4.13: Dinner Party
Thursday, April 10th, 2008 | 487 comments
Written by: Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky.
Directed by: Paul Feig.
Summary (NBC): Pam and Jim find they have run out of excuses and are forced to go to Jan and Michael’s house for dinner. When Andy and Angela are also invited to dinner, Dwight’s jealousy gets the best of him.
Icon courtesy of Lindsey at LiveJournal.
Tidbits
- Photos
- Promo and preview videos
- Deleted scenes
- Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky answer ‘Dinner Party’ questions
- You can buy Serenity by Jan candles at the NBC store!
- Download Hunter’s song That One Night!
Favorite quotes
Michael: Do you have plans tonight?
Michael: These people are my friends, and I *care* about them!
Michael: How about you, Pam, mi casa, a little dinner, dancing, drinks?
Michael: You said you didn’t have plans.
Dwight: Michael, what time should I be arriving?
Michael: Dwight, it’s couples only. And besides, I only have six wine glasses.
Dwight: Does it bother me that I wasn’t invited to Michael’s dinner party?
Jan: This will be great to cook with.
Michael: Make yourself to home.
Michael: Totally your call, babe.
Jan: So sorry about this god-awful carpet.
Michael: As you can smell, there’s a lot of different odors going on in here.
Pam: So you have an office and a workspace.
Jan: I cannot create in the same space that I conduct business. I’m sure that you’re the same with your doodles!
Michael: Bond! James Bond Fire!
Jan: These walls used to be white. Like an asylum.
Michael: Guess what. White and eggshell white are exactly the same color.
Pam: What a cute bench.
Michael: Thanks! That’s my bed. Jan has, uh, some space issues so I crawl up on that puppy.
Jan: He fits perfectly!
Michael: I finally broke down and bought myself a plasma TV.
Michael: Voila. Right into the wall.
Michael: Sometimes I will just stand here and watch television for hours.
Michael: I think that is either pine or Nordic cherry.
Jan: It was between the neon beer sign and the Dundies.
Andy: What’s up, Tuna? We gonna have some tuna for dinner?
Angela: What am I supposed to do with this?
Jan: The osso bucco needs to braise for about three hours. Everything else is done.
Pam: Three hours from now, or three hours from earlier, like four o’clock?
Jan: You know, Pam, in Spain, they often don’t even start eating until midnight.
Michael: When in Rome …
Michael: Here’s to good friends.
Michael: Kinda sorta an oaky afterbirth.
Jim: What was that?
You took me by the hand,
Made me a man
That one night
You made everything all right
So raw, so right
All night, all right
Oh yeah oh yeah
So raw, so right
All night all right oh yeah …
Angela: Sometimes I think she holds on to faxes.
Pam: I don’t care what they say about me. I just want to eat. Which I realize is a lot to ask for. At a dinner party.
Pam: Why didn’t you just say Forty Niners quarterback?
Michael: My-my-my-my turn!
Jan: Could you just simmer down.
Jim: Michael and Jan seem to be playing their own separate game. And it’s called let’s see how uncomfortable we can make our guests. And they’re both winning.
Jim: Pam, see you at home. Thank you so much.
Pam: Oh Jim, I don’t think you’re going to abandon this party here all by itself.
Pam: You can buy new stuff, but you can’t buy a new party.
Jan: No names, no rhyming, no soundalikes!
Michael: Rhymes with Parnold Schporzenegger.
Jan: Michael ran through the sliding glass door because he thought he heard the ice cream truck.
Michael: I shouldn’t say that jokingly because she will sue me. She loves to sue! She loves lawsuits.
Michael: That door was extremely clean, and it looked invisible.
Michael: She is the devil! I’m in hell! I’m burning. Help me!
Jan: You should see our bathroom after Michael takes a bath. Whew!
Pam: Not ever, not now, not then, not now, not ever, ever.
Michael: Have a hand.
Michael: For only $10,000, you could become a co-owner of “Serenity by Jan.”
Michael: Dwight brought glasses and a … person.
Michael: Snip, snap, snip, snap, snip, snap!
Michael: You have no idea the physical toll that three vasectomies have on a person!
Michael: I bought this condo to fill with children!
Jan: Let’s have a [bleep]in’ kid!
Jan: I hate my life.
Dwight: Great turkey leg.
Angela: I hate beet salad.
Angela: The thought of popping one of your beets in my mouth makes me want to vomit.
Michael: I can’t prove it, but I think she might be trying to poison me.
Pam: If she was going to poison the food of someone at that table, wouldn’t it be me? Michael’s former lover?
Michael: You know I have soft teeth.
Dwight: It’s purely carnal, and that’s all you need to know.
Jim: Would you write down your email, because I have just so many questions.
Michael: B.F.D. I’m a screenwriter.
Michael: Man, I would love to burn your candles!
Jan: You burn it, you buy it!
Michael: Oh good, I’ll be your first customer!
Jan: You’re hardly my first.
Michael: That’s what she said!
Michael: That is a $200 plasma screen TV you just killed!
Police officer: Not now, Dwight.
Michael: My girlfriend threw a Dundie at my TV. Plasma.
Pam: This is the best burger I have ever had, babe.
Rating
7.91/10
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I liked it. I think Melora did a great job, and so did all of the other actors.But seeing Jan like this makes me feel really sad for her. I think maybe her character has had enough downfall and maybe they could make Jan get her life back together. Also, the song “That One Night” implies that Jan and Hunter had an intimate relationship, but Jan hired Hunter while she was dating Michael. Does this mean that Jan cheated on Michael?
I’m starting to wonder if Michael makes fake overtime assignments all the time and then calls corporate to look like the hero.
this is my favorite office episode ever!
I’m pretty sure this is my favorite Office episode. I can’t get enough of it! Melora is HILARIOUS. oh man. everything she does in this episode is pure gold. She and Steve Carell are great together. gotta love the dysfunctional side of the relationship between Michael and Jan.
This show has lost its focus and it needs to be filmed in the OFFICE. Hence, the name of the show. Cheers stayed in the bar. Friends stayed in Central Perk. The Office should stay in the office. Filming a dinner party? Please. The writers have forgotten what made this show sparkle. It’s fashizzle now. :-(
I believe Dwight’s date/ former babysitter was also the woman who played Mrs. Farmer, the mean gym teacher in Donnie Darko. Pretty sure I looked it up when the episode first aired.
Dwight’s date was a guest on Friends in the 2nd season. She was the homeless woman Phoebe gave her $2,000 to.
I love Arrested Development! “Make love with your own hand mother” hahaha. I wonder if the writers are a fan and they put it in as a tribute?!
so a late response to anyone who thought the end with the soundtrack over it was contrived or not true to the office. although i liked it, i also thought it seemed a little out of place. but i just watched the dundies (i am watching again from season 1) and at the end of that when angela and pam are driving off and jim is walking there is a song playing in the background. i have found that watching old episodes again puts the new episodes in a new perspective and they feel a part of the story more.
I was just wondering if anyone watched this little ‘ol show called Arrested Development…
because those hand chairs Michael had in his garage?
SO Buster’s hand chair from Arrested Development. LOVE those chairs.
I loved this episode! Can anyone tell me where I can find the guest cast list? Or who played Dwight’s date? I can’t figure out where I have seen her.
(# 485)
A lot of season 2 took place outside of the office; From the dundies, office olympics, the fight, email surveillance(the whole cast was there, but ..outside of the office), the client, booze cruise, the injury, dwights speech, michaels birthday, and a few others. Honestly you can only do so much comedy about their job. The dinner party is only one I can think of where pretty much the entire episode was out of the office and the cast was completely split up. I don’t know if I’m the only one, but I can’t really tell too much of a difference. The episodes are always great, you know?
The biggest problem with The Office is that the entire show is taking place outside of the office. I don’t think the material is poor, it is just lacking its roots. I mean, the show is called The Office for a reason, and that is what we all came to know and love. I just miss all of the situational antics when the whole cast is together…in the same room. I just want my old elements back.
I thought the best part of the whole episode was Dwight trying to talk to the cop and the cop saying ‘Not now, Dwight.’ hahaha.
Sebastian- I’m in that same minority. I’m not even that excited for the Office to come on anymore, because it has been pretty disappointing of late. I keep expecting the show to turn around, and it has maintained a new, poor course.
-469
Amen! I totally agree with everything you said.
Hey remember when Karen jokingly told Jim at the party that she’d had a relationship with every guy there. What if Jan was actually like that!? All along, Michael is thinking they have something special, but instead he’s just one of many Jan conquests.
Yeah… I guess I’m in the minority. I thought the comedy was forced, the writing was questionable, and Dwight and Jan are being misused as characters. The show is being dumbed down for the rest of America. I give it a C-.
I’m excited to have my “SecondLife” back. I though there were a lot of great lines, but at times it felt like the writers were trying to top themselves. Jan’s not being able to glue the Dundie together was sad and telling. As many have mentioned, the episode was really an homage to Virginia Wolf. I can only hope that NBC is selling one of Michael’s “Mose inspired” tables.
I agree with the ones questioning the location of where the episode happens. It felt like a totally different show to me, even though I´ve been a big fan since day 1. I still like seeing how each character behaves outside of the office, leaving the “routine” behavior aside.
Oh! one last thing … am I the only person stuck with “Hunter´s” song in my head? I´ve been singing that on my way to work every single day since the episode aired …