‘The Office’: Pam Was Supposed to See This Movie Instead of ‘The King’s Speech’ in ‘Goodbye Michael’

“Goodbye Michael” is Steve Carell’s emotional exit from The Office. In the episode, Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) isn’t around as Michael says individual goodbye to his employees. Instead, she’s at the movies seeing The King’s Speech. Ironically, showrunners almost had Fischer going to see this comedy instead of the Oscar-winning film. 

Steve Carell left ‘The Office’ in season 7 

Carell’s exit from The Office was as emotional for the cast as it was for fans. In the episode “Goodbye Michael,” the Dunder Mifflin Scranton branch gives Michael Scott the send-off of a lifetime. 

“This is gonna hurt like a motherf*****,” Michael tells documentary crews in the episode. Part of Michael’s exit strategy was to give a personal goodbye to each of his employees on his last day. 

Throughout the episode, Michael gives each employee a gift and his words of wisdom. Michael leaves Kelly (Mindy Kaling) alone because “it’s the best gift he could ever give her.” He gives Phyllis (Phyllis Smith) a set of chattering teeth and tells her to voice her opinion more. 

As Michael’s gift-giving continues, Jim (John Krasinski) realizes Michael is leaving a day early. As the day nears an end, the only employee Michael has left to say goodbye to is Pam, but she’s not around. 

Pam from ‘The Office’ almost saw ‘Bridesmaids’ in ‘Goodbye Michael’ 

In the episode, Pam leaves the office to run errands. Figuring she has time to kill, she makes a pit stop at the movies to see The King’s Speech.

In reality, the movie marquee almost featured a different title. “We almost put Bridesmaids up on the marquee but thought, ‘What if it bombs?'” Paul Feig tells Brian Baumgartner on The Office Deep Dive. 

Feig directed The Office and the 2011 movie. Contrary to Feig’s initial thoughts, Bridesmaids did not bomb. Instead, it changed the face of comedy movies and skyrocketed Ellie Kemper to stardom. 

What did Michael Scott say to Pam in ‘Goodbye Michael’?

Just when it seems like Pam might not get to say goodbye to Michael, she shows up at the airport and chases him down. At this point, Michael had already removed his mic, so anything he said wasn’t picked up by the documentary crew. 

Naturally, many fans wonder what Michael says to Pam in their final moment together. As Fischer explains to Baumgartner on his other podcast, An Oral History of The Office, she and Carell took that time to say goodbye to each other as actors. 

“I ran up to Steve, and I just told him all the ways I was going to miss him,” Fischer tells her former co-star. “[And] how grateful I was for his friendship and the privilege of working with him.” Ironically, whatever Fischer told Carell at that moment had to be reshot because her initial goodbye was too long. 

Steve Carell heavily influenced the ‘Goodbye Michael’ episode

Carell wanted to demonstrate all the ways Michael Scott had grown in seven seasons in his final episode. “The idea that I pitched was obviously he and Holly would be together,” Carell tells Baumgartner in that same episode of An Oral History of The Office. 

“I said specifically on his last day I thought there should be a party being planned,” Carell continues. “But that he should basically trick people into [thinking he was] leaving the next day. The fact that he’d walk away from his tribute — his big send-off and be able to, in a very personal way, say goodbye to each character.” Behind the scenes, Carell took the time to say goodbye to his colleagues while filming the episode, too.