Customer Loyalty

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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.

Oh, we got a lot of mail.

So much mail, everyone, it's customer loyalty. It is Season nine, episode 12, written by Jonathan Green and Gabe Miller and directed by Kelly Cantlie.

Now, before you get into a summary, I thought we needed a little something from the episode to kick us off.

Oh, all right.

Ready? Yeah, yes, we will be delivering a shipment of paper today, but I will also be delivering you a big shipment of fun.

Are we going to be delivering people a shipment of fun?

A big shipment of fun.

That's right, you heard it from Dwight. Buckle in because we've got a lot of fun stuff today.

I liked that. ANG. I just thought it was fun. I love it. When you get a kickoff idea, it's a big shipment of fun.

Come on.

All right, well, here's your big summary. An important meeting in Philly prevents Jim from attending Cece's dance recital. Dwight goes to great lengths to keep Daryl at Dunder Mifflin. Nellie fears she will fall out of good standing with Andy after pairing Erin and Pete on a project and they get real flirty.

Yeah, they do.

Finally, Pam receives some good news, but her excitement is dampened by a conflict with Jim. Conflict. Boy, is it dampened?

It's a big old fight is what it is.

It is, and like I said, we got some fan soapbox mail about this episode, but it is not the scene you think it is.

Okay.

It took me by surprise. Don't tell me people had feelings.

I mean, I want you to tell me, like, when it happens later, okay?

Let's get into Fast Fact number one. I'm very excited about this. Fast Fact. We have a major guest star alert in this episode. Your daughter Isabel was one of the dancers, she was a ladybug.

Oh, I had so much fun, first of all, rewatching this, rewatching it with her. Then I went into my digital clutter and I found videos of the rehearsal day. It was so cute.

Oh my gosh, my gosh. Well, Steve Burgess reminded me that Greg's daughter Maya was also in this episode and it was her dance class that was featured. And then you folded Isabel in as well.

Yes, well, Isabel and Maya are a year apart and they're really close. You know, those cousins you grow up with that. You're close in age and they're just so much fun, so they have that kind of relationship.

I know so I'm like.

Oh my gosh, the whole family's gonna be there. Isabel's like, Mom, we better win. So it's a very sweet friendship that they have and they were so cute when they were little. And this is a really special memory for our family that they both got to do this. And I thought, maybe I should ask Isabel what she remembered from this day.

Oh well, obviously I don't remember a lot, but I do remember being so excited to get to wear the costume. The little Tutu was so cute.

Oh yeah, you were in a big tutu phase then.

I love Tutus still am and I loved to be able to hang out with my cousin Maya. We got to do it together, which was so fun. Oh, and hair and makeup.

Oh yeah, the ladies were so sweet to you guys.

They were the best, they were so sweet, they made us feel so special. I loved it.

And they let you have lip gloss.

Oh my gosh, I remember you were very-.

I was probably so excited, you were so excited.

All right, anything else.

Not that I can remember.

I do remember after the dance, you were tired.

Oh, I probably was, I probably wanted to nap.

Yep.

Oh my gosh.

I'm just smiling so big, you know, Isabel is my goddaughter, I know, so this was, oh, it was so sweet, and.

I found so many cute photos and then something I was really surprised by that I'd forgotten about, way buried in my digital clutter. One of the moms from the dance class filmed the dance rehearsal day, so we had a rehearsal day. It was on Tuesday and we filmed this on the Wednesday and Isabel came to work.

Oh yeah.

And she kept wanting me to come, stand by her and like, learn the dance with her. And it's all on video, and it's so precious. Jenna. And I'm so thankful for this rewatch podcast because I found this video buried way deep in email that I had forgotten about.

Yeah.

I'm going to put part of it in stories because it's just the cutest little girls learning this dance and me in the middle of them.

Well, I loved that.

And I have really cute photos from hair and makeup, and then the other thing the little girls were so excited about is I found photos. You know how, when we would go from our main soundstage, maybe over, to like the other soundstage? Well, rather than having all these little girls walk all that way from hair and makeup to that other soundstage. This is just in a parking lot, you guys, it's very safe.

Oh my goodness, I'm so glad Isabel. thank you for sharing your memories. that was so cute.

I have more to share later in the episode, too.

Well, let's move on to fast fact two. I'm calling this the big reveal.

Boy is it.

Yeah, you know. We reveal the documentary crew for the first time, and someone from the documentary crew interacts with someone from the office. This was a big moment.

I mean, not just someone, it's Pam.

Yeah, and Brian, the Boom guy, well. Jenny Tan, who runs Office Tally, posted a message to fans before this episode came out. Just to give you a sense of, like, how big a deal? This moment was in the history of the show. And she said the producers of the show had sent her an email that said this, Hi, Jenny.

Who sent it?

Someone from the office production.

Oh my gosh.

We got a lot of fan questions about the big reveal.

I like that you started to whisper, because sometimes when life gets serious, you'll whisper, you gotta, gotta take a time.

Stephanie B, from Cleveland, Ohio, said How did you all feel when you saw the script was featuring the documentary crew? Did you know it was coming? I remember being astonished when I first saw the episode. Tell us everything.

Well, okay, this is, oh man, this was a big moment. I put this on a list of like, bombshell table read moments. So I remember there were just a few where literally you felt the air go out of the room, like everyone's reaction.

Wait, does he hug her?

Okay, in the shooting draft, he hugs her. In fact, in the shooting draft, she gets up and goes over to him and they hug. I forgot about that. Yeah, oh my god.

Yeah.

Yeah, it was one of those big moments. I remember being conflicted but excited. I was like, Oh my gosh, we are really wrapping up the show. If we're gonna show the crew. It's real to me. Now that we are wrapping up storylines, we are peeking behind the curtain.

Yeah, these are definitely the layers of the onion peeling back.

And then, of course, none of us wanted Jim and Pam to break up, we wanted to protect Jim and Pam.

They were hope in a frame, hope in a frame.

So much going on. Yeah, oh my gosh.

Here is what she had to say.

So Greg Daniels had told me that I would be able to direct an episode season nine, which I was really excited about, but I didn't know which episode. When I got the script for customer loyalty and I read it, I absolutely could not believe that. Greg had given me the script, where we revealed the documentary crew for the very first time because I was a new director and that just seemed unbelievably huge. So I started at the beginning of the script and I just kind of worked my way through it. I spent a lot of time on stage, I spent a lot of time looking at angles and talking to Matt Stone, our DP, about how to stage things. So that they'd be funny and so they'd be interesting and look like it belonged in our show.

If I had gotten this script as a first time director, I would have pooped my pants and handed it back. And, like, hard pass.

This is the same thing we talked about with Bryan Cranston is you say yes, but then you don't know the episode you're gonna get. Yeah, this was a huge episode, it had a bunch of toddlers.

Yep.

It had this major reveal, it had multiple locations.

Yeah, well, I'll tell you from my point of view, because I had been working as a producer this season. I knew this was coming. So it was really fun for me to sit in that table, read and have everybody else find out. But this storyline of Pam being comforted by the boom operator was actually a pitch from Mindy Kaling that went all the way back to season three.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, and I remember Greg bringing it up to me and John over the summer during our producer sessions for season nine. So I reached out to Greg because I wanted to kind of get this backstory, and here's what Greg said. Greg said, Yes. It was originally a pitch for Pam when she was in New York going to art school.

Yeah, that's too soon, I agree.

He said it would be hard to put that back in the bottle for the rest of the season.

Yeah, because you're like, what is the guy standing there?

Yes, you'd be thinking about them too much, but Greg said he always thought it was a really creative pitch, and he said. But considering it was season nine and he was aiming at the documentary airing at the end of season nine, he said We wouldn't need to put anything back in the bottle so they could go with this. And he said, You know, remember? We discussed putting a little conflict between Pam and Jim for season nine because we didn't want it to be all smooth sailing. And so he said, Jim was gonna go to Philly, kind of like Pam going to New York. And this was an opportunity for some drama and tension, so that the eventual happy ending would feel even better.

Oh, they hated him instantly. Yeah, I felt so bad for Chris, who played Brian, because, oh my Lord. The minute he hit the screen, people were like, Hold up, buddy, yes, what are you doing, putting your hand on Pam's back?

Yeah, Greg said. It definitely served its purpose. Whew, all right. Moving on to fastback number three, which we've touched on a little bit. How was this received? Um, well, many reviewers loved it.

So like when Michael drove his car into a lake.

Yes.

They're not like, wait, wait, Michael.

You're driving into a lake, correct? We had a letter from Jennifer P and Spanaway, Washington, who said I love Pam and I don't like to see her cry. But the documentary crew stops filming because of it. Hmm.

Oh, that's a good one, locking us all inside, yes.

Allowing Michael to jump off the roof onto a bouncy castle.

Or Dwight to ride a bicycle on a tight rope? Yes, how about letting Uncle Al wander around the city?

When he goes missing from Phyllis wedding.

Oh, Uncle Al, I didn't even think about that one, yes.

How about filming Kevin as he passes out in his car when they're worried about the dog in the parking lot? Allowing Jim to stab into snowmen with a pointy umbrella, with the possibility of Dwight being inside, allowing Angela to hire a hitman to injure Oscar.

Commit a possible crime.

They did not stop Dwight from riding a bike across a high wire. They did not stop Michael from attempting to frame Toby. They allowed Dwight to shoot Stanley with animal tranquilizers. And Jennifer says, I'm sure there are plenty more, so yes.

Well, Jennifer, I totally agree. Although in those instances, none of them turned to the camera operator and said, Brian, what am I doing wrong?

Yes, Pam, and this was a big note that we had, which was that PaM has to break the wall.

Yeah, PaM broke the wall.

Yes.

Brian did not.

Correct The documentary crew did not interfere until Pam initiated that contact. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Well, that's all I have for Fast Facts. I'll get into the weeds on how we filmed that big reveal later when we break down that moment.

Well, let's take a break, because when we get back, I have some call sheet tidbits to kick us off.

I love your call sheet tidbits.

We are back. Here are my call sheet tidbits. First of all, you guys. When Steve Burgess sends me the call sheets, he always includes a photo from his day. It's the cutest thing. And for this week, he had some flowers blooming in his yard and he sent me a picture and so I sent him one back of my flowers.

I totally get it, Angela. The other day I wrote to Randy Cordray and I was like, I know I'm not reaching out to you every week anymore. But I just wanted to say hi, I know.

They're such a wonderful part of this journey with us.

And I feel that way about Kent Sibornak, too.

Yeah, aw, Kent.

They are kind of like the dad of the production.

So our first day of filming started on November 26, 2012.

That sounds so pleasant.

It's a nice time of year.

Yeah.

Well, that's your weather report from the call sheet. And that's when we were filming this episode, November 2012.

Well, this episode opens with a very cheeky, cold open. Dwight is going through a file cabinet over by the accountant's desks, and he is complaining because he's like, there's so many dead accounts in here. Do we ever clean this thing out? And he finds a letter, an old letter from Robert Dunder, implying that he might be in possession of perhaps the Holy Grail. And that he has hid it somewhere in the office.

Yeah, the letter reads. A valuable artifact has come into my possession. I have hidden it until such time as a person of strong intellect may safely recover it. This Golden Chalice is of immeasurable historical and religious significance. Pam overhears this.

Yeah, and she's asking him about it, and he's like, Pam, I am too busy to do pranks on. Oh my gosh. He remembers he did this years ago, he spent weeks on it, and Dwight only just now finds it.

Yeah, Jim says he stayed late every night for a month. He had a lot more free time back then. And he says the Dunder code? Well, here is the Dunder Code breakdown of clues.

I'm ready.

First clue is a light bulb, which reveals a message written in invisible ink higher than numbers. Go. Dwight immediately is like, Oh, the ceiling above accounting. Next clue is a key with a tag marked X. Oscar solves this one.

Little toy, Yes, like warehouse forklift, forklift, that's the word.

They go down to the warehouse, they're tearing the warehouse apart, they can't find it. This cuts to Glenn, who's enjoying a donut as he dunks it into coffee in a golden chalice.

Yeah, I guess he found it.

He found it a long time ago. I have one bull card to play in this whole Cold Open.

Just one.

As Dwight is going and finding all the clues, it cuts back to Jim at Athlead, and Jim says, Oh, I can't wait for Dwight to get to the end and find the fake grail. Or wait. Is it? Wait, did I get a grail? I can't remember? I'm sorry, Jim would remember.

You're not wrong. We have what I was calling a fan catch but could call a bull card from Randy C in Columbia, Maryland. Who said How do all these artifacts still exist? After the various things that the office has been through, such as the fires that both Ryan and Dwight set? Yeah, how's that thing still up in the ceiling above accounting if, like, Remember, Oscar? fell through the ceiling?

A cat fell through the ceiling.

It's still just like, right up there.

Of all the clues, I believe they would all still be in their places. The toilet no one cleans.

Michael has done so much to the toilets.

Okay, the two spots are the toilet and above accounting.

The ceiling.

Yeah.

I'm just saying, How are these clues still there? I did wanna point out some background details and just give a big shout out to our crew. At 44 seconds, we see flashback footage of Jim at his desk planning this whole thing. Yes, and he's got, you know, his old wardrobe, his old floppy hair.

They tried, they tried to make his floppy hair, but I didn't buy it.

Well, I wanted to point out all the ways that the set had been taken back in time. So there's a little piece that you can see over Jim's shoulder of the manager's office, and it's been redressed to be Michael's office. There is no desk for Andy or Nellie, you know, that desk that was added to the Phyllis Stanley clump, and there is not a desk for Pam in the Jim Dwight clump. It's back to that stack of paper boxes that it was in the very early seasons.

I love that.

Yeah, great detail.

Before we end this cold open breakdown and get into the episode, I have two background catches. Number one, Meredith has a new wig.

Yes, she's a blonde this week.

Yes, number two Angela is wearing pants.

Oh, pants, that must've been comfy. I know well, I have one last thing before we move on, I have a cold open snark.

Oh.

You perked up.

I did, it's our favorite thing. I get very, oh, we text each other, I have a snark. We're like,....

It's just your face lit up when I said it, you sat up. Oh, okay, okay.

Okay.

That Pam is on the phone, in the background, every step of the way. She's on the phone, giving Jim a play-by-play of this whole search that Dwight is on. I just think it's interesting that he's able to step away from work for that to get real-time updates on his prank.

Right, I see where you're going. Okay, yeah.

You got it?

Yeah, I got it.

But Pam's the bad guy this season.

Oh, now, I guess, come on.

It's okay, though, yep.

Yep, yep.

Fine, fine.

Well, I just sent you a link to an article titled Jim Halpert sucks.

I know you did, and it's about this season.

I know finally, I feel like, finally, maybe.

People are seeing it through a different lens.

Oh my god, you sound like a cartoon.

You sound like a cartoon. I wanna do more voice. Now we're starting the episode.

I wanna do more voiceover work.

So do i.

I'm gonna try some stuff out on the pod.

I really do I wanna be in an animated show.

Yeah, don't have to do my hair.

Don't have to do her hair never.

Never again.

Never again do I have to worry about the back of my head. I mean, I let it go anyway, but.

Lady, I'm wearing a hat today.

You have a roots day.

It's the 50s, I'm fully 50s now, and I've started to stop doing the back of my hair.

Yeah.

What's going on?

You know, I feel like when you're young, you wear a hat, because you're like, I didn't wash my hair, whatever, I'll wear a hat. But now, as you get older, it's like I didn't do my roots. No, I've got some grays and the back of my head's a hot mess put on a hat.

Those are the three reasons I put a hat on today.

Well, I think you look really cute.

I think it looks cute, too. All right time for the AMPA show.

I know.

That's my another one of the characters I can do for any of the voiceover folks listening. Can you sustain that? Sure, I can.

Oh, you can. you really can. Hey Ang, I mean, write the show for her, please.

All right, for real.

We open with Nellie in the conference room with Erin and Pete.

Yeah, apparently Erin and Pete are part of this social media initiative that Nellie has set up, so they're trying to have an online presence. For Dunder. Mifflin. Yeah, they've created a fake profile for a really cool guy named Derek McBlack.

I just wanna say kudos to our writers for making Nellie's job a job she really does have special projects. Now. Do we need these special projects?

Right?

Probably not, but, you know, the Social Media Initiative special project.

Yeah.

Makes it legitimate, all right? We had a fan question from Chris W. from The New Forest, England. When Erin and Pete are working on their grand social media initiative, they set up a fake profile for Derek McBlack.

I didn't think it looked like Pete either.

Me either. I reached out to Steve Burgess, and Steve said, Chris, you're right, that doesn't look like Jake.

Steve said.

I don't have any info. I'm pretty sure. We didn't ever take a picture of Jake. My guess is it's a stock photo that the art department picked of a guy in sunglasses. Good catch, Chris.

I totally agree. Yeah, here's one little catch in this scene. Did anyone else notice that Jake Lacey has a cold?

I didn't.

Yeah, he has a cold in this episode.

How do you know? Because he's for sure.

He's like, Yeah, exactly. He's like, This is my cold. That's what he sounds like. He's like, Come on, guys, he literally says that.

I did not notice this, but I just wanna say, you can do person with cold voiceover.

Thank you, put it on my resume. Yep.

Erin's gonna have a talking head where she's giddy about getting to work with Pete, she talks about how well they work together and she gets all flustered.

Yeah, yeah.

She's clearly sweet on him.

Yeah, she's like, you know, I mean, I probably work well with a girl or a guy or someone I'm into.

Not that I'm into Pete, yes.

She's very cute in it.

Next up, we see Jim at Athlead. We find out that one of their biggest investors has requested a lunch meeting. And he just says, Hey guys, is it cool if we just do it a little early? Because, remember, I have to get back to Scranton today? And they're like, Sure, yeah, no problem.

He's very excited about Cece's ballet recital, He's taught her a signature move, the Cece spin and kiss, and he demonstrates it. He's very cute dad moment.

I absolutely love the guy who is walking in the background of this talking head.

Oh, no.

Did you see him? I watched it three times. No, I didn't see him. Oh my gosh, it's such good background acting.

Well, now we're gonna set up a Daryl Dwight storyline. Daryl arrives to dunder Mifflin. He has an athlete bag, and Dwight immediately is like, Why do you have that? why are you? And he calls the company stumpany, aka stupid company.

It made me laugh, too.

This is when Daryl tells Dwight that he's gonna work for Stumpany.

Uh-huh.

Dwight is shocked. He's so mad. He calls Jim. He's furious. He's like, Hey, Halpert, what's the big idea? First, you jump ship, now you're stealing Daryl, too.

I know.

It made me laugh so hard.

Well, now Pam is gonna approach accounting because she needs to ask Angela if she's heard anything about the Irish American Cultural Center mural. Guess what guys? Angela's husband, the senator, recommended Pam to be the artist for this big mural project in Scranton.

Yeah, I loved this callback. Remember the senator had come to the office with coffee during the target? During the target, it was in deleted scenes.

So we've got this great footage of the senator noticing Pam making her mural. Pam has a talking head where she says, Senator Lipton, help me submit my design for a new mural on a downtown building. And she's waiting to hear, you know, she's trying to downplay it. She's like, I mean, there are so many people they would go with.

Oh, Tracy Fleab.

Big time mural artist in Scranton, Yeah.

I know, for a fact, that Greg likes funny names, yeah, and I feel like a bunch of names were pitched and they loved Fleab, Tracy, Fleab.

Sorry to all the real fleabs out there, there are some.

I'm sure, but it is an interesting sounding name, it is Fleab.

You must know that.

Yes, if your last name is Fleab.

You know?

You know, it's like this family we knew growing up when we lived overseas. Their last name was Herb, herb, herb.

Like, basil isn't herb.

No like e-r-b herb.

Oh.

And guess what? The dad's first name was? I'm scared, Herb.

No, it wasn't, yes, it was stop it.

Herb, herb, come on, his name was herb, herb. His name was herb, herb, but I'm just saying, herb, herb knew he had a funny name.

Why did Herb Herb's parents do that to him?

Maybe they had a sense of humor.

That's a head shaker.

You're an herb, you're a fleab, dweeb, fleab. No, no one would do that.

No.

No herb, herb, it was real.

She doesn't. This is when Pam is gonna share that she's off to Cece's recital.

Oscar could not be less enthusiastic. He's like, Okay, whatever.

I have a question.

What?

Why is this dance recital in the middle of a work week? They often are no. Sometimes it must be a school thing.

I will say, though, in elementary, when they're really little, I mean, this is little, this is like preschool age, kindergarten age when they're really little. Sometimes their big events are like, at 1.30 or 2 p..m. And you do you have to scramble to get there as a working parent?

I mean, okay, I thought it was a little odd.

So after that, Pam, talking head about Tracy Fleab, there would have started this deleted storyline about Angela's weird bent foot. Remember that? Yes, and we talked about it with Kelly Cantlie when we interviewed her because she was my foot double one day and we both had to contort our feet. Well, when I was looking in my digital clutter for this episode, I mean, I know I've already shared a photo.

Oh boy.

I couldn't wait to open this email.

Okay, it starts with this. I had to get here super early for this random prosthetic foot gag that Greg loves, and I bet it won't even make it into the episode.

Oh, no, and it didn't.

And get this. A prosthetic specialist guy had to come to my house over Thanksgiving break to take measurements of my foot.

And this morning?

I had to meet with Phil, Shea and Alicia to figure out wardrobe that will go over the fake foot leg, and then we had to take photos of the fake foot leg. And it's only 9.30 a..m.

Oh boy, it's so great that you have these. Because this was like sort of pre-texting, where if you did want to fill someone in, you wrote it in an email, we would write emails.

Yes, and one of the reasons I emailed you rather than called you and vented is that you had the morning off and you had a baby.

Yeah, you had Weston.

And so I was like, I'm not gonna rant to her about this prosthetic, fake foot gag that Greg wants. I'm just gonna email her and she'll see it when she can.

Oh my goodness, well, you called it, it wasn't in the episode. You're like, all this effort. I interrupted my Thanksgiving break.

Well, now Pam and Cece are in the car and they call Jim, They call daddy. This is really cute, so sweet.

But this is where Pam is gonna find out that Jim is still in Philly and he's not gonna make the recital. This investor might back out and Jim can't leave.

So Jim says, Pam, will you please film the recital? And he sort of starts talking to her, kind of condescending, about how to film it, and she's like, Look, I know how to point a rectangle at something and film it.

And then he's like, Okay, and then it's time to say goodbye, and then there's this pause. And then he's like, Hey, Pam, you have to press end. Which is sort of meant to be like a dig at her phone skills.

Yeah.

Lady.

Why can't Jim just hang up the phone?

This is the scene.

Oh, that people were pissed off about.

For so many reasons, I saw the mail for this episode and I couldn't believe it. Where should I begin? I'll begin with Amanda C. from Montreal, Canada.

Let's see.

Samantha goes on to say, Who's the one who's really bad with the cell phone technology, huh? Spoiler alert Not Pam, another letter from Nora E. in New Orleans, Louisiana. I want to go on record to say that. The tipping point moment when Jim has clearly gone full ass was in this episode. When he's on the phone with Pam and he berates her for not hanging up the phone.

I love that she puts full in front of her curse word I know, full, I want to use that. He's gone, full ass, I know, I know.

So Ange, it's literally what you said, you said it, you're like, why can't he hang up the phone? This is just three of the letters we got about this moment. But this is very good foreshadowing for what is going to happen later. And I think an interesting dynamic in their relationship, which is that, and I think some relationships have this. They've got the gotcha person, Oh, I got to point out the little thing, gotcha.

It's petty.

Pettiness.

It's pettiness.

But Jim's in a mood, he's stressed he's not handling it well. In conclusion, I hope that us discussing it today on the podcast has brought some of you relief. Because the number of heated letters we got about this moment, I felt it.

We also asked Kelly Cantlie about directing this scene, and here's what she had to say.

Cece in the car Surprisingly, Cece in the car was really hard to shoot because Cece was a little girl. And little kids don't do lines. So Jenna, I don't know if you remember. We shot all of your dialogue and then we shot lots of, both of us taking turns, just saying the lines. I think we started with you doing it and then we wanted to go from you to the little girl, so we would see you talking. So you did it a few times, where you would just say her line and she would say it back. And I believe I did it a bunch of times on the speaker in the car.

I actually did remember that I had such a great rapport with those little girls. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm 50 now, which is the decade of tooting your own horn.

It's time to toot.

Bailey and Sienna, I just loved them so much. And we would do a thing where we would do like, repeat me. So I would say their line, and they would say their line. And we made a little game out of it, they did great.

I thought it was so cute. yeah, those girls were so cute.

Well, lady, I think we should take a break. And when we come back, I have a copy of Dwight's loyalty oath and everyone's coffee order.

Okay.

We are back, welcome back to office, ladies.

Is this another one of your-?

This is another one of my characters.

Oh my gosh.

I'm not sure who I am or what I am, but I think it's a good voice.

I think it's perfect for, like, maybe you're like a little tiny lizard that, like, lives. Yes, I live in a crevice. Yes, you live in a crevice.

Surprise.

Surprise that lizard is here.

Can anybody take this lizard voice and put it onto a lizard?

And we'll post it on Office Ladies pod.

In stories.

Not a feed post, just in stories.

Who are you?

What's your character? I don't know, I'm just trying to match you. Are you another like Amphibian?

What are you?

Who's that guy? The voice of reason guy? My character has wild ideas and has lots of enthusiasm.

My character doesn't always want to go with the flow.

No.

Horrible.

Lizard We're not writing it okay, we're just doing the voices for it.

Okay.

We're back and Nellie and Pete and Erin are celebrating their first real like. They've got a non-fake person to like. Dunder Mifflin, Yeah, and they are very excited.

They do their little handshake, it's really cute, and Nellie is like, Oh, no, what have I done? Yeah, she said. Andy is just starting to be nice to me.

And now I've driven his girlfriend.

Into the arms of a younger man. And she has CC'd Andy on all the incriminating correspondence in which she tells them not to hold back. To make sure their social media presence is hot, hot, hot.

Yeah, she says. I did everything.

But unzip their pants for them.

And now she's on a mission to undo all of it.

I have to point out, in the background of Nellie's talking head, you know, we were always doing background for each other. Super cutesy background, like Pete and Erin are just continuing, very animated, flirty, handshaky, cutesiness.

Dwight is now gonna announce that he's ordering coffee for the whole team and presents a signup sheet. Phyllis looks below the top flap and discovers it's actually a loyalty pledge. She's trying to be sneaky and get them to sign it.

Well after this episode aired, NBC released a copy of Dwight's loyalty pledge, and here's what it had to say. By writing my name in the column below, I do hereby resolve to swear an oath of loyalty and obedience to Dunder Mifflin and its affiliates. Here and after company for life plus 10 years, my loyalty and priorities will be wholly with company and no side projects or extracurricular endeavors. Aka moonlighting at dumb sounding companies, including, but not limited to athlete.

Can I just say I feel like he had to put no pizza because it's come up before, they've had a coffee order and someone has also asked for pizza.

Yes, all right. Here is the coffee order for the folks at Dunder Mifflin. Phyllis ordered a banana fruit smoothie, Stanley ordered a small decaf, Daryl ordered a double latte, lots of latte.

Pete Is that different from a cappuccino?

I think it's what Kevin thinks is a cappuccino, he wrote. Captain Chino.

Okay, okay.

Pete ordered a cappuccino with cinnamon, Clark ordered a tall and black, like my women, Nellie ordered a black tea any with lemon like my men. Aaron ordered a vanilla blendy thing. Five sugars, happy face, Meredith ordered an Irish coffee, Extra Irish.

Angela did not order any, No, she didn't.

Angela Martin and Angela Kinsey don't wanna be part of your coffee order?

Angela Martin does not wanna be stimulated.

She doesn't, and Angela Kinsey doesn't drink coffee.

And Angela Kinsey doesn't drink coffee. Dwight now bursts into the annex and he says, Clark, I need any complaints pertaining to Daryl in the past few weeks? I want it broken down by keywords, and Clark's like, Listen, that's gonna be tough. We use Windows 95..

The scene where Dwight goes into Clark and tells him to print all the complaints. I looked and looked at that scene and I could not figure out how it was gonna be funny. Until we shot it. And Matt Soane, brilliant operator, dropped the camera down to just over the machine, onto Dwight and Clark. And then I thought it was just so funny, it makes me laugh every time I see it.

I think this scene is so funny because it is the callback to Clark being frustrated by our just dinosaur technology.

Yeah, talk about old tech, he's surrounded by old tech. Dwight is now gonna hold a conference room meeting about customer loyalty. What is it? Can you hold it in your hand?

This whole time, a man has been sitting at the front of the conference room. Dwight is now going to introduce him as Mr. Romanco. A client of 20 years who came in today enraged at Daryl, who was distracted because he was working on outside projects.

And Mr Romanco is like, No, no, no, I wouldn't classify this as rage. He seems a bit confused. Well, there was a scene that would have come previous to this that sort of explains it all and set up the whole scene.

When we get back to the conference room, Daryl is gonna say, I'm so sorry. We were a day late on your delivery, but two of our trucks were down for repairs. And I don't see this ever happening again. And Mr. Romanco is like, Fine, great, he's satisfied with that answer.

Yeah, he's like, good for me. Dwight's like, No. Mr. Romanco is angry, and Daryl forgot that loyalty is the key to relationships. Well, Nellie is gonna be like, I agree.

Yes.

She sees her way out now and she's gonna take it, she says. Loyalty is everything, and they should all ask themselves if they've been faithful in their relationships. Stanley is like, Uh-uh, he's not gonna participate in this conversation. Nellie says Daryl is dating Dunder Mifflin, but flirting with Athlete on the side.

Then they start using Aaron as an example, like, what would it be like if Aaron, who is in a relationship with Andy, was flirting with someone on the side? Like, maybe creed, and Creed's like, he's so funny, He's like, Yeah, I'll play that out. He's like, Sure, yeah.

Let's play that out.

And imagine, during all of this.

Poor Mr. Romanco is just like, Can I go?

And this conference room scene was so fun to shoot. We broke and laughed several times. And I loved this little brief exchange between Angela and Aaron. I wanna play it well. I think it would be immoral for Aaron to cheat on Andy.

Oh, I'm sorry, didn't you cheat on Andy?

Yes, and he didn't like it.

I loved that, too, I loved when you said, yes.

And he didn't like it very much, yes, he should have really put out, and he didn't like it. One of our favorite things as a cast we've talked about this before, is to have a big group scene where everyone has a moment. And this was one of those scenes. Everyone in the conference room had something hilarious that they contributed.

Yes, and by the way, Mr. Romanco was great.

Yes, guest star Shout out to Mr. Romanco. Played by Bob Blooberman, he was originally a lawyer who left law to become an actor in 1995..

Well, Bob has crossover connections with both you and I. You wanna hear him?

Yes, Bob and I have both had roles.

On Spin City and Strong Medicine and Angela, your crossover connections are hot in Cleveland, New Girl and Fresh off the Boat. Bob. We've worked on so many of the same shows. I know. He's appeared in over 100 TV shows, dozens of commercials and voiceover spots.

Bob, hook us up.

Yeah.

We have so many voices.

We can do a lot.

Hey, now listen, Bob, I got this guy too, I can do this one. He works at a tire shop, Tim's Tire Town.

I always say, if you're gonna get your beauty done, get your beauty done right.

That's what she says, See, look at us.

What can't we do?

Bob Probably voiceover.

Well, should we head on over to Cece's recital because it is underway?

Yes, it is, and I have a few more things to share about this day. Kelly had made sure I had the day off, so when we filmed these scenes, I could be there just right off camera.

You had to be, I know.

That morning, the girls got to go through hair and makeup, they were very excited. I have adorable pictures of these tiny little ladybugs in those big hair and makeup chairs, and they look so tiny in them. Debbie and Sherry in hair and makeup took such great care of them.

Well, what I loved about our hair and makeup, folks, Angela, is that, you know, these little girls didn't really need hair and makeup.

No.

But they fussed over them.

Yes.

They made it an event. This day was like a whole event for these little girls. So they would like maybe put their hair in a ponytail or pigtails or something, but they would linger.

Yeah.

And they would brush their faces even if there wasn't any makeup on it. It was the cutest thing.

It was so cute, in fact, one time Isabel was on set and I think I've shared this before. And I think my forehead was shiny. They said, Angela, you have a little bit of shine, and they powdered my forehead. So Isabel walked into the hair and makeup and she said to Sherry, Can I get a little shine?

So sweet, well, the location of this recital was the 20th Century Women's Club in Eagle Rock. And I asked Steve Burgess what was involved on the production end. When you have a bunch of little kids on set. Because I know they can only work certain hours, they have to have breaks, they have to have tutors, they have to have a parent or guardian.

It was very short and they did have a big room for everyone with chairs. And the girls, like, I mean, literally they had coloring books and crayons and little games, and we all hung out together. And when I rewatched the episode with my daughter and we watched the dancing. She's right in the middle at the very first opening shot. It's her and Maya, and they're right in the middle next to Cece. And she's like, Oh, mom, Maya knew the dance perfectly.

Well, while the recital is going on, Pam is in the audience and she's filming, but guess what, she gets a phone call.

Yes, and she's so excited.

It's the city of Scranton.

Yes, she got the job painting the mural over Tracy Fleab.

She got the job.

Well, the other parents around her are not pleased that she took this phone call. They're shushing her, They're saying you are very rude, very rude.

Well, when you watch this, you might think their reactions kind of are harsh, right? There were a few vignettes that led up to this moment. First of all, Pam tries to get a seat in the front row.

I remember this.

It's in deleted scenes, and she asks the man she ends up sitting next to if he can move his son. So they put his son on his lap.

His kind of too big to sit on your lap, son.

To make a space for Pam. So that's the first thing she did. And then she's trying to get a better shot. And she's kind of like crawling on the floor, like she's kind of being annoying.

I remember all that.

So by the time she gets the phone call, people have had it with her, yes.

Well, special guest star Alert, the angry, shushing mom and dad were played by people we know. But I'll let Kelly Cantlie tell you all about it.

Interesting trivia about the Ladybug recital. Brian Whittle, our actual boom op for multiple seasons of The Office, plays the man sitting next to Pam, and then Stephanie Lesch Farrell, Sean Farrell's wife. One of our set decks, plays the woman sitting next to Brian. Also, Brian Whittle appears three times in the credits of that episode. Brian's playing the man at the recital.

Brian Whittle, You're all over the place in this episode. I know I do love that. The character of the Boom operator's name is Brian Whittle.

First and last name I know of the real guy.

Of one of the real boom operators for the show.

You know, this brings me to a fan question from Lindsay A. in Thousand Oaks, California, who said My question is, why is there all of a sudden a boom operator? They've had lapel mics this whole time, and out of nowhere, there's a boom operator who's been doing sound for Pam this whole time. Well, Lindsay, I think this was something that, like, we knew as actors or making a show, which is that you wear a mic pack and you have a boom operator.

Always, always, even when Josh and I do our little baking videos at home. We have a Lav mic kit that we bought, so we put the little mics on our shirts. But then he has one boom mic, basically, he just puts on a tripod because we don't have a person to hold it.

Yeah, you get the atmosphere of the room on the boom mic as well.

Yeah.

And a lot of times, for the most part on our show, it was the boom sound that you heard. The LAV mics were backup, yeah.

But it's a really good question. Good question. Well, Dwight and Daryl bid farewell to Mr. Romanco, and Dwight asked Daryl if he's ready to tell Jim to go screw himself, but Daryl says No. Athlete is my future.

Yep, well, back in the conference room, we are still going over this Aaron Peet thing. Phyllis is on Team Peet.

Yeah, do you wanna know the moment in the scene that we kept breaking and couldn't get past?