‘The Office’: The 1 Thing About Jim and Pam’s Proposal Scene That Most Fans Missed

There's a small detail in 'The Office' scene featuring Jim and Pam's proposal at a rest stop gas station that many fans never noticed. The creative forces at 'The Office' built a replica of a gas station and used a parking lot to make a track and give the illusion of a busy highway.

by Wendy Michaels

Published on May 20, 2021

2 min read

Jim and Pam’s proposal scene on The Office was one of the sweetest moments between the two characters. However, there’s one thing many fans didn’t notice about it. Find out how TV magic helped make the scene and the tiny detail you might have missed.

The Office stars Jenna Fischer and John Krasinski pose at the reception desk as Pam and Jim — The Office stars Jenna Fischer and John Krasinski | Chris Haston/NBCU Photo Bank

The Jim and Pam proposal scene involved a lot of planning to get it just right

When Jim and Pam meet up at a rest stop halfway between Scranton and Pam’s art school, it’s located by a busy highway. It turns out that was all TV magic, however.

The Office creator Greg Daniels knew what he wanted for the scene. But since they couldn’t film it at the actual rest stop he had in mind, they built a replica.

To make it appear like the scene took place beside a busy highway, they found a vacant parking lot. There, the crew constructed the rest stop.

There’s 1 thing about the proposal scene ‘Office’ fans probably didn’t notice

During the DVD commentary for the episode, some of the creative folks involved discussed everything that went into creating the scene.

“We created an endless loop of about 30 cars,” production designer Michael Gallenberg explained. “And we built a big dog bone track where cars could drive across at 50 miles an hour and then circle and loop and recycle and come back the other way.”

The scene played out so perfectly that viewers couldn’t tell it was a fake gas station that wasn’t near a highway. Most fans never even noticed that the same cars were driving around and around the track the production team built.

See if you can spot the same cars driving by repeatedly in the video.

How ‘The Office’ pulled off the iconic Jim and Pam scene perfectly

Gene Stupnitsky, who co-wrote the “Weight Loss” episode, answered fan questions on OfficeTally in 2018. He gave some insight into creating the Jim and Pam proposal scene.

“Give us some behind-the-scenes details on the Jim/Pam proposal scene,” one fan said. “I’ve heard that the gas station was fake, the rain was fake, even the traffic was fake!”

Stupnitsky shared how extensive the process was to pull it off. “I don’t think any scene in our show’s history went through as much prep as that one,” he explained.

“You wouldn’t believe how much time, money and planning went into making that proposal look casual, authentic and unpremeditated,” he continued. “The original plan was to film this at the actual Merritt Parkway on the East coast — but there were just too many variables.”

“So it was decided, after about a dozen meetings, that we would — at considerable cost — recreate the Merritt Parkway in the parking lot of a Best Buy in Los Feliz, California,” he added.

He noted how the “fake gas station was built, complete with rain machines and stunt drivers driving in figure eights to recreate the feel of a highway.”

“We knew that we had only one chance to get it right,” the writer explained. “So, yes, while the gas station, traffic and rain were all fake, the sentiment was all real.”

Stupnitsky noted that it was “pretty spectacular” to witness everything that went into filming “what amounted to about 45 seconds or so of footage.”