An extended, unfilmed scene from The Office reveals that producers had planned for tennis superstar Andy Roddick to be the biological father to Astrid Levinson, the daughter born to Jan Levinson (Melora Hardin) in the season five episode “Baby Shower.” Revealed during this week’s episode of the Office Ladies podcast, the lines were never filmed, as far as anybody knows, which is too bad, since Roddick is apparently a known fan of The Office, and likely would have loved being a part of the series’ official canon. Even Jenna Fischer, who played Pam in the series, didn’t remember that element of the script, but her Office Ladies co-host Angela Kinsey managed to hang on to her script.
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In addition to being a fan of the series, Roddick was apparently personal friends with The Office star Rainn Wilson. Fischer said that she and her husband got to know Roddick and his wife, Brooklyn Decker, and that now that she knows he was in the script, she’s sad for him that it didn’t make it to air.
“Jan says, ‘You have to pay top dollar, but it’s worth it. Now, here’s the best part. I got Andy Roddick’s sperm,’” Kinsey read from the script, surprising Fischer, who asked for details..
“Jan looks to Michael like she’s expecting him to be very impressed,” Kinsey continued. “And Michael says, ‘The tennis player?’ And Jan says, ‘Well, it’s a little more than that. He’s the sixth ranked player in the world and he’s won four grand slams.’ And Michael says, ‘That’s a lot of grand slams, I guess.’ And Jan says, ‘And he’s a humanitarian — something with orphans.’ And Michael is quiet and Jan goes, ‘Michael?’ And Michael says, ‘Can I just sit here for a minute without more things coming into my head?’”
All of this came up in “Goodbye Toby,” the episode in which Levinson revealed to her then-boyfriend Michael Scott (Steve Carell) that she was pregnant, but that the child is not his. It was one of a number of extraordinary lengths the writers went to in order to make the relationship between Michael and Jan untenable, and something that emotionally hammered Michael and the audience, since it’s pretty well known by this point in the show that he desperately wants to have children.
The Office is now streaming on Peacock, with exclusive bonus features on many of the episodes. Maybe with a little luck, they’ll give Roddick a chance to take part in some bonus content that will help keep him as part of the streaming series going forward.
If you haven’t signed up for Peacock yet, you can try it out here.
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