Dinner Party (The Office episode)
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| The Office episode |
| "Dinner Party" | |
 Michael shows Jim and Pam his bed during the "Dinner Party". |
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| Episode No. | 60 |
| Prod. Code | 4013 |
| Airdate | April 10, 2008 |
| Writer(s) | Lee Eisenberg & Gene Stupnitsky |
| Director | Paul Feig |
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The Office Season 4 |
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| List of all The Office episodes... | |
"Dinner Party" is the ninth episode of the fourth season of the American version of NBC's mockumentary sitcom The Office. Written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky and directed by Paul Feig, it originally aired in the United States on April 10, 2008. The episode was the first Office episode to air after the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike.
In the episode, Michael Scott and his girlfriend Jan Levinson host a dinner party, and invite couples Jim Halpert and Pam Beesly, and Angela Martin and Andy Bernard. When Michael and Jan begin to argue, the other couples attending attempt to leave the party, to no avail. The party is further thrown into disarray when the uninvited Dwight Schrute shows up with his former babysitter, portrayed by Beth Grant.
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[edit] Plot
Michael succeeds in tricking Jim and Pam to join him and Jan for dinner at his condominium. He also invites Andy and Angela, but excludes Dwight. On a tour of the condominium, Jan shows the workspace from which she runs her candle-making home business. Jan's dominance in the relationship is apparent from the living arrangements; Michael sleeps on a small bench due to Jan's "space issues", and his sole comfort is a very small plasma television. In the kitchen, Jan quietly confronts Pam with her "knowledge" that Michael and Pam had once dated. Jim's attempt to get himself and Pam out of the increasingly uncomfortable evening is unsuccessful. Dwight arrives, uninvited, with his own food, and his former babysitter as his date. The feud between Michael and Jan escalates, culminating in Jan's destruction of the plasma television using Michael's beloved Dundie award. Under the advice of responding police officers, Michael agrees to spend the night with Dwight. Jim and Pam share a warm moment together eating take-out food in their car. In Andy's car, Angela coldly rejects Andy's attempt at flirting.
[edit] Production
- Filming on "Dinner Party" started before the WGA Strike of 2007, but didn't finish. Filming resumed March 6, 2008.[1]
- According to the writers, the episode was somewhat based on Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.
- The scene with Jim and Pam eating in a car was filmed outside Home Plate Burgers at 7615 Reseda Blvd. in Reseda, CA.[2]
- The hand-shaped chairs in Michael's garage are an homage to Arrested Development, a show that Paul Feig had directed for. Paul Feig directed "Dinner Party."
[edit] Guest cast
- Beth Grant as Dwight's former babysitter.
[edit] Reception
"Dinner Party" received a 5.4 Nielsen Rating and a 8% Share. The episode was watched by 9.22 million viewers and achieved a 4.8/12 in the key adults 18–49 demographic.[3]
[edit] Notes
- For a list of songs featured in this episode, see List of songs featured on The Office.
- Angela Kinsey was pregnant during the shoot.[4] The pregnancy was hidden by the production staff by never filming Kinsey below her waist.
- Andy is shown owning a Toyota Prius. Previously he had owned a Nissan Xterra. In a deleted scene from "Safety Training," Andy states that he traded in the Xterra for the more fuel-efficient Prius. Angela also keyed the car for what he did to Dwight (and Dwight points this key scratch out in said later episode; Andy calls it a "racing stripe.").
- As mentioned above, this episode marked the second time that Angela defaces Andy's car. In a deleted scene from "Safety Training," Angela keys his car, and in this episode, Angela smashes her ice cream cone down its passenger door.
- The video camera in the bedroom is a reference to Michael's complaint in "Women's Appreciation."
- The hand chairs seen in Michael's garage are of the same model of Buster Bluth's chair from the television series Arrested Development.
- This is the third expletive bleeped for season 4 (the first in "Dunder Mifflin Infinity," and the second in a deleted scene from "Local Ad").
- After the episodes, Jan's candles made for her new business were available online on the NBC Store.
- This episode reveals that Ryan fired Hunter (supposedly for being unreliable). He released a CD entitled "The Hunted", which is a reference to his band in the episode "The Job."
- It is hinted that the woman in Hunter's song is Jan, and that the song is about him losing his virginity to her.
- The scene where Dwight's "date"/babysitter is seen sitting alone on a bench as he drives home with Michael had some viewers thinking she was homeless. One of the episode's writers later said in an online Q&A that she was not homeless--she was waiting on the bench for her bus ride home.
- In a segment taped for the NBC 2006 Primetime Preview, Michael brings his old and much larger TV into work to be auctioned off as he tells Pam that he had just bought a much smaller plasma screen TV, which made its first appearance in this episode (and is clearly NOT a plasma screen, looking more like a low-level LCD model). The smallest plasma television ever produced measures 32".[5]
- Michael first asked Jim and Pam over for dinner in an earlier fourth season episode, "Launch Party."
- While showing Jim and Pam Jan's candles, Michael calls himself Michael Scarn, the fictional spy he created for his screenplay Threat Level: Midnight, which the office staff discovered during "The Client." He would also reference this again later during dinner when he claims that he's a screenwriter.
- When Dwight asks Michael about the dinner party, Creed can be seen leaving in the background. Later on, after Dwight discovers he wasn't invited, Creed can be seen on his desk in the background of Dwight's talking head interview.
- Excluding the cold open, series regulars Brian Baumgartner, Oscar Nunez, Leslie David Baker, Phyllis Smith, Kate Flannery, Mindy Kaling, Creed Bratton, and Paul Lieberstein do not appear in this episode. Series stars B.J. Novak and Craig Robinson do not appear at all in this episode.
- Among the many things that Jan and Michael disagree on, Michael reveals that he wants kids and Jan does not. In "The Client" however, Jan says the same thing when she explains why she divorced 'Gould'; except she was the one who wanted kids and he did not.
[edit] References
- ^ 'The Office' reopens after strike-induced vacationUSA Today, retrieved April 11, 2008
- ^ "The New Diner blog". Retrieved on 2008-04-12.
- ^ Broadcast TV Ratings for Thursday, April 10, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-04-11.
- ^ The Office's Angela Kinsey Blogs About Pregnancy. People. Time (2007-11-28). Retrieved on 2008-04-12.
- ^ http://dvice.com/archives/2007/10/lg_32inch_plasma_tv_is_the_sma.php
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