is still a huge inspiration for me. Till this day, I also remember all of the delicious Indian food on set and getting to dance all day. And I remember being so happy that I had the chance to wear my Indian clothes. Isn't that so sweet?

That is wonderful. That as I listen to it, I was just smiling so big because that is everything about that message is lovely. I love all of her memories. She's absolutely right about Mindy and what Mindy has done, and she's such an inspiration to so many people. Yes. Yeah, she told me after the episode aired, she had classmates and family members reaching out that they had recorded it and taking pictures of her name in the credits. So that was when she was 13.

She really wanted to be an actress. She said when she was 15, she decided she wanted to go into journalism. And now JCA is the morning news reporter at NBC Fifteen in Mobile, Alabama. She told me she has to go to bed at four o'clock in the afternoon because she has to be in the studio at three thirty in the morning.

I have always heard that about these morning anchors on the East Coast that they have to get up so early.

That's that's a no j.

Sure. That is so cool. Isn't that so cool?

She said all her co-workers know about her appearance on the office and that fans will mentioned to her because she's Indian. They'll mentioned the Diwali episode. And then she always, like, blows their mind when she says, oh, no, I was in it. So I thought that was so sweet. I was in it. I say a line that offends Ryan, the temp. Yes, exactly. Except he doesn't quite know he's being the butt of a joke.

Right. But she said being on the office was one of her most memorable moments of her childhood. I also love that, you know, I'm sure rain and provides going up to her with that light saber. There's a bunch of deleted scenes where he's fighting with kids with lights hypers, and it didn't make it in. But he he rain looked very much in his element, like that's how he bonds with children.

Yes. Angeles, should we check in on those folks at Stanford, see how they're doing? You mean the folks drinking Yagur Meister? Yeah. How are they? And Angela, did you see what they ordered for dinner? Oh, Jenna, you and I know firsthand you do not drink a lot of alcohol and only eat sushi. Now, Angela, why do we know that first hand?

I know that because at the Golden Globes. Was it the Golden Globes? Should it. Oh, lady, I was thinking of my bachelorette party, too. Oh, and, well, there was the Golden Globes. But The Bachelorette. Wait. Have we repeated this mistake multiple? Yeah. Except the second time I did better the first time. It did not work out well for me the second time. If memory serves. Sorry to say this on here but it it hit your sister pretty hard.

Yeah. Guys, Angela planned a bachelorette party for me when I was getting married to Lee and she took us all out for a sushi dinner. It was a fancy Mansi sushi place in Beverly Hills that I'd never eaten at. I'd only dreamed of. And I was like, can we go there for my bachelorette?

They were thrilled to have us. It was so cute. All of the ladies from the office were there. All of my other friends were there. And afterwards you took us to do you do a hold of lady.

We're going to get this right. First of all, the sushi place was your idea. And then after the sushi place, you guys, I've got cupcakes with, like, her face on it. It was so cute. We had lots of free drinks and over the restaurant was very kind and lots of great sushi. And then after the dinner, I was like, well, thank you, guys. And Jenna was like, what's next?

And I was like, What? Wait, why are you not? Is this your room? I do not know this. No, lady. All I had planned was the dinner.

I didn't plan anything after. Is this the first time you're ever hearing of this?

This. This is putting the dance club into perspective now, because I thought at the time it was an odd choice because we've never in a million years gone clubbing and now we were suddenly clubbing for my bachelorette. But I was like, this is great. What a fun night.

I should say, you guys, we had a car. I got one of the big limos. You know, that we could all pile in. And I called a friend of mine who is like always kind of like that. You know, you have that one friend that's like I got a hookup. I got a hook. Yeah. I mean, I know I called my friend tests and I was like tests. I. General wants to go dancing.

I were in Beverly Hills. What do I do? What do I do? And she was like, I'm on it. Give me like five, ten minutes. I said, okay. So we kind of high out a little bit. And I was like, I'm sorting out some stuff. Guy, do you remember hanging out on the sidewalk outside? Yes. It's because I didn't have a plan because of the rest. I had planned for was fancy sushi and our evening would have been over at like 10:00.

Yeah. Anyway, I get a call from tests and she goes, all right. Angela's pretty last minute. It's like, you know, a Thursday night in Beverly Hills. So I did get you in this one club. I know this guy. He's got a booth for you and they're gonna give you drink service. It's kind of a random club, but it will be fun. You guys can dance. Angela. It's the only time I've ever experienced bottle service, bottle services where you like.

They bring you just bottles of alcohol and then mixers and like little cut limes to your table and you make your drink. So when they walk it over, everyone starts doing, at least for us. I think this was the norm because I would see different people get bottle service and it was like. It shut off like, yeah, Betty, in the air. It was so weird, it was so bizarre. They had. It was crazy dancing.

I remember we got in trouble because we were dancing on top of the couches and we got reprimanded for that. But guys on our stomachs of sushi mixed with bottle service. Long story short, at the end of the night, as the limo is dropping everyone off, my sister puked in L.A. Kemper's Bushes. I puked when I got home.

It was in my hair. I slept in it. It was an epic night. But that's what you get when you mix sushi and a lot of booze. And that is what is in store for these guys and stamina. As Jen and I re watch this episode, I texted her and I was like, oh, lady, alcohol and sushi.

It's so true. It is so true. Should we go back to Diwali? Because Roye has arrived and he is watching Pam dance and have fun. And I have a full mehndi catch for you, dear. And we've got a sting for it and everything. There you go. It's a full mehndi catch mirror during wrote in to say, at the Diwali party when Roy walks in, Beyonce's Crazy in Love is playing in the background. And Angela, this was a note in the script Mindy wrote in what song would be playing when Roy walks in and that it would be a Beyonce a song.

So I think this is a full full Mindy. I love it. It's a very subtle form, Mindy.

It's like full Mindy when you don't even see Mindy.

But her presence is still there. Exactly. And, you know, my dance partner, we talked about this in the interview with Mindy, my dance partner, Valley. Okay. He was well known by the writers because he was a writer on. My name is Earl at the time. And he went on to write on 30 Rock and was one of the executive producers of Modern Family. Oh, my gosh.

I know that Mindy did say, guys, he wasn't an actor.

He was like a front of a hearse. That's so wild.

Well, can I ask you a little bit about your dance moves there? Miss Fisher, you can. What are you gonna say? I've danced with you and I can tell you right now, folks. That was not a choreographed dance routine. That was just Jenna Bande Jenna. Yeah. We had a fan question from Zorya Collins who asked that same question. Were those dance moves choreographed? Oh, no. Oh, no. That's all, Miss Fisher.

That's me fully dancing with my heart and soul.

That's hello. St. Louis. St. Louis pro zounds. A Scranton right there. That's the same girl who made up sounds of Scranton playlist, everyone. There I am. You could almost rewind me and put me in my high school gym right there. Well, something is going to happen. That is super awkward because that is Michael's way. Michael's way is to take a wonderful moment and make everyone cringe. And the Diwali was going to be no exception.

He, you know, has this amazing scene with Mindy's parents that play Kelly's parents, which we already talked about.

And he's so inspired by their love. He's going to do it. Yeah, he's going to do it. They're coming on it. Yeah. He's going to propose to Carol. In front of a whole room of strangers on their ninth date. Yes. She's like, Carol, will you do me the honor of making me your husband, of making me your husband? And she's like, can we talk about this in private? And this is one of my favorite moments in movies and TV where he's like, what?

Into a microphone. She's like, can we talk about it in private?

And then he's like, Oh, man. CREF. Well, they have. Yeah. Out in the parking lot, Jonah. And who made me laugh so hard that, you know, Carol is like, I can't do this, Michael, I can't do it. And his last ditch effort, his last few moments, what is he going to say that might change her mind? He's going to go for it. What could he say to change this woman's mind?

Do you know what he says? Let me come with you.

I have this book, The Kamasutra she's of. Thank you. Good night, Michael. Well, at this point, Pam is she's talking to Molly. And she's realizing something. She wants to reach out to Jim. So she's going to she's going to Texel. That thing happened. That thing happened, which is, you know, this this crazy moment just happened. And who does she want to share it with? Right. This is how, you know, you really care about someone.

You're a person out there, folks. Is the person you want to tell everything to right after it happens? It's who you bounce everything off of. And Pam wants to tell her person what just happened. But she runs into Anjo. She needs to get her shoes. And there is Angela guarding the shoes. She says. And eating her dry non. By the way, Angela Van question from Reynie. Greg, was the non dry. No.

Was it actually dry or was it. He was perfectly fine. I would say that, too. Eat some of that night. It was wonderful. I was glad to have it. I was probably hungry. Well, Jen and I used to always get so tickled to have scenes together because it rarely happened. So we were really excited about this. I loved shooting the scene with you and I love it so much. I just want us to play it.

Sam, can you play it? It's hot in there.

How's the non dry look? Like you were having fun. I am. You should come dance with us. I have to watch our show so I don't get stolen. Who are you texting? No one.

But also, lady, my character is so nosy. So now who are you looking like you're having fun? Who are you texting? I mean, who am I to ask you who you're texting? You're the party police also. You're single. Dwight made this big announcement that he's single. I don't know. Maybe you're texting Dwight. What's happening? Angeles spinning out this episode and a lot of those scenes ended up getting deleted. But it would be a fun watch to go back and watch them, because that is why you are so intense in the summer.

So now Pam is going to make it outside. She hasn't received a text back from Jim and she sits with Michael. Michael tries to relate to her. He's like, wow, they're both victims of broken engagements. And Pam's like, well, I mean, except that you were never actually engaged, but whatever. She tries to bond with Michael and of course, he does that thing that you were just talking about where he just takes it one step too far and he starts to lean in like he's going to kiss her.

So awkward. We got a lot of mail about it. Angela, Ruby, Alexandra and Vanessa Ortiz all wrote in to ask if that was a scripted moment when Michael tries to kiss Pam. What was it like? It was scripted, you guys. That was in the script. And then the thing that great line that Pam has where she says, I'm rejecting your kiss. He's like she's like, what are you doing? He's like, what are you doing?

She's like, I'm rejecting your kiss. That's what I'm doing. Yeah. What are you doing? That was all scripted. And Angela. I was so excited to do that scene because I remember staying late that evening and shooting outside. I talked about this before when I had that scene with John up on the roof where Pam and Jim eat the grilled cheese sandwiches. It was one of those warm summer evenings in Los Angeles. They're the best. This was another one of those.

And it's one of my fondest memories from shooting the show, because I got Steve all to myself and I got McKeller, Ted, all the myself. And Mindy was there and it was just us doing the scene, getting it just perfect. It felt like we had all the time in the world. There was no rush. And I just absolutely loved it. Yeah.

Well, Mindy mentioned, you know, that she was kind of jealous of her parents, that they got to have this great scene with Steve because. There are several characters, myself included, that rarely got to have one on one scenes with Steve. It just wouldn't make sense in the world of the show. And whenever I did, it felt so special. And I think you got to have some amazing scenes with him throughout the course of the show.

And this is just one of those that was just beautiful and so fun and funny and crunchy and heartfelt. I just. All of it. That's all true. Angela, we did have someone write in with an old tech alert that I thought you would have put me out. How do I miss it? What is it? Kayla Whitehead said Pam cell phone. Oh, yeah. Is such old tech. But she's like. But also, when she walks outside, Michael sees her on the steps and he notices that she's holding her phone.

And he says, expecting a call. She was like, no one would say that to you today if you have your phone in your hand today. No one's expecting a call because we always all have our phones in our hand. That is a brilliant catch. I am applauding that catch. I love that observation. That is an amazing observation, because back then. Yeah, your phone was in your purse. It was. We didn't walk around holding phones like flip phones like that because we did hardly anything with them other than talk to someone.

So if you're holding it, you'd probably just spoke to someone or you were about to. Yes. That is a great observation. Great. Well, I want to take us back to Stanford because I think there is a moment in this episode that is the happiest we have seen Andy since he has appeared on the show. It's happy, Andy. And I want to talk. I want to share happy Andy with you. Happy Andy happens at around 15 minutes.

They have had a lot of Yagur. Karen, though. She's just tossing her Yagur shots into the trash. No one know yet. She's not getting wasted. And Andy starts singing acappella.

Kieran's like no acappella Andy, but he's drunk and he's singing the Indigo Girls closer to fine. And as he drunkenly sings, all of a sudden, Jim, who's super wasted, starts joining in and singing. It's so adorable. And he's like two. Are you kidding? Like, he is so happy. He's so happy. They're having, like, an Occupy LA moment. And this is happy, Andy. He is thrilled. Well, Angela, we had a fan catch from Renata Torres.

She says at 17 minutes, 58 seconds, you can see a pair of white flip flops under Caryn Stark. And she wanted to know if that was on purpose. But we know why those are there. We do. Those were her. She does flip flops. Yeah. The wardrobe department would give us UGS or flip flops to wear to and from our trailers and set. So we didn't have to walk in our. Kind of like high heel office shoes, right?

Yeah. Yes. You caught Rashid's flip flops.

You know, wardrobe actually told me one time. Also our trailers were not close to the soundstage. It was a little, you know, quite a walk. And they said that also they would take our shoes to protect our shoes because, yeah, if we walked across the parking lot back and forth and sometimes if there was weather of any kind. They preferred actually to leave our shoes on set by our desks. Yet rather than us walking around in them all the time.

And we were delighted because that meant less time in heels. We had our travel shoes. Those were sheet as travel shoes. Well, as they're leaving for the night in Stamford, Jim is going to ride that bike home. He's going to ride his bike home. Or is he? Well, yeah. He falls over. Well, you know, it's the end of the night at Stanford. They've had Yagur. They've bonded over Indigo Girls. I mean, Andy's bust now does air mattress.

He's like, oh, yeah, he's he's stay in the night.

Jeff is going to try to ride his giant bicycle with the big basket home. And he like tips over into the bushes and Kerans in her car. She's like, hold up, get my car, drunkie. And Jenna. Do you remember how freaked out people were about this moment? Yeah, I mean, people thought Karen was shady, that she let them get so wasted and that that was she waiting for Janiot planned it all along, she waiting out in the parking lot for jam and was like, hey, Mr.

Tips, are you good, Mugga?

And remember this in this episode, it was written that they were gonna, like, kill us. I talked to Rashid about it. I texted with her. And I want to read you guys what she said. She said in this episode there, they had written a scene where Jim and Karen get sloppy drunk and make out. So maybe I guess she had been drinking, too, in that different version. Right. In that different version, because I have the scripted version of that.

They the three of them go to a bar and they all get drunk together at a bar. And then they were supposed to make out on the street outside of this bar.

And Rasheeda said they actually filmed the scene in the parking lot. She said she was really worried, just like everyone's going to hate me. And then she told me Stephen Merchant actually suggested that they cut the scene out, huh? That he got to watch of her because Stephen and Ricky would watch our episodes and they would give the producer's notes rarely, but sometimes and their notes were always correct. Well, they were always like they knew, don't move that needle so far.

And Rasheeda said she felt like Steven really understood the relationships and that this was going too far, too bold, too quickly. And it would sort of sabotage anything that Jim and Karen might could possibly be as a foil for Pam. It was just too much. Yeah. I think if you wanted to believe in their relationship, which you will like, Jim and Karen are going to really have a great relationship. You don't want it to start off with like a sloppy drunk make out parking on the side of the street.

Kids, are you listening? Nothing good happens after midnight. OK. Go home. This is what you had told me when I went off to college. She said, here's my advice to you about sleeping around. This is what she said. She said, you're going to go to these parties. You're going to do some drinking. And you might in in the moment want to make a decision that's impulsive. She said, my advice to you is go home, because you can always wake up in the morning and say, I wish I'd slept with that guy.

And you can do something about it. But you can't undo. You can't undo. Yeah, I'm with your aunt. You can't undo. But I was kind of lame in college when I turned 21. I had a big paper due for a class I was taking and all my friends were like, you're gonna go out your 21st birthday. And I said, oh, no, I need to work on my paper. So I worked on my paper and my dad had a Texaco gas card and he would pay my Texaco gas card just like reality bites.

I would go to that gas station and I would get gas, bread, sandwich meat, potato chips, I everything.

And I went to Texaco and I bought myself a car. And Neeta. It's not even the big Korona. It's a core Annita, cause I was 21 and I went and I worked on my term paper and I had my core Annita and that was my 21st birthday. That is literally adorable. That is adorable. There's a big Doric lady. That's why we would've been friends. I would've hung out with you and your cat.

We would have been best D.. This is also why as adults, we mixed sushi with a lot of hard liquor and we didn't learn in college Hitler. Where are we at? I don't even know where we're at, except that Karin put Germany's car. And now we go back to Diwali and it's one of my favorite moments ever.

Dwight and Michael are going to perform a cover of Adam Sandler's Hanukkah song, Dedicated to Indians Everywhere.

Yes, the crowd loves it, Angela, so many people wrote in asking about this song, was it improvised? A lot of people thought that because Steve was holding a piece of paper that maybe we wrote this on the fly. No, this was in the script. And in fact, Kent told me it had been in the script as far back as the pre table draft. This is kind of a writer's term, but they send out a draft of the script before they let anyone see it.

And they have to give it to all of the main producers so that they can start planning wardrobe and locations. And Kent said that at that pre table draft, this was the tag for the episode and it remained there until we shot it. So they got permission and all that kind of stuff. And he said Steve asked for that piece of paper because he felt like his character wrote it at the party. And that would sell the idea that this was like a last minute idea by Michael.

Yeah. Yeah. I thought the same thing. I thought Michael Michael needed those notes. Steve did not write. Yeah, well, it's so good. And I have a really great catch. I'm going to call it a BSF catch. What is it at 20 minutes, 34 seconds after he's finished singing and it pans to the crowd and everyone cheers. You and I are sitting side by side on the floor together. Oh, my gosh, Angela.

You know, we did that ourselves. I know we sat together. We probably were. I mean, I remember them doing that song. We were all just elated and along for the ride. It was so fun. And I think we were I think we just sat next to each other because they probably weren't even sure if they were gonna use that big swing back to the crowd, right? Yeah. And so there we are. Are on the ground next to each other.

BSF catch. That is the perfect way to end this podcast episode of Diwali. We did it with a BMF.

Can we shoot it? And thank you so much to Mindy Kaling for stopping by. I just felt like we kept talking and talking, and I can't wait for her to come back. And if you guys get a chance, go check out Mindy's new show that she co created with Lang Fisher. It's so cute. It's a coming of age kind of comedy drama called Never Have I Ever. And the cast is wonderful and the writing is great.

And you guys, if you watch it, you'll see Angela on it because the Angela is in it and a couple of episodes. Yes, I'm in two episodes. I play the mom. I play one of her nemesis is Mom. And it was really fun. I'll be the mom all day long. Jenna. I know. Yeah, casting folks out there, if you need a mom with a little bit of sass, give me a call. You know where to go, guys.

Thank you so much. This was a really fun one. And we will be back next week with each word. See you then. Bye. Thank you for listening to Office Lady's office. Ladies is produced by your. Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. Our producer is Cody Fisher, our sound engineer, Sam Kiefer. And our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton for ad free versions of the show and our bonus episodes. Candy Bag. Go to Stitcher premium dot com for free.

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