Behind the scenes of “Women’s Appreciation”
May 3, 2007 by Kath Skerry
Since I was on set during some of the filming of this week’s episode of THE OFFICE, I thought I would share a few behind-the-scenes details. Nothing earth shattering, but just a few tidbits. Although we were on set all day, we only saw a few scenes being filmed. For a full recap of my day on the set click here and here.
First shot of the day…
After getting a tour of the set from Kent Zbornak, we headed over to “Dunder Mifflin”. Although it was only about 9:30am or so, the cast was well into filming. The first scene we saw being filmed was Pam and Phyllis in the conference room discussing the “flasher”. They did so many takes and each one seemed to my untrained eye to be perfect.
This day is bananas…
During the scene when Karen and Pam confront Dwight about the memo Dwight is eating a banana. Well for each take he had a new banana and kept eating it over and over again. I was getting nauseated just watching it. On a quick break after that scene Rainn came into the room and I asked him about it. He said he was getting sick and might never be able to eat a banana again. Just goes to show how committed these actors are 🙂
Greg Daniels is “hands” on…
Tanster and I were watching them film Jan & Michael’s break up scene along with Gene & Lee (who wrote the ep) and OFFICE Executive Producer Greg Daniels. About halfway through the first take Greg got up and headed on to the set. Come to find out that he wasn’t loving the really dark nail polish that Melora Hardin had on. He didn’t think it was a color that Jan would wear and he had her change it. THIS attention to detail is what makes THE OFFICE so fantastic…it’s not just about the words on the page, it’s about the characters. It was a small moment but one I found particularly interesting.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T…
In the scene, where Michael is talking to Dwight about respecting women, Steve Carell had the line “RESPECT, find out what it means to me”. They did the scene so many times and Steve never did the same take twice. Each time he who have a new and different way of spelling “respect”. It was so funny. And the little line about him encouraging Pam to show more cleavage – that was improved by Steve as well. Again with every take he had something new to say about how the women dressed. Jenna Fischer was thankfully out of the shot because she kept cracking up. I really don’t know how they all held it together because it was so funny. Oh and in one take Steve threw his leg up on Jim’s pre-Stamford desk, but he did it with no warning and such conviction that the entire cast just burst out laughing.
The Sketch…
Pam’s infamous drawing of “the flasher” was actually hung up all around the set. The producers actually asked Office fan “Dangerskew” to do the drawing of Dwight after seeing some of his artwork on his MySpace pages. Unfortunately the drawing was at the wrong angle so it wasn’t used. But “Danger’s” drawings were hanging up in the writer’s office…very cool.
Tanster and I both got autographed copies of the sketch. Rainn signed one that says: “Kathie, Dwight loves you”, and then he gave us other autographed copies…you know, in case we want to sell them on eBay. Mine is framed and hanging in my home office.
The Women’s Bathroom…
A few interesting stories about this scene. First off, the set was built for this episode. Dunder Mifflin didn’t have such a nice women’s bathroom prior. Actually Tanster and I were some of the first people to see the bathroom. Kent Zbornak said that most of the cast hadn’t been in there yet. That was pretty cool.
During the scene with the guys, there were so many funny takes. A few had to be re-shot because Krasinski kept cracking up. Hey, I speak the truth, but to his defense he was sitting next to Brian Baumgartner who is so naturally funny he was making John laugh with just a look. But one outtake had me rolling. It was at the end of the scene and the guys were just sitting there. John Krasinski all of a sudden whips out a can of air freshener and sprays it towards an unsuspecting Brian Baumgartner. Well of course John gets him right in the eyes and everyone started laughing. They finally pulled it together and shot the scene again. And once again John sprayed Brian (not on purpose). Brian shot off a few laughter-filled expletives as he rubbed his eyes. They managed to get in a few more shots of John spraying the room without getting Brian, but I guess it didn’t make it into the episode.
In the same scene, Ryan tells Jim to ignore a message that Ryan sent Karen when she first got here. Tanster and I suspected that B.J. Novak was breaking because he smiled throughout the scene. He stopped into the room after and we asked him about it. Seems he wasn’t breaking…we just aren’t used to see Ryan Howard smiling.
Here’s a pic of Jennie and I checking out the new Dunder Mifflin women’s bathroom.
Sex Predator Hotline…
In the closing scene of the show we saw Jim calling Dwight to report that he had seen the flasher. When Dwight answers the phone he says “Dunder Mifflin slash Sex Predator Hotline this is Dwight Schrute”. Well Rainn Wilson had a tough time saying that line (as you can imagine). With each take John and Jenna giggled more and more, but Rainn didn’t break. He just kept on going and picking up the phone to say it again and again. By maybe the 5th take he just lost and gave into the hilarity of it all. On the 6th take he nailed it.
So that was a few tidbits that I couldn’t share with you until now. Nothing too crazy, but just a little background notes. There were some scenes cut, but who knows what will end up on the deleted scenes so I’m going to keep quiet on those. That’s it…this completes my full Office visit experience. It’s a day I will NEVER forget!!
Yay! those are great tidbits, thanks!
Awesome!! Question: Any more tidbits about the scene between Jim and Ryan? That was my favorite part of the episode, or.. you know, anything about BJ in general? 🙂
Hmm…not that I can remember. We didn’t really see B.J. until the second half of the day. The ladies were done for the day by the time the scene in the bathroom was shot.
BJ wasn’t in many other scenes, so I don’t have anything show related to share – sorry.
This is great; I’ve been excited to read your behind the scenes info. on this episode!! 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
Kathie,
Knowing that you were there during filming of Women’s Appreciation will make me think of this episode as even more special! I thought it was very funny, and I so admire you for all the work you’ve done. You SO deserved to be on that set, and meet all of those great people involed with “The Office”.
(I really enjoy those pics of you with the cast!)
I am a big fan of the show, but a big fan of yours as well!
You’re great.
Larry Lee Moniz
Thanks for sharing this behind the scenes info. Must have been incredibly fun to be a fly on the wall while they were filming. Really hope some of the air freshener stuff you described ends up in the DVD bloopers (the van scenes of Jim with the spray bottle in The Injury are still some of my all time favorites.) One question: I know you don’t want to be specific, in case they’re released as deleted scenes – but could you say if there were any scenes cut involving Jim/Pam interaction? Just curious…
This is AWESOME! Thank you so much. I love this kind of stuff. I really hope they have the bathroom scene on the DVDs. I think it’s so interesting how many takes they do of a scene.
That bathroom is crazy nice. Thanks for the scoop!
Greg Daniels changes Melora’s fingernail polish in one episode, but lets Jim wear that crappy wig for half the season? What gives?!?!
Thanks so much for the behind the scenes scoop, Kathie! I love how fan-friendly The Office cast & crew are – it makes me love this show so much more. I only hope that one day some of us (me included 🙂 ) can have an opportunity to meet them or visit the set. Thanks for sharing this incredible day with us!
Thanks for sharing the behind the scenes info – we have been looking forward to hearing about it since you did the set tour!
It was a hilarious episode – pretty impressive that you guys saw the ladies room before the cast! Lucky ducks!!!
I’m still jealous. But it is so cool!!
Lobed the write-up, GMMR. So fun to hear all of the back story stuff. You and Tanster deserved that treat and we get to live vicariously through you.
so fun!
Thanks for the behind-the-scenes info! I love reading about that stuff, and it just reminds me how jealous I am that you got that experience. 🙂
Hey, did anyone else notice that Jim’s hair in the opening scene looked back to normal, like his real hair – but then the rest of the ep it seemed to be that fly-away fake stuff?
Oh, and loved Kelly in the van when Michael’s phone was ringing. You could only see part of her left side, but it was cracking me up that she was dancing in her seat to Michael’s ring tone! funny girl!
It’s a shame they all crack up so much, seems like a lot of good takes are lost that way. But it’s better than them not finding it funny at all I guess. Thanks for the report, it was interesting.
What a fun day you had! I really enjoyed your write-up, and will be thinking about your behind-the-scenes activities when I have my day after rewatch tonight. And possibly during my two days after re-rewatch, too. Women’s Appreciation is one of my new favorite episodes. I laughed so loudly and often that the dog started looking at me funny. Such a great ep, and reading about your adventures in Officeland makes it even sweeter. Congrats on your fabulous experience!
Um, when Karen asked Phyllis if what she was holding was cute (at Victoria’s Secret) Phyllis said “Jim would love that.”
Was anyone else disturbed at the hint that Karen and Jim are having a sexual relationship? My first thought was “Ew!” then “WAIT. NOOO. Jim has to be with Pam! Pam CANNOT be sloppy seconds!”
Am I the only one weirded out by this?
I totally think they should get you guys in on the DVD commentary.
Kathie–Since you were there, can you answer the wig/not a wig controversy since you saw Jim’s hair up close?
In that picture, I am jealous of your clothes and hair.
And The Office stuff was good too…
In the words of Napoleon Dynamite, “Lucky”
Audrey – I too was not happy with the idea of Jim/Karen possibly having a sexual relationship. I just don’t want to go there! But if so, I prefer to think that it’s not all that enjoyable for Jim 🙂
By the way, did anyone else notice what Phyllis was holding when Karen was asking her opinion in the store? Was Phyllis holding a … thong????? Go Phyllis! ha!
GMMR-
I just saw on the news scrolling thing on E! that The Office shot two different season finales based on if Rashida Jones can come back next season or not–Do you have any scoop on this?!?!