OfficeTally

From Jenna Fischer’s TV Guide blog, dated February 2, 2006:

The Office Presents: “Boys and Girls”
by Jenna Fischer, aka “Pam”

When we have downtime on The Office [Thursdays at 9:30 pm/ET on NBC], we do more than just sit and watch the boys play video-game football. Angela [Kinsey, Angela] and I like our girl time, too. We like to scrapbook and look at fashion magazines. Or sometimes we have “picnics” where we gather food and drinks from the snack table, go into Angela’s trailer, light candles, and gossip. It was during one of our “picnics” that Angela and I had the idea for tonight’s episode, “Boys and Girls.” We took our brainchild to Greg Daniels, the executive producer of the show.

“What if Jan came into the office and did a ‘Women in the Workplace’ seminar, and Michael got all jealous?” we said.

“That’s funny. What happens next?”

“No idea. That’s all we got.”

He stared at us blankly. (This is why I am not a writer on the show.)

Still, a seed was planted and from it grew this week’s episode, written by the brilliant and hilarious B.J. Novak (Ryan).

In this episode, Jan gathers all of the ladies into the conference room and does a “Women in the Workplace” seminar. She’s looking for potential. She doesn’t find much. Michael is jealous, so he takes all of the men down to the warehouse for a last-minute “Men in the Workplace” seminar. This will be the first time Jim and Roy (David Denman) have been in close quarters since Jim revealed he “used to” have a crush on Pam. It’s good stuff.

This was an interesting week of shooting. We really were separated and didn’t see the men much at all. And it was great! Don’t get me wrong, we love the boys. But it was fun having the office all to ourselves. We talked about shopping and shoes and our periods and sore breasts. We talked about haircuts and manicures and diet plans and all the things we don’t gab about when the boys are in the room. We talked about which boys we thought were cute. We all agreed that Rainn Wilson (Dwight) is pretty hot in his street clothes. When the guys would come upstairs, we would giggle. We behaved like seventh-graders.

I hear the men had a lot of fun in the warehouse, too. They did something that involves a potato gun, a forklift and breaking glass.

So, in the end it is both the most masculine and most feminine episode of The Office yet. I’m just glad no one got hurt. Or cried.

Oh, and I almost forgot. I promised to tell you who won the poker match last Thursday: We didn’t play. Turns out you can’t gamble on company property.

Until next week…

From Jenna Fischer’s TV Guide blog, dated January 26, 2006:

The Office Presents: “The Carpet”
by Jenna Fischer, aka “Pam”

I have more good news to report this week: The Office [Thursdays at 9:30 pm/ET on NBC] has been picked up for a third season! It is rare in this business to hear news of a pickup so early. Most shows have to wait until May to find out if they will return in the fall. (May is when networks traditionally make their decisions and announce their fall schedules to the press.) It is a huge vote of confidence from NBC to make a decision about our show so early. It is very exciting.

Some people were confused by reports this season of The Office “is ending in March.” No worries. We will complete our 21-episode order for this year, and all of our current episodes will finish airing at the end of March. Steve [Carell] starts filming Evan Almighty (which, from what he told us, sounds very funny), and then the whole cast will be back in the fall, ready to make 22 new episodes. A big thank-you to all of our fans — you helped make this possible by watching, downloading [at Apple’s iTunes store] and sharing our show. We’ll keep working hard to make great episodes.
Now, in even bigger news, I’d like to announce that Brian Baumgartner (Kevin) won two games of PlayStation 2 football against John Krasinski (Jim) this week! This is seriously a big deal! I am Brian’s official cheerleader because John always wins; he’s really good. But today Brian won! I can only report on the game I witnessed, but it was beautiful! It was the Seahawks (Brian) vs the Cardinals (John). The score was tied. Two minutes left. Brian scores a touchdown — but misses his extra point. We didn’t know what would happen. Would John have time to run the ball back and score a touchdown and an extra point for the win? It was so close. But Brian was a master of defense. He won 27-21. Hats off to Brian!

Now what will happen when we all meet for a poker showdown? Myself, Rainn [Wilson], John, Brian, Oscar [Nunez] and some guys from the crew plan to play before the show tonight. As the only girl in the game, I’m hoping to use some feminine magic and go home a winner myself. I’ll let you know the results next week.

This week we bring you “The Carpet,” written by the brilliant Paul Lieberstein (who also plays Toby). In this episode, someone leaves a “gift” on the carpet in Michael’s office.

It’s soft.

It’s smelly.

It’s brown.

It is the exact same gift you wish you could leave in your boss’ office.

The question is: Whodunit? Everyone is a suspect. Michael is determined to find out. To keep a close eye on the office, he takes over Jim’s desk, forcing Jim to work at an empty desk near Kelly. Jim quickly learns why Kelly works in the back by herself.

But the biggest surprise of this episode might be that you finally see Pam and Roy getting along. They’ve just returned from a romantic vacation in the Poconos. Roy spends the day replacing Michael’s carpet, and I’m happy that the audience will witness some sweet moments between them. He’s not such a bad guy! And, Craig Robinson is back as Darryl. He’s a favorite of mine and I love it whenever he is on the set. I hope you enjoy the episode.

Until next week…