‘The Office’ stars share how Office Tally fansite runner Jennie Tan landed a cameo in their 100th episode
It is no secret that The Office has its honest share of superfans, however do you know a kind of followers landed a number of cameos on the present?
On the newest episode of the Office Girls podcast, former co-stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey chatted all concerning the Season 5 finale, “Firm Picnic.” It is a main episode that finds Michael and Holly reuniting after a while aside, the Dunder Mifflin group competing in a volleyball match, and Jim and Pam studying they will be dad and mom. It additionally options a very particular background actor named Jennie Tan.
For these unfamiliar with Tan, she began a in style Office fansite known as OfficeTally.com in February 2006. Over the course of The Office’s 9 seasons, OfficeTally served as a hub for exclusive interviews, thorough episode discussions, partaking chatroom opportunities for followers to talk with solid members, and extra. The writers and actors of The Office have been simply as obsessive about OfficeTally as Tan was with the present; they fashioned a shut relationship with Tan over time and welcomed her to set six times. Along with set visits, Tan appeared in two Office episodes: “Firm Picnic,” which is the present’s 100th episode, and the sequence finale.
In 2020, Mashable spoke with Tan concerning the impression her fansite had on The Office in addition to her expertise on set. On the podcast, Fischer and Kinsey shared why her web site was so necessary to them and how her look in “Firm Picnic” was such a heartwarming technique to rejoice the present’s 100-episode milestone.
Fischer defined that the solid and crew had turn into associates with Tan, so she was invited to spend your complete week with them and get an unique have a look at the finale.
“They requested her to be an additional, and he or she documented all 5 days of capturing this episode on OfficeTally.com,” Fischer stated. “It’s nonetheless there and he or she has tons of pictures.”
“Jennie was type of somebody who made a group for The Office on-line earlier than anybody was doing that — earlier than social media,” Kinsey stated. “She was there for the present, offering this group in our earliest days once we did not even know the way forward for the present, and it meant a lot to all of us.”
When you’re questioning what it was prefer to be a background performer on The Office, Tan has all of the perception.
“Jennie stated that when she first went to the wardrobe tent she was given an apron to put on, and [they] stated she can be a grill cook dinner. However then, about an hour later, manufacturing pulled her apart and made her a Buffalo department worker. After which they winked and stated, ‘You are going to be a part of a particular department.’ However she did not know what that meant but,” Fischer stated. “And get this: Jennie talked to a bunch of the background people, and he or she stated that almost all of them weren’t Office followers — that they’d by no means seen the present, and that a few of them didn’t know who Steve Carell was. She stated they have been thrilled to be engaged on our present as a result of we had a status for treating background performers very, very nicely, and for offering nice meals.”
Jennie Tan (left) alongside extras in the “Firm Picnic” episode of “The Office.”
Credit score: SCREENSHOT: THE OFFICE / NBC / PEACOCK
If you have not watched “Firm Picnic” in a whereas, it is price noting that in a efficiency in entrance of everybody on the picnic, Michael and Holly unintentionally reveal that Dunder Mifflin’s Buffalo department (the department Tan’s character labored for) shall be closing.
“There are two particularly offended Buffalo department staff. They have been performed by Brian Stack [a writer on Conan] and Marla Garlin,” Fischer stated. “Properly, additionally seated in the entrance row who was very upset about this department closing is Jennie Tan. And he or she revealed that she was in the entrance row with a real-life husband and spouse, couple Dan and Erin, who have been booked collectively to play extras on this episode. They gave them two faux infants, and it is actually nice. You possibly can see Dan sitting subsequent to Jennie. And when Brian Stack because the offended Buffalo man is yelling, he is shushing his child.”
When it got here time to movie The Office finale, Tan wrote to showrunner Greg Daniels and requested for a cameo, and he stated sure instantly.
“Once they introduced that the sequence was going to finish, I wrote Greg Daniels and stated, ‘Is there any probability that I may come down, go to the set, and seem on the final episode?’ He wrote again in like 5 minutes and stated, ‘I offers you traces.’ I did not ask for traces, so I used to be completely freaking out,” Tan instructed Mashable.
She stated that she flew from Palo Alto to Burbank to movie her scenes, in which she spoke in the course of the memorable Q&A scene in the course of the documentary panel.
Jennie Tan’s talking cameo in “The Office” finale.
Credit score: SCREENSHOT: THE OFFICE / NBC / PEACOCK
Remember to take heed to the total podcast to listen to extra behind-the-scenes tales from filming “Firm Picnic” and skim our interview with Jennie Tan to study extra about OfficeTally and her position in the present.
You possibly can stream episodes of The Office on Peacock and comply with together with the podcast each week on Earwolf, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.
