Chapter 1: What is the significance of the 'Crime Aid' episode?
Welcome to our second drink of Crime Aid. We have some fantastic behind-the-scenes details from the writer of this episode, Charlie Grandy. And Jen Salata also shares about directing this episode. It was her first time directing on The Office. What a debut for her. I know. It's got so many classic moments. So many.
Okay, let's start with the fan favorite moment from Lisa R. in Plumas Lake, California, and Melanie D. from Austin, Texas. It's when Michael explains what Crime Aid stands for. Melanie said, Ladies, when Michael says that Crime Aid means crime reduces innocence, makes everyone angry, I declare... I laugh every time. I'm curious if there were any alts for that.
Well, we did share that the writer, Charlie Grandy, came up with that acronym by himself, but I went to the candy bag alts because I was curious, and I went to the original table draft of the script to see if there were any other versions, and Melanie, Charlie nailed it from the very beginning. Crime reduces innocence, makes everyone angry, I declare, was in all of the early drafts of the scripts.
No alts needed when something is that funny. I mean, every time you just said it, it made me laugh out loud. I know, I know. It's so ridiculous. I'm really tickled.
Our next fan favorite moment comes from Cecilia W. in Shawnee, Kansas, who says, My favorite scene in Crime Aid is when Daryl says that Michael gave him a list of his favorite Bruce Springsteen songs, and then three of them were from Huey Lewis and the News. I have a playlist of songs featured on the show and I laughed so hard thinking of the scene whenever the Huey Lewis songs come on.
That is such a great idea to make a playlist of all the songs that were on The Office. Yeah. And then you can like think about the episode they were in. That's very fun. Cecilia, I love that. All right, we did have a moment that got a fan mail flurry, and that was the scenes between Dwight and Phyllis. McKella L. from Peoria, Arizona loved that storyline.
So did Christine R. from East Grand Rapids, Michigan. She said, I loved when Phyllis told Dwight, I think we all deserve someone who wants to be with us. It's just so sweet. And Soyeon J. from South Korea. but they let us know they now live in Germany.
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Chapter 2: How does Michael's relationship with Holly evolve in this episode?
Soyeon said, Hello, ladies. Can you please talk more about that moment between Dwight and Phyllis? I know The Office is a sitcom, but Rain and Phyllis' acting, like how they portrayed an emotional moment where Dwight and Phyllis are both so hurt, was so powerful that I was awestruck. Well, Soyeon, we also love this scene.
We describe it in our breakdown, but we didn't play it, and I really think we should hear it.
Listen, she ignored my ultimatum. Now what?
Now you move on.
Okay, fine. I've moved on. Now, how do I get her back?
Well, Dwight, I don't think you do. I think you've got your answer.
Wait, that's it? That's your advice? I thought you had some kind of big master plan.
Well, I just think we all deserve to be with someone who wants to be with us.
Oh, I get it. You're trying to secure your place as head of the party planning committee. You're just being selfish. And you slap like a girl.
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Chapter 3: What are the memorable moments shared by fans about 'Crime Aid'?
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, everybody. Hi, you guys.
I have some big news that I want to share with you, Angela. What? Remember when we talked about my long crotch pants? How could I forget? Long crotch? I had them altered. Oh, you had your crotch altered. Well, I had the waist altered. Oh, okay. I took an inch out of the back of the waist. And now they fit your crotch right? Yep. I'm wearing them today. I wanted to show you. Stand up. Let me see.
She got the crotch right. She got the crotch right. Now it fits you right in the butt, too. It does. Because before you had saggy bottom and long crotch. I know, but now I fixed it, and since I brought the problem to the pod, I thought I'd bring the solution to the pod. I'm here for it. Well, we have a very fun episode today.
It is Crime Aid, Season 5, Episode 5, written by Charlie Grandy and directed by Jen Salata. Here's your summary. Pam is working at corporate in New York City to help pay for her life at art school. Holly and Michael take their relationship to the next level, resulting in a burglary at the office.
Chapter 4: What role do Dwight and Phyllis play in the episode's storyline?
Michael hosts an auction to recoup the valuables lost, and Dwight turns to Phyllis for advice on how to win Angela back. I loved everything Dwight and Phyllis did. What a great combo. That's the thing the writers did. They like to mix it up. I was here for it. I absolutely loved it as well. That moves me in to fast fact number one. Do it. New writer alert. New writer alert. Charlie Grandy.
Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. It's another new writer alert. So before working on The Office, Charlie was a stand-up comedian, and he wrote for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Saturday Night Live. He's super funny. Super funny. After The Office, he went on to write for The Mindy Project. And, Angela, Charlie said that one of the main inspirations for this episode was to highlight Phyllis.
Charlie, you did it. And I love that you love Phyllis. Yeah. He said this was one of those situations where they wanted to do a storyline with an unusual pairing. Remember, they used to just put people's names on cards and pair them up. This was Dwight Phyllis. I love it. This is what happens when you put the Dwight and Phyllis cards together. You know what card never came together? What?
Jim Angela. You're so right. You're so right. Fast fact number two. This is the first episode that Jen Salata directed. Oh, Jen. That's right. Yeah. I mean, guys, it was so much fun to have Jen on set. She was such a laugher. She was such a blast. She was also one of the showrunners this season with Paul Lieberstein. She'd been on the show for a while.
And I don't know if you remember, but during beach games, she talked about... how Harold Ramis really encouraged her to direct one day. And this was kind of the- That moment. Yeah, this was where it led. So we reached out to Jen and we have some really fun stuff to sprinkle through the episode. I asked her specifically, okay, what was it like directing your first episode?
And she said the thing that really stressed her out the most was that she thought directors had to have all the answers. She was really worried that someone would ask her a question about a prop or how to set up a scene and that she wouldn't know. And she said someone gave her the advice to just kind of like fake it till you make it sort of thing. But Jen was like, I can't. I can't fake it.
If I don't know something, I'm going to shout out, I don't know. Well, Jen wears orange. Every emotion across her face, right? You know how Jen feels about something. Well, I have to say, I really respect a person who says, I don't know. I do, too. I don't need fake it till you make it. I would much rather just know truly how someone's feeling. I don't need like the whatever. Yeah.
Thing, the filter people put on. I agree. Well, she also said that Jeff Blitz gave her the advice, don't worry if you don't sleep the night before your first day of shooting. No director sleeps the night before and your adrenaline will kick in. And she said that was absolutely true. She did not sleep and her adrenaline did kick in. So she was good. I bet. I can't sleep like before a big day ever.
I'm like up all through the night. I know. That happens to me as an actor the night before my first day on a new project, especially. I'm so nervous. The day before a big trip, I'm always like, okay, did I pack my charger? Got it. Underwear? I don't know. Did I pack underwear? I don't know. I don't know. Oh, my God. I got to get up. I got to go look. I can't sleep the night before anything big.
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Chapter 5: How does the auction theme tie into the episode?
Oh, it's not Groupon? It's not Groupon. You don't get free steak if like eight of you sign up? What other surveys has Groupon been having? Sex Therapists of America. Log on to Groupon. Oh, my gosh. All right, this one is from the Journal of Sex Research. Sounds a little bit more official. No offense, Groupon.
Also, maybe made up, but they analyzed nearly 11,000 unmarried adults who were in serious or steady relationships. Okay. They asked them, at what point in your relationship did you have sex? 51% waited a few weeks.
Mm-hmm.
38% had sex either on the first date or within two weeks. 11% had sex before their first date. What? How do you do that? I don't know. Like they had sex and then they started dating. Then they went on a date. Oh, yeah. So this isn't exactly saying number of dates, but more like period of time. OK.
They also found that the timing of people's first sexual encounter did not impact their feelings about the relationship in the long run in a meaningful way. So everybody was happy whether they banged before their first date or three weeks later. That book, The Rules on How to Nab Your Man, that would just throw their theories out the window. Yeah, that's right. Journal of Sex Research.
There was one thing. They said that the people who had sex earlier tended to be slightly less satisfied now in their relationship. Oh, so there was nothing to like look forward to? Well, that was one of their theories. One of the theories was that since they'd been having sex longer, you know, that early sex was maybe more exciting.
And since they'd been at it for a bit longer, since they started earlier, maybe it's lost its shine. I don't know. Everything I read, Ang, said the best thing you can do is figure out what sex means to you. If sex means physical pleasure, then find someone who agrees. If sex means I'm in a committed relationship, find a partner that agrees.
And then you'll have like a really good sexual encounter. That was the advice. Well, Jenna, at the end of all of your research, I have found nuggets from Groupon and the sex journal people. What? Journal of Sex Research. Thank you. All good nuggets there. Yeah. Well, listen, while Michael was obsessed with the idea that he might get to have sex tonight, Andy is passing out save the date cards.
Andy is excited because he's getting married.
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Chapter 6: What unique insights do the hosts share about behind-the-scenes moments?
He's very excited. He's calling everyone like D-Money, J-Money. At two minutes, 44 seconds, Dwight opens this invitation. He's clearly concerned that there's a save the date. When he opens the envelope, all this confetti comes out. I know. And Rain's reaction is Dwight to it. It was so funny. But that is my husband's reaction to it. We were invited to a baby shower and we opened the envelope.
Now, listen, I'm expecting the confetti and some wedding invitations now. It's become a thing, right? You open the envelope and little wedding bells and things come out of it. I was not expecting confetti out of a baby shower. We opened the envelope and my husband doesn't open anything gently.
So we kind of tore into the envelope and all these little bitty baby bottles and baby carriages and little things just like flew up in the air. And my husband was like, why do they do that? I'm with Josh. Welcome to my wedding as I make a mess on your floor. I mean, already I'm annoyed by your wedding or your baby shower. It cracked me up. You know what I mean?
Don't mess up my house while you invite me to something. Don't mess up my area with your festivities. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. I'm on the fence about it. Part of me thought it was fun, and the other part was like, oh, no, I got to clean that up. Yeah. I always lean toward I have to clean it up. Well, we're about to have a little bit of what I call breaking the wall in the break room.
Talk to me about it. Are you confused? Slightly. Three minutes, three seconds. While Dwight is whittling a knife... With a knife. While Dwight is whittling a knife with a knife, Phyllis wants to know if he's okay. Does he want to talk about it? And she looks right at camera. She goes, you know I know. You know they know. Phyllis, sassy Phyllis. Yeah.
Breaking that fourth wall and bringing the camera crew into it. Yeah. And this is the beginning of that delicious Dwight Phyllis runner. Yes. That is going to play out so beautifully. At the same time, Michael and Holly are planning their date. Well, Michael just blurts out. They're talking about where they're going to eat. Maybe they go to the food court.
And he's like, well, I mean, it depends if we're going to have sex later. And then he was like, ah. And then, I mean, this is like how you know Holly is his soulmate. I mean, I know we see it over and over again, but she's like, hell yeah.
Yeah.
I know. You're so worried that Michael has messed it up, but he didn't because it's his soulmate. It's his soulmate. So at three minutes, 17 seconds for our background catch, folks, did you see the taco bandito menu? No, I didn't see it. Yeah, it's over Holly's shoulder. I looked it up. That is an actual restaurant in Scranton. It's on 211 North Main Avenue in Scranton.
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Chapter 7: What are the implications of the office burglary?
Oscar says, I don't want to talk. I want my laptop back. And for whatever reason, when we were filming this, it was after lunch. And Oscar had to walk out to like the main bullpen. And he had to say, I don't want to talk. I want my laptop back. He couldn't get the line out. And when he finally got the line out, he went like this. I don't want to talk. I want my laptop back. Yeah.
And I said, in the moment, in character, I said, what are you, Jimmy Stewart? And the place lost it. We all lost it because he was like, I want my laptop back. But then, if I remember correctly, once he'd done it, he couldn't get rid of it. He couldn't get rid of it. And then everybody jumped on it. So then Rain and John and everyone started going, I want my laptop back.
Okay, so I was not there when you filmed this scene. But when I came back... You guys saying, I want my laptop back. That went on for years. Years. That was a bit. And I was like, what is it? What happened? And Oscar was like, F you guys. But he was just like, he got tongue tied after lunch. Listen, that happened on our show. Big bullpen scenes after lunch. We would get loopy.
You know what lived on forever too? Is when I said, you send us all these filthy emails. Yeah. John Krasinski said that to me for years. Were they filthy? I want my laptop back. Your filthy emails. Your filthy emails. I want you to know that Kevin is really, really concerned about his surge protector. He's worried about surges. This sent me down a road.
I needed to know more about power surges, and I am not going to bore you with everything I read. I will give you this one nugget because I didn't know it. I'm telling you, I want a screen grab of your search engine. I know. I'm going to frame it. I know. I thought power surges were just like giant things that happened, like some lightning strikes or something.
And I need a surge protector because of like, you know, big moments. Can't they happen just because you have too much stuff plugged in? Like I blow dried my hair one time and it blew out the outlet. Yeah. There's something called mini surges. And that happens every time your air conditioner kicks on.
Like you get a mini surge and it can slowly damage your appliances over time because your house can get like a buildup of mini surges. So Kevin is right. You really need to surge protect your house. I also found out you can get a whole house surge suppressor. They connect to your fuse box.
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Chapter 8: What conclusions do the hosts draw about the episode's impact on character relationships?
I don't even know if I have one. I need to find out because I got so worried about surges after my search. I feel like you would know if you had a surge suppressor. I mean, we probably do. That's Lee's department. He handles that stuff. Right. You know, we divide things up more traditionally in that way. If it's electrical or yard oriented, that's on Lee. I should ask him.
I'm the yard person at my house. I love the yard. I love being outside. I love to garden. I know our sprinkler system. I set it. My station four is looking wonky. Let's fix that. Yeah, that's on Lee. I've got my allergies. I'm inside. You're an inside person. Well, listen, Michael and Holly are starting to connect the dots. They're like, oh, no. Oh, no. Wait, did we lock? Did you lock it?
I didn't lock it. Oh, no. This is their fault. So much for sex without consequences. Yes, that is Michael's talking head. But Jenna, there was an alt in the script that made me laugh so hard. There was one extra line. And this was the other version of this talking head. So much for sex without consequences. Well, I guess with great sex comes great responsibility. Yes. And that one was deleted.
That is such a good line. I know. During all of this mayhem, Jim is listening to a message from Pam. It's a butt dial message. It goes on and on. Clearly, she went out last night. Sounds like she had another volcano. Yeah. She's out partying with her art school pals. They're whipping it up. Whipping it? Whipping it. Whipping it up. I think they're whooping it up. Yeah.
And Jim is just kind of like future mother of my children right there. Yep. Which is what Lee said when I got home from my bachelorette party that you hosted, Angela. And I was throwing up in the bushes. He said, you're the future mother of my children. I couldn't be prouder of you. Angela says she's never felt safe here. Andy says she's safe with him because he's a very good screamer.
That made me laugh so hard. Dwight has grabbed Phyllis. They're in the elevator. He had to talk to her right away. He says he knows that Angela loves him. She's practically told him so. Well, Phyllis says then you need to offer her an ultimatum. That's what Bob did to Phyllis. Yeah. He said she had to stop talking to her sister so much. Oh, Phyllis. I know. I know.
Well, Jen Salata shared that shooting this elevator scene was crazy because we do not actually have a working elevator. Remember, we've shared before that if we went into the elevator, we would shoot part of the scene and then we would have to relocate to the other building where the bottom of the elevator is. Right. And the lobby.
And there were always guys sort of standing on either side off camera with ropes and they would pull the doors open and they would shut the doors. That is a pulley system door, you guys. There was nothing electric about that elevator. It is super fakey fake, old timey, just pulleys and people. And ropes. Making this box of wood turn into an elevator. Right.
Well, she said that they didn't want to relocate. So they did this crazy thing, which is so amazing. What they did was while Phyllis and Dwight are inside the elevator doing the scene, a bunch of crew members came out and redressed the front part hallway of the elevator.
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