Famous Cold Open On 'The Office' Was An Accident: 'We Were All Shocked'

One of the best parts of watching The Office was the hilarious cold opens. While the fire drill cold open for the season five episode 'Stress Relief' is widely considered by fans to be the best cold open, there's a case to be made for the cold open of season two's 'Performance Review' as runner up. If you need a refresher, 'Performance Review' starts with Jim Halpert popping Dwight Schrute's “fitness orb” with a pair of scissors.

In a recent episode of Jenna Fischer and Angela Kingsey's podcast Office Ladies, which recaps episodes with behind-the-scenes intel from cast and crew, they revealed the hilariously memorable moment was actually a complete accident. “Ladies and gentleman, it was not meant to pop,” Fischer said of Dwight's fitness orb. “The idea was that John would stick the scissors into the fitness orb, it would deflate very slowly, and the camera would be in front of Dwight’s desk and you would see him just very slowly sort of melt to the floor as Jim very smugly [looks on]. That was what was in the script.”

Not only did the fitness ball accidentally pop, Fischer explained the prop team and the actors practiced the scene three times, then took 13 takes without incident. Every other time John Krasinski - who played Jim Halpert - stuck the scissors into the ball, it deflated slowly as planned. On the last take, however, the ball unexpectedly popped.

“[Prop master Phil Shea] said to John, ‘As long as you don’t hit the seam of the ball with the scissors — which would be like a one-in-a-million chance that you could do it — the ball will slowly deflate, and it will work as planned," Fischer recalled. Well, they got that one-in-a-million take. Here's what ended up airing instead of what was in the script:

“You can see the shock on Rainn’s face, and he fell to the floor,” Fischer continued. “We were all completely shocked, like, ‘Oh my god.’ And you can totally see John break … and very quickly, [because] he’s such a pro, he turns his back and just like leaves.” If you watch the clip above, you can see Krasinski lurch off screen, as well as hear somebody in the background start laughing.

Photo: YouTube