‘The Office’: 1 Cringeworthy Jim and Pam Moment Is Based on a Real-Life Experience
Throughout the nine seasons and 201 episodes of The Office, there is certainly no shortage of awkward moments. One needs only watch “Scott’s Tots” to experience back-to-back cringe-inducing moments that are nearly unbearable. The writers of the hit NBC comedy certainly didn’t have a problem dreaming up some uncomfortable situations for the colorful characters to experience. However, there were times when inspiration for the show was taken from real life. In fact, one of the most cringeworthy Jim and Pam scenes was based on one of the writers’ personal experiences.
As Jim and Pam are pretty straight characters in comparison to more absurd characters like Michael and Dwight, they typically aren’t at the center of super awkward moments. However, every now and then the pair found themselves in a truly awkward predicament. One example of this comes in the “Sabre” episode, which occurs in Season 6 of The Office.
Jim and Pam botched their daycare interview
Fans of The Office may recall that in “Sabre”, Jim and Pam are scoping out daycare services for their daughter. They quickly become enamored with the look of the place and begin giving themselves a quick tour. Unfortunately, this leads Jim to walk in on the daycare owner as he is using the bathroom. Though the pair try to salvage their interview, things become extremely awkward. Funnily enough, that moment is actually based on a real-life experience.
One of ‘The Office’ writers had a similar experience
In a 2010 interview with Office Tally, Jen Celotta (who wrote “Sabre”) revealed that Jim and Pam’s awkward moment was based on something that happened to one of The Office writers when he was a teenager. “The idea to have Jim walk in on the daycare owner came from one of our writers, Halsted Sullivan,” Celotta revealed. “Right before his interview for Williams College, he walked in on his interviewer going to the bathroom. He went into the meeting and said that there was no getting around it — they were both uncomfortable and the whole interview was awkward. He said it was so bad that he never even applied to Williams!”
Jim and Pam got rejected from the daycare
While Sullivan may have chosen to take himself out of the running for Williams due to his embarrassment, Jim and Pam were outright rejected from the daycare. Though their rejection isn’t made explicit in the episode, Celotta revealed that there was a final scene where the pair griped about being rejected prior to exploring other options. However, the scene ended up on the cutting room floor because there were so many other storylines that Celotta wanted to fit into that particular episode of The Office.
“There was a final scene to the Jim/Pam story,” Celotta shared. “Pam and Jim are walking down the street, being defensive about not getting in and saying they didn’t want their kid to go there anyway because that guy was a jerk.” Clearly, The Office writers weren’t afraid of drawing from personal experiences to enhance the hit show. We’d be curious to know what other cringeworthy moments are based in truth.
