‘The Workplace’ showrunner Greg Daniels shares an alt storyline for Jim and Pam’s marriage ceremony episode

When it got here time to write down certainly one of most necessary episodes of The Workplace, showrunner Greg Daniels could not cease horsing round.

On the newest episode of the Workplace Women podcast, former co-stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey spoke with Daniels about writing the Season 6 episode “Niagara: Half 1” with Mindy Kaling and a very weird horse-related storyline that in the end bought scrapped. As a refresher, the two-part “Niagara” episode confirmed Jim and Pam’s extremely anticipated marriage ceremony, which occurred at Niagara Falls. It is a fan-favorite for certain, however had the horse storyline made it in, I am not so certain the episode can be as beloved as it’s as we speak. Fortunately, we had Mindy Kaling, well-known lover of rom-coms, to help with the script.

“OK. How can we even set it up?” Kinsey stated. “Roy, and the horse, and the falls? Greg, it’s a must to inform the entire story.”

“A lot of it was balancing how a lot comedy to place in and the way a lot pleasure to place in,” Daniels stated. “And undoubtedly I needed to have that theme of, ‘There’s all this stuff going improper within the marriage ceremony, however Pam and Jim managed to carve out this lovely personal second anyway,’ proper? So the desk draft had an act break the place, to high off all this stuff that had been going improper, like discovering out concerning the being pregnant and…”

“Andy’s scrotum?” Fischer stated.

“Michael and Pam’s mother,” Kinsey added.

“Yeah… To high all of it off, like, Roy exhibits up on a horse to attempt to make a grand gesture of ‘take me again,’ and it simply goes terribly. And, you understand, this was a card that we had on the board early on about when these issues occur in romantic comedy motion pictures, they normally work. And the way awkward is it when that does not work, and no one needed it, and no one was rooting for it. And you understand, it’s a must to simply experience your horse away,” Daniels stated.

Within the desk learn draft, Kinsey recalled that Roy was going to experience a horse into the church whereas Jim was in the course of his vows, and Pam was going to close Roy down. Onerous.

“I believe what it was in that script was it was ordered otherwise,” Daniels stated. “It was like, all the things goes improper on the marriage ceremony, after which Michael’s having the worst day, after which Jim will get the concept: I will take Pam away and do it proper. And he leaves Michael in cost. After which within the script there have been like type of two montages. There was the montage of Jim and Pam getting married on the Maid of the Mist [boat tour of Niagara Falls]. After which there was the montage of Michael sort of killing it as being put in command of the celebration.”

Discover what’s lacking from that script? The Dunder Mifflin crew’s iconic “Endlessly” dance. However we’ll get to that in a bit.

“I’ve to say the opposite half concerning the horse,” Daniels stated. “There was a runner in that model the place Dwight was fascinated, being at Niagara Falls, concerning the 1800s and the historical past of individuals going over the falls in a barrel, and animals surviving going over the falls in a method that that folks could not. And so after Roy does this complete factor, Dwight sees a free horse and decides he will check this out and he takes the horse into the river after which he begins getting swept towards the falls and he panics and he must be rescued. However the horse goes over the falls…”

Don’t be concerned, the horse SURVIVED on this alt storyline and was proven swimming away from the falls. However viewers would have seen a falling horse in again of Jim and Pam as they had been getting married on the Maid of the Mist tour, which arguably would have made the scene a lot much less romantic.

In the event you’re questioning what made Daniels lastly lower ties with the chaotic storyline, we now have the solid and crew to thank.

“We learn it on the desk,” Daniels recalled. “There was an terrible lot of comedy within the script, and I believe we had simply type of over-stacked the comedy and under-stacked the enjoyment, as a result of there have been simply too many dangerous issues occurring to poor Pam and Jim. They usually had their nice second on the Maid of the Mist nonetheless, however all the things that was public was sort of a catastrophe. And I believe there was this very good feeling from, you understand, all people — particularly solid — that that was not cool. Like, ‘You bought to present them extra pleasure.'”

“The emotional steadiness within the episode was off. And likewise, like, I believe the solid had been all associates, and we had accomplished so many episodes of them type of turning right into a household that it was — you simply did not wish to be that detrimental and play all of them as issues for Pam and Jim, proper? In order that was type of the message after the desk learn,” he stated.

In the end, they determined no horse. However they bought terrifyingly shut to filming the goofy scenes.

“I used to be nonetheless producing, and I bear in mind going to scout the tank at Common the place the horse was going to be filmed within the water, as a result of that was like an enormous, large deal,” Daniels stated. “And like, I knew that we needed to repair this, however I used to be nonetheless having to supply the model till till it bought modified. And I got here again from that and Paul [Lieberstein] fortunately had pulled this different card that we had had concerning the YouTube sensation ‘Endlessly’ track, and discovered a method to put that in on the finish.”

The “Endlessly” dance, which bought intercut with Jim and Pam’s extra intimate second marriage ceremony, completely made the episode. And, crucially, it removed Roy and Dwight on horseback.

Be sure you take heed to the total podcast episode to listen to extra behind-the-scenes tales about filming the episode, “Niagara: Half 1.”

You’ll be able to stream episodes of The Workplace on Peacock and comply with together with the podcast each week on Earwolf, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.