Though fans lamented The Office’s move from Netflix to NBC’s Peacock, its new home has worked hard to win everyone over with a steady release of behind-the-scenes content and other footage from the cutting room floor.
The latest offering, as Vulture reports, is a deleted scene from the season 2 episode “The Client.” It takes place during the table read for Michael Scott’s screenplay, “Threat Level Midnight.” Stanley, ever the advocate for work-life balance, takes off once it hits 5 p.m., and the read resumes after Jim tells everyone not to let Stanley’s absence affect their performances. Dwight plays the protagonist, FBI agent Michael Scarn, who receives a phone call from the president asking him to fulfill a “very dangerous, maybe deadly” assignment (and also to be the best man at his wedding).
It’s not the funniest scene ever filmed for the sitcom, but watching the characters deliver lines that you can’t already recite from memory is a novel experience nonetheless. As for why the scene got axed, it could have had something to do with all the other important moments creators needed to fit into the episode. “The Client” is also the chapter in which Jim and Pam bond during a fireworks show on the office rooftop, and Michael and Jan get together after Michael successfully woos a client (played by Tim Meadows) at Chili’s. (Michael’s unexpected business acumen here lends credence to the fan theory that he’s actually a secret genius.)
As B.J. Novak told TV Guide back in 2005, Steve Carell and Tim Meadows “have similar backgrounds in improv comedy, and they improvised an enormous amount together while the cameras were on.” Here’s hoping that Peacock will dig up that footage for a bonus feature sometime soon.