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Mar 24, 2005 · Pilot: Directed by Ken Kwapis. With Steve Carell, Rainn Wilson, John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer. The premiere episode introduces the boss and staff of the Dunder-Mifflin Paper Company in Scranton, Pennsylvania in a documentary about the workplace.
- (11K)
- Comedy
- Ken Kwapis
- 2005-03-24
- Overview
- Summary
- Deleted scenes
- Goofs
- Amusing details
- Trivia
- Behind the scenes
- Cultural references
- Comparison with the UK pilot
"Pilot", alternately titled The Office: An American Workplace, is the first episode of the first season of The Office and the first episode overall. It was written by Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Greg Daniels, and directed by Ken Kwapis. It first aired on March 24, 2005, and was viewed by 11.2 million people.
A documentary crew gives a firsthand introduction to the staff of the Scranton branch of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, managed by Michael Scott.
During a meeting, Jim Halpert tells his boss, Michael, that he couldn't close a sale with the library. Michael closes the sale easily, but accidentally calls the woman he's speaking with, "Sir". He thinks she might have been a smoker.
Michael tells the camera that he's worked for Dunder-Mifflin for 12 years and has been Regional Manager for 4. The branch has the entire second floor of the building. He introduces the camera to receptionist Pam Beesly and mentions how much better she looked a couple of years ago. She gives him a fax from corporate which he crumples up and tosses into the trash, calling it his special file for messages from the corporate office. He shows the camera his World's Best Boss mug and tells how he bought it from Spencer Gifts.
Jim tries to explain his job selling paper, but admits it's boring him even talking about it.
Michael comes out of his office and shouts the years-old gag "Whassssuuupp?" to Jim and Dwight who play along.
Michael's direct supervisor, Jan Levinson-Gould, then enters the office for a meeting with Michael. Michael admits he calls her Hillary Rodham Clinton, but not because he's afraid of her. Jan asks if Michael has any questions about the agenda which he claims not to have seen and proceeds to lecture Pam who then reveals, in front of Jan, that Michael threw it away. Michael backpedals that it was just a joke.
Included on the Season One DVD were various deleted scenes:
•An interview with Dwight describing his family background. This would later be used in the Season 2 episode "Drug Testing".
•Michael holding a Dundie saying he's the best boss in the world.
•Jim self-patronizingly says, without him dozens of small businesses would be paperless.
•An alternate take of Michael introducing Pam, where he says every guy in the office has sprayed on Pam.
•An interview with Dwight explaining how his human touch affects sales figures.
•Boxes from an original take of the "pencil-fence scene" are visible when Michael announces the meeting. (See below for more about reshooting the scene.)
•In the conference room scene, look carefully at Jim's desk when Michael says, "Corporate has deemed it appropriate to enforce an ultimatum upon me." The shadow is that of producer Greg Daniels.
•During the "demarcation" scene with Jim and Dwight, Jim's tie has a white label (made using a label maker) that reads, "SHUT UP".
•During the meeting where Michael talks about the possibility of downsizing, Stanley stands in the background holding what appears to be a bottle of Pedialyte.
•During the meeting, Michael says "Corporate has deemed it appropriate to enforce an ultimatum upon me." At that moment, a shadow is cast upon the boxes on Jim's desk. Ryan was not invited to the meeting and is likely trying to snoop in. Immediately thereafter, Ryan is on the phone saying, "I heard they might be closing this branch down. That’s just the rumor going around."
•When Michael does his Adolf Hitler impression, Dwight raises his right arm, resembling a Nazi salute. This moment is not present in the Netflix version of the episode. Screen shot.
•Even though the company is slated for downsizing, Michael has just hired a temp.
•When Pam explains how Roy proposed to her, you can see how she doesn't believe her own description.
•This episode was adapted from the first episode of the original British series, but "Americanized" by executive producer Greg Daniels. Most scenes are very similar to the British version, though some are very different.
•Michael asks Ryan if he likes The Jamie Kennedy Experiment and Punk'd, which Ryan says 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, whereas in later episodes they are running on Windows XP.
•This episode marks the first mention of Josh Porter, Todd Packer, and the Stamford branch. Also mentioned is the possibility of a merge of the Scranton and Stamford branches, which later happens in the Season 3 episode "The Merger".
•Michael identifies Dane Cook as one of his comedic influences. In real life, Steve Carell co-starred with Cook in the romantic comedy Dan in Real Life as Cook's brother. Both Carell and Cook are from Massachusetts.
•The establishing shot of the Dunder Mifflin offices at the beginning of act two is the Paper Magic building at the corner of Adams and Mulberry streets in Scranton. (The Paper Magic building appears at timecode 2:35 in this slideshow.)
•Most of this episode was filmed more than six months before the other episodes of the season.
•The first season of the show was filmed at a different location from the remaining seasons. See Scranton Business Park for more information.
•To gain insight into the characters, Greg Daniels had the writers sit at each desk to understand what each character could see or how they felt connected to or isolated from the rest of the office.:14:13
•At the start of each day, director Ken Kwapis instructed the actors to pretend to be at work for 30 minutes. Cameras only shot B roll; the "work sessions" were an exercise to build an appropriate office atmosphere and dynamic, as well as to provide footage background and transition cuts. It was during these work sessions that the relationship among the three accountants was developed.
•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 script originally used the box-stacking joke from Downsize. After shooting was complete, Greg Daniels decided to replace it with the pencil-fence scene, and John Krasinski and Rainn Wilson were called back to the set (notice that no other actors other than Stanley are in the office during the pencil-fence scene). When Michael announces the meeting in the conference room, the original boxes can still be seen stacked on Jim's desk.
•When the accountants discuss who is going to be downsized, Angela Kinsey's delivery was too broad. Ken Kwapis kept asking her to do it again, each time more understated than the previous take, until he got what he wanted. Also, in that scene, Brian Baumgartner used his regular voice instead of his "Kevin" voice.:38:12
•Michael calls Jim grasshopper, the nickname given to the protagonist in the television series "Kung Fu" by one of his teachers.
•Spencer Gifts is a chain of stores that sells novelty items. There is a store in Scranton.
•Michael says "Pam-Pam" in a high-pitched voice like Bamm-Bamm, Barney Rubble's son on The Flintstones.
•Michael shouts Whassup? in the style of a series of Clio-Award-winning Budweiser beer advertisements from 2000. (Five years before the episode takes place, not seven as Jim claims.)
•Downsizing is a corporate euphemism for firing employees. Other corporate terms employed in the episode are compensation (pay) and HR (human resources, the department responsible for employee issues such as hiring and salary).
•The Six Million Dollar Man was a television program popular in the 1970s. The title character was a cyborg, and footage of the character performing superhuman feats were played in slow motion and accompanied by a sound effect similar to the one Michael makes.
Being the only episode to be directly based on a script from the UK original, the episode has an unfair reputation of being a shot-for-shot remake. While the episodes have the same structure, aside from bringing the setting to the United States and renaming all the characters, Pilot also presents the following differences with its original version, Downsize:
•Both episodes start with the manager talking to someone, making a phone call and ending said phone call with a faux pas.
•In Downsize David talks to Alex, an unqualified candidate for a warehouse job, and calls Sammy from the warehouse to give him the job nonetheless. He ends the phone call with a joke about Sammy's wife leaving him, only to be reminded that she did in fact leave him.
•In Pilot Jim tells Michael about a sale he didn't close, so Michael calls the client and closes it, only to mistakenly call the female client "sir" and "a gentleman and a scholar" because of her low voice.
•In both episodes, the manager offends the receptionist upon introducing her and later snaps back at her.
•In Downsize David offends Dawn by making a pun with her first name. At the end of the conversation, when he comments on his drinking, Dawn chimes in, prompting David to snap back at her for being unprofessional.
"Pilot" (alternatively titled "The Office: An American Workplace") is the first episode of the first season of the American comedy television series The Office. The episode premiered in the United States on NBC on March 24, 2005.
Mar 24, 2020 · Watch the best of the pilot episode and first moments with Michael (Steve Carell), Dwight (Rainn Wilson), Jim (John Krasinski), Pam (Jenna Fischer) and more. ...more.
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The Office [101] Pilot on Vimeo. Power your marketing strategy with perfectly branded videos to drive better ROI. Host virtual events and webinars to increase engagement and generate leads. Inspire employees with compelling live and on-demand video experiences. Build a site and generate income from purchases, subscriptions, and courses.
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Mar 24, 2005 · Season 1 Episode 1: “Pilot”. The Office (USA) Track 1 on Season 1. The Pilot of the US version from the Office (mostly directly adapted from the UK pilot) introduces manager Michael Scott and...
23m. Dunder Mifflin manager Michael Scott tries to stay upbeat when a documentary crew arrives amid downsizing rumors.
