| "Traveling Salesmen" | |||
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| The Office episode | |||
| Episode no. | Season 3 Episode 13 |
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| Directed by | Greg Daniels | ||
| Written by | Michael Schur Lee Eisenberg Gene Stupnitsky |
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| Production code | 313 | ||
| Original air date | January 11, 2007 | ||
| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of The Office (U.S. TV series) episodes | |||
"Traveling Salesmen" is the thirteenth episode of the third season of the US version of The Office. It aired January 11, 2007. It was written by Michael Schur, Lee Eisenberg, and Gene Stupnitsky and directed by Greg Daniels. This is the first episode to use an abbreviated title sequence, presumably to allow for slightly more content in the episode itself. It has since been used in several subsequent episodes.
In this episode, the sales team goes out on sales calls, with Michael and Andy, Stanley and Ryan, Phyllis and Karen, and Dwight and Jim pairing up. Andy tries to show Dwight in a bad light to Michael. Karen learns of Jim's previous crush on Pam, and Angela forgets to hand in some important documents to New York, so secret boyfriend Dwight does it for her.
"Traveling Salesmen" was later rebroadcast with "The Return" as a combined hour-long episode. As a result, the cold open with Michael and the talking computer was deleted. The hour-long recut appears on the Season 3 DVD, so the scene is included as a deleted scene.
"Traveling Salesmen" is one of only three other episodes of The Office to reach over 10 million viewers, the others being the show's pilot episode, "Ben Franklin" and "Stress Relief," of which the latter reached over 20 million viewers.
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Michael announces that the sales department will be pairing up. Andy chooses Michael, Phyllis chooses Karen, and Stanley grudgingly chooses Ryan, leaving Dwight with Jim, who already used to do sales calls together. Andy learns that Dwight does Michael's laundry as punishment for meeting with Jan to take over the branch. During their sales call, Andy sabotages the meeting, setting up an opportunity to later apologize to Michael, stating that he had really "Schruted" the situation, a further attempt to deride Dwight.
While the salespeople are out, Angela tells Pam a thinly disguised story of how "Kurt" saves "Noelle" ("Kurt" and "Noelle" being Dwight's and Angela's middle names, respectively) by delivering the quarterly tax forms to New York.
At first, Jim's and Dwight's sales call appears to be a fiasco, but it is immediately clear that the joint force of Jim's straight-and-honest sales approach, along with Dwight's aggressive, erratic tactics, is a very successful partnership. Ryan asks Stanley if he could lead on this call so Stanley can critique him, which Stanley obliges. However, Ryan freezes up and fails when he realizes that Stanley's clients are all black. Stanley laughs at an annoyed Ryan during the entire trip back to the office. Phyllis and Karen first stop at a beauty parlor, emerging with gaudy makeovers. Their sales call is a success owing to the fact, as Phyllis knew, that the client obviously likes women with that kind of look, as evidenced by the photo of his wife. Returning to the office, Phyllis tells Karen that she's pleased that Jim got over his crush on Pam. Karen confronts Jim with this information, and he reassures her that his crush has passed.
Andy finds evidence of Dwight's trip to New York. Michael accuses Dwight of disloyalty, and Angela prevents him from clearing his name because it would expose their relationship. Dwight resigns. Andy gloats over his success, but the documentary camera catches Angela in the background glaring at him.
The Season Three DVD contains a number of deleted scenes. Notable cut scenes include:
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