Controversial Scene From The Office Halloween Episode Cut on Netflix

Besides being known as the most bingeable show on Netflix, The Office is well-known for its well-crafted cold opens. As the calendar inches closer to Halloween, you might notice the show missing one cold open ahead of a season six episode. At one point ahead of “Koi Pond,” a cold open featured the staff of Dunder Mifflin celebrating Halloween by turning the company’s warehouse into a haunted house. If you’re curious to know why it got removed from any future episodes after it first aired on NBC, watch it in its entirety above and you might realize why.

While it’s pretty tame for the most part, branch manager Michael Scott (Steve Carrell) eventually takes everything a step further than everyone else — imagine that, right? As staff members usher kids throughout the haunted house, the tour ends by Michael faking his own suicide by hanging, much to the disgust of the staff and kids on tour. On top of everything else, the lewd character also happens to be dressed up as Justin Timberlake’s “D–k in a Box” character from the Saturday Night Live skit of the same name.

The cold open initially appeared in the first airing of Season Six’s “Koi Pond” episode in 2009 and was quickly removed from any reruns and on-demand services after backlash from people who watched lived. It’s still removed from the episode to this date and it’s unclear if NBC will add it back once The Office moves to Peacock next year.

“‘The Office’ has become a staple of pop-culture and is a rare gem whose relevance continues to grow at a time when fans have more entertainment choices than ever before,” Bonnie Hammer, chairman of NBCUniversal direct-to-consumer and digital enterprises, previously said in a statement. “We can’t wait to welcome the gang from Dunder Mifflin to NBCUniversal’s new streaming service.”

It’s also been said NBC wants to create a reboot or continuation of the show for its new streaming service, though series creator Greg Daniels is apprehensive about approaching such a project. The writer previously revealed he’d be worried about disappointing fans.

“It was such a perfect thing that I would hesitate to open it up,” Daniels said of a reboot. “We got the chance to end it the way we wanted to end it. It wasn’t like we were interrupted in the middle of a run or something. So in a sense it’s completely an artistic whole. But, that said, I don’t know, the cast every now and then talks about getting back together in some form, but I don’t see it being a reboot like the way Will & Grace was rebooted.”

All nine seasons of The Office are now streaming on Netflix.