Sexual Harassment (The Office episode)

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The Office episode
"Sexual Harassment"

Jim reveals his office love
Episode No. 8
Prod. Code 202
Airdate September 27, 2005
Writer(s) B.J. Novak
Director Ken Kwapis
Guest star(s) Melinda Chilton
Shannon Cochran
R.F. Daley
David Koechner
Karly Rothenberg
Keith Valcourt

The Office Season 2
September 2005 - May 2006
  1. The Dundies
  2. Sexual Harassment
  3. Office Olympics
  4. The Fire
  5. Halloween
  6. The Fight
  7. The Client
  8. Performance Review
  9. E-mail Surveillance
  10. Christmas Party
  11. Booze Cruise
  12. The Injury
  13. The Secret
  14. The Carpet
  15. Boys and Girls
  16. Valentine's Day
  17. Dwight's Speech
  18. Take Your Daughter to Work Day
  19. Michael's Birthday
  20. Drug Testing
  21. Conflict Resolution
  22. Casino Night
List of all The Office episodes...
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"Sexual Harassment" is the second episode of the second season of the television series The Office (U.S. version). It was written by B.J. Novak and directed by Ken Kwapis. It originally aired on September 27, 2005.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Michael declares himself "King of Forwards" because he is a master of forwarding what he considers to be funny email to the rest of the office. Michael's "best friend forever" Todd Packer arrives and shares crude and sexist gossip about an upper management scandal, which continues to offend the staff. Ryan the temp is called upon to drive Packer around town because of Packer's "DUI situation". Meanwhile, Pam waits with anticipation for her mother to arrive from out of town.

Toby privately informs Michael that their CFO resigned because of sexual harassment. Consequently, he has been asked by Corporate to hold a five-minute review of the company's sexual harassment policies. Michael is upset that this will put a damper on his easy-going office environment by forcing everybody to "scrutinize every little thing we say and do all day." His indignation rises to outrage when he learns that Corporate is sending down a lawyer to talk to Michael.

Michael goes down to the warehouse to find some dirty jokes that he can use to remind the staff how great jokes can be, but he ends up being sexually harassed himself and runs away in embarrassment. Upstairs, Toby's presentation goes well, and Pam asks everyone to keep it clean when her mother arrives. Just as Toby is wrapping up, Michael arrives with a blow-up sex doll. He makes a speech on not losing the sexual humor around the office, but fails to get the support of the employees.

For laughs, Michael and the warehouse staff watch the sexual harassment video in the conference room. Meanwhile, Dwight asks Toby questions about the female anatomy. Just as Michael share a crude remark about the video with the rest of the staff, Jan and the lawyer arrive from Corporate.

Todd Packer returns to the office as Michael meets with Jan and the lawyer, upset that the their crackdown on his inappropriate e-mail forwarding means that he basically can't say anything in the office at all. In a talking head interview, Michael defensively explains that as the King of Forwards, he's just forwarding the jokes; he didn't write them and therefore cannot be held responsible for their content. Michael emerges from the meeting to announce that he can no longer be friends with his staff and that he will talk only about work. As a result, he will never tell another joke again. Jim goads Michael into breaking his vow immediately.

Jan calls Michael back into his office for another meeting as Michael's "free speech" lawyer arrives. Jan explains that as the corporate lawyer, Mr. O'Malley's job is protect the company and upper-level management, including Michael. Michael is instantly relieved that he's not in trouble.

Just as Michael throws away the sex doll, Pam's mother arrives and after Roy leaves, she asks in whispers (and is shushed by an embarrassed Pam) which one is Jim. Todd Packer shares some more inappropriate jokes with the employees and Michael tries to draw the line, but points the blame at Kevin. He gets teased by Packer and ends up saying how beautiful Phyllis is and saying the only thing he's worried about "is gettin' a boner."

[edit] Deleted scenes

  • Michael is baffled by a casual compliment from Pam.
  • Dwight warns Jim not to drink directly from his soda can due to the risk of cross-contamination.
  • Kevin receives a doctored celebrity photo via e-mail.
  • Dwight carefully washes a soda can.
  • Extension of Michael taking over Toby's sexual harassment training.
  • In a talking head interview, Michael bad-mouths Toby.
  • Pam teases Jim by apologizing for sending instant messages with the winking-face emoticon, concerned that it might be sexual harassment. Jim responds that he has retained the angry-face icon as his attorney.

[edit] Trivia

  • This episode aired with a warning that it contained adult content and subject matter, which is rare for a network comedy. Writer B.J. Novak later explained the reason was that he had to fight NBC to get the word "boner" on the air because the replacement - "schwing" - didn't have, according to Novak, "the same redemption for Michael at the end". The network compromised with adding the disclaimer before the show.[1]
  • This episode didn't air in the state of Kentucky.[2]
  • Although he is mentioned (and heard on the phone) in previous episodes, this marks the first appearance of Michael's best friend Todd Packer, played by David Koechner
  • This episode introduces Michael Scott's catchphrase "That's what she said," which writer B. J. Novak says was something he heard repeated in college. ("What has two thumbs and X? This guy." also comes from Novak's college days.)[3]
  • This episode was inspired by the fact that, as NBC employees, the cast and crew of the show had to go through a sexual harassment seminar themselves before the series began.[4] Writer B.J. Novak took notes during the seminar and incorporated them into the episode. The borrowing came full circle when NBC inserted clips from this episode into their training materials, including the "Pam's Mom" rule.[5]
  • When Dwight asks Toby about female anatomy, actor Rainn Wilson improvised the line "Where is the clitoris? The website says it is at the crest of the labia. What does that mean?"[6]
  • The first two letters on Todd Packer's license (WL HUNG) plate likely stands for "Well".
  • In Oscar's e-mail inbox, Pam's last name is misspelled as 'Beasly'.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Chun, Wing. "The B.J. Novak Interview" Televisionwithoutpity.com Page 8. Retrieved March 2, 2006.
  2. ^ Chun. Page 8. Retrieved March 2, 2006.
  3. ^ Novak, B. J. (Writer/Actor). 2005. "Diversity Day" [Commentary track], The Office Season One (US/NBC Version) [DVD], Los Angeles, CA: Universal.
  4. ^ Carell, Steve (Actor). 2005. "Diversity Day" [Commentary track], The Office Season One (US/NBC Version) [DVD], Los Angeles, CA: Universal.
  5. ^ Office Politics panel discussion, USC, July 30, 2006.
  6. ^ Fischer, Jenna. August 14, 2006. blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=27753303&blogID=155751758&MyToken=477178e4-204a-4259-b079-24480b13306b "Need to Kill Time? Check out this Blog.", MySpace.com

[edit] External links

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