John Krasinski Kept This Major Plot Twist From Happening On The Office
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By Shana Aborn/Nov. 18, 2021 11:01 am EST
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Brian Baumgartner, who played Kevin on the show, has released a book, “Welcome to Dunder Mifflin: The Ultimate Oral History of The Office.” As Baumgartner explains in his introduction, he was curious to know exactly what has made the show stay so beloved more than 10 years after it went off the air. “How did we get here? What did ‘The Office’ do right?” he writes. “Could we find the clues, retrace our steps, and figure out how we stumbled onto a formula that resonates stronger today than it ever did?”
Baumgartner interviewed the show’s cast, crew, producers, and writers to get some answers. And it turns out, there might have been one surprising plot development if a cast member hadn’t stepped in to stop it.
The Office’s writers wanted Jim to cheat on Pam
The Office/YouTube
In the episode “After Hours,” Jim, Cathy, and other coworkers go on a business trip in Florida, and Cathy sends romantic signals to Jim in his hotel room. As John Krasinski told his castmate Brian Baumgartner, the script originally called for Jim to give in and kiss her. Krasinski felt that audiences would be permanently turned off if Jim cheated on the love of his life. “That’s the only time I remember putting my foot down … I remember saying things that I never thought I’d say before, like ‘I’m not going to shoot it,’” Krasinski recalled in the book (via eTalk).
