The Office: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About The Episode ‘Business School’

On the surface, “Business School” might seem like a fairly inessential episode of The Office, since it came seventeen episodes into the third season of the show. But in actuality, there was a ton happening throughout the installment that makes it a fan favorite to this day.

For one, “Business School” has a ton of hilarious moments, but it also has one of the sweetest, when Michael ends up being the only one from the office to show up to Pam’s art show, showing his kinder side. This moment is iconic, but there are a lot of other elements of the episode that fans might not know about.

10 Directed By Joss Whedon

Over the years, The Office had a lot of impressive guest directors who were welcomed onto the Dunder Mifflin set with open arms. “Business School” happens to be manned by Joss Whedon, of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly fame.

After this episode came out, Whedon would eventually transition to directing the first two Avengers films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Interestingly, John Krasinski was nearly cast as Captain America, which would have made for a fun “Business School” reunion. Instead, they remain two fun, but separate, aspects of Whedon’s directorial career.

9 And Whedon Thought It Was A Joke

Funnily enough, one of the subplots of “Business School” was Dwight’s attempt to catch a bat from the office ceiling and Jim’s prank that he had been bitten and was turning into a vampire. Obviously, this idea gives shades of Buffy to the fans of both shows and Whedon thought the same thing.

He was so surprised by the vampire subplot that Whedon assumed the writers of the show were just messing with him. They later assured Whedon that his episode and the bat storyline was merely a coincidence. At least it gave him plenty to work with.

8 Mr. Handel

When comparing bosses to teachers, Michael mentions Mr. Handel, an eighth-grade teacher of his whom he refers to as “the cool teacher.” In classic Michael fashion, he buries the lede when it later comes out that Mr. Handle had relations with the students, meaning he was not so cool after all.

However, “handel” is the Danish word for “business.” Perhaps Michael was unconsciously making some sort of connection between the episode’s topics. More likely, it was a fun little gag from the writing staff as it seems quite unlikely that Michael Scott would know Danish.

7 More Art!

One of the challenges that Whedon faced when directing the episode was that he felt the art at Pam’s art show was not good enough to be presented on camera. He sent the art department back to work to produce new art for the display, which caused the episode’s production to be delayed by an hour.

It might seem like an hour is not enough time to produce better art, but clearly, Whedon was happy with the result. Pam’s artistic skills are a crucial aspect of her character and it was important to get it right.

6 Pam’s Painting

The most pivotal painting in Pam’s collection is the landscape she painted of the Dunder Mifflin office building. It’s the painting that Michael is most drawn to and it’s the one he ends up purchasing at the end of the night.

Of course, the painting ended up hanging at the front of the Scranton office for the remainder of the show, before Pam took it with her in the finale scene of the entire show. Jenna Fischer even ended up taking the painting with her after the show ended. Hopefully, she’ll discuss that on her podcast, too.

5 The Ceiling Panel

There were not a lot of continuity or production errors throughout the run of “Business School.” But there is one particular scene that eagle-eyed fans noticed as an error on the show’s visuality standpoint.

Typically, the show encouraged the slipping of boom mics and other such documentary production tools into the shots of various episodes. But in “Business School,” a ceiling panel is visible that is clearly only opening up so it can keep a bat inside of it. In the real office, the bat would not have had a safe place to return to, of course.

4 SNL Connections

This episode aired on February 15, 2007, a Thursday. On February 24, 2007, a Saturday, Rainn Wilson, who played Dwight Schrute, hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live. As it was the most recent episode the writers of SNL had seen, it ended up being the one that got referenced the most throughout Wilson’s monologue.

The most noteworthy callback came when Wilson took the camera behind the scenes of SNL, revealing that it shared some similarities with Dunder Mifflin. Kristen Wiig had even painted the building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, much like Pam painted Dunder Mifflin.

3 No Phyllis?

Not every actor on The Office appeared in every single episode of the show, but for the most part, everyone was credited once they became series regulars. That billing ran until their eventual, individual departures, but for the most part, it lasted until the end of the show for the cast.

As such, Phyllis Smith, the actor who played Phyllis Lapin-Vance, was credited for “Business School.” However, if Phyllis fans watch the episode to look for their favorite salesman, they will be sorely disappointed. Even though she is credited, she actually does not appear at all!

2 The Bats

How was a bat used in the episode and shoved into a bag alongside Meredith’s head without any animals being harmed in the making of “Business School”? There was actually a varied combination of bats used to bring the storyline to life.

For the most part, animated and mechanical bats were called into action. But when it was absolutely required to be a real bat, a real bat was, in fact, used. It was only used safely, of course. But according to Kate Flannery, fake screaming had to be used when the cast was confronting the real bat. Better to keep the animals safe, after all!

1 Critical Delight For Michael

While “Business School” is an undeniable standout from the third season of The Office, it did not receive immediate rapturous acclaim from the television critics of the time. Many praised it as another solid episode of the show, but later reactions resulted in “Business School” becoming a top-tier installment.

Erik Adams of The A.V. Club was the writer most responsible for the critical revisit of the episode, with Adams’ praise directed at the unprecedented depth showcased by Steve Carell as Michael. It’s insane that he never won an Emmy for playing Michael.

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