We woke up bright and early on Friday morning (4A.M.) so we could all drive down to L.A. for Paley Fest. We wanted to leave by 5:30A.M. so we could get to L.A. in the early afternoon that way we would have time to stop outside of the Dunder-Mifflin building. The drive was pretty fun. We had downloaded the Loveline episodes that Jenna and James did and the one with BJ and Rainn. They were hilarious. Everyone in the car kept laughing at the weird things people called in for and the responses that Rainn, BJ, Jenna and James gave in return. After we listened to these, we watched a few episodes of The Office on a video iPod. We got to L.A. at about 11:30 A.M. and our first stop was the Dunder-Mifflin offices! We were able to park our car at the side of the street and we walked over to the place we all recognize as the entrance to The Office and the parking lot that still had the famous Dwight Trans-Am and Michael's Sebring and Pam's hatchback. Although none of the actors were in sight, we were so excited to get to see all of this!
Andrea and Eunice in front of the Dunder-Mifflin Entrance
Eunice in front of the Dunder-Mifflin entrance
Andrea in front of the Dunder-Mifflin Entrance
Dunder-Mifflin sign at the set
Michael's Sebring and his parking spot
The front entrance that we have seen in episodes such as The Fire and Grief Counseling
Another view of the entrance. You can see where they filmed the scene in Sexual Harrassment where Michael goes out to ask the warehouse guys for a joke.
Another view of the parking lot.
Dunder-Mifflin entrance. An interesting thing we learned is that although the main entrance is on this building, the actual "Scranton offices" are not located in this building. This building holds the Stamford offices, NY offices and the warehouse. There is a replica of Michael's office in this building though, which is really Jennifer Celotta's office. Whenever they have to do a scene where Michael looks out his window, they take over Jennifer's office. The building right next to the building with the main entrance is where the actual "Scranton Office" is located.This is a cool little tidbit we learned from the great people working at The Office while we were visiting.
Bob Vance- Vance Refrigeration's parking space
While on the set, a little bird told us that they weren't filming on the set today BUT they were filming "On Location" at the Westfield Fashion Square Mall, which was only a few miles down the street. The little bird told us that it was an open set at the mall and we would be able to watch them film. The little bird even gave us directions, so big props to the birdie!
When we pulled into the mall parking lot we saw dozens of trailers parked and we knew we were in the right place.
Mall parking lot with all the trailers
We went into the mall and tried to find where they were shooting. We thought it would be hard to find but in no time we saw a sign outside of the Victoria's Secret store that kind of gave it away:
Sign outside Victoria's Secret
They weren't filming yet but it didn't take long to notice we were in the right place. We got to see all the props that transformed this space into Steamtown Mall including posters promoting a Scranton Dancing with the Stars event. It was safe to say that we were now in official Scranton territory!
Andrea w/Steamtown Mall sign
Eunice w/Steamtown Mall sign
Us w/The Scranton Dancing with the Stars poster
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The Scranton Dancing with the Stars poster
About a half hour later, the cast started coming in from a side entrance, Phyllis, Mindy and Rashida walked in, a few minutes later Angela and Kate walked in, then Steve and finally Jenna. Jenna was wearing her UGGS too!! (the same ones Eunice was wearing!) They walked into the Victoria's Secret and we could watch them film from outside. This was a pretty cool experience because we got to see all that goes into filming a scene. We got to see how all the extras are instructed what to do and when to walk in. We also got to see how they film a scene over and over but with slight differences every time. It was funny watching them break, especially when Steve made them break a scene! We're not going to give away too much about the scenes other than the location, but let me tell you, it looked really, really funny!
Mindy inside VS
Steve Carell shooting inside VS
More Steve
And yet again: Steve, this time sitting in a purple rotating chair although you can't really see it in that picture,
Some of the things that stood out from the shoot were:
- Meeting JKras' stand-in. I think the hair gave it away but he was pretty nice.
- During one of the breaks Steve walked out five feet in front of us, followed by security. He smiled at us and when we waved at him he waved back and said Hello!!
- About an hour later, from inside Victoria's Secret, Steve was looking out the glass doors and he was doing some "Rock On" signs with his hands. We were like, "Who is he doing that to? It looks like he's looking right at us." and when we smiled and waved he did the same back! That was a cool feeling!
- At one point we saw Steve kiss this blonde woman and of course we were thinking "Who the heck is that?" and when she turned around, it was his wife Nancy Walls (Carol Stills)! She wasn't in the shoot, she just popped in to say hello to Steve and she was shopping in the mall.
- Seeing as how we are girls who love to shop, the following really caught our eye. During a break, Mindy ran into the Betsey Johnson store to do some shopping, Kate and Angela went into Pottery Barn. Oh yeah, and Rashida bought something at Forever 21! You would think a person like her with a multi-millionaire for a father would shop at high end stores, but nope, she had a Forever 21 bag just like any Joe Schmo.
- During a scene outside VS, they set up the directors monitors and chairs right next to us. So, during the filming of the scene, the director (I don't know who he was) and Gene and Lee were sitting right next to us watching the video on the monitors. Also, Randall Einhorn kept walking right in front of us. Very cool to see!
- The best highlight of the shoot for us was getting to take a picture with Angela and Kate in full Office attire! They were extremely nice. It was very funny because when they were introducing themselves to us (like they even need to introduce themselves), Angela said, "Hi, I'm Angela" and held out her hand for us to shake it. Then Andrea said, "Andrea" and Angela said, "Angela" (again) and Andrea said, "Andrea" (all this while they are shaking hands). Then Angela says, "No my name is Angela not Andrea" then we started laughing and Eunice said, "No, her name is Andrea! We're not calling you Andrea" and Angela busted out laughing! She thought we were calling her Andrea the whole time. She said a ton of people, especially elderly people, call her Andrea and she thought we were calling her that too! We had a good laugh! Kate was great as well. They were both sweet as can be. We told them we were going to Paley Fest later on in the day and we would see them there.
Us with Kate and Angela! The picture is kind of blurry but luckily the other girl who took a picture with us is going to email us a clearer copy of the picture. You can't tell from the picture but Angela's sweater has cats all over it. Too funny!
After we left the shoot, we went back to the hotel to get ready for Paley Fest. We left our hotel at 6:20pm and although we were staying only two miles away from the DGA it still took us about a half an hour to get there!!! Can you guys believe that? We made it to the DGA about 10 minutes before the Paley Fest Office panel started! Let me tell you that we were freaking out in the car because we thought we were going to be late. Thank God that our fiancées dropped us off because we would have missed half of the show if we had to find parking. So when they dropped us off at the DGA, we ran into the building and there was a HUGE line. Our hearts sank because we thought we had to wait in line to be let in but then we were told that that was the line for those who didn't have tickets. Luckily for us, we didn't have to wait in line and we walked right in.
We're going to Paley Fest!!
While we were walking in, we recognized tanster from officetally.com, so we stopped and introduced ourselves and told her that we just LOVE her site! The usher then took us to our seats, which were nine rows from the stage! We had an excellent view!
When the show began, they introduced the cast as they were sitting down in the audience. Greg Daniels then went on stage and told us that we would be watching the "Cocktails" episode, as well as a blooper reel. The best surprise was that we would be watching 15 minutes of the next new episode! This was great news for all of us! It was really neat watching "Cocktails" with 600 other people, including the cast!! Everyone was laughing and clapping and "aaawing"! The other 15 minutes of the new episode that they showed us was tentatively titled "The Negotiations" and they also showed us a blooper reel which was super funny! A "Question and Answer" segment followed. Most of it was done with a moderator, which completely sucked. I don't know what it was about her but she just didn't do it for us. Her questions were weird but the cast was able to turn it around and make it enjoyable for us! Here go some of the highlights from the event:
- Blooper Reel: In Benihana Christmas, Pam telling Jim that she loved him. Jim then looks at the camera with a surprised look and faints. Everyone in the audience squealed and cheered when this came on. Andrea and I grabbed each others arms and screamed like the fan girls that we are!
- Blooper Reel: Jim doing the running man while pointing at Karen and yelling "Can you handle this, Pam? Huh, can you?"
- Blooper Reel: Seeing Kate/Meredith with the electronic bat on her head
- Blooper Reel: Dwight talking head where he talks about his uncle. It went something like this: "My Uncle Harvey Schrute was a real fudge packer." Rainn busts out laughing and tries to continue by saying that his uncle worked at the Hershey's factory. (This doesn't sound as funny when we read this back to ourselves so I guess you had to be there. But trust us, it was hilarious!)
- We won't ruin the "Negotiation" for you but here go some small highlights to show how great this episode will be: Supersized Episode, new Darrylisms, A car ride, and cross dressing. (nuff said)
After the event was over, the cast stayed and signed autographs and took pictures with the fans. Here go some of the ones we were able to get:
Rainn, Jenna, Angela, and Ed @ Paley Fest
Brian, Jenna, Angela, and Ed @ Paley Fest
Creed, Phyllis, Oscar, Brian, and Ed @ Paley Fest
Craig, Creed, Phyllis, and Oscar @ Paley Fest
Steve, Melora,David and Leslie @ Paley Fest
"Can I sign on Johnny's DVD?" Phyllis was so cute. When she was signing my season 2 dvd she wanted to sign on Jkras' dvd.
Phyllis w/the girls!
Oscar and Andrea @ Paley Fest '07
Creed and Andrea @ Paley Fest '07
Creed: "You know, I like to steal stuff". He was so funny! It was like he was in character when we were talking to him!
BJ and Andrea @ Paley Fest '07
Creed and Eunice @ Paley Fest '07
BJ and Eunice @ Paley Fest '07
BJ was cute. When he came out he said: "Now this is for the hard core fans"
Jenna Fischer signing autographs
When Jenna signed my season 2 dvd she signed where her hand is passing a note to Jim and then she turned to me and said "That's not my hand, I don't know who's hand that is"
Eunice and Oscar. His jacket was really soft…
It was really fun because everyone in the cast was so nice, especially Phyllis, what a sweetheart! Angela and Kate also remembered us from the mall, so that was really cool. Earlier during the Q&A, Angela mentioned that she hated working at 1-800-Dentist. When we were talking to her after the show she asked us "Was it wrong for me to say 1-800-Dentist sucks?". She's so funny and small! Creed, Oscar and Leslie were also very, very sweet. Oh and after Paley the DGA had a cocktail party outside for the cast and some people were standing like 10 feet away from the door that let out to it, and Bj Novak saw everyone and came to say hi and sign autographs and take some pictures, Jenna did the same thing. We thought it was really sweet, they were also very nice!! We really enjoyed everything that happened that day, just getting to see everyone from our favorite show was amazing! This definitely was the BEST FRIKKIN DAY EVER!!!