When you think about the greatest Office episodes of all time two words likely spring to mind: Dinner. Party.
The Season 4 episode couldn’t have a simpler concept. Michael and Jan invite a few friends over for a dinner party, right? What’s the big deal? The big deal is the near-perfect script; the scenes dripping with chaos, tension, and passive aggressive jabs; and the stream of unexpected laughter you’ll let out during each and every rewatch.
On the latest episode of the Office Ladies podcast Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey chatted about the now beloved “Dinner Party” episode, and shared delightful sentiments from fellow cast members including John Krasinski, Rainn Wilson, Melora Hardin, and director Paul Feig.
If you read Rolling Stone‘s 2018 oral history on “Dinner Party” and were left hungry for more behind-the-scenes info, this podcast episode is a must-listen. Here are some of our favorite “Dinner Party” revelations from the cast and crew.
[embedded content]
The impact of the 2007 writers strike
“Dinner Party,” which was inspired by Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, was written by the dynamic duo of Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg. The script didn’t need any rewrites, and everyone was so excited about the episode, but right before they set to shoot it the show got shut down for four months because of the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike.
“It was just a very surreal time because so many shows that shut down did not come back,” Kinsey said. “They weren’t able to survive the strike. And the fact that we were able to come back and we knew we had scripts waiting for us was huge. But it was really important for us as a cast that we stand with our writers and support them.”
“Gene and Lee said it was really surreal because they went from writing this to episode, having this table read, to picketing their own set,” Fischer explained.
Steve Carell, who is also a member of the WGA, refused to cross the picket line, so he helped lead The Office cast’s support of their talented writers.
As fans know the show did return after the strike, and though the long wait did provide some challenges — mainly a need to hide Kinsey’s substantially progressed pregnancy with a number of props — it also helped the episode become so great. If the writers’ strike hadn’t happened, for instance, Paul Feig might not have been able to direct “Dinner Party.”
“I had been brought on and I directed a lot of episodes of The Office. But in that season, I had been given ‘Survivorman‘, which I was really excited about… But I remember reading the script for the ‘Dinner Party’ and it was given to some other director,” Feig explained. “Then the writers’ strike happened and it all fell apart… and my great joy was at the end that, everything shifted, so much so that director who was supposed to do ‘Dinner Party’ wasn’t able to. And so it came back around to me.”
Shooting Michael’s tiny TV scenes
As fans may know from watching Season 4 bloopers, a number of “Dinner Party” scenes caused cast members to break. But no scene was more difficult to film than the one where Michael shows off his new flat-screen TV.
“There are two times when I laughed so hard on our show that I thought I wasn’t going to ever recover. This was one of them,” Fischer said. “Tears [were] streaming down our face.”
“When we got to the moment with the television, I think there was an energy in the room that was overwhelming. I was already quaking with laughter. It wouldn’t have taken much for me to laugh, and then throw in maybe one of my favorite jokes in the entire show,” Krasinski recalled. “I remember at the table read laughing. But then to see Steve again with that beaming face of pride just turn to us and say, ‘You won’t believe what what I have. And also look what it can do.’
“I’m pretty sure that the distance between the TV and the wall was like an inch and a half. And he was so proud that it comes out to watch TV in the comfort of your own home and then you push it back a good inch and a half to hide it away when company comes,” Krasinski explained. “…I think that it took probably 19 or 20 takes before I was even able to stand up vertically in that scene without doubling over. And again, as I’ve always said, I’m a crier laughter. So when I laugh that hard, my entire face turns red with tears and the pressure that’s filling in my face for trying not to laugh. And to no avail! I don’t know why I even try not to laugh. I should just let it out. My face wouldn’t turn beet-red in every scene.”
Krasinski said the scene is “without a doubt” one of his favorites, and one he’ll cherish for the rest of his career. And he’s not alone. The Office group text still jokes about the tiny TV to this day.
“Jenna do you know what I love? Is how this is still a joke with the cast. So a few years ago, you guys, we’ve talked about this before, we have a cast text thread where we will text and check in, say hello, [send] little clips and pictures of our kids,” Kinsey said. “Creed usually sings us a song at Christmas and he’ll text us him at home with his like elf hat on. And Jenna sent a photo to all of us. You were on a job and you walked in to like a little dressing room they had for you, and there was the tiniest TV mounted on the wall, Jenna. And you sent us a picture and we all started cracking up.”
“Yes… It was so reminiscent of the ‘Dinner Party’ episode. I was so excited to send that text, and people were loving it,” Fischer said.
Steve Carell’s brilliant improv lines
There are too many iconic lines in “Dinner Party” to keep track of, but two of the funniest weren’t originally written in the script.
Remember when Michael makes a toast and proceeds to note that the wine has an “oaky afterbirth” to it? That was all Steve Carell.
“Gene told me that Steve improvised that line,” Fischer said. “Oaky afterbirth.”
“You’re kidding,” a surprised Kinsey replied. “Oh, my gosh. Steve Carell.”
[embedded content]
And remember when Jan and Michael are fighting and he reveals he had several vasectomies at her request, then says, “Snip, snap, snip, snap, snip, snap,” to illustrate all that he’s been through? That line was all Steve Carell, too.
“Jenna we should share with everyone what line Steve improvised that sent us all to the floor,” Kinsey said.
“Yes, guys. Steve improvised the line ‘snip, snap, snip, snap. You have no idea the physical toll three vasectomies has on a person,'” Fischer revealed.
“I mean, you try not laughing with Steve Carell in front of you, improvising stuff like that, we were all goners,” Kinsey said.
Everyone brought their A-game for this episode, but even Paul Feig said Carell was on another level.
“There’s so many great things to think about and remember from this episode, but the one that makes me just realize how genius Steve Carell is… the whole snip snap run. It was a pretty dramatic scene of them talking about having kids, and so we did several takes of it. It was really good, but it very dramatic,” he said. “And I remember kind of saying to Steve, ‘Maybe let’s do a take or just kind of find a little more humor in it. I know it’s kind of hard because it’s kind of a serious subject.’ And he’s like, ‘OK, yeah, I get it. I get it.’ And that’s when he went off on the the little ‘snip, snap, snip, snap,’ which is just brilliant. I mean, that scene is so funny because it’s so heartbreaking and cringey, but also hilarious.”
The true star of “Dinner Party,” babe
Though Steve Carell was brilliant in this episode, Michael would have been nothing without Jan. From smelling candles and trying to dance with Jim to “That One Night” to throwing a Dundie at Michael’s precious TV and judging the heck out of everyone, Jan did it all. And even the cast feels Melora Hardin was the true, exceptionally unhinged star of “Dinner Party.”
“Melora is the star of this episode. She just is.”
“I think the true hero of ‘Dinner Party’ is the magnificent Melora Hardin, who is insanely brilliant all through the series, but especially in that episode. I mean, Steve Carell being one of the all time greats on the planet earth…and Melora Hardin stands toe-to-toe with him all the way through it being just as funny, just as specific, just as weird,” Rainn Wilson said. “…Her performance is just magnificent. It’s so dry. It stands the test of time as just one of the great all time performances all throughout the series.”
“Melora is the star of this episode. She just is,” Fischer agreed. “We were so lucky to have her. I mean, back on the pilot when we cast her, could we have known that this is what was going to happen?”
Hardin also spoke about her time playing Jan and what the “Dinner Party” episode meant to her.
“I was always aware of what the potential for sort of showing this wonderfully complicated and dysfunctional relationship was — the hilarity of that,” Hardin said. “…I really loved that ‘Dinner Party’ took it to that next step of implosion. I was just thrilled that we had a chance to really implode on screen in front of everybody and hopefully get a lot of laughs out of it, which we did.'”
Be sure to listen to the full podcast episode for more behind-the-scenes stories about filming “Dinner Party,” John McCain’s favorite scene, and more.
You can stream episodes of The Office on Peacock and follow along with the podcast every week on Earwolf, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.