Chapter 1: What are the main themes of Weight Loss Part 2?
Welcome to your second drink of weight loss part two. Jenna, you had a soapbox in this episode. We got this letter from Tara M. Jenna, I just wanted you to know that I was so with you today on part two when you talked about all the hate Pam gets. It's absolutely 100% sexism. Thank you so much for saying so. I support you and love you both so much.
Well, thank you, Tara. I am aware that my soapbox from this episode created... a lot of debate of people arguing back and forth, but I think I helped some people see things in a new way. And now, you know, 15 years later, people are really seeing the Jim-Pam situation a little differently.
Chapter 2: How does Jenna address sexism faced by Pam's character?
You know, some of the things that were seen as romantic 15 years ago, they hit a little different now. Like, maybe it's not so romantic to surprise your wife by buying a house. Maybe it's not neat to invest your savings and take a job out of town at a startup without telling her when you have two small kids whose care is all going to fall to her.
When you say that out loud, that's like, what? You took our savings? You got a job out of town? Like we didn't talk this out.
With like an insecure startup. Yeah. And he doesn't tell her for weeks. I know. It's like Daryl has to convince him to be like, are you going to tell Pam? Like we're leaving for Philly soon. Like when are you going to bring her in the loop? So I think it's hitting a little differently now with this younger generation that's watching The Office.
And those folks are like, I think maybe Pam's right to be a little grumpy. Yeah. Like, it's not unsupportive to be annoyed that your partner did something. But yeah, when the episode first aired, I got a lot of shit for it. And it reminds me, too, I recently did a rewatch of Breaking Bad. Do you remember when Breaking Bad first came out?
Anna Gunn, the actress who played Skylar White, you know, married to Walter White. Yeah. She got a lot of shit for, like— how hurt and upset she was that her husband was becoming a methamphetamine drug kingpin. She didn't have space in her heart for that. Like, and it's interesting because when I rewatched it, I was like, oh my God, she was...
Like, I thought her performance is just like spot on. Could you imagine? Could you imagine?
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Chapter 3: What insights does Paul Feig share about directing Season 5?
But everybody was so dazzled by the charismatic Walter White. They were pissed that she wasn't more supportive.
That's so wild. Okay, so I also talked about an amazing deleted scene with Ryan getting yelled at by David Wallace. David is so mad when he calls and Ryan answers the phone. You know, Ryan was stealing from the company. What the hell? Now he's answering the phones again. There's this great scene with Michael on the phone with David, and I brought it up in our breakdown.
It's been added back to the Superfan episode, and I just wanted everyone to hear it.
I want him out of the building now, Michael. The man stole from the company. Allegedly. No, not allegedly. As part of his plea, he admitted his guilt. Allegedly admitted his guilt. Listen, David, I know Ryan. He is good people. He made a huge, huge error. I just, I think he needs direction. That's all. I'm tired, Michael. Me too. Okay. You really want to go out on a limb for this guy?
You really want to vouch for this punk? With all my heart, yes. Fine. He can't talk to clients. He can't sell. If he so much as sniffs white out, it's on you. Whoa, on me? What do I have to do with it? I mean, this guy has a criminal record. I think that's a little excessive.
He's like, whoa, wait, on me? Yes, Michael, you brought him back. Amazing. It's so good.
And Andy Buckley's so great in that scene.
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Chapter 4: What special details are revealed about the Jim and Pam proposal?
Well, listen, I have one last letter to share. It's from Megan M., who says, Hey, I found a little error in the last Office Ladies episode. Jenna and Angela said that Kelly had the same nameplate that she was gifted in the Office Christmas Party episode, but upon looking at it, it's a different plate. The one in the Christmas episode...
is purple with seven orange, blue, and pink stemless daisy-ish flowers. But the plate on her desk in this episode is different. It's metallic, and there are only two red flowers with stems. So it's a floral plate, but not the same one that was gifted to her in Christmas Party. Well, lady, you know what I did. You know I did. Look, there it is. It's different.
Oh, my goodness. Megan, you're so right. Megan is right. Clearly, there is a theme here, and that is fancy font with flowers. But they're totally different.
Totally different. And Megan, thank you for giving me the opportunity to do a side-by-side, which you know is one of my favorite things to do.
All right, you guys. Here is your second drink of Weight Loss Part 2.
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. Hey, gang. How's it going? Howdy. It is weight loss part two. Season five. Yeah. This is the second part of our season five premiere. It was written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stepnitsky and directed by Paul Feig. Hit us with a summary. All right. Well, you might remember last week we set up that Dunder Mifflin is doing a company-wide weight loss contest.
That contest continues.
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Chapter 5: How did the production team create the illusion of rain?
It's really causing some division among the employees. People are getting hangry. They are. Ryan returns to Scranton. He's a temp again. Michael hires him to fill in at reception for Pam, who is off at Pratt. She's, you know, doing art school. Now Michael is very slowly still pursuing Holly. Dwight and Angela are continuing to hook up in the warehouse behind Andy's back.
And Jim has an important question for Pam. The question! All right. Fast fact number one. Paul Feig directed this episode, and he also had a much larger role overall in season five. Paul was with us for every single episode of season five.
He was, and he was amazing. He was this great, constant, like... I don't know. He was like the man of the ship. He was like guiding us along the way. Having him on set always just made me feel better.
I'm with you. I loved it. You remember last week we talked about how Greg Daniels was now working on both The Office and he was trying to get Parks and Rec off the ground.
Mm-hmm.
He had groomed Jen Salata and Paul Lieberstein to run the show. They were overseeing the writing of the show. They were running the writer's room. Well, Paul Feig was brought on as a supervising director and co-executive producer to oversee the on-set production and to oversee all of our directors.
Because we had a lot of new directors in season five, including some cast members and crew members and even some of our writers.
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Chapter 6: What was the significance of the fruit fly wrangler on set?
They all directed their first episodes. Paul was also in the writer's room a bit, but mostly he was like the tastemaker, right? He was like one of these original visionaries. What is a tastemaker? I mean, I don't know, but I think a tastemaker is like you set the tastes of Did you make up that word?
No, tastemaker is a real word. Well, maybe if you're like running a winery.
But you can be like a tastemaker like is the same as like. I think you made it up. Well, I didn't. You can Google it. I can't believe you're getting out your phone right now to Google it. This is unbelievable. Tastemaker is a real word.
It's like a trendsetter.
Yes. Thank you, Sam. It's like a trendsetter. Okay.
Tastemaker. Okay. According to the English language learner's definition, a person whose judgment about what is good, fashionable, etc. are accepted and followed by many other people. That's right. He was a tastemaker.
He was a tastemaker. He was. It was his job to control the quality of the show. You know, he said yes to jokes and no to other jokes because of his good taste.
I know this is getting us off so early. I really want to know the origin of this word. Like, where did the word tastemaker come from? Was that the person that, like, tried the food for the king? And if he didn't die, okay, fine, we'll all eat what that guy had?
I don't know, but I think you should deep dive it for a revisit, Angela. Okay, fine. I do. Okay. Paul Feig was the tastemaker. Wow. You know what just happened there, Angela? What? You just got real hot and bothered with me. I did not. You did. That is not hot and bothered.
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Chapter 7: How did the team handle the art school scenes at Pratt Institute?
You were real. You were right. You were real hot to trot. That means wanting sex. I know what that means now. All right.
Well, listen, I talked to Greg Daniels about it, and he said that this was a big push that he had to make with the network, in particular, Jerry DiCanio, the head of production at Universal, because our show had been functioning just fine without someone in this role before. But Greg explained he was often called
down to set to discuss the shooting or the motivations with the actors and directors. And he wanted to make sure that that would still be covered while he was gone. And they eventually agreed. And I traded some messages with Paul Feig about this, too. And he even sent in an audio clip. Oh, Paul Feig, all the way from London. Yep.
It was such a fun year because, you know, to be around you guys and the cast every day and to be in that writer's room with that amazing group of writers was just such a special opportunity. Yeah, I got to direct a lot of episodes that season, but also it was just fun to kind of be with all of these writers. other people who were starting to direct and seeing how great they were doing.
It was so fun to be with Steve when he directed his first episode and Brent Forrester did a great job and Dave Rogers. We had so much fun. And so that was kind of my experience of the fifth season was being around everybody so much, but also just kind of getting to see the show through a lot of fresh eyes of these new directors or people coming out and doing it for the first time.
Well, I want to say that Paul also directed five episodes himself this season. And when we were trading messages, Angela, he said he loved his time on season five so much that he wanted to send us audio clips for every single episode of season five.
Get out, Paulapedia!
Paulapedia! I was like, Paul, you're busy. You're directing a movie right now in London. I mean, you don't have to do that. And he said, well, I'll do as many as I can. So guys, get ready. Get ready for, should it be Figapedia or Paulapedia? Paulfigapedia? Paulfigapedia! All right, fast fact number two is an art school location breakdown. We didn't do this last week.
We're going to see more of art school this week, so I thought it was appropriate. Okay. Fan question from Yvette and Rachel. Where were the New York City art school scenes shot? I will tell you. Everything was shot at USC, the University of Southern California. The classrooms were empty classrooms on campus that our set decorators dressed. Even the dorm room was a USC dorm room.
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Chapter 8: What can we learn from the wedding planning between Andy and Angela?
We got a letter from Mila S., who is a student at Pratt, and she said this. There is a communal cat population living on campus called Pratt Cats. They have their own little houses, and they wander the lecture halls and the campus freely. If you're ever in New York, I highly recommend you visit the campus, along with its sculptures and cats roaming the grounds.
Angela, the cats even have their own Instagram page, and it's called Pratt Cats. Pratt Cats? That's so cute. Two Ts for Pratt and two Ts for cats. Pratt cats. Pratt cats. I looked at it. It's just a lot of super cute pictures of cats. I want to see it.
Oh, my gosh. There's so many. Yeah. I wonder who does the Instagram. There's so many cats.
I think we should put this on our list. We should. All right. Fast fact number three. We've got a big guest star alert. It's Rich Sommer as Pam's art school friend, Alex. Yes. And we are friends with Rich. We're like really good friends with Rich. He needs to come on. Well, he's refused. No, he has not. I'm kidding. We are going to have him on.
You guys, Rich is probably most well known for his role as Harry Crane on Mad Men. But he's also acted in such shows as Wet Hot American Summer, the TV series, as well as many movies with office connections. Oh, yeah. He was in The Devil Wears Prada starring Emily Blunt. He was in Celeste and Jesse Forever starring Rashida Jones. And he was in The Giant Mechanical Man starring me. Yay!
He is also supposedly real-life friends with Nicholas D'Agosto, a.k.a. Hunter. We're going to have to ask him about that when he comes on the show.
Oh, yeah. We have lots to ask him. We do. Jenna, as you remember from last week, there is a fantastic DVD commentary for weight loss. It's an all crew DVD commentary. I have more to share from that in this week's weight loss part two, as well as I reached out to Joya Balfour. Do you guys remember Joya? She has contributed information on the podcast before.
She worked on the digital team at NBC.com and she has some fun Andy Angela wedding stuff that she shared with me, as well as one little surprise, but we'll get to it. I love it.
Should we take a break and then we'll be back? Yeah.
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