The Office Revisits a "Health" Scare

I'd like to start this week's blog by publicly thanking my husband for letting me hijack his laptop for the past few weeks while I've been on the road. Thanks to him, I've typed many of my recent blogs from planes, hotel rooms and coffee shops. I'm currently en route from Montreal to our hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, where I'm meeting him for a special advanced screening of his new horror movie, Slither (which, if I can do a little wifely bragging, just received an amazing review in Variety).

Tonight NBC is reairing my favorite episode from Season 1  "Health Care" written by the uber-talented Paul Lieberstein. I've watched this episode more times than any other episode we've made, and I still love seeing it.

This week, Michael has to cut employee health benefits. Because he knows this will make him unpopular he makes Dwight do it. Dwight goes way overboard. He surveys people about their private health problems and then calls a meeting to read them aloud. Jim and Pam mess with him by making up diseases.

We laughed a lot while making this episode. Particularly during the scene where Dwight confronts everyone in the office about who has been writing fake diseases on their health forms. Rainn Wilson kept improvising new fake diseases, and we didn't know what he would say next. The shots of us laughing at him are real shots of us losing it. If you look closely you will notice Angela laughing in the background... something you don't usually see her character do!

This was the sixth episode we shot of The Office. We shot it in October of 2004. It completed our first season order, and none of us knew if we would be coming back the next year for a second season. In fact, most of us assumed that we wouldn't.

When I think back on what it was like to shoot this episode, I am pleased to say that not much has changed on the set of The Office. Everyone still loves coming to work each day and trying to make the best show possible. We all get along. We laugh. We care about one another's lives and we celebrate one another's milestones. For example, Rainn Wilson's son Walter was born during the first season. This year, Walter came to the set and got his first haircut from our hairstylist Kim. I even remember which episode we were shooting  "The Fight."  He was adorable!

If I seem a little sentimental, it is only because we've finished filming for this season and I miss everyone already. Angela and Brian and I have been trading e-mails and phone calls but it's not the same as our usual 12 hours a day of gabbing on set. When I get back to Los Angeles, I am probably going to be stalking a few of my cast members.

Oh, I should let you know that I did make it to the casino in Montreal. My sister and I played blackjack. It was her first time. We won $180! The next day we went on a shopping spree with our winnings.
I hope you enjoy this week's episode, "Health Care." Next week we will be airing a new episode. See you then!