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Writer: B.J. Novak, Director: Ken Kwapis
Summary (DVD): A kitchen fire forces the employees to congregate in the parking lot, where Jim suggests a game of “Desert Island” to pass the time, and the staff learn a little bit more about one another than was detailed on their resumes.
From Jenna Fischer’s MySpace blog, dated October 7, 2005:
I’ve been asked if this page is really me. It really is me – Pam Beesley the receptionist at Dunder-Mifflin. Or, more accurately – It’s really me, Jenna Fischer the actress who plays Pam on The Office. I know there are a lot of pages fronted by other people but that’s not our style.
For as long as I’m able, I plan to keep up the page myself. We work 60 hours a week on the show so I should be okay. I’ve been told many times, “Wow, when we see shots of you at the computer it looks like you are really working on something.” That’s because I am. Our computers really work on the show. We have internet. So, when you see me in the background of a scene I am just doing the same thing most people do at work:
- Playing Spider Solitaire
- Playing Texas Hold ‘Em
- Answering messages on Myspace
- Emailing my friends and family
- Making my personal list of “things to do”
There is an awesome blog at nbc.com written by Rainn Wilson in his character of Dwight. And, B.J. Novak does a blog for TVGuide.com each Tuesday. He’s been spilling some cool behind-the-scenes stuff.
I’ll post new photos from the set soon. We love our fans! We know you are why we have stayed on the air!
This was Jenna’s first MySpace entry blogging as herself.
WKLH’s Dave and Carole show interviews Jenna Fischer.
Steve Carell’s body hair is a major topic of conversation.
As is Jenna’s resemblance to Maura Tierney. (I don’t see it myself.)
And banana clam muffins as a possible episode idea?
Listen to the interview here.
From B.J. Novak’s TV Guide blog, dated October 4, 2005:
Michael and Co. Hit the Road
by B.J. Novak aka “Ryan”It’s Tuesday again. Tuesday, of course, is a tough day for a lot of people, because it’s halfway between the weekend and Hump Day. This is why many people call it “Tuesday the Bluesday.” Or at least they will, now that I just invented it here.
The good news about Tuesdays this fall is that there are all-new episodes of The Office [airing at 9:30 pm/ET on NBC], and, in turn, all-new stories on TVGuide.com — stories about what it was like to make the show.
Tonight’s episode is about the “Office Olympics,” an impromptu event that organizes all the weird little office games that people play into one giant, “point”-ful event. This takes place while Michael (Steve Carell) and Dwight (Rainn Wilson), the two people who would normally prevent these games from taking on epic proportions, are out of the office on a mission to purchase a condo for Michael.
There were a lot of fun elements to making this episode. On the Office set, we got to play a lot of games and do the small, observational things that we always have liked doing. But we also got to make a field trip outside of the office to the condo location.
And we got to shoot a scene between the office and the condo — in Michael’s car. Choosing cars for the characters is always a lot of fun. Our producer, Kent [Zbornak], usually comes into the writing offices with a bunch of pictures of cars that are available for the week’s shooting. We get to tell a lot about the characters through their cars.
Michael Scott, we always knew, would drive a gleaming new Sebring convertible — we figured it’s the showiest car that he could afford, and it’s worth it to him to drive a convertible even in a cold-weather climate. Originally I thought that the toxically alpha-male salesman Todd Packer should drive a Mustang, but when those weren’t available, Kent chose a red Corvette, which I thought was even better. (Todd Packer’s license plate, displayed in last week’s episode, told us about him in far more explicit terms — WLHUNG.) In next week’s episode, “The Fire,” we get to see Dwight’s car as well as Ryan’s car. Big car episode coming up.
“Office Olympics” brought multiple incidents of minor bad luck involving cars. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a curse, but… you can decide for yourself. During the scene in Michael’s car, our cameraman, Randall, broke the back window of Michael’s Sebring, which cost the production $859 to replace. The same week, the writer of the episode, Michael Schur, was involved in tiny accident that set him back $836, but not before he raised over $30,000 for hurricane relief while trying to shame the other guy into not replacing his bumper. (It’s a long, good story, and you can read more at saabbumper.blogspot.com or in the Oct. 3 issue of the New Yorker.)
Too much about cars; back to Office territory. Some overall updates on the show: Our ratings are up a lot over last year, thanks in large part to airing alongside My Name Is Earl, which has a similar audience to our show since it’s a similarly off-beat, smart comedy. NBC ordered seven more episodes of Office last week. And Nate, our P.A., got a haircut over the weekend. It looks pretty OK.
Sometimes we get into potentially offensive areas on The Office, sometimes we don’t. It’s important to us to make the show feel funny and real by reflecting the way that people actually talk and act in offices. And, of course, it’s different from week to week. Last week’s much-talked-about “Sexual Harassment” episode aired with a “Viewer Discretion Advised” warning, and in Kentucky the episode didn’t air at all.
We hope that this week we will be allowed to air Steve Carell’s real-estate freakout in all 50 states.
Until next week…
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Writer: Michael Schur, Director: Paul Feig
Summary (DVD): The pressure is on when Mihcael has a panic attack during his new real estate purchase, and the Dunder Mifflin employees compete in improvised “Office Olympics” while he and Dwight are away.
Listen to Jenna Fischer on Loveline. (Caution: NSFW)
Adam Carolla rants about radio weather reports for about, oh I don’t know, 56 minutes. And Jenna talks, too. Oh, and learn about The Keeper.
From Jenna Fischer’s MySpace blog, dated October 31, 2005:
I’d like to start by saying that I’ve seen clips of this week’s show and it is awesome! We usually have to wait until the show airs to see it but I sneaked a peak one day when I was visiting the writing room last week. John Krasinski is particularly hilarious in this episode. He has some subtle stuff that is just delicious. The show was written by a writing team that is new to our show this season and they are incredible. Way to go Gene and Lee! There are a few scenes in tonight’s show that are so packed with jokes that my head was spinning. My favorite is the one where Michael confronts Dwight in the kitchen. Dwight says one of his favorite sayings, “Tit for tit.” Brilliant!
I also love this episode because it features a very real office dynamic between Pam and Michael. I think a lot of secretaries will relate.
In this episode: Dwight earns a purple belt in karate and wears it to work. This sparks an argument between Dwight and Michael about who is tougher. It escalates until they agree to meet at Dwight’s karate studio at lunch to duke it out. Our director of photography, Randall, used to work on Survivor so he’s seen everything. He is super good about not laughing during a scene. The show is all hand held camera so if he laughs, it’s over. During the scene at the karate studio, Randall was laughing so hard he had tears streaming down his face. He had to take the camera off his shoulder and hold it away from his body so it wouldn’t shake during the scene. It was as much fun to watch Randall trying to hold it together as it was to watch Rainn and Steve fighting. It was a fun day of shooting.
Now that I’ve built it up… enjoy the show! I posted a few new pictures too.
Some of you have asked if I was ever a real secretary/receptionist and the answer is yes. I worked for over 5 years in various secretarial positions. It is how I earned a living as a struggling actor. I can type 85 WPM with almost 90% accuracy. I’m still very proud of that. When I type on the show as Pam I try to slow it down. I don’t think Pam can type that fast.
Finally, I think John Krasinski is going to be on Conan this Wednesday night so check it out!
From Jenna Fischer’s MySpace blog, dated October 11, 2005:
Tonight’s episode is called The Fire. This is because someone starts a fire in the office and we all have to evacuate. I won’t say who started the fire – that’s a nice twist.
Some trivia about this episode:
- It was 100 degrees outside but we had to pretend it was 70. We pretended for 12 hours a day. It got most difficult around 3-4pm. You can’t really control sweat. Oh, and all the girls had to wear tights and panty hose. Yikes!
- This is actually the first episode we shot of the second season. We were all really excited to be back at work. We were very chatty and hung out as a group telling stories between scenes.
- A giant bug lived in the tree by where we are standing. It was NOT HAPPY that we were filming by his tree. It kept landing on Angela. It was seriously huge – like the size of a hummingbird. John entertained us all day by doing imitations of the bug carrying Angela away.
- Mateo the fireman was hot. The girls got all giggly whenever he would walk by. He was a real fireman.
- B.J. Novak wrote this episode. He also wrote: Diversity Day and Sexual Harassment.
Enjoy!