【1993 Archives】

993 ArchivesOffice, among many things, is famous for its hilarious cold opens.

The short, random scenes that played out before the theme song played and opening credits rolled are beloved by fans of the show, but did you know that not everyepisode of The Officekicks off with a cold open?

On the latest episode of the Office Ladiespodcast, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey chatted all about the cold open-less Season 4 episode, "Job Fair," and shared the cold open from the original script that ended up getting cut.

For those who need a refresher, Fischer provided the following episode recap:

"Michael, Pam, Oscar and Darryl attend a job fair at Pam's alma mater, Valley View High School, in search of the 'best and brightest potential summer interns.' Jim is on probation at Dunder Mifflin. He got his warning from Ryan. So he is going to attempt to redeem himself by working a potential client over golf with the help of Andy and Kevin. The rest of the Dunder Mifflin employees take the day off despite a warning from Dwight, except for Angela, who ends her silent treatment of him when they find themselves alone in the office."

While the episode does feature a scene before the opening credits, but unlike a typical Officecold open it was on-plot and the same story continues after the credits roll.

"It's not one of those standalone comedic cold opens that we're used to," Fischer said, to which Kinsey replied, "That's right. We just kind of get right into the meat of the episode..."

If you're wondering what happened, you're in luck. Kinsey heroically saved her script from the episode, and can confirm that a cold open wasoriginally written for "Job Fair." And of course it sounds funny as hell.

"So in the cold open, you hear this screaming noise from the men's restroom and everyone in the bullpen kind of grumbles like, 'Oh, not again," Kinsey explains. "Michael comes out. He's just exasperated, because he has dropped everything that was in his pockets into the toilet — like, everything. He listed off...he dropped his cell phone, his tip calculator, his wallet, his white strips, candy corn, his eraser. And then Jim says, 'What about your car keys?' And Michael says, 'I threw them into the toilet out of anger.'"

"This leads him to this light bulb moment, because I guess this happens quite frequently for Michael," Kinsey continued. "And he goes into his office and he comes out and he's like, 'Guys, I have invented this amazing invention. And he says it's the mesh toilet guard to go over the toilet. And then the camera pans past him and he's just cut out the back of his desk chair, that mesh, into like a circle."

She proceeded to explain that Michael asks for volunteers to test his amazing new invention. And he's like... 'This is going to be great. It's lightweight, portable, reusable. You could just put it in your dishwasher,'" Kinsey said. "So he's going to start using the bathroom through this meshy cover. But he's thrilled. He thinks he's going to be a gazillionaire with the mesh toilet guard."

"I don't know where to begin," Fischer said upon hearing the cold open that could have been. She then revealed that she can't remember if they actually filmed the scene, but she does remember that joke from the table read, so the cast must have read it. 

"I remember the joke that Michael threw his keys in out of anger," she said, to which Kinsey replied, "That was my favorite part."

Sadly, the cold open didn't make the show's deleted scenes, so this chaotic Michael Scott invention will have to live on through Kinsey's script.

If you're in the mood for more Officegossip you can read all about Fischer and Kinsey's favoritecold opens here. And sure to listen to the full podcast episode for more behind-the-scenes stories from filming "Job Fair."

You can stream episodes ofThe Officeon Peacockand follow along with the podcast every week on Earwolf, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.