Mrs. California

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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.

I am. I enjoy this episode so much I found myself laughing really hard. I thought. Ed Helms as Andy being caught between Mr and Mrs.

Well, this is season 8, episode 9.

Aw, I love Charlie, he was so fun to have on set.

He was great. Here is your summary. Andy is confused when Robert California charges him with the task of finding a job for his wife, Susan, while simultaneously insisting she not work there under any circumstances. Meanwhile, Dwight opens a gym in the building and coaches his reluctant first member, Daryl Fast. Fact Number one Maura Tierney as Mrs.

Is she the coolest or what?

She is the coolest lady.

I just remember having a girl crush on her and really wanting her to like me so much. So when you see her over in accounting, do you see me just like laughing like, Hi?

Cool. For years, my agents would pitch me as a Maura Tierney type.

Really.

You know, because she did news radio and they were like, that would be a perfect role for you. Jenna, we're going to pitch you as a Maura Tierney type. I was so bummed out that I did not get to work with her. In this episode. I think we should play Sisters personally.

Oh, you so should.

Right, yes, I know I love her, she's cooler than me.

Exactly right that we want to hang out with.

Yeah, yeah, well, we got a lot of fan questions about Maura, particularly from Kitty G in Austin, Texas, who said I was so excited to see one of my all-time favorite actresses, Maura Tierney, pop up as Mrs California. How did she end up on the show?

I would watch that.

We need to get on it. She could be a mom detective, you know?

We need a mom detective like.

Our boss, oh, the boss of the mom, detective, the person.

The dispatcher, the person we call in to. Yes, yes.

She's it.

Maura, we have a job for you.

Done all right, are you ready for fast? Fact number two? This is a fan question from Kate K.

Okay.

Women did not always take their husband's last name. In fact, last names didn't even matter at first. Because back in the dark ages, I guess populations were so small that you just went by your first name. But later, when last names mattered, that's when women started taking the last name of their husbands. And, according to several articles, including one from Brides.com, the reason is because women did not hold any legal rights on their own.

They couldn't own land.

That's right, things like that, yes. Or if you were injured as a woman and someone was to be compensated for your injury, it was either your father because you were his property, or your husband once you married. Women could not enter into contracts, however.

Oh, a lot. Like the Handmaid's tale. One of the first things that happens when they're slowly taking over is that they close.

Right here's something I found out. Did you know that? Prior to the 1970s, there were laws in the United States that said women could not get a driver's license, a passport, or register to vote? Unless a woman took her husband's last name? If you were unmarried, you could, but if you were married, you could only do those things if you took your husband's last name.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Want to hear about a badass lady? Yeah, Amelia Earhart. Mm-hmm. Amelia Earhart was the first woman to be named by her husband's last name.

Yes, she did.

She said, as previously stated.

Oh.

I mean, we all know if someone says that, they're like, listen, this is my polite way of saying, go f yourself.

Yes, I will say that phrase was not in her letter, but it was implied. I would say, as stated in my previous letters to you, I would like you to refer to me by my professional name, Amelia Earhart, and not Mrs. Putnam. Yeah.

I'm in the 20. Okay, I did not take my husband's last name. I am just Angela Kinsey. although I absolutely love being Josh's wife, I am the last of four girls.

Oh, that's so sweet.

So his name would live on at least a little longer through me, right?

Yeah.

And it meant a lot to him, so that was something I wanted to do for my dad.

I love that lady.

Yeah, and Josh doesn't mind at all, he knows I'm also Mrs Snyder.

Well, you know, very occasionally, men will take their wives last names, but it is much more difficult to do it. Like, when a woman gets married. On your marriage certificate, there's just a line where you can fill in, that line isn't there for the men, I guess. Because only in Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Massachusetts, New York and North Dakota is it as easy for a man to take his wife's last name upon marriage as the other way around?

Well, I loved it. And right here in this room, the two of us represent two different sides. We do, yeah, ultimately, how I feel about it is whatever is comfortable between you and your partner ain't nobody else's business.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I like being Jenna Kirk.

Yeah.

All right, are you ready, everybody? Yeah, for fast. Fact number three. Oh, yes.

Yes, I forgot we were doing this, yes.

All right, it is Mom Detectives and the case of the windowless building.

Yes, our very first case. We drove to the windowless building.

We sure did.

Jenna got out her phone and recorded the audio of our whole investigation.

Here it is.

It was a cold and rainy night when someone dropped that package through my mailbox. So many clues, so much chaos. It had been a long time since I saw this big of a mess.

OK, here we go.

Do you see it, Angela?

See, those are not Windows.

Oh, there's a driveway, there's two people sitting outside. Oh my God, let's go through the driveway, let's go through the driveway.

OK, let's go in what park right here?

No, I can't park right here. Yes, you can, I'm parking two hour parking. I'm too far away from the curb.

OK, wait, let me back up, let me back up, just back up, backing up.

Now you're too close to the curb. I missed the curb.

Ok.

All right, let's get out.

OK, no, there's no Windows, but it looks like Windows, but it's also like geometric, and also there's two numbers on the building.

Also, I want to point out what?

There's no shrubbery, there's like just a dirt patch. They just let it go. Good observation, thank you.

All right, we're walking in, we're currently walking in what happened? the parking garage gate.

But there are no cars.

The pedestrian gate is locked, but there's, oh, there's one car, oh my God, there's three sheds.

There's three sheds and there's four people, and there's also like a water like dispenser thing.

Wait, what are we doing? I'm just going to walk in and ask what the business is.

Ok.

Ok.

Oh my gosh.

I'm hanging back.

I'm hanging back, Jenna's walking in, Hi.

We were just curious.

What is this business?

Talking to someone that looks like a nurse?

It looks like a very nice young male nurse.

Huh.

It's a daycare center for elderly people.

It's open for four hours a day. They get two meals.

And that's it.

The Mom Detectives.

Case solved in the most unthreatening, like zero conspiracy. Like, really the hype. We gave this and it's a senior citizen activity center.

The thing is why no name on the building, you know, like, just it would be so easy. Do they not want you to know? I mean, wouldn't you put a sign like it's a beautiful facility?

I walked in, I hung behind you a little, but I did look around. It had a little lobby area, yes.

And just a beautiful dining room. And something the nurse said was they also do occupational therapy and physical therapy there. I mean, so you don't want a sign that says what you are with a phone number so someone can check it out? I thought it was odd.

None at all.

But what if I had gone inside and they were evasive? We might have had to, you know, follow those leads, yeah.

Well, you know, I have to say I'll never forget the look on everyone's face. When we did enter in the building, yes, they were confused.

I want to say that I gave no context. When I walked in the building, none. I didn't say, hey, I watched this building be built, and I'm just so curious, what is it?

Yeah.

I walked in and the guy said, Can I help you? and I said, Yes, what is this? Yeah, what is this facility?

Yeah.

I mean, I was very to the point. I think maybe I need to work on my bedside manner as a detective.

While you were doing that, an elderly man pointed at me and then talked to someone else, and then that other person pointed at me. And so I just said, Hi, how's it going?

Yeah.

I think they didn't know why I was there.

We were there because we had a mystery to solve.

That's right, I should have just said to them, I should have said, I'm sorry to disturb you elderly fella. I am a mom detective, yes, and I am here on a mission, but I am too embarrassed to walk all the way in.

Can I just say that I think some of my chutzpah from the award show circuit is paying off as a mom detective?

It showed up, yeah.

Perhaps I should have walked in the door laughing, No, and we would have laughed together.

No, I think you made the right move to not walk in laughing.

All right.

Who we are? I'll get us hats, okay, they'll say Md.

I don't know.

I don't know.

Well, everyone, there you go. That's what I got for Fast Facts. Should we take a break? And then we'll come back and watch Dwight stand for a really long time? Yes.

And Dwight is standing at his desk, and it's not just because he's standing hanging out at his regular desk. He has a new standing desk. And he's looking over at Jim, and he says, You know what, your hair's thinning?

Yeah, he explains that standing is healthier and more productive, so that's what he's going to do now.

My husband has a standing desk.

I was going to bring that up.

Yes, I want you guys to know. At one point, we were sharing a small room in our house and we made it into a little makeshift office. It was that catch-all room. And he moved in his standing desk, and I had my little lower desk, and it was like he was mission control looming over me.

Well, I have a fan observation. Okay, to kick off this episode from Charlotte E in the U..K. Who would like to know why does Kathy have Pam's baby? Photos of Cece on her desk after she's taken over on maternity leave?

I have a question we've learned in this episode that Andy's desk is empty. why can't Kathy just go sit there?

I thought that a long time ago, I thought that during Pam's replacement, because she does sit there a few times. There's no computer there right now.

Well, you know what? Sort it out and leave PaM's desk alone. don't even sit at PaM's desk.

You know whose job that is the office administrator?

She should learn to take care of herself.

We also had a fan catch from Elizabeth M. in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who points out that Dwight has a mug with a Sheetz logo on it. Elizabeth said I love the detail work done by the props department. Little details like this make all the difference.

I agree. Jim is going to see an opportunity here to prank Dwight. He's going to say, You know what, Dwight, you're right. You're better than the rest of us.

You're going to stand forever, aren't you?

He's like, Yeah, I am, and almost immediately his ankles start bothering him.

Yes, and he tries to sneak away to the break room to sit down, but then Daryl walks in to get some coffee and I have something to say.

About what?

I need to discuss the coffee situation at Dunder Mifflin. Okay, there's a coffee maker in the kitchen.

Right, why are people walking past it to go all the way to the break room?

Thank you. Now. Something I did notice is that in the break room, there appears to be a Decaf coffee option and a regular coffee option. I mentioned there is only regular coffee, but Daryl gets regular coffee. He doesn't grab the decaf. Also, there is an entire coffee machine in the break room.

We have a lot of coffee.

There's like, free coffee, vending machine coffee, I guess, artisanal coffee. it's a lot of coffee, that's it. I needed to say it for once.

Well, Dwight is back at his desk and he seems to be a lot chipper, He's humming, he's being nice to people.

That's right.

Jim approaches and notices something sticking out of Dwight's pants leg. It looks like some kind of, I don't know, Pogo stick. What is it?

Well, we had a fan question from Casey B. in State College, Pennsylvania, who wanted to know what was that? Steve Burgess said. It was embarrassingly simple. That's a quote. It was an aluminum cane that they put up through his pants and he's sitting on the handle.

He had to have at least one sore butt cheek there. Well, I was so tickled by this. Next moment when Jim's like, I'm going to have to do this, and Dwight's like, I know, did you hear the noise that rain makes as Dwight when Jim topples him over?

No.

It made me laugh so hard. I emailed Cassie about it. She was like, Yeah, that's ridiculous. It cracked us up. You have to hear it.

That's real creative.

You know what?

You're right.

It's not my best because you could easily just bend over and pick that up, right?

I could. I just don't feel like a loser because you're sitting, okay, don't.

Because you're sitting.

Standing, You know, I have to do this.

I know ah.

Like, What is that cartoon? Yell, Oh my gosh, it got me so tickled. So this episode starts with Jim in Andy's office.

It was so amazing, it was so good.

Yeah.

Miles McNutt had something to say about this scene.

Miles, You did what? yes.

Reviewer Miles McNutt wrote for the A.

Why do I feel like there's a however coming?

He ended up giving it a C. But I want to say this was an amazing opening scene, amazing, I agree.

And right away, Jim was like, I am out of this.

That's right.

Because Andy's like, What was that about? and Jim's like, I don't know, he wasn't talking to me.

Oh.

He has quite the bio, it's clear that he wrote it himself. Oh, and it's on the Sabre website. I would love to read it to you guys.

This is bio.

This is his bio.

I am now dying to write a bio, where within my bio is the phrase, I know what you're thinking. I sure starred for nine seasons on The Office, I know what you're thinking. I mean, this is the oddest bio.

This is next to his photo. Chief Executive Officer Robert. California starts with the story of a bee and a mantis floating down a river. Isn't that exactly what you expect, though?

Incredible.

Thank you anyway. I have been meaning to share that for weeks now. Well, Robert is going to introduce his wife, Mrs. California, to the bullpen.

Susan, Please call me Susan.

Yeah, please call me Susan Robert is going to share that. Last night at dinner, they were discussing her return to work, and she's here to see if there's a position for her.

Andy's going to jump on this.

Immediately, he's trying to shut it down because Robert had banged on the window. This whole scene, Jenna was so rich to me. Just the sentence where he says Last night at dinner, we were discussing her getting back into the workplace. I was like, Oh, that was so layered, I bet that was the most painful, awkward, layered conversation.

You know, Maura Tierney doesn't have any lines in this, and yet, like you're saying, there is so much playing out on her face.

Yes, the way she looks at him.

Yes, when Andy says, we're completely staffed up, oh my gosh, she turns her head and looks at Robert.

Yeah, because, you know, he made fake promises to her that he never intended on keeping. And right away she's like, Hmm. And then he looks at Andy and kind of does a weird twitch with his eye and goes. I think we can see the options first.

Yes.

Like, basically, like, Andy, you idiot, let it play out a little bit, so it's more believable.

We had a fan mail flurry about this scene. People pointed out that Robert California and his wife are wearing color-coordinated outfits.

The Turquoise.

Yes, and the Black? And they wanted to know if it was intentional or just a weird coincidence. Charlie Grandy Remember? I said he directed this episode and I traded messages with him. He said it was a conscious decision to make it look like Robert and Susan are quite literally on the same team.

This is the stuff I love, these are the little details I love to learn.

Well, next up, Dwight is going to knock on Daryl's door. He's going to tell Daryl that he has started Dwight Schrute's gym for muscles.

Mm-hmm.

You know, Daryl was saying he wanted to start working out well, Dwight's going to solve that problem for him.

Dwight is always looking for the side hustle. He's got caffeine corner, he owns the business park now. He tried to have a daycare.

Mm-hmm.

Now he's going to have gym for muscles.

In Dwight's Talking Head, he says that obese people in the building are putting a strain on resources. For example, the chairs wear out faster. We had a fan question from Christian H. in Independence, Missouri, who said there are two previous office episodes all about Michael having to buy chairs in chair model. He's buying a chair for himself.

Are you asking me?

I think Christian has a little sass.

Christian Jenna just looked at me, like, and.

What do you think, Angela?

I think, um.

Why is Dwight worried about the chairs so much?

I think the building buys the chairs.

That makes no sense.

The lobby sofa.

Yes, there you go, maybe it's both.

Case of the chairs.

Yes, and she gets Ryan's name wrong as she's saying goodbye, she calls him Brian, and he is not pleased.

That's one thing I struggle with anyone else out there, like Ryan and Brian, Craig and Greg, Kristen, Christine, Tim and Tom. I'm going to get it wrong, guys.

I don't mean anything by it.

It's a hard thing sometimes to dial in. Wait, which one was it, Ryan or Brian? And then, you know, I wonder if, like, behind your back, someone's like, bitch.

There are so many parents at my kid's school who were probably introduced to me in the beginning, but now we're like five grades deep. It's too late, it's too late.

You've got the name wrong and it's too late.

There's a dad at our school who calls everyone friend.

Oh, he doesn't know anyone's name. I don't think he knows anyone's name, no.

But I can't do it, I can't pull that off.

Yeah, my husband does a lot of like, What's up, buddy? and I'm like, you don't, men can do it better, stop saying, buddy.

Men have dude buddy, man.

I know we got nothing, we got, lady.

That's it, but you have to like. If I am familiar enough with someone to call them, lady, I know their name, right? I'm not going to call, you know, someone I barely interact with.

You're not going to be at the gas station.

Hey lady.

Yeah.

Good morning Lady. No, I don't think so. Mm-mm. mm-hmm. but isn't this everyone?

Forgiveness, a collective forgiveness. We release that.

There's so much to be stressed about and to like, we can be judgy about other stuff. I want to just drop the name forgetting thing, let's just drop it.

Yeah, it's fine.

I don't care if you forgot my name, it's fine, let's just get this out there. I feel like it needs to be on a ballot or something.

We want a collective forgiveness.

Collective forgiveness on names done.

Some days I'm amazing at it, some days I crush it, but then there's my Ryan Brian days.

Well, Andy's going to begin his tour of Dunder Mifflin at reception.

Erinville.

Yes, mm-hmm. Should we have two secretaries? two receptionists? hmm. Andy doesn't think so.

She's fitting in pretty well with Dwight. This really stresses out Andy. He's like, Oh, how am I going to do this? And Lady, I think we're about to learn something that might confirm what Michael knew all along. Proof of Phyllis flatulence.

Yes, Andy has a talking head about why couldn't Phyllis have one of her room-clearing farts? This definitely made me wonder if she really tooted at her wedding, after all.

That's what I think.

Right, yes.

Here's one other thing I want to say about this, Andy talking head.

Okay.

Andy.

Really.

That hasn't happened in a decade last one. This is one where, you know, sometimes they throw a crazy one in there.

Yeah.

How am I supposed to pull this off? I'm doing my best to make these assholes look like assholes, but these assholes keep acting like pretty good people to work with.

These are all amazing. Oh my gosh.

I know it was really good candy bag.

Lady, thank you so much for sharing those. I think it's also really great for people out there who are maybe wanting to be writers or artists or whatever, to see how, like our writers. They didn't write one talking head or one button for a scene, they wrote a bunch.

Oh, yeah, you know.

It's like you try everything and you see what ends up working best.

But there's so many good ones, like any one of those would have cracked me up. Same. Well, now Dwight is going to unveil his amazingly fancy gym to Daryl, and by amazingly fancy, it looks like something out of a scene in Saw 5..

Yes, this gym, it reminded me of the strongest man competition. Do you watch the strongest man competition?

Well, is that the one where they have to throw a log in the air? Yes.

So Dwight's gym, it has, like, there's just like a stump with like an axe, and there's just like gravel buckets and phone book ripping. So the strongest man competition? It started in 1977. I looked up a description of it and this could be written by Dwight. It's amazing.

Let's hear it.

The world's strongest man competition is about more than just force, it is about stamina, skill, tactics, training and strategy. Every event is designed to push the strong men to their absolute limits, challenging not only their physical strength, but their agility and mental toughness, too. Doesn't that seem like?...?

That sounds very dwight.

Very dwight, but yeah, they like lift giant tree trunks and boulders, and then they have an event, this is the one that gets me the vehicle pull.

Oh, do they put the thing around their waist and then have to walk pulling a car or something?

Yes, but they don't just pull cars, they pull all kinds of stuff. one time, they pulled planes, a plane.

Is it stripped down or is it an actual full plane?

I am not exactly sure.

I mean, listen, stripped down or not, it's still a plane.

It's giant and they have the weight and everything. And then the way they do it is. It's like they have to drag it 100 feet in the quickest time possible, so whoever drags it the fastest is the winner of that competition. But like each year, it's a different vehicle and it kind of matches either, like a strong man's profession, like one time, there was a guy who was a firefighter.

Fire truck.

They pulled fire trucks and then another year they pulled a mining coal car in honor of the coal miners in West Virginia. And also, it's not always on land, sometimes they pull stuff across, like ice or snow or sand. Oh my God.

I would walk like on the beach and then I'm sore.

But anyway, I did want to shout out. This year's winner strongest man competition goes to Mitchell Hooper. he's the first Canadian to win.

Way to go, Mitchell.

But they would love Dwight's gym, they would be all over.

They'd be like, This is amazing.

This is literally how they train. Daryl's not loving it.

No, he wants a real gym. This whole gym storyline was so much bigger, almost all the deleted scenes are gym storylines.

Oh wow, not jim helper, not jim helper.

Jim muscles. But I'll share more of those later.

Next up, we have one of my favorite scenes in the episode, which is when Andy meets with Mr. and Mrs. California in his office. And no matter what job Susan says she would like to do, Andy has a reason why she can't, and Robert has a reason why she can.

Here's what I didn't understand. In this moment. Robert would have been off the hook. Susan actually says This is very uncomfortable. Obviously, there's no place for me here, so thank you for trying.

Yes.

Poor Andy and Ed's performance was so amazing, like you could feel how confused he was.

We had a fan question from Mojo in Michigan, How uncomfortable was Ed filming these scenes where Robert keeps saying there's got to be somewhere for her to fit in?

Yeah, it's pretty cringy.

Well, Charlie Grandy said. It was extremely uncomfortable this scene. He said the biggest challenge of this episode for him was trying to escalate the discomfort while still keeping it enjoyable to watch. Which is that's the sweet spot, you know? He said that since this was his first time directing a complete episode, Paul Lieberstein was really helpful in suggesting shots and camera movements. In this scene, for example, you might notice they start wide, they even start with like a spy shot through the window.

And Robert just shoots him a dagger.

It's amazing.

So good, because Andy knows immediately he's messed up.

Well, let's take a break and we get back. We'll see what Andy's going to do to solve this problem.

We're back. And now it's just Andy and Susan in Andy's office, and Andy's going to get a phone call. It's Robert. Mm-hmm. And when Andy answers, he says, Say hello, grandma, and Andy says, Hi, gam gam.

I thought that was so funny.

So funny.

Yeah, I like that phrase, I want to start using that. Like, if Lee makes plans and I don't want to do them, I'm going to say, undo this.

Undo this.

I need you to undo this.

Yeah, it's like the line that really stuck with me in succession. When he goes, You are not serious people.

Yes, what if we just start speaking in our favorite quotes?

Oh my gosh.

Next up, Dwight is going to announce to the bullpen that his gym is up and running. He has gotten some real equipment. We saw it delivered.

Really nice equipment, this is a nice gym now.

It appears so, but nobody really wants to sign up. Everybody has an excuse, including Kelly, who says her sneakers are like a gym for your feet.

Mm-hmm.

Lady, Oh my gosh.

Oh, with the foamy memory foam.

We got a fan letter from Mary Grace in Athens, Georgia, who said the shoes Kelly's wearing are skecher shape-ups. And I just learned about these in class. She's an advertising grad student.

Okay.

Mary says Allow me to deep dive for you. Skecher shape-ups were a shoe with Kim Kardashian, as the spokesperson immediately attracts that Kelly would be wearing these shoes.

100%.

In the ads, Kim says she was able to ditch her personal trainer because of the shoes. Because the idea was that these shoes were all the workout you needed, because they had that little foam thing that you were talking about in the shoe. There were lawsuits filed against Skechers for these misleading ads because they conducted studies on the target market. And they found that most people were misled into thinking that the shoes alone would make them healthier, and most of the people who bought the shoes gained weight because they ditched the gym. I looked into this. Skechers had to pay $40 million to settle this lawsuit. Of these shoes that Kelly is wearing, yes.

That's an expensive pair of shoes.

Thank you, Mary Grace for that amazing bit of info.

I have a little accounting shout-out because I loved, loved, loved. Whenever the writers would write something for Angela, Oscar and Kevin. That was just full of assumed history, even if it was just a throwaway line. Because, you know, Oscar says, like, I need more gym drama, and he starts listing all the different dynamics at the gym where he works out. And Angela goes enough, Oscar enough. And you just know that he comes into work and he's like, you would not believe who's doing leg Day today? And taking up all the machines? Like you would just imagine his gripe over there and Angela's just over it.

I feel like this is a little bit of a callback, too. Remember in the previous episode when Oscar knew who was the most fit person? When they were looking for warehouse people? He talks a lot about his gym, about his gym.

Yeah.

Susan has arrived in HR. She's going to do her, I guess, her paperwork, right? yeah, and Toby asks her for her passport.

She's like, Well, no, I mean, who walks around with her passport? and Toby's like, Well, I do, you know. Just in case there's an adventure and she goes, Have you been on any adventures? He's like, No.

Here was my question does he keep his passport on him at all times for adventures, or, in case he has to flee, because he is the Scranton strangler?

Well, there you go.

Evidence of strangling.

Maybe so.

We had a fan catch in this scene that so delighted me. I didn't notice it when I watched the episode, but when I went back to check after I read this fan question, I laughed out loud.

What?

Allison H, from Norway, said Why is Toby's chair so low and his desk so high? Oh my gosh, Angela, his desk, it's in his armpit. I took pictures.

Let me see, I'm putting on my glasses.

Swipe to look, that is a far away, and then I did a close up. What who sits like that?

I bet he got the crap chair that we kept passing around. Remember, sometimes she would come on set and you'd be like, Who the heck put the crap chair? The one that wouldn't go up and down, it wouldn't go up and down.

Like, you'd think like, when it was time to shoot, they would be like, we got to get this guy. Yeah, yeah, a real chair.

So funny.

It was delightful, great catch, Allison. Andy has a new strategy for getting rid of Susan, which is that he's going to tell everyone in the bullpen. To make it a miserable place to work, so miserable that she wants to leave by lunch.

Yeah, and you know, Jim is going to say, I don't think we should try to make this place seem unpleasant, I think we should just let this place crush her spirit by itself. I mean, it knows what it's doing.

That made me laugh. I also loved when Erin goes, I know exactly what stapler to give her, yes.

And then when she did the tiny one, it's like, so ridiculous.

That joke pays off so well.

The way Ellie, like as Erin, placed it on the table, too.

Yeah.

Like, look, what I've had to deal with. Well, there was an alt-talking head for Jim. And we find out a little something about Stanley that I want you all to hear, okay?

This whole thing is making me very uncomfortable.

I'm not getting in between the boss and his wife, so just ask me about something else. You know? Stanley's tie is really the story of the day.

It's my birthday.

Yes.

Where is his cake, where is his party, what has happened to the party planning committee? And the best thing is when he says it is my birthday. They do a full pan shot of his tie, and his tie is a long blue fish, and the face of it is the end of the tie.

Okay.

It is a hilarious tie he's clearly worn special for his birthday, and the whole episode I rewatched it. Looking for this tie, you only see the top of it, the blue top.

Well, Pam is gone. Maybe she was in charge of this, but you know what, what is Kathy for?

I don't know Pam is gone, Angela's retired, and Kathy is not doing her job.

No, not if Pam was in charge of birthdays, she's not. This is actually a good segue for me into the next scene. We're in the break room and Oscar's passing around his phone to kind of show everyone his new puppy, who has crawled into a Williams-Sonoma ladle.

Gerald.

Yes, and they're not letting Susan see the picture, they're kind of freezing her out of the conversation. Yeah, we got a fan question from a lot of people.

Aww, yeah.

And as I was watching this episode, I too was surprised that Pam had given birth. And we do not mention it at all. So I asked Charlie Grandy about it. He was the director of this episode, but he's a longtime writer, and Charlie said this. It is weird that we spend more time learning about Oscar's dog in a ladle than Jim and Pam's baby. I can't remember what the thinking was, but being a second child myself, I can attest to the fact that we just don't get the same amount of attention.

Yeah, I think the whole office was struggling because they liked her. Andy had a talking head that was in the shooting draft that didn't make it. Where he said, Please, please, just somebody piss off the nice lady.

Yes, exactly.

Well, Susan's going to have a talking head where she says, You know what, I get it. The last time I had a job, I hated the boss's wife, too, of course, she was married to Robert.

Wow.

SUSAN A little scandalous. Now, she's going to go confide to her husband that she doesn't think anyone here really likes her. He's like, we will do something about this right away again. Robert, you're overselling, you're overselling this.

And Susan is going to get Andy to reveal that maybe maybe there's something more going on here.

Andy is no match for Susan. No, she is just watching him and observing quietly and figuring it all out, and Andy cannot hide his truth.

We're going to get our first glimpse now of Dwight's newfangled gym with all the real equipment.

His gym for muscles is really nice.

I remember this gym at one point, I remember the writers got a treadmill.

I remember that.

It was in their writer's trailer, and I would go in there and I would walk on that treadmill.

Me too.

The treadmill that you see in Dwight's gym is the one they took it from. The writer's trailer, Steve Burgess said. Yeah, that was the writer's trailer treadmill. So we got to keep almost all of that equipment, and we finally had a gym. Dwight's Gym for Muscles became the cast and crew gym finally, after eight years.

I never used it a single time. Did you ever use it?

Yes, I used to walk on the treadmill all the time.

No, I walked on the treadmill, but all the weights and all that stuff.

I used the weights you did. I did, yeah, because I do like weights.

Yeah, I didn't do any of that. I did love Dwight. Trying to motivate Daryl to work out Daryl was like, I was just on the treadmill for 35 minutes. Dwight goes, No, you weren't. I timed it.

I really wish podcasts were around back then because I feel like I would have worked out so much more if I could have listened to a podcast. I used to have playlists. Yeah, oh my gosh, do you think anyone is working out right now?

You got it?

Keep going.

Yes, and in the words of Dwight from this episode, bring that same Buffalo wing passion to this gym. You can do it.

That's right, you're getting healthy way to go. That was a good little pep talk.

That was a pep talk, all right. Well, Robert is going to return. And he finds Andy and Susan still in the conference room, and Susan's going to say, Hey, you know what? Turns out, I'm not going to be working here after all.

And Robert's like, You son of a bitch, you liar, you are a liar, say you're lying, so Andy's like, Listen, the person who knows everything who was there when it happened is Jim.

It made me laugh when Robert goes, Wait, where's Jim and Aaron goes? He crawled out, he rolled and then crawled and scooched.

So Charlie Grandy said that they really needed something new for this storyline to happen in Act 3.

I loved when he dropped his shoe as he was climbing up the side of the building. And he goes, ow, ow, ow. Because, you know, that little metal bar on your bare foot climbing would hurt.

Yes, we got a fan question from Maddie in Arkansas, who said, Did Jim really climb that ladder to the top of the building? It feels like a major stunt that would definitely require a safety meeting. Also, how did they make his shoe fall off? Just right? Well, Charlie Grandy said that shooting Jim on the ladder and then on the roof was absolutely nerve wracking, especially on the ladder.

He does not look harnessed in, he looks like he's just climbing the ladder.

George has said that he thinks we did have a safety harness on John and we removed the wire in post.

Well, let's stick with that story.

And Steve said We did have several safety meetings about it. We had just changed stunt coordinators. Our new stunt coordinator was Brett Jones. Starting with this episode. And the whole shoe thing was just John. He just kicked it off and it was perfect and we only had to do one take.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Well, you know, when Jim gets to the roof, Creed is up there.

Yeah, he's flying his helicopter.

We had a fan question from Brent D in Virginia. In a webisode from three years earlier, Creed was shown shopping for a helicopter on his work PC. He had blackmailed his co-workers for the funds and supposedly he was going to quote. Fly it down to Brazil, down to the Amazon in search of the world's largest bookstore, Brett said. On its own and without any prior setup, Creed's rooftop pastime just seems like another one of his many quirky eccentricities.

Yeah, great catch.

I guess Dwight's a personal trainer now.

Apparently he's going to show you how to do a pelvic bowl. Daryl's not into it, but Gabe right away is like, Hey, nice pelvic bowl, mm-hmm. So, like I said, the Jim storyline is a lot bigger.

And you see them working out. Oh yeah.

There's some really funny scenes, and, as it turns out, you know, we find out why Daryl wants to be at the gym. He finally admits he wants to look good for Val.

Yes.

Of course, Dwight thinks this is Val Kilmer, mm-hmm.