Second Drink: Company Picnic
Office Ladies
Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey dive into the behind-the-scenes secrets of 'Company Picnic,' the landmark 100th episode of The Office. They d
Key takeaways
- The 100th episode was a pivotal milestone because it made The Office eligible for syndication on networks like Comedy Central.
- Costume designers used matching navy jackets for Michael and Holly to subtly symbolize their enduring connection despite being apart.
Main topics
- 100th episode milestone
- Syndication and residuals
Notable quotes
We are the Office Ladies. Angela Kinsey. Jenna Fisher.
Conclusion
A nostalgic and informative deep dive that provides fans with rare, be
Transcript preview
Speaker 4 (0:01) Welcome back to our second drink of Company Picnic. I really had a good time going through the mail for this one because we got a lot of great stuff. Yes, we really Speaker 3 (0:11) did. So I'm Speaker 4 (0:12) going to kick us off with this background catch by Sarah L. in Dallas, Texas. Sarah says, I may be thinking too deep into this, and I don't know if the question or observation has already been asked, but I noticed that Michael and Holly are both wearing navy jackets. And I don't know if that was intentional or not, or if there's any symbolism in that decision. Like, even though they are not together right now and living separately, they are still thinking the same. Love you, ladies, and your podcast. Oh, Sarah. Speaker 3 (0:42) Completely intentional. I know it. We would do stuff like that all the time. And I love when people notice. Yes. This was the care that our crew through props or wardrobe or hair or makeup or set dressing would take with our show. And I love when people notice and connect the dots. Speaker 4 (1:00) Sarah, such a great observation. And I love the idea that, yeah, they're apart, but still so connected. Speaker 3 (1:08) Well, I love this observation by Katie W. in Albany, New York, who said, My favorite scene is actually just a couple of moments. It's when Michael is with Holly before and after their skit, and he just pauses and looks at her. Those silent moments are so moving. You can see Michael yearning to tell Holly he loves her and also his fear and trepidation to do so. It makes his statement at the end of the episode perfect. Exquisite acting by Steve and as always, amazing writing and direction. P.S. Love the podcast so much. Speaker 4 (1:42) I went back and rewatched that moment that Katie's talking about and that look that he gives her. It's so loaded. Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 3 (1:52) I Speaker 4 (1:53) mean, again, Speaker 3 (1:55) I want to say one of the things I love about our show are the quiet moments where we say so much without saying any words at Speaker 4 (2:02) all. Which is true life. Yes. Yes. All right. Well, this favorite moment is also one of mine. It is from Freya J. in Hibbing, Minnesota. Freya wrote in and said, my favorite episodes are The Injury, Safety Training, and Stress Relief Part 1. But my all-time top number one absolute favorite scene is from the company picnic episode. It's when Dwight is attempting to delay the volleyball game as Pam goes to the hospital by kicking the ball into the woods and then nonchalantly goes, I'll get it. And he turns and casually walks towards the woods. Every single time I am crying, laughing, and it'll take about five minutes for me to recover. Even thinking about the scene makes me, as Angela says, so tickled. And I've been giggling as I type this. Love both you ladies so much and the whole crew of Office Ladies. Your show feels like such a warm hug that I never want to end. And then Freya put little heart emojis. Freya, every time Dwight kicks that ball, there's just part of it that is rain. It is when I watch it and it cracks me up. Yes. Because he can be bratty like that. You know what I Speaker 3 (3:11) mean? Totally. Yeah. Speaker 4 (3:13) Totally. Speaker 3 (3:13) Well, Speaker 4 (3:14) we also got Speaker 3 (3:15) a letter from Jennifer C. in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and several other folks who wrote in to say that. This episode of Company Picnic is the last episode that features Stanley's wife, Terry, and they would like to know more about the actress who played her. Well, everyone, Terry was played by Joanne Carlson, and she was in five episodes of The Office. Her character's full name is Terry Hudson, and she is Stanley's second wife. The first time we meet her is in The Dundies in season two. We see her again in Boo's Cruise and Phyllis's Wedding and Company Picnic. And then she is referenced in a few episodes as well. And, you know, Joanne, if you hear this, we would love to chat with you about your time on The Office. So feel free to slide into The Office Lady's Instagram DMs. Speaker 4 (4:03) Yes, that would be really fun. All right, so lastly, Cassidy C. in Santa Clarita, California, and Patrick N. from Melbourne, Florida, wanted us to know a fun crossover. Cassidy and Patrick pointed out that in Company Picnic, Michael mentions to AJ and Holly that he is designing a chair. Quote, it's part of your pants. You sit down, you're supported. And Holly says she remembers his chair pants idea. Well, in the show Jury Duty by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stepnitsky, Todd wears his own version and invention of chair pants. Yes, Speaker 3 (4:40) I remember seeing it. I remember watching Jury Duty and being like, that's Michael's idea. Yeah. Speaker 4 (4:45) So people wanted to know if this was a nod to their days on The Office. And it is. A hundred percent. A Speaker 3 (4:51) hundred Speaker 4 (4:51) percent. Speaker 3 (4:52) All right, everyone. Now here is our second drink of Company Picnic. Speaker 3 (5:01) 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 Speaker 4 (5:09) 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. Speaker 4 (5:21) Angela Kinsey. Jenna Fisher. I Speaker 3 (5:23) think I have a meta moment because today in Speaker 4 (5:27) the Speaker 3 (5:28) world, the 100th episode of Office Ladies podcast came out. Yes. And now here we are recording our podcast about the 100th episode of The Office. Speaker 4 (5:39) That's very meta. And our age Speaker 3 (5:41) is almost equal 100. Speaker 4 (5:43) Oh, well, why'd you have to throw that in there? I don't know. I was looking for more hundreds. Speaker 4 (5:50) All right. Well, we should get into this episode. We have so much to cover. We Speaker 3 (5:54) do. This is going to be a long one. That's what she said. It's Company Picnic, Season 5, Episode 28, written by Jen Salata and Paul Lieberstein, directed by the dearest man on the planet, Ken Kwapis. Summary, it's the Dunder Mifflin Company Picnic. All of them are there. All the branches. Yes. In their own special t-shirts that have their branch name on them. Oh, Speaker 4 (6:22) I have it, lady. We'll get to it. Speaker 3 (6:23) Well, the Scranton branch is going to compete against the other branches in a company-wide volleyball tournament. Meanwhile, Michael and Holly reunite to perform a comedy skit where they accidentally reveal some confidential information to the crowd. Speaker 4 (6:40) David Wallace, why would you tell Michael Scott anything of that magnitude and expect him to keep it quiet? Speaker 3 (6:48) When David introduces their skit, one of my favorite lines is when he says, I have not seen this. I Speaker 4 (6:54) have not seen this. Yeah. Speaker 3 (6:58) Finally, Dwight is going to defend Speaker 4 (7:00) Angela's Speaker 3 (7:01) honor. Tell Rolf. Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 4 (7:05) And Speaker 3 (7:05) ultimately, an ankle injury is going to send Pam to the hospital where she and Jim get some surprising news. Speaker 4 (7:12) So sweet. I love this episode. Speaker 3 (7:15) Fast forward. Fact number one, Company Picnic was the 100th episode of The Office. Yes. This was a very big deal for the network because it meant our show was now eligible for syndication. Which I Speaker 4 (7:29) didn't even know what that meant. Speaker 3 (7:30) I thought maybe we should explain it. Speaker 4 (7:32) Okay, do. Because I remember when we hit 100, I was like, what's all the hullabaloo? Yeah, sure. We hit 100. That's cool. I know. Maybe, you know, we'll all go out to dinner or something. Speaker 3 (7:41) No. No. For the network. Super big. They Speaker 4 (7:44) all showed up to the set. They did. They brought a cake. It was as big as like a poker table. It was humongous. It was. That's what she said. That's what Speaker 3 (7:54) she said. They brought champagne. But we couldn't drink it. Speaker 4 (7:58) No, because we had to go back to work. Speaker 3 (8:00) We had to go Speaker 4 (8:00) right back. We actually only had 15 minutes with the cake, all said and told. It was on our lunch break. So if you wanted to eat, we had 30 minutes, photo with a cake. And then we had to like run out the door. Well, Speaker 3 (8:11) I remember Greg gave a very nice speech. He did. About what the 100 episodes had meant to him. Entertainment Tonight was there. All the press was there. I mean, this was a super big deal. Let's tell you why. When a show hits 100 episodes and goes into syndication, it means that the network can now start selling the show in a package to different places where they can rerun it. So it doesn't. just run on NBC anymore. It gets on Speaker 4 (8:39) all the cable networks. Like Comedy Central, how Speaker 3 (8:42) it reruns on Comedy Central. Speaker 4 (8:44) Right. And guys, remember, this predates all streaming. Yes. So this was all kind of a cable thing. But this meant big money for the network. I didn't know that, but it makes sense because these other places pay them to have it. Speaker 3 (8:59) Yes. But what I think a lot of people don't know is... that the actors do not cash in on this unless they are what is called profit participants. Oh, Speaker 4 (9:09) yeah. And guess what? We weren't. We Speaker 3 (9:11) were not. Now, our union, SAG, does negotiate a small fee for syndicated reruns. So it's very fun. You get checks, and they're great. They're Speaker 4 (9:21) great. But they have, you guys, this cascading tier. So you get a check, and you're like, whoop-boop. Then the next one's a little lower, then it's a little lower, then it's a little lower, then it's a little lower, then it's a little lower. And then it's for like $2. Speaker 3 (9:33) Well, you know that bar that they have called Residuals in Burbank? Speaker 4 (9:37) This is a famous bar, Speaker 3 (9:38) you guys. Yeah. So there's this bar called Residuals. And if you're an actor and you bring in a residual check that's under a dollar, they'll give you a free drink and then they tack your check up on the wall. Speaker 4 (9:50) Yeah. I have a friend of mine who saved a residual check for, I think it was 17 cents. And I put it on his bulletin board. Speaker 3 (9:58) Lady, I got one for 21 cents. It costs more money to mail it to me. Probably, and to print it. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So Speaker 4 (10:07) yeah, they were able to make a lot of money selling the show to cable. And then eventually, you guys, I mean, you know, they were able to sell it to all the streamers. Yeah. Speaker 3 (10:15) I guess we should probably say the actors don't get a big payout for that either. That money goes to the profit participants. Speaker 4 (10:23) See, the word profit participant is something I'd never heard of. And as it turns out, if you're one of those folks, that is Lusha Taki. It sure is. Speaker 3 (10:36) Angela, you found out the inspiration for our 100th episode while listening to the DVD commentary. Will you share? Speaker 4 (10:45) I will. I'm officially part of Fast Fact number one, folks. Oh, yeah. Here's the thing. If you love... really good DVD commentaries. This is one not to miss of the Office Box set because Ken Kwapis and Paul Lieberstein and Jen Salata share so many great details. They were the only three people on this commentary and I really enjoyed it. Paul shared that the idea for the company picnic, they had it at the very beginning of season five. They always knew that they would be working towards this episode. Wow. And Jen shared that they wanted to bring all of the branches together. They researched company picnics. This delighted me because I just imagined Jen Googling company picnics. She Speaker 3 (11:27) was a lady who Googled. I was going to say, like, that would Speaker 4 (11:30) have been us. We would have been like, wait, let's research what people do. And one of the things that came up was a volleyball tournament. So they thought that would be fun. And Paul said he thought it was a great way to bring everyone back together, all the different branches, all the different characters for this big 100th episode. The only characters you don't see that were in the world of the show really were Jan, but it doesn't make sense for Jan to come back. Yes. And Karen. Yes, Speaker 3 (11:56) we got mail about that. Where was Karen? And Jen Salata did an interview where she said Rashida Jones was filming Parks and Recreation and they couldn't get her for a whole week of work to be at this picnic. And then they realized, wait, she would be on maternity leave. So they tracked her story-wise as being on maternity leave, and that's why she wasn't there. Speaker 4 (12:19) Well, that worked out perfect. While the volleyball was a great idea, Ken did share that it was a logistical nightmare because they started filming and they were trying to keep with the rules of volleyball. Okay. Speaker 3 (12:31) Which Speaker 4 (12:31) means the teams trade sides depending on score or whatever, but they just had to bail. They had to bail because it just got too complicated. Jen said she had this memory of looking over at Ken and he had a clipboard and he had a little quarter and he was tracing this coin, you know, with a pencil and placing it and mapping out where everyone was going to stand and who was serving and who was playing what position because it was so complex to shoot. I Speaker 3 (13:00) thought it was interesting that they chose volleyball. Any company picnic I've ever been to, it's usually softball. But I do see how that... People are really spread out in softball. So I guess that makes sense to me. Speaker 4 (13:13) Right. But I mean, I can't even imagine. Jen and Paul shared this other thing. Jen said that her and Paul, as they wrote this episode, they thought that each team had nine players. And so they wrote the whole script with each team having nine players. Oh, Speaker 3 (13:28) no. And then Speaker 4 (13:28) they got to the production meeting. And in the production meeting, someone was like, you know, on volleyball teams, you have six players on the court, not nine. And Paul and them were like, what? Speaker 4 (13:41) But yeah, so they had to change that like immediately. And I have more fun tidbits from the three of them in the commentary I'll sprinkle through the episode. All right. Speaker 3 (13:50) Angela. What? Great job on that fast fact. Oh, thank you. Really Speaker 4 (13:53) enjoyed that. Speaker 3 (13:54) Thanks so much. You told me, you were like, Jenna, there's some great stuff about the inspiration behind the episode. And I said, I'm holding a spot for you up in fast facts, lady. You did. All right. Fast fact number two is a location breakdown. Now. The signs hanging in this episode say that this picnic is being held at The Meadows in upstate New York. I could not find any information on this or if this is a real place. Speaker 4 (14:21) Hmm. Faky place. Speaker 3 (14:23) Perhaps. Does anyone know? Please comment on Office Ladies Pod. If you've ever been to a park called The Meadows in upstate New York, I'd love to know. Fan question. Rayan from Pakistan would like to know, where did we actually film? this episode? Well, we filmed at Calamigos Ranch in Malibu Canyon. It is a beautiful location. It's kind of nestled into the side of this canyon in the Malibu Mountains. Did you know it has its own water source from a spring on the property? I Speaker 4 (14:57) didn't know that, but I know a lot of people get married there. I've been to a wedding there. You Speaker 3 (15:02) know what? Randy Cordray knew about this location because he had been the best man at a wedding there. And when the script came up, he remembered it and suggested it to our locations manager, Kyle Alexander. And they scouted it, and they all agreed it was perfect. So now, Angela, you mentioned how Ken Kwapis said, like, this was a logistically difficult shoot. Randy said this was a very difficult episode to pull off logistically from a production side because we had so many. People. So Speaker 4 (15:33) many people, and we were in the middle of a canyon. Speaker 3 (15:35) He said we had to hire additional crew, including multiple medics. And we had hydration stations and sunscreen stations. And Sergio and Alan are caterers. They had to triple their staff. They had three lines to serve lunch, like three buffet lines. And then Peter and Vartan at craft service, they also had three stations instead of one. It was a lot of concern about being able to feed everybody because all the background food, people were told not to eat. Speaker 4 (16:08) Yeah, it was fakey food. Speaker 3 (16:10) It was real food, but it had been at various temperatures that made it sort of unsafe to eat. So if you watch the episode, you might notice no one eats anything off of their plates of food. Speaker 4 (16:22) Check Speaker 3 (16:22) it out. Speaker 4 (16:23) Ken said there was probably like 250 people there. Speaker 3 (16:26) Guess what my fast fact number three is, lady? What? I'll tell you. We had 14 guest actors, our regular cast, and 185 background performers for this episode. Also, I thought this was interesting. Some of the background performers were called special business performers. Special Speaker 4 (16:48) business? You know what their special business was? Volleyball? Yeah. Playing volleyball for hours on end. Lady, were you ever a background Speaker 3 (16:57) performer? Speaker 4 (16:58) You know Speaker 3 (16:58) it. That's how I earned my SAG card. Yeah, same. Did you have any special business listed on your background performer resume? Speaker 4 (17:06) Yes, I did. Speaker 3 (17:07) What was your special business? That Speaker 4 (17:09) I could speak Indonesian. Speaker 3 (17:10) Oh. My special business was water skiing, bowling, and animal handling. Speaker 4 (17:18) Oh, I also put I could play tennis and roller skate. Those are Speaker 3 (17:22) a big deal. Yeah, that's a big deal. Speaker 4 (17:24) I was on 90210. Did you have Speaker 3 (17:27) to do any of your special Speaker 4 (17:27) business? I didn't. I was one of Tori Spelling's sorority sisters. But I did pass the ballots of a voting, a sorority voting session to, I handed them to Tori. Oh, you got to interact. Yes, briefly. I said nothing. I just handed some paper to her. Speaker 3 (17:45) I was an extra on the movie Pleasantville, starring Reese Witherspoon and Tobey Maguire. And I had to play a teenager. And that was really fun because I got to dress up in old-timey clothes the whole time. But check this out. They came into the extras holding area because they needed three couples to make out in the backseat of a car. They were going to pan across all these different couples making out until they got to the car with the lead actors. Speaker 4 (18:14) Were you part of the makeout Speaker 3 (18:15) couples? No. You would have become a featured extra if you did it and you got a bump in pay, but I Speaker 4 (18:19) felt too shy. So I didn't volunteer. But Speaker 3 (18:22) lady, we had a very special background performer on this episode of The Office. And it was Jenny Tan, who runs the fan website, officetelly.com. Yes. We had all become friends with her. And she was invited to spend the entire week with us, getting an exclusive look at the finale. And they asked her to be an extra. And lady, she documented. All five days of shooting this episode on officetelly.com, it is still there, and she has tons of photos. Amazing. She also gave this amazing breakdown of what it was like to be a background performer on Company Picnic. Speaker 4 (19:04) Oh, my gosh. Are you going to share? Yes. You guys, Jenny was sort of someone who... made a community for The Office online before anyone was doing that. Before social media. Before social media. And she was there for the show, providing this community in our earliest days, when we didn't even know the future of the show. And it meant a lot to all of us. And Speaker 3 (19:26) we would reach out to her and give her exclusive tips or content or photos that she would post on the website. And it became kind of the hub. Speaker 4 (19:34) Yeah. And this was before networks did any kind of... social media or website for any of their shows. And our show had this presence because of Jenny. And Speaker 3 (19:44) so her documenting of our show is very extensive and it's all still there on officetelly.com. There's all these exclusive interviews. It's amazing. She said you could really tell the people who were professional background artists because they would bring tons of gear, like rolling luggage filled with... What she said, quote, outerwear for every possible weather condition, chairs, water, snacks, something to read. It's like, you know, when you go to the beach and you see people like come with the wagon full of stuff or at the soccer game, that's a professional background performer. Speaker 4 (20:21) Oh, yeah. I remember doing background work and there was a guy that had a backpack that was a chair. Yes. And you could open the backpack and there was stuff inside, or you could unfold it and sit in it. Speaker 3 (20:31) Because background performers do not get trailers. You mostly are going to be directed to a holding area with some folding chairs in it. But my experience was there were never enough chairs for each person. Never Speaker 4 (20:42) enough chairs, and they're usually outside. Yeah. Speaker 3 (20:45) So Jenny said that when she first went to the wardrobe tent, she was given an apron to wear, and she said she would be a grill cook. But then about an hour later... Production pulled her aside and made her a Buffalo Branch employee, and then they winked and said, you're going to be part of a special branch. But she Speaker 4 (21:02) didn't know what that meant yet. And Speaker 3 (21:04) get this. Jenny talked to a bunch of the background folks, and she said that most of them were not Office fans, that they had never seen the show, and that a few of them did not know who Steve Carell was. She said they were thrilled to be working on our show. Because we had a reputation for treating background performers very, very well and for providing great food. She said one person told her from a work perspective, to be able to be an extra on The Office for an entire week, I feel like I won the lottery. So that made me really proud that our show did a good job. Because as Speaker 4 (21:40) a person who did a lot of background work, yeah. Speaker 3 (21:43) Yeah. It meant a lot. Usually the background performers were like the last people who get to go through the lunch line. And it's like what's left? Almost nothing. And you were not allowed to go to craft services. But on our show, we had a whole buffet set aside just for the background performers and a whole craft