Banned The Office scene so offensive it was only ever aired once has resurfaced
The Office may be one of the most beloved shows ever made that pushed the boundaries of comedy, but one cold opening to an episode was considered so offensive it’s impossible to watch on Netflix.
The US spin-off of The Office faced an uphill climb to translate the humour over from Ricky Gervais’ TV show, but it managed to pull it off in spectacular fashion, becoming one of the most watched series ever.
It achieved 57.1 billion minutes viewed in a single year in 2020 and now has managed its own spin-off series The Paper, which includes Oscar from the original show.
Between Diversity Day in season one and some of Michael’s earlier homophobic and racist jokes there are some deeply controversial moments, but none as controversial as a Halloween themed scene which has recently resurfaced on X.
The scene depicts a rubbish haunted house at the office which takes a turn when Michael pretends to hang himself
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The cold open to the iconic episode Koi Pond sees Daryl walking some kids around a pretty naff haunted house for Halloween, only for Michael to drop down pretending to hang himself and try deliver a message about suicide awareness.
A Dunder Mifflin fan page posted the scene yesterday, 21 October, which for many people was the first time they ever saw it.
Their caption for the video, which has racked up 7.1 million views, said: “The infamous banned Halloween cold open from The Office that you won’t find on Peacock or Netflix.”
The replies pretty unanimously were shocked it was pulled, with one reply saying: “Michael has done worse than this. I need this aired.”
NBC however pulled the episode after it was aired just once after receiving complaints about the triggering content of it.
Jenna Fischer spoke about how NBC decided to ‘pull the scene’ but a report has said it wasn’t that simple
Fischer and Angela Kinsey run a The Office rewatch podcast called Office Ladies and, discussing this episode, the Pam-actor said: “This episode originally had a Halloween cold open.
“We shot it, and it actually aired because this episode came out the week of Halloween. And there is a haunted house in the warehouse and Michael fake hangs himself in the haunted house.
“After it aired, NBC decided to pull it from all future episodes. So that's why you're seeing it in your description [for the episode] but the cold open is not there anymore.”
A.V. Club however have reported that, rather than simply being due to complaints, there was actually another reason it was pulled after one airing.
They claimed a former producer had told them that Caryn Zucker, the then-wife of NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zuker, convinced him to pull the scene due to her prior work in suicide prevention.
The report claims: "After a call with producers and representatives from the network, 'the episode was re-cut and re-delivered, with the original HD-SR delivery masters collected back from NBC and thrown into deep storage'.”
Whilst it was posted on The Office YouTube in the past it is now scrubbed from online, though it does occasionally resurface around Halloween.
Topics: The Office, Netflix, TV and Film, TV
Michael Slavin