‘The Office’: Jenna Fischer Said This Michael Scott Scene ‘Hit Me So Hard’ Because It Was So Sad

The Office has offered some emotional moments over its run, but one moment stands out as particularly sad for many fans of the series. It turns out the scene, featuring Michael Scott as a young boy on a local TV show, also moved star Jenna Fischer to tears when she rewatched the episode titled “Take Your Daughter to Work Day” for the Office Ladies podcast.

‘Office Ladies’ unpack the episode

On the Apr. 15 edition of the Office Ladies, Fischer and her co-star Angela Kinsey dive into The Office Season 2, Episode 18 “Take Your Daughter to Work Day,” where many employees bring their kids to the office. Fischer’s character Pam has a goal of making friends with just one of the kids, which proves to be challenging.

There was one moment, Fischer reveals, that she found very emotional as a viewer, after having a very different memory of the scene when she was involved in filming it. Many fans of the show count Michael’s wish as a young boy as very hard to watch because it’s so sad.

Fischer said this scene ‘hit me so hard’

In the episode, Michael shares with the kids how he was the star of a local show when he was younger and asks Ryan to get the tape of the show Fundle Bundle from his mother’s house.

With the old grainy video in hand, Michael hopes to impress everyone in the room with this starring role — a young Michael, wearing a full suit and tie on the local show, is interviewed about what he wants to be when he grows up. His answer is devastating.

“I want to be married and have 100 kids so I can have 100 friends and no one can say no to being my friend,” he tells the puppet cat.

Fischer couldn’t handle it, saying, “This is when I had to turn off the episode.”

“It hit me so hard, I don’t know why… this idea of just this little kid longing for friends… and Steve’s acting is so good in that moment,” the actress adds.

Kinsey adds how viewers are “getting a real window into his life.”

The puppet’s reaction was everything

The scene was tough to watch for most fans. “It was almost too much for me,” Fischer notes. “This sentence about Michael’s past… then you go to Steve’s reaction and Steve’s acting is so good in that moment…”

“I remember at the time when we shot that, that after the little Michael says that it cuts to a shot of the puppet. The puppet can’t speak, and we lost it,” Fischer adds.

The puppet, Kinsey points out, is the focus for 6 seconds of silence, with his mouth “agape” at what young Michael said.

“When we were shooting this, we were dying at the shot of the puppet,” Fischer recalls, saying that when she watched the scene, “all I could remember was how we were crying laughing at this reaction shot of the puppet.”

She adds, “But then I just saw this whole other side of how not funny that was and how sad it was.”