On the latest episode of the Office Ladies podcast, hosts and The Office co-stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey talk about the Season 5 episode titled “Frame Toby” where Toby Flenderson returns to Dunder Mifflin Scranton, much to the audible dismay of Michael Scott.
Last time Scott, played by Steve Carell, saw Toby, the office planned a going away party ahead of his trip to Costa Rica in the Season 4 episode, “Goodbye Toby.” So, when Kelly grabs two brownies and tells everyone that she’s bringing one to Toby at his desk, Michael is understandably confused.
Michael thinks Kelly is out of the loop, but it turns out he’s the only one unaware of Toby’s return. He walks over to Toby’s empty desk to prove to Kelly (and himself) that his old adversary is gone, but then sees Toby’s face, which prompts Michael to scream, “No! God! No, God, please no! No! No! Noooo!”
While the scene is already undeniably great, and a favorite of Fischer and Kinsey, they believe it could’ve been made even better by a part that was omitted from the final cut.
“I want you guys to know at 1:23, as Michael turns to see Toby and he has that look of horror in his face, if you look at the wall behind him, you will see that there are three framed sort of things on the wall for Toby,” Kinsey said, per Mashable. “There is an award for Toby Flenderson, a certificate of achievement, and a diploma from the California Coastal College. So Jenna, he had been back long enough to hang up his framed items. And in the script, Toby had a talking head where he said this: ‘I’ve been back for six days. I think I’ve even talked to him.’”
“I wish that stayed in,” Fischer responded, to which Kinsey replied, “Me too.” Fischer also revealed that the iconic scream has everything to do with Carell’s interpretation of a script note that simply read, “Michael turns and screams in all caps.”
“And how funny was that?” Kinsey said. “You guys, if you read that you scream, I think most of us would just be like, ‘Ahhhhh,’ right? But Steve made a meal out of that moment.”
Listen to Fischer and Kinsey discuss the “Frame Toby” episode from the Office Ladies podcast below.
