HEALTH CARE (THE OFFICE EPISODE)

'"Health Care"' is the third episode of the first season of ''The Office'' (U.S. version). It was written by Paul Lieberstein and directed by Ken Whittingham. It first aired on April 5, 2005.

Contents

Plot

Deleted scenes

Notes

Goofs

Behind the scenes

References

External links

Plot

Jan gives Michael the task of picking a new and inexpensive health care plan. Unwilling to upset his employees, Michael assigns the task to Jim. Jim, in turn, suggests that Dwight be put in charge and Dwight accepts wholeheartedly, setting up a temporary workspace in the meeting room.
Michael hides out in his office as Dwight picks a plan that cuts practically all benefits, but Jim and Pam confront him to change it. Michael gets caught by the employees after he goes to the bathroom and he tells Dwight to alter his plan. He also guarantees the office a surprise at the end of the day, even though he doesn't know what it may be. Dwight hands out anonymous illness forms as Michael leaves the office to find a surprise, but fails on possible trips to Atlantic City and a coal mine. When Jim and Pam write false and imaginary diseases on their forms, Dwight demands to interview every employee to find out who is responsible.
Dwight tries to interview Jim on the false diseases, but Jim ends up locking Dwight in the meeting room. Dwight calls Jan to try to get permission to fire Jim and Jan finds out that Michael passed along his health care plan duties. Michael returns with ice cream sandwiches as his surprise, but when Stanley claims it to be a lame reward, Michael promises that the surprise is still coming. Dwight reads the diseases aloud to find out which are real, with embarrassing results. He finally picks a plan that eliminates benefits to the point where Oscar likens it to a pay decrease. The employees wait for Michael's surprise, which he awkwardly never delivers.

Deleted scenes

The Season One DVD contains a number of deleted scenes from this episode. Notable cut scenes include:

★ Michael avoids Oscar's attempt to complain about Dwight's decisions.

★ Jim and Pam read Dwight's discarded workspace signs.

★ Jim and Dwight discuss famous illnesses in films.

★ Dwight collects the anonymous illness forms, but tries to remember the order of whom he got them from.

★ Extension of Michael calling the Lackawanna County Coal Mine Tour.

★ Dwight interrogates Pam about her need for health care from Dunder Mifflin.

★ Dwight demands that Jim confess to falsifying medical information.

★ Michael describes his idols of improvisation and his comedic intuition.

★ Michael finally reveals his surprise after all the employees have gone.
When the episode was rebroadcast on March 29, 2007 as part of an "HR Nightmares" marathon, a brief interview with Toby was added as an epilogue. In it, Toby explains that he changed the health care plan to an HMO, but Michael thought he picked a "homo".

Notes

★ Two elements of this episode borrow from the original British series:

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★ Dwight and Michael argue over whether the workspace is an office. David and Gareth have a similar argument in in Episode Two, Series One.

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★ Jim locks Dwight in his workspace. Tim does the same to Gareth in The Office Christmas Specials.

★ The fake diseases that the employees give on their forms to frustrate Dwight include Hot Dog Fingers, Inverted Penis, Count Choculitus, Government-Created Killer Nanobot Infection, and Spontaneous Dental Hydroplosion.

★ Some of the real (although highly unlikely) diseases the employees give include Leprosy, Ebola, and Mad Cow Disease.

Goofs

★ After Dwight says "There will be no healthcare for anyone!" there is a crewmember visible in his workspace through the glass. It can only be seen for a few frames.

Behind the scenes

★ The final scene was scripted as "The longest pause in television history." It ultimately went two and a half minutes, so long that Steve Carell broke into a sweat from the awkwardness of the situation.^[1]

References

1. ''Office'' Politics panel discussion, USC, July 30, 2006.

External links

★ "Health Care" at NBC.com

★ The Office Revisits a "Health" Scare Jenna Fischer's blog at TVGuide.com

★ Memorable Quotes From "Health Care" at QuotesFromTheOffice.com