PILOT (THE OFFICE EPISODE)

'"Pilot"' is the first episode of the first season of ''The Office'' (U.S. version). It was written by Greg Daniels, Ricky Gervais, and Stephen Merchant and directed by Ken Kwapis. It first aired on March 24, 2005.

Contents

Synopsis

Deleted scenes

Notes

References

External links

Synopsis

A documentary crew gives a firsthand introduction to the staff of the Scranton branch of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, headed by Michael Scott. Other pivotal members of Dunder Mifflin include Jim Halpert, an unmotivated but extremely competent sales representative, Dwight Schrute, his petty and power-hungry rival, and Pam Beesly, the soft-spoken receptionist and object of Jim's silent affection.
Jim tells Michael that he could not close a sales deal, so Michael calls the client and successfully concludes the sale, inadvertently insulting the client along the way. Pam delivers Michael a fax from corporate, and Michael (clearly showing off for the cameras) jokes that there is a special filing cabinet for faxes from corporate: the wastepaper basket. Michael tells the camera that people consider him the best boss because he is hilariously funny and demonstrates this by repeatedly shouting "Whassup?" to amuse his staff.
Jan Levinson-Gould, Michael's superior from corporate, arrives for a meeting. Michael berates Pam for not giving him the agenda for the meeting, only to be told that the agenda is what he threw into the wastepaper basket earlier in the day. Jan informs Michael that the board has determined that they cannot justify having both a Scranton branch and a Stamford branch. Michael does a poor job of disguising his panic.
As rumors of downsizing quickly spread through the office, Michael welcomes Ryan Howard, a young temporary employee who has just arrived. Meanwhile, Jim and Dwight have a petty dispute over the boundary between their desks.
Michael tries his best to keep the news of possible downsizing under wraps. He even holds a meeting to assure the rest of the office that they have nothing to worry about, but it does little to calm their fears.
When introducing himself to new employee Ryan, Dwight discovers that his stapler has been encased in Jell-O. His anger at Jim is met only with further teasing from Jim, Ryan, and even Michael.
At the end of the day, Jim invites Pam out to drinks after work but backs off when Pam's fiancé Roy arrives and shuts down the idea. Michael briefs Ryan on his management style and takes the opportunity to play a prank on Pam, pretending to fire her for stealing Post-it notes. When Pam breaks down crying, Michael reveals the firing as a prank, but Pam is far from amused.
After everyone has gone home, Jim sneaks into Michael's office and places Michael's mug, encased in Jell-O, on the desk.

Deleted scenes

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

★ An interview with Dwight describing his family background. (Rainn Wilson's improvisation on the background of his name would later be used in "Drug Testing".)

★ An alternate take of Michael introducing Pam, where he tells a disgusting joke about every guy in the office "spraying on Pam." Pam, obviously hearing the joke for the first time, is horrified.

★ An alternate take of Jim's first interview where he sarcastically describes the importance (or lack thereof) of his work.

★ Another interview with Dwight explaining how his human touch affects sales figures.

★ An alternate take of Michael welcoming Ryan to the office.

★ Michael introduces Ryan to other office employees.

★ As she's eating lunch, Pam endures Michael telling her about discovering a lump and thinking he has testicular cancer.

★ A series of interviews from the accounting department, introducing them and sharing their thoughts on downsizing.

★ A series of brief interviews with Michael trying to figure out how he can deceive the employees about the downsizing news.

★ After being intimidated by the boom mic in an interview, Dwight goes into great detail about his self-defense experience. (Based on the context of the footage, it is likely that this dialogue was improvised in character by Rainn Wilson.)

Notes

:''For a list of songs featured in this episode, see List of songs featured on The Office.''

★ This episode was adapted from the first episode of the original British series, but "Americanized" by executive producer Greg Daniels. Although most scenes are almost verbatim, some scenes are very different.

★ Most of this episode was filmed more than six months before the rest of the episodes in the first season.^[1]

★ The scene where Jim tapes pencils to his desk and Dwight says they are a safety violation was originally filmed as the British version was, in which Tim stacks up cardboard boxes in front of Gareth so he can't see him. The scene was later reshot. However, later on in the episode, if you look closely in the background, you can see the boxes stacked up in front of Dwight.^[2]

★ The two women in blue sweaters at the staff meeting scene were actual accountants that worked on the production.²

★ Michael asks Ryan if he likes ''The Jamie Kennedy Experiment'' and ''Punk'd'', and Ryan says that he does. B.J. Novak, who plays Ryan, was a prankster on the second season of ''Punk'd''.

★ The work computers are all different than in the rest of the series, they have much fatter flat panel monitors and are running on Windows 98, which in later episodes they are running on Windows XP

★ This episode marks the first mention of Josh Porter and the Stamford branch. Also mentioned is the possibility of a merge of the Scranton and Stamford branches, which later happens in "The Merger".

References

1. Novak, B.J. (Actor). 2005. "Pilot" [Commentary track], ''The Office'' Season One (US/NBC Version) [DVD], Los Angeles, CA: Universal.
2. Wilson, Rainn (Actor). 2005. "Pilot" [Commentary track], ''The Office'' Season One (US/NBC Version) [DVD], Los Angeles, CA: Universal.

External links

★ "Pilot" at NBC.com

★ Memorable Quotes From "Pilot" at QuotesFromTheOffice.com