The Office's iconic 'Dinner Party' episode turns 10 today!

[12dozenroses]

'The Dinner Party' was the most brilliantly excruciating episode of #TheOffice. Here, the cast looks back on its 10th anniversary https://t.co/6rGOZA53lc pic.twitter.com/vxt9EhffZk
- Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) April 7, 2018

On April 10th, 2008, The Office aired what was indisputably its best episode yet (and arguably the best comedy episode of the decade). In celebration of these 22 unforgettable minutes of fremdschämen, the cast and crew had the following (and then some) to say.

Writing the episode
ft. Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg

• Stupnitsky thought of it as Who's Afraid of Jan Levinson-Gould? and Greg Daniels (executive producer/co-creator) titled the episode Virginia Woolf in his notes.
• Eisenberg says awkwardness lives in the pauses. The people at the dinner had to let space between lines hang, making the rhythms of this episode slightly different.
• Different versions of Michael Scott: childish, incompetent, or (sometimes) at his best. The aim was to get Michael at "his most pathetic" in this episode, as well as blow up Jan/Michael's relationship in a spectacular fashion.
• About "peeling the onion" - revealing new details about their relationship and living situation over the course of the episode, so by the end we hope they break up.

The Unraveling of Jan Levinson-Gould
ft. John Krasinski (Jim Halpert), Melora Hardin (Jan)

• Krasinski says Hardin excelled at the severe straight-man character and that Michael/Jan's relationship had elements of BDSM.
• Steve Carrell "found her very funny" and they made a strong comedy due, despite Hardin's lack of comedy/improv background.
• Hardin viewed Jan as humorless, becoming more hardened and "masculine" as she climbed the ranks in a male-dominated industry.
• The dinner party is Jan's "delusional fantasy of normalcy" while Michael is trying to leverage having a girlfriend and home to finally befriend Pam and Jim outside of work.

Pre-Production
ft. Angela Kinsey (Angela Martin), Ed Helms (Andy Bernard), Beth Grant (Melvina, Dwight’s date and former babysitter)

• The network's only note was "This script is really, really dark."
• Only one revision from the initial script: Jan originally ran over the neighbor's dog on purpose.
• The table read started off slow with few laughs but grew exponentially as the episode went on. Steve Carrell struggled to get through his lines.
• Grant says the episode "almost read like a [Harold] Pinter play because it was so literary." She and Krasinski both say almost none of it was improvised.

The Writers' Strike
ft. Jenna Fischer (Pam Beesly), Paul Feig (director),

• Production shut down right before shooting "The Dinner Party."
• Fischer says that although strike rules allowed filming scripts that were already in-hand, Carrell was also a member of the Writers Guild and refused to cross the picket line. Cast and crew were supportive of this.
• The show lost 6-7 episodes that year.
• Fieg asked to direct the episode, but it had been promised to someone else. Schedules changed due to the strike and Fieg swooped in.

Setting the Stage at Michael's Condo

• Fieg also directly “Office Olympics,” the first episode where Michael's condo appears (he buys it from a real estate agent played by his real-life wife, Nancy).
• It's in Woodland Hills, where they shot a lot of Freaks and Geeks.
• Used decor as a joke (late at night TV products, tiny flatscreen).
• Relied on actors to convey some things, like how bad the candle room smelled.

Hunter's Song

• The Office writers wrote the lyrics & shopped to several musicians.
• Used New Pornographers guitarist Todd Fancey, who recorded it quickly at home, because his version made them laugh the most.
• Hardin danced off-beat on purpose and didn't rehearse ahead of time, to catch Krasinkski off-guard.
• You can listen to a longer version of the song here: https://soundcloud.com/user-887608634

Click to view

The Shoot

• The cast was excited to film on location ("Like kids going to Disneyland," says Fischer) because they rarely left the main set.
• Helms says it was a bonding experience; no trailers to return to between takes.
• Hardin says it was uncomfortable, kind of like the dinner party itself, because of close quarters (4 couples + crew + equipment).
• Tented the place to make it look like night time, which added to the claustrophobia.
• Director of photography came from Survivor and brought reality-show perspective.
• Daniels directed cameramen not on where/what to shoot, but things like “You know that Jan is jealous of Pam, so look for evidence of that, and make sure to check in on Dwight’s weird date, I think she is doing something with her fork."
• Carrell came up with "snip-snap, snip-snap, snip-snap!" to lighten up the vasectomy exchange.
• Kinsey was very pregnant by the time they returned from the strike hiatus, had to hide it.

Actors had trouble getting through their scenes

• Grant (Dwight's babysitter/date) says she had to suck on a beet to keep from breaking during the dinner scene.
• Fischer highlights "the scene where Jan catches [Pam] eating, "where they're giving us a tour of the house, and [Michael] explains that he sleeps on the little chaise longue at the end of the bed" (which is based on a real situation Fieg had with his boss) and "when he's showing us his flatscreen television."
• Krasinksi also points out the TV scene.
• Helms says Oscar Nunez was unbreakable while he, Kinsey, and Krasinski broke all the time. Helms looked at Carrell's ear instead of at his face to keep from laughing.
• Hardin improvised the devil horns ("Yeah, I'm the Devil!") and almost made Carrell break.

Click to view

The Aftermath

• It was originally a "supersized" (44-minute) episode, but they trimmed it to 21. There is a 29-minute version out there, too.
• The cast still laughs about it, sending each other pics of tiny mounted TVs.
• It was Fieg's favorite directing project outside of Freaks and Geek. He won a Director's Guild award for the episode.

Source: twitter, ilouboutin