A Look Back on Murder
2024-03-27 01:06:48
The Office co-stars and best friends, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey, are doing the ultimate The Office re-watch podcast for you. Each week Jenna and Angela will break down an episode of The Office and give exclusive behind the scene stories that only two people who were there, can tell you.
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Com Slash Ladies today to get 10 off your first month, that's betterhelp H-e-l-p dot com slash ladies.
I'm Jenna Fisher.
And I'm Angela Kinsey.
We were on the office together and we're best friends, and now we're doing the ultimate office rewatch podcast just for you.
Each week, we will break down an episode of The Office and give exclusive behind the scenes stories that only two people who were there can tell you.
We're the office ladies.
Good morning, good morning.
Good afternoon, good evening.
You're very peppy for such a serious subject.
I am really excited about this episode.
Everyone, it's murder.
Oh, dun, dun, dun.
Season Six, Episode 10, Written by Daniel Chun and directed by Greg Daniels. And we have a special treat this week for you for our summary. We do.
Okay, so you guys, you know, I have a big Southern family, we're spread out between Louisiana and Texas, and I know it's not Savannah, Georgia, but my sister Billie Jo, has a great Southern accent. And I asked her to read our summary today, and she did. Here it is.
I do declare there's been a murder. Michael attempts to distract his employees with a murder mystery party after everyone hears rumors that the company might be going bankrupt. Jim wants everyone to keep working and is frustrated by Michael's game. Meanwhile, Andy attempts to ask Erin out on a date.
Angela, she nailed it.
She nailed it, Jenna. I was so tickled by this. I knew I wanted someone in my family because this episode partly takes place in Savannah, Georgia. Yeah, so I knew I would want someone from my southern family to give the summary a go.
And thank you, Billie. thank you Billie for giving it a shot.
Well, she can do the summary anytime, Ange.
BILlie Jo, Did you hear that? Right now? She's like, No, no, no, no, no. somewhere she's yelling, No, no, no.
Well, let's get into fast facts.
Fast fact number one is all about our new writer for this episode, Daniel Chun. We know him as Danny. He started on the writing staff for season six. He was a supervising producer, and this was his first script Danny had previously written on the Simpsons for six years.
I was able to get back in touch with him, which was so fun. And he told me that he knew a lot of the office writers socially, just through the comedy writing community, he knew B.J. for a long time. He said that he loved being at the Simpsons, but he kind of felt like 80 of working on that show was just punching up jokes unless you were the showrunner. So he didn't get to do a lot of long-form writing there, I guess.
He said he was really hungry for a different challenge. BJ had always been a big supporter of his writing, and he showed Mindy and Paul some stuff that Danny had written just for fun on myspace.
Remember Myspace?
No way, oh my God, yeah.
He said That gives you a sense of how long ago this was. But the stuff he had written on Myspace got him a meeting, they brought him in. And that's how he got hired to be one of our writers for season six.
See, guys, you never know, you never know, yeah, all that stuff that you're writing.
If it's a blog, if it's a vlog, I don't even know all the logs you're creating it.
All the logs out there, all of them.
Someone could see it, yes, so fast. Fact number two I was able to talk to Danny a little bit about the inspiration for this episode of murder. What was it?
He said This was a card on the wall.
What did the card say?
The card, said Michael, makes everyone play a murder mystery game. It was one of the pitches they had come up with over the summer. He also remembered a card that never got made. It was this. They go on a ski trip and someone makes a huge stain on the wall.
Ew.
I know, but he was pointing out like, this is how simple a card could be. But they picked this one and then they had to figure out how, why, what happens. How is this a whole episode?
So on Mom Detectives, a card could be two ladies on a train with a succulent.
Yes, and that has to be a whole episode.
That's an episode, yeah.
Now you have to turn that into something. Yeah, Danny said. They also for season six had all of these mini arcs that they were going to add to the season. Those are little stories that take place over several episodes, and one of those ideas was that Dunder Mifflin was going to go bankrupt.
And another one was that Jim would get this co-manager position. That's already happened. But this episode of the murder mystery game, they thought it tied in really well with that mini arc of Dunder Mifflin going out of business.
Oh, for sure, so there is a DVD commentary for this episode, Oh so. It features Ellie Kemper, Danny Chun and Greg Daniels, and they talked a little bit about this episode, setting up three major arcs.
Like, exactly what you're saying? The crumbling of Dunder, Mifflin, The Sale to Saber and Andy and Erin.
Yes, the Andy and Erin, you're right, that's another one. Danny also told me that the writers played one of these murder mystery games for research in the writer's room. He said They noticed that in all of the games, the people had silly pun names.
So they knew they were going to have to do that. There was a CD with a narrator that would help you along, he said. In the game they played, his character was a Frenchman, and so he was stumbling through a French accent while they were playing. And that kind of gave them the idea that they should have a game where everybody has to have accents.
He also said that they originally thought that this game could be murder in Little Italy, but they were afraid that would feel too much like the Mafia episode. And so that's when they pitched the game be set in Savannah. Well, Danny said. Mainly, he just remembered feeling like the game was not that much fun. It involved a lot of acting and so he thought about that.
And he thought that's why people like Andy and Michael would like the game. I just really like how much playing this game in the writer's room informed them, you know?
Yeah.
Because Danny was like, I don't like playing this game, I don't like doing an accent, and it's too much acting. I feel like he now could write very well for Angela.
And Stanley?
Yeah, but he's like, somebody would like this, I guess. Andy and Michael.
I thought this was an amazing episode. So Danny, my gosh, your first one out of the gate home run.
I really liked it, too. All right, fast. Fact number three Angela is a fan question from Megan H. in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Who would like to know if either of us have ever done a murder mystery event like in the show?
Great question.
I actually have a story.
Jenna, do you have one?
I do, too. Okay, you go first. Oh, okay.
I was once invited to a dinner party where they said there will be dinner and then we will be playing a game as a group.
Did they say what the game was?
No, oh, and when I got there at dinner, the host explained the game while we ate our meal. Guess who the hosts were who?
Oscar Nunez.
What?
Yes, and his wife Ursula Oscar hosted you for a murder mystery game night. Yes, was this before this episode or after before this episode?
Oh my gosh, so the game was called Mafia.
Oh yeah, this is really a popular game. This was like all the rage in Los Angeles for a very long time. I don't know if this went over the whole country, but people were crazy about this game.
Crazy about it. And they had the rules. I was actually texting with Ursula yesterday, I was like, Ursula, what did you guys call it? because in my memory, they called it killer.
And she goes, No, Ursula. It was called mafia, yes, and so there were about 10 of us at the dinner party. And there's a few different ways you can play this, but the way we played, it was there was one mafia, one killer, a detective, a doctor and a narrator.
And then you had the civilians.
Okay.
And the narrator kind of moves it along the narrator's who knows who's who, right?
Oh, okay, because that seems like not as much fun of a part.
It actually is, I've been the narrator before, and it's kind of fun. Oh, okay, go ahead.
I never played Mafia, which I kind of can't believe, because I'm a sucker for these games.
I want us to do this. Oh my gosh, Earwolf Company party woo, we play mafia. have you guys played it?
Sam Cassie, Have you played mafia?
No, I haven't, but I do remember the absolute stranglehold that it had over everybody for a while. Oh yeah, wordle or animal crossing at that time, yes.
Everybody was in it, everyone was playing it. So, in Mafia, the game is divided into two phases day and night. During the night, everyone closes their eyes and the narrator awakens each role, so the narrator starts with the mafia person. Lets them know who it is, because in each round, it's someone new, right?
And as the mafia person, the way you kill someone is you wink at them, so you have to be real sneaky. At least that's how we played it. And then the doctor can choose to save someone or not. And the civilians have to try to figure out, because every time they awaken, someone is dead.
Oh, right, because the mafia person kills someone each time, so the civilians begin questioning each other, and there's a detective role.
But I imagine, though, also the mafia person is, and the doctor they're pretending everyone's pretending to be a civilian, yes, right?
Yes, and it's so much fun. And one time I was the mafia person and no one figured me out. But what does that say?
It says you were very good at pretending to be a civilian.
You're diabolical.
It was really, really fun, but yes, I played a version of this murder mystery with Oscar in real life.
Wow, before this episode.
Before this episode.
That's very cool, I know.
Is that crazy? I did not have to wear a funny hat or have an accent, I should say.
I guess you could have chosen to. Well, it is very funny that you say that, Angela, because I did a mini deep dive on the murder mystery game genre. And they believe that it began in the first half of the 19th century with a party game called Wink Murder. Oh.
Yeah.
One player is secretly selected as a murderer, and they kill other players by winking at them. That's what we did. If you get killed, you have to count to five before you die. Yes, right?
Is this it?
Yes, because you can't just give it away, so you have to, like, make a moment of it.
This is so weird.
Is mafia just based on wink murder? So far, it's sounding like it. I will say this if you play mafia with your friends and you're the murderer and you're not good at winking.
Oh, no, I never thought of that.
Like me, I think I'm good with one eye.
You just winked at me great with both eyes. Did I really? Yeah, you did fine. Oh well, I'm sorry.
I watched you closer this time.
The right eye.
You do regular wink with this eye, and then the other eye, you go.
I know, so I can wink in normal speed with one eye, but the other one is like, boink, boink. yeah, boink, boink.
I can see you concentrating on it.
To try to wink.
Yeah.
So you got to figure out what's your good eye.
Well, I have never played mafia, I have never played a murder mystery game. Yeah, what's your story? But I was an actor, what?
In murder Mystery Dinner theater, come on, yep.
Is there any footage of that? can I see any of that?
I have a photo of myself in my crushed velvet gown. I played several parts in several different shows. This was my very first paid live theater acting gig. I did it in St. Louis, Missouri, at the Lemp Mansion.
A bunch of people would come in.
Wait, was it like an old mansion? like a haunted, sort of cool like old mansion?
Yeah, and I even had a ghost encounter there.
Come on.
While I was working there, I did, I did, I saw the Lavender Lady.
Come on, I did.
What is the Lavender Lady?
I don't know.
I didn't know who the Lavender Lady was, but I was in what was one of the rooms of the house that they designated for the actors to change in. And no one was supposed to come in there because that was our changing room. And I heard the door open behind me, and I looked up in the mirror. In front of me and behind me. By the door, I saw a woman and I said, I'm sorry, you can't be in here.
And when I turned around, there was nothing there, the lavender Lady, so I was fired up. I went to the owner of the place and I said, Listen, if you're gonna give us a place to change our clothes, you need to make sure it's secure. A woman walked right into that room.
And he said, no one was in that area. And I said, Well, explain to me how this woman walked in. He said, What'd she look like? and I said, Well, she was. I kind of tried to describe her. I was like, as I was describing her, I realized, like, I was like, she's wearing a big hat and like a dress.
And sort of, I realized I was describing an old timey lady.
And then his face got all white and he was like, Oh my gosh, you saw the lavender lady.
What?
Yeah.
I'm out at that point, I'm bye-bye bye dinner, theater career, I have to go entertain folks.
They're on their salad course. I've got to get out there and tell them a murder has happened.
Wow.
Yeah.
Oh my gosh, that's creepy.
Yeah.
You did dinner theater, lady, you did theater, while someone was like, buttering a baguette.
Well, here's the thing. We did it between courses, so we'd bring everybody in, we'd sit them down. They're getting their drinks, we're handing out slips of paper.
It was our job during this mingle to find the people who seemed outgoing enough to play the major roles. Because you don't want to give-.
Wait, the people eating dinner play a part.
Oh, yes, everybody gets a part, everybody has a funny name. Someone in the room is the murderer. Oh, I didn't realize that.
I thought you were performing a murder mystery while people ate dinner and watched you.
No interactive improvisation slash scripted. We had jokes, we had to keep people kind of on the plot, but you'd walk people to their table, waiters giving them a drink.
You're hobnobbing with them in character, and you find the people that seem like they can play the different roles. And then you've got these slips of paper and you hand it to them. And then later you'd be like, Where's Bobby Oylton, Bobby Oylton?
Oh, yes, I saw you when you came in, Bobby. What do you have to say for yourself? And then he has to read off of his little slip of paper You were Michael Scott.
Yes, I sort of was, you were Caleb Crawdad. I was sort of Caleb Crawdad. Yeah, wow.
Yeah, so I did that for two years, but I got 50 bucks a night. That was like good money for acting, for doing what I loved.
I need mom detectives to go to a murder mystery dinner theater. Put it on a card, Jenna.
Yeah, we should investigate the Lavender Lady sighting. Yes, we'll get to the bottom of it.
We will, but we'll have to be in character to wear outfits.
Yes, because we'll pretend like we're part of the dinner theater.
We'll pretend we're part of the show.
My God, it writes itself, My God, if I see this on TV one day, I'm gonna be so pissed, I'm gonna kick someone's ass.
If it's not you and I.
I know.
Kicking some butts.
All right, let's take a break and call our agents.
We're back and today only Dwight Schrute presents this year in martial arts, Colon updates, advancements, and et cetera.
Yes, like Jim said, there's always lots of changes to the 1000 year old martial arts traditions.
Dwight's gonna start with Phyllis. I clock some moves. Phyllis charges Dwight with what looks to be a two finger eye jab. Dwight stops her with an arm block that I guess would have broken her arm, and then he's gonna flip her over.
Yeah, he tries to engage Kevin, Kevin's a big no, and all of this is gonna lead to Dwight fighting himself.
Yes.
I'd like to point out in this scene, at 39 seconds, Meredith is wearing the designer sweater vest again.
I clocked that, too.
I mean, I feel like this is some sort of personal trolling of me.
Well, I have a few tidbits about this cold open.
Oh, really, I have some as well. Well, I'll start by saying we got a lot of mail of people asking if Dwight's self fight was choreographed. And I would like to tell you guys, that was all Rainn Wilson.
Bravo Rainn. Yes, he came up with all of those moves based on descriptions in the script. We did have our stunt coordinator, Eric Solke, on board for the day just to make sure that Rainn didn't actually hurt himself.
Well, in the DVD commentary, Dani shared that the original version of this cold open ended, with Dwight and Michael kicking each other in the groin.
Oh.
Yeah, but instead, they went with a pitch from Jen Salata, where Dwight fights himself instead.
It still ends with Dwight punching himself in the groin, but it was originally scripted to be a self kick in the groin. It said this.
How do you kick yourself in the groin?
Exactly.
Yeah.
Here's what the script said. Quote Dwight snaps his leg up and kicks himself in the balls. Dwight's face shows equally the pain of the kick and the pride of winning.
That's so great.
On the day, they realized there was no way for Rainn to self kick himself in the balls, that it was just sort of physically impossible. However, Dani said in an interview that Greg was convinced there was a way to do it. If maybe they could attach a strap to Rainn's leg, that would help sort of hoist it up. Somehow. He even sketched it out on the back of his script, which is a very Greg move. Can't you see Greg turning a script over? And, like, sketching out the self groin kick strap?
Here's how it works, here's the mechanics.
I want that sketch, and I want it in a frame. Where is that sketch?
In the end, obviously this was not happening, so they had Rainn punch himself in the groin.
Greg shared that he really enjoyed directing The Cold Open and the tag for this episode. Because they were like mini action movies, or the closest thing our show got to. Little action sequences. And Jenna Ellie shared something she said The Cold Open was filmed the morning of the Emmys.
Oh so, after Rainn beat himself up, he had to go to the Emmys.
We all did.
Wow, we worked that day.
We have shared this before that many times. We worked right up until an event and we would have to get ready at the set.
Yeah, and the Emmys were traditionally on a Monday night.
Yeah.
Which was rough because it would be like the beginning of your work week, oh, and you'd be wrecked for the whole rest of the week. Wow.
We worked this day and then we went to the Emmys.
Oh, one last thing.
I have a Dwight flyer count, Oh, because clearly you need to have multiple flyers for your year in martial art update.
Mm-hmm.
We have one on each of Jim's glass walls, and we have one on the door. By accounting three in view during the whole cold Open. I don't know about the rest of the bullpen.
Or the kitchen or the break room.
I know.
I'm sure they're everywhere.
They're not there for the rest of the episode, but there's three visible for the Cold Open.
Well, now we're gonna get into this episode. It opens with some weird banter between Michael and Andy about sculpting standup comedy, and it's interrupted by Dwight receiving an email. And Michael's like, You need to be more specific. I get like eight emails a day.
Eight, Jenna, he gets eight.
It's really weird that before we started recording today, we were discussing our email inboxes.
Yeah, so guys. Sam and Jenna are really tidy about their email inbox, like they get to zero. And then they asked me what my inbox said, and my inbox says 1,582..
And Sam and I are still processing that.
And we're it gave you, like hives for a minute.
Yeah, we're having a hard time.
I don't mean this as an attack. Uh-oh, but the way you live is chaos. Ha ha ha ha ha.
Sam's at zero right now, I'm at 10. Unread emails.
Actually, do you remember? In the break? There was a great Jenna moment where you were looking for an email and you couldn't find it? And Jenna goes, Oh, I'm sorry, can you not?
Yeah, I was like, Oh, you can't find the email I sent you? uh-huh, I think I sent it on Monday or Tuesday.
Well, I got a few emails since I last checked and now I'm 1,583.
See, you do what Lee does, which is, if you can tell that. It's something you don't need to read, like it's I don't know an ad or something. You don't delete it, you just skip it and then it stays unread.
Yes.
I delete those, I don't want that cluttering me. No, you do it right.
That's the way you should do it.
But if it doesn't bother you, then you're not doing it wrong. It would bother me if I did it your way.
Well, Michael only gets eight, so I guess he's not super stressed out.
I guess he's not. The email that Dwight is talking about is from David Wallace, and it is referring to an article in the journal. I mean, the wall, as Michael calls it.
Yeah, oh, the wall, right?
Oscar finds the article, but in order to read it, you have to pay an extra $1.
99 to get past the paywall.
Danny shared that they spent like five hours researching the rules of the Wall Street Journal's paywall at that time. He said Apparently, if you're referencing a specific publication, you cannot make up a fact like that, that's not true.
Oh so, at that time, that was the rule of the paywall. Interesting, why did it take five hours to get that information?
I think they just had to get it correctly and Jenna, they didn't have the Google back then.
They had Google back then, it was like 2009.
They didn't have the same search engines we had. Yeah, 100 they did.
How like old do you think Google is?
It's new, Google is new.
I'm gonna google. When did Google start?
Well, I don't know why it took them five hours, but that's what he said on the DVD commentary. They had to be thorough. Jenna, what were you googling in 2009? Don't put this on us any number. I'm not saying you, I'm saying people listening.
Hold on.
What did you google in 2009?
Google started September 4th, 1998.
But their search engine?
I'm gonna get more specific.
Thank you. When did the Google search engine really come into effect?
Not really come into effect.
When did people start using the Google search engine?
1998.
And it really became popular around 2000.
Thank you Sam, I don't believe it. No one was googling until, like, two years ago.
Yeah.
Okay, everyone. Angela discovered Google a couple of years ago.
Listen, I don't know why. It took them five hours, but they clearly had to get it right. Maybe they had to get on the phone with someone. I'm not judging our writers. Jenna.
I just thought it was a long time.
Well, Jenna's judging you guys.
Here's what I wanna point out about this scene. As we're all gathered around the computer and everybody's reading this article off of Oscar's computer, we're learning that Dunder Mifflin might be, I guess, going into debt, going under filing for bankruptcy. Yeah, Angela, this entire scene, you are blocking me. you cannot see my face in this scene because you are standing directly in front of me.
And then, finally, you move out of the way and John blocks me.
I took pictures. Did you take a picture?
Yes, I did. It was so funny to me because one of you is blocking me the whole time.
We talked that morning and we were like, Today is the day, John, you and I. I'm gonna wear my three-inch heels and I'm gonna make sure I block that shot.
Here I put them all together.
We really are. Why didn't anyone say anything?
I don't know, so we don't know how Pam feels about this article, because we can never see her. You can't see her face, sorry.
I rarely was able to block anyone. Personal victory, I guess, I know well. What's funny is they all stop at the $1.99. They're like, Oh, I guess we're not gonna know what really happens with the company.
And then Jim enters in his information.
Yes.
This sends Michael on a spiral, and he calls David Wallace, but David's in a meeting. I was curious about two moments in this scene.
Okay.
One was, I was wondering if Steve was in a meeting and Steve improvised the way he said you should spy on him. Wouldn't that be so hilarious?
Okay.
I was like, Did they tell Steve to say it like that? I went to the script and it said on that line in parentheses Valley girl, Oh yeah.
So they did give him sort of a line read.
Yes, the other thing I was curious about was the line in the script. When Michael says, Catch you on the flip.pity flip. I was like, that sounds like something Steve would improvise, No?
So that line was in the script, too.
And Danny shared on the DVD commentary that Gene Stupnitsky actually pitched Catch you on the flippity flip for a different episode. And the writers loved it. But it didn't make it in, so they kept trying to get this line in, oh my gosh, episode after episode, and they finally got it in.
Well, you know, when Michael goes to the bathroom and he's been vomiting, but then he tries to tell Kevin he was just pooping. We had a fan question from Kelly C in Michigan, who wrote the line Just pooping. You know how I be? That was Danny, Danny said. It's one of the lines he's most proud of.
It's a great line.
Oh, I also wanted to say one more thing. Angela back in the office when Michael calls and tries to get in touch with David Wallace. Once again. We had Suzanne Watson as the voice of David's assistant, Stephanie, and she's always great.
So great. So in the script, Jenna, they built in more scenes to show Michael really spiraling. You know, he calls David, he vomits in the bathroom. He also just starts pacing in front of Erin's reception, waiting for the phone call, waiting to see if she signals him that someone's calling. It's so funny.
I want to play it for you. It's in the deleted scenes, the first part I'm calling. Michael is pissed.
If it's not for me, don't make it look like it's for me. Okay, I'm sorry because I'm going to shit my pants. Okay, I'm sorry, it's my fault.
Michael, I'm sorry before.
That I did not know what you were talking about. Don't okay, Do you want anything? Don't even talk? Don't even talk to me, okay?
All right, if they do call, don't only if they call me, then talk to me. Okay, if it's anything else. Or if you want to apologize to me for calling me when they weren't calling, then don't do that. All right.
Do you understand? you're very, very nice? but you're really, you're kind of pissing me off, Okay, it's hard.
Did she laugh at the end?
No, I thought she said, sorry, so her sorry looks like she's about to laugh, but then she turns it into, like a cry.
And then poor Erin.
She's so confused by Michael. It continues, and you've got to hear it. Don't cry, don't cry, please.
Don't cry.
Everybody's sort of high strung, so chalk it up to that.
We're all in it together.
Well, don't laugh either, just don't cry and don't laugh good, all right.
It's such a funny moment. Oh my gosh. I love the dynamic between those two, They really did a good job of creating a different dynamic than what Pam and Michael had. Yeah, I mean, she so earnestly wants to help him.
She so earnestly wants to be liked by him.
Yeah.
And Michael? with Pam, it's the reverse. Michael wants to be in Pam's life.
Yes.
Well, instead of all that, he's going to go into his office and play the Sean Mullins song, Lullaby. I found out from Randy Cordray that it cost us $45,000 to have this song in the show, to have this clip.
Well, I have a background catch at five minutes 29 seconds. Michael says he needs more mullins, and he hits the volume button on his keyboard repeatedly.
Okay.
Greg shared that they worked really hard in editing to get that sound to match, Steve hitting the keyboard, and Danny shared that. After the episode aired, the comment boards were full of people saying that that was a Mac sound and Michael is using a PC. Oh my gosh, is that funny?
Yes, oh wow, they picked the wrong volume up. Sound. Well, Jim's going to come in during all of this.
He's like, Michael, you have to pull it together. Like, basically, he's saying, you're our leader, and if you're freaking out, it's freaking out everyone. We need to just make this a normal day.
What's on the agenda? Michael's like, Well, we're supposed to have a staff meeting, and Jim's like, great.
Right?
Everyone in the conference room Have we ever seen Jim so excited to go into the conference room before?
No, but he says he only slacks off when things are good. So I guess, you know, when the hits the fan, he becomes very professional.
It's so funny because I feel like people would be equally freaked out by Jim suddenly having a work ethic.
They'd be like, uh-oh, uh-oh, what's happening? Stuff is bad.
Jim wants to work.
Yeah, mom is getting serious. What's going on exactly?
In the conference room, Jim addresses the group at five minutes 56 seconds. Ryan is wearing glasses. That was my big takeaway.
Ryan is wearing glasses and everyone's in the conference room, but Kelly?
Where's Kelly?
Where is Kelly? Let me tell you she's only in one scene this entire episode.
What was she doing?
Where was Mindy?
I don't know.
Michael has to leave the conference room to take a phone call. And Dwight has one of my favorite lines in the episode.
What is it?
He says, He needs me. Seat saved Infinity.
Aw.
Our kids saved seats, they're still in that phase of their life, We're like, I want that seat, that's my seat, seat, saved infinity.
Dwight came to play.
Well, Michael's gonna come back. His phone call was bad news. ANGELA Yeah, very bad news. There's been a murder in Savannah.
And that was the end of the Act break.
It was supposed to be, they were supposed to go to commercial.
And then when they were editing.
They thought that would be stressful.
They thought it would be mean also to the audience.
But instead, we have this Michael talking head, where we also see him going through his closet, he's looking for something.
His office armoire.
Yes, there are many games inside and we realize there has not been a real murder, but we're gonna play a murder mystery game.
Yes, because Michael thinks games help distract you in stressful situations.
Yes.
Did you see the games in his armoire?
I did.
Let's read them off.
All right, I don't know if we wrote them in the same order.
Well, you do one, I'll do one.
All right, connect four.
Stratego.
Operation.
Trouble.
Sorry.
Risk.
Battleship, that's it, that's what I had.
Me too, well. The game he brings in to the conference room is called Bell's Bourbon and Bullets, a murder mystery dinner party game.
Yes, we got a lot of mail. People wanted to know, is this a real game? can I buy it? can I play it? Well? It was a made-up game.
The box and all the cards and the props inside were created just for our episode. The box and the logos were designed by our new graphic designer. Henry Sane and Phil Shea worked with Danny Chun to come up with all of the props and paraphernalia that each character would have. And Randy even shared with us that the box and cards were printed by Phil's go-to prop manufacturing company, called the Hand Prop Room.
Now we know where all this stuff comes from. Well, they crushed it. I thought it looked so amazing, I zoomed in on it. I love the catchphrase on the front.
What was it? Everything you need to have a deadly good time. Ooh, ooh. And there was like a fan with blood on it and like a pistol and a glass of bourbon. I love it.
Jim is not for this, Jim does not want this, but Michael's like, you owe me one.
Tube City.
Tube City Yeah, he shut down Tube City, so he owes Michael one. Tube City is a bunch of tubes with a hamster inside that was gonna go all over the whole office. We had a fan question from Emmy in Baltimore, Maryland, who set up Tube City.
Phil Shea Yes, Emmy, yes. And the hamsters were provided by Bob Dunn's animal services. Denise Sanders was our hamster wrangler.
Greg shared they only had half an hour to shoot the whole b-roll of Tube City. Oh my gosh, not a lot of time, no. And he said that this whole b-roll idea was kind of an afterthought. And so they really didn't have a ton of time to do it.
Tube City made me laugh out loud.
Laugh so hard.
The little hamster in the very end, cute little hamster nose coming out of there, I know well. Back in the conference room, Michael plays the recording that sets up the whole murder mystery game. And I am so sorry to say that, despite my googling.
That you just learned how to do in, like the last five years.
Just a couple years ago and Randy's research, we could not find the name of the person whose voice is on the tape anywhere. So listen, if you are the voice of bells, bullets and bourbon, will you let us know? You can write to us at officeladiesatearwolf..com.
We'd love to hear from you. Well, this is what the voice on the CD player said Should I do it in an accent?
Please, please, Angela.
Okay, who knows how this is gonna go? August the 5th, 1955 It's a sad day down here in Savannah. Local magnet Bill Bourbon was killed last night and all y'all have congregated tonight for a meal to celebrate Bill. As he passes on to his great reward. You're not just here to pay your respects.
You have to figure out which of y'all is the no count scoundrel who killed him.
That feels good.
I'm ready for my dinner theater.
You'd be great.
You'd love it, it's a lot of improv, Angela.
I'd have a great time and I also love like vintage costumes.
Oh, we gotta do one of these nifty 50s murder mystery dinner theater.
A special episode of Mom Detective.
I mean, God, we just don't have enough time to do it all.
Michael starts passing out the character cards and the props. Angela does not like her character.
No.
We had a fan catch from Katie Kay in San Jose, California. I think I have a Southern Angela catch when Angela says, I don't like my character. At eight minutes and 54 seconds, Cassie pulled an audio clip. Let's hear it.
MICHAEL I don't like this game, it's scary.
It's not scary.
I don't like my character.
Who are you?
Voodoo Mama Juju, the witch doctor of the Savannah Swamps. I'm not comfortable with this. There's so many words that are southern. I don't like this game.
Swamps. I don't like my character.
I don't like my character, I don't like the game, I don't like my character, it's scary and it's set in a swamp.
Yeah.
Voodoo Mama Juju.
Yep, I hear a hint of it, I don't think it's your strongest accent slip, but I hear a hint.
It's always there, guys, I want to point something out. As we rewatch these episodes, Jenna and I have talked about this. Sometimes we'll just watch a scene and a flood of memories come back that we had totally forgotten about. It's like in a little folder in your brain that hasn't been opened in years.
As I watched this scene, when Angela goes to leave and Michael says, there'll be baby carrots, and she pivots back to her seat. My skirt is so bunched up and I instantly remembered that this was the week I wanted to wear tights. I was cold, I never wore tights, and I wore thick winter tights. But I was wearing a gray pencil skirt that would climb up all day because of the static and the tights, and I wrestled that skirt. This whole episode.
And when I watched this moment with the baby carrots, I was like, Oh my gosh, that was the week with the skirt that kept crawling up my legs.
They used to spray me with static guard.
Yeah, it didn't matter, though, because of my tights anyway. This is the week I wrestled a skirt. Sometimes those are the things you remember when you rewatch a show.
And you know what, we are gonna leave no detail unturned in this rewatch. That's right in this oral history that we're creating for all time, we're leaving nothing out.
Nothing out. We are gonna tell you the week that Jenna's allergies were bad.
Yep.
And she sneezed a bunch.
And this is the skirt bunch.
This is the skirt bunch.
Forever to be known now as the Skirt Bunch episode.
We got a continuity catch from Leah in New Albany, Indiana, who says, I think I have a continuity catch. So, you know, Michael gets mad and he takes Oscar's Blackberry at nine minutes, 25 seconds. Michael is seen holding it in his hand. At nine minutes, 44 seconds, but then at nine minutes 46 seconds. When Pam stands up to do her character intro, Oscar is looking down again, like, maybe he's looking at his Blackberry.
And then, at nine minutes 59 seconds, the camera switches angles and you can clearly see that Oscar has his BlackBerry back.
Good catch, I know.
I thought that was pretty good.
Yeah.
Well, speaking of, Pam does offer to go first, and she speaks in an accent to introduce herself as Deb. U taunt Deb, for short. Then we're gonna go through. We're gonna meet Andy's character Nathaniel Nutmeg, and Erin's character, naughty Nelly Nutmeg. This is when Andy is very sad to learn that they are brother and sister.
Phyllis is Beatrix Bourbon, Michael is successful playboy Caleb Crawdad. Angela, we know you are voodoo Mama Juju well. Danny revealed that he wrote names for the whole cast, and Phil created cards for everybody. And we didn't get to hear all the names. But he told me what they were.
Do you wanna hear?
I absolutely do.
All right, Kevin is Dick Sealand.
Okay.
Oscar is Chad Anuga.
Dwight is the Butler, Jeeves Julep, Jim is George Apeach, Ryan is Paul Metto, Meredith is Connie Federate. And then he can't remember who got assigned these characters. But he did have to write two more prop cards, and they were Barbecue and Carl earned greens.
Earned greens Like it's a play on collared greens, but it's like Carl earned greens. So those are all the names she didn't hear.
Well, I did make note of all the props that went with each character.
Voodoo Mama Juju Angela had a voodoo head and a hat she had to wear. Yes, I did have a wardrobe fitting for that hat. somewhere there were photos of me and multiple versions of that hat.
And that's the one the writers picked. Pam had lace gloves.
Yes.
Meredith had a long cigarette.
Like a cigarette holder holder, yes.
Kevin had a cigar, Phyllis had a feathery fan, Dwight had white butler gloves, and it looked like a napkin over his arm. Erin had a lace garter and there was a deleted scene of her putting it on that didn't make it. But you see it ever so slightly.
At the end, when she runs in the conference room, Andy had on men's sleeve garters. And I couldn't see what everyone else had. But those were the main ones that were visible.
So Andy is gonna try to teach Pam how to do a better accent because everyone thinks she just sounds like Forrest Gump. And he is able to do like a Florida Panhandle accent. And then he gets into his description of a Savannah accent, where he says, It's like molasses coming out of your mouth. It's so good, Danny said. They were originally planning for Andy to have a horrible accent, but on the day they realized that Ed was very good at these different accents. And so they rewrote it.
Well, he is from Georgia, and he probably has a good ear for all the accents there. Interestingly enough, there was an Andy talking head in the shooting draft that did not make it. This is what it said. I went to dialect camp every summer from the age seven to 18, then I was a counselor for 10 years.
Hmm, what?
It was Andy's childhood.
So we learned in the meeting that he spent a summer in Toulouse apprenticing for a formagier. Now we find out that he went to a dialect camp for years.
Well, it's interesting, Angela, because we have wondered if deleted scenes count. If something doesn't make it into an episode, does it still count in that character's lore, in the story?
Right, what not? And sort of in the canon of the show, is it part of that?
And we sort of said, no.
No, it's what aired.
Yes, that is what would be the show. Bible. Well, I found an old article on Officetelly.com from 2007,.
Right when Google started.
Right?
There was an interview with Greg Daniels.
And he talked about this, Yes, what'd he say?
He said. Quote For the writers In our minds, those scenes have happened. We wrote them, we shot them and at the last minute, I cut them in the editing room. But we're relying on them anyway for the mythology of the show.
Wow, okay.
So, per Greg, if it made it in the shooting draft.
If we shot it.
Right?
Then it's part of the mythology of the show. So that would mean that, yes, Andy did spend a summer as a formagier. He did do this weird accent camp. But here is the problem, what?
The exception that proves the rule would be Pam's painting, because Pam's painting. They shot it being destroyed. It stayed off the wall for several episodes, It's still off the wall in this episode. In this episode, there's still just golfing inspiration.
But it came back.
Mm-hmm.
So I don't know.
I think it's still up for debate, Greg.
Sorry, Greg, we don't know. This interview does predate the destruction of the painting, so okay?
He's allowed to change his mind on that one.
People are pretty impressed by Andy's accents. Kevin has a request The sweetest chef? Mm-hmm, Andy's like, What province is he from?
And Kevin says he lives on Sesame Street. Dumbass. Mm-hmm. This got such a huge laugh at the table, read like people lost their minds. And when the final edit of the episode came and Greg saw it, it wasn't in.
It got cut.
Really, and Greg was like, Where's Kevin's line?
About Sesame Street He absolutely loved this line, and Greg fought really hard to have it put back in.
Well, I'll have, you know. Stephanie M. from Salt Lake City, Utah, would like to point out that the sweetest chef does not live on Sesame Street. He's from the Muppet Show.
Yes.
Which makes the line even funnier, yes.
Well, why don't we take a break? Cause when we come back, I need to point out a line that Phyllis could not say.
Ooh, and I have some things to say about Creed.
We'll be back.
We are back and as you guys re-watch this episode with us. Please go to the conference room scene where Phyllis has to say, I overheard you, asking the butler where the pistol was kept.
Okay.
Jenna, do you remember? Every time Phyllis got to the word pistol? She started to snicker and we all laughed at her? We all started to break? No, if you listen to it, she says, pistol, because she can barely get through that word. We got tickled every single time.
Oh my gosh.
Now that you say it, I remember that that would happen with Phyllis in general, too.
Yeah, it was everything, it was the Southern accent. She had to be doing the fan, and then when she said pistol, it made me laugh.
I remembered instantly how tickled we got.
Well, guys, Creed is gonna arrive to work. He's late, He's sorry. He asked Michael, what's going on? and Michael says, as Caleb Crawdad, There's been a murder and you're a suspect.
And Creed is like, Oh, okay, great, can I just have a...?
Let me get settled, I'll be right back, I'll be right back.
And he just hightails it right out of there. Now, some people on some message boards think that this is an indication that Creed is the Scranton strangler.
Oh.
Mm-hmm.
Sorry, that reaction was like a cartoon.
Oh, I do declare yes, my goodness.
However, I will say this, we see Creed leave, we see him jump into a car. I was like, Oh, I think this is our first time seeing Creed's car. I even asked Randy about it.
He said that our transportation coordinator, Jesse Dutchover, rented that car from Cinema Vehicle Services. It is a picture car. That means cars that are rented out to productions to be in movies and TV. And that the rental facility was just a few blocks away, and we established this as Creed's car.
And whenever we needed to see Creed in his car, this was the car they rented from this facility.
Until he drove a Porsche years later.
Correct, but in the future, when we see news, footage of the police chasing who they think might be the Scranton strangler, look at the car.
Oh.
It is not the car that Creed jumps into right here. now. Does Creed have many cars at his disposal after his work as the Scranton Strangler? Possibly yes, but I did just wanna point out that there's a little bit of a car thing going on.
I mean, Creed, also, we have found out, lives under his desk and has a home in Canada, so anything can happen with Creed. I have some things to share as well. Greg said. That Creed running to his car was actually a lot harder to shoot than it looks, really.
First of all, the timing of it, I mean, Creed had to really book it. He had to run to the car, he had to jump in and then doing this, back out and pull out. Move with a car as big as a Lincoln Town car, which is what it is, was not easy, so this quick little moment actually took a little bit of planning.
And lady, it's at this moment I realized that Creed, the character, and me in real life have a little something in common.
What's that?
We have both driven Lincoln Town cars. Oh, you had a Lincoln Town car once. My grandmother's car was a green Lincoln Town car with a white top, and my grandmother's who taught me how to drive. Because in the summers, I would go stay with my grandparents for a visit.
And when I was turning 16,.
She took me out in her enormous Lincoln Town car, and that's what I learned to drive a car in.
Wow, you know, I learned how to drive in an enormous car as well.
What was the enormous car?
It was a 1978 Pontiac. Catalina. Hey, that was a big, long car.
That was a big, long car, my grandmother had pedal extenders, so that was good, so I wasn't right up on the steering wheel.
You sort of had to learn in your grandmother's car.
Why? Because I'm short.
Well, yeah, those pedal extenders really helped you out.
They were very helpful. Apparently. I made my mom stressed out when she rode with me to teach me how to drive.
So she gave it to your grandma?
Yeah, my dad was like, I'm not getting in the car with her, so my grandmother said I'll teach her to drive, and she did.
Well as your BFF, who's ridden in many cars with you, you're a great driver. Thank you. Yeah, no pedal extenders anymore either, the seat goes all the way up.
Although I wouldn't mind really, yeah, because then you're not so close to the steering wheel.
Yeah, so now we have a little romance in the kitchen, Andy and Erin, they're chatting, they're still doing their accents. But he asks her out on a date, and she says yes. But then later in the conference room, other people start asking her out on a date, and she's saying yes. And then Andy is like, Oh, wait, was she just in character in the kitchen?
Yeah, did I-.
Or are we really going on a date?
Did I ask out Naughty Nelly or did I ask out Erin?
Well, in the conference room, at 12 minutes 36 seconds. There is a really good shot of Kevin's character card where you can very plainly see that his name is Dixieland. And he's also has an extra prop in this scene. He's got a wad of money.
Oh, yes. It said in the script that he was one of the richest men in all of Savannah.
Yeah, well, so much so that he walks around carrying a wad of money.
Oscar interrupts the game. He shares that he received an email from corporate instructing the accounting department to stop all payments to vendors.
Wow, that's serious, yeah, well. Michael insists that Oscar give no more details unless he is speaking in character.
Yeah.
He cannot use his Yankee accent, Michael says.
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