Here Comes Treble

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I'm Jenna Fisher.

And I'm Angela Kinsey.

We were on The Office together.

And we're best friends.

And now we're doing the Ultimate Office

rewatch podcast just for you.

Each week, we will break down an episode of The Office

and give exclusive behind the scenes stories

that only two people who were there can tell you.

We're The Office ladies.

Hello everyone.

Hi.

Guess what we're talking about today?

I would do an impression, but it would be horrible.

Like I was gonna do like,

It's bad.

It's really bad.

That was me trying to be like one of the background singers

in a cappella.

Like the people that don't say words.

The people that like their sole job is like,

doop, doop, doop, doop, doop, doop, doop, doop, doop, doop.

How do you get that job?

I don't know.

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

Well, today everybody we're talking about

Here Comes Treble.

It is season nine, episode five,

written by Owen Hicks.

Directed by Claire Scanlon.

Here's what I learned when I watched this episode.

I found the a cappella singing delightful.

I just loved every time they sang.

I mean, I love a cappella.

My husband was in an a cappella group.

We had to dig out some old videos.

Oh really?

Oh yeah.

I watched a bunch of his group In The Buff

from University of Colorado.

Naked?

What?

No, that's their name.

In The Buff is their name.

They're the buffaloes.

It's like a play on words.

You know, it really sounds like

I'm gonna watch Naked Singers.

I know.

I just, did they think this through?

I don't know.

But I'm gonna save this.

I did look up a bunch of college a cappella group names

and a lot of them are a little racy.

Really?

Yeah.

Well, why don't we start now with a summary?

Here it is.

Andy brings his college a cappella group to the office

for a Halloween party performance.

However, this is gonna reignite his rivalry

with Broccoli Rob.

I mean, Broccoli Rob is kind of sneaky.

Yeah, and I have some thoughts on his apartment,

but we'll get to it.

Oh yeah.

Meanwhile, in this episode, Pam and Jim struggle to agree

on their level of financial participation

in the sports marketing startup that Jim is now a part of.

And Dwight starts an investigation

to find the owner of an anti-anxiety pill

he found on the floor.

Fast fact number one,

the storyline with Andy and his college a cappella group

was inspired by our writer Halstead Sullivan's real life.

Once again, Halstead's real life made it to an episode,

but this one is fantastic.

We reached out to Halstead and we asked him,

how did this Andy storyline come about?

He shares about his true life story.

You gotta hear it.

Hey, Angela and Jenna.

Thanks so much for asking me to tell your listeners

about yet another office story that was loosely based

on something that actually happened to me.

Though in this case, it's not so loose.

To give you some brief history,

when I was a student at the University of Virginia,

I started an a cappella group called

the Virginia Hullabahoos.

And the group is still going strong today.

Over the years, the Hullabahoos have sung

all across the country.

They've sung in Europe and the Philippines.

They've sung at the White House

for a couple of different presidents.

And they were even in the first Pitch Perfect movie

where you can see them singing in the final countdown

at the end of the movie.

Now, needless to say, I'm extremely proud

of all they've accomplished since I founded the group

oh so very many years ago.

And a couple of years before I was on The Office,

the current group of guys at the time came out to LA

to sing the national anthem at a Lakers game.

They asked if they could stay with me for a couple of days.

And of course I said yes,

even though it meant 14 college students

staying in our house.

And was it hell?

Absolutely.

But since they were coming to LA,

I decided to set up a concert for them as well.

I invited alumni and a ton of my friends

and it was a nice event.

I even paid for the whole bar.

To give you a little more backstory,

since I was the founder of the group,

historically pretty much anytime I showed up at a concert,

the guys would invite me on stage to sing the song

that I sang when I was in the group,

which was a song called Runaround Sue.

So before this concert, I don't know what got into me,

but before the guys went on stage, I was like,

guys, I know you're gonna pull me up there

to sing my signature song, but you really don't have to.

This night is yours.

Just go have fun.

Fully knowing in my heart of hearts,

and of course they would invite me up to sing my song.

I mean, it had never not happened before.

So as I'm in the audience enjoying the concert

and silently warming up my vocal cords,

the guys are singing song after song after song.

The audience is loving it.

And I'm getting more and more nervous

to be about to sing in front of all of my LA friends.

And then suddenly the concert's over

and they didn't invite me up to sing my song.

I was livid.

And was that a rational feeling for an adult man to have?

No.

But if you think any man who sings four-part harmony

without instruments and thinks that it's actually

entertaining to people is rational,

you are sorely mistaken, my friends.

But the story doesn't end there.

A few years after that, when we were trying to think

of a story for Andy Bernard in Here Comes Trouble,

I told the story in the writer's room

and it became an episode.

And as we were writing, of course I suggested to Greg

that the actual Hullabahoos play the group

Here Comes Trouble.

And lo and behold, six of them got cast.

But the story doesn't end there.

When they came out, I hosted all 14 guys in the group.

And the guys who didn't get cast came out to set to watch.

And on the last day of shooting,

it was actually my birthday.

And there on the set, the Hullaboos brought out

a huge cake for me and sang happy birthday to me.

And then in front of the whole cast and crew of the office,

they invited me up to sing my signature song.

So I guess if there's a moral to this story,

is that when life gives you lemons

and you don't get asked to sing your signature song,

you make lemonade and turn it into an office episode

where you get to sing your song

in front of your whole office family.

But if you want to hear more,

you can listen to Hullaboos on Spotify and Apple Music.

Sorry, I couldn't help it.

I'm just so damn proud of them.

Okay, I'm really done now.

Thanks.

Oh, and I love that story.

I remember them singing on the stages.

I do too.

And as I remember it,

it was Claire's idea to have the happy birthday song

to Halstead on set.

Yes, it was.

We reached out to Claire for that episode.

And one of the things she said was that this moment

of them singing and Halstead singing

was one of her favorite memories from this episode.

And mine too.

I also love that she shared that she has a copy of it

and she gave it to Halstead.

And he's the only one that has the copy.

No one else has it.

So Halstead.

Well, we asked Halstead if we could share it

and he said no,

because they sang it in a key too high.

Well, Halstead, we would like to invite you,

the office ladies, to sing Runaround Sue

with the Hullaboos and we will play it on Office Ladies.

Oh, that would be a treat.

We have a whole season left, Halstead.

All right, moving on to fast fact number two.

You know the guy in the acapella group

who ends up serenading Pam?

Oh, yes.

While Jim and Pam fight.

Yes, it's such a fun scene.

So that singer is named Nick Cafero.

He was not an actor at the time when they did this.

He was just a member of the Hullaboos.

Halstead suggested that we reach out to him

to hear a little bit more about what it was like

for all these guys to suddenly be invited

to be on The Office.

And Nick sent in an audio clip.

We gotta hear it.

Office ladies, oh my goodness.

I cannot believe I am recording this right now.

This is such a thrill, such an honor.

I'm so excited that you asked me to be part of this.

I am a huge fan of the two of you,

of this podcast, and of course of The Office.

And this is like a dream come true.

Thank you so much for asking me to be part of this.

So I was a junior in college.

I was at the University of Virginia.

So I remember I was the president of the group at the time.

I got an email saying that they wanted us

to audition for The Office.

I thought it was a prank.

But once I kinda got my heart rate down

and figured out it was real, I got the group together.

There were 18 members of us.

And I put all of us on tape.

And you know, looking back on it,

I had zero idea what I was doing.

So these auditions are,

they were all done in my dorm room.

They have the worst lighting and background

you could possibly imagine.

And probably some of the worst acting

you could possibly imagine.

But we all did the scene one by one

and sang a song, because the role required us to sing.

And we sang I'll Be by Edwin McCain,

which is actually what I ended up singing

on the show to you, Jenna.

And I remember sending all the auditions

into Halstead first, before I sent them

into the producers and casting in Halstead.

It was like, you need to redo these.

These are terrible.

So we ended up redoing all of them,

which was for the best, obviously.

And then I sent them in.

And a few days later, I got a call

saying that we've been cast on an episode of The Office.

And I was cast in the role that would be

speaking and singing.

And I almost threw up.

Unfortunately, only seven of the 18 members

in the Hullabaloo's were asked to be on the show.

But what we did is we took all the money

that we were gonna get paid, the seven of us,

and we used that to buy plane tickets

so that the rest of the group could come out

and experience this, too, and have fun in LA.

Nick, that story is bonkers.

I cannot imagine getting that email.

But here's what I have to say.

Why did we not fly these guys out?

What?

I don't know.

I mean, I guess maybe we flew out the guys

that got cast, and then they spent their money

to fly out the other people.

That's what it sounds like.

Well, thank God, Angela,

because when I first listened to that, I thought,

what?

No, no, no.

I think they used their salaries to fly out

the people that they get.

The rest of the group.

Yes, which was very sweet.

Classy move.

Very classy.

Well, in addition to meeting the entire office cast

while they were there, another thing that Nick

shared with us was that Bryan Cranston

was also walking around because he was there

doing post-production on Work Bus.

And that really threw them.

Yes.

And they were like, wait, I thought we were coming

to work on the office.

What is happening?

Why is Walter White here?

Yeah.

Well, Nick shared a few more stories

from his time on the set.

We'll sprinkle those throughout this episode.

And now I'm gonna move us on to fast fact number three,

Angela, Stephen Colbert as Broccoli Robb.

I so believed Andy and Broccoli Robb's rivalry.

I really believed it.

Oh, Broccoli Robb is insidious.

He's so gaslighty, isn't he?

Yeah.

We had a fan question from Hannah L. in Arizona

who said, did you guys get to meet Stephen Colbert

or was he only on the video call?

Well, first of all, Hannah, I'll say that Ed

was our connection to Stephen Colbert

from their time on The Daily Show.

And unfortunately, we did not get to meet him.

He filmed all his stuff in New York.

They did it really early in the morning.

Steve Burgess said they set Robb up on a set in New York.

They had a camera filming him there.

They also put him on a video call.

It was very elaborate.

Right, the conference room scenes.

Yeah, and in the break room.

For anyone who doesn't know,

Stephen Colbert is a great singer.

He was in the Glee Club in high school.

Did you know that he's also won a Grammy?

For singing?

Yes.

That I did not know.

Well, in 2008, he released a CD

and had a TV special called A Colbert Christmas,

The Greatest Gift of All,

which won a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.

And at 2011, he performed the role of Harry

in the musical Company in concert

with the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center.

At Lincoln Center.

Wow.

I couldn't do it.

That's big time, guys.

I mean, I couldn't do it because also I can't sing

and they would never have me there.

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

You really can't carry a tune?

Not really.

I didn't know that about you.

I can if I'm singing with other people,

but then if you say, take it, Ang,

I'll get like the first few,

and then I'm like, where am I going?

Where are we going?

Where is this going?

What happens if you have to start happy birthday?

Oh, well, I can do happy birthday.

Do you start it okay?

But some people start it terribly.

How do you start it terribly?

Happy birthday.

You start too high.

Or you're like, happy birthday to you.

Who does that?

And you're like, people, people do it.

I'm like, just start it neutral for the whole group.

Yeah, yeah.

Happy birthday to you.

Start it there.

Everyone can sing it there.

I can sing and carry-

Clearly, this is a very pet peeve,

warning if you sing happy birthday around Jenna.

I can sing if I'm doing a character.

And also there's some songs from church

that I feel like I can carry the tune

just because I've sung them so many times.

My favorite part of church was the singing.

Yeah.

And I would sing out.

Me too.

And he will raise you up on eagle's wings.

Yes.

Yeah.

There was a song, of course, you know,

my family is like Southern.

I would belt out so hard.

And it was at Easter.

And it would be like,

there ain't no grave gonna hold my body down.

Yeah.

And it's about the resurrection.

And I went for it.

We were at church recently when I went back home

and I started to belt out a song.

And my daughter looked at me like, what?

Can you dial down the volume?

I mean, most of church is boring.

Let's be honest.

Jenna.

It is.

Come on.

Why can't I say stuff we all know?

You can and you do.

I'm gonna be 50.

I'm moments away from 50 and it's all coming out.

It's all coming out.

Well, are we gonna take a break

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

Let's take a break.

Let's take a break.

Break me off a piece of that podcast show.

We are back.

And before we start breaking down this episode,

I've got some tidbits from the call sheet.

Oh yeah?

Thanks to Steve Burgess.

We started filming this episode

on Monday, September 10th, 2012.

Are you curious what we filmed on that very first day

of Here Comes Trouble?

Yes.

Good, I hope you are.

Cause I'm gonna tell you, it was all talking heads.

All morning, all the talking heads you see in the episode,

we were filming on the first day.

And then towards the end of the day,

we did have two big group scenes in the bullpen.

And it was a very, very busy production week for our show.

They were prepping the farm and the boat.

There was a dirt test for the farm.

So someone was getting dirt thrown in their face.

Yeah.

To see how it would look.

They were scouting locations for the boat.

We had an NBC EPK crew doing interviews

with all the cast this week.

Yes, well that is because

this was our last Halloween episode.

Ever.

Ever.

Aw.

And we all did interviews about it

and how we were feeling about it.

Yeah.

And basically we were all feeling sad

that it was our last one,

but also grateful that we got to do

a full Halloween episode.

I remember being excited

that we got to be in costume the whole week.

Yeah.

Well, lastly, the high was 89 degrees.

Thank you.

It was in the 80s this week.

That's nice.

It's an improvement.

Well, like we said, this is our Halloween episode

and Dwight is gonna enter the office

with a giant pumpkin on his head.

He scares Erin.

Oh my gosh.

Every Halloween, I see this picture of rain

with the pumpkin head everywhere.

It's like on T-shirts, on stickers.

It's everywhere.

Well, there's a problem.

He can't get the pumpkin head off.

He cannot.

We had a fan question from Olivia H.

in Minneapolis, Minnesota, who said,

the Dwight pumpkin head cold open

is my single favorite cold open in the entire series.

I watch it whenever I'm feeling down

and it never fails to brighten my day.

Please tell me everything.

Were there any scenes cut out?