Dwight’s fire drill is the funniest scene fromThe Officeby far, and there’s an interesting behind-the-scenes reason why that cold open was so chaotic. Season 5, episodes 14 and 15, “Stress Relief,” collectively make up one ofThe Office’s best episodes. In the first part, Dwight does a hands-on fire drill that involves lighting a real fire in the office and ends with Stanley having a heart attack. In the second episode, Michael allows his employees to roast him to blow off some steam and relieve some stress.
The opening sequence of “Stress Relief” is easilythe best cold open fromThe Office, and that might be because it wasn’t put together like all the other cold opens. There was a specific reason why “Stress Relief” opened with such a crazy scene.The construction of this cold open is detailed in Andy Green’s bookThe Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s, an excerpt of which can be read onVulture.
The Office’s “Stress Relief” Cold Open Was Designed With The Super Bowl In Mind
The Writers Needed A Big, Crazy Cold Open So Viewers Would Stick Around
On August 03, 2025, nearly 100 million Americans tuned in to watch the showdown between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII. NBC had a tough decision to make about which of their shows to follow it up with. They considered airing an episode ofThe Apprentice, but ended up choosingThe Office.The Officewas already the network’s biggest comedy, averaging nine million viewers per episode, but the Super Bowl was an opportunity to introduce the show to an even bigger audience.
The Office was already the network’s biggest comedy, averaging nine million viewers per episode, but the Super Bowl was an opportunity to introduce the show to an even bigger audience.
According to writer Anthony Farrell, showrunner Greg Daniels told the writing staff that the Super Bowl episode had to be “big and crazy and wild.” Since it would be the first thing that Super Bowl viewers saw when the game was over,the cold open needed to stand out, so the football fans would “stick around”for the rest of the supersized episode. And from that mandate,Dwight’s iconic fire drillwas born.
The Original Idea For The Office’s Hourlong Super Bowl Episode Was Much Worse
The Episode Could’ve Seen Jim Losing Pam In A Poker Game
Writer Gene Stupnitsky recalls that Daniels came in with a bizarre pitch for the Super Bowl episode based on an obscure French film he’d seen: “Jim loses Pam in a poker game.” Stupnitsky says that Daniels was like a father figure to allThe Office’s writers, so they had a tough time telling him they didn’t like the idea. The writers actually started to break the story for the poker game episode, but thankfully,before it was too late, Daniels came to his senses, ditched the poker storyline, and accepted a pitch about Dwight setting the office on fire.
Source:The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s, viaVulture
