Plenty of memorable one-liners are sprinkled throughout The Office, but did you know that several of the all-time best quotes from the show are from the same vastly underrated episode?
On the latest episode of the Office Ladies podcast, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey chatted about the Season 3 episode "Product Recall," which features one of greatest cold opens in the series along with several fan and cast-favorite lines.
If you need a refresher, "Product Recall" finds the Dunder Mifflin employees dealing with backlash after more than a few reams of paper with an obscene watermark were accidentally sent to customers. But before we get into all of that drama, the episode opens with Jim's perfect impression of Dwight.
Pure cold open gold
Halpert nails the Dwight look — from the hair and mustard-colored short sleeve button down shirt to the calculator watch — but he attempts to sound like his desk mate, too, which is how we got the brilliant line, "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica."
"I think it is one of the classics of all the cold opens on the whole series," Kinsey said. Fischer agreed and said the cold open gave us some of the best lines in the series and is possibly the most quoted scene.
"I remember filming this episode and John Krasinski was so funny. We could not hold it together," Fischer said.
"I think it is one of the classics of all the cold opens on the whole series."
"Well, we all knew how great [John] was at impressions. And so when he got to actually flex that a little, we were just like, 'Ah! I can't wait to watch,'" Kinsey explained.
Though Krasinski's delivery was impressive, Rainn Wilson also delivered one of the most beloved Dwight lines of the series in this scene: "Identity theft is not a joke, Jim! Millions of families suffer every year."
For those who want to know more about the scene, Fischer said they only filmed about eight takes, and though Justin Spitzer and Brent Forrester wrote "Product Recall," writers Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg wrote this cold open.
"And it was Mike Schur who pitched the line, 'Bears beats Battlestar Galactica," Fischer revealed.
Other brilliant "Product Recall" lines
The cold open was clearly one to remember, but the entire episode is really jam-packed with gems.
This is the episode where Kelly Kapoor sings "This day is bananas! B-A-N-A-N-A-S!" to the tune of Gwen Stefani's Hollaback Girl. It's the one where Angela takes a pill and says "I don't have a headache. I'm just preparing." And it's also the episode that contains Kinsey's favorite line in the entire series: "Lord beer me strength."
When Andy and Jim are in the car together, Andy explains how he says "Beer me" when he wants somebody to give him something, such as water or a CD. Jim tries the phrase out himself later in the episode and says, "Lord beer me strength."
"That's my favorite line," Kinsey told Fischer. "...I love it so much. I love it, I don't know if it's because growing up, there's been so many times where I've been like, 'Lord, give me strength.' And just to have 'Lord, beer me strength,' it just tickles me. I just love it."
Fischer reached out to the writers of The Office to find out who wrote this delightful joke, but unfortunately no one can quite remember what inspired it.
Dwight's Jim impersonation callback tag
The episode ends with a hilarious nod to how it began, only this time Dwight shows up to work looking like Jim.
"I want to tell you that this was originally in the script as the alternate ending to the cold open. Dwight had a little talking head where he said, 'To defeat your enemy, you have to become your enemy.' And then he showed up to work dressed as Jim. But in the editing process, we split it up, which I think was genius," Fischer said.
"I love that. I love that we end with it," Kinsey echoed.
"I remember how much fun Rainn had doing this scene, but I also remember him talking with Randall [Einhorn], the director, about how Dwight couldn't be as good of a mimic as Jim," Fischer explained.
"So whereas Jim could come in and just do this spot-on impression they sort of felt like Dwight's version of Jim had to be a little messier... it's Dwight doing the impression, because Rainn could do an amazing impression of Jim Halpert," she said. "But he had to do it as Dwight. So I remember them playing with that a lot on the set when they were shooting this."
Be sure to listen to the full podcast episode for more behind-the-scenes stories about filming "Product Recall."
You can stream episodes of The Office on Netflix and follow along with the podcast every week on Earwolf, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.
Topics The Office Celebrities
