The Office

Season 1

Pilot

1. John Krasinski accidentally insulted Greg Daniels while waiting to audition for the series by telling him, "I hope they [the show's developers] don't screw this up," as had been done to many British series adapted to American television. It was at this point that Daniels introduced himself to Krasinski as one of the show's developers.
2. Michael asks Ryan, the temp, if he has ever seen "Punk'd" (right before Michael tricks Pam into thinking she is fired). B.J. Novak (who plays Ryan) began his career as a cast member of "Punk'd".
3. Jenna Fischer, who won the role of Pam Beesley, prepared for her audition by looking as boring as possible. The look that Fischer wore to her audition became her character's signature look.
4. Angela Kinsey originally auditioned for the role of Pam Beesley. The producers felt that Kinsey was "too feisty" for the character, and called her back for the role of Angela Martin, which she won.
5. Kate Flannery, who would go on to play Meredith Palmer, auditioned for the role of Jan Levinson-Gould.
6. Paul Lieberstein, a writer for The Office, was suggested to play HR Director Toby Flenderson by B.J. Novak, who plays Ryan Howard and writes for the show as well.
7. The first time Dwight is on screen, he is humming/singing "Do you hear what I hear?/Little Drummer Boy" even though the carol is rarely heard outside of Christmas time. It is, however, Angela's favorite song.
8. Phyllis Smith was a casting associate for the show when Ken Kwapis, the director of the pilot, had her read scripts with the actors. Kwapis liked her reading so much, that he had her join the cast.
9. Brian Baumgartner, who plays Kevin Malone, originally auditioned for the role of Stanley Hudson.
10. B.J. Novak was cast as Ryan Howard after Greg Daniels watched his stand-up act.
11. Rainn Wilson was an avid viewer of the British series prior to his audition for "The Office." He originally auditioned for the role of Michael Scott, which he referred to as a "terrible [Ricky] Gervais impersonation." The casting directors preferred his audition as Dwight Schrute and cast him in that role instead.
12. Actor Paul Giamatti was offered the lead role of Michael Scott, which he declined.
13. According to a business card that came with the Dunder Mifflin Severance Package DVD box set, Dunder Mifflin's address is "1725 Slough Ave. Scranton. PA 18540". Slough is the city in which the original BBC version was located.
14. The pilot episode is nearly an identical remake of the first episode of the British version, upon which the show was based.
15. At the time of the pilot episode, Michael has been at Dunder Mifflin for 12 years, the last four as regional manager.
16. Directed by Ken Kwapis, who directed many episodes in the series including the Finale, the very last episode.
17. According to Jenna Fischer, the episode took nine days to film, with the cast devoting 12 hours a day to the episode.
18. The building shown in the pilot is different from the building they chose to shoot in.

Diversity Day

1. NBC webcasted this episode on March 16, 2005 on MySpace to promote the show's then-upcoming premiere. This was NBC's first-ever online debut of a complete episode of a network series, and also included a trimmed-down webisode version of the episode for on-demand viewing on MySpace the following day.
2. First episode to feature Mindy Kaling (Kelly Kapoor), Paul Lieberstein (Toby Flenderson) and Kate Flannery (Meredith Palmer).
3. Steve Carrell and Larry Wilmore both served as correspondents for The Daily Show
4. When Ryan (B.J. Novak) is downloading and watching episodes of Chappelle's show on Pam's (Jenna Fischer) computer, he says to Jim (John Krasinski) "She's kinda cute don't you think?", referring to a girl in one of the videos (Jim actually thinks Ryan is referring to Pam). Jim's girlfriend in Season 3, Karen (Rashida Jones), played characters in two episodes of Chappelle's show, before appearing on The Office.
5. As part of "Diversity Day"'s B story involving Jim's failed attempt to secure a major sale, show creator Greg Daniels suggested as a broad general idea that Jim should have a nice quiet moment with Pam (his future great love and wife) and listed some ways to achieve this. One idea Daniels put down was for Jim and Pam to both be in the conference room during Michael Scott's presentation and for a tired Pam to rest her head on Jim's shoulder, making him visibly happy. To Daniels' amusement, episode writer BJ Novak immediately took this specific example and wrote it into the final shooting script.

Health Care

1. The coal mine employee Michael speaks with over the phone is the voice of Creed.
2. When Michael is trying to plan a surprise event for his employees he is seen inquiring about the Coal Mine tour thinking it's a thrill ride. It's not, as the Coal Mine tour guide points out. This is a real tour at McDade Park in Scranton and at some point almost every grade school student goes there for a field day.

The Alliance

1. In his book "The Bassoon King", Rainn Wilson said that his favorite exchange from his entire time as Dwight Schrute came in the episode "The Alliance" when Dwight offered Jim the titular deal and Jim immediately and enthusiastically accepted it.
2. The gray 3/4 length coat Dwight wears is an East German Army great coat.
3. When singing "Happy Birthday" to Meredith, the Office has a hard time singing together. Michael Scott says "find a key" when the others find the key of F#.
4. Dunder Mifflin is primarily a printing paper company with talk about selling Reams of paper. In this episode, Dwight gets into a Toilet Tissue box, supposedly from the Dunder Mifflin warehouse.
5. Michael jokes about Meredith's age when he is actually older/the same age. Michael - 51 years old, 08/16/62 Meredith - 50 years old, 06/10/64

Basketball

1. Michael's line, "Try not to look too gay on the court", was improvised. The look on John Krasinski's face is genuine.
2. According to the commentary on Season 1 Episode 5, the scene in which Jim is hit in the face by Roy was an accident and real. David Denman (Roy) backed into John Krasinski (Jim), and hit him in the face, resulting in John bleeding. The cameras kept rolling and they kept the shot in the show. But, as a result of the injury, a photo shoot scheduled for the next day had to be canceled because John's lip was so swollen.
3. In this episode, a poster behind Michael indicates the office is located at 1725 Slough Avenue, Scranton, Pennsylvania. Slough is the London suburb where The Office (2001) was set.
4. Part of the stakes of the game is that the loser has to buy dinner at Farley's. Farley's is a restaurant/pub at 300 Adams Ave. in Scranton.
5. John Krasinski shows off his actual basketball skills. In college, Krasinski coached youth basketball at Gordon School in East Providence, Rhode Island.
6. Michael and Dwight discuss Todd Packer's pickup game. In reality, Todd Packer does not appear on screen for any of Season 1. Actor David Koechner first appears in Season 2, Episode 2 "Sexual Harassment."
7. Phyllis volunteers to cheerlead while actress Phyllis Smith is a former cheerleader. She cheered for the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1970's.

Hot Girl

1. The building and parking lot are different in season one of The Office, which had only six episodes. After the show was picked up for a full season, a custom set was built for the show, but is slightly different. This is never mentioned and is not part of the story line.
2. When Michael introduces Katie to Toby, they find they both went to Bishop O'Hara (High School). Bishop O'Hara is a Catholic high school on E. Drinker St. in neighboring Dunmore, PA. Though as of January 2007, it is now named Holy Cross High School.