Few scenes in television,xóa(chǎn) phim sex let alone entire seasons, compare to the sheer brilliance of FleabagSeason 2. But there's one cold open of The Officethat is arguably just as great.
On the latest episode of the Office Ladiespodcast, former co-stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey talked about Season 2, Episode 12 of The Office, called "The Secret."
In the fan-favorite episode written by Mindy Kaling, Michael Scott burns his foot on a George Foreman Grill, Dwight gets a concussion trying to speed to his rescue, and the office spends an entire day listening to Michael whine. After the episode aired it became the highest rated of the entire series, and the cold open was a true work of art.
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"This episode opens with what I believe is one of the greatest scenes in television comedy, and I feel similarly about the opening scene of FleabagSeason 2," Fischer said.
SEE ALSO: 'The Office' children's book is here to inspire a whole new generation of fansAfter explaining to Kinsey — who hasn't watched Fleabag despite Fischer asking her to — that she had a life-changing epiphany while watching Season 2 and thinks it's one of the best seasons of television ever, Fischer recalled the cold open.
"It opens with shots of general office life when suddenly Michael calls and explains to Pam that he’s hurt and needs her to pick him up," she said. After Jim puts Michael on speakerphone the chaos spreads throughout the office, and Michael proceeds to explain, in what Fischer calls "the greatest talking head of all time," how stepping on a grill before work was possible.
"I enjoy having breakfast in bed. I like waking up to the smell of bacon, sue me. And since I don't have a butler I have to do it myself. So, most night before I go to bed I will lay six strips of bacon out on my George Foreman Grill. Then I go to sleep. When I wake up I plug in the grill, I go back to sleep again, then I wake up to the smell of crackling bacon. It is delicious, it’s good for me, it’s a perfect way to start the day," Michael says in the talking head. "Today I got up, I stepped onto the grill and it clamped down onto my foot. That’s it. I don't see what’s so hard to believe about that."
"I must have watched this five times," Fischer said. "That whole insane conversation was scripted line for line. The only thing that was improvised was when Michael said he had a protuberant on his elbow. In the script it just said 'hurt my elbow.'"
"That shows how ready John as Jim was," Kinsey added. "The minute Michael said that John looked to camera like mmm,OK."
Though so much humor was packed into that first minute and 23 seconds, Michael's talking head didn't end the cold open. After a little back and forth in the the office, Dwight raced off to pick Michael up, crashed his car into a pole just outside the building's parking lot, and proceeded to projectile vomit onto his back windshield. Turns out the puke placement was Rainn Wilson's idea.
"I reached out to Rainn Wilson to get the full story on driving into the pole," Fischer said. Viewers don't actually seethe crash, so Wilson explained that they just put the car there, he staggered out of it, and then a stunt driver drove away after Dwight threw up. And for those wondering, Wilson used cream of potato soup as his choice vomit. Gross!
Rainn Wilson expelling soup from his mouth. Credit: the office / nbc / netflix You can stream episodes of The Officeon Netflix and follow along with the podcast every week on Earwolf, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.