How did they record the delivery scene? Who played baby Cecelia? What was Pam’s birth song?
These questions and many more about The Office baby episode The Delivery are answered here by the writing tag team of Danny Chun and Charlie Grandy!
Thank you, Danny and Charlie! (And thanks also to Jenna Fischer for popping in to answer a few questions!)
Q. Michael | Why was Dwight visibly upset or shaken at the end of the episode?
Charlie: In spite of having just signed a contract to have a baby with Angela, he knew he had feelings for Isabel.
Q. Ross | Was the baby-switching idea from an Office writer’s personal experience? Or was it just a random idea?
Charlie: Gene originally pitched that Michael causes Pam to breastfeed the wrong baby. But we couldn’t figure out how to realistically make that work and set it aside. Then as Jim and Pam’s story of shaken confidence became clear, we altered it to be their low point.
Q. im | How did anyone keep a straight face in the scene when Michael is down on the floor behind Jim trying to comfort Pam? Did that scene need a lot of takes?
Danny: It didn’t really need more takes than a normal scene. By now, all the actors are used to Steve doing hilarious things. They still broke a couple times, but not more than usual.
Q. Tiffany | It was so funny to see Lee Kirk (Jenna’s real-life fiance) as the breastfeeding coach. How did that casting process go, and was it tough for the actors to keep it together during that scene?
Charlie: We knew the scene would only work if it looked like the doctor was really examining Pam. We also knew it would only work if Jenna was comfortable with the actor.
Jenna suggested Lee and he was AWESOME. I cannot imagine that scene working with anyone else.
Jenna: I will only allow one actor to manhandle my breasts and that’s Will Ferrell. He wasn’t available.
And, it was actually Paul who suggested Lee. I had reservations about a guest actor being so “hands on” in a scene. He was sensitive to my feelings and said, “What if Lee is the lactation specialist.” I thought it was a fun idea.
Lee went in to read and got the part. It was really cool to have him on set. And especailly for such a milestone episode.
Q. AB | How and where did you seek the inspiration to create the vision for such a significant episode, and how (and to what extent) did you collaborate with the other writers and actors to portray this?
Charlie: This was very much a group effort. Baby stories have been done to death on sitcoms. It took months to get the stories right and we took any idea we could get our hands on.
Q. Tiffany | What was the biggest challenge about writing this episode? Any surprising obstacles?
Charlie: Keeping it funny. Birth is very intimate and personal and we didn’t want to rob Jim and Pam of that time.
We spent a good month working on stories where everyone was at the hospital because that seemed like such a natural comedy engine. But at the end of the day, you just hated everyone for stealing the moment from Jim and Pam.
Danny: The two biggest challenges were: 1. Making a baby episode that isn’t a retread of all the other sitcoms’ baby episodes, and 2. Making a baby episode for a workplace documentary.
Ultimately, 2 helped us deal with 1 — the limitations we had because of our show’s premise and format enabled us to think of the episode differently from how Friends or Murphy Brown might’ve done it.
Another challenge for me, but not Charlie, was that I have never had a baby, so I had to do some very basic research. But I’d been meaning to learn what sex is, so it was a two birds one stone situation.
Q. Mel | I read an interview that said that at one point the baby was actually the opposite sex and then it changed. Was there a reason for this and is there a reason that we wound up with adorable Cecelia instead of James Jr?
Charlie: I think boy was our first thought, but over time girl just felt right. I couldn’t tell you why.
Danny: We went back and forth on the boy-girl question. In most iterations of the story, the gender of the kid was kind of irrelevant, so we didn’t really debate it much.
But then towards the end, we came up with the idea of Pam spilling the beans on the gender, and for some reason we felt like that scene would work better if it was a baby girl. I remember Brent Forrester in particular really pushing for that. He has a daughter.
For what it’s worth, I was campaigning hard for a hermaphrodite.
Thanks so much for this! i love getting the inside scoop about the episodes! and as a resident of the home of the Kentucky Derby, i love the fact that Erin mentioned the triple crown winners… Calvin Borel is like a hero here in May!
can’t wait for more question and answer sessions!
My question was answered! Such a thrill! And such a funny, but awesome answer. Thanks guys :)
So fantastic! Thanks for putting together another awesome Q&A, tanster! And of course to Charlie, Danny and Jenna for sparing the time and input.
I like the ongoing trend of hospital employees making jokes to the camera, from, “So that is where her uterus went” to “Oh, great, you know everything” and “Got milk?” What a bunch of hams.
So Jenna’s fake husband had to be annoyed at her real husband groping her in front of the pseudo documentarians and actual filming crew. Got it.
Hank can’t hook up. If he does he likely won’t have material for his next self-produced blues album.
So we have a guarantee of blood rushing to penises throughout the season. Nice.
The sound of Andy’s pants made that joke. I was wondering if it was enhanced in post but it doesn’t sound like it. I’d have probably had to leave the room.
Speaking of how awesome Sarah Baker (Josie the nurse) was, this has been driving me crazy — didn’t she look vaguely familiar? Hasn’t she been on some other show? I know that voice from somewhere …
I finally figured it out — she played Emo Sarah on Lance Krall’s VH1 comedy Free Radio! OMG!
Awesome! Thanks so much!
Thank you Danny, Charlie, and Jenna.
Jenna answered my question!! :) (The one about dealing with the crying baby). I feel ridiculously pleased about that!
Thanks for arranging these Q&As Tanster, they are so informative.
I loved this! First of all, Q&As are always amazing, but the line “We wanted to evoke a sense of water, to symbolize the vast ocean of possibility stretching out before…..zzzzzz…sorry I just feel asleep”. Haha! That made me spit my drink out! Danny was hilarious in that Q&A.
On another note, I’m glad we got some imput from Jenna. It amazes me that they filmed that scene in a closet, now I can’t wait for the DVD extras!
That was one of the funniest Q&A’s I’ve ever read!
i KNEW lee was cast because he’s the only one allowed to “manhandle” jenna’s breasts! ha, nice way of putting it, jenna!
i can imagine that the crying baby would break jenna’s heart. it would break my heart too. my first instinct would be to pick that sweet baby up and give it a cuddle.
Thanks again for putting this together! These Q&A’s are awesome, even better than the DVD commentaries.
The writers’ answers were hilarious. I wish I were a fly on the wall in the writers’ room…
Awesome Q&A segment! Tanster, thanks so much for always being our link to my ideal “Second Life”!
I am always mad at myself for reading these Q&A’s so quickly!
Full of awesome, as usual. And hilarious. And informative.
Melissa’s “How on earth did you get a diaper on a cat?” is my favorite question!
Great Q&A! Thank you :)
#1, Becky – hello, fellow Kentuckian! :) This entire Q&A was hilarious, but the thought of Calvin Borel being a writer on The Office made me laugh the most. Thank you, Danny and Charlie!
And tanster – it took me a few minutes as I was watching the ep, but I nearly started jumping up and down when it finally hit me that the nurse was Emo Sarah! The voice was definitely the biggest hint. She’s great.
wow i totally missed the whole ‘jenna is engaged’ memo. when did that happen?
HAHA wow i just finished reading the whole Q&A and some of their responses actually made me lol. only with office writers would Q&A be ‘good writing’.
This Q&A Session was Hilarious.
Here’s hoping Quentin Tarantino directs the episode with the homeless man finding Dwight’s abandoned weapons! ;)
whoa-my friend and I took Jim’s comment about Pam using his move as sexual, which was apparently not the case :/
Half of the responses made me crack up — I was laughing out loud throughout! This was an AWESOME Q&A!! Even while answering questions about an episode Charlie and Danny are hilarious. Thanks so much for being so generous and taking the time to do this Q&A–it was truly interesting and so, so funny.
Funniest. Q&A. Ever.
True story!
my question was answered! Great Q&A thanks tanster!
Oh, one more thing–Dream Come True Girl is such a great song, and would have been perfect in this episode, Danny Chun! Sometimes wish the show was scored–It’s not sappy to have a little music now and then, it’s sweet and warm!
I swear, The Office cast and crew are the BEST in hollywood.
[with the exception of Meryl Streep]
Thank you so much Tanster for putting this together! I was very excited to see my question answered… it will be interesting to see what makes it to the DVD extras in a few months!
Fantastic post! Can’t wait to see the scenes that got cut on DVD (hopefully!). My question (birth song) was answered! Thank you sooo much, Tanster! :) #11, Jaz — I wish the same thing everyday ;)
@16 (Megan) – jenna got engaged last summer.
she wrote a blog about it
yay, my question was answered! Love these Q&A’s! Please keep them coming!
Hilarious Q&A, Danny Chun cracks me up! Anyone on twitter should follow him (@dannychun). He always makes me giggle :)