Two things struck me when I was compiling the list. #1 EVERYONE will be making the same exact list, and #2 I had a lot of unlikely people to think for my favorite moments. Now, I will say that a lot of this list is probably fueled by my hunger pangs for LOST and its constant questions of the sources of current events, but I'm okay with it.
So here we go, the 6 people we (or, at least, I forget) to thank for Jim & Pam, in order of importance.
#6: Steve
Dwight: Yeah, well, I'm not paying for my own stuff, okay? I know you did this, because you're friends with the vending machine guy.Steve the vending machine guy provided a classic prank and I'm giving him credit for one of my favorite moments in The Office. First was the "hey, let's put all Dwight's stuff in the vending machine and have him buy it back with nickels" prank that we all know and love. I am also going to give him credit for the soda machine being out of Coke when Pam called "jinx" on Jim, preventing him from saying a word for the rest of the day.
Jim: Who, Steve?
Dwight: Yeah, Steve, whatever his name is.
The "jinx" single-handedly makes "Drug Testing" one of my favorite episodes ever because it's such an undramatic show of devotion between Jim and Pam. While Pam playfully taunts Jim throughout the day, one of my all-time favorite moments comes when she accidentally hits a very real nerve and unknowingly lays out the undercurrent of their relationship:
Pam: What? [Jim shakes his head] Did you want to tell me something? You look like you want to tell me something. [Jim shakes his head no] You look like you have something really important to say and you just can't for some reason. [Jim smiles] Come on, you can tell me. Jim, you can tell me anything. [Jim stops smiling and looks down. Pam wonders what that means]
Another win for Steve? In a deleted scene, Pam transfers a call from Brenda, who was returning a voicemail of Jim asking her out, and Jim sticks with the game and remains silent, giving up another available girl for Pam. If that vending machine is fully stocked with Coke, then maybe Jim takes that call, and who knows what happens then?
#5 Josh Porter
Jim: Say what you will about Michael Scott...but he would never do that.This one is simple. The Scranton branch is going to be closed, and even Stamford absorbs them there won't be room for another receptionist. Enter Josh Porter and his slimy move to get a senior position at Staples due to his offer from Dunder-Mifflin. With Josh gone, Jan focuses on keeping Jim, Scranton absorbs Stamford, and Jim goes back to being a few feet from Pam. The rest was just academic from there.
#4 Toby Flenderson
Let's get the obvious one out of the way: Toby kept all of Dwight's complaints against Jim in a box under his desk, which probably prevented Jim from being fired.
Now, far less obvious? Toby had Angela for Secret Santa. How about this for an unforeseen progression:
- Toby gets Angela for Secret Santa and gives her a poster of babies playing musical instruments in "Christmas Party," because she loves those posters.
- In "Conflict Resolution" Oscar complains to Toby that the poster completely freaks him out, Michael overhears and takes it upon himself to solve this and all other office conflicts in one day.
- This leads to Dwight finding out that his weekly reports on Jim's "malfeasance" aren't being sent to corporate and he decides he can no longer work with Jim.
- Dwight researches other jobs, finds the opening in Stamford and suggests it to Jim since he expects Michael to side with him and fire Jim.
- Jim is able to escape his situation with Pam without leaving the company, which leads to his return to Scranton.
#3 Phyllis Lapin
Phyllis does two major things to help Jim and Pam become a couple. The most obvious is her remark to Karen on their sales call:
Phyllis: I'm so glad you're with Jim. He was hung up on Pam for such a long time. Never thought he would get over her.Remember, Karen and Pam were kind of friends at this point. In "Back from Vacation" she even thanks Pam for intervening in her and Jim's relationship:
Karen: I think I owe you one.Well that all stops the moment she finds out about Jim's history with Pam, and we start to see jealous, paranoid Karen emerge. The five nights of long talks that Karen later says Jim may have hated even more than Roy attacking him? They all came right after this moment.
Pam: Sorry?
Karen: For talking sense into Halpert. The Day's Inn room 228 was starting to get really depressing.
Pam: Oh, yeah, no. Don't worry about it. I mean, he was being ridiculous.
Karen: Yeah, but... thanks. Seriously.
Pam: Sure.
Oh! Plus Roy attacking Jim can be traced back to Phyllis meeting Bob Vance, Vance Refrigeration. Phyllis admitted that she never thought she'd get married before meeting Bob, and living vicariously through Pam's wedding gave her the insight to steal every last idea for her own big day. That depressed Pam enough to get back with Roy long enough to tell him about kissing Jim, which lead to Roy's freak-out, the final nail in the coffin for "RAM," and Roy's attempt to attack Jim.
Sweet, innocent Phyllis Lapin is essentially responsible for the destruction of BOTH Jim and Pam's romantic rivals. No wonder she was able to backstab her way to the top of the Party Planning Committee.
#2 Andy Bernard
Yes, Dwight was the focus of the pranks that allowed for so much of Jim and Pam's friendship, but the cell phone prank on Andy proved to be one of their most important. It was really their first return to form since Jim's return to Scranton. Sure, there was Pam's Christmas present for Jim of the CIA prank on Dwight, but that was conceived and executed by Pam alone. Taking Andy's cell phone, hiding it in the ceiling, and calling it all day was a team effort that brought Jim and Pam back to their glory days, and threatened Karen in a whole new way.
Even more important, believe it or not, was Andy's intense desire to replace Dwight as Michael's #2. This led to his pitch to Michael that the salesmen should team up for a day of sales calls so he could bond with Michael and deploy some anti-Dwight propaganda. Phyllis's revelations to Karen came about because of their being teamed up, and Dwight was forced to quit thanks to Andy's meddling. Andy took over Dwight's desk, annoyed Jim with his ringtone, and became the architect of his own, rage-induced, destruction (and Jim and Pam's reunion).
#1 Michael Gary Scott
Yes, Michael's "friendship" with cool Jim kept the disruptive slacker from being fired, and his affection for hot Pam prevented her from being replaced with a modern phone system, but it goes deeper than that.
I was originally going to write a post dedicated to Michael Scott's role in Jim and Pam's relationship, because I think it's wildly overlooked. Let's start with the small stuff.
Michael's 05/05/05 party used up their one party for the year, leaving no budget for The Dundies. Everyone has to pay for their own drinks and food, Darryl and Roy leave leading him to argue with Pam, she returns to the party, gets drunk, and kisses Jim. (Sidenote: Jenna Fischer busts out possibly the most incredible performance of a drunk person in television history. Her excitement over the ice in her glass melting to create a "second drink," over-the-top laughing, and the nodding right before she falls down. I'm sorry, I had to point it out.)
His friendship with Todd Packer leads to his carpet being ruined in "The Carpet." Michael takes Jim's desk, and Jim is exiled to the annex leading to the moment that made me a fan of The Office.
Disclaimer: I was one of the people who ate up the British version and HATED the American pilot. I wanted absolutely nothing to do with this sorry rip-off, and openly wondered why, if they were going to basically read the scripts verbatim, they didn't just put on the British version. In my defense, I thought Coupling was a great show and NBC had created an AWFUL remake of that too.
My partner on this blog (my Tivo) obviously knew something I didn't when it recorded The Office, obviously based on the three thumbs up rating I had given the British one. So, I watched "The Carpet" and was able to follow along with my basic understanding of Michael/David, Dwight/Gareth, Pam/Dawn, and Jim/Tim. Of course, due to Jim being in the annex there's little to no Jim-Pam interaction until the verrrry end. Jim, after feeling neglected and forgotten all day, checks his voicemail before heading home, and:
I think everyone can identify with Jim's loneliness in the episode. Glances that go unnoticed, waves that aren't returned, all the incomplete interactions that somehow make you feel even more forgotten and lonely than if you had no chance for contact at all. Then, at the very end, he finds out that she's been thinking about him the entire time, and missing him.Jim's voicemail: You have seven unheard messages.
Pam: [voicemail message for Jim] Hey, Jim. It's Pam. I keep looking up to say something to you and then Michael's there and it's horrible. Anyway, I'm bored. Come back!
Pam: [voicemail message for Jim] Hey, guess what? I moved my computer so I can't see Michael's head. It's working. I think I can have a career as a very specific type of decorator.
Pam: [voicemail message for Jim] Sudoku. Level moderate. 18 minutes. Suck on that, Halpert.Pam: [voicemail message for Jim] I'll transfer you. Dunder Mifflin, this is Pam. Hold, please. Dunder Mifflin, this is ... okay, sorry. Michael was standing at my desk, and I needed to be busy or who knows what would've happened, so thank you.
Pam: [voicemail message for Jim] Hey, what's that word we made up when you have a thing stuck in your shoe? Anyway, I have a thing stuck in my shoe.Pam: [voicemail message for Jim] Hey, I have a chance to sneak out of here early, and I'm not messing this up, so I'll see you tomorrow.Pam: [voicemail message for Jim] Calling from my cell phone. I don't know if you guys figured out who did that to Michael's carpet yet, but I have a theory that involves an inter-departmental conspiracy. Everybody in the office. We need to talk.
It was so perfectly heartbreaking and heartwarming that I instantly knew that Greg Daniels and his team completely understood the British version. I soon learned that the pilot was an executive-induced disaster, and fell in love with everything afterward. Michael Scott is the reason a lot of people watch The Office, but he's indirectly the reason I got into it. So, while the voicemails may not be a major part of the Jim and Pam story, I still consider them to be one of the show's finest moments.
Corporate gave Michael a big Christmas bonus for firing Devon, what did he spend it on? A video iPod for Ryan, completely blowing the ceiling off the Secret Santa spending limit and off his own expectations of what to receive as a gift. Phyllis's appropriate gift of a homemade oven mitt send him over the edge; Secret Santa dissolves into Yankee Swap, Pam ends up with the iPod and Dwight gets Pam's gift from Jim. This leads to another great Office moment, when Pam trades Dwight for the teapot and Jim reveals all the inside jokes he had placed within. More importantly? The delay gives Jim a chance to pocket the card that was included; the card that supposedly revealed how he felt. You might say then that Yankee Swap impeded Jim and Pam's relationship, but remember that this was before she even found out Jim had a crush on her. If expressing his feelings on Casino Night didn't work out, do you think it would've gone much better at Christmas? Especially when he didn't have his Stamford escape plan in place.
That was the small stuff, I'm serious. There are two big moments and they are going to blow your mind. I'm so sure of that, I'm just going to go right ahead and tell you the two most important moments in Jim and Pam's relationship. Michael chooses "leaderSHIP" as the metaphor for his motivational speech, and Michael moves he and Jan's meeting with Lackawanna County from the Radisson to Chili's. Don't believe me? Well, here we go.
First, Michael chooses to base his motivational speech in "Booze Cruise" around the the word ship being "hidden" inside the word leadership. As Oscar points out, last year's speech was "BOWL over the competition!" which meant a trip to a bowling alley. This year they're on a boat for an episode I have watched...around 20 times. Maybe that has caused me to dig too deeply into this episode, but bear with me.
The location leads to Roy, Darryl, and Katy's increasing intoxication and yelling which drives Jim and Pam up to the deck for the famous "28 seconds of silence." Being on the boat also introduces Captain Jack into the fray, giving him the opportunity to inspire Roy to set a date for the wedding. STILL, the most important part is that Michael's boat metaphor leads to his speech being about the metaphorical boat sinking, which causes a panic, and lands him in "the brig" aka being zip-tied to a railing out front. This is where Jim retreats after Pam and Roy's good news, giving him the opportunity to have the most underrated exchange in Jim and Pam's relationship:
Jim: What a night.It's an episode that exposes Michael's complete lack of motivational skills...until the very end, when he inspired Jim to stick with his impossible dream. Really, it might be the only situation where Michael is qualified to give advice. Hopeless, brainless, shameless romanticism is the essence of Michael Scott, and it was that push that kept Jim going to Casino Night, which started Pam on the path to "Beach Day," and finally to their wedding tonight.
Michael: Well, it's nice for you. Your friend got engaged.
Jim: She was always engaged.
Michael: Roy said the first one didn't count.
Jim: That's... great. You know, to tell the truth, I used to have a big thing for Pam, so...
Michael: Really? You're kidding me. You and Pam? Wow. I would have never have put you two together. You really hid it well. God! I usually have a radar for stuff like that. You know, I made out with Jan...
Jim: Yeah, I know.
Michael: Yeah? Yep. Well, Pam is cute.
Jim: Yeah. She's really funny, and she's warm. And she's just... well, anyway.
Michael: Well, if you like her so much, don't give up.
Jim: She's engaged.
Michael: BFD. Engaged ain't married.
Jim: Huh.
Michael: Never, ever, ever give up.
But wait! Here is, for me, the craziest one out of all of these scenarios of serendipity: Michael moves the Lackawanna County meeting from the Radisson to Chili's.
Directly, this move causes the meeting to run very long. When they're leaving the office, Jan says she doesn't expect the meeting to take more than an hour but Michael expects it to take all night. Michael proves to be correct, as his joke-telling, baby-back ribs ordering, and generally unconventional salesmanship turn the sales-pitch from straightforward to endless (but effective). This allows time for Jim and Pam's first "date" on the roof after the employee performance of Threat Level Midnight, the screenplay that Pam found in Michael's desk. Indirectly, this move leads to Jim and Pam becoming man and wife (assuming that's what happens tonight, but I doubt they'd pull something like that....right? Did I just jinx it?).
The meeting runs long, Jan gets drunk, Michael pulls off the sale and saves the branch. He also earns Jan's misplaced affections. He may not be the only part of her downfall, but he's certainly a MAJOR part of it. In the end, the slide that began at Chili's ends with David Wallace searching for her replacement. This is the job that Jim, Karen, and Michael all end up interviewing for in "The Job."
Ready for this? Josh forces Jim back to Scranton after Toby provided an avenue for him to leave. Then, a combination of Phyllis's revelations and Andy's antics leads Karen to snidely ask Pam to make a dozen copies of her and Jim's sales reports for an interview for the position opened by Michael's actions. Jim opens his sales reports to find a gold medal from "Office Olympics" and a note: "Jim, don't forget us when you're famous. - Pam." Jim drives back to Scranton, asks Pam out on a date, and here we are getting ready to watch their wedding.
Maybe I'm crazy, but there they are! The 6 people (or 5 and Steve to be quite honest) we forget to thank for Jim & Pam. Enjoy the wedding!
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