With the 15th anniversary of NBC’s The Office this week, as well as the new revelation that Steve Carell reportedly didn’t want to leave the show after Season 7, we thought it would be a good time to take a look back at the beloved series…
Originally dismissed as a weak — and low-rated — remake of the acclaimed UK series, The Office really came into its own in Season 2 and also found its audience grow dramatically, soon becoming a beloved TV comedy. And while many wish the show hadn’t gone on as long as it had, as it eventually lost steam, there is still plenty of great episodes to look back on over the show’s nine-year run.
The following Top 25 episodes list, first written as the show came to an end in 2013, looks back at the adventures of Michael, Jim, Pam, Dwight and the many others who worked at Dunder Mifflin. Read on for the full list (and one honorable mention)!
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Honorable Mention: “Sexual Harassment”
Season 2, episode 2: The honorable mention slot goes to this early episode, in which loud-mouthed sales rep Todd Packer shows up to offend just about everyone in the office (especially Phyllis) right as Dunder Mifflin orders a company-wide review of its on-book harassment policy. The real victim though? Michael’s beloved/bemoaned “That’s what she said!” catchphrase.
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25. “The Deposition”
Season 4, episode 12: Michael was all set to deliver some knockout testimony on behalf of his girlfriend Jan as part of her BS wrongful termination suit against Dunder Mifflin – until he found out that she once gave him a terrible performance review that internally killed his chances for promotion. Naturally, torn about which side to support, Michael makes things as awkward and painful as possible.
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Lawyer: How long have you known Ms. Levinson?
Michael: Six years and two months.
Lawyer: And you were directly under her the entire time?
Michael: That’s what she said!
Two seasons later and he’s still got it!
24. “Business School”
Season 3, episode 17: Occasionally, Michael surprises his employees with unexpected wisdom and unorthodox effectiveness. His trip to speak to Ryan’s business class was not one of those moments; stupefying the much more modern and adept students with his antiquated antics.
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This episode also marked Ryan’s banishment to the “annex” after Michael discovered that Ryan thought the paper industry as a whole was a dying enterprise.
Also, a bat gets loose in the office, causing mass chaos, screaming, terrified prayers from Angela and an epic blank expression from Creed.
23. “The Return”
Season 3, episode 14
Dwight: “How would I describe myself? Three words. Hard-working, Alpha male, Jackhammer, Merciless, Insatiable.”
Man, remember when over 10 million people used to watch The Office? In “The Return,” Michael headed over to Staples to win back Dwight while Jim and Pam teamed up to pull the ultimate rage-inducing cell phone prank on Andy.
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The upside: Andy put his fist through a wall and vanished for four episodes. The downside: Karen got upset with Jim after she realized he still had feelings for Pam.
22. “Cafe Disco”
Season 5, episode 27: Michael tries to cheer up the office by using the Michael Scott Paper Company closet area he still was still renting as a place for his workers to unwind, drink coffee and maybe try out a new dance step or two. Unfortunately, Phyllis throws out her back and Dwight swoops in to give her an “injured horse” massage.
Dwight: “This is oil from the gland of an otter. It keeps their fur water resistant, as well as traps heat. Now I need you to lie still for an hour.”
Later on, when a dejected Michael shuts down the party, the employees start it up again. Proving that “The Man” can’t tell you when to dance and have fun. The power of Cafe Disco was something the kids needed to discover for themselves.
Michael: “Now I know what the founders of Phillip Morris felt like. You just want to give people a smooth, fun way to relax, and suddenly, you’re just some terrible monster.”
21. “Beach Games”
Season 3, episode 23: “Beach Games” felt a little gimmicky at first, sure, but once the Dunder gang discovered that the winner of Michael’s dumb Survivor-style games would take over for him when he landed a job in corporate, the fun began. And then Jim hit Michael with the fact that he was also applying for the same position, letting Michael know that the job wasn’t the sure thing that he thought it was.
And then, when everyone’s back was turned, Pam walked across hot coals, giving her a surge of beautiful confidence.
Pam: “Hey. I wanna say something. I’ve been trying to be more honest lately, and I just need to say a few things. I did the coal walk. Just… I did it. Michael, you couldn’t even do that. Maybe I should be your boss. Wow, I feel really good right now. Why didn’t any of you come to my art show? I invited all of you. That really sucked. It’s like sometimes some of you act like I don’t even exist. Jim, I called off my wedding because of you. And now we’re not even friends. And things are just, like, weird between us, and that sucks. And I miss you. You were my best friend before you went to Stamford. And I really miss you. I shouldn’t have been with Roy. And there were a lot of reasons to call off my wedding. But the truth is, I didn’t care about any of those reasons until I met you. And now you’re with someone else. And that’s fine. It’s… Whatever. That’s not what I’m… I’m not… Okay, my feet really hurt. The thing that I’m just trying to say to you, Jim, and to everyone else in the circle, I guess, is that I miss having fun with you. Just you, not everyone in the circle. Okay, I am gonna go walk in the water now.”
20. “Garage Sale”
Season 7, episode 19: Michael proposing to Holly while the two of them got drenched by the Office sprinkler system was one of the best, most endearing scenes of the series. And when you throw in Yoda voices?
Michael: “Holly Flax…marrying me will you be?”
Holly: “Your wife becoming me will I.”
Bliss.
It was definitely the best of Michael’s proposal ideas, but it wasn’t the first.
Michael: “How bout this, I throw a corpse dressed like me off of the roof…”
Plus, Dwight attempts to swap his way up through a warehouse clearance sale starting with a thumbtack. The idea works until he’s thwarted by Jim’s packet of “miracle legumes.”
19. “The Convention”
Season 3, episode 2: A tremendous Michael/Jim bonding episode, where key members of the Scranton Branch and the Stamford Branch attend a supply convention in Philly. Or as Michael predicts, a “booze-fueled sex romp!”
In an effort to try and act cooler than Jim’s new boss, Michael throws a raucous room party. No one shows up of course, but Jim, knowing that Michael turns things that aren’t about him into things directly about him, takes the time to visit Michael and tell him that the reason he left Scranton was because of Pam.
Michael: “I love inside jokes. Love to be part of one someday.”
18. “Threat Level Midnight”
Season 7, episode 17: A big episode for Michael with regards to him coming to terms with his own ludicrous inaccuracies and inabilities. Shot over eleven years, Michael’s homemade “Michael Scarn” secret agent movie featured players from the past, such as Karen, Roy, Jan and Troy, while simultaneously giving all the employees a chance to laugh at a Michael Scott camp classic. The trouble was that Michael himself didn’t see the “camp” in his classic.
Jim: “I did not love the dialogue. Or the character. I took the role to impress the receptionist who will remain nameless.”
17. “The Job”
Season 3 finale: In this double-sized episode, Michael, Jim and Karen all head to New York to interview for a job that Michael eventually discovers belongs to the soon-to-be-fired Jan – his domineering ex who he just mistakenly took back due to her newly augmented breasts.
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By the end, Jim, hesitant to move forward in his relationship with Karen, seems like a lock for the new position until he gets a note from Pam that sends him back to Scranton to ask her out on their first official date.
Pam: “I haven’t heard anything, but I bet Jim got the job. I mean, why wouldn’t he? He’s totally qualified, and smart, everyone loves him. And if he never comes back again, that’s okay. We’re friends. And I’m sure we’ll stay friends. We just… we never got the timing right, you know? I shot him down and then he did the same to me, but you know what? It’s okay. I am totally fine. Everything is going to be totally…”
[Jim walks in]
Jim: “Pam. [to camera] Sorry. [to Pam] Um, are you free for dinner tonight?”
Oh, and who could forget “www.creedthoughts.gov.www/creedthoughts?”
16. “The Negotiation”
Season 3, episode 19: Darryl, asking for a raise that would give him a higher salary than Michael, encourages Michael to ask for a raise of his own. Michael then basically winds up getting the maximum amount because he squeezes Jan about their romantic escapades.
Meanwhile, Jim decides that the best way to pay Dwight back for saving him by pepper-spraying an enraged Roy is to keep quite about Dwight’s relationship with Angela.
Dwight then decides that the best way to welcome Andy back to the office, after his stint in anger management class, is with a face full of pepper spray.
Jim: “I guess, all things considered, I was lucky Dwight was there. And Roy was lucky that Dwight only used pepper spray, and not the nunchucks or the throwing stars.”
15. “Niagra”
Season 6, episode 4/5: This big, double-wide “event” episode gave us our first ever Office flashback reveal as Jim and Pam, somehow knowing that their “friends” and colleagues would steal away the spotlight during their wedding, were shown getting married by themselves by a captain on a Niagara Falls boat. It was like Proto-Nolan!
Jim: “I bought the boat tickets the day I saw that YouTube video. I knew we’d need a backup plan. The boat was actually plan C. The church was plan B. And plan A was marrying her a long, long time ago. Pretty much the day I met her.”
The rest of the episode involved Andy tearing his sack, Pam trying to hide the fact that she’s pregnant from her family and Michael, having not made hotel reservations, spending the night in the ice machine room. At least he got Pam’s mom at the end as a consolation prize.
14. “Scott’s Tots”
Season 6, episode 12: Absolutely representing the most awkwardly worst thing he’s ever done, Michael has to tell a high school class full of graduating underprivileged seniors that he can’t pay for their college tuition like he promised a decade earlier.
Yes, Michael’s absurd promise motivated the entire class to work harder for years, but there was simply no getting out of how horrible this was.
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Michael: “I fell in love with these kids. And I didn’t want to see them fall victim to the system. So I made ’em a promise. I told them if they graduated from high school, I would pay for their college education. I have made some empty promises in my life but, hands down that was the most generous.”
Source: IGN.com The Top 25 Office Episodes