The Office Stars Improvised Season 6’s Intense Shootout Scene Ending

Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey have revealed in an episode of the Office Ladies podcast that part of The Office‘s iconic three-way shootout scene was actually improvised. The Office ran on NBC from 2005 to 2013 as an American adaptation of the original British show and became one of the most beloved sitcoms of all time. Now Fischer and Kinsey, real-life best friends who played Pam and Angela respectively, have taken to sharing behind-the-scenes secrets from the show on their podcast.

The shootout scene in question is from The Office season 6, episode 10, “Murder.” The staff of Dunder Mifflin is roped into an elaborate murder mystery game in order to distract them from the announcement of the company’s looming financial difficulties, hosted by Michael Scott, played by Steve Carrell. The episode ends with Michael, Dwight, and Andy locked in a finger-guns Mexican standoff. It’s quickly revealed that Pam has also inserted herself into the situation, complete with a bad Southern accent. She’s only extricated by the intervention of her husband Jim, who is desperate to go home, having already stayed an hour late to accommodate the murder mystery game. After Pam backs out of the room, the standoff is broken as the three remaining players fire their finger guns in a frenzy and fall to the floor, convulsing and screaming.

The latest episode of the Office Ladies podcast co-hosted by stars Fischer and Kinsey focused on The Office season 6, episode 10, “Murder.” Fischer revealed that though the script initially called for the scene to end with Pam backing out of the office, Carell, Rainn Wilson, and Ed Helms improvised its final punchline in which they all shoot one another. Kinsey reaffirmed this by sharing an anecdote from the show’s showrunner Greg Daniels about the light-hearted mood on set. Read Kinsey’s comment below:

Greg [Daniels, the showrunner] shared that when the guys fell on the ground and were like convulsing and everything, that was just them. They were just having fun. He said it was like little kids getting to play.

The scene has become one of The Office‘s most memorable, and a still of Michael, Andy, and Dwight pointing guns at each other is still widely used as a reaction image online. Fischer also expressed her delight about the scene’s meme status, and Kinsey gave particular kudos to the camera operator and director who mastered the slow reveal that Pam had been a part of the standoff all along. The combination of the scene’s inherent ridiculousness and childishness with the technical skill on the part of both the cast and crew means that “Murder” is now one of The Office‘s most beloved episodes by fans.

Fischer and Kinsey have been sharing fun facts and memories from behind the scenes since 2019, and look set to continue to cover every single episode of the show in Office Ladies. The playful atmosphere on set suggests that Carell, Wilson, and Helms’s friendship and comfort around one another was as strong as that of their characters (though ‘friendship’ might not always be the most appropriate term for the dynamics between Michael, Dwight, and Andy). Anecdotes like this about the improvisation of some of The Office‘s most iconic moments show both how much fun making the show must have been, but also just how talented its cast was.

Source: Office Ladies

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