Sure, embarrassing moments are mortifying. But they usually make great stories down the line.
If you need proof, look no further than The Office — specifically the Season 6 episode "Koi Pond," which was inspired by one man's real-life slip into an office building koi pond.
On the latest episode of Stitcher's Office Ladies podcast, former co-stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey chatted with "Koi Pond" writers Warren Lieberstein and Halsted Sullivan about the inspiration behind Michael's embarrassing koi pond dip.
Turns out Lieberstein himself had his own koi pond mishap ahead of a very important meeting. Before you hear the story, however, we highly recommend you get in the mood by rewatching Michael in all his clumsy, dramatic, sopping wet glory. All done? OK, let's hear it.
"The idea for the story stemmed from my falling into a koi pond," Lieberstein told Fischer and Kinsey. "What happened was our agents set up a meeting for Halstead and I on the Westside of Los Angeles. It was in this nice two-story office building. There was a marble reception, an open atrium lobby. There were these dark travertine floors. So we enter into this building for the meeting and I'm chewing gum. And I can't go to a meeting chewing gum. That's horribly unprofessional. And so I'm immediately looking for a trash can."
"Warren and I walk in for this meeting and you know, I head over to the receptionist just to announce our names and Warren says, 'Oh, I'm going to go throw away my gum,'" Sullivan recalled.
Lieberstein made his way over to a trash can near the staircase. After he tossed his gum, he went to pivot on his right foot and head back to Sullivan, who was still at the reception desk checking in. What came next was a huge splash.
"So my right foot doesn't find the floor, and I lose my balance, and I'm falling backwards," Lieberstein says. "At this point, the real concern is that I'm falling to my death, down an open stairwell or whatever. My legs hit first and I have no idea what size tank of water I'm falling into. In this millisecond, I now believe I'm falling into a shark tank and I'm definitely going to die by shark attack. But after a second or so, I realize obviously I'm in a koi pond. I just 'Nestea plunged' into it. I am drenched. And all I can say over and over again is, 'Oh my god.'"
The writers went on to explain that everyone on the first floor of the building came out of their offices to see what the commotion was. The lobby floor was soaked, as was Lieberstein, so a well-meaning onlooker tried to assist.
"Someone comes up to us with a roll of those brown paper towels that you get from the bathroom. You know, they're just basically made of manila paper and have zero absorbency. And it's like, OK, thanks," Sullivan recalled.
After Lieberstein took a moment to fully comprehend what just happened they jumped into problem-solving mode.
"We know that around the corner is a sporting goods store, so we go there," Sullivan said.
"I'm sopping wet. There are these two women working there and I looked insane, like Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura when he comes out of the bathroom. Water is pouring all over their floor and I just say, 'I need one of everything,'" Lieberstein shared. "We go back to the meeting and Halstead looks great per usual, you know, in his normal meeting outfit. And I look like a rap star from the '80s. It was a sports clothing store so, you know, all I could get really was a tracksuit. But we take the meeting. And of course, all we can really talk about is me falling into the koi pond. And the puns were flying. They kept asking if I needed more water, you know, all of it. And we we used all that in the script."
"The puns were flying. They kept asking if I needed more water, you know, all of it. And we we used all that in the script."
After the meeting, Lieberstein's agent called and said, "I heard you made a splash at the meeting," and they gave that exact line to Erin in The Office episode. Amazing.
"So that is the koi pond story," Lieberstein said. "Life imitates art, art imitates life, and you make an Office episode out of it."
Be sure to listen to the full podcast episode to hear more behind-the-scenes stories about filming the episode, "Koi Pond."
You can stream episodes of The Office on Peacock and follow along with the podcast every week on Earwolf, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.
Topics The Office
