And Michaela Scott?
That’s what Jenna Fischer, who played Pam on all nine seasons of the American version of Officejokingly suggests to Yahoo Entertainment when it learns of plans for a female-led Australian version of the hit workplace comedy.
Although the sitcom ended in 2013, it remains a force in pop culture, available daily, whether on streaming or cable reruns, or to support by purchasing a growing list of merchandise: wishes, shot glasses, toys, books and more. Officecentered on Steve Carrell’s Michael Scott, is still going strong in many ways, including The office ladies podcast hosted by Fischer and his former co-star Angela Kinsey. Their characters, Pam and Angela, couldn’t stand each other at Dunder Mifflin, but the two are known to be best friends in real life, regularly leaving each other voice memos and meeting up for margaritas at Chili’s, the restaurant they starred with. they teamed up. with to reveal new menu items.
Fischer and Kinsey even carpool to the studio where they create their podcast, on which they rewatch all 188 half-hour episodes, complete with appearances from former co-stars and crew members. They were pleasantly surprised to learn of the new version of the show the day it was announced, just after emerging from a recording session.
“We don’t know,” Kinsey says of Australia’s new version of Office“but I think it’s great, and I can’t wait to hear more.”
Fischer agrees: “Yeah, I can’t wait to meet that Michael Scott woman.”
Kinsey kindly offers to reprise her role as the bossy cat-loving Angela.
“If,” Kinsey jokes, “they need a real prickly accountant to come over and, you know, judge everyone for a hot second, I’m available.”
But they reject the idea of reprising their roles in an American revival. And, for the record, Carrell said in 2018 that he didn’t think the intentionally inappropriate culture depicted would “fly now.”
“I don’t think a reboot of the US office is realistic,” Fischer says now. “I think, you know, look at us. We’ve all aged 15 years. I’m not sure we can go back and sit at our desks and start over.”
But they continued to enjoy revisiting episodes weekly for research purposes; They are on the first part of season 8 right now.
So they long ago covered “The Dundies,” the hilarious 2005 episode, written by Mindy Kaling, in which Michael Scott presents random and even insulting rewards to his employees. A drunk Pam gets kicked out of Chili’s, where the awards are taking place. She also has a close moment with John Krasinski’s Jim. He and Pam ended up providing the show’s big love story, but their relationship was very willful at first.
“We were on the verge of cancellation when we were shooting the Dundies episode at Chili’s,” Fischer recalled. “And I took Greg Daniels, our showrunner, aside, and I said, ‘Should we do a take where Jim and Pam very clearly share a kiss, in case the show gets canceled after this airing? So we can give people closure on the Jim and Pam relationship. And Greg said, “No, because if we film it, they can use it. If they really want to see you kissing, they have to come get us for another season.” But at that time, it was very tricky.”
That alone would make the fast-casual restaurant important to her, but she also remembers it as a place where she had family dinners growing up. Kinsey started going there in college to celebrate with friends after a big exam. It was actually their idea to partner with the restaurant.
“I know you’d expect us to say we’re excited to be doing this partnership,” Fischer says, “but I just want to say that I met the folks at Chili’s at an event in Los Angeles, and I cornered them in the bedroom, and told them that I wanted to do a campaign with them, because I love them, and that me and Angela should do one as best friends… So when we say that we are delighted to work with them, we say it.”
While Fischer and Kinsey love their happy hours together, they enjoy each other much more.
“I appreciate Angela’s unconditional love and acceptance of me,” Fischer said. “She doesn’t shy away from the parts of me that I might be embarrassed to share with everyone. I feel like I can share every part of me with her, and she always comes to me with love and acceptance. She doesn’t judge me in any way, and because of that, I can grow Because you can grow in a relationship like that, and I feel like I’ve grown so much because of my best friendship with her .
Kinsey responds, “Ma’am, that touches me.”
She has a very anti-Angela take on the same issue about Fischer.
“I always say Jenna is my constant in the storm. It doesn’t matter good or bad or whatever, she’s just always there,” Kinsey said. “She’s so unwavering and unwavering when things feel overwhelming or too big for me, she’s right there by my side. Even though we’re apart. One of the things I cherish about our friendship is…I loved it everyday on the whole of Office, we would have lunch together. And we would kind of share our day. And we were able to maintain that no matter where we are in the world, we leave each other little voice memos. And I know everything about his life. It doesn’t matter where it is and vice versa. And I cherish it, really.”