Jan Levinson
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| Jan Levinson | |
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| Portrayed by | Melora Hardin |
| First appearance | Pilot |
| Information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Age | Early 40s |
| Occupation | Chandler; former corporate manager |
| Spouse | Art Gould (ex-husband) Michael Scott (on/off boyfriend) |
| Children | Currently pregnant |
| Based on | Jennifer Taylor-Clarke |
Janet "Jan" Levinson (formerly Levinson-Gould) is a fictional character from the US television series The Office. Her counterpart in the UK version is Jennifer Taylor-Clarke. She is played by Melora Hardin.
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[edit] Overview
When the series begins, Jan Levinson-Gould is Michael Scott's superior at the New York City corporate headquarters of fictitious paper distributor Dunder Mifflin. Jan's no-nonsense style is at odds with Michael's much more casual approach. Since her office is in New York, Jan's contact with the Scranton branch is largely by telephone, although she will make the two-and-a-half-hour drive to Scranton if necessary. She usually asks if she's on camera when talking to Michael on the speaker phone, and Michael often lies and tells her she is not, before admitting that they are--at which point she hangs up on him.
[edit] Biography
Introduced as a very driven, successful woman, Jan's managerial style clashes with Michael's laid-back business style. Jan is usually reprimanding Michael for some combination of failing to fulfill his work duties, violating company policy, or trying to flirt with her. Jan generally gets more respect from the office than Michael does. Her marriage ended in divorce due partially to Jan's desire for children, a dream not shared by her ex-husband ("The Client"). Prior to that, she went by the name Jan Levinson-Gould, but dropped "Gould" following the divorce. In her personal life, Jan faced a rough year not only with her divorce but as a victim of identity theft. Her last name "Levinson-Gould" is likely a reference to two psychologists who studied the phenomena of the mid-life crisis and her questionable emotional well-being. It may also be a reference to the city of Gouldsboro, only 20 miles southeast of Scranton. She is also seeing a psychiatrist. In a deleted scene from "Dinner Party," it is implied that Jan grew up in West Virginia.
Although not a regular smoker, Jan tends to light up when put in stressful situations ("Performance Review", "Casino Night", "Cocktails"), and exhibits poor judgment due to what her psychiatrist deems "self-destructive tendencies".
Jan has a strong sexuality, revealed by Michael explaining that she made him dress up as a school girl during a role-playing session, and when she did not abide by their "safety word," which is revealed to be "foliage" in "Women's Appreciation."
Jan initially drives a Volvo S60. At the beginning of season four both it and Michael's Chrysler Sebring are traded in for a Porsche Boxster that they share. Jan seems to have appropriated the Porsche, as Michael now has a PT Cruiser.
[edit] Season 1
In the pilot episode, Michael refers to her as "Hillary Rodham Clinton" (converting a joke from the British Office when David Brent refers to Jan's equivalent character as "Camilla Parker Bowles"), followed by Todd Packer referring to her as "Ol' Godzillary." She visits Scranton to talk to Michael about downsizing. Later, she puts Michael in charge of creating a health care plan and is angered to discover that Michael put Dwight Schrute in charge of health care when Dwight calls her cell phone asking for permission to fire Jim.
[edit] Season 2
Jan has a drunken fling with Michael after a business meeting, and immediately regrets it, going as far as to accuse him of slipping something in her drink ("The Client"). According to Michael's reports, they "made out" and then she fell asleep on his arm. Afterward she was forced to reject multiple advances by Michael, but in a moment of weakness on Valentine's Day, she passionately kisses him after a meeting at corporate headquarters after he successfully defused a potentially career-ending situation. Her relationship with Michael proves that although many things about Michael repulse and infuriate her, she is still drawn to him. In "Casino Night", it is strongly hinted that she had intended to spend the night with Michael, but is forced to drive back to New York after discovering that Michael has also asked Carol to the event. Since then, her actions as Michael's boss have come under scrutiny from the Scranton employees, who have accused her in interviews of taking her anger out on Michael, and possibly the branch. However, Jan demonstrates her good side in "Boys and Girls". Jan visits the Scranton branch to search for female candidates with potential to move up in the company. When it appears that this is a failure, she discovers that Pam wants to be an artist and encourages her to apply to a company program that trains graphic designers. In this same episode, Angela claims Jan dresses like a prostitute.
[edit] Season 3
Jan arrives at Scranton once again, in order to manage the situation caused when Oscar Martinez is outed as gay. To make up for it, she gives him a three-month paid vacation during which he and his partner Gil travel to Europe, as well as use of a company car. In a deleted scene from "The Convention", she invites Stamford manager Josh Porter to a hotel room to review reports and have a quick drink. She does this shortly after Michael tells her that they cannot fall back into a relationship, hinting at either feelings for Josh or a desire to make Michael jealous. Jan later tells Pam to keep a daily log of Michael's activities and tells him during "Branch Closing" that the Scranton branch is being closed and Michael will not be kept on afterwards. However, Josh Porter's departure to Staples leads Jan to keep Scranton open with Michael remaining the Branch Manager.
After Carol breaks up with Michael, he offers the tickets to a resort in Jamaica to Jan, who accepts. Upon their return ("Back from Vacation"), photos of Michael and Jan together circulate around the office, including a 'PG-13' one of a topless Jan lying face-down on a sunning chair by the beach. Jan (possibly unaware of the photos) confesses her attraction to Michael, however self-destructive she might see it as, and makes her intentions clear that she wishes to pursue a relationship. In "Ben Franklin", Jan says she's closer to firing Michael than breaking up with him when he tells her about the stripper at Bob Vance's bachelor party, but Michael is left saying what a great girlfriend she is.
During a cocktail party at the CFO's home in Mount Vernon ("Cocktails"), Jan and Michael decide to make their relationship known to the company higher-ups; Jan is aware that doing so will cause herself to "collapse into [herself] like a dying star". While Michael is eager to display his affection in public, Jan is quick to shoot down his gestures, only to compensate later, by both kissing him passionately and pulling him into a bathroom for a quick fling (which Michael refuses, considering it to be inappropriate). After the party, Jan admits that she was initially excited by the relationship when it was a secret, but feels unsure of the direction in which it is heading now. Michael is hurt by this statement, and she quickly retracts it. In the episode "Women's Appreciation," Michael reveals that he dreads his relationship with Jan because of her bizarre sexual practices, such as acting out a schoolgirl fantasy (she makes Michael dress up as the schoolgirl), taping their sex and replaying it to her therapist, and ignoring Michael when he wants the sex to stop, despite his use of their safe word ("foliage"). Michael eventually dumps Jan via voicemail, which she listens to on her cell phone in front of him immediately after apologizing for the way she's been treating him.
In "The Job", Michael decides to get back together with Jan upon seeing her new breast implants, to the dismay of Pam and the rest of the office. While interviewing for a promotion at corporate, Michael learns that the job he seeks is in fact Jan's job, and that she is about to be fired for, among other offenses, shoddy work and disappearing from the office for as long as days at a time. Michael, against his better judgment, reveals this to Jan. Upon hearing this, Jan storms into the office in the middle of Karen's interview for the job, and makes a very loud and embarrassing scene. At the end of the episode she is fired for her erratic behavior and rapid mood swings. Michael, in an effort to console a crying Jan, suggests that she move in with him. Jan jumps at the opportunity, saying she looks forward to making their relationship her "new full-time job" and would like to "sit around at home wearing stretch pants" and wait for him to come home from work. A visibly uncomfortable Michael drives the car back to Scranton after hearing this.
[edit] Season 4
In Season 4, Jan is unemployed and living in Michael's condo; however in Dinner Party it is revealed that she makes candles (which "smell like fire") and is seeking investors for the business. She still maintains her overbearing and controlling attitude, but Michael shrugs it off. She tells Pam that Michael is hers and hers alone after Pam accidentally sees Michael's "dangling participle". However, her attitude changes somewhat in the episode "Money". Jan's spending, in concert with some unwise purchases by Michael, has resulted in crushing debt and money worries for him. At the end of the episode, she tells him that when she was in trouble he stood by her and affirms that she will stand by him during his financial problems. She also reveals that her entire family no longer speaks to her on the "advice of counsel," and that her breast implants are uncomfortable but she will keep them because she knows Michael likes them. It is revealed in "Money" that Michael traded in his car, along with Jan's old car, in order to buy a Porsche for Jan to drive.
Jan files a lawsuit against Dunder Mifflin for wrongful termination and brings Michael to corporate headquarters in New York to be deposed as a witness. During questioning, the photo of Michael and Jan in Jamaica is brought to the table, and Michael has no choice but to tell the lawyers that despite what he had said previously, he and Jan entered into a relationship before they signed the legal HR document ("love contract"). In an attempt to win her case, Jan displays a page from Michael's diary in which Michael writes that even though they had sex six times in Jamaica, Jan did not consider them to be in a relationship. The entire diary is then passed out for review, upsetting Michael. During lunch, Jan tells him that he distributed the topless photo of her, so they should call it even (this is the first time that Jan's knowledge of the photo from "Back From Vacation" is revealed). Michael agrees, they exchange "I love you's" and the deposition resumes. Dunder Mifflin's lawyer shows Michael a performance review dated one month after they officially began dating in which Jan recommended that Michael be demoted to sales because he is a poor manager. Hurt by this statement, Michael sides with Dunder Mifflin because even though David Wallace was not going to give him the corporate job, he still had enough respect for him to keep him on as the Scranton Regional Manager despite Jan's damning performance evaluations, and also called him a "nice guy." Michael also reveals that his decision to side with the company is due in part to the fact that Jan planned to present his diary page to the lawyers before she knew that her topless Jamaica photo was leaked. He then laments that "you expect to get screwed by your company, but you never expect to get screwed by your girlfriend." That evening, Jan and Michael drive home together and dispassionately discuss where they will have dinner.
At a dinner party at Michael's condo, it is shown that Jan has basically taken over, forcing Michael to take down some of his favorite decorations and put many of his favorite things in the garage. Jan has also taken over the bed in the master bedroom for herself, making Michael sleep on a small bench at the end of the bed. Michael is clearly upset with all the change but puts on a smile as if everything is OK for fear of upsetting Jan. Michael also reveals that Jan forced him to have a vasectomy, then to reverse it, and then to have the initial procedure redone. Jan sarcastically says "Let's having a (bleeping) kid!" and Michael seems to believe she's sincere. At dinner, Michael whispers to Pam that he suspects Jan may be trying to poison her because Michael falsely told Jan that he and Pam used to date. Tensions explode at the dinner, Jan ends up destroying Michael's "$200 plasma screen TV", which looks a lot like an LCD monitor, and Michael furiously tells Jan "Good luck paying for that on your salary of zero dollars a year plus benefits, babe!". It is also suggested that Jan had a relationship with her assistant, Hunter, during her tenure at Corporate, something Michael had feared when he first met Hunter. Jan and Michael broke up shortly afterwards, although Jan stayed in Michael's condo (while Michael stayed at Schrute Farms) for 6 weeks before leaving to live with her sister in Scottsdale, Arizona. He accidentally called her in "Chair Model" and described her as beautiful and smart but manipulative. In the Season 4 finale, she tells Michael she is pregnant, but not by him. She says that she was inseminated via a local sperm bank. She invites him to join her at her Lamaze class and he eventually agrees to do so.
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