• Jul 11, 2018  In “Casino Night”, when Michael gets the night started by saying. One of the most popular fan theories out there about The Office is that Toby Flenderson is the Scranton Strangler. The biggest piece of evidence is during the episode, “Viewing Party”. The cold open shows the employees watching the police chase the Scranton Strangler.
• There’s a nice nod to the British Office in Michael’s choice of Comic Relief for his casino-night charity. Though Jim and Pam are correct about annual Comic Relief specials no longer running in the United States, Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg, and Robin Williams would bring the tradition back the following October, in a 20th anniversary show benefitting survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

'Night Out' is the fifteenth episode of the fourth season of the American comedy television series The Office, and the show's sixty-eighth episode overall. The episode was written by Mindy Kaling and directed by Ken Whittingham. It first aired in the United States on April 24, 2008 on NBC.^[1] 'Night Out' was viewed by a measured audience of over 7.5 million people,^[2] bringing in the lowest number of estimated viewers that The Office received among 12 episodes.^[3] 'Night Out' received mixed reviews from critics.

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In the episode, Michael Scott (Steve Carell) and Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) travel to New York City to party with Ryan Howard (B. J. Novak). Ryan starts acting erratically, and it is revealed that he is under the influence of drugs. Meanwhile, the remaining employees are going to be forced to work on a Saturday. Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) proposes that they work late on Friday, so they do not have to come in the next day. Once Jim and his co-workers finish working, they find that they are locked in, and everyone quickly places the blame on Jim.

Plot

Ryan Howard (B. J. Novak) arrives at the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company and is noticeably friendlier than on his previous visits. The employees, by now fed up with Ryan's new website, angrily ask him questions about the website and their clients. Ryan shows the staff at the branch the new Dunder Mifflin website, 'Dunder Mifflin Infinity 2.0', the previous version of which was shut down because sexual predators had invaded the social networking component of the site. As Ryan leaves, he tells Michael Scott (Steve Carell) of the women he meets in clubs in New York City. Michael and Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) decide to go to New York, locate Ryan, attend parties with him, and try to meet women while doing so.

In New York, Michael and Dwight visit the club Ryan frequents. Ryan is thrilled to see them but appears to be under the influence of drugs, though Michael and Dwight do not notice. Later, Michael, Dwight, Ryan and Ryan's colleague Troy Underbridge (Noel Petok) wait outside another club, which does not allow anyone in who does not have a date. Dwight pairs each of them with members of a women's basketball team who are waiting in line. Inside the club, Ryan's dancing becomes erratic, and he accidentally hits a girl, prompting her friends to attack him. Dwight and Michael escort him out of the club, and after Troy advises them not to take Ryan to a hospital, he runs off. Michael and Dwight bring Ryan back to his apartment, where he tells them that he thinks Troy has a drug problem, and asks what he should do about it. Michael, oblivious to the fact that Ryan is referring to his own drug addiction, gives him hypothetical advice involving a wiretap and snitching on a drug dealer.

Back in Scranton, the rest of the employees are going to be forced to work on a Saturday to record their own sales as the website's sales, which is, according to Ryan, 'a temporary procedure to increase the legitimacy of the website.' Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) suggests everyone stay in the office late instead of coming in for the Saturday. They all agree to the plan, but Jim forgets to tell the security guard they are staying late. After working until 9:00 pm, they find the parking lot gates locked, and are unable to return to the office because Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) locked the door from the inside, and Dwight has both the spare and master keys. Jim calls Hank the security guard (Hugh Dane), who puts off coming to let them out because Jim neglected to collect money for his last annual tip. Pam accidentally injures Meredith by hitting her head with a football that was found in the parking lot. Sitting in the lobby area waiting for the security guard to arrive, the employees vote by a show of hands that Andy and Angela are a better couple than Jim and Pam.

During a moment of levity, Toby Flenderson (Paul Lieberstein) reaches over and feels Pam's knee. After an awkward silence, Toby proclaims that he is moving to Costa Rica; he then climbs the parking lot fence and runs away. The cleaning staff arrives and lets the group out with help from Oscar, who speaks Spanish.

Hank finally shows up to find everyone but the cleaning staff is gone, and thinks Jim pranked him.

Production

'Night Out' was the seventh episode of the series directed by Ken Whittingham. It was written by Mindy Kaling, who also acts in the show as customer-service representative Kelly Kapoor. The episode was the eighth of the series to be written by Kaling. 'Night Out' was the third new episode of The Office to be broadcast since the episode 'The Deposition' on November 15, 2007, due to the effects of the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. Filming of The Office immediately halted on that date, because many members of the cast including Carell, Novak, Kaling, and Lieberstein are members of the WGA and refused to cross WGA picket lines.^[5] If not for the writers' strike, this episode would have most likely been filmed in November 2007.^[6]

Most of 'Night Out' was shot during the night. The scene that has Toby putting his hand on Pam's knee was shot at 2:30 am on a Friday. The scene was shot about eight times because according to Kaling, 'everyone kept breaking because Toby was so vulnerable and awkward.' Kate Flannery did her stunts in the scene where Pam throws a football and hits Customer and Supplier Relations worker Meredith Palmer (Flannery) in the face. Flannery had a stunt double on the set, but she was never needed for the scene. Kate recalls that she 'didn't get a scratch in all 14 takes that we shot.' Lieberstein on the other hand used a stunt double for the scene in which Toby climbs over the fence. Although Lieberstein offered to do the stunt himself, executive producer and show runnerGreg Daniels decided against it.^[7]

When casting 'Tall Girl #1' (the woman who would kiss with Dwight), the show was looking for a girl 6'1' or taller. Actress Cassie Fliegel, who is 5'11', auditioned for the part anyway. After getting a callback, Fliegel went to a gym to work out, attempting to gain muscle to look more like a basketball player. On the day of the callbacks, Fliegel remembers being next to a girl who was 6'8'. Despite her size, Fliegel, a former basketball player herself, was cast for the part. Initially, she did not know that her character was going to make out with Dwight. Fliegel recalls that when she first heard about kissing Dwight she 'was like, I don't think so'. However, after finding out that she had her own trailer, Fliegel warmed up to the idea.^[8] The music in the club was chosen by Novak, Kaling's then-boyfriend Benjamin Nugent, and Daniel Chun. When filming Ryan dancing in the club, the girl that Ryan hit was actually a stunt woman. Pads had been placed on the floor so Novak could fall down safely.^[9] The German lullaby that Dwight sang to Ryan was script supervisor Veda Semarne's idea. Semarne's Austrian grandmother sang the same song to her when she was a child.^[10]

Reception

'Night Out' received 4.0/10 in the ages 18–49 demographic in the Nielsen ratings. This means that four percent of all households with an 18- to 49-year-old living in it watched the episode, and ten percent had their televisions tuned to the channel at any point. The episode was watched by 7.56 million viewers.^[11] 'Night Out' did not do as well as 'Chair Model' did the week before, losing 20 percent of the previous episode's viewers. Some attribute the loss of viewers to a lack of Grey's Anatomy and a repeat of CSI the previous week.^[2] With 7.69 million, 'Night Out' had fewer viewers than any other episode of The Office from the fourth season, except for 'Job Fair', which garnered only 7.16 million viewers.^[12]

Reviews for 'Night Out' were mixed. Zap2It's Rick Porter thought that although it wasn't 'as sublime in its Needy Michael-ness as last week's [episode]' and 'in some ways, though, it was maybe even a little sadder', 'Night Out' was 'still pretty darn funny'. Porter went on to praise the acting work of both B. J. Novak and Paul Lieberstein, as well as the writing of Mindy Kaling.^[13]TV Squad's Jay Black said that Michael summed up 'Night Out' perfectly when he said 'Best. Night. Ever.' Black went on to praise both of the storylines, and the ability of the show to achieve success both in as well as out of the Dunder Mifflin Scranton building.^[14] Similar to Black's statements, Gretchen Hansen of Entertainment Weekly stated that ''Best. Night. Ever.' Oh, so true, Michael.' She also stated that 'I guess I knew it was going to be a good episode of The Office when I had two pages of scribbled notes before the first commercial break.' Hansen went on to praise both the acting and the writing of the episode as points that contributed to the success of the episode.^[15] Rachel Cericola, of TV Fodder, praised the writing of the episode by Mindy Kaling. She also praised the storyline of the episode that did not involve Michael and Dwight, saying 'The second plotline was its usual funny filler. However, it was Toby's revelation that made it all worthwhile.'^[16]

Travis Fickett of IGN said that the episode was 'still satisfying, even when it's not one of the show's funnier episodes', but 'it's a bit of a shame this episode wasn't a home run, because having Dwight and Michael hit the clubs is a funny idea.' Fickett went on to praise the episode's awkward moment between Toby and Pam, when Toby placed his hand on Pam's leg, and Toby's subsequent escape by hopping the fence. Fickett stated that, for Toby's growing love of Pam, and growing jealousy of Jim, 'this is pretty great pay off'.^[17]Claire Zulkey, a writer for the Los Angeles Times, was not as pleased with the episode. Zulkey wrote 'that when it's at its zaniest, The Office is at its worst', and the episode was 'just too silly to be funny'. Zulkey did say that 'it was hilarious to see him [Toby] let his hand more-than-linger on her knee and then abruptly flee the premises by jumping over the fence and running home.'^[18] In a poll done by Office fansite OfficeTally.com, viewers ranked 'Night Out' as the 13th-most popular episode out of the 14 episodes of season four.^[19]

References

1. ^ ^ab''Night Out' | Season 4 | 24 April 2008'. NBC. Archived from the original on October 14, 2008. Retrieved July 5, 2008.
2. ^ ^abSeidman, Robert (April 25, 2008). 'Nielsen Ratings Thur, Apr 24: New CSI and Grey's Are Back, and Down Over Last Year'. TV by the Numbers. Retrieved July 5, 2008.
3. ^De Rome, Jeff (May 15, 2008). 'NBC ratings results for the week of April May 7–13'. NBC Universal Media Village. Retrieved July 8, 2008.^{[dead link]}
4. ^The New York Times Staff (February 12, 2008). 'The 100-Day Writers' Strike: A Timeline'. The New York Times. Retrieved July 8, 2008.
5. ^TV Guide Staff. 'Office Closing: Carell, Others Won't Cross Picket Line'. TV Guide. November 7, 2007. Archived from the original on November 9, 2007. Retrieved July 8, 2008.
6. ^Daniels, Greg (April 10, 2008). 'Strike effect'. NBC. Archived from the original on May 25, 2008. Retrieved July 8, 2008.
7. ^Kaling, Mindy (April 26, 2008). 'Mindy Kaling answers 'Night Out' questions (pg. 1)'. OfficeTally. Retrieved July 5, 2008.
8. ^Howard, Brian (April 24, 2008). 'Office kiss and tell: Actress who plants one on Dwight tonight grateful for big break'. Remote Access. Archived from the original on May 17, 2008. Retrieved July 5, 2008.
9. ^Kaling, Mindy (April 26, 2008). 'Mindy Kaling answers 'Night Out' questions (pg. 2)'. OfficeTally. Retrieved July 5, 2008.
10. ^Kaling, Mindy (April 26, 2008). 'Mindy Kaling answers 'Night Out' questions (pg. 3)'. OfficeTally. Retrieved July 5, 2008.
11. ^'NBC results for the primetime week of April 21–27'. NBC. Retrieved July 10, 2008.^{[dead link]}
12. ^Seidman, Robert (November 18, 2007). 'The Office Ratings 2007–2008'. TV by the Numbers. Retrieved July 8, 2008.
13. ^Porter, Rick (April 24, 2008). 'The Office: It's not the horniness'. Zap2It. Archived from the original on June 17, 2008. Retrieved July 8, 2008.
14. ^Black, Jay (April 25, 2008). 'The Office: 'Night Out' – VIDEO'. TV Squad. Retrieved July 5, 2008.
15. ^The Office: Friday Night FeverEntertainment Weekly, retrieved July 7, 2008
16. ^Cericola, Rachel (April 28, 2008). 'The Office: 'Night Out''. TV Fodder. Retrieved July 9, 2008.
17. ^Fickett, Travis (April 25, 2008). 'The Office: 'Night Out' Review'. IGN. Retrieved July 5, 2008.
18. ^Zulkey, Claire (April 25, 2008). 'The Office: Michael Scott's 'Night Out''. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 8, 2008.
19. ^Tan, Jennie. 'OfficeTally Survivor Poll: Season 4'. OfficeTally. Retrieved July 5, 2008.

External links

• 'Night Out' at NBC.com
• 'Night Out' on IMDb
• 'Night Out' at TV.com

'Conflict Resolution' is the twenty-first and penultimate episode of the second season of the American comedytelevision seriesThe Office, the show's twenty-seventh episode overall. Written by executive producer and show runnerGreg Daniels and directed by Charles McDougall, 'Conflict Resolution' first aired in the United States on May 4, 2006 on NBC. The episode guest starsScott Adsit, from Moral Orel and 30 Rock, as a photographer.

The series depicts the everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. In the episode, Michael Scott (Steve Carell) resolves a conflict between Oscar Martinez (Oscar Nunez) and Angela Martin (Angela Kinsey), and then discovers a file of other unresolved complaints between staff members and he determines to resolve them. But Michael's attempts actually unearth old tensions and create new ones between the office employees. Meanwhile, an unkind comment from Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) about being transferred causes Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) to seriously rethink his work situation.

'Conflict Resolution' features the return of a poster created for the earlier episode 'Christmas Party'. The ending of the installment bears a striking similarity to the ending of the 1981 action film Raiders of the Lost Ark. Receiving largely positive reviews, the episode received a 3.7 Nielsen rating and was watched by 7.4 million viewers.

Plot[edit]

When Michael Scott (Steve Carell) hears Oscar Martinez (Oscar Nunez) complaining about Angela Martin's (Angela Kinsey) baby poster to Toby Flenderson (Paul Lieberstein), he intervenes and resolves the conflict by forcing Oscar to wear a t-shirt of the poster. Inspired, Michael wrests the file outlining other unresolved office complaints from Toby, determined to resolve them all. Michael publicly reads all the outstanding complaints, even though they were supposed to be anonymous, which only serves to further increase office tensions. Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) is angered by a redacted complaint that she plans her wedding during office hours, a complaint she concludes was filed by Angela.

When photos for identification badges are being taken in the break room, Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) makes Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson)'s new ID 5x7 inches, labels Dwight as a security threat, and changes his middle name from Kurt to 'Fart'. Dwight becomes even more furious that his voluminous complaints against Jim have gone ignored, and tells Michael that either Jim gets fired or Dwight will quit. When Michael reads all of Jim's pranks on Dwight, Jim begins to regret how much time he has wasted at the office. Dwight taunts Jim with a notice of a Dunder-Mifflin position in Stamford, saying that Jim should look into it. Michael surveys the angry, divided office and nods to a watching Toby, acknowledging his efforts were a disaster. He defuses Dwight's anger by saying he will make his decision but needs indeterminate time to do so, which placates Dwight.

As everyone prepares to leave, Michael pays the photographer (Scott Adsit) to take a special group photo, but goes through a lot of money before he, albeit poorly, Photoshops one himself. During the procedure, Jim admits to Pam that he had registered the complaint about her wedding planning, and Pam looks shocked. The next day, Jim secretly sees Vice President Jan Levinson (Melora Hardin) for an interview about a transfer.

Production[edit]

'Conflict Resolution' was the fifth episode of the series written by Greg Daniels, who is also the executive producer and show runner for The Office. The episode was the third of the series directed by Charles McDougall; he had previously directed the earlier season two episodes 'Christmas Party' and 'Dwight's Speech'.^[2][3] The episode features Angela and Oscar arguing over Angela's poster of two babies playing saxophones. Jenna Fischer said that 'As a cast, the baby poster is one of our favorite props... Angela received the poster from her Secret Santa in the Christmas episode.'^[4] Fischer went on to say that 'I had to stand in between Angela and Oscar as they bicker about the poster while Michael tries to mediate the situation. The whole time, the cute jazz babies are staring at me from the poster. It was hilarious!'^[4]

The Season Two DVD contains a number of deleted scenes from this episode. Notable cut scenes include Dwight finding his desk encircled in police tape, Dwight annoying the photographer in various ways, Michael discussing conflict and conflict resolution and dedicating himself to resolving all the old cases 'before Toby can kill or rape another person', Dwight giving Pam 'Level Red' security clearance, Meredith and Kevin getting their pictures taken, Dwight being hassled by building security.^[5]

Cultural references[edit]

The ending of 'Conflict Resolution' bares a striking similarity to the ending of the 1981 action film Raiders of the Lost Ark. In the film, the Ark of the Covenant is boarded up hidden away in a secret warehouse containing thousands of identical boxes. In 'Conflict Resolution', Toby is seen taking the box of complaints and placing it in a warehouse containing hundreds of other identical paper boxes to be sold.^[6]

Reception[edit]

'Conflict Resolution' originally aired on NBC in the United States on May 4, 2006.^[7] The episode received a 3.7/9 among 18- to 49-year-olds in the Nielsen ratings. This means that 3.7 percent of all people 18–49 viewed the episode, and nine percent of all people 18–49 watching television viewed the episode. 'Conflict Resolution' was watched by 7.4 million viewers overall, and retained 93 percent of viewers 18–49 from its lead-in My Name is Earl.^[8]

The Office Casino Night Toby Mac

The episode received generally good reviews from critics. Terry Morrow, of the Knoxville News Sentinel, stated that 'But better yet, this episode defines what The Office does best. It turns mundane work events – like having new security-badge photos taken – into insightful and witty character studies.' Morrow also praised the acting in the episode, which he called 'one of this show's finest moments.'^[9] Michael Sciannamea, of TV Squad, stated that 'After a so-so episode last week, this was one was a return to brilliance.' Like Morrow, Sciannamea went on to praise the work of the cast, stating that 'The interplay between the cast was top-notch, and even though I've complained much about Dwight's over-the-top behavior, it seemed to work quite well this time around, and actually had a purpose to the story.'^[10] M. Giant of Television Without Pity awarded the episode a rare 'A+'. He called the scene wherein Michael reads aloud Dwight's complaints 'my favorite sequence in The Office history, if not sitcom history.'^[6]

References[edit]

1. ^'Shows A–Z – Office, The on NBC'. The Futon Critic. Retrieved January 25, 2013.
2. ^Charles McDougall (director); Michael Schur (writer) (December 6, 2005). 'Christmas Party'. The Office. Season 2. Episode 10. NBC.
3. ^Charles McDougall (director); Paul Lieberstein (writer) (March 2, 2006). 'Dwight's Speech'. The Office. Season 2. Episode 17. NBC.
4. ^ ^abFischer, Jenna. 'Michael Scott, Office Peacemaker?!'. TV Guide. Archived from the original on June 27, 2008. Retrieved June 26, 2008.
5. ^Deleted scenes for 'Conflict Resolution' (DVD). The Office: Season Two Disc 4: Universal Studios Home Entertainment. 2006.CS1 maint: location (link)
6. ^ ^abGiant, M. 'Conflict Resolution'. Television Without Pity. NBCUniversal. Archived from the original on February 4, 2013. Retrieved September 25, 2012.
7. ^'The Office – Seasons – Season 2 – Episode Guide'. NBC. Archived from the original on November 13, 2012. Retrieved June 13, 2012.
8. ^'May 9, 2006 Press Release ('Conflict Resolution')'. National Broadcasting Company. Archived from the original on October 10, 2008. Retrieved June 26, 2008.
9. ^Morrow, Terry (May 4, 2006). 'Morrow: Tonight, The Office works splendidly'. Knoxville News Sentinel. Archived from the original on November 1, 2006. Retrieved June 26, 2008.
10. ^Sciannamea, Michael (May 5, 2006). 'The Office: 'Conflict Resolution''. TV Squad. Archived from the original on September 25, 2008. Retrieved June 26, 2008.

External links[edit]

The Office Casino Night Cast

• 'Conflict Resolution' at NBC.com
• 'Conflict Resolution' on IMDb
• 'Conflict Resolution' at TV.com

Casino Night Office Party