Backroad Odyssey : Travel, Van Life & Lost Locations
Traveling America's backroads, history and road trip enthusiasts - Noah and Noodles - unearth fascinating locations overlooked while traveling.
Living out of a van, they research and visit each story location to share the (often shocking) secrets held within.
If you love travel, history and thoughtful storytelling - join us on the road!
Backroad Odyssey : Travel, Van Life & Lost Locations
Van Life Diaries - 3 Real Life Locations from "The Office"
Scranton, Pennsylvania is inseperable from the hit-series “The Office.”
Although, the show was primarily filmed in California, the series writers took inspiration from many real-life Electric City locations.
Noodles and I stop to visit three such Office locations in Lackawanna County - join us as we explore the wonderful world of "The Office"
As always we'll take listener questions at the end!
Noah and Noodles here!
We want to extend a heartfelt thanks to every listener of Backroad Odyssey.
Your support fuels our passion and inspires us to keep sharing stories and discover overlooked locations.
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Cruisin' down the street. I wonder where this road would lead. So many possibilities. Care to share what you think. Oh, noodle Dolls, what do you see? Back Road Odyssey, van Life Diaries three real-life locations from the Office. Welcome to Van Life Diaries. I'm Noah, your host, along with my trusty sidekick Noodles. The Dog in my van Today is casual. No edits, no scripts. Let's get into it.
Speaker 1:Scranton, pennsylvania, is synonymous with the events of the hit series the Office. Although the show was primarily filmed in California, the series writers took inspiration from many real-life locations around the infamous Electric City. So, naturally, noodles and I stop to visit three locations in Lackawanna County and want to share our experience with you. We're at a Cracker Barrel in Southern Alabama, just hanging out, perfect place to talk all things the Office. So initially we considered doing a large episode, a standard episode of our visit to Scranton, but something didn't quite click. I don't know. There's something about the show itself, the Office, that feels authentic, that feels relaxed, very unscripted. Eventually, I think, we came to realize that any discussion about the show's location should reflect that same idea. So, with that said, let's start with a location even casual fans will recognize.
Speaker 1:Much of the opening title sequence depicts scenes around Scranton. You know the song. So John Krasinski, who played Jim Halpert, having been confirmed as casted as Jim in the upcoming American adaptation of the British show of the same name, decides to go where else but Scranton, pennsylvania, where the events of the show will take place. And well there he gets out an old camera and films, and it's this footage that John shot that makes it into the opening sequences of every episode of the Office. One of these shots is the pen paper tower looking building is actually home to the family-owned Pennsylvania Paper and Supply Company, even though it now boasts an unmistakable Dunder Mifflin logo at the very top.
Speaker 1:This tower is our first stop once we drive into the slightly hilly, some 80,000-person town. And surprisingly, it wasn't very hard to find town and surprisingly, it wasn't very hard to find. From watching it hundreds, if not, regrettably, thousands, of times, I can picture it from memory and I knew it right when I saw it. So after driving around the tower for a bit to find kind of roughly the same place that Krasinski filmed that iconic opening shot, we found it. There's a good place, a couple of parking lots right across the street where you can hang out, take photos and chill, and that is exactly what we did. We took some photos, we hung out. I actually worked in the parking lot for a little bit. I could see the tower outside of my window, which was a cool experience. And I'll say this this stop, this stop right here, is the most visibly connected to the show and is definitely worth the short detour to see it. You can drive up to it to make a quick stop of it, like I did, or you can walk from the nearby marketplace at Steam Town place. At Steamtown, unlike our next stop here, the Pen Paper Tower isn't steeped in controversy.
Speaker 1:Alfredo's Pizza Cafe Not to be confused with Pizza by Alfredo is about a six-minute drive from the Pen Paper Tower and our next stop on our Scranton tour today. Alfredo's is nestled in between shops and is known for their pan pizza, referred to as the better of the two Alfredo's pizza joints by the employees of Dunder Mifflin. So naturally, when I went to Alfredo's Pizza Cafe I had to try the superior Scranton pizza. So I get there, walk past some outdoor seating into the dimly lit entrance and order a pan pizza. It was, after all, the employees of Dunder Mifflin's favorite pizza and was featured on the infamous One Bite Pizza Reviews where Dave gave it a wait for it. What do you think? It's going to be 7.4. So I saw that and it's above average, which is good. I was excited. But my own review, after trying the pizza on my little van table with noodles by my side was Meh, you know, it's alright, it's not great, it's not terrible. I just think it wasn't my style of pizza. I'm more of a New York thin crust kind of guy and it was fine. I can only imagine how much I would dislike pizza by Alfredo. Luckily there exists a dive bar frequented by the Dunder Mifflin employees. That's within sight of the slightly underwhelming Afredo's Pizza Cafe.
Speaker 1:Poor Richard's Pub is a frequent watering hole throughout the entire Office series, home to many iconic scenes. Throughout the show's run the employees of Dunder Mifflin would go to relax, connect and generally blow off steam from the surreal events happening up at the office. So you might be thinking that's pretty cool, so I can go and sit at kind of a replica of what I saw on the show or something that looks kind of like it, and the answer is not really, but kind of. So really, in name and in general vibe it has the same vibe as the poor Richards of the show. But in reality poor Richards was filmed in part on a set and in part at a pub called Pickwick's Pub in Woodland Hills, california. But don't get too disappointed yet.
Speaker 1:Season 4, episode 6 of the Office shows the back entrance to the building which Poor Richard's is attached to. And notice, I said building because Poor Richard's is not a standalone pub, it is part of a bowling alley. You heard right, as you walk into the building, poor Richards is on your right and the bowling alley is straight ahead. But I digress a little bit. Why go to Poor Richards if you don't get a pint? I went to the bar, grabbed an amber ale which was well poured, a great friendly staff, watched a Caitlin Clark game, took in the dimly lit dive bar aesthetics that relatively matched that of the show. Then I got permission to park our van in their parking lot for the night. So I stayed right outside of Poor Richard's after I had a couple drinks, which was nice, right outside of poor Richard's after I had a couple drinks, which was nice. And so I walk away from poor Richard's back towards my van and as I lay on my bed I think about the day right, was I underwhelmed, was I happy that I made the effort to go to Scranton.
Speaker 1:The conclusion I came to was this the Office at its core is a show about the ordinary, the little glimpses of light and happiness you can find in the mundane events of life, the extraordinary within the very, very ordinary. And visiting Scranton, pennsylvania, the electric city, making my pilgrimage to locations and inspirations for the show, I think why should my visit to Scranton be any different than the show that it inspired? The locations that inspired the Office are ordinary and maybe that's the point Right, a point, in my view, any true office fan can appreciate. With that said, let's get to listener questions, shall we? Who created the artwork for Backroad Odyssey? Great question, a Cicerone and beer author. Her name is M Sauter. She is great. You can check her out on Instagram Pints and Panels. She makes a lot of relatable, cool cartoons about beer that are really informative and very approachable. So check it out.
Speaker 1:What location has been the most underwhelming to travel to? What location has been the most underwhelming to travel to? It's more of an object than a location. I would say Plymouth Rock. Yeah, I didn't have high expectations because I'd heard it's just a rock, but that's just what it was. It was a rock. I'm diving a bit more into the history now and hopefully that provides some more appreciation for me, but yeah, I was pretty, pretty underwhelmed by that. I would say how does Noodles get exercise while living in a van? Great, great, great question. We go to dog parks almost every other day. We do hikes, we go for walks every day. Yeah, I wouldn't have taken her in if I didn't think she'd have a quality of life in the van, but, honestly, we spend more time outside walking around and, yeah, make sure she's tired at the end of each day, which is good.
Speaker 1:Did you feel differently while walking around the Black Angel? Not entirely, but I'll say this I think I have kind of an innate reverence for objects and places that other people find significant or special, and I definitely had that in the back of my head as I was looking at the statue. But in terms of like curses and stuff, I didn't do anything. I wasn't supposed to. You know, if you do certain things around the statue, that's supposed to be when you're cursed or when you feel weird, and I didn't do any of that. So, yeah, no, I was respectful and nothing happened. It's Noah here. Thank you for listening to Backroad Odyssey. Reach out to me with any questions about Scranton, about my time there. Happy to answer them at BackroadOdysseyPod at gmailcom. If you enjoy the show, if you enjoy the work that we put into each show, rating, reviewing and subscribing means the world to us and helps us continue to put the amount of work we'd like to into each episode. Really appreciate you, appreciate your time. Be good to each other. We're two. Next Backroad Odyssey.
