The Office Stars Reveal One Iconic Scene Cost $250,000

When it comes to classic workplace comedies like The Office, most episodes take place in the main location, but there are always episodes where the characters venture out to other locations, especially the longer a show is on the air. As for The Office's nine seasons, the employees of Dunder Mifflin sometimes left their place of work to go to the beach, weddings, Chili's, or even Florida. In the newest episode of the Office Ladies podcast (via Mashable), Jenna Fischer (Pem Beesly) and Angela Kinsey (Angela Martin) talked about the second part of The Office's Season 5 premiere, "Weight Loss," and revealed one of the most expensive scenes of the entire series. With all of the crazy stunts on that show, you'll be surprised to learn which moment cost a whopping $250,000. Turns out, the scene where John Krasinski Jim proposed to Pam cost a pretty penny, which is shocking considering the moment took place at a gas station. 

"So first of all, I just want you guys to know that Greg [Daniels, showrunner] spoke with us about this. He said that he really wanted Jim's proposal to Pam to be in the season premiere. He thought that would be unexpected. You usually end seasons with proposals," Fischer explained. "So he thought this would be a real shock."

Kinsey replied, "And it was ... Jenna, I even remember at the table read, you know, we had so much going on with this weight loss story and Pam at art school. I didn't see it coming." Fischer added, "No ... And we'd been teasing it all last season. [Daniels] said he also wanted to throw people off by having it in a very ordinary location. So he wanted it to feel special, but he also wanted it to feel like Jim made the decision without a whole lot of planning."

Fischer continued, "We did not actually fly to this location. This is the insane part ... They built this in the parking lot of a Best Buy that I have been to many times, actually. What they did was they used Google Street View to capture images of a real gas station along the Merritt Parkway, and then using those images, they built it to match this parking lot ... They set up cameras on the other side of this raceway and they had cars drive around it at 55 miles an hour. Then they added rain pouring down on us [with] these giant rain machines ... Our production manager, Randy Cordray, said they had about 35 precision drivers. They were driving not just cars, but like semi-trucks. When we were standing there on that set you could feel the wind like of these cars speeding past you. It was so, so bonkers."

She revealed, "In the end, this was the single most expensive scene ever shot during the entire run of the show. It lasts 52 seconds and it cost $250,000 ... Yeah, so a quarter of a million dollars for less than one minute of screen time." 

Is The Office Reboot Happening?

For a while now, there have been rumors about rebooting The Office, but nothing is officially in the works. NBC executive Susan Rovner recently played coy about when asked a potential reboot of The Office. Currently, the sitcom is one of the most popular programs on Peacock. Rovner explained on THR's TV's Top 5 podcast, "Whatever Greg Daniels wants to do, I'm standing by with open arms." 

All nine seasons of The Office are streaming on Peacock.