The Hilarious Origin Story Behind The Office's Sprinkles The Cat
Can Sprinkles the cat get a little love? While "The Office" is inundated with so many wonderful characters, from the politically incorrect Michael Scott (Steve Carell) to the practical-joking Jim Halpert (John Krasinski), Angela's beloved kitty cat Sprinkles ended up stealing the limelight in the show's two-part Season 4 opener titled "Fun Run."
After the Season 3 cliffhanger found Jim finally asking Pam (Jenna Fischer) out on a date, fans were anticipating seeing the office lovebirds together as a couple for the first time. However, Sprinkles completely steals the show when Dwight (Rainn Wilson) decides to put Angela's (Angela Kinsey) sick feline friend out of its misery before consulting her on the matter). Dwight insists that Sprinkles was already dead when he went to feed the cat, but then he admits that he put Sprinkles in the freezer to quell the stench.
However, Angela later discovered all the bags of frozen fries inside the cat's icy tomb were clawed to shreds, as if Sprinkles desperately tried to escape. It only sounds horrible because it is. But there's a sick, twisted comedic tone that belies the seriousness only "The Office" can pull off. Obviously, the writers put a lot of thought into poor Sprinkles' demise, but you might be surprised how little effort went into creating the loveably pet herself. Have you ever heard the crazy origin story of Angela's Sprinkles?
Actress Angela Kinsey invented Sprinkles out of boredom
Much like the "Talk Ville" hosts Michael Rosenbaum and Tom Welling revisit "Smallville" and reminisce on their time making the television series, actresses Kinsey and Fischer record their own podcast called "Office Ladies," which is devoted to rewatching each episode of "The Office." In the first episode, the women discuss the origin of Sprinkles and how Angela became known as a cat lady.
Kinsey's role was limited to only three lines in the pilot episode, so she basically came up with the idea of Angela being a cat lady on the fly. Kinsey made birthday invitations for Angela's cat, Sprinkles, and she passed out those pieces of paper in the background during the episode. "I had just doodled a little drawing of a cat, and I said, 'You're invited to Sprinkles' birthday party.' I just sort of made up that my character had found a cat in the parking lot," Kinsey said during the first episode of the "Office Ladies" podcast.
"I think it's really significant because you, in your character/actor prep work, decided that your character was a crazy cat lady," Fischer told Kinsey on the podcast. "Because you kind of decorated your desk with some cat stuff." The women then shared a laugh when Kinsey revealed she'd absconded with the cat-shaped paperclip holder the prop department decorated Angela's desk with.
As we all know, this became a key part of Angela's identity, so much that she even brought her cat Bandit into the office with her. That didn't work out very well for the cat in the Season 5 episode "Stress Relief," but it worked out well for fans, who love the moment when Angela tries to save the cat during a panic-fueled fire drill. Poor Bandit!