The Office Once Cranked Out 19 Episodes In A Row Causing The Entire Cast To Catch A Cold
"The Office," the American workplace mockumentary sitcom based on the British series of the same name, is one of the most iconic shows ever to hit the small screen. Dunder Mifflin, specifically its Scranton Branch and all of its zany employees, portrayed by a stellar cast, helped propel the series forward as a powerhouse in the world of American pop culture. Arguably, the series is just as popular as it was on the air from 2005 to 2013. After all, you only run for nine seasons and rack up a whopping 201 episodes if you have a record number of viewers tuning in each week to see what the characters are up to.
When you think about just how many episodes there ended up being by the end of the show's run, it's probably surprising that the first season is just six episodes — according to producer and writer Michael Schur, this was because they weren't sure if audiences would take to the specific type of humor displayed in "The Office." But on the other end of the spectrum, Season 5 has the most episodes, with 28 total.
And as it turns out, that busy season ended up having quite an impact on the cast — they all caught a cold from the intense work schedule.
The busy back-to-back filming led to the cast getting colds
On a recent episode of the podcast "Office Ladies," hosts and former stars of "The Office" Jenna Fischer (Pam Beesly) and Angela Kinsey (Angela Martin) reflected on how the show's fifth season was their busiest seeing as NBC ordered 28 episodes, more than any other season. One thing that Kinsey remembers from that time was multiple cast and crew members getting sick with a flu-like cold. This leads to Fischer explaining how their schedule differed from the norm during that time — likely leading to the cast-wide cold.
Fischer explained that a standard network show would air on television from September to May, which means that the cast and crew work from July to March. Additionally, Fischer explained that the cast would film for three weeks, then get a week off with most network shows while the writers and producers continue working and catch up on anything necessary. However, with Season 5, the scheduling had to be adjusted to accommodate Steve Carell's (Michael Scott) commitment to a film (he needed a 6-8 week break within the July to March schedule). Fischer explained, "In order to do that, we had to film 19 episodes in a row."
To which Kinsey responded, "That's when we got sick! [Laughs] I just have a memory of a bunch of us getting a cold bug. That was it!"