The Office BFFs
The Office BFFs: Tales of The Office from Two Best Friends Who Were There
By: Jenna Fischer & Angela Kinsey
[Winner for ‘Humor’ category of the 2022 Goodreads Choice Awards Reading Challenge]
[Fulfilled ‘Book written by more than one author’ for Shelf Reflection’s 2023 Reading Challenge]
“This book is several things— a scrapbook, a BFF journal, and a love letter to fans of our show.”
This was an enjoyable read!
I’d already read The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s by Andy Greene and Jenna Fischer’s memoir called The Actor’s Life: A Survival Guide so some of the information was overlap.
The former is full of interviews with a lot of people involved with the series. The latter focuses more on Jenna’s journey to fame and not necessarily just about The Office.
The Office BFFs tells stories of The Office from two best friends and how the show shaped their friendship.
If you are not familiar with The Office [in which case, I’m not sure this book is for you] Jenna Fischer plays Pam Halpert and Angela Kinsey plays Angela Martin.
I had no idea they were such good friends. I really liked getting to see the depths of their friendship. Especially since I’m more familiar with Jenna Fischer and less with Angela Kinsey therefore Angela is still Angela Martin in my mind. It was good for me to humanize her and let her go beyond her character in my mind. I think she may even smile more than Jenna!
I also loved all the pictures! The book has a ton of color pictures throughout the book. I read a hardcover from the library and when I picked it up, it was a lot heavier than I anticipated. I don’t know if it’s the glossy pages or what, but if you decide to purchase a copy, you’ll definitely get your money’s worth in terms of weight!
I think my favorite chapter of the book was when they talked about being moms. What it was like to be pregnant on the show (fake and real) and how it was hard to juggle the filming schedule and taking care of their kids. The nursing, the pumping, missing Halloween, post-partum depression, lack of any meaningful maternity leave, etc.
Many jobs make it difficult for moms to work and be moms, but I think the film industry may be one of the hardest. After all, you’re a character on the show— no one can step in while you’re gone and do your work. They need you specifically. And they need you to look a specific way. That creates a lot of pressure and a lot of limitations.
I applaud them for their efforts in trying to get all the time with their kids that they could. And that they were able to support each other through it all. Angela had a baby first and Jenna was still single so she didn’t know exactly how to be there for Angela, but once Jenna got pregnant she realized what was helpful.
They are still really close… well, obviously, they do a podcast together… but I love that their friendship weathered a decade of show drama and the after in-between years where they weren’t always even in the same city!
I also liked that they each wrote a chapter about their showmances- Jam and Dwangela.
Office Ladies Podcast
After the show was over and they did a few other projects they realized how much time they missed with their growing kids. That’s where the idea for their podcast: Office Ladies developed. They wanted jobs that had flexibility and allowed them more time with their families. And more time in sweatpants, which I am 100% for.
They share a little bit about how that started up. Of course their connections and name recognition definitely helped in terms of their immediate success.
During the years they were doing their own thing after the show they said they went from texting each other a lot to sending each other voice messages back and forth. They called them ‘ramblies.’ Those were the catalyst to their podcast idea, realizing they had a lot of things they could talk about.
They host a rewatch podcast. They are rewatching all The Office episodes and dissecting them or giving behind-the-scenes info on each one. Interspersed are interviews with other characters, crew members, or fans.
I had not listened to it before so I checked out an episode after finishing the book. The one I listened to had Billie Eilish as a guest! She’s apparently a major Office fan (and actually has a picture in The Office BFFs book).
Random Tidbits
Here are a few of the things I learned while reading:
Angela did a commercial for Wow! chips which she commented gave people diarrhea. I had to laugh because the only thing I remember from these chips when they came out when I was a kid was my friend telling me they tried them but it gave her mom the runs! Hahaha.
Jenna and Angela are both from the Midwest (St. Louis and Texas respectively). Actually a lot of the cast are from the Midwest.
It was entertaining to hear about all the things they did in the background when they had to pretend to be working.
Oscar is good at sketching cartoons.
Many times the cast got to be involved in adding things to their character’s storylines. Angela made up the backstory of her cat, Sprinkles, on a day she didn’t have many lines. When she was told to go pass papers around in the background she made a bunch of invitations to Sprinkles’s third birthday party out in the parking lot. Pam came up with the idea that the reason Roy and Pam hadn’t gotten married yet was because they didn’t have the money due to Roy blowing it on Jet skis with his brother.
Steve Carell really does love hockey and played on a team.
The Work Bus episode was more of a ‘Death Bus’ episode because they all got a little carbon monoxide poisoning so that was an intense story.
Angela recorded ‘Adventures with Angela’ throughout the show that got posted on nbc.com. Here’s one I found on YouTube. Not sure if this is the main hub for them at this point but there ya go. Gives you a little bit of a look at Angela Kinsey’s real personality!
Recommendation
If you like The Office or you like best friends, then yes, I would recommend this book.
However, if you’re reading it because it won Best Humor and you think it’s going to be hilarious, then maybe not. Sure it had some funny parts, but it didn’t feel like it was written to specifically be funny so if you’re going for the lols you may be disappointed. [Mindy Kaling’s books are usually pretty funny. I might check out Rainn Wilson’s book as well.]
It’s fun. It’s entertaining. It has color pictures. It has best friends. I mean, what else could you need?
Plus it got me intrigued on their podcast. So maybe if you’re not much of a reader you can skip the book and just listen to them be best friends and co-workers. Either way, buying the book or downloading their episodes helps them financially so they can be ‘boss moms’ and not have to hide their pregnant bellies behind plants while they work like normal human beings.
Sidenote: I really like the picture of Jenna and Angela on the interior title page of the book. Such a good picture! The dark frame glasses are a really good look for Jenna. And I just wanted to give a big thumbs up for that.
[Content Advisory: minimal swearing; a chapter that discusses wedgies and bodily fluids]
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